The WordPress Expert‘s Guide to Using Google Trends for Better SEO

Are you taking full advantage of the insights available in Google Trends to boost your WordPress site‘s SEO performance? If not, you‘re missing out on a powerful (and free!) tool for keyword research, content planning, and search optimization.

As an SEO consultant and WordPress developer for over 10 years, I‘ve seen firsthand the impact that understanding search trends can have on organic traffic growth. By tapping into the wealth of data in Google Trends, you can:

• Discover the keywords and topics your target audience is searching for most
• Identify seasonal trends to plan your content calendar around peak interest periods
• Find lucrative keyword opportunities with high search volume and low competition
• Understand the regional differences in search behavior to better target local markets
• Track your brand visibility in search compared to competitors

Ultimately, these insights translate into creating content that better aligns with real user needs and interests – and that means higher rankings, more qualified traffic, and better conversion rates. Ready to learn how? Let‘s dive into the essential techniques for WordPress SEOs to get the most out of Google Trends.

Uncover Seasonal Trends and Top Keywords

One of the most important applications of Google Trends for SEO is analyzing the relative popularity of a topic or keyword over time. The tool‘s main feature is a search volume graph that plots the level of interest in a given search query over a specified time period, from the past 12 months to all the way back to 2004.

For example, here‘s a look at the trend line for "wordpress plugins" over the past 5 years:

From this graph, we can see a few key things:

1. Interest in WordPress plugins has remained relatively stable and consistent from 2016-2021, suggesting it‘s an "evergreen" topic that is continually relevant to audiences. This would be a worthwhile topic to have solidly covered in your blog archives.

2. There is a slight peak in searches every December, indicating a small seasonal boost around the holidays – likely as people are building new sites or making improvements for the new year. You could capitalize on this by publishing your "Best WordPress Plugins for 2022" post in early December to capture that peak traffic.

3. Interest appears to be very gradually declining over time, likely as WordPress matures and the plugin market becomes more saturated. To continue attracting search visitors, you may need to explore more specific long-tail keywords rather than broad terms.

The overall search volume also provides a sense of how popular a keyword is in absolute terms. While Google Trends doesn‘t give exact monthly search numbers, keywords are scored on a relative scale of 0-100, with 100 being the peak popularity for that search over the given time period.

So in the case of "wordpress plugins", we can see that search volume remains between the 75-100 range, indicating it‘s a very high traffic keyword. That also means it‘s likely quite competitive, so while it may be a good target for a comprehensive pillar page, it would be hard to rank for with just a single blog post.

SEO Tips for Using Google Trends Keyword Data

• Look for keywords with steady, high search volume (50+) that indicate a strong level of consistent interest to prioritize in your content strategy
• Identify seasonal trends based on reliable peaks and valleys in the search data, and align your editorial calendar to publish relevant content in the lead up to those spikes
• Pay attention to the shape of the trendline over time – declining interest may not be worth investing in, while growing interest could be an opportunity to establish authority on an emerging topic
• Use search volume as a rough indicator of keyword competition – terms scoring 80-100 will be very difficult to rank for, while those in the 20-40 range may be easier opportunities to target valuable traffic with less competition

Go Local with Regional Insights

Another powerful feature of Google Trends is the ability to segment search data by geographic location, from the country level down to individual states and cities. For WordPress businesses targeting customers in specific regions, this data can be extremely valuable for local SEO.

Under the "Interest by subregion" section, you can see a color-coded map showing the relative popularity of a search term across different locations. Here‘s a look at a map for "wordpress developer" searches in the United States:

The darker blue indicates higher search volume in that state relative to the other regions. We can see that demand for WordPress developers is especially high in major tech hub states like California, New York, Washington, and Massachusetts.

You can also view the data as a ranked list of regions to quickly identify the top locations:

Source: Google Trends, March 2023

So what does this mean for your SEO? If you are a WordPress agency or freelance developer looking to attract more clients, you‘d be wise to prioritize creating location pages and geo-targeted blog content focused on those top opportunity areas.

For example, you could publish a post optimized for "wordpress developer in California" highlighting your work with clients in major California cities, your understanding of the unique needs of Silicon Valley startups, etc. You‘d want to get that page ranking well for variations of that regional keyword to connect with the sizeable audience of people searching in that area.

Even if you primarily work remotely with clients around the country, you can still use location data to better feature your successes in key regional markets. A testimonial from a happy client in New York or an "Ultimate Guide to WordPress for NY Businesses" could help demonstrate your credibility in that location and win more customers from those high-demand areas.

SEO Tips for Using Google Trends Location Data

• Identify regional differences in search interest for your priority keywords and shift more of your SEO efforts to the areas with the highest interest
• Incorporate location-specific keywords into your content strategy, such as "wordpress design chicago" or "wordpress seo services florida" to capture geotargeted search traffic
• Build dedicated location pages on your WordPress site for your top opportunity regions, featuring case studies and client testimonials from those areas
• Localize your content to include relevant regional terms, information, or considerations in blog posts to demonstrate your understanding of the area
• Use Google Trends data in combination with other local SEO best practices like building local citations, earning reviews, and optimizing Google Business Profile listings to become the go-to WordPress provider in your target markets

Track Your Brand and Competitors

In addition to analyzing general topic trends, Google Trends can also provide insights on the relative popularity and search interest in specific brands over time. This is a valuable way to monitor your own brand awareness and visibility in search, as well as track how you stack up against key competitors.

To look up a brand, simply type the company name into the search bar, just as you would any other keyword. If the brand is well-known enough, Google Trends will detect it and show the search volume trend line for that branded query.

