Not every business has a budget big enough to complement their search engine marketing efforts. Many of them instead leverage free tools for the job, though there are only a few tools that are completely worth it. Many of these tools still seem to be underutilized, particularly Google Trends.
Google Trends can make search engine optimization interesting as well as efficient. However, the catch is that you’d need to understand Google Trends from the inside out to leverage it effectively.
Here are 5 effective ways to leverage the tool for better SEO results.
1. Explore topics first before narrowing it down
A while back, you could just enter the parameters you have in mind on Google Trends. Now the dashboard is much simpler and can give a greater overview of the topic at hand. The new dashboard prompts you to ‘Explore More’ before narrowing it down.
To do this, you can enter a big time keyword that’s associated with your topic first. From there you can narrow it down using the various filters including ‘Worldwide’, time selection, category, and search type.
2. Always add context
The results you get from Google Trends is relative i.e. today’s results can’t be compared to the overall popularity of the trends but with the former heights of the keywords you entered into the tool.
For instance, your keyword’s popularity might have gone down in the past 6 months which would appear in the results. But if you change the filters to past 2 years, the results could be completely different. So essentially, the context matters when using Google Trends. Use filters, and the ‘+Compare’ tool to add new keywords and subsequently add context.
3. Liberally use advanced, specific search options
Google Trend users generally don’t use most search options available in the tool. These options can actually provide them with advanced insights. The options include:
- Web Search
- Image Search
- News Search
- Google Shopping
- YouTube Search
Each option yields different results based on the various segments of the user’s potential target market.
It only gets better as the tool will then offer even more options to sort popular queries. The results and insights from advanced search options in Google Trends can inspire search engine optimizers to come up with new content that embraces new trends.
4. Use long-tail keywords
It’s not easy to rank high in search engine result pages for a particular keyword, even if you seek the help of an expert SEO services company. Getting good results organically takes time. However, if you are using long-tail key phrases, getting to the top of Google SERPs would be comparatively faster.
If you are planning to write content for an upcoming event, you can use Google Trends to learn what’s trending – related questions that people Googled on the subject, the attendees of the event or information regarding the event host etc. Use advanced search options to identify associated queries. Cross-reference the queries you have to piece together a context. The resulting insight would help you understand what piques people’s interests regarding that event.
5. Optimize your videos with data from Google Trends
To get a deeper understanding of what people expect to see and learn from your videos, you can enter your search term in the tool and select ‘YouTube Search’ option instead of the default ‘Web Search’. You can then sort the queries as required, use filters, and cross-reference them to identify what people expect to find and how they search.
This knowledge can help you tailor and optimize your videos accordingly engaging users better, and driving more traffic.
Conclusion
Google Trends has been around for a while, and has had many changes over the years. But it still serves as one of the best free tools out there for a search engine optimizer who is willing to look beyond a basic search. The insights may not always be obvious. But stick with your queries long enough, and you will start to make sense of it all. The insights can then prepare you to do SEO better.
