Google Trends is an incredibly powerful tool for SEOs and content marketers. It harnesses the immense power of Google’s vast search database and lets you see how frequently people have searched for specific search terms or topics on the search engine over a given period of time.
Not only that, but you can compare search terms, look at the geographical spread of where these searches are coming from, discover related searches, and much more! With so much rich and fascinating data at your fingertips, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of what exactly you want to get out of this platform.
In this blog post, I will put forward three useful ways in which Google Trends can support your international content marketing efforts. I will focus very much on the “why” and the benefits, to help you understand how exactly you can use this tool as part of your international content marketing strategy.
If you want more of a hands-on, “how” approach of how to use Google Trends, I recently wrote a full-length guide that explains in detail how to use the tool, which you can check out by clicking the button below:
1. Discover content opportunities
One of the key ways in which Google Trends can be used is to discover trending and popular search terms and topics that are being searched online. Using Google Trends, you can type in a search term or topic that is relevant to your business, and then not only discover that search term or topic’s popularity, but also whether there are any related search terms and topics that are seeing high or increasing levels of popularity.
It is these “related queries” and “related topics” features that can be incredibly useful for international content marketers. These features can help to uncover popular related themes that you may not even have been aware of. You can then use these discoveries to create new content on these topics, to make sure you are targeting the most popular keywords in your SEO or PPC efforts, or even to give you inspiration for new products or services your company could offer.
2. Discover new and emerging markets
Another way you can use Google Trends is to discover new and emerging markets that your business may want to consider expanding into. On Google Trends, you can type in a search term or topic that is relevant to your business, and then view a global heatmap that shows you which countries are seeing the most searches for that search term or topic. This will reveal the markets that are displaying the most interest in your product or service, which is incredibly valuable and relevant information to consider if you are considering overseas expansion.
You can even go one step further in your new market discovery efforts by then looking at the “related queries” for the markets you see high levels of interest from, and looking to see what kind of searches people are making related to your product or service in these markets. This more detailed information can give you a clearer picture of what exactly people are searching for and wanting to know, which can provide further nuance when considering whether or not these are good markets to expand into, as well as providing content ideas for these markets.
3. Discover seasonal trends
You can also use Google Trends to discover any seasonal trends in how people are searching for particular search terms or topics. It may be that for certain keywords related to your business, there is seasonality associated, with peaks and troughs in terms of how frequently people are searching online for these keywords.
If you discover that this is the case, this is incredibly valuable information to have, as it can inform your marketing efforts, helping you to push promotions at the right time of year and align your marketing activities with the behaviours of your customers. You may even discover that different markets have different seasonality associated with them, which is useful information to have if you are an international business, as this can allow you to tailor each market’s marketing activities appropriately.
Want to learn more?
I hope this blog post has been a useful introduction to the topic of Google Trends and how it can be useful for international content marketers. For more in-depth information and advice, read my full-length guide here! From reading this guide, you will learn:
- how to use Google Trends
- how to identify international trends using Google Trends, including how to discover content opportunities, how to discover new and emerging markets, how to discover seasonal trends, and how to monitor your brand against competitors
- how to compare trends across different countries, including how this ties in with keyword research
Ana Santos
