Google provides 5 SEO insights about Google Trends

Google has published a video with five insights about Google Trends are shared that may be of interest to SEO specialists, keyword research, and search traffic troubleshooting. The video was presented by Daniel Waisberg, a Search Advocate at Google.

1. What does Google Trends offer?

Google Trends is an official tool from Google that provides insight into how often certain search terms are used and how these searches change over time. It is useful for discovering seasonal changes in searches and also offers geographic segmentation. This can help you better determine which regions to target your content to or which geographic areas to gain backlinks from.

This information is essential when analyzing organic traffic issues because it can reveal consumer trends and seasonal fluctuations.

2. Google Trends uses sample data

One important point Waisberg emphasized is that Google Trends works with a statistically significant sample of real searches. This means that the data is representative of real search trends, despite being a sample.

Google uses a sample because working with the entire dataset would be too large. However, the samples are representative enough to show accurate trends.

3. Google filters noise from the Trends data

Google removes noise from the data to increase accuracy and protect user privacy. Examples of noise include repeated searches by the same person, such as someone who searches for “how to boil eggs” every morning.

4. Google normalizes Trends data

Instead of showing the exact number of searches, Google normalizes the data. This means that the search term with the highest volume is shown as 100%, and all other terms are shown proportionally. This gives a clear picture of popularity trends without showing absolute numbers.

5. Explore searches and topics

For years, SEO specialists have focused on keywords, but Google has now developed systems that label content based on topics and entities. This means that exploring related topics via Google Trends can often provide more insight than using keywords alone.

According to Waisberg, one of the most valuable features of Google Trends is the ability to explore related topics. This gives you a more complete picture of the popularity and relevance of a topic, which is important for understanding the broader context in which searches are taking place.

The big picture

A key insight from this video is that Google Trends uses normalized sample data, which provides an accurate representation of real search trends. Additionally, exploring topics via Google Trends is often more effective than using Google Suggest and People Also Ask (PAA) data because it provides deeper insights without the pitfalls of over-optimization for search engines.

Optimizing with topics leaves no traces of manipulation, which contributes to the authenticity and relevance of the content.

Watch the Google Trends video: