Google Trends is an overlooked keyword research tool by many, even though it’s by far Google’s most robust tool for it. You can enter any keyword you want, and it’ll tell you exactly how often the people in any given region or worldwide are searching for it. We use it a few different ways to ensure the content we publish is posted at exactly the right time.
Write for Seasonal Trends
If you enter a keyword related to a product or a service you offer and you see that it routinely peaks during certain times of the year, you can plan your content calendar accordingly to post related content around that time of year. Post it a month ahead of time to allow it time to gain traction. This is great for businesses that rely heavily on seasonal trends for the bulk of their traffic and sales.
You can also optimize old pages that have to do with that keyword in order to give them a traffic boost.
Don’t Write For One-Hit Wonders
Before you decide to write a blog post or page about a keyword or topic that’s suddenly taken off, don’t do it before checking Google Trends. If you’re looking at a five-year timeline and there’s only one peak or you see that it’s already on the way down, don’t bother putting it in your content calendar. Allocate your resources to keywords you can depend on and don’t try to catch lightning in a bottle with a one-hit wonder.
Use Rising Topics
Google Trends can give you rising topics and keywords over the last 24 hours. While normally you want to get on trending topics a month or more out, you can sometimes catch on with a topic that’s already rising. Just be careful that you’re not jumping on a topic that is already at its absolute peak–try to find historical data for that keyword if you can to see if there is a precedent for its sudden rise in the rankings.
Use Related Keywords
For every keyword you put into Google Trends, there is a list of related keywords. Use that to your advantage by expanding your content scope and potentially stealing rankings from your competitors who aren’t narrowing their focus to include those related keywords!
This not only helps you rank for certain keywords, but it helps you better understand your customers’ search journey.
