How to Use Google Trends for Content Marketing & SEO

by | Jan 17, 2023 | Content Marketing

Content marketing is recognized as one of the most effective ways to grow a business and attract new customers. To be successful with content marketing, you need to share high-quality content regularly. But it can feel difficult to constantly think of useful and insightful topics that attract the right audience.

This is where online tools like Google Trends come in handy. Learning how to use Google Trends for your content marketing gives you a valuable resource for relevant, trending topics that people want to engage with.

As you read on, we’ll explore how to use Google Trends for SEO and improve your content marketing strategy.

How To Use Google Trends Inset

What Is Google Trends?

Google Trends is a search feature offered by Google that shows you the most popular search terms for a specific period. Current trends are from the past 7 days, while past trends date back to 2004. The Google Trends site also allows you to check the frequency of specific search terms. On the results page, you can see the interest over time, interest by subregion, and related topics.

You can also adjust your search based on the industry, category, time frame, location, and type of search (image, shopping, news, web, or YouTube).

Google Trends can be a valuable tool for conducting market research. It gives you insights into the seasonality of search terms or even helps you gauge how much interest your products have in a certain geographic region.

Query vs. Topic in Google Trends

Google Trends gives you information on both search terms and topics. A search term is a specific word or phrase, while a topic is a group of search terms that fit into the same general concept. Google Trends measures and ranks these categories differently, so accurately comparing search terms and topics is difficult. Instead, you should compare search terms to search terms and topics to topics.

How to Use Google Trends: 11 Innovative Ways

With the help of Google Trends, you can create better, more relevant content that your audience will want to read. Try these 11 ways to use Google Trends for content marketing.

1. Conduct Market Research

Google Trends is a valuable tool for conducting market research. It can give you insights into the seasonality of certain search terms or even help you gauge how much interest there is for your products in a geographic region.

For example, let’s say you are a brick-and-mortar business based in Columbus, Ohio. You are considering building a second location in Indianapolis, Indiana. By checking Google Trends, you can find the popularity of terms relevant to your business in specific locations. If the search volume is low, you might need to reconsider your plans.

2. Discover Relevant Trending Topics

If your team struggles to find fresh topics for content each month, Google Trends is a great resource. You can explore the most popular searches nationwide or narrow it down to a specific location or timeframe. Use the charts to help visualize and compare terms.

When choosing your Google Trends topics, make sure the topic:

  • Is something you can write about with authority.
  • Is relevant to your business.
  • Is something that would interest your target audience.

3. Improve Your Keyword Research

While creating high-quality, relevant content is the most important part of content marketing, you should also consider your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO strategies help improve your search rankings for specific keywords. And Google Trends can help you do better keyword research.

Use the Explore feature and enter a keyword or phrase you are considering. You will see a breakdown of interest over time, along with the interest by subregion. Then you can try various search terms to see which are the most popular.

More popular search terms will give you better results. This is because more common keywords increase the chances of someone discovering your content and are more likely to be used in regular conversation. When creating content, you’ll want to use these keywords naturally. Keep in mind that other businesses are likely to use similar keywords, so you should narrow down some long-tail or focus keywords that are more specific to your business and content.

The “Related Topics” section on the Explore page is a good place to brainstorm similar topics and keywords. It can even help you discover a topic or angle you hadn’t thought of before.

4. Create Your Content Calendar

A content calendar helps you organize your content strategy around the types of content you create and when you post. Engagement is a huge metric to consider as you plan the release of your content. Knowing how to time your content to trends and what people search for is a great skill to cultivate, and Google Trends can help you plan and schedule your content calendar accordingly.

For example, if you want to write content about cooking, the Google Trends results show significant search peaks in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas. The weeks before these holidays would be the ideal time to share your relevant cooking content so it’s easy to find when someone searches for it.

Another example is the term “wedding invitations.” This term shows a surge between early January and the end of February. That’s because there are likely a lot of couples who get engaged between Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

While some keywords get used more often at certain times, other keywords will show you when to avoid talking about certain topics. This could be because of a lull during one season, like the summer, for certain keywords that are relatively popular the rest of the year.

Utilizing Google Trends data for each topic on your content calendar will help you plan the best times to post your content.

5. Enhance Your Branding

You can also use Google Trends to check the popularity of your brand. While this feature might be more effective for larger brands, even small businesses can use this feature by limiting the search to your local area. When you use this feature, you can even narrow your results by your specific industry.

