How to Use Google Trends for Marketing and Keyword Research

Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Google Trends Data and How It Works

The online world is full of content—blog articles, videos, podcasts, and more—and this content continues to evolve as the primary source of information for billions of people worldwide. But not all of them are looking for the same content; different audience demographics search for different kinds of data on search engines. This makes it crucial and relevant for you to use the right keywords.

Using keyword research, you can find the right keywords to generate audience interest, website traffic, and linger time for your business’ website. One of the most effective ways to do keyword research is using Google Trends—an analytics measuring tool by Google that allows you to figure out relevant keywords while monitoring SEO trends in the market and local demographics for your website’s digital marketing. 

What is Google Trends?

Google Trends is an analytics tool that mines data from Google searches across the web and allows you to analyse how a particular  Google search engine keyword is being used in different regions, periods of time, languages, and more.

The digital marketing tool allows you to sort the data in real time. You can use this tool to research how your audience looks for information on the internet, but that’s not all. In recent years, Google Trends has grown, and it even allows you to gauge your audience’s reaction to the content they consume.

How to Use Google Trends?

Google Trends is a free and open marketing tool that anyone can access for keyword research and it is super easy to use.

To start with, visit the Google Trends website. The homepage features a dashboard, which you can use to navigate around the trending topics and keywords. You can also enter topics and keywords into the search box field, to obtain data relevant to your business.

The Google Trends marketing tool allows you to set various filters to get targeted research data for your audience, including region, time, categories, and type of search.

How Accurate is Google Trends?

Many marketing professionals think that Google Trends is not an accurate tool for keyword research, but that’s not the case. Google Trends is inherently more accurate than many other keyword research tools because it utilises Google’s data mining technologies.

In saying this, it is best to remember that the data is sourced from Google across various timelines, geographics, and demographics; thus, it may not always be accurate. If used incorrectly, it can also give you wrong answers, leading to unexpected results from your SEO strategy. So, when working with the marketing tool, you should use your own judgement to determine whether the information is accurate or not. 

Where Does the Google Trends Data Come From?

Google Trends culls its data from real-time web searches to show you the most common and trending keywords relevant to your search term. The results are shown according to various preferences, including location, age demographics, previous trending searches, and more. This allows you to extract actionable and in-depth insights more quickly, which is what makes Google Trends a powerful SEO tool for keyword research and digital marketing. 

Google Trends Helps You Understand What People Search on the Web

Content is king when it comes to growing organic traffic,  meaning it is an essential part of your search engine optimisation strategy. If the articles on your website are of low quality or target the wrong keyword,  they won’t get indexed on the right Google search results page. You’ll also see higher bounce rates on your website, as your content isn’t addressing your audience’s needs.

Your articles need to add value  and must also have the right keyword. The right keyword allows you to get listed on search engines and be seen by your audience. Then comes the role of your content—high-quality content ensures that your audience is hooked by your website. 

Google Trends marketing tool helps you discover the trendiest topics and keywords that will drive online traffic  to your website. The tool gives you an idea of what your target audience will appreciate and connect with, which is a terrific advantage for your SEO strategy. It improves the linger time, reduces bounce rates, and drives  web traffic for your target niche. 

If you’re using Google Trends for digital marketing, it’s a great idea to start with wide keyword research—keywords that are more on the generic side. Then,  look for what’s trending among your target demographic. Once you’ve figured out what’s trending, pick out keywords that are more specific and relevant to your brand. Use those keywords in your articles and also for content inspiration.

You’ll See Exactly Which Cities and Subregions Need Your Products and Services

Google Trends offers you an insight into the regions in which your target keywords are ranking well. This lets you dig more deeply into your target audience’s needs in their respective regions.

With this information, you can tailor your marketing strategy and services to offer your audience what they need, instead of what you think they’ll like. 

Building your brand online can be daunting, and without thorough research, you may end up targeting the wrong audience or offering the wrong benefits to your target audience. But with the help of Google Trends and other SEO keyword research tools, you can beat your competitors in targeting your audience and converting leads into sales.

