Your Next Viral Article Is a Google Trend Away

Hey, HackerNoon fam!

Are you finding that first/next viral blog post a little too difficult to come by? Burning through pages of SEO tips faster than the sun through Icarus? I know the feeling well. Before I share some more tips that are hopefully a slow burn this time, let’s get something straight: appeasing our search overloads (Google) is not an exact science but a series of educated guesses built on a foundation of quality content. So, if you’re not interested in doing the work to write articles that offer real value, you can stop here and continue generating a million articles per day with your AI tools. For the rest of you, let’s talk search trends.

How Search Trends Help You…Trend

Google Trends (trends.google.com) is a free tool that helps you identify what users are actively searching for right now. It’s like having a direct line to the collective curiosity of the internet with info on topics and search queries that are gaining traction, peaking in popularity, or enjoying a resurgence of interest.

How to Grow Your Blog with Google Search Trends

1. Identify Hot Topics: Once you’re in Google Trends, you first want to explore current trending searches with a broad strokes approach. I.e. before focusing on topics that align with your core content strategy, get an idea of where global interest is leaning. And if you’re a little loose with your content direction, you can hop on already-in-demand trends, offer a unique perspective, and reap the benefits.

   
   

2. Find an Angle for Your Niche: A broad strokes approach is great generally. But if you’re working to establish yourself as a thought leader in a specific niche then you can’t just write about anything that’s trending, can you? Let’s say you run an AI blog with a focus on emerging research. As you’d imagine, the term “AI research” trends well. But there’s also a lot of competition for it. You want to find related search trends within this term that target long-tail keywords (less competitive highly specific search terms). You can use the comparison tool in Google Trends to see how related search terms fair side-by-side.

   
   

3. Geo-Target Your Content: Trends also allows you to see how interest in a search term varies by region. Let’s say you're a blockchain enthusiast covering the emergence of Tap-to-earn & Tapswap, google trends will give you info on specific regions where your search term trends. Nigeria leads the charge in this case, with Ethiopia a close second.

With this info, you may consider tailoring your next article to highlight the unique opportunities or challenges in those regions.

4. Use Related Queries: One of the most underrated features of Google Trends is the "related queries" section. This shows you what other terms people are searching for about your chosen topic. You can use this data to create a content cluster—a series of blog posts linked together by a central theme.

   
   

   

   
   

5. Capitalize on Seasonal Trends: Certain topics are seasonal, like "best gadgets for Christmas" or "AI trends in 2025." You can anticipate these trends and plan your content calendar accordingly. Google Trends lets you see recurring interest patterns, so if you notice that interest spikes for a particular topic around the same time each year, you can be ready with content just before the demand hits.

Why Trend in One Language When You Can Trend in 77

All published stories on HackerNoon can now be translated into any language! We’ve added 77 languages to the HackerNoon distribution machine. Watch your stats exponentially grow, rank for keywords in other languages, and reach a diverse but relevant audience with translations!

We couldn’t add all 77 languages to a single story (we did list them all here if you’re interested)—just imagine the long list of language icons! 😮‍💨 Instead, a select number of stories were translated into 13 languages, with English, Spanish, and Japanese consistently included due to their rapid growth. The remaining 10 languages are randomized, making it a fun surprise to see where your work will appear. Visit some of the new languages homepage here, here, and here.

There are 2 ways to translate your stories!

1. Via Our service page:

• Visit app.hackernoon.com/services
• Go through the story translating package and pick the number of languages you’d like your story translated to - 1, 6, or 12 translations!
• Add your product to the cart or click “Buy now”
• Add any discount coupons, save products, or delete them on the “Your Cart” page.
• Checkout: add your payment details and hit “Pay now”. A confirmation email will be sent, and your account history will be saved for future purchases.
• Pick a story to be translated: Go to your order link, pick a story from the list of all published stories.
• Pick the languages: whether you choose 1, 6, or 12 translations, simply type in the languages you want in the search bar. You might also recognize the flags, which come with every language!
• Click next and voila, you are done! Please allow some time for the translations to populate! API calls and all :)

2. Via Story setting page:

• On any of your published stories, click on the “edit” story button atop your title. You would have to be logged in to HackerNoon with your writer email to see this button.

• Once there, open the story setting. You’ll see the translation service available for ordering right away!
• Select the translation option - 1, 6 and 12 languages - and hit “Buy now”
• Checkout: add your payment details and hit “Pay now”. A confirmation email will be sent, and your account history will be saved for future purchases.
• Your order will load on a new page. Here you can review all your details.
• Pick the languages: whether you choose 1, 6, or 12 translations, simply type in the languages you want in the search bar.
• You might also recognize the flags, which come with every language! Click next and you are done! Please allow some time for the translations to populate.

Voilà, ¡Aquí está!, ほら!, Ecco! There you go!

Until next time, Hackers, keep creating wonderful things!