Video marketing is here to stay. Cisco predicts 82 percent of all internet traffic will be video by 2022. Also, according to HubSpot, 53 percent of users want to see more video content.
If video is part of your digital marketing strategy, you’ll want to pay attention to the new learning video rich results from Google. This structured markup is fast becoming a cornerstone of video SEO for learning content.
So what is it, why does it matter, and (more importantly) how do you optimize for learning video rich results?
Here is what you need to know to implement this feature.
What Are Learning Video Rich Results, and Why Are They Important?
Learning video markup is structured data that displays key moments in educational videos, along with a short description and a time stamp, right in the search results. This allows users to see what topics a video covers and quickly skip to the most relevant part of a video.
According to Google, it is designed to provide more search visibility for educational video content.
A few notes about this new type of markup: learning video rich results only display in English, though they’re available anywhere Google Search is available.
They can show up on both mobile and desktop search results, but remember, this feature is only available for learning-related content.
Here’s an example of the code used for learning video rich results:
Why is this new markup significant? There are a few reasons why digital marketers should be paying attention.
First, schema markup helps SEO by making it easier for Google to understand what a video is about. From a user perspective, it helps users quickly find the information they need without watching an entire video.
Even better, the video rich results have a CTR of 62 percent, making it one of the top-performing rich result types.
Learning video rich results also take up more space in the search results, helping to increase visibility and click-through rates.
Here’s a look at the space a normal video takes up in the search results and another with rich results:
The rich result is bigger and far more useful than the standard video search result.
According to Google, publishers can add this markup to educational videos at any stage, from preschool to professional training.
Technical Implementation Guidelines for Learning Video Rich Results
To use this new feature, Google requires a few technical adjustments. First, your video must be educational content. Then, take these steps:
In addition to the Learning Video markup, Google requires adding the VideoObject schema markup, which includes a description, name, thumbnail URL, and upload date.
Your video must be public and cannot require a subscription to watch.
Video must be at least 30 seconds in length. (Though I suspect longer videos are more likely to be selected for rich results since they can be more comprehensive.)
Learning Video markup must be added to the page where users can watch the video.
Then, like other rich results, it’s up to Google to decide which video will show up in the search results with these features.
You can optimize for the feature, but you can’t make Google choose your website.
Types of Learning Video Rich Results Properties
Learning video rich results display more information about concepts and skills taught in the video. In addition to the video object markup, there are several other properties Google suggests adding.
These include:
educationalLevel, educationalAlignment, or learningResourceType : Tell Google the educational level, test, or exam the video is related to, such as “common core” or “SAT test.”
hasPart: A list of clips in the video that defines what each clip is about, including options like problem walk through, overview of a concept, or the text of the problem being solved.
These parts of the coding are crucial to helping Google understand what concepts the video covers.
Best Practices for Rich Results Optimization
Rich snippets add new features to the search results, including Learning Video Rich Results, product images, product reviews, and a longer description. Like other rich results, publishers can add the markup to videos, but Google decides which search result is the best fit.
There are, however, a few steps you can take to improve the chances of Google displaying rich results for your educational content.
Add Structured Data To Your Website
This is the most important, and arguably the most difficult step. Head to Google or Schema.org to find the coding you need to add structured data to your website.
Structured data helps Google understand your content by sharing details in pre-outlined formats.
What is the difference between structured and unstructured data? Imagine a teacher asking students to turn in a 2,000-word essay, and some students turn in their papers on construction paper, written on large cardboard boxes, or even in digital files. It would be challenging to read and grade all those papers—that’s the equivalent to unstructured data.
Structured data would be like the teacher providing an outline for the essay and asking students to type their responses in Arial,11-point font and print it on 11 x 7 paper—they’d have a much easier time reading and grading those papers!
Structured data is similar—it’s a set of guidelines that helps Google understand content better by ensuring it fits into a format they understand.
While the coding might feel overwhelming, it might not be as complicated as you think. Head to Google to grab their code, then adjust it to fit your video. You may need the help of a developer or a plugin to add the code to your website.
Make Sure Your Content Is Useful to Users, Not Just Google
Learning video rich results is another way for digital marketers to help Google understand content—however, it’s not a silver bullet. This markup won’t make mediocre content go viral.
Rather, this will help users find really great video content that is already out there. You’ll still need to follow video SEO best practices and create useful video.
Aim to answer users’ questions thoroughly, ensure your video and audio are clear and easy to understand, and include keywords in your descriptions.
Validate Your Structured Data
Structured data is coding that helps sites snag those rich results. Because it’s structured in a specific way, Google (and other search engines) can easily understand your content.
However, because it’s coding, things can go wrong.
Validating your structured data ensures the code embedded in your site is valid and can be easily read by search engines. Use Google’s Rich Result Testing tool to ensure your markup is working properly.
Keep an Eye on Google Search Console for Errors
Google Search Console has a rich snippet report that shows which rich snippets your site is eligible for and reports issues. Note, you will only see this report if Google finds a rich result in your property and if the rich result is supported by the report.
To access this report, look for “Enhancements” in the menu pane. The report includes a summary chart of valid and invalid items, a list of issues, and a link to get more information about problems found on your site.
Check this report regularly so you can fix any issues with rich results fast.
Top Rich Results Testing Tools
As already mentioned, Google has a rich results testing tool that ensures your markup is working correctly. However, there are a few other options, including:
ClassySchema.org: Validates code and shows you what it might look like in the search results.
Schema.dev: see if your JSON-LD code is accurate and check for warnings.
SEO tools, like Semrush, may also provide information about rich snippets on your site.
FAQs
What are rich results?
Rich results are expanded search results that include additional information. Rich results have a higher click-through rate, but require site owners to add coding to their website. Note that Google chooses which sites appear with rich results.
How do I get rich results on Google?
Getting rich results on Google is a 2-part process. First, you need to set up the appropriate schema on your page to give Google the technical capability to recognize your content in a schema format. After that, you need to build up the SEO presence of that content so Google decides your content is worth getting a rich result.
What is Google’s rich results test?
The rich results test is a free tool that Google offers that allows you to test any publicly accessible page to see potential rich results that it can have based on its schema.
What is Videoobject schema?
Videoobject schema is schema that describes a singular video, generally as part of an embedded object.
What is video structured data?
Like all structured data, video structured data is a set format to provide info about a page and create a set category for its data. In this case, it’s classifying the content as a video, but also elements about the video, like highlighting essential parts through the Key Moments feature.
How does marking up my educational video help CTR?
Adding markup to your educational video increases click-through rate by making it easier for users to tell if your video is relevant and by taking up more physical space in the search results.
How do I test if my schema markup is implemented right?
Use a rich snippet validation tool to ensure your markup is implemented correctly, and check the Rich Snippets Report in Google Search Console.
Rich results are expanded search results that include additional information. Rich results have a higher click-through rate, but require site owners to add coding to their website. Note that Google chooses which sites appear with rich results.
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The rich results test is a free tool that Google offers that allows you to test any publicly accessible page to see potential rich results that it can have based on its schema.
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Conclusion
Google has made it clear that they care more about user experience than keyword stuffing or perfectly optimized content.
Between its upcoming Helpful Content update and the more recent learning video rich results feature, digital marketers need to focus on delivering value, not just link building or keyword stuffing.
By highlighting important topics and moments in educational videos, Google is helping improve click-through rates for videos and deliver a better user experience.
Have you added learning video rich results to your website? I’d love to hear about the results.
Are you familiar with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines?
It has been around for years (until now), and it broke the dos and don’ts of SEO.
But it was outdated. So, Google replaced it with Search Essentials which gives you a whole new set of requirements if you want to do well with SEO.
They go much more in-depth with what they like and don’t approve of. A lot of it is vague, similar to the old Webmaster Guidelines but they do provide some specifics that will help you out when it comes to SEO.
Here’s what you need to know:
Automated content
They spend a lot of time covering automated content. And it makes sense because there are a lot of tools that provide AI-generated copy.
Heck, we even offer AI content as part of our Ubersuggest tool, and to give you an idea over 20,000 people use it daily.
But I’ve been one of the biggest critics of AI content because no matter what tool you decide to use none of them are good enough to replace a human.
Instead, you can use them to give you a head start, but you need a human to help modify the content to help make it better as well as to add creativity to the piece.
Here’s what Google shared what they don’t like when it comes to AI written content (keep in mind Google also put this in the spam section of Google Essentials):
Text that makes no sense to the reader but contains search keywords
Text translated by an automated tool without human review or curation before publishing
Text generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience
Text generated using automated synonymizing, paraphrasing, or obfuscation techniques
Text generated from scraping feeds or search results
Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding sufficient value
The big takeaway for you here is that Google isn’t saying that you can’t use AI-created content. They have an issue with the quality of AI content.
Just think of it this way if you create AI-written content on a mass scale and don’t have humans editing it, people won’t find it valuable, they will bounce away, and the user metrics won’t be great… which all just means it won’t rank well.
With your content marketing efforts if you want to rank well you really only have a few good options:
Write content yourself
Pay someone to create your content
Use an AI tool to create content, and then use a human to HEAVILY modify it.
If you choose option 3 and still want to rank well, when I say you need someone to “heavily” modify it you’ll have to do a few things:
Expand upon the length – most AI-based content is too short and barely covers the topic. Adding more words will provide more value to the reader.
Add in personal experiences – people love storytelling and reading about personal experiences. It’s how we learn. It’s too hard for an AI writer to add in “personal experiences”. So you will want a human to add that part in.
Make your content fresh – what’s old is old and has probably already been read before. AI writers are pulling from the web and using what’s been written on before to create something that is “new”. But in all honesty, it really isn’t new, it is just regurgitated content. So, you’ll need someone to add in new stats, data, information… anything that makes it stand out from the competition.
Add a dash of personality – in the future AI writers should be able to add personality to the content they create, but I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve literally paid for most if not all the AI writers and tested them out. I’ve yet to see one that adds personality. People connect with humans, not robots, so show your personality through your content.
To even place more emphasis on quality content, Google also recently released the helpful content update, which pretty much breaks downs that you should focus on writing content for users and not Google.
Content types
Reading is becoming less and less popular, especially among the younger generation. According to the American Phycological Association, less than 20% of teens read a book, magazine or newspaper daily. Yet more than 80% say they use social media daily.
And can you guess what type of content social media prefers?
Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan told Fortune:
Something like almost 40% of young people when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search, they go to TikTok or Instagram.
So how is Google adapting? They of course index all forms of content… from videos to podcasts. Plus they released shorts on YouTube which now has over 1.5 billion viewers.
When you are creating different types of content on your website you need to make sure Google can easily classify and index it.
Within Search Essentials, they break down how you can help Google understand the type of content you are creating. This is nothing new, but for them to emphasize this it shows that they understand that the future of SEO isn’t just text-based content and they of course need websites to help them out by using things like schema markup.
This will help ensure that you get the SEO traffic you deserve no matter how Google adjusts its results in the future.
Local SEO
Google mentions a few things that also affect local SEO.
They didn’t really specify that it is for local SEO, but partly is. They don’t want you to keyword stuff and here are some examples of what they don’t want:
Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
Blocks of text that list cities and regions that a web page is trying to rank for
Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural.
A lot of companies have multiple locations. Or if they just have one physical location they tend to create pages for each city/region that is close to their location. That way they can get more SEO traffic.
And what happens is they tend to use similar blocks of text with the same keywords on each of those pages, but they just adjust it slightly by adding a new city or region-based content.