Using Google Trends for Keyword Research

Google Trends can refine and enhance your approach to SEO keyword research. Keywords, especially long-tail ones, are essential to your Google search engine optimisation and digital marketing strategy— they allow your  website to  appear on search engine results pages and let your audience discover your brand and services. 

So, to attract more traffic to your website, you can use Google Trends for keyword and trend research. Use the same strategy listed above to find the right keywords for your brand’s digital marketing efforts. Begin by typing generic keywords relevant to the audience, and gradually work towards extracting more specific ones. 

Compare Trends in Search Terms

You can explore many search terms when using Google Trends for digital marketing. The best thing about this feature is that you can compare multiple search terms in various languages during keyword research. You can compare a maximum of five term groups, with up to 25 terms in each group.

How Do I Compare Search Terms on Google Trends?

1. Open Google Trends
2. Search for a term or topic of your choice
   1. for example, ‘google trends bitcoin’, ‘coffee’, ‘motorcycle’, or ‘fruits’
3. Click on the ‘+ Add Term’ button in the  search box
4. Type another term or topic in the new Google Trends search box

If you want to remove one of the terms from the comparison, hover your cursor over the search query term and click on the ‘X’ button. To avoid getting the wrong information, watch out for spelling errors, synonyms, spelling variations, etc., when performing marketing research.

Using Google Trends to Uncover New Content Opportunities

You can also use Google Trends to find data on related queries, which may help you uncover new content opportunities via keyword and trend research. For this, go to the Google Trends homepage and click on the section ‘Trending Searches’. 

Trending Searches shows you the most searched-for topics on the internet. You can use these trending topics to create content that is more likely to get higher traffic for your website and help your business stay in line with the latest industry and marketing trends.

Promote Your Store Around Seasonal Trends

Every business goes through seasonal ups and downs, so seasonal trends are crucial to understand if you want to maximise business opportunities in the long run.

During peak seasons, your competition and sales go up. If you want to stay ahead of the curve,  you can use Google Trends for keyword research and marketing to analyse what’s trending in your industry or niche right now and prepare your content calendar accordingly. 

Using Trends by Google for research, you can start marketing your business website or content right when the relevant topics start trending in the market. During the peak of the season, your website will have much higher traffic than that of competitors who waited too long to start creating content around trending topics.

Refine Your SEO Strategy on Youtube Using Google Trends Data

While we have been talking about using Google Trends for your search engine optimisation and digital marketing, there’s another facet to Google Trends that can’t be ignored. The research tool can also refine your social media SEO and improve your social media reach, particularly on platforms like Youtube. 

Similar to the strategies mentioned earlier, you can use Google Trends for keyword research to identify rising trends on Youtube. You can also use the insights from Google Trends to come up with content ideas and marketing strategies that are trending and in line with what your audience is looking for. This will help your Youtube channel stay ahead of the competition.

Optimising Google Shopping Ads with Google Trends

If you use Google Shopping ads for your business, you can use the Google Trends research tool to help with your ad campaigns. Trends will help you find the best time to create and broadcast your marketing ads.

For example, if your business website sells collectible toys and you are trying to promote a specific action figure, you can use Google Trends’ Google Shopping feature to work out the best month to run an ad campaign for the action figure.

Avoid Keyword Unicorns by Checking for Popularity Spikes

When you’re trying to find new topics to write about for your next blog article or YouTube video, don’t forget to check Google Trends first for trend research. You don’t want to waste time working on a content piece that’s not trending or declining in search volume.

Avoid keywords or topics that are keyword unicorns, i.e., keywords that trend for a short period of time and then diminish in popularity. If you invest your time and energy creating content  on a topic that is falling off the trend spike, you won’t get any major benefits from your marketing efforts.

Identify Blind Spots and Don’t Misread Trends

Once you figure out the trending topics and keywords, the next step must be to check for any blind spots in your research for digital marketing. Here are a few tips to ensure you don’t miss any blind spots.

Try to get a bigger picture of the timeline and see other trends so you don’t focus too much on one aspect.

Always look for context when analysing trends.Often, one key phrase may be dwarfed by other trends, which may not reflect the reality or opportunities out there..

