In This Lesson You Will Learn What Is Google Trends
The purpose of reviewing Google Trends is to make you aware about the free search trends feature and the powerful benefits of this tool. Looking to dive deep into the historical search data? Google Trends is the way to go! It will allow you to explore the popularity of a search term using various dimensions.
Understanding Google Trends
What is Google Trends?
A free search trends feature (website) from Google which allows you to delve into the historical data for a particular search term of your choice, using various dimensions for filtering the data e.g. region, sub-region, time period, category etc.
It also provides in-depth demographic information, along with related topics and queries. It will enable you to see the related search queries which are on top and similarly, the ones which are on rise.
Like Google says ‘Explore what the world is searching’ - in order to optimise the targeting for your brand/product/service, this tool can prove to be very handy. Aligning your keywords with the current and historic search trends can enable you to move one step higher than your competitor.
The menu bar on the left hand side allows you to use various options provided by Google Trends e.g. Explore, Trending Searches and Year In Search.
Exploring a Search Term
If you’re looking to explore the historic data for a search term of your choice, please select the ‘Explore’ option from the menu bar which opens up by clicking the ‘Three Line’ icon on the top left hand corner of your screen.
The explore dashboard will come up where you can enter the search term you want the trends data for.
In the screenshot attached, we have input the search term ‘gift’ and used the following dimensions to filter the trends data - location is New Zealand (any location and sub-location can be selected from around the world), time period is last 12 months (you can select any time period of your choice, predefined and custom), searching data in all the categories (there are some predefined categories by Google in this drop down) and look for the data in Web Searches (you can select image, news, youtube and google shopping search from this drop down).
Once the search is initiated, Google Trends will display sections demonstrating various types of data e.g. Interest over time, Interest by subregion, Subregion, Related topics and queries.
Comparing Search Terms
Another bold feature within the ‘Explore’ option is the comparison of data for multiple search terms.
When inside the ‘Explore’ option, right next to the placeholder where you enter your very first search term, you will see an option ‘Compare’, just click on that and you will be able to add another search term for comparison of trends data.
Please see the attached screenshot where the search terms ‘gift’ and ‘gifts’ are being compared.
Each search term will be marked with it’s own unique colour and will have its own data section so you can clearly differentiate which data belongs to which search term.
Trending Searches
This option allows you to observe the daily search and real time search trends i.e. you can see which search terms are trending for a particular day or at the present time.
You can even search for a topic of your choice to see the daily search and real time search trends data. The only available filter in this option is the ‘Location’ filter e.g. New Zealand.
Year in Search
This option allows you to observe the yearly search trends data i.e. you can see which search terms have been trending for a particular year. You can search for a topic of your choice, select a particular year (you cannot see the data for current year) and select your location e.g. New Zealand.
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You can compare up to 5 search terms at a time.
Yes, you can download CSV reports of each data section individually onto your computer/mobile device.
Google Trends allows you to see historical trends data for a particular search term, giving the information about top and rising related queries, interest for that term in a particular region etc. It does not provide information about the search volume or cost per click etc. for a search term / keyword.