While Google Trends is a valuable tool for understanding online search behavior, it often falls short in providing the deep insights needed for comprehensive market analysis. In 2024, marketers and researchers are increasingly turning to alternatives that offer more granular data and advanced features.
This article explores the top 10 Google Trends alternatives, selected for their data quality, accuracy, usability, and unique capabilities. Whether you're a marketer or researcher, these tools will help you gain deeper insights and stay ahead in the digital landscape.
1. Glimpse
Glimpse, also known as "Google Trends Supercharged," is a powerful Chrome extension that elevates your Google Trends experience with essential features you can’t afford to miss. Trusted by industry leaders like The New York Times, Amazon, IKEA, Chanel, and Coca-Cola, Glimpse transforms Google Trends into an indispensable tool for data-driven decision-making.
Key Features:
See Absolute Search Volume: Unlike many tools that only provide relative scores, Glimpse delivers precise search volume data, offering a more accurate understanding of trends. This eliminates the guesswork associated with trend analysis and allows you to make informed decisions based on solid data.
Analyze Trend Trajectories: Distinguish between lasting trends and fleeting fads with trajectory analysis.
Forecast Future Trends: While other tools might offer limited forecasting capabilities, Glimpse sets itself apart with an over 90% backtested accuracy rate. This ensures that you're not just identifying current trends, but also accurately predicting what’s next, giving you a competitive edge in planning and strategy.
Set Custom Alerts: While some tools offer basic alerts, Glimpse provides customizable options and real-time notifications, ensuring you stay up-to-date with the trends that matter most to you. This feature allows for a more tailored and timely approach to trend tracking.
Channel Breakdown Analysis: Unlike tools that focus solely on Google search or a limited number of platforms, Glimpse provides detailed insights across multiple channels, including TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, and more. This comprehensive view allows you to understand the full scope of a trend's popularity and influence across the digital landscape.
Discover Top Trending Topics Early: Identify leading trends in any niche or category to stay ahead of the curve.
Comprehensive Keyword Research: Access a complete set of long-tail keywords for any topic, sortable by volume, growth, CPC, and competition.
Real-Time Data Across Platforms: Get live search data from Google, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, Etsy, and other top channels.
User-Friendly Interface and Integration: Unlike other tools that may have more complex interfaces or limited integration options, Glimpse’s intuitive design and seamless integration with Google Sheets make it easy to analyze and export data. This simplifies the entire process, allowing you to focus on extracting valuable insights without getting bogged down by technical details.
Understand Trend Seasonality: Track the seasonality of any topic to predict when it will peak.
Visualize with Topic Maps: Explore related keywords with a topical map for deeper contextual understanding.
Pros:
Enhanced Data Accuracy: Access absolute search volume data, providing a more accurate understanding of trends.
Comprehensive Trend Analysis: From trajectory to forecasts, get a full picture of current and future trends.
Cross-Platform Insights: Analyze trends across multiple platforms, offering a broader view of the digital landscape.
Customizable Alerts: Stay informed with real-time alerts tailored to your specific interests.
User-Friendly Integration: Export data seamlessly into Google Sheets for easy analysis and reporting.
Cons:
Limited to Chrome Users: Glimpse is available only as a Chrome extension, limiting access for users of other browsers.
Limited Niche Coverage: Not every trend is in the Glimpse database. To see every trend in any given niche, use the Discover section.
Why Use Glimpse? Glimpse addresses the top limitations of Google Trends, providing the comprehensive insights you need to stay competitive. Get started with Glimpse for free and unlock Google Trends' full potential.
2. TrendFeed
TrendFeed is a dynamic app designed for those who need to stay on top of trending stories within specific news categories. It bridges the gap between emerging news stories and active engagement, making it a powerful alternative to Google Trends.
Key Features:
Capitalize on Newsjacking: Receive instant notifications about breaking stories so you can respond quickly and effectively.
Track Top Stories: See which news stories are gaining the most attention online, ensuring you focus on what's truly resonating with audiences.
Generate Fresh Content Ideas: Discover compelling content ideas based on the latest trends, helping you create engaging posts.
