How to Monitor Your Keyword Rankings

How to Monitor Your Keyword Rankings: Introduction to Google Trends

Understanding how to monitor your keyword rankings starts with the right tools—and Google Trends is one of the most valuable. This powerful platform from Google helps content creators and SEO professionals analyze the popularity of search terms over time, uncover trending topics, gauge audience interest, and generate strategic blog content based on real-time search behavior.

Identifying Trending Search Terms

To find trending search terms, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Google Trends website: https://trends.google.com/
2. Enter your search terms or select the time range and location you want to analyze. Google Trends will display the search volume trend for those terms.
3. Compare the search volume data to identify trends and identify which search terms are rising in popularity.

For example, let’s analyze the search trends for the terms “Sustainability” and “Eco-friendly products”. From the data, we can see that both terms have been increasing in search volume over the past few years, which is a good sign for content creators interested in blogging on sustainability and eco-friendly products.

Understanding Trends

Trends can be categorized into three types:

1. Breakout Trends: These are terms that are suddenly gaining popularity and breaking into the mainstream. For example, the term “Quarantine recipes” spiked in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Long-term Trends: These are terms that have been consistently growing in popularity over a long period. For example, the term “Sustainability” has been on the rise over the last decade.
3. Narrative Trends: These are terms related to current events and stories in the media. For example, the terms “Brexit” and “Climate change” spiked in popularity during specific news events.

Choosing Relevant Topics

Not all trending terms are suitable for blog topics. Choose topics that are relevant to your target audience, niche, and website’s content. For example, if your blog is about gardening, then you should focus on terms like “Indoor plants” and “Organic gardening” rather than “Bitcoin” and “Space tourism”.

Creating Content Based on Trends

Once you’ve identified a trending topic, create content that addresses the question: “What does this topic mean to the people searching for it?” For example, let’s say you identified the term “Online learning”. Your blog could discuss how online learning is becoming more popular, its benefits, and tips for effective online learning.

Using Google Trends for Keyword Research

While Google Trends is not a direct keyword research tool, you can use it to help refine your keywords. For example, if you’re using the term “online learning” as a keyword, you might also use the related terms “Online courses” and “Online education” as well.

Conclusion

Google Trends is a powerful tool that can help bloggers and SEO copywriters identify trending topics and create content based on public interest. By using this tool and following these steps, you can generate relevant, popular, and engaging blog content. Remember to always focus on your target audience, niche, and website’s content when choosing your topics.