How to Use Google Trends
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Google Trends is a tool created by Google that allows users to see how popular specific keywords or subjects are over a period of time. Users can enter a term, a keyword or a subject into the search box and see how often the word is used and where it is used. The results are demonstrated through graphs so that users can easily view the distribution of changes in keywords. Essentially, Google Trends is a less sophisticated and easier to read version of Google Insights for Search.
Google Trends has become an essential tool for researchers, planners and marketers. It is a great way to track behavior on the world’s most popular website. There are a variety of useful ways that marketers can use Google Trends. From monitoring their own brand to checking out the competition, Google Trends can give you the opportunity to evaluate your past and present relevance in its search engine.
In this article, you will learn about 1) what Google Trends does, 2) how to use Google Trends in general, and 3) how to use Google Trends in marketing.
WHAT GOOGLE TRENDS DOES
Google Trends works as a simple version of Google’s analytics tools. Its primary function is to gather and compare the searches that people make all over the world. The data is then broken down into different categories. It can also be viewed through different filters. The only information you need to use Google Trends are the keywords that you incorporate into your own marketing strategy. All you need to do is enter these terms into Google Trends’ search box. From there you will be able to choose the appropriate filter required to get the data you need. The following list contains all of the different ways that you can view Google’s analytic information on Google Trends.
- Keyword Trends: Google Trends helps researchers understand keyword trends. You can enter up to five search terms at a time in each search. Google Trends will then respond with a graph showing you how popular each term is. This features helps you understand the kind of language used by your target audience.
- Seasonal Trends: The seasonal trends graphs are ideal for those planning an editorial calendar. Anyone who creates content for the Internet knows that it is best to create content that will fit in with what their customers are interested in seasonally. This is an essential tool for publishing content that is topical for your target audience. When the content is topical, consumers are more likely to engage.
- Regional Trends: Viewing the regional trends for each search term helps prevent you from making inaccurate assumptions about your target audience’s interests. Instead of making broad assumptions about a large audience, you can use this tool to see how and when each search term is used in geographic locations. You can get a comparative view of these regional trends across several countries or even across specific US states.
- Related Trends: Google Trends also offers users the ability to view related trends. This feature is another great tool to see what different kinds of languages your audience uses. This allows you to cast a broader net and include search terms that are relevant to your own primary keywords.
- Top Trends: Google will also display the trends according to their prevalence. You can enter a search term to see where it ranks in overall searches. You can also simply view the top searches category to see the overall top searches on Google.
- Rising Trends: Google also categorizes keywords according to how quickly they grow. You can enter a search term and Google will present you with a graph showing you how much growth it achieved during the time period you selected. The growth is demonstrated in percentages. If the search term has recently exploded in popularity, Google will suggest that it is a “breakout” keyword.
- Local Trends: Google will automatically show you a global search history when you enter a search term into Google Trends. While this information is valuable in that it establishes that you are using the right keywords, it is not very interesting. To get real information about your local area or another small demographic, you can use Google Trends to zoom in on both towns and metropolitan areas. This enables small businesses to see real data about what people in their area are searching for.
- Hot Searches: Hot searches keep you up to date with what people in a certain geographic area are searching for. This is a great way to see what current events people are engaging with. You can view these searches by country. Google will also give you a rough estimate of the number of searches the subject received.
- Top Charts: Every year, Google publishes a list of the top searches that people performed on Google’s search engine. These lists can be viewed through global filters or by country. The lists include top searches in general as well as the top searches for people, athletes, news electronics and YouTube videos.
HOW TO USE GOOGLE TRENDS IN GENERAL
You can use Google Trends to complete a wide variety of marketing research. One of the best ways to use Google Trends is to improve your SEO efforts. You can also use the research to help drive relevant content creation that your target audience will engage with. Using Google Trends is incredibly easy and the information is presented in a visual and engaging manner. There are only four basic steps to reaching data that will help you drive your current marketing strategy as well as your future strategies.
1. Track the keywords closest to you
- To make the keyword research relevant, you need to search for both your ideal keywords and any keywords that are close to your keywords. To do this, you can track the keywords that are already used in your SEO marketing campaign. If you can’t think of more than a few alternative keywords, you may want to try using services like Keyword Tool. Keyword Tool will suggest several different terms that will be near to your original keyword. Using more than a couple of search terms will help your research be more inclusive and therefore more valuable.
- For example, if your main keyword is “car”, you would also want to search for the word “automobile”. You can enter and compare both the related search terms to see which one is most relevant in your area and market. Google Trends will help you confirm keywords already in use and help suggest new keywords.
2. Compare several related terms
- Comparing the way people engage with your search terms is one of the greatest benefits of Google Trends. You can enter up to five terms at one time in the search box. You can then view how people in different areas interact with the words. You can also see how people have interacted with these searches over time.
- Comparing several related terms is easy and a great way to confirm your current keywords or add new ones. The first thing that you must do is enter a single search term and choose a filter. You will then be able to see the performance of the term from the perspective of the filter. Then, you can choose to add a keyword. Google will automatically integrate the chart of the first keyword with a new chart for the second keyword. This is a great way to really compare how keywords perform against each other.
3. Read the peaks and troughs to understand the data
- Analyzing the data provided by Google Trends is a crucial element of using the data. If you can identify the peaks and lulls in Google’s charts you will be well on your way to implementing the data into your own marketing strategy. These graphs will often demonstrate significant events within an industry.
