Google Trends: How to Use It for SEO, Content and Advertising

Google Trends is a free Google tool that shows how interest in search queries changes over time and by region. It helps you understand when demand for a product grows, which topics are gaining popularity and where people search more actively for certain services. At the same time, the service doesn’t show the exact number of searches, only their relative popularity.

At LuxSite, we use this service when collecting keywords, planning content and preparing ad campaigns. For example, before promoting seasonal products, we check when search interest starts to grow so that the business has time to prepare pages and ads for peak demand.

Let’s look at how to use Google Trends in 2026, read its charts and apply the data to SEO, PPC and content marketing. We will also show practical scenarios for the Ukrainian market and explain which mistakes to avoid.

In Brief

• Google Trends shows relative interest on a 0–100 scale, not the number of queries. For volumes, you need Keyword Planner or Search Console data.
• It works best for comparing two phrasings, finding seasonality and spotting growing queries (the Rising tab).
• For Ukraine, set the region to “Ukraine” and a period of at least 12 months, and for seasonality, 3–5 years or more.
• Trends data doesn’t replace a keyword list: it helps set priorities and choose the right moment to publish or launch ads.
• Regularly checking your main topics takes roughly 20–30 minutes a week (checklist below).

Contents

1. What Google Trends is and how it works
2. How to use Google Trends: the interface step by step
3. How to use Google Trends for SEO
4. Google Trends for advertising and e-commerce
5. Google Trends for content and SMM
6. Examples: 5 scenarios for Ukrainian niches
7. Google Trends limitations and common mistakes
8. Alternatives and complementary tools
9. Step-by-step checklist: a weekly Google Trends routine
10. Conclusion
11. FAQ: frequently asked questions

What Google Trends Is and How It Works

The service works with a sample of real Google search queries. According to the Google Trends help center, it is a largely unfiltered sample: the data is anonymized, grouped by topic and aggregated. With billions of searches per day, such a sample is enough to see changes almost in real time.

The main thing to understand is that query trends in the service are normalized. Google divides the number of searches for a given query by the total number of searches in the relevant region over the selected period, and then scales the results to a range from 0 to 100. A value of 100 means peak relative popularity, 50 means half the interest compared to the peak, and 0 means there is not enough data to display the metric.

This has several important consequences for analysis:

• Popularity dynamics are not the absolute number of searches. Two queries with different search volumes can both get an index of 100 on separate charts. So you cannot determine the exact volume of demand from this metric.
• A declining chart doesn’t always mean fewer searches. The query’s share of total search may have decreased, even though its absolute volume stayed stable.
• Low-volume queries may be shown as 0. This especially applies to narrow B2B topics and specific services for which Google doesn’t have enough data.
• Isolated spikes don’t always indicate real growth in interest. To protect privacy, Google adds small random fluctuations to the statistics. They are most noticeable on charts for rare queries.
• Some queries are filtered out. The service excludes very rare searches, repeated queries from the same person over a short time and queries with certain special characters, such as apostrophes. Internal searches in Google products, such as AI Mode and AI Overviews, are not counted either.

Another detail is the time zone. For periods of 30 days or more, Google Trends uses UTC, and the data on the chart can be displayed by day, week or month. For periods of up to 7 days, the service uses the time zone of the browser or device and usually shows hourly dynamics. Keep this in mind when analyzing short-term news spikes.

When working on client projects, we always remind people: Google Trends is not a sociological survey or a popularity ranking of products or brands. A peak on the chart shows increased search interest, but it doesn’t automatically mean higher sales. So for marketing decisions, Trends data must be compared with search volume, advertising statistics and the website’s own results.

How to Use Google Trends: The Interface Step by Step

The service is available at trends.google.com, and you don’t need a separate account to view the data. People also find it by searching for google trends or google trends ua. To analyze the Ukrainian market, open the Explore section and set up the search parameters.

1. Open the Explore section and enter a query in the search field.
2. Google Trends for Ukraine is selected with filters: there is no separate version of the service for a particular country.
3. Set the period. Short intervals (hours and days), recent months and years, as well as the full history since 2004 are available.
4. Choose a category if needed.
5. Choose the search type.

