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What is Google Trends?
Have you ever wondered how Google Trends usage can help improve your website’s online presence? Google Trends shows what people search for on Google. It tells us which topics are hot and which ones are not over different periods and places.
The Amazing Features of Google Trends
Google Trends usage allows you to see:
Keyword Popularity Over Time: You can see how interest in specific keywords has changed over the past hours, days, months, or years. This feature helps in identifying seasonality in particular terms, for example. Think of it like seeing which songs are trending on the radio.
Geographic Distribution: Google Trends shows which countries, states, or cities have the highest interest in a specific term. This feature is helpful for geo-targeted campaigns. Imagine knowing what’s trending in New York vs. Los Angeles!
Related Search Ideas and Queries: When you search for a keyword, Google Trends also provides related search queries, which can give you more keyword ideas or show variations of the primary term. It’s like getting recommendations for what to watch next on TV.
Category Breakdown: You can filter by category for specific queries, helping you differentiate interest in terms that might be used in various contexts.
Interest by Subregion: This breaks down keyword popularity by region within a country.
Comparison: You can compare the trends of multiple search terms to see how their popularity correlates.
Top and Rising Terms: For a given keyword, Google Trends will show both the top associated terms and those that are rising in popularity, which can indicate emerging trends or topics.
Trending Now: Google Trends provides real-time data on the latest trending search queries, which helps understand what’s currently relevant.
How it Can Help in SEO
Here’s how Google Trends usage helps the SEO:
Content Strategy & Ideas: Knowing trending can guide you on what to write or post about. By identifying rising terms or emerging trends in your industry, you can create content that caters to what users are actively searching for.
Keyword Research: It helps you pick words or phrases people seek. Beyond essential keyword tools, Google Trends can provide context on the popularity of a keyword over time, allowing you to focus on terms that are gaining traction.
Seasonal Trends: See if people search for your topic more during summer or winter, for example. Suppose specific keywords have a pattern (e.g., “Halloween costumes” spiking in October). In that case, you can prepare and optimize content ahead of time.
Localized SEO / Local Focus: If you’re running a local business, discover what your city or region is curious about. By understanding which terms are popular in specific regions, you can better target your SEO efforts for local audiences.
Stay Ahead of Competitors / Competitive Analysis: Using Google Trends, you can see what’s becoming popular before others do. Comparing trends in keywords relevant to your business and competitors can give insights into market movements and shifts.
Identify Content Lifespan: Understanding if a keyword’s popularity is fleeting or long-term can help you decide on evergreen content vs. short-term, timely content.
Link Building: Creating content around trending topics can attract more backlinks, as more people are interested in and talking about those topics.
Avoiding Outdated Terms: If a term’s popularity declines, it might be time to pivot your content or keyword strategy.
Step-by-step Google Trends Usage Guide
1. Navigate to the Google Trends page.
2. Once on the Google Trends homepage, you’ll see a search bar at the top. Type in the topic or term you’re interested in and execute the search.
3. As part of the Google Trends usage guide, after execution, you can refine your search by selecting the geographic region, time range, category, and search type (Web, Image, News, Google Shopping, or YouTube).
3.1. Geographic Region can be worldwide or limited to a specific country or even a particular subregion within a country.
3.2. Time Range allows you to view trends over different periods. You can choose from preset options like “Past 12 months” or “Past 5 years” or set a custom date range.
3.3. Category: If you’re looking for trends within a specific industry or subject, you can select them here. Options include “All categories” or more specific ones like “Arts & Entertainment,” “Health,” “Science,” and others.
3.4. Search Type: Choose whether you want to see trends for web searches, image searches, news searches, Google Shopping searches, or YouTube searches.
4. After entering your search query and selecting the appropriate filter options, Google Trends usage will generate a graph showing interest in your search term over your chosen period. The chart displays the search interest of a region and period concerning the highest point on the chart, with numbers representing the level of interest. A value of 100 indicates the highest level of popularity for the term. In contrast, a value of 50 denotes that the term’s popularity is only half the peak value.
5. You can also compare the popularity of up to five search terms or groups. Click on the “Compare” box in the search bar and input your additional terms.
6. Below the main graph, you’ll find sections for related topics and related queries. These can give you insights into other popular terms related to your initial search.
7. If you want to analyze the data further, Google Trends usage allows you to export the data to a CSV file. Click the download icon at the top right of the graph.
Remember that Google Trends doesn’t provide absolute search volume. The data is presented on a scale from 0-100 based on a topic’s proportion to all searches on all issues.
Due to the way Google anonymizes and aggregates its data, there may be some inconsistency, and you should use the data as a general guide rather than an exact measure of popularity or search volume.
The “Trending Now” feature on Google Trends is a great way to check what’s currently popular or newsworthy. This tool shows you the top trending searches in real-time, making it especially useful for identifying breaking news stories or viral phenomena. You can also switch to the “Daily Search Trends” tab to see the most popular searches of the past 24 hours.
Conclusion
Remember, understanding Google Trends usage can be your guiding star in the vast world of online content. It helps you know what people want, leading to better website content and, ultimately, more visitors. So, dive into Google Trends and let it guide your next steps in the digital world!
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