Those pages don’t really add value. They are just for search engines so you can capture traffic from a user searching for local results.
I bet you will see Google cracking down more on that in the future.
If you want to create multiple pages for each city that your company serves you need to add more value.
For example, if I were a solar panel installation and service company that serviced Los Angeles, CA I would want to create city-based pages. Because within Los Angeles you have sub-sections such as Hollywood or Beverly Hills.
I would customize each city page and make it very specific. For example, in Beverly Hills, you can’t place solar panels on the roof that are visible to people on the street or your neighbors. And you can’t place Tesla solar roof tiles that just look like normal “roof tiles” as the Beverly Hills design board won’t approve it.
I would even go as far as showing an image of the Tesla solar roof, like the one below so people know what won’t be approved.
Or I could discuss how long it takes to get city approval and what the process is for Beverly Hills as it is different than Hollywood.
There are many more ways to customize your local city pages, but the above are just two simple ways I would make them valuable to both users and Google.
If you want to create multiple city pages think about what value you can provide. Sure you want the traffic and rankings, but to get that put the user first and make sure they are getting more value from you than the competition.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things Google covers in Search Essentials, but most of it is old or nothing that you already didn’t know.
The bigger things are:
They want humans to adjust AI-written content and not just publish it as is because it doesn’t provide much value.
Make sure you help Google understand the content types that you are using. SEO is mainly about text-based content today, but that is going to change as many users (especially the younger audience) prefer image and video-based content.
Google wants to crack down on local SEO spam of users just creating duplicate pages that don’t change much other than they are targeting specific cities or regions.
So what do you think about the Google Search Essentials?
Most people don’t use a tool without looking at a manual.
But it’s even better if someone can explain it to you.
I want to make sure you know how to use Google Keyword Planner to its full potential.
Let me give you that insight, starting with the basics.
What is Google Keyword Planner?
Google Keyword Planner (GKP) is an SEO tool designed to find keywords with sufficient search volume. Finding keywords with enough search volume allows a website to be indexed and ranked.
Whether you are in charge of an active website, blog, or e-commerce site, you can use GKP to
generate more traffic, promote apps, and create paid campaigns, among other uses.
Why is Google Keyword Planner Useful?
The main attraction of Google Keyword Planner is that it is developed by Google itself. You can’t get much better than that in the search engine segment.
“But Neil, aren’t there other keyword planners that do the same?”
Of course, and with great features, but not as complete as Keyword Planner.
The more you explore the tool, the more value you find.
Here’s why it’s an above-average tool.
Accessing Google Keyword Planner
What’s great is you don’t have to spend a dime to gain access and get started.
But you do have to create a Google Ads account first.
Even if you’re not planning on exploring ads on Google, you’ll need to create an account to use Keyword Planner.
AdWords just takes a couple minutes to set up. Then, you’re ready to start planning.
Following the ‘Google Ads Account’ prompts, you’ll want to ‘Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.’
After you confirm your business details, find the ‘Tools & Settings’ icon to reveal the menu for ‘Keyword Planner.’
Now that you’re ready to use the Keyword Planner, let’s put it to work.
How To Use Google Keyword Planner Step-By-Step
You’ll start from this screen and decide if you want to ‘Discover new keywords’ or “Get search volume and forecasts.”
Since I want to show you some new ideas, let’s click ‘Discover new keywords.’
When looking for new opportunities, you can gain insight into what your potential audience or customers are searching for.
Getting specific will help you hit your target audience in a way that feels natural.
These new terms make the start of your campaign.
These new terms will be the basis of your new content.
Step 1: Keyword Discovery
From “Discover new keywords,’ you have the option to ‘start with keywords’ or ‘start with a website.’
Say you’re a sterling silver jewelry brand and want to compete for new keywords. Let’s see what new content you can rank for.
Step 2: Organic Keyword Search
Under ‘Enter products or services closely related to your business,’ let’s play around with keyword possibilities. You can change the language and location or choose not to include brand names in the results.
I would skip ‘Enter a domain to use as a filter’ so we’re not limited in our results.
Let’s test out some broad keywords.
Think of the key products or services in relation to your business. From here, we’ll see if they have some high-yielding opportunities.
Step 3: Analyze Keyword Results
Many keyword results will load. Based on what’s presented, here’s what we have:
Keep note of how being broad yet specific to your business offerings will show users’ search intent. You can even see which factors change over time. Maybe everyone is searching for jewelry near Christmas time. With this information, you can use these keyword variations to meet their needs.
The more insight you have, the more strategic you can be. You will know to order more of a certain item or see where you can expand your product offerings.
This is what everyone loves about GKP.
What To Do With Your Google Keyword Planner Results
How you use the Google Keyword Planner tool will depend on what you need to know.
Based on your inputs, let’s analyze the results together.
We can filter the list now, aiming for keywords best for you from the ‘Keywords Results Page.’
You can break things down like this based on these features: locations, language, search networks, and desired date(s).
What does this mean?
‘Locations’ is easy. This pertains to which country or region(s) you consider your target market.
‘Language’ pertains to the native tongue of that country or region(s) you consider your target market. You’ll need to make sure the language and context you use in your content is accurate to the area.
‘Search networks’ pertains to where you want to have your ads displayed. I think Google is the option that makes the most sense. This also includes Google’s search partners, like YouTube.
‘Desired date(s)’ will depend on the period you want to review. The last 12 months is a good starting point unless you have a special search need.
Once you filter from here, you can analyze keyword ideas.
Using the Google Keyword Planner tool for desired keywords looks like this: keyword (by relevance), average monthly searches, and competition. A bonus is the top of page bid, which assesses that keyword’s potential for monetization. The higher the bid, the more likely heavy traffic it’s driving in.
But let’s break down these points.
Keyword (by relevance) results pertain to what Google says is most relevant in relation to the keyword or URL you input.
Average monthly searches pertain to the range of the search volume. Think of this as a rough estimate until you plan your campaign and review the impressions. Impressions will show you the exact number you will likely yield.
Competition pertains to those bidding on the same keyword(s) as you. Keep this number in mind when analyzing any user search intent. Your potential leads are within these results.
Get your technique together because these results will be how you beat your competition.
Ubersuggest vs Google Keyword Planner
Your SEO keyword planner options only get better.
There are many SEO tools that are just as effective and free like the Google Keyword Planner.
In fact, there are tools like Ubersuggest that have the same features — if not more.
But don’t take my word for it.
Let’s compare the two.
Every tool comes with pros and cons.
Some common downfalls of the GKP include average search volumes. Remember how I told you really have to look close at impressions for the exact number? This confuses users and makes them question the value of these results.
In comparison to the GKP, Ubersuggest is recommended for keyword results when generating content ideas. There’s a wide range of options within the features to find more and more ideas. This is something Google Keyword Planner couldn’t sustain, leading to the removal of the ‘Closely Related Ideas’ feature. Since this feature is no longer available, users are turning to website filtering through GKP. But it is lacking in delivering an array of keywords to create content topics from.
Ubersuggest picks up where GKP lacks — offering keyword ideas. The keywords are formed from similar websites, packaged in content ideas, and even keyword clusters. From clusters of keywords, you can broaden your reach and still stick to one general keyword idea.
I also enjoy the newest keyword feature, ‘Keyword Visualization.’ Meaning you can discover how people word things for their search and stem out to other options.
With Ubersuggest, you don’t have to miss these opportunities (which many have complained about with GKP). This happens because insights aren’t visible at the time of the search, or are based on the ads running.
When you have to make predictions, this isn’t helpful in your planning phase.
While Google Keyword Planner is a great tool, sometimes, you have to use one too many hacks for it to work in your favor.
I want to get you acting on your results faster.
Ubersuggest Free Features
You want a keyword planner that’s going to work with your goals.
It’s even better if the tool can expand on them.
That’s what Ubersuggest does.
These results for ‘sterling silver jewelry’ are immediate and expansive.
GKP, by comparison, takes a little more time for you to get used to the tool in order to yield the information you need.
Use the results from Ubersuggest to generate traffic and ultimately form content strategies.
Use them wisely in headlines and articles and watch your audience grow with quality.
This is what makes Ubersuggest worth it.
Plus, if you need quick and accurate results, this tool gets the job done.
FAQs
Is Google Keyword Planner still free?
Yes, it is still free. All you need is a Google Ads account. If you don’t have one, sign up and follow the on-screen prompts. Go to “Tools” located at the top right of the screen to “Discover new keywords” or “Get search volume forecasts.” Now, you can get to work on your SEO-driven keywords search.
Can you use Google Keyword Planner for SEO?
Yes, under “Discover new keywords,” you can start finding keywords that closely relate to your product or service. You can even enter a domain you want to review. You will then be able to filter and sort through the data you need to analyze which keyword ideas will benefit you.
Conclusion
Google Keyword Planner is a fantastic tool, and it only gets better the more you master it.
Despite being tied to the ad platform, it remains a great choice for top- and middle-funnel content marketing strategies.
Although the tool has its drawbacks, other tools can assist you to get around them. Make sure you have the exact data you need to decide how to proceed with your efforts.
If you’re looking for that supplementary tool, Ubersuggest can help you extract exact data.
I want you to have a leg up on your competition. This will be possible with the new agent to draw the data points you need for success.
So, give Ubersuggest a try against or with Google Keyword Planner and tell me what you think.
What has your experience with Google Keyword Planner been like? Have you tried Ubersuggest’s free capabilities as well? Tell me which one you prefer.
I don’t get it. I have a ton of friends who own companies. As soon as they start making some money, they start talking to me about all kinds of investments.
“Real estate’s supposed to be good.”
“I wanna be an angel investor, any tips?”
My usual response?
“Google Ads, dude!”
They run these big companies, selling great products, and what do they do? Run off and try to put their money in anything, EXCEPT their own business.
Why not just sell more of their products? Double down on what’s already working, instead of starting to play in a field you know nothing about?
In my experience, Google Ads is usually the easiest way to do it. If my friend wants to increase his investment money, say $50,000, he can spend 1000 hours trying to become good at angel investing, learn everything about it, and hopefully land an investment in the next Facebook. A friend of mine could do the same for real estate, trying to snag a cheap apartment or condo, and flip it (easier, but still hard).
Instead, you can spend 100 hours learning Google Ads (or just hire someone who knows it) and invest $50,000 in Google Ads campaigns to make $500,000 in sales. Which one do you think is the most likely to pan out?
In my opinion, option three is a no-brainer.
In light of that, today, I want to open a black box most people are unfamiliar with: Google Ads.
Google Ads is a way to get your money’s worth, often boasting an ROI in the hundreds of percentage points. However, the steps I cover here ensure you’re depositing more money into your own bank account rather than just funding Google’s empire.
Now, let’s get down to it. Tie on your Google Ads apron, grab a pen to write down the key steps of a successful campaign, and follow along as I walk you through how to create a profitable Google Ads campaign from scratch.
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If your customers are not searching for your product or service online, then obviously, Google Ads won’t work for you.
With that in mind, before you get too excited about creating your first Google Ads campaign, you need to verify there is a search volume for what you’re offering.
I recommend using Ubersuggest, which is my free keyword research tool. The keyword tool acts much like a thesaurus. You enter in phrases you think your prospects are searching for, and it tells you other similar, relevant phrases.
Additionally, Ubersuggest tells you how:
often people search these phrases.
competitive the keywords are.
much it costs to advertise on each keyword.
When put together, all this information helps you determine which keywords to use in your first Google Ads campaign.