Pros:
Customizable News Feed: Browse by specific keywords to focus on trends that matter most to your brand.
Enhanced Content Strategy: Use the content idea generator to fuel your creative process with trending topics.
Newsjacking Opportunities: Capitalize on breaking news to position your brand at the forefront of conversations.
Cons:
Subscription Cost: After the free 7-day trial, the app costs $25/month, which may be a consideration for smaller businesses.
Niche Focus: Best suited for marketers and content creators specifically looking to leverage trending news, rather than broader trend analysis.
Why Use TrendFeed? TrendFeed provides the tools you need to engage with trending news stories and create responsive content. It's ideal for marketers who want to stay relevant by tapping into the latest news.
3. Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that includes over 50 SEO tools designed to help businesses grow their online presence. Whether you're optimizing for SEO, content marketing, PPC, or social media marketing, Semrush is a collection of all the tools you need.
Key Features:
Analyze Traffic Sources: Offers a deep dive into a domain’s traffic sources, bounce rates, visit duration, and top-performing pages.
Conduct Organic Research: Provides detailed data on a domain’s organic search rankings, including keyword trends, position changes, and competitive analysis.
Comprehensive Keyword Research: Includes tools like Keyword Overview and Keyword Magic Tool to find and validate target keywords.
Leverage Extra SEO Tools: Semrush includes tools for content auditing, position tracking, and social media management.
Pros:
Extensive Organic Traffic Insights: Semrush allows you to analyze any website’s organic search traffic, regardless of size.
Historical Data Access: It offers 12 years of historical data, dating back to 2012, for long-term trend analysis.
Complete SEO Toolkit: With over 50 tools covering various aspects of digital marketing, Semrush is one of the most complete SEO toolkits available.
Cons:
Real-Time Data Limitation: While robust, the data provided by Semrush is not as real-time as that from Google Trends.
Longtail Keyword Limitations: Semrush does not provide the full list of longtail variations for a given query. For complete lists, consider using Glimpse. Simply make a search with the Glimpse Chrome extension then scroll down to the People Also Searched section.
Why Semrush? Semrush is ideal for professionals and larger businesses that need a comprehensive SEO toolkit with extensive organic traffic insights.
4. Google Ngram
Google Ngram Viewer is a free online tool that allows you to compare the frequency of words and phrases across a vast corpus of books. While it does not focus on real-time trends, it's invaluable for historical analysis and understanding long-term trends in language and culture.
Key Features:
Analyze Historical Word Frequency: Compare word frequency across a vast corpus of books to study historical trends.
Corpus Comparison: Analyze different corpora to understand language usage across various texts.
Set Customizable Time Periods: Narrow your analysis to specific timeframes for more targeted insights.
Filter by Language: Focus on specific languages to understand trends in diverse linguistic contexts.
Pros:
Access to a Massive Corpus: Google Ngram provides access to millions of books, offering a rich dataset for analysis. Ngram has over 12x more historical data than Google Trends
Historical Perspective: Gain insights into long-term trends in language and culture, stretching back to the 1800s. It is the only trends tool that shows historical data from before the internet.
Cons:
Limited to Historical Data: Ngram Viewer is not suitable for analyzing real-time trends.
Multi-Month to Year Delay: Due to the nature of book publishing, there's often a significant delay between real-world events and their appearance in Ngram's data.
Why Use Google Ngram? If you're interested in studying historical trends in language and culture, Google Ngram Viewer is an excellent resource, providing a unique perspective on keyword popularity over the past 200+ years. Click here for more in-depth information about Google Ngram.
5. DataForSEO Trends
DataForSEO is a comprehensive SEO platform offering tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and more. It’s a valuable resource for those needing detailed SEO data but not a direct replacement for Google Trends.
Key Features:
Perform In-Depth Keyword Research: Find and analyze target keywords with insights into search volume and difficulty.
Analyze Backlinks: Evaluate the quality and quantity of backlinks to improve your SEO strategy.
Trends API: A new tool from DataForSEO that predicts keyword popularity by semantically matching keywords and analyzing search rankings, page views, and engagement metrics.
