Google Trends isn't your average SEO tool. For ecommerce entrepreneurs and business owners, it's useful for tracking market trends related to the products and services you offer. You can leverage Google Trends to learn more about your niche and edge out competitors.
In this article, we’ll explore how to get the most out of Google Trends, bringing in the expertise of three marketing professionals. You’ll also dig into use cases on how to find untapped niches and seasonal trends.
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a free tool offered by Google that shows the popularity of search terms over time. You can use it to learn whether interest in a term is rising, stable, or declining. It also provides geographical and demographic insights, as well as related topics and queries.
It’s a valuable resource for marketers, researchers, and anyone keen to understand shifts in consumer preferences.
The platform works by examining a random selection from billions of daily searches, creating an indexed scale where the peak search volume receives a score of 100. This normalized approach means that you're seeing proportional interest rather than raw numbers, with all other data points measured against that highest point.
Google Trends has information dating back to 2006, giving businesses access to over two decades of search behavior patterns.
How Top Marketers Use Google Trends
The Importance of International Data
"Our company specializes in high-end mothers jewelry. Initially, we monitored trends only for the United States,” says Jeff Moriarty, who handles marketing for the brand Mothers Family Rings.
“However, Google Trends opened our eyes to the importance of international data. We discovered that Mother's Day dates vary across countries. This knowledge led us to create different promotions throughout the year based on these dates in various nations."
Tracking Emerging Keywords and Regional Terminology
For Allison Schmidt, Marketing Manager of Get Online NOLA, "Google Trends isn't our starting point for keyword selection, but it plays a crucial role in refining our choices.
“Once we have a topic or keyword idea, Google Trends helps us determine the best phrasing. It sheds light on regional terminology differences and emerging popular keywords. We typically begin by searching a keyword of interest and then exploring the breakout keywords section. This allows us to simultaneously test and compare the popularity of related terms (e.g., soda vs. pop vs. Coke)."
Analyzing Competitor Brand Interest Over Time
"I primarily use Google Trends for analyzing competitor brand interest over time,” says Cassidy Barney, SEO specialist at the Leavitt Group and Epic Marketing’s former SEO Manager.
“You can input a keyword and add up to four more for a direct comparison. You also have the flexibility to specify regions, timeframes, and categories. The data stretches back to 2004, offering deep insights into brand interest trends. Moreover, it highlights LSI (latent semantic index) keyphrases, which are invaluable for SEO strategies."
11 Google Trends Use Cases for 2025
1. Using Google Trends to Find Niches
Google Trends is a great tool to find a potentially successful niche. When you’re on the hunt for a new niche, you'll want to make sure you change your range from "past 12 months" to "2004-present." Doing this helps you see clearly whether the search volume is increasing or declining. But it also allows you to see seasonal trends in one clear-cut shot.
Here's an example of a skyrocketing product in Google Trends: posture corrector.
Here you can see substantial growth all of a sudden, with a peak in January and slight dip in February. However, that doesn't mean you’ve missed the opportunity and can't still capitalize on this trend. Still, this trending product would need to be monitored for a while longer.
Here's an example of a stable niche in Google Trends: iPhone.
While there are small peaks and valleys, the search volume for this niche (if you can call “iphone” a niche) is quite stable. This shows that “iphone” as a search term doesn’t go in and out of fashion too drastically.
You might be wondering what the dips and increases mean. These show you the seasonal trends of the searches. August through October sees an increase in searches, with a decline starting in November. That doesn't mean people don't want an iPhone in November, it just means retailers might see a lower amount of website traffic at that time of year.
Wondering what a fad looks like on Google Trends? Check out this data on fidget spinners:
There were virtually zero searches for "fidget spinners" until February 2017. Three months later, in May, the product hit its peak. It's pretty clear that there was a drastic and sharp increase in attention in those first few months.
However, the sharp decline following the peak shows that setting up a new fidget spinner venture so long after the 2017 peak is most likely not a good business idea.
2. Find Relevant Product Categories in “Related Topics”
Say you've created a niche store focusing on fake eyelashes. After owning your niche, you might be interested in expanding into other verticals. So instead of only selling fake eyelashes, you want to sell other product categories that people may also be interested in.
After typing "fake eyelashes" into the Google Trends search bar, scroll down to the bottom where you'll find "Related topics."
What's interesting is that two of the examples, "Nail" and "Eye shadow," are a bit unrelated to fake eyelashes but could make sense as product categories. A person who searches for or wears fake eyelashes is likely also interested in nail products or eye shadow, according to these Google Trends findings.
So if you're looking to expand your product categories, checking out the related topics might be helpful.
Keep in mind that, as you scroll through some of the related queries, you might find some don't make sense for your business. For example, Kim Kardashian is listed as a Google Trends related topic for fake eyelashes.
You may not end up selling Kardashian-themed products, but you can use related terms to your advantage by writing a blog post about Kim Kardashian's eyelashes, which leads to your product page.
3. Using Google Trends for Keyword Research
Suppose that you're selling women's blouses. When you check Google Trends’ homepage to find out more about the search term, you notice that its popularity is trending upward.