I also recommend you use the keyword “Suggestions” provided under the main chart. This gives you an idea of related keywords and how much search volume those keywords have.
In addition, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to help you find the best keywords to target. It provides you with bid estimates and total searches, so you can make a plan.
Next, there are three questions to ask to determine whether to advertise on a particular keyword:
Are people looking for the keyword on Google? If there is no search volume, then that tells you no one is typing that phrase into Google.
Is the person searching this keyword likely to buy my product or service? Or is the person more likely just doing research with no intention of buying? In other words, what is the intent of the keyword? When starting out, you need to build your advertising around “buying intent” keywords where the person is clearly looking to buy.
Finally, ask yourself, can I afford to advertise on the keyword? This question is important, but it requires a bit of math to calculate. Let’s take a look at that now.
Google Ads Step #2: Can You Afford to Advertise on Top Keywords?
Before finalizing your keyword list, you must ensure it makes sense to target that term. This prevents you from going after unprofitable keywords. I find it’s better to run these numbers before you start sinking time and money into a campaign destined to fail.
To answer the question “Can I afford to advertise on this keyword?” you need to calculate your maximum cost per click (Max CPC). To do this, you compare your business’s Max CPC to the estimated keyword CPC in the Keyword Tool to see if you can afford to advertise.
For example, if your Max CPC is $5 and the estimated CPC is $4, then you know there’s a good chance you can profitably advertise on that particular keyword.
You determine your Max CPC by your website’s conversion rate, profit per customer, and target advertising profit margin. If you don’t know these numbers, you need to guesstimate or set up tracking to calculate them more accurately.
Use the formula below to calculate your Max CPC and then compare it to the estimated CPC you found above:
Max CPC = (profit per customer) x (1 – profit margin) x (website conversion rate)
For example, let’s say your average profit per customer is $500, and out of 1,000 website visitors, you convert 10 into customers. That means you have a 1 percent website conversion rate.
If you are comfortable with a 30 percent profit margin, then here’s how you would calculate your Max CPC:
Max CPC = $500 x (1 – 0.30) x 1% = $3.50
Again, your Max CPC must be in the neighborhood of the estimated CPC in Google’s Keyword Planner tool, or else you’re in trouble.
Suppose your Max CPC is $3.50 and the estimated CPC for a keyword is $10. In that case, you need to first increase either your profit per customer or your conversion rate before you can profitably advertise on that particular keyword.
Google Ads Step #3: Perform Competitor Analysis
At this point, you now have a list of “buying intent” keywords that you’re confident you can afford. The next step is to reduce your risk by leveraging competitor intelligence.
In most industries, you find competitors who know far more than you do about optimizing and testing their Google Ads campaigns. That means they understand which keywords, ads, and landing pages work in your niche. Peeking into your competitor’s business helps you to determine if it’s easy to outrank a competitor.
Here’s how to get started.
Go to Spyfu.com and enter your keyword. In this case, it’s “cheap bricks.”
It shows you the average CTR and the number of companies that have advertised for this keyword in the past three months.
In this case, there are just 41, which is nothing, considering there are over 1 million companies advertising on Google Ads.
It also shows you other keywords that are performing well on Google Ads.
If you click on “Advertiser history,” you even see the actual ads that your competitors use.
Pro tip: One determinant of relevancy, for Google’s quality score, is whether the keyword shows up in your actual ad.
In this case, Brickit doesn’t even mention bricks in its ad. That means they shouldn’t be too hard to beat.
However, here’s an even better tip.
You can look up an individual competitor. Maybe start with the 800-pound gorilla who’s dominating the SERPs.
Then you can go in and look up all the keywords they’re currently bidding on (along with their estimated volume and costs, of course).
See, combining these approaches helps you uncover your competition’s entire PPC playbook, and then you can reverse engineer it to outperform them.
Sneaky, right?!
Don’t compete. Dominate.
Google Ads Step #4: Leverage a Powerful USP
Your USP, or unique selling proposition, differentiates your business from your competitors and gives your prospects a compelling reason to choose you.
In other words, your USP answers the question, “Why should I, your prospect, choose to do business with you, versus every other option.”
When it comes to Google Ads, there are three important reasons to create a powerful USP. It:
generates more traffic from qualified prospects (encourage clicks on your ads) and repels unwanted leads (prevent clicks on your ads).=
skyrockets your sales conversion rates. Not only do you generate more traffic because you get more clicks on your ads, but you also convert more of your traffic into paying customers.=
reduces price comparison shopping. This can be a game-changer because buyers don’t view you as a commodity. If you give your prospects a compelling reason to do business with you, then price becomes a secondary issue
OK, a USP is a key ingredient. Makes sense, but how do you create one?
Well, first, you focus on your core strengths. What are you better at than your competitors?
Second, talk to your customers, and more importantly, listen to them. The best companies built their USP on customer insight, so ask your customers why they do business with you.
Also, ask questions to determine what your customers dislike about your industry and what your customers wish you could provide in addition to your core products or services.
Third, analyze your competitors, and look for an opening. The most important word in unique selling proposition is unique.
To create a solid USP, you need to study your competitors’ ads, websites, and marketing materials, and find your opportunity to stand out. To find the commonalities in your competitors’ ads and websites, I recommend you use a spreadsheet. As you’re doing this, look for an opening to say something unique and superior.
For example, remember the old Domino’s slogan?
“You get fresh, hot pizza, delivered to you in under 30 minutes – or it’s free!”
What more could you want when ordering pizza? Fast delivery and it’s still hot when you get it.
Domino’s Pizza doesn’t claim to be all things to everybody, though. In fact, it doesn’t even mention quality ingredients, price, or taste. It focuses its entire business on the one thing its customers care about most – fast, on-time delivery.
Picture some college students late Saturday night, and you’re looking at Domino’s Pizza’s ideal customer profile!
Now, spend some time thinking about how you’re different from everyone else. What can you bring to the table that your competitors don’t?
Capitalize on that.
Google Ad Step #5: Have an Irresistible Offer
What can you offer in your Google Ads campaign that is so compelling your prospect would be a fool to not take action? How can you stand out from the other ads your prospect sees in the search results?
Your product or service must be more valuable than the price. That’s marketing 101. This doesn’t mean your offer has to be cheap. You just need to clearly define all the value your product or service provides to your customer and ensure it outweighs your price tag.
2. Believable
When you make an offer that appears to be too good to be true, then your prospect may be a little skeptical. That’s why you must provide a believable reason for your offer.
For example, if you’re running a special sale, explain why you’re offering such a steep discount. The reason could be anything: clearing out inventory, end-of-the-year sale, celebrating an anniversary, opening a new store, your birthday, and so on.
3. Reduce or Reverse Risk
Everyone is scared of getting ripped off online. One of the best tactics to minimize the risk to your customer is with a money-back guarantee. A money-back guarantee puts the risk on your business to deliver excellent service, or else you have to give the money back to the customer.
Whenever possible, I always recommend you include some kind of guarantee in your offer. It improves your response rates, and it’s a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
4. Call to Action
One of my elementary school art teachers once gave me fantastic advice when he was teaching a class. He told me to always “Use the KISS method… Keep it simple, stupid.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but those truly are words to live by, especially when you’re creating an irresistible offer.
If you want your prospect to call you, then make it crystal clear and simple to pick up the phone. Don’t expect your prospect to connect the dots or search around your website to figure out the next step. Use a strong call to action and keep it simple.
At this point, you’re probably wondering when you actually create your Google Ads campaign. After all, we’re already halfway through the steps, and you don’t have any ads to show for it!
Trust me, the first five steps are absolutely critical, and you’ll thank me later once your ads are live and you’re generating profit.
However, since you’re so keen, let’s dive in and talk about creating your ads.
Google Ads Step #6: Create Compelling Ads
With a Google Ads campaign, you pay only when people click on your ads. Therefore, your ads have two crucial jobs:
Attract qualified prospects so they click on your ad instead of competitors’ ads.
Repel unqualified prospects so they do not click and waste your Google Ads budget.
That means more traffic, more sales, and less wasted money on unqualified leads, which all leads to higher profits for you.
Don’t forget that your ads directly affect how much you pay per click for each keyword. Great Google Ads lower your costs, while lousy ones raise your costs.
Do you see why step #6 is so important? This is also why you must complete the previous steps, because we use them all to make the ads more compelling.
There are four key components to your Google Ads text ads:
Headline
Description line 1
Description line 2
Display URL
Headline
The headline is the most critical component because it’s the first thing your prospect will read. Try to include your keyword in your ads’ headline because Google will bold the text, which makes it stand out from other ads.
This also is the easiest way to ensure your ad is 100 percent relevant for the prospect that is searching.
Another great strategy is to ask a question in the headline. For example, if the keyword is “new york city dentist,” a compelling headline is “Need a New York Dentist?”
Not only is part of the keyword in the headline, but the question will get the prospect nodding their head yes. As all great salespeople know, just one yes is sometimes all it takes to start a chain reaction leading to the sale.
In your two description lines, reiterate the benefits of your service, state your USP, provide social proof, and/or describe your offer. And, of course, include your call to action. Google’s description fields allow 90 words each.
Display URL
The display URL is an easily overlooked area of your ads. Don’t just copy and paste your domain name. Instead, use your display URL to include your offer, your call to action, your USP, or anything else that makes your ads stand out.
Here are three examples for a dentist to give you an idea of what you can do:
www.domain.com/Whiter_Smile
www.domain.com/NYC_Dentist
www.domain.com/Free_Whitening
Before we move on, I want to show you an example of a good ad and a bad ad, so you can see the difference.
Example of a Good Ad for the Keyword “appliance repair”:
Same Day Sub-Zero Repair
24 Hour Service…Within 1 Hour
$25 Off Coupon. Call Us Now.
As you can see, the advertiser is clearly targeting a specific niche – people with Sub-Zero appliances. They offer compelling benefits, including same-day 24-hour service within one hour. They have an offer of a $25-off coupon. And they have a clear call to action to call now.
Note that I would try to improve this ad by including the keyword in the title to make it more relevant to the search phrase.
Example of a Weak Ad for the Keyword “appliance repair”:
[Name of Company]
family-owned since 1939 for all
your appliance needs call now
The headline of this ad was the name of the company, which is not relevant to the keyword “appliance repair.” Unless you’re a big-name brand, no one will recognize or even care about your name. It’s not compelling and there’s no congruence from the keyword to the ad.
Also, “family-owned since 1939” is not a specific benefit. There’s implied benefit if the prospect puts two and two together and believes longevity equals good service. However, that’s a lot to ask and clearly does not follow the KISS principle. Stick to explicit benefits rather than implied benefits in your ads.
Finally, the phrase “for all your appliance needs,” is too vague. This is an example of trying to be all things to all people, rather than solving a very specific problem for a very specific target customer.
Google Ads Step #7: Use Relevant Landing Pages
At this point, your prospect is actively searching for your product or service. They found your ad to be compelling versus all of the other options, clicked to learn more, and landed on your website.
Now what?
Well, if you’re like a lot of first-time advertisers, then your prospect is now on your homepage scratching their head trying to figure out what just happened. The ad made a promise the homepage couldn’t keep.
That’s because your homepage is not an advertising landing page!
Homepages explain everything your business does, all of your products and services, and all the different customers you serve. In other words, your homepage is not 100 percent relevant to the keyword searched and the ad clicked. Do not make this mistake.
Instead, create a dedicated landing page that matches the keyword and the ad. The goal is to make the entire sales process congruent so your prospect is continually reassured they are going down the right path.
