Anyone who works in content, SEO, or marketing has probably opened Google Trends at some point to check whether a topic is heating up or cooling down. Until now, that usually meant eyeballing the line on a graph and guessing how it stacked up against last month or last year. Thanks to Google’s latest update, comparing trends is much easier now.
What Changed
Now, Google Trends allows users to easily add previous period data to their charts to see how the data they are currently viewing compares to the data from previous years or months. As Google announced on LinkedIn, this makes it possible to compare a particular trend’s growth or decline within Google Trends itself.
This might sound like a small tweak, but for anyone who relies on Trends data regularly, it removes a real pain point. Now, there’s no need to manually compare two periods’ data using the numbers in two different timeframes.
How It Works
Using the feature is extremely simple. Go to Google Trends and insert a particular search term or topic as you usually would. When the chart loads, you will see additional chips appear above the timeline. When you click on those chips, the additional comparison data will pop up.
The chips show the percentage of growth or decline in a particular timeframe – depending on the data you are looking at, you can see either Month over Month, Week over Week, or specific Year over Year comparisons. A single click adds a line representing the historical period right on top of the current data.
What It Looks Like
Google has shown a brief demo of how this feature works. All the additional chips appear above the timeline, and one click is all you need to add another line to the chart showing the interest from a prior period. The two lines then appear side-by-side, allowing you to see if the interest is growing, declining or staying the same compared to the prior period.
A Quick Refresher on How Trends Data Works
To understand why this update is so helpful, it might help to take a look at how Google Trends tracks the interest in particular topics. The numbers in the graphs are not actual searches done. They are normalized numbers ranging from 0 to 100 depending on the popularity of the term – it shows how the term compares to its own peak popularity in a selected timeframe. A score of 100 marks the highest point of interest for that term, while a score of 50 means the term was at half its peak popularity. That’s how Trends allows one to identify patterns and changes over time despite being unable to show exact numbers.
Google Trends provides many different timeframes from which to choose, dating back to 2004, and allows to use a custom timeframe for specific research. Such flexibility is what makes this tool a standard for everyone trying to track the seasonal demand or identify a growing trend.
Why This Matters for Marketers
Google Trends has always been the go-to source for content marketers and other specialists trying to see what is searched for and when. This tool is often used to validate whether growing interest in a topic correlates with the increase in searches, find the gaps in the current content and create a content calendar based on it. Knowing that interest in a particular topic is trending up compared to the interest in the same period of the last year is much better than knowing that the interest exists.
The update makes this process even more comprehensive. Instead of judging whether something is worth further investigation based on one flat line, one gets an immediate comparison between two periods. This will allow content marketers to determine whether a spike is really a trend or just the seasonal movement, while it will give marketers additional information for planning their campaign timing since they will be able to immediately see how the current interest compares to the interest of the last period.
A Small Feature With Practical Value
What makes the update especially interesting is that it does not require users to learn any new tool. There is nothing to download or export into Excel – the comparison function has been implemented in exactly the way that fits into the user’s workflow perfectly.
For SEO and content experts, such functionality may prove invaluable when conducting market research. Checking whether the interest in the keyword increased or decreased was possible before but required downloading data to Excel and performing comparison manually. Now, all one needs to do is click on a chip.
It is worth noting that the concept of comparison has been used in Trends since its inception. Comparing trends’ interest in certain locations or comparing two different search phrases has always been a part of the platform’s offering. This update extends that same comparison logic to time itself, letting a single term be measured against its own past performance.
According to our experience, Google has shown several tendencies towards making its free tools more useful for marketers in recent years, introducing features to its Analytics tool without requiring any paid upgrade. Such updates become even more valuable when we consider that the platform in question is often used as a starting point for SEO and content research.
For those who check Google Trends regularly as part of their workflow, it is definitely worth spending a few minutes to explore comparison chips and discover new possibilities offered by this tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is the new Google Trends feature about?
Google Trends now allows users to create a new line in a chart that will display data from the previous period, allowing them to compare the current interest with the interest displayed for the specified earlier period.
Q2: How do I use the previous period comparison?
Go to Google Trends, type your keyword or topic, and click the chips that appear above your timeline.
Q3: What time periods can I compare?
Google offers several options for measuring percentage change, including Month over Month, Week over Week and certain Year over Year benchmarks.
Q4: Where did Google announce this update?
Google announced the new feature on LinkedIn, saying that users can now compare a trend’s change with the preceding periods within Google Trends.
Q5: How does Google Trends measure search interest?
Trends data is scaled between 0 and 100 points according to a term’s popularity in relation to its maximum popularity in selected timeframe and location, rather than raw search interest.
Q6: How far back does Google Trends data go?
Google Trends provides access to data starting from 2004, along with possibility to specify custom date range.
Q7: Why is this update useful for marketers?
This update gives marketers a convenient way to quickly determine whether there is a real interest in a topic or a certain trend has passed, helping with planning future content.
Q8: Can this help with seasonal content planning?
Yes. Checking how the current interest compares to the interest of the same period last year will help distinguish a trend from a usual seasonal interest shift.
Q9: Is this feature free to use?
Yes. Google Trends remains a free tool, and comparison functionality has been implemented directly into the current interface without any fee.
Q10: Has Google said if more comparison options are coming?
Google has not shared any details about additional comparison features beyond what has already rolled out.
