Knowing what people are searching for online can provide invaluable insight for businesses, marketers, and website owners. By analyzing search trends and search volumes, you can identify rising topics of interest, seasonal spikes in certain keywords, and gain ideas for new content, products or services that could attract an audience. Thankfully there are a number of useful websites that offer free tools to see what people are searching for.
Google Trends
Google Trends (https://trends.google.com) is perhaps the most well-known free tool for checking search volumes. Google Trends shows how frequently certain keywords or search terms are entered in Google’s search engine over time, and compares search volumes for multiple terms. You can filter searches by location and time period, seeing whether interest rises or falls at certain points of the year. It also reveals the top searches within a category or topic.
Understanding seasonal fluctuations, ongoing trends and top searches in your niche allows you to create content timed around rising attention, write knowledge articles on perennially-popular topics, or develop products and services aligned with demand. You can also find opportunities in less competitive long-tail keyword searches with decent search volume.
AnswerThePublic
While Google Trends focuses solely on search volumes, AnswerThePublic (https://answerthepublic.com) visually maps out the kinds of questions people are asking around topics. Choose a keyword or phrase and it generates a fascinating insight into the types of questions searchers want answered.
Seeing the questions people are searching can lead to excellent content ideas addressing the precise information people look for. It may reveal issues they often struggle with regarding a product/service, or specific comparisons they want made between brands or options. Content that answers the questions internet users search for has a better chance of ranking well and satisfying reader needs.
Ubersuggest
Neil Patel’s free Ubersuggest tool (https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/) generates keyword ideas related to a root term or website topic, along with their estimated search volumes, cost-per-click and competition levels. This allows you to research keywords before targeting them in your content or SEO efforts, establishing which have enough search volume to be worthwhile targeting, and which are too competitive to realistically try and rank for initially.
It also shows suggestions for long-tail variations of keywords that may be less competitive but still see search interest. The key insights let you refine keyword research to focus your efforts for maximum impact based on search behavior.
Soovle
Soovle (https://soovle.com) is a multi-engine search tool for keyword research and trend analysis. Enter a term and Soovle searches across over 500 million online resources including search engines, social networks, online encyclopedia sites and more to show what people are searching for and how search volumes change over time.
It visualizes the popularity of enteries in different categories like news, images, shopping, definitions and more. A chart also estimates monthly search volumes to indicate rising or declining interest. Discover trending topics that may be ripe for targeting.
Google Keyword Planner
Google’s free Keyword Planner tool requires creating a Google Ads account, but provides excellent insight. It suggests keyword ideas related to entered terms along with estimated monthly search volumes, levels of competition for Google Ads, and bid prices.
A great feature is the ability to filter keywords based on historical search volume patterns. See which maintain steady search volume, are rising rapidly, have seasonal spikes at certain points annually, or are declining. This helps reveal keywords with growing or shrinking interest where opportunity may exist.
Listening To The Public
While search behavior doesn’t capture all online activity, keeping a close eye on these useful websites gives a window into the interests, questions and concerns occupying the minds of many in your niche. Aligning your website content, products and marketing to what the public actively searches for is key for making the most of your online presence and traffic-building efforts.
The ability to enter root keywords related to your industry and explore the searching being done around it lets you tap into user intent – discovering problems needing solving so you can provide solutions. Take time regularly assessing search term data to ensure your website properly serves the wants and meets the needs the public exhibits through their searching.
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