What is Google Trends? Don’t miss out on this free tool that can help you grow your business

Google Trends is a tool that makes it easy for users to find information about people’s Google searches. By typing in keywords or topics of interest, the system will display information that you can use to help inform business decisions.

A perfect tool to help analyse data

Many people working in online marketing know what Google Trends is, but not many people know how to read the information it provides. Google Trends was designed to find out more about what people search for on Google, and as we all know, Google has a massive archive of data stored.

You can gather a wealth of information using Google Trends. For example, if you run a “Clean eating” or “Health food” business, you can search for these keywords. After just a few seconds, the system will display relevant, detailed information. The information will include countries you might want to search for, historical data, the time period, the interest category, and the search type, of which there are five types:

1. Web Search
2. Image Search
3. News Search
4. Google Shopping
5. YouTube Search

For more accurate information analysis, the information is also broken down to a provincial level. You can also view ‘Related Topics’ and ‘Related Queries’ to decide which data you want to analyse.

The more you adapt, the more you will gain from Google Trends

Since Google Trends is a free tool that anyone can use, others will see the same information as you if they use the same search keywords or topics. So, suppose you want to use the information you get for your own business. In that case, you need to know how to adapt that information to use it in a unique way for SEO, SEM, and content planning. You can even use it to find new product ideas or products that are in demand by your customers.

Example: Healthy food business (clean food)

After you enter “clean food” in the search term box, scroll down, and you will see relevant information, including the amount of attention this search term got in each given period. You will also be able to see the specific geographies interested in this topic. Below on the right, you will see related search terms. You can use these words as keywords for SEO or SEM because they are closely related to your keywords and likely to be searched for by people interested in clean food. 

On the other hand, if you are looking for new product ideas to respond to customer demand, you can check the left-hand side, showing related topics. You may want to click on one of them, for example, the subject of ‘Banana Cake’. Scroll down to find related search terms like ‘Keto Banana Cake’ and ‘Oil-Free Fryer’. This could inspire you to create a new menu item or create free recipe content to increase brand awareness because this topic is gaining interest from your target customers.

These are just a couple of rough ideas of how to use the information from Google Trends to expand your business. Of course, there are no fixed rules.

How to use Google Trends

Before you get started with Google Trends, all you need to prepare is your search keywords. Consider what your business is doing, what products you’re planning to sell, and what information you want to know. Take time to think about your search objectives, such as marketing planning, finding content ideas, or new product ideas. When you’re ready, you can get to it!

1. Visit trends.google.com.
2. Type your keywords in the Search Term box (enter one word at a time).
3. Read the data.
4. To compare keywords, type other search words in the Compare box.

In all forms of online marketing, data is vital because everything is driven through data in today’s world. So, the more in-depth knowledge you have, the more you gain an advantage over your competitors. It is even better if you know how to build on those insights because, in addition to making your business unique, it will also allow you to communicate with more customers than ever before.