Reaching out to as large of an audience – while still remaining viable as a brand – is key to penetrating search results effectively. Given that most brands utilize Google as their number one search engine target for SEO, it shouldn’t be surprising that understanding its eccentricities and variables is paramount to long-term performance in most markets.

As it turns out, Google actually offers a variety of tools and options for uncovering which niches are best-suited for a given brand. Due to the fact that keyword research is a cornerstone of optimal SEO endeavors, understanding how various keywords and phrases can complement your brand’s performance matters now more than ever.

Let’s look at a few helpful research options for keywords that Google freely provides to everybody.

Google Trends/Current Events

Google Trends has long been an important aspect of SEO, allowing brands to quickly begin pinging servers for information about how various keywords and niches have performed over time. This Google research option makes it possible for you to assess the overall trajectory of previously-selected keywords and phrases, allowing you to decide whether to embrace them or ditch them. Likewise, it can be quite helpful in evaluating whether SERPs you’re already targeting have a bright future (or whether it’s best to move onto something else).

Google has also created a useful subset of trend analysis in the form of its Coronavirus Search Trends, making it easy to compare interest in the virus to other broader categories such as music, sports and news. Given that COVID has substantially disrupted many online businesses and brands, being abreast of changes in search interest on this matter can help you decide whether embracing COVID-specific keywords for a particular niche is opportune or not.

Google Market Finder

Uncovering which markets are best suited for your content and/or products can be difficult, but Google has an easy-to-use solution that’ll make selecting geographic-specific keyword pairings simple.

Google’s Market Finder allows you to enter in a few short pieces of information about your brand, and it will provide recommendations based on where there is the greatest potential for growth. For those seeking to expand their local SERP targeting in particular, determining which areas provide optimal growth can help further refine your list of potential keywords.

Google Surveys

Last but definitely not least, if users within your niche pinging servers and providing answers to key questions sounds like a good idea, then you absolutely have to consider Google Surveys. While it may not seem immediately obvious, Google Surveys can actually provide insight into keyword potential through the use of its paid surveys.

By crafting questions and/or allowing for open-ended responses, brands can extract valuable insight from their target audiences. Based on survey performance and responses, the keywords used in – or gleaned from – either provide insight into their broader potential or help you discover new keyword possibilities not previously considered.

Google has a plethora of tools available to users, and those seeking to refine, uncover or otherwise improve their keywords and keyword strategy won’t be disappointed. These three research tools are but a few of the many options you have at your fingertips for improving such efforts: with others both on and off of Google, now is the time to act and begin building your brand even more!