For example, here‘s a comparison of search interest over time for three popular WordPress page builder tools:

From this view, it‘s clear that Elementor has pulled far ahead of the other two options in terms of organic search interest in recent years. If you were writing a blog post comparing the best WordPress page builders, this data would be a compelling point to include in demonstrating Elementor‘s dominance and why it might be the top choice to recommend to readers.

However, it‘s important to note that Google Trends only provides relative comparisons, not absolute search volume. So while we can see that Elementor is searched for significantly more than Divi or Beaver Builder, we don‘t know the actual number of monthly searches any of them get.

Still, tracking competitor search trends over time provides a helpful benchmark to understand your relative brand awareness and whether it‘s growing or shrinking compared to others in your space. It can also help you identify new competitors gaining traction that you may want to keep an eye on.

SEO Tips for Using Google Trends Brand Data

• Monitor your brand name searches over time to track increases or decreases in your organic search visibility and brand awareness
• Compare your brand traction against a few key competitors to get a sense of your relative position in the market and SEO performance over time
• Evaluate competitor search trends to identify threats from emerging players that may be worth analyzing further to understand what they‘re doing well in search
• Use competitor comparisons as supporting data in your own content to add credibility and illustrate key selling points of your recommended WordPress tools or services
• Run searches for your primary SEO keywords + competitor names (e.g. "wordpress hosting siteground") to see which brands are most closely associated with and ranking well for those terms

Spot Trending Topics and Keywords

One of the most valuable ways to use Google Trends as a WordPress business is to identify rising topics and keywords to inform your content strategy and get ahead of the curve on emerging search interests. By catching onto trends as they are starting to take off, you can establish authority before the competition gets fierce and ride the wave of growing search traffic.

Google Trends makes it easy to spot these trending searches in a few key places:

1. Trending Searches: On the Google Trends homepage, you can see a list of the hottest trending searches updated in real time. These often reflect breaking news, viral social media topics, and current events capturing public interest. While many of these will be too general to be relevant to your WordPress site, occasionally you may find a story worth newsjacking or a pop culture hook to play off of in your content.

2. Related Topics: After looking up a specific search term, you‘ll see a "Related topics" box that shows other queries that share a conceptual link to your original keyword, ranked in order of popularity growth. For example, if we search for "wordpress security", one of the top related topics is "SSL certificate", with a "Breakout" label indicating a huge recent surge:

3. Related Queries: Similar to related topics, the "Related queries" box surfaces the specific search terms most commonly associated with your main keyword, along with their respective growth trends. For our "wordpress security" example, some of the top related queries include "cloudflare wordpress" and "wordpress ssl":

Both of these views provide valuable opportunities to identify keywords and subtopics that are rapidly growing in interest related to your primary topics. If we see SSL as a breakout trend related to WordPress security, that may indicate a need for more content educating readers on why SSL is important for WordPress sites, how to install an SSL certificate, etc.

SEO Tips for Using Google Trends to Spot Content Opportunities

• Regularly check Trending Searches for relevant breaking news or viral stories that could inspire timely blog posts or social content (e.g. "X WordPress Lessons from the GameStop Stock Saga")
• Review Related Topics for your primary keywords to identify emerging areas of interest to cover and optimize for (e.g. seeing "gutenberg wordpress" as a rising topic may prompt a post on "How to Use the WordPress Gutenberg Editor")
• Dig into Related Queries to find long-tail question keywords to target in new content or build into existing posts (e.g. "what is ssl in wordpress" or "how to fix wordpress mixed content errors")
• If you spot a promising breakout topic, consider creating a domain authority-building pillar page optimized for that term to rank and build traffic off that surge
• Set up Google Alerts for breakout keywords you identify to get notified of new content and discussions around those topics so you can engage and build links

Grow Your Organic Traffic with Google Trends Insights

As the data and examples above illustrate, Google Trends is an invaluable resource for any WordPress business looking to get a competitive edge in search traffic. By understanding the relative popularity, regional differences, and trend patterns of relevant keywords and topics, you can adapt your content to better align with proven search interests and user needs.

However, Google Trends data is just one piece of the puzzle in developing a winning WordPress SEO strategy. Here are a few key ways to translate these insights into real results:

Incorporate trending keywords into your content calendar and optimization. Make it a regular habit to check Google Trends for your main topics and integrate rising queries and related terms into your upcoming post ideas. Optimize your headlines, subheadings, meta tags, and body copy to include trending language in a natural, user-friendly way.

Prioritize low-competition keywords with growth potential. Pay special attention to queries that show steady growth but relatively low current search volume (under 50). These often represent lucrative opportunities to rank quickly and build authority before competition increases. Identify clusters of related long-tail keywords to target together in new SEO-optimized content or site sections.

Refresh existing content to align with changing search interests. Use Google Trends to evaluate whether your existing high-traffic posts may be losing relevance as search patterns evolve. Update titles, keywords, examples, and publish dates to better match the current top queries and intent. A small refresh can help an old post catch a second wind in search traffic.

Capitalize on seasonal spikes to maximize traffic during peak periods. If your topic has predictable peaks in interest at certain times of the year, schedule your editorial calendar to publish and promote content heavily in the weeks leading up to the surge. A little advance planning can help you dominate the search results when the volume is highest and carry that momentum forward.

Leverage WordPress SEO plugins to implement on-page optimizations. While Google Trends provides the strategic insights, WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO make it easy to translate those findings into optimized content elements. Use these tools to set your target keywords, craft reader-friendly meta tags, and get suggestions for improving the relevancy and keyword usage of each post and page.

By putting these tactics into action, you can harness the wealth of data in Google Trends to build a WordPress site that attracts and engages a growing stream of organic search visitors. So start exploring, have fun digging into the data, and watch your traffic soar as a result!