How to Use Google Trends for SEO in 2025

What Is Google Trends?

Google Trends is simply a free instrumentality for analyzing hunt word fame complete clip crossed regions and languages, utilizing a standard from 0-100. It helps businesses optimize trading strategies based connected real-time hunt data. 

Google Trends visualizes hunt liking complete time. It shows trends based connected location and clip frame, but it doesn’t supply nonstop hunt volumes.

Here’s an illustration of a Google Trends graph:

Why Google Trends Matters for SEO Success

Google Trends helps you place emerging trends and debar topics pinch declining liking truthful you tin guarantee your contented stays relevant.

The instrumentality besides helps you analyse seasonal trends and location interests, helping you prime the correct time, place, and connection for creating and distributing content.

But Google Trends only shows comparative interest, not nonstop hunt volume. To corroborate a topic’s potential, you’ll request to cross-reference pinch different devices for precise data. 

Use Semrush’s suite of devices to cheque the monthly hunt measurement and find further applicable keywords for the hunt position you find pinch Google Trends.

How to Use Google Trends to Improve Your SEO Efforts

Find Popular Topics successful Specific Time Frames and Regions

Select a clip framework and region to find timely and applicable topics to target successful your SEO campaigns.

First, spell to Google Trends and participate a hunt term. Select the desired state and clip frame. 

The default mounting shows information for the past day. 

You tin set some the location and clip framework for much tailored results. This helps you gauge trends and scheme accordingly. 

Compare Search Term Popularity successful Different Categories

Google Trends allows you to comparison a azygous hunt word crossed business categories to thief guarantee your contented aligns pinch your audience’s interests.

Simply click connected “All categories” and prime the class you want to explore.

For example, let’s comparison the fame of the hunt word “chatgpt” successful 2 categories: Autos & Vehicles and Beauty & Fitness.

In Autos & Vehicles, “chatgpt” peaked successful April 2025 but is declining. 

In contrast, successful Beauty & Fitness, “chatgpt” has been steadily expanding during the erstwhile 12 months.

This comparison shows really liking tin alteration crossed categories and regions. So you tin enactment focused connected what matters to your audience. 

Compare Different Search Terms to Gauge Popularity

Google Trends besides helps comparison aggregate hunt terms. This allows you to place the astir celebrated topics. 

For example, let’s comparison “chatgpt,” “claude,” and “gemini ai.”

Click “+ Compare” and participate the hunt term.

You’ll quickly spot which position dominate.

And whether location are variations successful connection preferences.

For example, the position “london relocation” and “moving to london” look rather similar, but the second seems much popular. 

Google Trends tin thief you find subtle nuances successful your audience’s language. 

Find Seasonality Patterns

Google Trends shows seasonality patterns, which tin thief you scheme your contented almanac effectively.

For example, liking successful “Mother’s Day gifts” rises each April successful anticipation of the May 10 holiday.

But if you want to people a Mother’s Day gift guide, scheme to people it 1 period early to seizure liking astatine the commencement of the yearly inclination line. 

If your manufacture is highly seasonal, this instrumentality tin thief you optimize timing for contented and campaigns. 

Use the ‘Trending Now’ Feature to Find Emerging Topics

The “Trending Now” model shows topics that person seen a accelerated summation successful liking complete the past four, 24, aliases 48 hours, and 7 days.

The chart shows you erstwhile the inclination started and the approximate hunt measurement for it.

For example, trends successful the “Sports” class tin springiness you timely contented ideas. 

By monitoring these trends, you tin place emerging topics applicable to your business. 

When you announcement thing that your business has a unsocial position connected aliases caller information about, you tin jump connected the inclination by adding that taxable instantly to your contented calendar.

Apply Google Trends Insights Across Channels

Find New Ideas for Your Content Calendar

Google Trends helps you make caller ideas for your content calendar by analyzing related topics.

After researching a circumstantial term, scroll down to the “Related topics” and “Related queries” sections to find trending topics for your audience.

In this example, Ghibli-style animations are presently rising successful popularity.

Click “Rising” to move to “Top” results. This shows topics pinch the highest wide interest, not conscionable wrong the selected clip frame. 

This characteristic helps you place top-performing topics and emerging trends. Use it to find contented ideas pinch precocious imaginable to thrust integrated postulation and boost business revenue. 

Perform Keyword Research

After discovering an emerging taxable connected Google Trends, validate its assemblage relevance and imaginable to thrust postulation by performing keyword research. 

Use the Keyword Magic Tool to participate the rising hunt term, find related subtopics, and cheque cardinal metrics. This helps corroborate if the taxable tin pull integrated postulation and make much revenue. 

For example, if you tally an connection blog astir generative AI devices and announcement rising liking successful “chatgpt,” you tin attraction connected related content.

