Guide on How to Use Google Trends for SEO Keyword Research
LUSO.us: Guide on How to Use Google Trends for SEO Keyword Research – As a professional SEO Specialist, I believe there is one word that you often hear and use, namely “keywords”. If you already know what people are looking for, you can create content that guides them to your website. The best way to identify effective keywords is to use Google Trends, Google Trends is one of the largest real-time data sets in the world. Google Trends can give you insight into what people are looking for, interested in, and wanting to know.
With more than 3.5 billion Google searches performed every day, this is a powerful tool you shouldn’t ignore. In the words of the Google Trends team, “You can now explore minute-by-minute, real-time data behind the more than 100 billion searches that are performed on Google each month, delving deeper into the topics that interest you.”
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Now, you may think that this sounds really good but where do I start? Here are 11 Guidelines on How to use Google Trends for Keyword Research so you can generate the right keywords.
1. Understand keyword search volume
Keyword search volume refers to the number of times certain words are searched over a certain period of time. If the website contains words with a high volume of words, it is clear that they will get more traffic.
If you enter any keyword into Google Trends, you can see how interest in that topic has increased or decreased over time.
Here is an example. Type in “coronavirus” and see the peaks and valleys of consumer interest for yourself. You can also see which regions are more or less popular.
Here, I show that the popularity of the keywords shown is relative. The graph shows the ratio of the number of times that word was searched relative to the total number of all searches during that time.
2. Identify seasonal trends
One of the great advantages of having search data mapped on a graph is that you can easily see the ebb and flow of keyword search frequency.
As a must-do smart marketer, you should know that tapping into seasonal popularity means attracting more customers. You can create campaigns around these trends and customize your sales plan and inventory.
Here are some clear examples. If you type “pizza”, you get a pretty consistent and more or less flat graphic. And if you type in “Christmas pudding”, you’ll see a flat line going up to a very high peak in December.
Correctly identifying such trends means being able to plan ahead and then capitalize on the increased interest.
3. Avoid keyword trends that only jump temporarily
When doing keyword research, you need to know whether the search term will remain popular or if the results are short. Here again, Google Trends can help.
There is a table on the page that lets you see search interest for specific keywords over the past few years. This way, you’ll quickly see if a topic has just jumped up one time and then disappeared or if it’s a lasting interest.
4. Stay away from a unicorn or broad keywords
Hold on. Aren’t the unicorns they call start-ups worth over USD one billion? Yes, it is, but there are other types. The Unicorn keyword, for example.
These are general industry terms that might sound great to include in your content but don’t always make much of a difference. Their volume is high but competition is low. For example, “cloud computing” or “courier services”.
It is better to use more precise keywords. For example, suppose you want to modify the keyword unicorn to more accurately reflect your service. Checking Google Trends will provide you with information on such common keywords, which you can then customize according to your needs.
5. Find trending and relevant topics
Trends. We all want to stay on top because this will attract more customers. Well, Google Trends can also obviously help in this case.
You can check Google Trends to find out which topics are trending in your niche and then track the traffic.
6. Find related topics
Oftentimes, even keywords that don’t link directly to your business can also help. There are other keywords that may be related but will still increase traffic.
It’s easy to do with Google Trends. After you type in the relevant keywords, you can scroll down to find a table of related topics and related queries.
Typing on a courier service, for example, will show an up and down trend for this search phrase. However, in the related query section, you will see “overnight courier services”. If you can use these as relevant keywords, chances are that your traffic will increase.
7. Use trend predictions
You can view Google Trends as a mirror to show what people are interested in right now. This tool can also help you use to forecast and trend data to suggest which keywords will increase in popularity in the future. This lets you plan ahead and prepare for the traffic boost opportunities that will arise in the future.
For starters, you can see the predictions from the Google team about the themes that are currently rising in 2021: equality, equality, data ethics, and reaching consumers at home.
8. Use local SEO tactics
You already know the importance of utilizing a local SEO strategy. There are many consumers near you, and they are the ones who can be easily targeted with digital tactics and effective keywords.
Google Trends can also be of great help to this approach. You can use local keyword trends to see which regions need your product or service. And then, you can adjust your strategy to reflect this.
For example, you could type “cloud computing”, with Indonesian filters to get the overall trend for that keyword phrase. And then drill down further to see which cities the phrase is mostly used in.
9. SEO Video
The statistics at HubSpot show that 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. It’s no surprise, after all, 85% of all internet users watch online video content every month on one of their devices. And 54% want to see more video content from the brands or businesses they support.
Hence, video SEO is very important. This is the process of optimizing your video for indexing so that it ranks on the results page for keyword searches.
How can Google Trends help you with this?
Enter a search term, then convert web search to YouTube search. You can find relevance as well as related queries, as well as which words are trending. This will give you invaluable insights to change the title and description of your video for better results.
10.Use long-tail keywords
Long-tail unique phrases are defined as key phrases that are different from general keywords. They are specific to whatever product or service you are selling.
For example, “running shoes” could be a generic keyword, the long tail version could be “men’s running shoes with thick soles”.
As you can see, such phrases have low competition and high conversion. This is why they are so important for effective SEO.
With Google Trends, you can reference the popularity of different keywords. Then, you can combine related terms to get a good idea of the relevant long-tail keywords. Do you like cloud computing or running shoes?
11. Identification of blind spots
Blind spots are in life and also in keywords.
There are keywords that we feel are important, even though they may be general and high-volume keywords. There are other keywords that somehow never crossed my mind, even though they might be of interest to consumers.
Smart use of Google Trends means you can investigate this area for insights that will allow you to take advantage of what’s trending with your target audience.
Use a variety of keyword combinations, always tick the related query boxes, and get a broader view of the timeline. Combine these to check if keywords are popular over time, if there has only been a certain spike, and if there are any other aspects that consumers think are important.