Learn how to use Google Trends for SEO keyword research and to create your content calendar. Use this tool to find underserved keywords and stand out from your competitors.
You can — and should — pair Google Trends with a keyword research tool to find topics and keywords to write SEO blog posts around.
The main advantage of using this tool for keyword research is that it can help you stand out from the competition.
Everyone uses SEO tools, like SEMRush or Ubersuggest; using Google Trends can help you find new and underserved topics that your competitors aren’t targeting.
In this blog post you’ll learn:
- What Google Trends is and what it’s used for
- 8 Ways to use Google Trends for keyword research
- When, how, and why Google Trends can replace traditional keyword research tools
- How to use Google Trends’ Trending Searches for keyword research
- How to use Google Trends to plan content
- And more!
Let’s get started 😄
What Is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a free tool created by Google in 2006.
It provides data on the popularity of topics and search terms on Google, Google Images, Google News, Google Shopping, and YouTube.
It allows you to search for that data in any time frame, from 2004 to real-time.
You can also set it for different locations, from worldwide to some countries’ regions or even metropolitan areas.
What Is Google Trends Used For?
Google Trends is used for:
- Topic and keyword research
- Optimizing local SEO
- Optimizing video vs. written content strategy
- Analyzing customer behavior, including identifying seasonal patterns
- Predicting trends
- Market research
- And more!
How Do I Read Google Trends Data?
To read Google Trends data, first, you need to understand the difference between:
- Search terms and topics
- Absolute data and relative data
Then, you need to fully comprehend the relative values shown in various graphs and tables on Google Trends and what each of them means.
👉 To learn more, read How to Read Google Trends (Full Guide + Examples)
How to Use Google Trends for SEO Keyword Research
There are eight ways you can use Google Trends for keyword research — let’s take a look at each of them.
1. Check Keyword Interest Over Time
Type a topic or search term into Google Trends and evaluate the “interest over time” it got.
You can choose which country, time period, category, and type of search you want to look into.
By performing this search, you can learn what keywords are growing/decreasing in popularity, if they’re evergreen or seasonal, and what type of content will perform best in search.
2. Learn What Content Type You Should Create Around Each Keyword
To figure out what content type to create around a given keyword, click the web search tab and compare the interest over time for each search type.
➡️ In this example, there’s more web search interest for the keyword “metaverse” than YouTube search interest. This means you should prioritize creating blog content over video content.
For some topics, there may be more image search interest. In those cases, you’d need to create infographics or aesthetically pleasing images and optimize them for search.
3. Identify Seasonal, Evergreen, and Temporarily Popular Keywords to Plan Content
Google Trends is the best tool to identify seasonal, evergreen, and temporarily popular topics to write about.
I’ll go into detail about how to leverage this feature to plan your content strategy later in this blog post. Click here to jump to that section.
4. Local SEO: Check Keyword Interest by Subregion
To learn about keyword interest by subregion, metropolitan area, or city, you just need to scroll down a bit.
➡️ In this example, you can see that the relative interest for the keyword “metaverse” over the last five years, in the US, is higher in D.C. than in New Jersey.
You can use this data to plan your local SEO efforts.
Of course, the population of New Jersey is over 10x that of D.C., so, it’d likely be more profitable to target the former. Remember to take this into consideration whenever you’re comparing search interest by subregion.
5. Find Related Topics
If you scroll down a bit more, you’ll find topics related to the keyword you typed.
This is how you find new and underserved keywords that can help you stay ahead of your competitors.
You can choose between looking into “rising” or “top” topics.
“Rising” topics either show you a percentage that represents the interest growth that topic got in the time period you initially set or show as “breakout” — that means that topic interest grew by 5,000% or more.
⚠️ If you set your time frame between “past 30 days” to “past 12 months,” you can get new, rising keywords that SEO tools may not be showing — it’s a great way to stay ahead of the competition.
“Top” topics show the relative interest between the most popular topics related to your keyword.
6. Find Related Queries
After checking the “Related Topics” tab, you’ll find “Related Queries” to the right.
The same goes for the queries section. You can choose between “rising” and “top” queries. “Breakout” means that that query’s popularity grew by 5,000% or more.
Again, this is the best way to find new keywords your competitors aren’t targeting yet.
⚠️ The main difference is that topics are general search categories, while queries are literal keywords being typed on Google.
7. Compare Keywords’ Interest Overtime
Let’s scroll back to the top of the page.
You can click “add comparison” and type another search term or topic to compare their interest over time.
Here’s an example:
➡️ In this example, you can see that there was a lot more relative search interest in “influencer marketing” than in “metaverse marketing” (over the last twelve months, in the US).
You can also scroll down and see the interest by subregion and related queries for each of them.
⚠️ One thing you need to keep in mind when comparing keywords is that you need both to be either search terms or topics.
If you compare a search term with a topic, the comparison is inaccurate.
8. Use Google Trends’ Trending Searches to Find New Keywords
This is where Google Trends can fully replace keyword research tools.
Why?
Well, some keywords are too new to be listed on SEO tools but you can always be on top of things with its “Trending Searches” feature.
Also, SEO tools show keywords’ monthly search volume (MSV) — some may have a low MSV but thousands and thousands of searches in a single day.
Google Trends allows you to tap into that.
Blogs about the latest on cryptocurrency, celebrity gossip, and music releases are some examples of websites that can benefit from this feature.
It’s hard to plan for these keywords and evergreen topics usually have a higher ROI, but you can tap into these search avalanches once in a while.
How to Use Google Trends’ Trending Searches for SEO Keyword Research
First, open Google Trends.
