Google Trends is a surprisingly useful tool for keyword research, especially if you use advanced search options that are practically hidden.
Explore the various Google Trends menus and options and discover seemingly endless ways to gain more keyword search volume insights.
Learn new ways to unlock the power of one of Google’s most important SEO tools.
The Value Of Google Trends
While Google Trends is accurate, it does not show the amount of traffic in actual numbers.
It shows the number of requests made in relative percentages on a scale from zero to 100.
Unlike Google Trends, paid SEO tools provide traffic volume numbers for keywords.
But these numbers are just estimates extrapolated from a mix of internet traffic data providers, Google Keyword Planner, scraped search results and other sources.
The clickstream data usually comes from anonymized traffic data acquired by users of certain pop-up blockers, browser plugins, and some free anti-virus software.
The SEO tools then apply a calculation that matches their best guess of how this data correlates with Google keyword searches and traffic volume.
So, even though paid SEO tools provide estimates of keyword traffic, the data presented by Google Trends is based on actual search queries and not guesses.
That’s not to say that Google Trends is better than paid keyword tools. When used together with paid keyword tools, one can get an almost accurate idea of the real keyword search volume.
There are other functions in Google Trends that can help choose the correct segmentation of the keyword data, which helps to understand which geographic locations are best for promotional efforts and also to discover new and trending keywords.
How To Use Google Trends For SEO
1. Get More Accurate Data By Comparing Keywords
Google Trends shows a relative visualization of traffic on a scale from zero to 100.
You can’t really tell if the trend is reporting hundreds of keyword searches or thousands because the graph is on a relative scale from zero to one hundred.
However, the relative numbers may have more meaning when compared to keywords for which there are known traffic levels from another keyword site.
One way to do this is to compare the keyword search volume with a keyword whose exact traffic figures are already known, for example from a PPC campaign.
If the keyword volume is particularly large for which you do not have a keyword to compare, there is another way to find a keyword to compare.
A comparison keyword does not have to be related. It can be in a completely different vertical and could even be the name of a trendy celebrity.
The important thing is the general keyword volume data.
Google publishes a Google Trends Daily Trends website that shows trending search queries.
What is useful about this page is that Google provides keyword volume in numbers, such as 100,000+ searches per day, etc.
Example Of How To Pinpoint Search Volume
I will use the search phrase [how to lose weight] as an example of how to use Google Trends to get a good idea of the current search volume.
The way I do it is by using known search volumes and comparing them to the target keyword.
Google offers search volume on its trending search page, which can be adjusted for what’s trending in each country.
On this particular day (September 22, 2022), actress Ana De Armas was trending with 50,000+ searches, and American ex-football player (keyword phrase [Bret Favre News]) was trending with 20,000+ searches.
Step 1. Find Search Trends For Target Keyword Phrases
The target keyword phrase we are researching is [how to lose weight].
Below is a screenshot of a year’s trend for the target keyword phrase:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
As you can see, it is a fairly stable trend line from September 2021 to September 2022.
Then I added the two keyword phrases for which we have a close search volume number to compare all three, but for a 24-hour time period.
I use a 24-hour time period because the search volume for our comparison keywords is trending for that day.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
Our target keyword phrase, with a red trend line, is right in the middle, between the keyword phrases [Ana De Armas] (blue) and [Bret Favre News] (yellow).
What the above comparison tells us is that the phrase [how to lose weight] has a keyword volume of more than 20,000+ searches but less than 50,000+ searches.
The relative search volume of [how to lose weight] is 50% of the keyword phrase [Ana De Armas].
Since we know that [Ana De Armas] has a search volume of about 50,000+ searches on this particular day, and [Bret Favre News] has a search volume of 20,000+ queries on the same day, we can say with reasonable accuracy that the keyword phrase, [how to lose weight] has about a daily search volume of about 30,000 on an average day, give or several thousand.
The actual numbers could be higher because Google Trends shows the high and low days at certain points of the day. The total for the day is very likely higher.
The above hack is not 100% accurate. But it’s enough to give a strong ballpark idea and can be used to compare and validate extrapolated data from a paid keyword research tool.
Related: How To Do Keyword Research For SEO
2. Discover Insights From Time-based Trends
There are two general ways to look at keyword data: stretched over longer time periods and shorter time periods.
You can set Google Trends to show you traffic trends going back to 2004. This is valuable for showing you audience trends.
For example, check out this five-year trend for [WordPress] the search term, WordPress the software, and WordPress the website:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
There is a clear downward trend for WordPress in all three variations.