The most important component on your landing page is your headline, which is the first thing your prospect will read. Your headline must grab attention, reiterate the offer made in the ad, and compel your prospect to keep reading the rest of the page.
Ensure the copy of high-converting landing pages is relevant both to the keyword searched and the ad clicked on. In addition, include:
We’re almost ready to set up your campaign in Google Ads, but there is one final ingredient: conversion tracking.
If you skip this step, you never know which keywords and ads generate sales and which are losing money. In other words, you can’t optimize your Google Ads campaign once it’s up and running.
Conversion tracking measures the sales generated by your Google Ads campaign. More specifically, you want to know which keywords and which ads are generating sales.
If some or all of your sales occur online with an e-commerce shopping cart, then conversion tracking is pretty straightforward. Just use the built-in Google Ads conversion tracking.
The Google Ads conversion tracking code can be found in your Google Ads account under the tool icon, then “Measurements > Conversions.”
To create a new conversion, simply click on the [+ Conversion] button and follow the steps to define your conversion. Then add the small snippet of code to your order form’s thank-you page or receipt page.
This code is similar to Google Analytics code, if you have that installed on your website, but it should be on only the final page after a customer completes their order.
Then, when a customer lands on your receipt page or thank you page, Google tracks the conversions in your Google Ads account automatically. That’s really all there is to it, and there’s no reason not to install this before you turn on your ads.
Google can also track app installs, web conversions, phone calls, and offline conversions.
What if you generate leads online, but you ultimately close the sale “offline” – over the phone or in-person – rather than online? Clearly, you can’t add a conversion code to your cash register, so what can you do?
The three tactics I recommend for tracking offline sales are:
Create a conversion page in your sales process. For example, send all of your customers to a special page to get their receipt, create an account online, or download an important document. Think of a way to get your customers to that webpage and add the Google Ads code to that page. Now you can track the sales.
Use unique coupon codes in your ads and landing pages. If you use unique coupon codes in your ads and landing pages, then you can match the codes back to the ad and keyword that generated the sale.
Use tracking phone numbers in your ads and landing pages. If you use unique tracking phone numbers, you can match the calls and subsequent sales to the ads and keywords that generated the sale.
Once conversion tracking is in place, then the time has finally come to log into Google Ads and set up your first campaign.
The Google Ads interface makes campaign setup a breeze, but don’t blindly accept the default settings as one of them can get you into trouble.
Google Ads Step #9: Settings for Success
As I mentioned, Google Ads does a great job of making it fairly easy to set up your Google Ads campaign. Simply click on the blue plus symbol, then the New Campaign button, as shown below, and follow the steps to add in your ads and keywords.
The process is pretty simple; however, many of the default settings are not in your best interest. That’s why step #9 is to use the correct Ads settings for success.
Here are the most important settings to watch out for:
Search vs. Display
Device Bids
Keyword Match Types
Negative Keywords
Search vs. Display
Select Search Network Only for your campaign type, so you’re targeting only the Google Search Network and not the Display Network.
The display network is a completely different animal than search advertising and it requires a different set of keywords, ads, and landing pages. So always set up separate campaigns to target each network.
Keyword Match Types
Many first-time advertisers have no idea there are different match types. As a result, they waste money on irrelevant search phrases that are not part of the keywords listed in the account.
There are three main keyword match types:
broad
phrase
exact
Broad match, as you now know, is the default match type. If you leave your keywords as a Broad match, then Google will show your ads to any search phrase Google thinks is relevant to your keyword.
This means your ads will get more impressions, but you’ll likely show ads to irrelevant search phrases that will just waste your budget. So I do not recommend Broad match.
Phrase match keywords will trigger ads when the exact phrase is part of the keyword typed into Google. For example, if your Phrase match keyword is “office space,” then your ad will display for “New York office space” and “office space in New York.” However, your ad would not display for “office in space” because the phrase “office space” is broken up by the word “in.”
Phrase match gives you much more control over your ads than Broad match. To change your keyword to Phrase match, simply add quotes around the keyword (see image below).
Exact match simply tells Google to display your ad only when the exact keyword is typed into Google. You get the most control with Exact match, but you limit your exposure. To set your match type to Exact match, add square brackets around your keywords (see image below).
I recommend starting with Phrase match because you get the best of both worlds with regard to targeting and reach. However, when you use Phrase match, you need to make sure you include negative keywords.
Negative Keywords
Negative keywords give you the ability to block phrases from triggering your ads. For example, if you’re an office space rental company advertising on the Phrase match keyword, “office space,” then you will want to block the keyword “movie.”
That way, Google won’t display your ads for an office space rental for folks searching for the Office Space movie.
To add negative keywords, go to the Keywords tab in your account, scroll down, and click on the Negative keyword link (see image below).
Next, click the Add button to add in the keywords you want to block.
Once you’ve completed the setup process, then you’re ready to enable the ads and start optimizing your campaign!
Google Ads Step #10: Optimization
As soon as you set your bidding, enable your campaign, and Google approves your ads, you can take a nice deep breath. Congratulations, your ads are live!
Unfortunately, you can’t relax yet. Most campaigns are not profitable from the start and they always require continual optimization to stay profitable.
There are three main areas to improve your Google Ads campaign performance:
Your keyword bids. For getting started, I recommend using Smart Bidding but once you start to generate clicks and sales, you might want to adjust your bids accordingly. If your keywords are generating sales profitably and you’re not ranked #1, then continue to raise your bids. If your keywords are not generating sales profitably, then obviously, you need to lower your bids or pause the keyword entirely.
Your ad click-through rate (CTR). As I mentioned earlier, your ad CTR directly affects your quality score, which in turn determines how much you pay per click. To optimize your CTR, A/B test different ads to see which version gets the most clicks.
Your landing page conversion rate. The final area to optimize is your landing page. There are many tools to help you test different landing page versions, but if you’re just starting out, I recommend you use Google Optimize. It’s easy and free to get started. Create an experiment to test two different versions of your landing page and measure to see which one generates the most conversions.
Conclusion
You’ve set up your Google Ads. What do you do now? Don’t sit back and wait. I’m serious.
Turn on your second ad and once everything is running, do something else.
Don’t sit at the computer waiting for things to happen.
Remember the third promise that you made before we began? Google Ads takes patience.
As marketers, our job is to capitalize on what’s popular in the “here and now.”
When big news hits, how does the data get interpreted? One great way to figure out what is popular is with Google Trends.
This tool identifies current and existing trends in search marketing. You can then take what you’ve learned and apply it to any (and all) of your marketing strategies.
This article will help you understand how to use Google Trends and the specific steps you can take to maximize your efforts.
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is an incredible tool that helps marketers identify trending topics across varying industries. While initially created for journalists, the world of journalism and marketing have a lot in common.
Both the journalist and the marketer are vying for attention. Whatever it is they’re trying to do, they want to get the attention of as many people as possible using information that is relevant and interesting to the audience.
For example, in October 2021, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the number one trending search on Google. This could be due to a recent football game during the busy football season.
Google tells us this is a popular topic, so it might be a good idea to create some content around that topic. Of course, there are a million other factors that go into deciding what content to create, but Google Trends at least tells us what is popular.
If you have a specific topic that you want to cover but aren’t sure if it’s trending, you can search for it in the search bar at the top.
For example, I decided to search “cryptocurrency” to see what Google had to say.
As you can see, you get a chart ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being incredibly high interest and 0 being nearly no interest.
A few times across the last two years, cryptocurrency has spiked as a highly searched keyword on Google. This could be due to the release of new and popular coins or a lot more people getting established in crypto and keeping track of trends.
Why Should You Use Google Trends for Marketing?
Even if you aren’t involved in content creation, you should know how to use Google Trends. Marketers who use this tool do so because they understand the importance of capitalizing on trends.
We’re often very focused on producing the most evergreen content possible, but we should also work to maximize our efforts by finding the right time and place to put out a certain piece of content. Here’s how to use Google Trends:
Find Interesting Topics
Whether you’re a blogger, content marketer, or SEO professional, you need to find interesting topics people want to read about. In the SEO world, we’re so focused on our keywords and technical SEO that we sometimes forget that people actually want to read about topics that interest them.
A great way to find what interests people the most is Google Trends. The tool will tell you how much interest surrounds a specific search phrase so you can determine whether or not it’s worth creating content about it.
Keep in mind that not all popular trends are a good choice. To work, look for popular trends that are also related to your industry.
Inspire Creativity
Google Trends is not only useful for written content, but visual content as well. If you’re trying to figure out what to do with your social media or how to improve a featured image on your blog post, Google Trends can help you figure out what your audience wants to see.
By creating a relevant and interesting image, you’re not only generating attention for your content, but showing your target audience you understand them and know exactly what they want. This has many SEO-related benefits, too.
Identify (and Leverage) Seasonal Trends
If you’re in the travel, e-commerce, or tourism industries, your business might be seasonal. Identifying when to stock up on certain items can be difficult.
For example, let’s say you sell a piece of bass fishing equipment in your e-commerce store. You could use Google Trends to see when in the year bass fishing trends the most. Let’s take a look for ourselves.
As you can see from the image, the interest in bass fishing gradually increases through the late winter and into spring. It peaks in early summer and then drops back down as you move into fall and winter again—at least in the Northern hemisphere.
This would tell an e-commerce store owner that it’s time to really start pushing your marketing campaigns in the late winter, because this is when interest is trending. You may also want to increase your inventory to prevent backorders.
5 Ways to Use Google Trends for Marketing
Now that you understand some of the motivation behind how to use Google Trends for SEO, let’s look at the actionable steps you can take to make a difference in your various marketing campaigns.
1. Get Ideas for Blog Posts
Google Trends is a great way to find new and exciting topics to write about. If you’re a writer, you know how challenging it can be to produce content your readers will love and will rank well on Google. Google Trends is a sure-fire method to find good topics because they tell you exactly what is trending.
Best of all, they provide you with specific topics and queries around trending search phrases. Let’s stick with the bass fishing example and scroll down a little bit. One is related topics, and the other is related queries. Here’s what it looks like:
Now you can expand on the theme and write about related topics. Major League Fishing and Bass Anglers Sportsman Society were some top related topics. Based on that, perhaps they were trending since Major League Fishing launched in 2022. On top of that, it was Bass Pro’s 50th anniversary, making a big year in fishing overall.
It’s important to choose blog post topics based on trends if you’re writing something that is time-sensitive. If it’s not evergreen content, it needs to be completely relevant to your audience at the time you publish it.
2. Get Ideas for Social Media Campaigns
Google Trends searches aren’t only for organic search marketing; you can use them for social media as well. Building a large social following and constantly coming up with interesting content to promote is a tall task. Google Trends can help.
We can use the related queries section to identify trending topics and build creatives and copy around that. For example, we see a few searches relating to a bass pro fishing tournament. If we run a fishing e-commerce store, perhaps we want to create a social media campaign on that topic. We could use the tournament to draw attention to our brand and maybe mention professional fishers using gear or lures we offer.
Another interesting query is “winter bass fishing lures.” That is one of those seasonal examples I was talking about. Now might be a good time to create a social media campaign around our best fishing lures for the winter season. People are preparing to fish when it’s cold and we can use that to our advantage.
3. Use It to Improve SEO
One obvious area to use Google Trends for SEO is in organic search. It can also help with keyword research. Not everyone is using Google Trends, so you can use it to identify relevant keywords and then use free SEO tools like Ubersuggest to decide if it’s a valuable keyword or not.
