Google Trends

Google Trends is a free research tool that shows the relative popularity of a search term over a given period of time in a specified geography. It does this by plotting a trendline that varies with the relative increase or decrease in the keyword’s popularity over time.

Google Trends does not show absolute search numbers. Instead, it divides the number of search queries for a particular keyword by the sum total of all the search queries in the selected geography and time period.

The resulting number is what each data point on the trendline shown on Google Trends represents.

4.5.2 Why Is Google Trends Important for Publishers?

Google Trends helps publishers spot trends before they begin to take-off, thus enabling them to maximize the reach of their content.

Publishing content to coincide with a rising trend for a topic can significantly improve performance. Conversely, meticulously researching a keyword for search volume, difficulty and search intent only to then publish content after its search trend begins to decline can end up as wasted effort from an SEO perspective.

Google Trends can help publishers discover trending topics, find new niches, plan their content strategy, optimize it for specific geographies and even enhance video content strategy.

4.5.3 Challenges Publishers Face When Using Google Trends

Google Trends remains a relatively underused tool by digital publishers for a couple of major reasons.

Unconventional Interface

Unlike several paid keyword research tools, Google Trends does not give numerical data for absolute search volumes, keyword difficulty and other search-related metrics. Instead, it presents information in the form of trends and graphs that represent the relative popularity of a search term over a given period of time. Publishers used to the simpler interfaces of paid keyword research tools may find Google Trends’ graphs and trend lines unconventional to work with.