Three settings especially affect the results: category, search type and the choice between a search term and a topic.

Category helps clarify the meaning of a word. Take the word jaguar: a user may be looking for the animal or the car brand. In the Ukrainian market, similar ambiguity arises with queries like “puma”, “ford” or “windows”. Choosing the right category helps separate the topic you need.

Search type determines which search data the service will analyze. Web search is most often used for SEO, Google Shopping for product niches and YouTube for video content. Image search can be useful in design and fashion, and news search for researching news hooks.

Query or topic. If you enter a word as a search term, the service looks at all searches that contain it. A topic combines queries with the same meaning in different languages. For Ukrainian and Russian keywords, it is often more useful to compare search terms, because a topic may mix languages.

Interest Over Time

This is the main chart. The X axis shows time, the Y axis shows the 0–100 index. It answers 3 questions.

• Is there seasonality: the peak repeats year after year in the same months.
• Is there a trend: the line generally rises or falls.
• Was there a one-time spike due to news or an event.

To check seasonality, take at least 3 years, preferably 5. To assess the current situation, take 12 months or 90 days. Don’t change the scale arbitrarily: a 7-day chart and a 5-year chart answer different questions.

Interest by Region

The map shows where a query is more popular relative to total search in that region. A darker color means a higher share, not more people. An area without shading doesn’t mean zero interest. City and metro-area detail is available only in some countries, so for Ukraine expect data at the oblast (region) level.

What to use it for: geo-targeting ads, choosing cities for opening branches and adapting copy to regions. If your niche is local, the “query + region” pair sometimes tells you more than the national line.

We recommend using the map as a source of hypotheses. Before opening a branch or increasing your ad budget, you need to additionally assess absolute demand, competition and sales results.

Related Topics and Related Queries: Top and Rising

Below the charts are the Related topics and Related queries blocks. They help you find other phrasings, topics and directions your audience is interested in.

In each block, you can choose one of two modes:

• Top – the most popular related searches. The values are also relative: 100 is the most frequent, 50 is half as frequent.
• Rising – searches with the biggest growth compared to the previous period. If you select 7 days, the comparison is with the previous 7 days. For the full history, the reference point is 2004.

Instead of a percentage, you may see the Breakout label. According to Google, this means growth of more than 5,000%. Brand-new topics with a minimal base often look like this. So treat Breakout as a signal to “check it out”, not as a ready-made query for an article.

Comparing Several Queries

To compare the popularity of different phrasings, click “Compare” and add other queries to the first one. Each will get its own line, and the 0–100 scale will be shared: the value of 100 is assigned to the highest point among all compared queries.

This is important for SEO. For example, you can compare “plastic windows” and “uPVC windows” and see which phrasing has higher relative interest in Ukraine. But the final choice of the main keyword should take into account search volume, competition and search intent.

How many queries can you compare? In the updated Google Trends Explore, up to 8 groups of terms with 50 queries each. The classic version is limited to 5 groups with 25 queries each.

A practical rule: compare up to 3–4 queries, otherwise the chart turns into a tangle. And always include an anchor, a query whose volume you know. Then you can roughly relate the others to it.

How to Use Google Trends for SEO

For search engine optimization, the service is useful in 5 tasks: from choosing keywords to planning seasonal content. It doesn’t replace full keyword research, but it helps set priorities based on changes in demand. We explained how to build a query database in our article on the semantic core.

1. Choosing the main keyword between two synonyms. When your keyword list has two similar phrasings, compare them with the region set to Ukraine and a 12-month period. The line that is consistently higher is the candidate for the H1 and Title. Use the second option in subheadings and the body text.

If the popularity of the phrasings changes depending on the season, additionally check their search volume and intent. Separate pages are needed only when the queries reflect different user needs.

2. Seasonality and publication timing. Indexing and gaining rankings take weeks. If a query peaks in March, the article should be published and indexed by January–February. A 5-year chart shows exactly when interest starts to grow before the peak: that is your “launch content” date.

3. Finding growing queries. The Rising tab with a 12-month filter and your category gives you ideas for new topics. Then check each one: is it relevant to your niche, is there an intent you can sell to, and does it need a separate piece of content.