Best of all, you can look at years’ worth of data so you can plan for the future by knowing whether or not a topic is evergreen enough to put in the time and effort.
If we take the same bass fishing keyword and spread it out across five years, it becomes more apparent that the trend will continue for years.
Each year the volume rises and falls during the same months. This can fuel your marketing strategy and help you prepare for the months ahead.
4. Find Long-tail Keywords for Paid Campaigns
Finding the right keywords for your paid campaigns is crucial to your success. It’s also important from a financial standpoint, because the sooner you find the right keywords, the sooner you can start capitalizing on paid ads.
If we narrow our bass fishing search down to 90 days, it tells us more about what is trending right now.
There are three long-tail keywords, with one of them being “bass pro fishing bibs”. A bib is what fishers wear to cover their clothes when they get into the water. They also wear them when it’s getting cold as opposed to waders. This tells us fishers are looking for gear to help them keep warm as the temperatures start to drop.
If we’re not currently selling fishing bibs on our e-commerce store, this would also tell us that now is the time to do so. We may create a paid campaign around that type of product with an image of someone using a bib in a fall-like setting.
This would appeal to our target audience, and we know the term is trending, so there should be plenty of paid search volume.
5. Find Trending Topic Ideas for Webinars
When you’re creating a webinar, you want to reach the right people (those interested in what you have to offer) at the right time. Google Trends can help you do just that.
Sticking with the fishing theme, perhaps you’re selling a course on bass fishing and you’re using a free webinar to draw people in and get them to buy the course. You’ll want to use currently trending topics in social media and PPC advertising to get these people’s attention. You also need to know what anglers are actively searching for on the internet.
In comes Google Trends. The tool lays it all on the line for you to start speaking their language. There should be no need to guess or take chances between proper keyword research and Google Trends.
FAQs
Is Google Trends free to use?
Yes, it is a free tool from Google. Google Trends takes a quick look at what’s trending in the news, what people are currently searching for, and how things change over time. These searches can be based on season or geographic location.
Can Google Trends be used for SEO?
Google Trends is an excellent tool that can support SEO through niche content planning. Put in the keyword you’re curious about following and gain valuable insights into how many people are talking about that topic and other closely related topics. This allows you to curate a highly personalized SEO strategy.
Conclusion
Being able to identify trends is important for all marketers. No matter what industry you’re in, your target audience is actively searching for things on Google, and you need to figure out what those things are.
As marketers, our job is to capitalize on what’s popular in the “here and now.”
When big news hits, how does the data get interpreted? One great way to figure out what is popular is with Google Trends.
This tool identifies current and existing trends in search marketing. You can then take what you’ve learned and apply it to any (and all) of your marketing strategies.
This article will help you understand how to use Google Trends and the specific steps you can take to maximize your efforts.
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is an incredible tool that helps marketers identify trending topics across varying industries. While initially created for journalists, the world of journalism and marketing have a lot in common.
Both the journalist and the marketer are vying for attention. Whatever it is they’re trying to do, they want to get the attention of as many people as possible using information that is relevant and interesting to the audience.
For example, in October 2021, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the number one trending search on Google. This could be due to a recent football game during the busy football season.
Google tells us this is a popular topic, so it might be a good idea to create some content around that topic. Of course, there are a million other factors that go into deciding what content to create, but Google Trends at least tells us what is popular.
If you have a specific topic that you want to cover but aren’t sure if it’s trending, you can search for it in the search bar at the top.
For example, I decided to search “cryptocurrency” to see what Google had to say.
As you can see, you get a chart ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being incredibly high interest and 0 being nearly no interest.
A few times across the last two years, cryptocurrency has spiked as a highly searched keyword on Google. This could be due to the release of new and popular coins or a lot more people getting established in crypto and keeping track of trends.
Why Should You Use Google Trends for Marketing?
Even if you aren’t involved in content creation, you should know how to use Google Trends. Marketers who use this tool do so because they understand the importance of capitalizing on trends.
We’re often very focused on producing the most evergreen content possible, but we should also work to maximize our efforts by finding the right time and place to put out a certain piece of content. Here’s how to use Google Trends:
Find Interesting Topics
Whether you’re a blogger, content marketer, or SEO professional, you need to find interesting topics people want to read about. In the SEO world, we’re so focused on our keywords and technical SEO that we sometimes forget that people actually want to read about topics that interest them.
A great way to find what interests people the most is Google Trends. The tool will tell you how much interest surrounds a specific search phrase so you can determine whether or not it’s worth creating content about it.
Keep in mind that not all popular trends are a good choice. To work, look for popular trends that are also related to your industry.
Inspire Creativity
Google Trends is not only useful for written content, but visual content as well. If you’re trying to figure out what to do with your social media or how to improve a featured image on your blog post, Google Trends can help you figure out what your audience wants to see.
By creating a relevant and interesting image, you’re not only generating attention for your content, but showing your target audience you understand them and know exactly what they want. This has many SEO-related benefits, too.
Identify (and Leverage) Seasonal Trends
If you’re in the travel, e-commerce, or tourism industries, your business might be seasonal. Identifying when to stock up on certain items can be difficult.
For example, let’s say you sell a piece of bass fishing equipment in your e-commerce store. You could use Google Trends to see when in the year bass fishing trends the most. Let’s take a look for ourselves.
As you can see from the image, the interest in bass fishing gradually increases through the late winter and into spring. It peaks in early summer and then drops back down as you move into fall and winter again—at least in the Northern hemisphere.
This would tell an e-commerce store owner that it’s time to really start pushing your marketing campaigns in the late winter, because this is when interest is trending. You may also want to increase your inventory to prevent backorders.
5 Ways to Use Google Trends for Marketing
Now that you understand some of the motivation behind how to use Google Trends for SEO, let’s look at the actionable steps you can take to make a difference in your various marketing campaigns.
1. Get Ideas for Blog Posts
Google Trends is a great way to find new and exciting topics to write about. If you’re a writer, you know how challenging it can be to produce content your readers will love and will rank well on Google. Google Trends is a sure-fire method to find good topics because they tell you exactly what is trending.
Best of all, they provide you with specific topics and queries around trending search phrases. Let’s stick with the bass fishing example and scroll down a little bit. One is related topics, and the other is related queries. Here’s what it looks like:
Now you can expand on the theme and write about related topics. Major League Fishing and Bass Anglers Sportsman Society were some top related topics. Based on that, perhaps they were trending since Major League Fishing launched in 2022. On top of that, it was Bass Pro’s 50th anniversary, making a big year in fishing overall.
It’s important to choose blog post topics based on trends if you’re writing something that is time-sensitive. If it’s not evergreen content, it needs to be completely relevant to your audience at the time you publish it.
2. Get Ideas for Social Media Campaigns
Google Trends searches aren’t only for organic search marketing; you can use them for social media as well. Building a large social following and constantly coming up with interesting content to promote is a tall task. Google Trends can help.
We can use the related queries section to identify trending topics and build creatives and copy around that. For example, we see a few searches relating to a bass pro fishing tournament. If we run a fishing e-commerce store, perhaps we want to create a social media campaign on that topic. We could use the tournament to draw attention to our brand and maybe mention professional fishers using gear or lures we offer.
Another interesting query is “winter bass fishing lures.” That is one of those seasonal examples I was talking about. Now might be a good time to create a social media campaign around our best fishing lures for the winter season. People are preparing to fish when it’s cold and we can use that to our advantage.
3. Use It to Improve SEO
One obvious area to use Google Trends for SEO is in organic search. It can also help with keyword research. Not everyone is using Google Trends, so you can use it to identify relevant keywords and then use free SEO tools like Ubersuggest to decide if it’s a valuable keyword or not.
Best of all, you can look at years’ worth of data so you can plan for the future by knowing whether or not a topic is evergreen enough to put in the time and effort.
If we take the same bass fishing keyword and spread it out across five years, it becomes more apparent that the trend will continue for years.
Each year the volume rises and falls during the same months. This can fuel your marketing strategy and help you prepare for the months ahead.
4. Find Long-tail Keywords for Paid Campaigns
Finding the right keywords for your paid campaigns is crucial to your success. It’s also important from a financial standpoint, because the sooner you find the right keywords, the sooner you can start capitalizing on paid ads.
If we narrow our bass fishing search down to 90 days, it tells us more about what is trending right now.
There are three long-tail keywords, with one of them being “bass pro fishing bibs”. A bib is what fishers wear to cover their clothes when they get into the water. They also wear them when it’s getting cold as opposed to waders. This tells us fishers are looking for gear to help them keep warm as the temperatures start to drop.
If we’re not currently selling fishing bibs on our e-commerce store, this would also tell us that now is the time to do so. We may create a paid campaign around that type of product with an image of someone using a bib in a fall-like setting.
This would appeal to our target audience, and we know the term is trending, so there should be plenty of paid search volume.
5. Find Trending Topic Ideas for Webinars
When you’re creating a webinar, you want to reach the right people (those interested in what you have to offer) at the right time. Google Trends can help you do just that.
Sticking with the fishing theme, perhaps you’re selling a course on bass fishing and you’re using a free webinar to draw people in and get them to buy the course. You’ll want to use currently trending topics in social media and PPC advertising to get these people’s attention. You also need to know what anglers are actively searching for on the internet.
In comes Google Trends. The tool lays it all on the line for you to start speaking their language. There should be no need to guess or take chances between proper keyword research and Google Trends.
FAQs
Is Google Trends free to use?
Yes, it is a free tool from Google. Google Trends takes a quick look at what’s trending in the news, what people are currently searching for, and how things change over time. These searches can be based on season or geographic location.
Can Google Trends be used for SEO?
Google Trends is an excellent tool that can support SEO through niche content planning. Put in the keyword you’re curious about following and gain valuable insights into how many people are talking about that topic and other closely related topics. This allows you to curate a highly personalized SEO strategy.
Conclusion
Being able to identify trends is important for all marketers. No matter what industry you’re in, your target audience is actively searching for things on Google, and you need to figure out what those things are.
As marketers, our job is to capitalize on what’s popular in the “here and now.”
When big news hits, how does the data get interpreted? One great way to figure out what is popular is with Google Trends.
This tool identifies current and existing trends in search marketing. You can then take what you’ve learned and apply it to any (and all) of your marketing strategies.
This article will help you understand how to use Google Trends and the specific steps you can take to maximize your efforts.
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is an incredible tool that helps marketers identify trending topics across varying industries. While initially created for journalists, the world of journalism and marketing have a lot in common.
Both the journalist and the marketer are vying for attention. Whatever it is they’re trying to do, they want to get the attention of as many people as possible using information that is relevant and interesting to the audience.
For example, in October 2021, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the number one trending search on Google. This could be due to a recent football game during the busy football season.
Google tells us this is a popular topic, so it might be a good idea to create some content around that topic. Of course, there are a million other factors that go into deciding what content to create, but Google Trends at least tells us what is popular.
If you have a specific topic that you want to cover but aren’t sure if it’s trending, you can search for it in the search bar at the top.
For example, I decided to search “cryptocurrency” to see what Google had to say.
As you can see, you get a chart ranging from 0 to 100, with 100 being incredibly high interest and 0 being nearly no interest.
A few times across the last two years, cryptocurrency has spiked as a highly searched keyword on Google. This could be due to the release of new and popular coins or a lot more people getting established in crypto and keeping track of trends.
Why Should You Use Google Trends for Marketing?
Even if you aren’t involved in content creation, you should know how to use Google Trends. Marketers who use this tool do so because they understand the importance of capitalizing on trends.