You want to delve deeper into which keywords to target, how to name your product categories, and how to optimize a blog post about women's blouses. A handy trick is to glance at the "Related queries" section, found to the right of the "Related topics" section.
Throughout the 25 queries, you can consistently see a callout to color. In the graphic above you see two listings for the color black. On other pages, you'll find white, blue, pink, and green. For these examples, you might choose to create a product category based on color such as "black blouses."
However, you can also include those keywords in your product page and in the name of the product. "Women's shirts" or "blouses for women" could also be listed as a product category since they have search volume and make sense for this clothing type.
Within the related queries section, pay attention to the toggle between "Top" and "Rising" terms. The "Top" selection shows you the most searched phrases overall, while "Rising" reveals terms experiencing rapid growth.
Rising terms can be particularly valuable for getting ahead of emerging trends before your competitors notice them. When a query shows significant percentage growth or appears as "Breakout" (meaning it grew over 5,000%), this signals a major opportunity to create content or optimize products around that emerging demand.
4. Using Google Trends Data to Identify Seasonal Trends
Seasonal trends play an important role in the success of your business. Throughout the year there'll be peaks and dips that will impact your monthly sales. During peak season, competition and sales will increase in full force. During the dips, you might start selling seasonal products. Let's break this down with a "summer" product: padded bikinis.
The data shows us that padded bikinis aren't just for summer but for winter, too. The first peak of the year starts in January and continues to climb until June. Then there's a drastic dip in September.
Now, say it's September and you decide to start a swimwear store, you might be feeling pretty discouraged about that dip. But that's actually a great time to get started. It gives you a couple months to build your swimwear business so that when January rolls around you're ready to go!
You might be wondering what to sell during the off season. Think of products that naturally complement your current product line store but would be a good match for the off season. Since swimwear is often sold by lingerie brands, selling pajamas might be an area to focus on during the winter months. Let's take a look:
Between September to December, pajamas hit their peak, making it the ideal product to sell during the bikini off season by filling in the seasonal gaps.
Beyond just planning what to sell when, you can use seasonal data to schedule your marketing campaigns and advertising spend. If you know hiking sandals peak in late spring, you can ramp up your advertising budget in April and May rather than spreading it evenly throughout the year. This targeted approach helps you capture demand when customers are actively searching, rather than trying to create demand during slow periods.
5. Using Google Trends for Content Freshness
Content marketing helps top online retailers get more traffic, increase brand awareness, and win more customers. Creating blog content for your website can help grow your business. One way to drive sudden spikes in search traffic is to do "content freshness." What's that? It's when you remove outdated content, add fresh new details, and republish the content on your blog.
But where does Google Trends research come in? To illustrate, let's revisit the concept of seasonality but with a twist. Imagine you own a cycling store with a blog article titled "How to fix a bike." By inputting those keywords into Google Trends, you can observe specific search patterns. For instance, the research may indicate that the peak season for this search consistently falls in June and July each year.
While it's crucial to update content whenever your Google ranking dips, being proactive can enhance your strategy. By aligning your content freshness efforts with a search term's peak season, using insights from Google trends research, you can gain an edge.
For the cycling store owner, this might mean rejuvenating the "how to fix a bike" article at May's end. Consequently, this timely update can catapult you to the pinnacle of search results for those keywords. Implement this strategy on your top-performing SEO articles, and watch your website traffic surge.
6. Create Content Around Current Trends
On the homepage of Google Trends, you'll find a section for trending searches. You can browse daily trending searches, real-time search trends, and search by country.
While most of the trending searches are regarding celebrity news, you will find some buzz-worthy stories that tie into certain niches. For example, on October 17, 2023, one of the most searched daily trends was regarding the "hottest pepper in the world," which amassed more than one million searches.
By occasionally covering newsworthy stories as part of your marketing and product rollout strategies, you can drive high volumes of traffic back to your website. You can also jump on trending hashtags on social media platforms to get more followers and social media engagement.
7. Find Niche Topics by Region
One of the most interesting elements of Google Trends is how you can find niche topics by region. When it comes to advertising, we often target an audience based on their country.
With 322 million internet users in the US, web search habits and interests can differ significantly across states. Surely the audience in New York isn't the same as the audience in Louisiana. So let's break down what these two states think about gold earrings.
In Louisiana, interest in gold earrings isn't very high. In November 2004, there was a sharp increase in search volume, but that level of interest has yet to return.
Now, let's take a look at New York's search interest on Google Trends.
Right now, the search volume for "gold earrings" is on the rise in New York. This suggests that if you create an ad for a pair of gold earrings, you're better off targeting individual states like New York. Since there's growing interest there, you'll be able to capitalize on some sales, whether you promote it on Facebook or via Google Ads.
You can cross-reference all the states to determine which ones have been seeing the trend rise. That way, you increase your chances of landing sales without wasting money by targeting places where interest is lagging. This granular view helps you allocate resources more effectively and tailor your messaging to resonate with local preferences and culture.
8. Monitor Competitors' Positions with Google Trends Compare
On Google Trends, you can even monitor your competitors and see how well they're performing against your brand.