4. Forecasting the content plan. Collect 10–15 topics and compare their peaks. Put the ones that “take off” in the next 2–3 months into work first. Leave evergreen topics with a flat line to fill the gaps. How to turn the result into a calendar is described in our article on a content plan for social media: the principle is the same, only the channels differ.

5. Combining it with Search Console and Keyword Planner. When working with keywords, we use several sources:

• Google Trends – we determine which topics are gaining popularity and when seasonal demand arises.
• Google Keyword Planner – we check the average monthly search volume and the approximate scale of demand. The level of detail depends on the available Google Ads data.
• Google Search Console – we see which queries the website already gets impressions and clicks for, and what its average positions are.

For example, if a query is growing in Trends and the corresponding page already has impressions in Google with average positions in the 8–20 range, it is worth checking how it can be optimized. Sometimes it is enough to update the content, expand the answer to the query or improve internal linking. This is potentially a faster way to grow organic traffic than creating a new page, although the result depends on competition and content quality.

At LuxSite, we use this approach in SEO promotion to determine which pages should be optimized first.

It is also worth considering changes in search results. Users get some answers without visiting a website, in particular through AI Overviews and other search features. So growing interest in Trends is not always accompanied by a proportional increase in organic clicks. We covered this in our article on SEO, GEO and AEO.

Use Search Console to analyze the results. In 2026, Google also introduced separate reports on website visibility in generative AI search features. This helps assess more accurately how a website’s presence in search results changes, even when impressions and clicks behave differently from overall search interest.

Google Trends for Advertising and E-commerce

In paid advertising, Google Trends helps answer two practical questions: when to increase advertising activity and in which regions there is potential to attract customers. The service is especially useful for online stores and businesses with seasonal demand. To allocate the budget, you need to compare the charts with the results of your ad campaigns.

Seasonal peaks. For product niches, choose the Google Shopping search type and compare the main categories over 3–5 years. This way you can determine when interest usually starts to grow and when it peaks. The product feed, landing pages and ad campaigns should be prepared in advance, based on seasonality and previous sales results. Launching right at the peak leaves less time for testing and optimizing ads.

Geo-targeting. The regional map shows where the share of search interest is higher. For example, if a certain product is searched for more actively in particular regions, you can check whether it makes sense to increase the ad budget there.

But this is only a hypothesis. Before changing settings, it is better to compare Trends data with actual conversions, customer acquisition cost and delivery options. Higher relative interest doesn’t always mean more orders.

When to launch Performance Max. Campaigns of this type need time to learn. So they should be launched at the beginning of the seasonal rise, not at the peak. If the chart shows a short, sharp peak (a few weeks), PMax without a preliminary “warm-up” may not have time to reach stable results. We used examples to explain which businesses this format suits in our article on Performance Max.

Competitors and brands. Compare your brand name with two or three competitors. If interest in them is consistently higher, look into the reasons: advertising activity, product range, promotions or news hooks. But a lower line doesn’t automatically mean higher advertising spending. Check competitors’ creatives separately, for example in the Facebook Ad Library.

For stores, add two more checks: compare “buy + product” with the query without “buy” to distinguish commercial interest from informational interest, and look at Rising for the product category. If you need not only analytics but also campaign launches, our paid search advertising team will help turn these hypotheses into campaigns.

Google Trends for Content and SMM

For content marketing and SMM, Google Trends is useful in three tasks:

Ideas. The Rising block shows related queries that are growing in popularity. This is a source of topics for articles, posts, answers to customer questions and short videos. For example, if users are increasingly searching for a new technology or product feature, you can prepare an explainer or a comparison.

News peaks. Short periods (7 days, 30 days) help you respond to events. For timely content, the window is measured in days, not months. But before writing, assess whether your brand has the right to speak on the topic.

YouTube. The YouTube search mode shows what people are looking for in videos. If you have a channel, compare it with web search: a topic may be a “text” topic or a “video” topic. This helps you choose the format: an article, a video or a short Reel.

