What is Google Trends tool and what is it used for?

Google Trends is a free tool provided by Google. With its help we can check search trends, the popularity of a keyword or topic of interest. In this context, by trends we mean the number of organic searches over time.

This is a free tool, helpful for anyone who creates something on the Internet based on keyword analysis. Data on searches and keyword phrase trends, form the basis of many elements of marketing.

It’s free.

What is Google News Initiative available under Google Trends?

Also linked to the Google Trends tool is the Google News Initiative, which is intended to support the news industry. As part of this initiative, minor journalists have access to reliable information and ever-changing search trends. Google also offers a number of training courses to make its tools easier to use.

How do Google Trends work?

Google Trends works a little differently than other Google tools (such as Keyword Planner) that give us information about keyphrases. The most important difference is that it does not show a specific number of searches for a given keyword, calculated based on historical data, but precisely the search trends for a given keyword both in real-time and in the past.

How to use Google Trends?

Let’s start with the fact that we can download all the data shared in Google Trends in CSV format or share directly via a link. This will be especially useful when we want to present search trends in real time, such as a news journalist.

We can use Google Trends in two ways, depending on our goal. If we want to see what is most searched for on Google, we should go directly to the “gaining recent popularity” section. There, we will see the topics that are currently “on top” within Google searches.

However, if we are interested in information on a specific topic or a comparison of two different keywords, we should type them into the Google Trends search box.

What statistics can we find in Google Trends?

Somewhat colloquially speaking, Google Trends allows us to see what users type into Google’s search engine on a given topic. Thus, Google Trends statistics include such information as:

• interest in terms of time (we can see data from as far back as 2004) for a given topic presented on a line graph (note that the data provided are normalized and presented in the range of 1-100, normalization is based on the fact that Google checks on what day in a specific region and time the most searched term was selected, this result is marked as 100)
• interest in the topic in a particular territorial area – we can select the places where users search for keywords with a refinement to a particular country or in its individual regions
• interest in specific subject categories
• interest in specific search engines – in Google Graphics (graphics search engine), news search engine, Google Shopping and YouTube
• interest by city – where we get a map of a country with individual cities marked on it, which are assigned values on a scale of 1 to 100, where 100 means the city with the highest interest in the topic at the time we indicated
• similar topics and queries – Google also shows us similar topics and queries gaining popularity
• the above data, we can also compare for two different keywords and thus check their popularity

When is it worth using Google Trends, and who will most likely use it?

Google Trends is used not only by marketing professionals but also by a wide range of people from different professions or simply curious people who want to see what others are most likely to search for on Google. And it’s not surprising because the data we get from Google Trends is presented in an understandable and very accessible way.

Google Trends statistics and social media activities

Verifying the daily search trends for various topics on the most popular search engines is especially important if we want to conduct a real-time marketing strategy in our social media channels. As we know, many paid tools support such social media activities, but it is also worth looking at Google Trends.

What Google Trends statistics are helpful in social media?

In this case, the most relevant section for us will be the “gaining popularity” section, where we can see all the phrases gaining recent interest. How many similar queries are related to the topic? This way we can react quickly and prepare content covering popular topics within our social media.

Google Trends statistics in content marketing

It is also worth using Google Trends to see the popularity of the keyword that will be the basis of the content we create. If the search trend for a particular phrase is downward, you may want to search for another keyword.

If we already have a list of key phrases ready, it’s worth conducting a quick audit using Google Trends and prioritizing keywords based on their popularity.

As we know, the growth of key phrases is important in SEO efforts, as is, more importantly, the traffic they generate to the site, which is, of course, derived from the total number of searches. So, it’s worth keeping this in mind when creating a content plan and choosing related key phrases to include in the content.

When to use Google Trends in paid campaigns

Of course, remember that Google search is not just about free results. Google Trends applies similarly to PPC campaigns. Keywords for AdWords campaigns are usually selected using the Keywords Planner, which shows the number of searches and their distribution over the previous 12 months, CPC rates, competition, and percentage changes in these elements.

However, if we want to know when to run a seasonal marketing campaign across the country or in a particular region, it is helpful to search for keywords and similar queries trending strongest for the periods in question. Since the main function for which we want to use Google Trends is to see where and when given keyword phrases are most popular, we can admit that it is a great tool for this purpose.

Google Trends – a tool also useful for journalists

As I mentioned earlier, Google Trends can also be useful for journalists. To encourage those working in the media, Google has gone all out with its News Initiative, but even without this percussion, when creating materials, it is worth verifying the interest of potential audiences in a given topic.

When should a journalist check the popularity of a keyword and specific keywords in a search engine?

Some topics are most interesting at any given time, and we know this even without checking the keyword’s popularity at the moment (international events, sports, etc.). Such situations are governed by their own laws, so you should undoubtedly write about them. However, it’s worth looking at Google Trends regularly to see what topics are gaining popularity and can benefit us in the future.

This way we can get ahead of the competition and “take care” of the topic ahead of time, which others will not be able to do without sufficient data.

Google Trends – the ability to check search trends by “curious.”

An interesting case from the past few years was analysing Google Trends data in the context of Polish language matriculation topics. In the Podlaskie province, very specific searches on “Lalka” Boleslaw Prus suddenly began gaining popularity just hours before the start of the high school exams.

It would have been possible to consider this data a bit coincidental, “ot students repeat before the baccalaureate.” However, the situation turned out to be a bit less innocent when searches related to a specific topic that later appeared in the exam sheet were also added. Then, Google Trends information on that particular search term was widely discussed in various online and traditional media.

Summary

Google Trends is a useful tool for a wide range of marketing professionals and content creators. It’s worth remembering it in your daily work so that the content you create is always “up-to-date.”

Keywords are the cornerstone of content creation planning in many fields, even among people who have had no exposure to SEO and approach it slightly differently than SEO or paid campaigns. Many paid tools may be too complicated for such people or simply too advanced for their needs. Then, Google Trends comes to the rescue, where we can check the popularity of a given phrase without putting it in the context of SEO, and we get the result in a simple and accessible form for everyone.