Competitor Analysis: Understand how your competitors are performing and find opportunities to gain an edge in a market or industry.
Pros:
Demographic and Regional Breakdown: Get detailed demographic and regional data for a more nuanced understanding of trends.
Comprehensive SEO Toolkit: Offers a wide range of tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, and more.
Accurate Data: Provides reliable data crucial for making informed decisions.
Cons:
Complexity: Many reviewers point out that the platform may be overwhelming for those new to SEO.
Lacks Absolute Volume Data: DataForSEO doesn't provide absolute search volume data, limiting its use for certain analyses.
Trend Exclusion: DataForSEO excludes searches with low volume and special characters.
Why Use DataForSEO? If you’re looking for a comprehensive SEO platform with a focus on keyword research and backlink analysis, DataForSEO is a strong contender, offering a robust suite of tools for SEO professionals.
6. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a popular tool for analyzing website traffic and competitive intelligence. While it doesn’t focus solely on search trends, it provides valuable insights into website performance, audience demographics, and competitor analysis. SimilarWeb's Chrome extension shows you the website traffic of any site over the past 3 months.
Key Features:
Analyze Website Traffic: Gain insights into traffic sources, visit duration, and bounce rates for any website.
Understand Audience Demographics: Learn about your audience's age, gender, location, and interests.
Competitor Analysis: Compare your website’s performance against competitors to find opportunities for growth.
Pros:
Comprehensive Traffic Analysis: Provides detailed insights into website traffic, including source breakdowns and audience demographics for every site that has more than ~10,000 monthly visits.
Competitive Intelligence: Understand how your competitors are performing and identify potential opportunities for growth.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform is intuitive, making it easy to navigate and analyze the data.
Cons:
Directional Accuracy: Their traffic estimation algorithms rely on sampling – tracking millions of users and extrapolating. As a result, SimilarWeb is accurate directionally, but often not very accurate in terms of absolute volume numbers. It's commonly 2-5x off in either direction. Note that the extent of SimilarWeb's inaccuracy tends to be consistent across an industry, skewed towards consumers who use browser extensions and apps.
Limited Data Window: SimilarWeb’s free extension is limited to the past 3 months of data, which may not be sufficient for long-term analysis.
Why Use SimilarWeb? If you're focused on analyzing website traffic and understanding your competition, SimilarWeb is ideal for gaining a deeper understanding of your website performance especially across traffic sources and audience demographics.
7. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a unique tool that generates a visual representation of questions and queries people have related to a specific keyword. This can be particularly useful for content ideation and understanding consumer intent.
Key Features:
Question Generation: Uncover what questions are being asked around your target keywords, helping you tap into user intent.
Visual Representation: The tool presents data in a visually engaging format, making it easy to interpret and use.
Content Idea Inspiration: Leverage the generated questions to inspire blog posts, articles, and other content formats.
Pros:
Creative Inspiration: Provides a fresh and unique approach to content ideation by focusing on consumer questions.
Easy-to-Use Interface: The tool is intuitive and user-friendly, making it accessible even for beginners.
Unique Approach: Offers a different perspective on keyword research by focusing on questions rather than just search volume.
Cons:
Limited to Question Generation: While excellent for generating content ideas, it doesn’t offer comprehensive data on search volume or trends.
Data Comprehensiveness: May not provide a full picture of keyword performance, especially in competitive markets.
Why Use AnswerThePublic? If you’re struggling for content ideas, AnswerThePublic is an excellent source of inspiration, allowing you to understand and address consumer questions effectively.
8. Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool is a simple yet powerful tool for keyword research. It pulls in top searches, and their search volumes, from many of the top channels, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, eBay, and the App Store to provide keyword suggestions, search volume estimates, and competition data.
Key Features:
Keyword Suggestions: Generates an extensive list of related keywords for any search query, helping you broaden your SEO strategy.
Search Volume Estimates: Provides estimates for how often keywords are searched, aiding in prioritizing efforts.
Competition Analysis: Offers insights into the competitiveness of each keyword, helping you target those with the best potential.