For social media, it is useful to combine Trends with your own analytics. Don’t copy a trend if it is far from your product: reach without leads doesn’t help a business. AI tools for marketers can also help with ideas, but it is better to take interest data from Trends and your own reports.

Examples: 5 Scenarios for Ukrainian Niches

Below is a methodology, not ready-made figures. For each niche, we describe what exactly to enter, what to look at and what conclusion to draw. Take screenshots of the charts on the day you prepare your content: the data changes. All queries are examples for testing a hypothesis, not statements about actual dynamics.

Niche	What to enter in Trends	What to look at	What conclusion to draw
Travel business	Names of 3–4 destinations or types of holidays (for example, “holiday in the mountains” and “seaside vacation”)	Interest over time, 5 years, Ukraine; related queries, Rising	When interest starts to grow, and how many weeks before that to publish pages and turn on ads. Whether the peak has shifted compared to previous years
Renovation and construction	Main services (“apartment renovation”, “window replacement”)	Seasonality over 5 years; regional map	When to prepare content and which regions to allocate part of the budget to. Whether there are noticeable peaks to prepare prices and calculators for
E-commerce	Product categories in Google Shopping mode; the pair “buy + product” and “product”	Interest over time, Rising, brand comparison	How far ahead of the peak to prepare the feed and Performance Max. Whether commercial intent prevails over informational intent
Healthcare	A service and a symptom (“ultrasound”, “lab tests”) in web search mode, separately with the “Health” category	Interest over time, related topics, regions	When to publish expert content and where to run local ads. Don’t draw conclusions about diagnoses: Trends shows searches, not disease incidence
Education	Names of courses and fields; “courses + profession” and “profession”	Academic year peaks, Rising over 12 months	When to open enrollment and launch ads. Which new professions are growing and whether separate pages are needed for them

How to read them together with website data: for example, in the medical niche, overlay the seasonal Trends chart on real impressions and clicks from Search Console and check whether your website is lagging behind the market.

For ad campaigns, additionally analyze conversions, cost per lead and revenue. This will help you understand whether search interest turns into real results for the business.

Google Trends Limitations and Common Mistakes

Google Trends provides useful data on search interest, but it is easy to misinterpret. Especially if you assess demand based on a single chart or compare metrics without taking the settings into account.

The main limitations of the service:

• No absolute numbers: only a relative 0–100 index.
• Rare, niche and long-tail queries are often shown as 0 or don’t appear at all.
• Special characters in queries and Google’s internal searches are filtered out, so some “real” queries don’t make it into the sample.
• The data is a noisy sample, not an exact count.
• The service doesn’t combine synonyms, misspellings, singular and plural forms. You have to add them manually.
• It shows only Google: for Bing, marketplaces or social media, you need other sources.

These limitations don’t make the service less useful. They only mean that Google Trends is better used to analyze changes in interest rather than as the only data source for SEO or advertising.

Common mistakes:

1. Interpreting 100 as “100,000 queries”.
2. Comparing values from different tabs: each has its own scale.
3. Looking only at 7 or 30 days and drawing conclusions about seasonality.
4. Forgetting to set the region and getting the global picture instead of the Ukrainian one.
5. Assessing the scale of demand only by the Trends index, without checking search volume in other tools.
6. Chasing Breakout without verification: it may be a query with a zero base.
7. Ignoring the category and mixing up word meanings (“windows” as an OS and as window frames).
8. Not recording the date and parameters of a snapshot. A month later the result is different, and it is impossible to reproduce.
9. Making budget decisions based only on Trends, without Search Console and advertising data.
10. Writing an article on a topic that has “taken off” but has nothing to do with your product.

Rising requires special attention. A high growth percentage doesn’t mean the query has enough SEO potential. Before adding it to your keyword list, check whether it matches your niche, what intent lies behind it and whether your website can fully meet the user’s need.

Alternatives and Complementary Tools

Google Trends shows how search interest changes but doesn’t give a full picture of search volume, competition and actual website traffic. That is why, when working on SEO strategy and content plans, we combine it with other services.