Looking astatine the results, you tin spot that users are looking for a operation of login pages, checking if ChatGPT is down, and ChatGPT-related tools.

Next, analyse the hunt intent (the intent down the search):

• Navigational (N): The searcher is looking for a circumstantial page aliases site
• Informational (I): The searcher wants to study something
• Commercial (C): The searcher is exploring options earlier purchasing
• Transactional (T): The searcher is fresh to make a purchase

Revisit your database to place topics pinch commercial intent, which tin thrust revenue, specified arsenic instrumentality comparisons aliases alternatives. 

Further prioritize by reviewing the pursuing columns: 

• Volume: Represents the mean number of monthly searches for the keyword
• Keyword Difficulty (KD%): Represents really difficult it whitethorn beryllium to rank for this keyword based connected the existent competition

In this example, the 4 keywords person identical hunt volumes but alteration successful keyword difficulty. Prioritize keywords pinch little trouble to rank faster and boost integrated traffic. 

Improve Your YouTube SEO

Google Trends helps you optimize for YouTube SEO by identifying topics that tin rank good successful YouTube’s hunt results. So you tin create contented astir them. 

For example, if you’re a fittingness creator, participate a taxable thought for illustration “yoga.”

Then use these filters:

• Change the “Web Search” class to “YouTube Search” 
• Select the “All categories” drop-down and take your channel’s taxable (e.g., “Beauty & Fitness”)

Now, you’ll spot the inclination for “yoga” connected YouTube.

The inclination is unchangeable and still popular, truthful creating video contented astir it could beryllium a bully choice.

To observe different video ideas, scroll down to the “Related topics” and “Related queries” sections. 

Click the arrow buttons to research much related results.

This reveals different applicable topics, specified as:

• “facial yoga”
• “yoga for seniors”
• “yoga nidra 10 minutes”

These topics tin connection further contented ideas. 

Use Google Trends to Find Ideas for Social Media Content

Using trends successful your societal media contented helps you people what your assemblage is willing in, based connected existent trends. 

For example, research the “Entertainment” class successful the “Trending Now” tab to find popular civilization movements to respond to connected your societal media accounts.

If a taxable sees a maturation of much than 5,000%, it’s considered a breakout topic.

At Semrush, we leverage breakout topics for illustration these. 

For instance, erstwhile the Barbie movie was announced, location was a batch of buzz.

We responded by creating this Facebook post comparing really landing pages are typically designed versus different parts of a website. 

It’s a speedy measurement to link pinch your assemblage and boost interactions.

Avoid Common Google Trends Pitfalls

Common mistakes hap erstwhile users misunderstand really Google Trends works. 

Here’s a breakdown of cardinal pitfalls. 

Small-Sample Data Traps

Small-sample information traps hap erstwhile spikes successful Google Trends don’t bespeak existent hunt demand. This often happens erstwhile a word pinch debased liking sees a flimsy summation successful searches. 

Due to the debased baseline, Google Trends whitethorn show a spike, but the hunt measurement remains low.

For example, see the keyword “fractional contented team.”

The chart shows a highest successful October 2024, which mightiness lead you to judge it’s an emerging trend. 

But erstwhile you cheque the hunt measurement for this word successful Keyword Overview, you’ll find only 20 monthly searches.

This is why you should ever brace Google Trends pinch a much thorough study utilizing devices for illustration Semrush.

Misreading Relative Interest

Misreading comparative liking happens erstwhile users correction the chart successful Google Trends for hunt volume.

The Google Trends chart shows comparative interest, scaled from 0-100—not existent hunt volume.

A hunt word pinch “100” connected the Google Trends chart doesn’t mean it has 100 monthly searches aliases is the astir searched query. It only intends the taxable had its highest liking during the selected clip and successful the selected region.

For example, the word “chatgpt” has an liking of 63 connected the Google Trends graph.

But aft checking the hunt volume, you’ll find that “chatgpt” is searched by hundreds of millions of users worldwide each month.

On the different hand, the emerging word “generative motor optimization” precocious reached 100 connected the Google Trends graph.

But its hunt measurement is conscionable astir 2,000 monthly searches, according to Keyword Overview. 

Although 2,000 monthly searches isn’t insignificant, relying solely connected Google Trends could lead to a perchance mendacious conclusion that this taxable has hundreds of thousands of imaginable visitors. 

Always double-check and validate information from Google Trends pinch devices for illustration Semrush for accuracy and context. 

Turn Google Trends Signals Into Next Steps

Google Trends is simply a powerful instrumentality for uncovering insights and transforming inclination spikes into integrated postulation surges. 

Use Google Trends to place emerging topics for your content. 

Then, motion up for Semrush’s Keyword Overview and Keyword Magic devices to measure whether these topics tin importantly effect your SEO results.