We’re often very focused on producing the most evergreen content possible, but we should also work to maximize our efforts by finding the right time and place to put out a certain piece of content. Here’s how to use Google Trends:
Find Interesting Topics
Whether you’re a blogger, content marketer, or SEO professional, you need to find interesting topics people want to read about. In the SEO world, we’re so focused on our keywords and technical SEO that we sometimes forget that people actually want to read about topics that interest them.
A great way to find what interests people the most is Google Trends. The tool will tell you how much interest surrounds a specific search phrase so you can determine whether or not it’s worth creating content about it.
Keep in mind that not all popular trends are a good choice. To work, look for popular trends that are also related to your industry.
Inspire Creativity
Google Trends is not only useful for written content, but visual content as well. If you’re trying to figure out what to do with your social media or how to improve a featured image on your blog post, Google Trends can help you figure out what your audience wants to see.
By creating a relevant and interesting image, you’re not only generating attention for your content, but showing your target audience you understand them and know exactly what they want. This has many SEO-related benefits, too.
Identify (and Leverage) Seasonal Trends
If you’re in the travel, e-commerce, or tourism industries, your business might be seasonal. Identifying when to stock up on certain items can be difficult.
For example, let’s say you sell a piece of bass fishing equipment in your e-commerce store. You could use Google Trends to see when in the year bass fishing trends the most. Let’s take a look for ourselves.
As you can see from the image, the interest in bass fishing gradually increases through the late winter and into spring. It peaks in early summer and then drops back down as you move into fall and winter again—at least in the Northern hemisphere.
This would tell an e-commerce store owner that it’s time to really start pushing your marketing campaigns in the late winter, because this is when interest is trending. You may also want to increase your inventory to prevent backorders.
5 Ways to Use Google Trends for Marketing
Now that you understand some of the motivation behind how to use Google Trends for SEO, let’s look at the actionable steps you can take to make a difference in your various marketing campaigns.
1. Get Ideas for Blog Posts
Google Trends is a great way to find new and exciting topics to write about. If you’re a writer, you know how challenging it can be to produce content your readers will love and will rank well on Google. Google Trends is a sure-fire method to find good topics because they tell you exactly what is trending.
Best of all, they provide you with specific topics and queries around trending search phrases. Let’s stick with the bass fishing example and scroll down a little bit. One is related topics, and the other is related queries. Here’s what it looks like:
Now you can expand on the theme and write about related topics. Major League Fishing and Bass Anglers Sportsman Society were some top related topics. Based on that, perhaps they were trending since Major League Fishing launched in 2022. On top of that, it was Bass Pro’s 50th anniversary, making a big year in fishing overall.
It’s important to choose blog post topics based on trends if you’re writing something that is time-sensitive. If it’s not evergreen content, it needs to be completely relevant to your audience at the time you publish it.
2. Get Ideas for Social Media Campaigns
Google Trends searches aren’t only for organic search marketing; you can use them for social media as well. Building a large social following and constantly coming up with interesting content to promote is a tall task. Google Trends can help.
We can use the related queries section to identify trending topics and build creatives and copy around that. For example, we see a few searches relating to a bass pro fishing tournament. If we run a fishing e-commerce store, perhaps we want to create a social media campaign on that topic. We could use the tournament to draw attention to our brand and maybe mention professional fishers using gear or lures we offer.
Another interesting query is “winter bass fishing lures.” That is one of those seasonal examples I was talking about. Now might be a good time to create a social media campaign around our best fishing lures for the winter season. People are preparing to fish when it’s cold and we can use that to our advantage.
3. Use It to Improve SEO
One obvious area to use Google Trends for SEO is in organic search. It can also help with keyword research. Not everyone is using Google Trends, so you can use it to identify relevant keywords and then use free SEO tools like Ubersuggest to decide if it’s a valuable keyword or not.
Best of all, you can look at years’ worth of data so you can plan for the future by knowing whether or not a topic is evergreen enough to put in the time and effort.
If we take the same bass fishing keyword and spread it out across five years, it becomes more apparent that the trend will continue for years.
Each year the volume rises and falls during the same months. This can fuel your marketing strategy and help you prepare for the months ahead.
4. Find Long-tail Keywords for Paid Campaigns
Finding the right keywords for your paid campaigns is crucial to your success. It’s also important from a financial standpoint, because the sooner you find the right keywords, the sooner you can start capitalizing on paid ads.
If we narrow our bass fishing search down to 90 days, it tells us more about what is trending right now.
There are three long-tail keywords, with one of them being “bass pro fishing bibs”. A bib is what fishers wear to cover their clothes when they get into the water. They also wear them when it’s getting cold as opposed to waders. This tells us fishers are looking for gear to help them keep warm as the temperatures start to drop.
If we’re not currently selling fishing bibs on our e-commerce store, this would also tell us that now is the time to do so. We may create a paid campaign around that type of product with an image of someone using a bib in a fall-like setting.
This would appeal to our target audience, and we know the term is trending, so there should be plenty of paid search volume.
5. Find Trending Topic Ideas for Webinars
When you’re creating a webinar, you want to reach the right people (those interested in what you have to offer) at the right time. Google Trends can help you do just that.
Sticking with the fishing theme, perhaps you’re selling a course on bass fishing and you’re using a free webinar to draw people in and get them to buy the course. You’ll want to use currently trending topics in social media and PPC advertising to get these people’s attention. You also need to know what anglers are actively searching for on the internet.
In comes Google Trends. The tool lays it all on the line for you to start speaking their language. There should be no need to guess or take chances between proper keyword research and Google Trends.
FAQs
Is Google Trends free to use?
Yes, it is a free tool from Google. Google Trends takes a quick look at what’s trending in the news, what people are currently searching for, and how things change over time. These searches can be based on season or geographic location.
Can Google Trends be used for SEO?
Google Trends is an excellent tool that can support SEO through niche content planning. Put in the keyword you’re curious about following and gain valuable insights into how many people are talking about that topic and other closely related topics. This allows you to curate a highly personalized SEO strategy.
Conclusion
Being able to identify trends is important for all marketers. No matter what industry you’re in, your target audience is actively searching for things on Google, and you need to figure out what those things are.
Google provides a free tool called Google Search Console that offers a ton of detailed information about your site’s performance, security issues, errors, and more.
How does it work? That’s what we’re going to cover today.
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console is a suite of tools from Google that helps you track your site’s performance, find issues, and help your site rank higher in Google. It is a powerful, but complex, tool.
Back in 2010, we wrote a thorough beginner’s guide to Google Webmaster Tools. Since then, there have been significant changes to Google Webmaster Tools, including a rebranding as Google Search Console.
We’ve updated this guide to include how to use Google Search Console, what data you’ll find about your website, important data you might have forgotten about, and how to continually monitor for any issues that might affect your search engine rankings.
How to Set Up Google Search Console
If you haven’t already, the first thing you will need to do is set up your website with Google Search Console.
To do this, visit the Search Console website, sign in with your Google Account, preferably the one you are already using for Google Analytics.
Click the Start Now button to the lower left-side of the screen, and you’ll see this dialogue box:
Select the URL prefix, as it gives you more options for verification.
Next, you will have to verify this site as yours.
Previously, this involved embedding code into your website header or upload an HTML file to your web server.
Now, if you already have Google Analytics, it automatically verifies your site for you and you will see this:
One of the newest verification options, DNS CNAME verification, is actually something that was in the old Google Webmaster Tools, but has been brought back for Google Search Console.
Once your site is verified, you will want to submit a sitemap if you have one available.
This is a simple XML file that will tell Google Search Console what pages you have on your website.
If you have one already, you can usually find it by typing in http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to see it in your browser.
If you are running a website on your own domain using WordPress, you can install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
Once you have activated the plugin, look under your Settings in the WordPress dashboard and click on XML-Sitemap.
The plugin should have already generated your sitemap, so there’s nothing else you have to do.
You’ll find your URL at the very top of the page:
Copy the link address and head back over to Google Search Console, then paste it under “Add a new site map” in GSC.
It may take a few days for Search Console to start pulling information about your website.
Be sure to wait a bit, then keep reading to find out what else you can learn from Google Search Console!
What Data Can You Pull From Google Search Console?
Once you’ve added and verified your website, you’ll be able to see tons of information about your site performance in GSC.
Remember, this is a powerful tool; these are only the highlights of new types of data and the important data you should remember to check on occasionally.
Google Search Console Overview
When you visit your website in GSC, you will first see your Overview.
This is an overview of the important data within Google Search Console. You can visit specific areas such as your Crawl Errors, Search Analytics, and Sitemaps from this screen by clicking on the applicable links.
You can also navigate to these areas using the menu in the left sidebar.
Search Results
In the left sidebar, you’ll see Search Results.
This section gives you an overview of how your site appears in the Search Engine Results Page, including total clicks, impressions, position, click-through rate, and what queries your site shows up for.
The filters at the top allow you to sort data based on location, date, type of search, and much more. This data is crucial to understanding the impact of your SEO efforts.
Index Coverage Report
This report gives you data about the URLs Google has tried to index on your selected property and any problems Google has had.
As Googlebot crawls the internet, it processes each page it comes across to compile an index of every word it sees on every page.
It also looks at content tags and attributes like your titles or alt texts.
This graph shows a breakdown of the URLs on your site that have been indexed by Google and can thus appear in search results.
As you add and remove pages, this graph will change with you.
Don’t worry too much if you have a smaller number of indexed pages than you think you should. Googlebot filters out the URLs it sees as a duplicate, non-canonical, or those with a no index meta tag.
You’ll also notice a number of URLs your robots.txt file has disallowed from crawling.
And you can also check how many URLs you’ve removed with the Removal Tool. This will most likely always be a low value.
Sitemaps
I mentioned sitemaps earlier, so I’ll cover this again in brief.
In GSC under Sitemaps, you will see information about your sitemap, including whether you have one and when it was last updated.
If you notice the last date your sitemap was downloaded is not recent, you might want to submit your sitemap to refresh the number of URLs submitted.
Otherwise, this helps you keep track of how Google is reading your sitemap and whether all your pages are viewed as you want them to be.
Removals
If for some reason you need to temporarily block a page from Google’s search results, head to Removals.
You can hide a page for approximately 90 days before this wears off.
If you want to permanently remove a page from Google’s crawling, you’ll have to do it on your actual website.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that impact your search ranking. They include speed, usability, and visual stability. These are now ranking signals, so you’ll want to pay attention to them.
Accelerated Mobile Pages(AMP)
Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source initiative designed to provide fast-loading mobile websites that work with slow connection speeds.
You’ll get a boilerplate piece of code you can customize to your site.
To view pages in GSC, head to Enhancements > AMP.
Links to Your Site
Curious about your backlinks?
GSC shows you the domains that link to you the most as well as the pages on your website with the most links. Scroll down in the left side bar until you see Links. Click and you’ll see a full report of links to your site:
This is probably the most comprehensive listing of your backlinks (and internal links!) you will find, for free at least.
It’s a powerful tool to know where your content is being leveraged around the web, and what performs best in Google’s eyes.
Manual Actions
The Manual Actions tab is where you can find out if any of your pages are not compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines.
It’s one of the ways that Google has taken action against web spamming.
Mobile Usability
On the Mobile Usability tab, you can make sure all your website’s pages are aligned with what Google considers best practice.
As you can see, you can have issues with text size, viewport settings, or even the proximity of your clickable elements.