- Many industries will be seasonal. This means that more people will be searching for these keywords at certain times of the year. You will be able to establish when the keyword is popular by noticing the peaks in the graphs.
- You can also analyze these peaks to examine any events. Certain events can cause people to search for a keyword more often than they normally would. One tool that Google Trends offers to firmly establish the presence of an event is the integration of news headlines. This feature will insert any significant news headlines that appeared during the peak.
- The search term Harper Lee is a great example. The novelist has received a steady stream of searches throughout the past ten years. However, this steady graph has been punctuated by small and large peaks. The massive peaks in 2015 demonstrate interest in her second book, Go Set a Watchman. This demonstrates a significant event.
4. Use the Forecast function to predict where your industry will go
Google Trends also offers a forecast tool that can provide insight into initial research. The forecast tool will demonstrate Google’s predictions for the future by extending the graph. The predictions are made based on past data. The function does not provide a complete picture and cannot predict all events. However, it can give you a basic idea of how your search terms will be used in an average year.
HOW TO USE GOOGLE TRENDS IN MARKETING
Google Trends is a great tool for marketing. It requires more detective work than Google Analytics; however, it is an easy to use and free option for doing basic research. The results you encounter on Google Trends may justify deeper research into a specific area. You can use Google Trends to discover basic data about your brand, your market share, your industry and your competition.
1. Check out your brand market share
- Google Trends offers you the opportunity to delve into your brand market share. When you compare yourself to other brands in your industry, you will get a better picture where your brand stands among its peers. All you need to do is enter your own brand into the search term and then add on any competitive brands in your market.
- This is a great way to see how you compare to other brands in your industry over time. You can break the data down by viewing the annual trends and interest in each brand over time. You can also view regional interest for the industry.
- You can also use the news headlines and forecast features for this industry. The news headlines function can be very powerful when viewing market share. Peaks in a brand’s search terms are not always positive and can instead be driven by bad press and scandal.
2. Monitor your brand
- Monitoring your brand is similar to examining your market share. When you monitor your brand, you should be looking out for active ways that you can improve your market share and positively increase your brand presence.
- You can use Google Trends to examine and update your keywords. Keywords should be regularly examined because as new brands or services enter the market place, an audience’s language may adjust with the market.
- You can also use the analysis from Google Trend’s to update your brand message. You can track whether your advertising campaigns are resonating with customers by correlating the release of print and media advertising with the corresponding dates on the graphs.
3. Understand you competitors
The freedom of Google Trends allows you to monitor both your own brand and your competitors. You can learn a lot from your competitor’s graphs. If they are doing well, you can do research to learn more about how their peaks are created. If they are doing poorly, you can learn what to avoid and understand how to adapt your own strategy to minimize your own lulls.
4. Pay attention to industry shifts
- Google Trends offers you the chance to view up to the minute data as well as data from as far back as 2004. All of this data offers you an excellent opportunity to pay attention to and respond to shifts within your industry.
- You will always begin by analyzing the peaks and lulls of each graph. You should then investigate further into each event to find the underlying causes of each change in the graph. You can acknowledge room for natural fluctuation in the market; however, drastic changes are usually the result of a catalyst.
- If you find that your industry is showing a steady decline on Google Trends, you should investigate further. Google Trends is not necessarily a reflection of the health of a particular business or industry but it can demonstrate a certain amount of vitality.
- When you are exploring shifts in the industry, make sure that you also search for related industries and related keywords. It may be that it is the language that has shifted and you need to fine tune your keywords to regain popularity in search trends.
5. Add Google’s graphs to your website
- Google has made it easy to incorporate the analytics provided by Google Trends into your website. If you write a creative content, SEO or other marketing blog, this is a great service. These graphs serve as a visual aid that is very useful when you are discussing data.
- Use the Embed button to post it on your site. You will also have the option to adjust the dimensions of the graphs.
6. Create relevant content
- Creating a wealth of relevant content is the new key to climbing up the Google ranking systems. Using Google Trends is a great way to get insight into what content is relevant on Google. The goal is to create that which is both relevant and topical so that users will engage with it.
- Relevance and timeliness are essential for today’s content. If you create content that was relevant last week but has been forgotten by the time you publish it, it is like you have not created content at all. At best, it will look as though you are beating a dead horse or telling a worn-out joke. Google Trends can help you be certain that people in your industry or geographical area are still talking about the subject so that you can actively engage in the conversation.
7. Create a content calendar
- The creation of a content calendar is an essential part of producing content for the Internet. It will aid you in making sure that your content is both relevant and consistent. Overall, it is a great practice for the creative process because it will help keep the voice of the website unified by keeping everyone on the same page.
- Your creative team should have two editorial calendars. There should be a master calendar that keeps track of the overall goal for the year by including key dates and planned content.
- You should also include a calendar that is used for short-term or specific content and brand activities.
- Google Trends can aid you in the creation of a content calendar. It will help demonstrate the seasonality of your proposed content ideas and demonstrate cyclical patterns so that you can take advantage of the peak seasons.
Google Trends is an essential tool for today’s marketers and content creators. It offers up-to-date research into what users search for on Google. On its own, it can provide you with the data you need to create valuable content for your website. It can also help you determine the health of your brand’s keywords. Whether you want to cite popular content or check up on your competitors, Google Trends provides a great starting point for further research.
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