The downward trend extends to related phrases such as:
There are many reasons why search trends are declining. It may be that people have lost interest, that interest has gone elsewhere or that the trend has not changed.
The digital camera product category is a good example of a downward spiral caused by a product being replaced by something else.
Knowing which way the wind is blowing could help a content marketer or publisher understand when it’s time to bail on a topic or product category and pivot to upward trends.
Related: Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
3. Related Topics And Queries
Google Trends has two great features, one called Related Topics and the other Related Queries.
Topics are search queries that share a concept.
Identifying related topics that trend upward is useful for learning how an audience or consumer demand is changing.
This information can in turn provide ideas for content generation or new product selections.
Users searching for your term also searched for these topics.
You can check with the following metrics
Top – The most popular topics. Scoring is on a relative scale where a value of 100 is the most searched topic and a value of 50 is a topic that is searched half as often as the most popular term, and so on.
Rising – Related topics with the greatest increase in search frequency since the last time period.
Results marked “breakout” had a huge increase, probably because these topics are new and have had little (if any) previous research.
The description of Related Queries is similar to that of Related Topics.
Top queries are generally the most popular searches. Rising Queries are queries that are becoming popular.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
The data from Rising Queries is great for staying ahead of the competition.
4. Short-Term Trends Can Bring Massive Traffic
Search keyword trends in the short view, such as the 90-day or even 30-day view, can reveal valuable insights to capitalize on fast-changing search trends.
There is a ton of traffic on Google Discover as well as in Google News.
Google Discover is linked to trending topics related to searches.
Google News is of the moment in terms of current events.
Sites targeting either of these traffic channels benefit from knowing what the short-term trends are.
An advantage of seeing short-term trends (30 days and 90 trends) is that certain days of the week stand out when these searches are popular.
Knowing which days of the week interest spikes for a particular topic can help in planning when to publish certain types of topics so that the content is there when the audience is looking for it.
5. Keywords By Category
Google Trends has the functionality to narrow down the keyword search query inventory by category topics.
This gives more accurate keyword data.
The Categories tab is important because it refines your keyword research into the right context.
If your keyword context is [cars], then it makes sense to refine Google Trends accordingly to only show the data for the context of the car.
By narrowing the Google Trends data by category, you can find more accurate information related to the topics you are looking for content in the right context.
6. Identify Keyword Data By Geography
Google Trends keyword information by geographic location can be used to determine which areas are best to reach for site promotion or to tailor content to specific regions.
For example, if certain types of products are popular in Washington DC and Texas, it makes sense to target promotional activity and localized content to these areas.
In fact, it may be useful to focus link-building promotional activities in these areas first, as interest is higher in those parts of the country.
Keyword popularity information by region is valuable for link building, content creation, content promotion, and pay-per-click.
Localizing content (and promoting that content) can make it more relevant to the people who are interested in that content (or product).
Google ranks pages according to who it’s most relevant to, so incorporating geographic nuance into your content can help it rank for the most people.
7. Target Search Intents With Search Types
Google Trends gives you the ability to further refine the keyword data by segmenting it according to the type of search from which the data comes, the search type.
Refining your Google Trends research by type of search allows you to remove the “noise” that makes your keyword research fuzzy and helps it become more precise and meaningful.
Google Trends data can be refined by:
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
YouTube Search is a fantastic way to identify search trends for content with the word “like” because many people search YouTube using phrases with the words “like” in them.
Although these searches are on YouTube, the trending data is useful because it shows what users are searching for.
A Google Trends search for how, what, where, when, why and who shows that search queries beginning with the word “how” are by far the most popular on YouTube.
Google Trends limits comparisons to five keywords, so the following screenshot omits that word.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
If your keyword phrases involve instructional content that uses words like “how to”, refining your research with the YouTube search type can provide useful insights.
For example, I found that YouTube search shows more relevant “related topics” and “related queries” data than searching with “web search” selected.
Here’s another example of how using different search types helps refine Google Trends data.
I did the same as, what, where, when, why and who search but this time using the news search refinement.
Screenshot from Google Trends, September 2022
The search trends on Google News are remarkably different from the search patterns on YouTube. That’s because people want to know the “what” and “how” types of information on Google News.
When creating content related to news, it is important to identify the right angle to report a news story.
Knowing that the words “what” or “who” are most relevant to a topic can be useful in creating the title on what readers are most interested in.
The above is the view of search queries for the last 90 days.