By keeping these tips in mind,  you can confidently create your content calendar for the next month, backed by proper research.

Use Google Trends Data for Your Content Calendar

All things considered, you can use Google Trends to research and strategise your digital marketing content calendar. Google Trends shows you what topics or keywords are trending on the internet for specific demographics across weeks, months, and years.

So, you can stay within your niche’s trends across a specific demographic and time to figure out seasonal trending topics. Then, you can plan your content calendar accordingly so that you have the right kind of content ready during trending seasons for the respective topics.

Google Trends and COVID-19

During the recent lockdowns, people’s interests have changed dramatically across the globe, and a significant chunk of the population has migrated to the digital world.

Here, Google Trends becomes an even more useful tool to adapt your marketing strategy for the coming years. For example, a third-party tool may show the keyword ‘bitcoin’ or ‘crypto’ as outdated, but Google Trends shows that it’s trending. You can even use Google Trends to check for crypto’s trending coins.

So, use Google Trends along with other third-party keyword research and marketing tools, but do not rely on search volume alone. Google Trends is an excellent research tool that you can integrate into your SEO strategy to keep your website agile and adaptable to the new market changes, like the ones seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google Trends FAQ

Google Trends is a terrific research tool that’s easy to use, but you might still have a few questions about it. If that’s the case, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of the most common marketing questions we get asked about Google Trends.

Is Google Trends Free to Use?

Yes, Google Trends is completely free to use as an SEO research tool. It can help you drive your SEO marketing strategy. We recommend using Google Trends with other SEO tools like Ahrefs, to come up with a comprehensive SEO and marketing strategy that is effective,data-driven, and in line with the current and upcoming trends.

How Do I Find Google Trends?

Being an SEO tool, it’s not surprising that Google Trends is not difficult to find! Use this link to Google Trends or type “Google Trends” on any search engine and the right link will appear on top.

How Do I Find Trending Products on Google Trends?

When you’re using your business website as an online store, you need to keep expanding your product portfolio, but how do you know which new products your customers are looking for? One way is to use Google Trends for marketing research.

Search for the product category your website specialises in and look at the related queries or trending topics data. Then, identify the products that are starting to trend (and may become popular in the coming months) or those products that are already popular but have a steady demand.

How Far Back Does Google Trends Go?

You can access two types of marketing data on Google Trends: real-time data, which samples the last seven days, and non-real time, which goes as far back as 2004 and up to 36 hours before your search. So, using Google Trends  data, you can track topics or keywords from a decade ago to the present.

What Searches Are Included in Google Trends?

Google Trends culls its data and reflects the searches that billions of people make on the Google search engine every day. It also reflects irregular search queries from Google, including automated or spam search queries.

While Google Trends does have filters to detect irregular search queries, you still need to be a bit cautious when looking at the data, as there’s a slight chance spam search queries may compromise your results.

Is Google Trends the Same as Autocomplete?

The autocomplete feature on the Google search engine makes it easier for you to make search queries. It suggests predictions from real searches based on trending search queries, your location and previous browsing history.

On the other hand, Google Trends helps you research trending topics and keywords based on your preferences, target preferences, and other variables.

Additionally, Autocomplete is subject to the search engine’s removal policies and algorithmic filters. Thus, it would be best to refrain from using Autocomplete as your sole tool to do keyword research.

Is Google Trends Better Than Keyword Planner?

When it comes to SEO keyword research, Google Trends is miles ahead of Keyword Planner.  It has advantages over Keyword Planner in various areas, like volume, comparison, relation, and targeting for digital marketing.

WhileGoogle Trends is not an exhaustive marketing and keyword research tool, it offers benefits that other tools do not. Due to the high level of SEO insight this tool can provide, it has become a  favourite of professional marketers.

Google Trends is a terrific tool that requires zero capital investment. When used correctly, it can offer tremendous benefits for your website, whether you are trying to gain more traffic, introduce new products to the market, grow your social media presence, or track your competitors. 

If you want to learn more about Google Trends or improve your search engine optimisation strategy for your business, get in touch with us.

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