One of the hardest parts of content creation is coming up with topics to write about. Especially if you’ve been writing for a while. It can be easy to feel you’ve already written about everything you can. That’s where Google Trends comes in!
According to Google, Google Trends is, “Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time.” This free tool from Google provides a unique insight into their users and SEO trends.
Today we’re going to walk you through how Google trends works and how they can help you decide what to write next and boost your content creation strategy.
How Does Google Trends Work?
Google Trends is an SEO tool that shows you its most popular search queries and how they’ve performed over time. The one thing it doesn’t show you is the search volume (how many people are searching for that keyword/phrase).
For today’s purposes, we want you to think of it as a keyword research tool. Google collects and presents real-time data from a sample of its users and their queries. It presents this data to you with the popularity of each query over time and can even allow you to compare queries. All the data is shown in colorful and easy-to-understand graphs. Your job is to compare topics relevant to you and learn how you can apply them to your keyword strategy.
When Should I Use Google Trends?
While this tool is so helpful, it shouldn’t be your go-to in every situation. It is best used when you really need it. So, we’re discussing 5 times Google Trends is ideal.
- When you run out of content ideas.
- When current events affect your target audience.
- When you’re doing keyword research.
- During content planning.
- When deciding on a blog or business niche.
When You Run Out of Content Ideas
We’ve all been there. Sometimes coming up with your next blog post, social media caption, product, etc. can be challenging. Writer’s block can be real as can the reality that you’re just plain out of fresh ideas. That’s normal! Hopping on Google Trends can provide you with fresh insight into people living in your area, and what users are searching for these days. The inspiration you need may very well be a couple of quick clicks away.
The best part is, it’s all backed up by concrete data. Make sure to look at each topic’s popularity overtime to make sure you’re creating content that’s going to succeed online.
When Current Events Affect Your Target Audience
Although football rankings may be trending on the Google Trends homepage, not everyone should go writing about football. If you run a women’s clothing brand that likely wouldn’t speak to your target audience. You want to use trending data that is relevant to your brand’s target audience.
A great example is if “Christmas” is trending, and your clothing store offers trendy holiday-inspired apparel! Dig deep into what keywords people are typing in within the “Christmas” topic and use what is most relevant to your business. This will help you monopolize on the surge of holiday searches, so your content is more likely to be seen and to succeed.
You can use the “Top Trending Searches” page to help you with this!
When You’re Doing Keyword Research
To begin your keyword research on Google Trends, you’ll want to find a broad topic. The example we’ll use today is the term “marketing.” When we type this in, we can see that it is currently on the uptrend. From there, we’ll want to narrow it down to our region, so we selected “Alabama.”
Once you’ve narrowed it down to a particular region, it will show you the top cities where people are searching for this. You can also see related queries. The current top related query is for “affiliate marketing.” People’s searches for affiliate marketing are up 350% which is huge. Now we know what one of our next blogs will need to be about.
During Content Planning
As you’re planning your content calendar, you’ll want to make sure you’re writing about topics that are relevant and timely. You can type in content ideas and see if they’re currently on the uptrend or downtrend so you only put your time into what will move the needle for you.
We do highly encourage you to check what’s trending for your subregion. Remember, most businesses and brands serve a specific, targeted market.
When Deciding on Your Blog or Business Niche
Have you been considering starting a blog or a business? The number one thing you’ll wish you could know upfront is if your business is something people are wanting and if it will succeed. While Google Trends can’t guarantee your success, it can help make sure you’re starting a business that’s relevant.
For example, if you’re looking to start a food blog or meal prep service you can search what’s popular. If you typed in “food” to the search bar, then selected “Alabama,” and go down to the related topics section you will see “veganism” is one of the top related searches. Its popularity is on the rise with a 50% increase in searches. This sounds great until you click on the topic. There you can see that it’s only at a 56% popularity over time which is lower than you’d like!
We’d recommend doing in-depth research like this before you start your business. In this circumstance, you may want to try several different searches like “diet” or “food prep” as well to compare results to find what’s the best across the board for you.
We hope this in-depth look at Google Trends will help you develop a stronger content creation strategy. If you need help with social media, SEO, or marketing in general, we’re here to help you out with customized solutions to help you get more calls and more business.