If the same keywords are searched with the 5-year perspective, it becomes clear that the “who” type keywords tend to spike after current events.
As an example of how current events influence trends, the biggest spike in searches for the word “who” occurred in the days following the 2020 presidential election.
Each search type query refinement shows a different help to refine the results so that they show more accurate information.
So, try the search type selections as the information provided may be more accurate and useful than the more general and potentially noisy “web search” version.
Unlock The Hidden Power Of Google Trends
Free tools are generally considered less useful than paid tools. That’s not necessarily the case with Google Trends.
This article lists seven ways to discover useful search-related trends and patterns that are absolutely accurate, more than some search-related data from paid tools.
What is particularly noteworthy is that this article only begins to scratch the surface of all the available information.
Check out Google Trends and learn additional ways to mix different search patterns to get even more useful information.
Featured Image: Studio Romantic / Shutterstock
How do I use Google Trends advantage?
How to Use Google Trends: 10 Mind-Blowing Tricks for Entrepreneurs
- Use Google Trends to find niches.
- Find relevant product categories and related topics.
- Use Google Trends for keyword research.
- Promote your store around seasonal trends.
- Use Google Trends for content freshness.
- Create content about current trends.
Are Google Trends reliable?
Conclusion: In the considered time span, Google Trends only proved reliable for surveys regarding RSVs of countries worldwide.
How do I find trending products on Google Trends? On the homepage of Google Trends you will find a section for trend searches. Trending searches are the hottest topics of the moment. You can view daily trend searches, real-time search trends and search by country.
Who is the most searched man on Google 2022?
The most searched person on Google in 2022: Will Smith (Will Smith holds the record for the most Googled person of 2022 after beating a fellow actor on stage at the Oscars in March 2022).
Which country searched most on Google 2022?
With 94.19%, India is the top country in terms of Google usage. Google search statistics show India at the top of the list of countries where the majority of people use this search engine. India’s Google search traffic is not only high, but is skyrocketing.
What is most searched on Google 2022?
What is the most searched thing on Google in 2022? This year, âfacebookâ leads the pack worldwide, followed by âyoutubeâ and âamazon.â The popular word game âwordleâ comes just behind. Semrush’s database of over 20 billion keywords is packed with data on popular searches.
What is the #1 searched thing on Google?
| # | keyword | search volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 144,000,000 | |
| 2 | youtube | 143,000,000 |
| 3 | amazon | 119,000,000 |
| 4 | Weather | 95,300,000 |
What’s the most searched thing on Google 2022?
The winner of the most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or “weather” for short.
What is the most googled thing 2022?
The winner of the most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or “weather” for short.
What is the most searched thing on Google 2022?
The winner of the most popular keyword is Facebook, with over 1,102,800,000 searches per month. This is closely followed by YouTube, Amazon, and the weather, or “weather” for short.
Is Google Trends free to use?
The answer is a free tool from Google called Google Trends. With Google Trends, you can see what people are searching for on Google, and how those searches change over time, by season and geographic location, so you can gain relevant insights into what your customers are researching online.
How to use Google Trend on YouTube? To find YouTube search trends using Google Trends, simply search for a topic and select YouTube Search. Then you will be able to see results about interest over time and by region and related topics and queries.
Does Google Trend include YouTube?
Another handy aspect of Google Trends is that you can identify trending topics across multiple forms of search. You can also see them through standard web search and YouTube search.
How do you find trends on YouTube?
To find trending videos on YouTube, click the Discovery tab in the sidebar, then select Trending. You can also access the page directly from your browser. If you need to watch trending videos for another country, change your location by clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner.
Who is #1 on YouTube right now?
Indian music video channel T-Series is the most subscribed YouTube channel, with 230 million subscribers as of November 2022.
Who is #1 on YouTube right now?
Indian music video channel T-Series is the most subscribed YouTube channel, with 230 million subscribers as of November 2022.
How do you find trends on YouTube?
To find trending videos on YouTube, click the Discovery tab in the sidebar, then select Trending. You can also access the page directly from your browser. If you need to watch trending videos for another country, change your location by clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner.
How do you find trends on YouTube?
To find trending videos on YouTube, click the Discovery tab in the sidebar, then select Trending. You can also access the page directly from your browser. If you need to watch trending videos for another country, change your location by clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner.
What are the disadvantages of Google Trends?
Google Trends only gives relative numbers and there is no way to get absolute numbers. Therefore, a comparative search must be made to obtain results that can be compared. People most affected by some of the phenomena may not have internet access. The context of the search is not clear.