Keyword research is a fundamental SEO strategy that allows you to find the best ways to search your website and craft pages for your content marketing. The challenge is finding the ideal keywords that not only fit your niche but also have a sizeable volume that makes it searchable on Google.
This can be accomplished by using various keyword research tools that will help you identify highly searchable and competitive keywords. While these tools are effective, they can be costly, especially when you are looking to use premium features. Thankfully, Google offers a free tool that can help you with keyword research — Google Trends.
How to do keyword research using Google Trends
Google Trends is a tool that keeps track of the most popular trends, terms, events, and personalities that are being searched on Google. The ability to monitor these popular trends makes it a great place to find the right keywords that will help you in your content marketing. Here is how you can do keyword research using Google Trends to help you create high traffic content.
Find upward and downward trends
One of the best ways to get started with keyword research using Google Trends is to enter a keyword of your choice and take a look at its popularity and significance over a certain time period. For this example, I’ll be taking a look at the keyword “Halloween” and see how it has fared over the last five years.
Since this is a seasonal keyword, Halloween consistently gets a rising amount of traffic during October of every year. This is a great example of how interest fluctuates over time, allowing you to see which keywords would provide you with better results.
Along with upward trends, you can also use Google Trends to check if a topic has seen a decline in interest as well. This downward trend is common for a variety of fads and trends that have emerged over the years. Take a look at Planking, for instance, which peaked in popularity around 2011 and has been in decline ever since.
While Google Trends does not show you metrics such as search volume, search interest is still a great indicator of how popular and searchable a keyword is, allowing you to find ones that you can create content for.
Focus on consistently popular keywords and terms
When it comes to finding the best keywords, it is best to look for one that has been consistently searchable and popular for a long time. This will help you create content that would be able to generate a high amount of traffic. Depending on your area of specialization, it is best to find related terms and topics under the same niche to allow you to create a wide variety of content.
For this example, we want to create content about digital marketing — a topic that not only has consistent interest and traffic but is also one that has become increasingly popular as well.
If you want an effective way to rank up using your content, focus on well-known keywords and create helpful and useful evergreen blog posts as they have the best potential to provide a very steady amount of traffic.
Compare keywords and trends with each other
One of the best features of Google Trends is the ability to compare keywords and trends with each other to see how their interest and searchability has fared over a number of months and years. In this example, we pit two very popular brands, Coca Cola and Pepsi, against each other.
As you can see, comparing two keywords or terms together helps you see the ups and downs of its search popularity. You can use this information to further narrow down your keyword choices and find ones that would perform better for your niche. This is also a great competitor analysis tool, as you can track competitor keyword performance, and compare it with your own set of keywords to see if your strategies and campaigns are successful.
Look at related topics and queries
Aside from the upward and downward trends of keywords and terms, you can also use Google Trends to look at related topics and queries. This will help you explore more topics related to your niche and craft an even wider array of content.
Let’s try finding keyword variations and related terms by searching for the term “Digital Marketing” and select worldwide results for a more comprehensive view.
As you can see, related topics and queries can help you find new topics to explore. In this case, you can create content focused on digital marketing trends, digital marketing media, or even the fundamentals of digital marketing.
You can also delve deeper into topics and queries that you might be able to write about or use as a keyword for your website. The amount of data that Google Trends provides allows you to create a comprehensive list of topics and keywords that you can center your SEO and content marketing campaign around.
Key Takeaway
Google Trends is a versatile tool that can be utilized for content marketing and keyword research. By following these steps, finding ideal keywords and crafting high-traffic content is now much easier.