Google Trends compared with Semrush, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer and SimilarWeb| Google Trends | Semrush | Ahrefs Keywords Explorer | SimilarWeb |
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| Data basis: Results come from a sample of Google searches. Each point is divided by total searches for its location and time, then scaled from 0 to 100. Very low-volume queries, repeated searches by one person in a short window, queries with apostrophes or special characters and searches made by Google products are excluded. | Data basis: Keyword Overview reports monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent and search result pages for a keyword. | Data basis: The index holds 28.7 billion keywords, filtered from 110 billion discovered, and shows what people search for in Google. | Data basis: Estimates combine first-party analytics shared by sites and apps, a contributory network of anonymous device data, ISP and partner data, and public crawling, modelled with machine learning. Data is aggregated at site and app level, not user level. |
| Meaning of the numbers: Values show relative popularity, not raw search counts. A score of 0 means too little volume to show, and low-volume queries show statistical noise. | Meaning of the numbers: Monthly search volume is the total number of searches for a keyword in a month, an absolute figure rather than an index. | Meaning of the numbers: Reports search volume with 12-month average figures, Keyword Difficulty derived from backlinks to top-ranking pages, and traffic potential, the estimated traffic from ranking first. | Meaning of the numbers: Reports modelled estimates of site and app traffic and engagement, such as monthly visits, bounce rate, pages per visit and visit duration. |
| Scope and resolution: Covers Google Search, Google News and YouTube. Hourly data is available for ranges of 7 days or less in local time, and daily, weekly or monthly data for ranges of 30 days or more in UTC. | | Scope and resolution: Search volume is broken down for 217 locations, and only Google is covered. | |
| Free access: Described by Google as a free tool. | Free access: A free account limits Domain Overview, Keyword Research, Competitor Research and Backlinks to 10 queries per day each, and every new keyword search counts toward that limit. | Free access: Keywords Explorer itself is reached through sign-up and a paid plan. Separate free tools such as a Keyword Generator and a Keyword Difficulty Checker are offered. | Free access: A TechRadar review reports a free tier with five results per metric and three months of web traffic data, with longer history and unlimited results in enterprise plans. |