Another way to improve branding? Google Trends lets you search for popular terms related to events in your area. For example, let’s say there is a large conference held in a nearby city each year. If you’re in the hospitality industry, you can search keywords related to your business. Then capitalize on the popularity of the event and create content that can introduce a new audience to your brand.

6. Focus on Local Shopping Trends

Google Trends gives you the option to isolate your query based on the type of search. If you select Google Shopping, you can find shopping trends in your area. By searching for products related to your business you’ll see when people in your area are searching for and buying them.

For example, within the past year, across the United States, people shopped for makeup most often in the week leading up to Halloween. However, if you narrow it down to a specific state or city, the results may look different. With just Iowa selected, people shopped for makeup most frequently in the first week of August.

With this kind of data, you can focus your content on the right shopping trends at the right time. This may help you sell more product during high-demand times.

7. Use Google Trends for Newsjacking

Newsjacking is a content marketing tactic where you take advantage of a recent, well-known news event and find a way to play off its popularity. You can use Google Trends to track the latest news events that might be relevant to your brand. The best way to do this is to sign up for a Google Trends subscription. With this, you choose how often and how many noteworthy events and trending searches you want to see.

A great example of newsjacking is Calm, a meditation app. In 2020, the brand paid to sponsor much of CNN’s election coverage. It ran frequent 30-second ads during and leading up to election night–a time when many people feel anxious. The ads focused on the brand’s mission to “make the world happier and healthier” without any political messaging. The goal was to give viewers a brief break from the stress and anxiety of the election season. The campaign paid off, and Calm saw a boost in its growth.

Newsjacking does not have to be complicated or even a major campaign. Sometimes a simple tweet or social media post that connects the news event to your brand can be a fun way to engage with your audience.

8. Consider New Product Innovations

If you are considering developing new products or adding new options to your existing products, Google Trends can help you capitalize on the latest search trends. You can use this to guide your product innovations and content marketing.

Start by searching for a general topic in Explore. Then, check the “related topics” and “related queries” sections to find rising trends. Anything marked with “Breakout” indicates growth that’s over 5000% over the previous period.

These trending topics can help you gauge interest in innovations for your products. Consider creating content around these new ideas to see how your audience reacts.

9. Explore Broad Categories

If you want to explore general categories, Google Trends lets you do this without entering a search term. In the category drop-down, choose your preferred category and the region, time frame, and search type you want to see.

From here, you can explore similar search topics and queries. This may give you inspiration for new content that you haven’t explored yet.

10. Use Google Trends for Topic Clustering

Topic clustering is an effective content marketing strategy that helps teams shift their focus from highly specific keywords to core topics. With topic clustering, you organize your website around pillar pages. These pillar pages focus on the core principles of your business. From there, you create cluster pages that link to the pillar page.

Google Trends can make topic clustering easier. Search for your pillar keywords and then explore the related topics and queries. These lists can give you ideas for your related cluster pages. You can further refine your search criteria by specifying a Category.

11. Capitalize on Stable or Emerging Trends

Before beginning your Google Trends search, start with an outline of topics or terms you would like to target. Perhaps you have an overabundance of some products, and you would like to create content to highlight these products.

You can use the long-term data in Google Trends to see the stability or growth of certain terms over time. For the time range, you can select 2004-present to see the full range of Google data.

For example, if you choose the broad category of “Home & Garden,” there is a gradual decline in the earlier years and then steadier growth more recently. If your business sells home and garden products, like outdoor pavers, you can search for this term and see that it is a stable, seasonal product. Whereas the term “xeriscaping” has seen a gradual increase over the past few years.

Data like this can help guide your content marketing and even the products you choose to sell.

Trust Your Content Marketing to the Experts at Express Writers

Managing content marketing and SEO on your own can sometimes feel overwhelming. If you ever feel like you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re not getting the results you want, it might be time to consider outsourcing to a content writing agency. At Express Writers, we only hire the best writers with expertise in a wide range of areas.

Our team can help you take advantage of the latest Google Trends, build a content plan, and create content customized to your business. Whether you need one-time assistance with a difficult topic or want to create a long-term partnership, we are here to help.

Are you ready to get strong results from your content marketing? Contact Express Writers today and we can help you decide which services would be the best fit for your brand.

 

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