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Conducting full-scale keyword research can be daunting for any small business. There’s not enough time in the day to learn the full strategy, and it’s important not to lose sight of the other areas of your business.
So, what can a small business owner do to create content around search terms on a very small time budget? This is going to sound stupidly simple, and you’re going to wonder why you never did this in first place. But, bear with me because this is a super easy strategy.
What is Google Suggest? You Already Know, Silly
This is simply Google’s “auto suggest” tool that fills in keyword suggestions as you type your search query in Google. There’s nothing more to say…besides that we’re hearing this tool is powered by unicorns. If you own a unicorn hunting business, then you’re especially in luck. If not (like most of us), well this tool is still extremely helpful for doing keyword research. Let’s get serious and dive in.
Use Google Suggest for Keyword Ideas
The Google Suggest tool is the most simple application you can use to help with doing keyword research for your blog or business website. Simply act like a user and start searching for topics that you would want to write about, and see what is suggested to you. This is called “Google Suggest,” or “Google Auto Suggest.” Whatever it’s called doesn’t matter. What matters is its simplicity and effectiveness. Here’s an example of where I might use the Google Suggest tool to get some keyword ideas for writing a blog post or webpage where I’m trying to help people learn how to optimize a website.
Keywords are typically listed in order of search volume (from my experience, but don’t hold me to it), and you’ll get a number of ideas out of a single search phrase. Using this example, I could write multiple blog posts:
- How to optimize your website for search/How to optimize your website for Google
- How to optimize your website for mobile
If I continue with this tactic and look for other related searches, by using the Google Suggest tool in this same manner, I find some other ideas:
This gives me even more keyword ideas that I could pair with the topics I found above:
- How to optimize your website for search
- How to optimize your website for Google
- Optimizing your website for SEO
- Optimizing your website for search engines
- Website optimization tips
- Website optimization Google
- How to optimize your website for mobile
- Optimizing your website for mobile
- Optimizing your website for mobile devices
This strategy takes only a few minutes. While it won’t give you full-blown keyword research for complete content marketing strategies, it’s a heck of a lot simpler for a small business who doesn’t have much time or budget to invest.
Insider Tip: If you want even more “suggested” keywords, try using additonal tools that tap into Google and other “auto suggest” search verticals. Übersuggest, SEO Chat, and Soovle are a few of the most popular options.
Use Google Related Searches for More Keyword Ideas
The fun doesn’t stop with Google’s auto suggest tool. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Google search results and look at the “Related Searches.”
What are Related Searches? Google shows searches related to your search query that help you further expand or refine your search queries. They can be helpful to better understand how users search for a particular topic in different ways.
Here’s some examples, based on the keywords I entered above:
By now, you should be swimming in keywords from using the Google Related Searches feature in addition to Google Suggest. Organize them into topics and use them wisely in your content. If you need to brush up your content optimization skills, review our on-page optimization best practices for optimizing your content for search engines.
Bonus Tip: Use Google Auto Suggest for News Articles
Using Google Suggest and Google Related Searches is also a great keyword research strategy for hot news articles. Why? The Google Keyword Planner Tool has historical information of keywords, with monthly averages from search volume estimates gathered over the course of a year. That’s not going to help you find keywords for breaking news topics. Here’s an example using the top article on CNN.com today (which unfortunately is a very sad story).
If you have a news website where it’s appropriate to cover this story, using the Google keyword suggest tool can help you find how people are searching for it. Here’s some examples of keywords that are used:
These keyword ideas can help you with deciding how to title the article, paired with bold headline tactics, and also give you sectional “subtitle” ideas for different parts of your article. Note: It’s really unfortunate what happened to these women, and we’re glad to see that justice will be served…at the very least.
Summary: Google Auto Suggest & Google Related Searches
These two tools are super simple ways to conduct quick keyword research for content ideas, whether they will be blog posts, top-level web pages, infographics or other forms of content. They’re perfect for the small business owner or blogger that doesn’t have a lot of time or money to spend on deep keyword research strategies. Use them to get headline ideas and content outline ideas. They’ll make a big difference in your content marketing strategy.