Any of these problems, as well as other errors, can negatively affect your mobile site’s rankings and push you lower on the results page. Finding and fixing these errors will help your user experience and results.
While reviewing this information, I suggest that you also check your site’s mobile speed. I use Ubersuggest to do so.
The first thing you want to do is type your URL into the search box and click Search.
After clicking the Search button, click Site Audit in the left sidebar and then scroll down the page until you seed Site Speed.
You’ll see the site speed for both desktop and mobile devices. For the sake of this exercise, we’re more interested in mobile loading time. My site loads on mobile devices in two seconds, which scores in the excellent range.
In addition to overall site speed, there’s also an advanced breakdown for:
If you see any issues here, fix them immediately, and then re-test your site. It may be enough to improve your loading time.
Crawl Stats
For a more in-depth analysis of how often Googlebot is looking at your site, you can use the Crawl Stats report under Settings > Crawl stats.
Here, you’ll see how often your site’s pages are crawled, how many kilobytes are downloaded per day, and your site’s download times.
According to Google, there is no “good” crawl number, but they do have advice for any sudden spikes or drops in your crawl rates.
Fetch as Google (Now Called URL Inspection)
This tool is helpful as it lets you actually do a test run of how Google crawls and renders a specific URL on your site.
It’s a helpful way to make sure that Googlebot can access a page that might otherwise be left to guesswork.
If you’re successful, the page will render, and you’ll be able to see if any resources are blocked to Googlebot.
If you want access to the code of your site, click View Tested Page to see the HTML, a screenshot, and any crawl errors. (Note: Crawl errors used to be its own report; now it’s located in URL inspection under Coverage.)
When you get to the debugging point of web development, you can’t beat this free tool.
Robots.txt Tester
If you’re using a robots.txt file to block Google’s crawlers from a specific resource, this tool allows you to double-check that everything is working.
So if you have an image you don’t want to appear in a Google Image Search, you can test your robots.txt here to make sure that your image isn’t popping up where you don’t want it.
When you test, you’ll either receive an Accepted or Blocked message, and you can edit accordingly.
URL Parameters
Google themselves recommend using this tool sparingly, as an incorrect URL parameter can negatively impact how your site is crawled.
When you do use them, this tool will help you keep tabs on their performance and make sure they’re not pointing Googlebot in the wrong direction.
FAQs
What is Google Search Console?
What is Google Search Console? The Google Search Console is a collection of tools that enables you to monitor the operation of your website, identify problems, and improve its Google ranking. It’s a free online tool Google offers with details about your website and the users who visit it.
How to Use Google Search Console
When learning how to use Google Search Console, first add your website to Google Search Console. Then, set up operations you want to look to consistently optimize. Next, submit a sitemap, and finally, learn metrics for refining and reporting purposes after putting the Google Search Console to work.
How to Set Up Google Search Console
Start by signing into your Google Account, open Google Search Console, and add your site. Finally, add in your domain or URL prefix to verify your account and begin taking advantage of the features.
What is Google Search Console? The Google Search Console is a collection of tools that enables you to monitor the operation of your website, identify problems, and improve its Google ranking. It’s a free online tool Google offers with details about your website and the users who visit it.
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Looking for alternative search engines to Google? Here are the 37 best search engines other than Google.
As a bonus, I included several other specialty search engines that can help you find specific items like images and social media posts.
Best Alternative Search Engines
To start off our search adventure, let’s look at some general search engines beyond the top three — Google, Bing, and Baidu.
1. DuckDuckGo
Concerned about online privacy? DuckDuckGo prides itself on being the search engine that does not track or personalize your searches and results. They even offer handy visual guides on Google tracking and filter bubbling.
If you’re an iOS user, you can set DuckDuckGo as the default search engine in Safari. It’s also an option for Safari on macOS.
2. Ecosia
Want trees planted while you search? That’s what Ecosia does! Simply run your normal searches, and Ecosia will use its surplus income to support conservationist organizations that plant trees.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to sacrifice quality results to do good — Ecosia uses Bing and its own search algorithms.
3. Dogpile
If you want results from the top three search engines but don’t want to go to them individually, try Dogpile. Its results are pulled from the top three search engines without all the mess.
4. WolframAlpha
Looking for a search engine based on computation and metrics? Try WolframAlpha. It gives you website data, historical information by date, unit conversions, stock data, sports statistics, and more. You can see examples by topic to learn more.
5. Gigablast
Want an open-source search engine? Check out Gigablast. While it doesn’t always get things right, it does provide a retro look, returns results quickly, and offers a predictive search feature similar to that of the now-defunct Google Instant.
6. Startpage
If you want to search without being tracked, Startpage is another solid option. It allows you to search without cookies or trackers. They even offer a Chrome plug-in so you can keep using Google — and protect your privacy.
7. Qwant
Looking for an EU-based search engine that allows you to search in “complete confidentiality?” Paris-based Qwant puts your privacy first by neither tracking your searches nor selling your personal data.
Social Network-Specific Advanced Search
Many consumers are turning to search engines outside of Google to find content on social media networks, including user-generated content from influencers. Need to find something specific on one of the top social networks? Here are some great advanced search pages.
8. Facebook Search
Want to see a particular search across different areas of Facebook? Use Facebook’s advanced search options. Type in your query, then hit enter. Facebook offers a variety of filters on the left sidebar to view search results for people, pages, places, groups, and more.
9. LinkedIn People Search
If you want to find some new connections on LinkedIn, use the advanced people search. This lets you narrow down your results by the above, plus relationship and language. Premium members have access to additional search filters, including LinkedIn groups, company size, years of experience, and more.
10. LinkedIn Job Search
LinkedIn offers job seekers an advanced job search to find opportunities using the above information, plus experience level and industry. Premium members can narrow their search down further by the salary offered.
11. Twitter Search
Twitter’s advanced search is a great way to find better results on Twitter. It is especially great for businesses looking for a local audience by allowing them to filter their results using the Near this place field.
Social SearchEngines
The following search engines other than Google allow you to search one or more social networks in one place and gain additional data about the results.
12. Keyhole
Keyhole allows you to search for hashtags, keywords, @mentions, and URLs. Want to see how your latest blog post was shared across social networks? Just select URL on Keyhole, put in the URL, and you’ll see who has shared it. You can measure, improve, and report your impact on social media. From social listening to influencer tracking, Keyhole can help you improve your social media strategy.
13. Social Mention
Social Mention allows you to search across multiple types of networks, including blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, and more.
14. Buzzsumo
Use Buzzsumo if you have a topic in mind and want to see which articles on the web were most shared for that search. There is a paid version that can give you access to more tools for each topic.
Forums
Want to participate in forums in your industry? Use this search engine to find results specifically on forums.
15. BoardReader
BoardReader allows you to search forums and narrow results down by date (last day through last year) and language.
Blogs
Find industry-related blogs and posts using the following search engines other than Google.
16. Blog Search Engine
Blog Search Engine aptly describes this search engine. Search blogs and blog posts using keywords. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than a general search.
Documents, eBooks, and Presentations
If you’re looking for documents, eBooks, presentations, or other similar file types, try the following searches.
17. Google Advanced Search
Google Advanced Search allows you to search for specific types of documents. Looking specifically for PDFs? Set that as your criteria. Want to search for Word docs or PowerPoint presentations? Then tell Google to find those file types.
18. Scribd
Scribd is the largest social reading and publishing network that allows you to discover original written content across the web. Sort results by category, language, length, file types, upload date, and cost (free or for sale).
19. SlideShare
SlideShare, acquired by Scribd in 2020, is a community for sharing infographics, documents, and presentations. If you missed a conference or webinar, there’s a good chance the slides and other handouts from your favorite speakers are here.
Image SearchEngines
Looking for beautiful images? Try these image search engines — note that you must gain permission to use any images you find unless they are specifically marked as Creative Commons- licensed.
20. Flickr
Flickr offers an advanced search screen that allows you to find photos, screenshots, illustrations, and videos on their network. You can also search within Creative Commons-licensed content.
21. Pinterest
The ultimate image platform, Pinterest allows you to search for anything visual — clothing, cars, floors, airplanes, etc. — and pin it to your favorites. Just be sure you don’t steal copyrighted work. You will need to have an account before you can begin searching.
Bing
Bing offers an image search that starts out with the top trending images, then leads to images that can be filtered by size, layout, and other criteria. They also display tabs above the results with related search queries.
23. Google Advanced Image Search
Google Advanced Image Search allows you to get even more specific about the images you are looking for, including specifying whether they are faces, photos, clip arts, or line drawings. You can also search within images labeled for reuse commercially and with modifications.
24. TinEye
Have you seen an image around the web and want to know where it came from? That’s what TinEye is for. Just put your image in the search box, and TinEye will find where that image has been seen from around the web.
Creative Commons Media
Need to find media created by others to use on your website? Try these Creative Commons searches.
25. Openverse
Looking only for images that you can repurpose, use for commercial purposes, or modify? Try Openverse, which allows you to look through multiple sources, including Flickr, Google Images, Wikimedia, and YouTube.
26. Wikimedia
Wikimedia Commons has millions of files in their database of freely usable images, sound bites, and videos. Use the search box or browse by categories for different types of media.
Video Search
Looking for videos to embed on your website or simply entertain you? Try these video search engines that scan multiple sources to find what you need.
27. Yahoo
Yahoo Video Search allows you to search through video content from YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, and other online video providers for videos on any topic.
28. SideReel
SideReel goes beyond YouTube to search shows on dozens of streaming platforms like HBO Max and Hulu.
29. AOL Video Search
AOL Video aggregates the day’s best clips from around the web, but you can also use it as a search engine.
30. Google Video
Google Video Search allows you to search for videos on any topic and filter your results by duration, date uploaded, video source, and much more.
Website Data & StatisticsSearch Engines
Looking for information about your favorite brands and websites? Try out these search engines other than Google for data and statistics.
31. Crunchbase
Crunchbase offers insight into your favorite online brands and companies. Listings tell you people who are associated with a company, contact information, related videos, screenshots, and more.
32. Similarweb
Similarweb allows you to search for website or app profiles based on specific domains or app names. Domains with a high volume of traffic will include data such as total regional visitors per month, page views, online vs. mobile, demographics, sites similar audiences like, and more.
33. BuiltWith
Curious to see what technology your favorite sites use and usage trends for that technology? BuiltWith allows you to search for domains and see the technology they use, including analytics, content management systems, coding, and widgets. You can also click on any of the products to see usage trends, industries using the technology, and more.
Advanced Google
Can’t get away from Google but want to get more out of it than a simple Google.com search? Try these advanced Google search features.
If you are looking for articles, theses, books, abstracts, court opinions, or other information provided by academic publishers, professional societies, and universities, try Google Scholar Advanced Search. You can also use advanced operators to refine your search results even more.
36. Google Books
Google Advanced Book Search helps you find search queries in books. You can also find entire books published online that might be available to download via PDF (when in the public domain).
37. Google Search Help
Need to help to make the most out of Google? The Google Search Help page allows you to search for privacy settings, manage podcasts, control your privacy, and more.
DuckDuckGo doesn’t track your search history at all, making it one of the best search engines for privacy-concerned users.
Conclusion
It seems like everyone is on a mission to dominate Google, but there are a wide range of other search engines and advanced Google features you might be ignoring.
Whether you are looking for interesting content your audience will want to re-share or want to protect your privacy, these advanced and alternative search engines will help you find just what you are looking for.
What are your favorite advanced and alternative search engines? Please share them and how you use them in the comments, and happy searching!