Tool	What it provides	When to choose it	Limitations
Google Search Console	Impressions, clicks and positions for your website	Checking your own queries, finding growth opportunities	Only your website’s data
Google Keyword Planner	Monthly search volume ranges, query ideas	Assessing scale after Trends	Requires a Google Ads account; data in ranges
Serpstat and similar SEO tools	Search volume, competitors, clustering	Building a complete keyword list	Paid; estimates differ between services
Exploding Topics	Collections of early trends	Finding new product niches	Check whether it covers Ukrainian queries
Pinterest Trends	Pinterest search trends	Visual niches: interior design, fashion, gifts	The platform’s own audience
AI search (Perplexity, ChatGPT)	A way to see how AI answers questions on your topics	Checking content and citations	Doesn’t provide interest statistics

We wrote about how AI search works and how it differs from classic search in our comparison of Perplexity and ChatGPT. To analyze where traffic to your website comes from after publishing, you will find our article on GA4 traffic channels useful.

Check information about paid tools (Serpstat, Exploding Topics) on their websites before use: features and pricing change.

Step-by-Step Checklist: A Weekly Google Trends Routine

To avoid missing changes in search demand, it is enough to set aside about 30 minutes once a week for analysis, for example every Monday. Such a check is especially useful for businesses with seasonal demand and teams that regularly update their content plan.

• Open Explore, set the region to Ukraine and the period to 12 months.
• Review 3–5 key topics in your niche: are there sharp changes in the line?
• Open Rising for the main topic and write down 3–5 new queries.
• Check whether any of them match your services or products.
• Compare 2–3 competitor brands with your own.
• For seasonal queries, look at the 5-year chart and determine whether it is time to prepare content.
• For each candidate, add the search volume from Keyword Planner.
• Check Search Console: are there already impressions, and at what positions?
• Add the topic to the content plan with a publication date.
• Save screenshots of the charts and the parameters (region, period, date).
• Once a month, review which forecasts came true.

We recommend keeping the results in one table: query, interest dynamics, seasonality, search volume, priority and planned action. This makes it easier to track changes and see which topics are already in progress.

If the weekly analysis helps you find promising queries, gradually turn the checklist into a permanent part of your SEO and content planning. This will allow you to make decisions based on accumulated data rather than isolated spikes on a chart.

Conclusion

Google Trends helps determine when interest in products and services grows, which queries are gaining popularity and in which regions it is worth checking demand potential. Use this data to prepare seasonal content in advance, choose priority topics for SEO and plan ad campaigns. Before making decisions, check search volume in Google Keyword Planner and your website’s impressions and clicks in Search Console.

If you need a systematic approach, the LuxSite team will help you use this data for SEO promotion: collect keywords, identify promising queries and build a content plan that takes into account seasonality and your business goals.

FAQ

What do the numbers in Google Trends mean?

It is an index of a query’s relative popularity on a scale from 0 to 100. A value of 100 corresponds to peak interest in the selected period and region, 50 to half that relative interest. Zero means there is not enough data. These figures don’t reflect the actual number of searches.

Does Google Trends show search volume?

No, the service shows popularity dynamics, not absolute search volume. To estimate the number of searches, use Google Keyword Planner, and to analyze your website’s impressions and clicks, use Google Search Console.

How do you find growing queries?

Enter a topic in Google Trends and select the region “Ukraine” and the desired period. In the Related queries block, switch to Rising. The service will show the queries with the biggest growth in interest. The Breakout label means an increase of more than 5,000%, but not necessarily a high search volume.

Is the service free?

Yes, Google Trends is free. You can use it in a browser without registering. You can export data and share charts. Registration is only needed for certain features tied to your Google account, such as subscribing to topics in the interface.

How do you compare two queries?

Enter the first query, click “Compare” and add the second one. Select the same region, period and search type. Both queries will be displayed on a common chart with a 0–100 scale. In the updated Explore, you can compare up to 8 groups of queries; in the classic interface, up to 5.

How do you use Google Trends for a content plan?

Make a list of topics and compare them by peaks and seasonality. Put topics that will grow in the coming months first and evergreen topics in the gaps. For each, check the search volume in Keyword Planner and the impressions in Search Console. Schedule the publication date 1–2 months before the expected peak.