Pros:
Broad Channel Coverage: Covers major channels like Google, YouTube, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, eBay, and the App Store.
Exhaustive Keyword List: Provides a comprehensive list of long-tail keywords for any query, supporting in-depth SEO planning.
Cons:
Limited Features: Compared to more premium tools, Keyword Tool offers a more basic feature set, focusing solely on keyword research.
Data Accuracy: Search volume estimates and competition data may not always be as accurate as those from more advanced tools.
Paid Account Requirement: To access the full suite of features, a paid account is required.
Why Use Keyword Tool? If you need a basic keyword research tool for SEO, Keyword Tool is a reliable choice for generating keyword ideas and initial research.
9. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a specialized tool for social media analytics and content discovery. By analyzing shares, comments, and engagement metrics, it helps you identify trending topics and popular content formats, making it a go-to for social media content marketers.
Key Features:
Content Analysis: Identify the most shared and engaged content across social media channels for specific keywords.
Influencer Identification: Find influencers within your niche who can amplify your content.
Social Media Monitoring: Keep track of what’s trending on social media platforms to inform your content strategy.
Pros:
Popular Content Identification: Discover what types of content are resonating with audiences, helping you create impactful posts.
Competitive Analysis: Analyze competitors’ content to understand what type of content resonates with which audience and why.
Influencer Outreach: Use BuzzSumo to identify potential influencers who can help boost your brand’s reach.
Social Engagement Metrics: Gives you an understanding of social engagement, which is a different perspective compared to keyword or topic search volume
Cons:
Social Media Focused: Primarily geared towards social media trends, so it may not provide a comprehensive view of overall interest in a topic.
Costly: The full feature set requires a paid subscription, which can be expensive, especially for smaller teams.
Limited to Social Media Metrics: May not offer a complete picture of a topic's popularity, as it focuses mainly on shares and engagement rather than search volume.
Why Use BuzzSumo? If you're looking to identify popular content and influencers in your niche, BuzzSumo is a valuable tool that can enhance your social media and content strategy.
10. Mention
Mention is a real-time social media monitoring and social listening tool that allows you to track mentions of any keyword across social media platforms, blogs, forums, and news websites. It's particularly useful for tracking brand awareness, sentiment, and engagement related to specific keywords or topics.
Key Features:
Real-Time Monitoring: Track mentions of your brand or keywords across various online platforms in real-time.
Sentiment Analysis: Understand how your brand or topic is perceived with built-in sentiment analysis.
Source Credibility: Evaluate the credibility of sources mentioning your keywords.
Social Media Management: Publish content and interact with your audience directly from the platform.
Crisis Management: Identify potential crises early and manage brand reputation effectively.
Pros:
Real-Time Data: Offers instant insights into sudden spikes or drops in keyword mentions.
Comprehensive Coverage: Monitors over 1 billion sources, including social media, news sites, blogs, and forums.
Sentiment and Credibility Analysis: Provides a nuanced understanding of how keywords are perceived.
Multiple Use Cases: Supports brand management, competitive analysis, market research, and PR management.
Cons:
Limited Historical Data: Focused on real-time and recent data, making long-term trend analysis challenging.
Lack of Search Metrics: Doesn't provide in-depth organic search insights like search volume, longtail keywords, or related topics that Glimpse provides.
Why Use Mention? Mention is the ideal solution for people who need to stay on top of real-time conversations about a brand, topic, or industry across various social media platforms. It is particularly valuable for businesses focused on reputation management, competitive analysis, and timely response to market trends or potential crises.
Final Thoughts
Each of these tools offers unique strengths, whether you’re looking for in-depth SEO analysis, trend prediction, or content ideation. Glimpse stands out as the top Google Trends alternative for its comprehensive features that enhance the Google Trends experience. By understanding the specific capabilities of these alternatives, you can choose the right tool to meet your needs and gain a competitive edge in your niche or industry.
Ready to take your trend analysis to the next level? Install the Glimpse Chrome extension now and unlock the full potential of Google Trends with advanced features like actual search volume, trend alerts, cross-platform insights, and much more. Make data-driven decisions with confidence and stay ahead of the competition.