NOTE: On June 8, 2022, Christopher Coomer, VP of Data, Analytics, and Insights at NPD, will cover the essentials of GA4 in a short presentation. This will be followed by an extensive Q&A session with webinar host Will Francis of DMI. Register here. Those who attend will receive a free follow-up guide to help them transition to GA4.
Google recently announced it is sunsetting Universal Analytics in June of 2023. This means if you’ve been holding out on switching to Google Analytics 4, your time is almost up.
I’ve heard from a lot of marketers and business owners who are not excited about the switch. Change is always hard, but I really think this switch is going to be a good thing. For starters, it provides a ton more data and is more customizable—which means you can track what matters to you, not just what Google thinks might matter to you.
This guide walks you through everything you need to know to make the switch, including what you can do with Google Analytics 4, how to make the switch, and how to get started with the new platform.
What can you expect? New report functions, enhanced features, and predictive insights make this new generation of GA more powerful than ever.
What Is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is the newest version of Google Analytics. This is a whole new generation of web analytics that will allow marketers to effectively analyze important customer usage metrics, not just track traffic.
Google Analytics 4 tracks the entire customer path across multiple platforms and leverages AI and machine learning to provide more detailed insights into how users interact with your website and app.
GA4 is also focused on customer privacy. This comes in the face of some of the latest privacy laws, such as GDPR and CCPA. With privacy-first tracking, cross-channel data measurement, and AI-driven predictive analytics, GA4 is an advanced tool that provides unparalleled insights.
What is the Difference Between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics?
The most obvious difference between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics is that GA4 enables you to report on activity that occurs on both websites and applications. There are a number of other differences, including:
Google Analytics 4 Has a New Dashboard
The first change you are likely to notice is the entirely new dashboard. It is more streamlined and many of the reports you are used to are gone or have been moved. The navigation bar to the right includes buttons for home, reports, explore, advertising, configure, and library.
At the bottom, under Insights, you’ll see predictive insights based on Google’s AI. I’ll dig more deeply into the features and what they mean in a later section, so keep reading!
All Measurements Are Events in GA4
With Universal Analytics, page views were the most important metric. With Google Analytics 4, all measurements are events. Instead of seeing generalized data, you can now gain a fuller understanding of how users interact with your app and website.
What does this mean for you? You can still view session-level reporting, but the ability to break it down by interaction means more in-depth reports and insights.
GA4 also has an array of new metrics. These include engagement metrics such as:
engaged sessions
engagement rate
engagement time
It also tracks a number of other dimensions, including attribution, demographics, events, and so forth.
This is a big change, but it’s actually going to make it easier to track customers throughout their journey. GA originally assumed page views were the most important metric—that is no longer true. The new parameters might have a learning curve, but you will have access to more data.
Gain Access to Predictive Insights With Google Analytics 4
While looking at past behaviors is helpful in understanding your audience, it doesn’t help you make proactive decisions. With GA4’s powered predictive metrics, you can make data-driven decisions on a large scale.
What does this look like? For most businesses, predictive analytics can significantly impact retargeting campaigns. AI metrics include:
purchase probability
churn probability
revenue prediction
With the above metrics, you can create audiences based on their predicted behaviors. For example, users who are likely to purchase in the next 7 days or users that are likely to spend more than $500 in one purchase.
These audiences can then be targeted using Google Ads campaigns or even on social media.
These metrics can also improve website performance. You can create custom funnels for different audiences based on their behaviors and needs. The suggestions will continue to improve as more data is collected.
GA4 Gives Marketers More Control
GA4 allows you to customize the dashboard, enabling you to see the reports that matter most to your business. It even works well in conjunction with Google Data Studio so you can create custom visualizations of the data collected.
You can also create custom segments based on trigger events which are essentially a subset of events that occurred on your website or application. This enables you to more accurately track customer interactions.
For example, you can create segments on all conversion events that occurred in a particular location. These capabilities make it possible to take a more granular view of your users and their behaviors.
Cross-Platform Tracking
What happens when users are active on more than one platform? With the old Google Analytics, tracking users across platforms was nearly impossible. The new Google Analytics 4 tracks both web and app data in one property (hence the beta name of Google Analytics App+Web).
Cross-platform tracking enables you to see the complete customer journey, including acquisition, engagement, monetization, and retention. You can use GA4 to track the user experience from start to finish—and from platform to platform.
This is done through unique user IDs assigned during app or website login.
With the appropriate gtag.js script, the user ID for each logged-in session will be sent from either the website or the application to Google Analytics. The ID will be reported to the GA4 property and any user metrics will be logged. When the user logs in again on an alternative platform, the reports will connect the user’s data to their unique ID and pick up where it left off.
This is incredibly useful information for any marketer, as it allows you to better understand the cross-platform experience of your users. The data can also be used to extrapolate information for a generalized demographic and build more accurate customer models
How to Set Up Google Analytics 4
Since Google Analytics 4 can be used for your website or application (or both), there are two separate setup processes. They are outlined below.
Alongside an Existing Property
If you currently have a Universal Analytics property for your website, then set up of a Google Analytics 4 property can be completed with the GA4 Setup Assistant.
In Google Analytics, click “Admin” on the lower left of the screen.
In the Account column, select the desired account:
In the Property column, select the Universal Analytics property that currently collects data for your website:
In the Property column, select GA4 Setup Assistant:
Click “Get started” under “I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property:”
If your site uses the gtag.js tag, you can select “Enable data collection using your existing tags.”
Click “Create Property.”
If you are unable to “Enable data collection using your existing tags,” it’s for one of three reasons:
Your website builder/CMS doesn’t yet support the gtag.js tag.
Click “Begin upgrade” in the banner at the top of the page.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the upgrade.
Once upgraded, you can find app analytics in both the Firebase console and Google Analytics.
How Do I Use Google Analytics 4?
Now that you understand the power of the new Google Analytics platform, I’ll walk you through how to use it. I will say there is a learning curve for the platform, and that can definitely be frustrating.
Start by following the steps below. This will help you understand the basics and how to navigate the new platform. If you still aren’t seeing the data you need, consider signing up for a longer-form course or reaching out to my team for more help.
Test The New Search Bar
The search bar in GA4 lets you access more than ever, including instant answers for specific queries (such as “how many users this month vs last year”), specific reports or insights, property configuration, or to access the help content.
Try a few queries to see what you can access, such as “how to create a report” or “top users by city.” As you learn the new dashboard, the search board will be invaluable.
Get To Know The New Dashboard
Now let’s look at the new dashboard. At first glance, it might look pretty familiar. Take a look around, however, and you’ll see most of the reports you’re used to are not where they used to be.
Here’s an annotated version of the dashboard. I’ve labeled the navigation bar on the left as well as the different displays. For this walk-through, I’m using GA’s demo account (Which you can access here), so it may look a bit different than your version, especially if you’ve already started customizing it.
NOTE: A few of the navigation menu items including Audience and Library aren’t in this screenshot, but should be accessible in your dashboard if you have editor access.
Explore The Reports Dashboard
From the dashboard, click on the second icon on the left nav bar, the one that looks like a graph: . This will take you to the reports dashboard, which shows you snapshots of different reports. Most of the reports you are used to seeing are in this tab, though they may look a bit different.
There’s a ton of data here. I won’t walk through all of it because different sites will track different metrics, so yours might look different.
But let’s say you want to see how many people viewed a specific page. In this dashboard, you’d click “engagement” and then look at the “Views by page title and screen class” chart.
You can also view acquisition, monetization, and user demographics here. If you want to compare different metrics, select the + icon at the top (next to Engagement Overview.)
Customize Your Reports Snapshot
One of my favorite features is the ability to customize the reports snapshot so you can see the data that matters most to you at a glance. This will also help you get to know GA4 a bit better so you are more comfortable using it.
First, let’s create a new report.
To start, click Library at the bottom of the left navigation bar. Note, if you don’t see this option (It’s not in the demo account), it means you don’t have admin access.
Then, scroll down to the Reports table and click Create a new report. Then, select Create an Overview Report. You’ll be asked to provide the data source and GA will walk you through creating the report. (This part changes based on the type of report.)
If you want to change the layout of your overview, click the six dotsdrag indicator. This will let you drag and drop the cards. To remove cards, click the X icon. If you want to add new cards, select +Add Cards.
Create A New Event
Events are crucial in the new Google Analytics—in fact, this is how you’ll track just about everything. You will need an editor role in GA to make these changes, so if you don’t see the options I mention, that may be the issue.
To create a new event, head to Configure > Events.
Then click Create Event.
Choose the data stream (If you have more than one property in GA)
Tap Create.
Give your report a name. I suggest creating a naming convention and sticking to it. For example, using <audience location, acquisition channel>, a report might be named “US visitors from social” or similar. Creating a standard naming convention will help keep you organized.
In the “Matching Conditions” field, enter the existing event this will be based on, such as “click.”
If you want to use the same parameters as the original event, select “copy parameters from the source event.” For example, if you want your new event to be triggered when a click occurs and already have an event for that, you’d check this box.
Specify any changes you want to make to the new event. For example, if you want to track when someone clicks and then takes another action, you’d add it here.
See Suggested Audiences
Google Analytics 4 now suggests new audiences. If you’re looking to expand your user base or break into new markets, this can be crucial information. When you create a GA4 property, you’ll tell Google about your business, including your industry category.
Google uses that information to generate new audiences that may be a good fit for your business. To view this data head to Audiences, under the Library. You’ll see suggested audiences listed under Build a New Audience.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Analytics 4
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 is a new analytics property offered by Google. It enables users to analyze data from websites, apps, or both websites and apps. It is a complete redesign of GA, so there is a bit of a learning curve.
What is the difference between Google Analytics 4 and the old GA?
The main difference between Google Analytics 4 and the old GA is in what the two different property types track. Google Analytics 4 can track the analytics of both websites and applications, while the old GA can track only website analytics.
Is Google Analytics 4 free?
Similar to Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is a free property type. There are no costs associated with using one (or more) GA4 properties on your account.
Can you run Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics at the same time?
Yes, you can currently run both platforms parallel to each other. UA will stop gathering data in the summer of 2023, so make sure you’ve installed GA4 even if you aren’t ready for the switch quite yet.
Why is Google Analytics 4 so hard to use?
GA4 is extremely customizable, which can make it hard to learn. However, once you get a hang of it, you’ll find you have access to deeper insights you can use to grow your business.
Google Analytics 4 is a new analytics property offered by Google. It enables users to analyze data from websites, apps, or both websites and apps. It is a complete redesign of GA, so there is a bit of a learning curve.
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The main difference between Google Analytics 4 and the old GA is in what the two different property types track. Google Analytics 4 can track the analytics of both websites and applications, while the old GA can track only website analytics.
Similar to Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is a free property type. There are no costs associated with using one (or more) GA4 properties on your account.
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An In-Depth Guide to Google Analytics 4: Conclusion
Google Analytics 4 is a powerful analytics tool that provides invaluable insights into your audience. There are numerous benefits to GA4, including cross-platform tracking, more control over data, and AI-driven insights.
Fortunately, setting up a GA4 property on your website or app is easy. The steps outlined above should take you less than 10 minutes to complete, so there’s no excuse to put off the transition.
Have you made the switch to Google Analytics 4? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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. This will take you to the reports dashboard, which shows you snapshots of different reports. Most of the reports you are used to seeing are in this tab, though they may look a bit different. 
drag indicator. This will let you drag and drop the cards. To remove cards, click the X icon. If you want to add new cards, select +Add Cards.
