SEO plays a huge role in businesses today and is necessary in creating an effective web presence. We found that Google Trends is a great free tool for SEO keyword planning because it shows what is trending in your area of research and gives you insight to what keywords people are searching for, and if used correctly, can lead to more traffic to your website.
How it works
When using Google Trends, you have some options when setting your search parameters. Specifically, you can choose the country, time frame and category you want to research. You can also choose from different content types including web, image, news, video, etc.
Next you can compare terms, searching up to five at a time. For example, when testing out what keywords would improve Keybridge’s SEO, we searched “best web design company”, “best web design agency”, and “best web development company” on Google Trends. Since the data showed that “best web design agency” got fewer searches than the others, it made sense to take those keywords out. Google Trends is also able to give you related searches for that specific keyword so you can see if another relevant term is more Google friendly. We ended up using “best web development company” for the Keybridge website’s key terms, and is now on the first page of Google when those keywords are searched.
One of the perks of Google Trends is that it allows you to break down your data and trends by regions of the country. For example you would be able to see if your target audience is showing more interest in your key phrases in the Washington DC area or the Richmond, Virginia area. This information can be helpful when putting out information specific to these regions.
Another useful feature of Google Trends is that it shows when interest in your target terms or phrases peak. You are able to see if interest increases or decreases over time or if there is a certain month of the year this keyword is searched the most. This data can be useful when putting together a content calendar to see when certain information searches are historically popular.
While there are many resources out there for SEO keyword planning, we found that Google Trends is an effective, high-level resources for identifying trends and comparing different keyword ideas. This will give you a way to see which keywords will be most effective for your specific SEO and business needs.
