When it comes to SEO keyword research, there are many different tools and strategies available to use. In fact, the same search tool that many of us use everyday, Google Search, can also be added to your keyword research tool list.
Researching keywords to help gain an idea of how your readers think and what they’re looking for, can be a very powerful tool when publishing content online. It can also be a very difficult task due to a lack of detailed keyword trend information.
I recommend using the following Google Search keyword research trick alongside other tools such as Google Insights, Google Adsense Keyword Tool, Google Trends and, of course, your own gut feeling – never forget to use that!
SEO Keyword Research Trick with Google Search:
You may have noticed that if you log in to your Google Account and enable instant searching, Google will attempt to finish the phrases and queries you type in the search box by matching them with the most popular search phrases made by other Google Search users.
Pretty helpful right?
It can also be a very powerful tool.
If you type the letter “A” in the search box you will see the top 4 most popular searches for the letter A. As of this article the top 4 queries Google suggests are:
- Amazon
- AOL
- American Airlines
- AutoTrader
Now, if you type “AB” into the search box, Google will show the top 4 most popular queries that start with AB. As of this article the top 4 queries Google suggests are:
- Abc
- ABC Action News
- Abercrombie
- ABC News
If you were to type “AC” into the search box, you would see 4 completely different results than by just typing A or AB.
You should now be able to see that there are an immense amount keywords available to research by using Google Search. At this point however, they probably seem a little bit random and general.
Fortunately, Google has improved this feature of their search service so well that it will also attempt to finish multi-word queries that you type.
For example, if you’re going to write a movie review and you want to find out which movie has the potential to attract the most readers you can type “Movie Review On ” and view the suggestions. When this article was written, the results suggestions were:
- Movie Review On The Help
- Movie Review On Footloose
- Movie Review On Breaking Dawn
- Movie Review On Courageous
Pretty cool – but still not super cool right? Let me give you one more tip to finish off my keyword research trick using Google Search.
Alter your last search slightly, type “Movie Review On A” and look at your results.
Now try “Movie Review On Ab” or “Movie Review On Ac” or “Movie Review On B” – and notice that you get different results each time!
As you can see, the possibilities are endless and although you cannot see the exact volume of each suggested search query, I can assure that if it is suggested by Google Search, there are a substantial number of people looking for it.
The way in which the user sees completely different results simply by changing one letter or word of his or her query is unique to Google Search and cannot by reproduced by any of the other keyword research tools mentioned in the introduction of this article.
Using this trick, along with your other keyword research methods, should help ensure that those looking for content can find it and those who are not, don’t!
