What Is Google Trends And How Can You Use it?

Google is the world’s most popular search engine that you’re likely familiar with. Google Trends is a tool that you can use to monitor trends on this search engine. You can see the most popular topics and keywords people are searching for lately or monitor the search volume of specific keywords over a given period.

Trends is helpful for people wanting to generate unpaid traffic to their website or blog. If you observe people searching for specific keywords, you can write relevant articles so that Google may suggest your site to them.

How To Use Google Trends

Head to https://trends.google.com/. The homepage shows slideshows of popular queries across different countries over the past 24 hours. The example below shows that people in New Zealand are searching for Eminem, the popular American rapper.

At the top-right corner, you will see a box that allows you to select any country you want. Select a country to monitor the popular search queries in it.

Click the Explore button at the top-left corner, and you’ll be redirected to a different page. On this page, you can monitor the search queries in your chosen country over a given period. For example, you can check the top ten Google queries over the past 6 or 12 months. You can also see which queries are fast-rising. The example below shows that queries for ChatGPT, the viral artificial intelligence chatbot, have soared 2,850% over the past 12 months.

You can type specific keywords in the search bar and see their search volumes. Let’s type “Search engine optimization” to illustrate. The graph below shows search interest in this keyword over the past 12 months; interest had fallen from a peak in December 2022 to a lower level by April 2023.

You can compare the keyword you searched for against another keyword. Let’s compare “search engine optimization” with “search advertising.” The result is the graphs below, where you can observe that searches for the second term have stayed relatively flat over the past 12 months, unlike the other.

You can break down the results according to different regions, e.g., states within the United States of America (USA). You can also break it down according to the type of search; web, image, YouTube, or Google Shopping. Google gives you these deep insights for free.

Click the Trending Now button at the top-left corner, and you’ll be redirected to a different page where you can monitor daily or real-time search trends for your chosen country. If you’re checking for daily trends, you can see search trends for previous days as far back as you want.

Uses Of Google Trends

• You can identify the latest topics people are searching for and write relevant content and articles on your website. This way, Google can suggest your site when people search for them, and you'll get traffic. This is part of search engine optimization.

• If you're running advertisements for your product or service, you can identify the trending topics and tailor your ads around them. This is a creative way to capture the attention of the public.

• It's useful for keyword and market research. You can identify the proper keywords to include in your website to generate traffic. Similarly, you can identify search trends to guide your product development and marketing efforts.

Using Google Trends properly can boost traffic significantly to your website and increase sales. Contact Big Valley Media today to see how we can help your website rank high on search engines.