Then, click the three lines in the top left corner. A drop-down menu will appear. Select “Trending Searches.”
The daily search trends will show. Choose the country you want data for (green).
If there’s a topic that interests you click on the small arrow on the right side (yellow) to expand it.
You can see the approximate searches for the topic that day and some related news (yellow).
In some cases, it’ll also give you some related queries you can use as keywords. They show above the related news.
On the real-time search trends bracket (orange), you can usually find a lot more keywords.
So, go ahead and click on that.
As you can see, it shows a bunch of topics peaking in search (yellow).
You can check if they’re still growing in popularity or already going down (orange) to know if they’re still worth targeting.
If you’re looking for something more specific, you can narrow it down by category (green).
There are six broad categories (green). I selected business for this example.
As you can see, the results (green) are a bit different from the previous “all categories” ones.
If there’s a topic that you believe you can capitalize on, expand it (yellow) to learn more.
I went with Elon’s because it’s rising. Also, DRAMA! I’m curious.
Here, you can see a lot more detailed information.
You can see how the search interest and the number of news articles published on it evolved over time (yellow).
On this page, you can also see lots of related keywords; just scroll down a bit.
And there you go: you reached the trending keyword El Dorado 👇
How Do I Use Google Trends to Plan Content?
To use Google Trends to plan content, you need to check if a certain topic or keyword is:
- Evergreen
- Seasonal
- Temporarily popular
- Sustainably growing in popularity
- Sustainably decreasing in popularity
➡️ In the image below, you can see that the interest in the search term “LinkedIn” (blue) remains relatively constant over the last three years.
“Cinco de Mayo” (red) is a seasonal topic. The interest peaks around that holiday every year.
And the series “Squid Game” (yellow) was only temporarily popular.
1. Evergreen Topics
Evergreen topics should be heavily targeted.
Why?
It’s a one-and-done — and gives the best return on investment (ROI).
You write about it once and it’ll serve its purpose forever (or at least for a very long time).
All you need to do is update it once in a while.
Also, evergreen topics don’t require much planning. You can write about them anytime.
Below, you can see some examples of evergreen topics.
They go up and down a bit, but maintain an overall constant search interest for a long time (five years, in this case).
2. Seasonal Topics
Seasonal topics can also bring you a great ROI but require more planning.
Identify when the search peaks for those seasonal topics are, brainstorm some blog posts you can write around each of them, and include them in your content calendar.
Here are some examples of seasonal topics:
Remember that you need to publish seasonal content at least two to three months before the search peak — and plan accordingly!
There are many advantages to targeting seasonal topics, including increased traffic throughout different times of the year and fresh blog post ideas.
I created a seasonal content planner to save you time and help you plan your content more easily 😄 You can download it here 👇
3. Temporarily Popular Topics
When it comes to temporarily popular topics, you need to be pickier about which ones to pursue.
After those topics are no longer relevant, they won’t drive any more traffic to your website.
And that popularity may last anywhere between mere hours to a few months.
So, the question is: why should you invest time, effort, and money in them? 🤔
For brand awareness!
If there’s an insanely popular topic within your niche (or that can pair well with your niche), you can jump on the bandwagon to generate a lot of traffic for a limited time.
⚠️ Unless you run a blog about some sort of current events, this should not be the main focus of your content strategy.
But using it once in a while can bring in new readers that wouldn’t find your blog otherwise.
You can’t really plan for this type of topic, though.
All you can do is take a look at Google Trends’ Trending Searches once in a while and have a system in place that allows you to quickly create and publish content.
You can also use Google Trends Explore for this if you’re looking to capitalize on temporarily popular topics within a narrower niche.
You just need to set the time frame accordingly.
4. Sustainably Growing or Decreasing in Popularity
Generally speaking, you should jump on topics growing in popularity and avoid the ones going down.
But, the reality is: you’ll need to go on a case-by-case basis.
Some topics have consistently decreased in popularity but still remain high — “Facebook” is an example.
And, sometimes, you may think a given topic will keep getting more and more searches and it flops.
You’ll win some and lose some.
TikTok is an example of a search term growing in popularity.
How to Use Google Trends for SEO Keyword Research — FAQs
And finally, here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about how to use Google Trends for SEO keyword research.
How Do I Use Google Trends for SEO?
To use Google Trends for SEO, you can either:
- Use the “Trending Searches” feature to get keywords peaking in search in real-time;
- Or use the “Explore” feature to understand how the popularity of search terms and topics evolved over time in different search engines, including Google and YouTube.
Google Trends Pricing — Do I Have to Pay for Google Trends in 2023?
Google Trends is completely free for anyone to use.
You don’t even have to create an account.
Is Google Trends Accurate?
Google Trends is accurate.
However, it depends on how you’re using it and what for.
You need to learn how to read Google Trends data properly and have some background knowledge.
➡️ For example, searching for topics is usually more accurate than for search terms because topics include variations of the keyword, like misspellings.
If you’re using it for predictions… Well, it won’t always go as expected. Not even almighty Google can predict the future.
Google Trends vs. Google Insights
Google Insights was closed and merged with Google Trends in 2012.
It used to give you insights about the relative interest by subregion and show top and rising related queries — now, you can get all that information on Google Trends.
How to Use Google Trends for SEO Keyword Research — Key Takeaways
Google Trends can be a powerful source of keywords and topics to create content around.
By using this tool, you can target new and underused keywords to get ahead of your competitors.
Plus, it’s super beginner-friendly and 100% free.
If you need more help creating SEO-optimized content, download my FREE SEO Blog Post Checklist 👇
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