Let’s imagine that you’re Marvel and you’re comparing how Marvel Comics is trending versus DC Comics during the release window of Captain Marvel.
What's interesting here is that in 2004, the two brands were performing at about the same level, with Marvel having a slight advantage. However, after 2013, we see the clear rise of Marvel.
With this feature, you can compare up to five search terms or competitors. As your brand gains a bigger search audience, you can use Google Trends to ensure that you're always a step ahead of competitors. And if you find that certain competitors are growing at a faster rate than you, you know to start analyzing their marketing channels to understand how you can improve.
When comparing your brand against competitors, look beyond just the overall trend lines. Pay attention to related queries that appear for each brand, as these can reveal what customers associate with different companies. If competitor-related queries include terms like "reviews" or "discount," while yours include "problems" or "complaints," this insight can guide your reputation management and marketing messaging efforts.
9. Using Google Trends for YouTube content ideas
While Google Trends is typically used to improve your website's performance, you can also use it to improve your social media reach, particularly on YouTube.
After heading to YouTube and searching for "fashion trends," we noticed that the top videos used the keyword "fashion trends 2024." Let's plug that into Google Trends and see what we get.
In recent weeks, this search term skyrocketed in interest. Of course, the year added to the keyword will make it a popular search term at the beginning of the year. However, after going back to YouTube and looking up "fashion trends 2024" in YouTube search, we noticed something interesting. Let's take a look:
Each of the top videos were published in 2023. This is interesting because vloggers and bloggers often create content prior to the new year so they can get a head start on traffic.
So, if you plan to create a video centered around any trends in 2026, your best bet is to publish the video now to capitalize on the data you'd find in Google Trends.
Pro tip: If you have an email list, you might decide to send an email during March and September to boost your video's popularity again. Google will see that you're promoting your older video content and may reward you with a higher position for your video so you can get even more views to it.
When creating YouTube content based on Google Trends data, remember to filter your search results specifically for YouTube rather than web search. The search patterns on YouTube can differ significantly from general Google searches. YouTube users often look for tutorials, reviews, and entertainment content, so the related queries you discover might inspire different types of videos than what you'd create for blog content.
10. Optimizing Shopping Ads with Google Trends Data
You can also use Google Trends to help determine the best time to create Google Shopping Ads. Suppose you're a fashion retailer trying to promote a new white dress. By taking a look at the Google Trends' Google Shopping feature, you can determine the best months for your ads.
Between February and June, there are high volumes of searches for white dresses in Google Shopping. Despite a small dip in August, the next two months, September and October, see a rise in Google Shopping searches.
So, if you're a retailer, you might start selling and promoting your white dresses between February and June and then again in September and October. Provided that you're selling to an American audience, you'll need to check the data for other countries if you plan to target outside the US.
11. Building Your Content calendar with Google Trends Insights
Google Trends becomes especially valuable when planning your content calendar. By examining historical patterns, you can predict when certain topics will peak and prepare your content accordingly. This proactive approach ensures your articles, videos, and social media posts go live just as search interest begins climbing.
For example, if you run a fitness blog, you might notice that searches for "home workout equipment" spike every January and again in September. Armed with this knowledge, you can schedule product reviews, comparison guides, and workout tutorials to publish in late December and late August, positioning your content to capture that surge in interest.
The "Rising" and "Breakout" queries within Google Trends also provide excellent fodder for fresh content ideas. When you spot emerging topics in your niche before they peak, you have the opportunity to create authoritative content that can dominate search results as the trend grows. This forward-thinking approach to content planning can dramatically improve your organic reach and establish your brand as a thought leader in your space.
Staying Ahead of the Game with Google Trends
From helping you plan ahead of seasonal trends to finding a rapidly growing niche, Google Trends can give you insights that will make your business a success.
You'll be able to find complementary verticals to expand your catalog and skyrocket your blog traffic by updating popular SEO posts just in time for peak season. By applying some of the Google Trends tips in this article, you'll be a step ahead of the competition.
How to Use Google Trends FAQ
Is Google Trends free to use?
Google Trends is a free tool that anyone can use.
How accurate are the data and insights on Google Trends?
The data on Google Trends tends to be quite accurate, although the tool doesn’t give you the absolute or total search volume. Google performs tons of searches every day, so including every single one of those searches in the Trends data set would not be feasible. Depending on the search, you may get back a zero search volume answer, but that doesn’t mean there were no searches. Instead, it’s likely that Google didn’t consider the volume to be significant.
Can you use Google Trends for global data?
Absolutely, Google Trends is a great option for gathering data from all over the world. You can search for data by country, state, and even metro area, depending on the region, giving you a detailed international outlook.
How does Google Trends determine how popular a search is?
Google Trends works by taking random samples of daily searches for each query, creating an indexed scale where the peak search volume receives a score of 100. This normalized approach means that you're seeing proportional interest rather than raw numbers, with all other data points measured against that highest point. If you see the number 100, it doesn’t indicate an absolute volume of 100, it means that your search term has the highest relative volume.