The Clickable Search Engine Marketing Blog

Internet Marketing News, Perspectives And Insights. It’s Our Living Story.

Using Google Suggest for Keyword Research

Posted by: Tony Soric on Mar 09, 2009 9 Comments

In 2008 Google introduced Google Suggest to enhance the search experience.  Google Suggest allows users to fine-tune their search queries and explore related keyword phrases. The interface is so intuitive that in many cases it can actually reduce the number of key strokes required to produce a search result as well.
You may have noticed when you input a query on Google.com, a dropdown of related topics appears below the search box.

An example of Google Suggest results for the keyword "nintendo":

If you were to type in either "base" or "table" you could expect the following 
suggestions:

"baseball"
"baseball hall of fame"
"basecamp"

"tablet pc"
"table"
"table tennis"
"table of elements"

As a Search Engine Marketer, Why Should You Care?
The recommendations offered by Google Suggest are often highly relevant and help searchers find related variations of keyword phrases they may not have initially considered. As more users begin to act on Google Suggest recommendations, their search habits become more predictable.

This is important for Search Engine Marketers because it helps them identify relevant keywords that users are more likely to search for. I encourage you to spend some time with Google Suggest because you’ll probably find some interesting keywords that are not in your PPC campaigns.

A Negative Keyword Tool
From an SEM perspective, there is another obscure benefit to leveraging Google Suggest. Google Suggest is also an effective negative-keyword suggestion tool. Recall our "table" example from above: if you are an online retailer specializing in traditional dinner tables or conference tables, you probably don't want your ads to show for keywords related to table tennis.

For a more practical example on our own "Clickable" brand:

Notice the irrelevant suggestions - clickable for myspace, clickable oil, clickable fairy charms. These are prime examples of negative keywords that should be added to our branded Adwords campaigns.

Useful keyword data is everywhere, you just have to keep your eyes open and consider sources outside of traditional keyword research tools.  While the Google Suggest tool was originally developed to benefit consumers, as you can see it also has the potential to help you optimize your PPC accounts.


Tony, Clickable SEM Guru
 
Note: Clickable employees volunteer several hours a week to helping other search marketers succeed. "Clickable Gurus" participate in numerous online search communities to provide straightforward answers to numerous questions, and, each week, one of the gurus posts a search marketing tip to the Clickable Blog. 

 



Share »
Filed under: , ,
Comments
Dan PPCPROZ wrote:

i'd like to be able to quickly export this to clipboard or at least csv

do you know how this could be possible?

Mar 24, 2009 at 10:09 AM Share »
Tony Soric wrote:

Dan PPCPROZ,

I was able to find a nice resource that exports Google Suggest results into XML format. I hope this helps.

blogoscoped.com/.../2006-08-17-n22.html

Tony

SEM Guru

Mar 24, 2009 at 12:06 PM Share »
Dan PPCPROZ wrote:

hi tony,

i tried that link.  

Any luck finding a simpler interface?

Maybe someone should create this web based tool?

What would it take to do it?  Maybe I'll contract it out.

Dan

Apr 21, 2009 at 08:40 AM Share »
SEO Expert wrote:

A good way to get keyword suggestions is to use Google Adwords keyword tool.  First, you need an Adwords account.  Then start a new PPC campaign for your site and use the keyword tool to find not only keywords that people have searched on but also their monthly relative search volumes.

Apr 26, 2009 at 05:55 PM Share »

For all marketers – novices and experts alike – successfully launching a search campaign

Jun 25, 2009 at 03:14 PM Share »

Some advertisers set up their PPC accounts with a single match-type. Depending on their budget and who

Oct 01, 2009 at 04:35 PM Share »

Pingback from  Manage PPC Risk With Multiple Match Types & Negative Keywords

Oct 06, 2009 at 01:30 PM Share »

Pingback from  The Fastest Easiest Cheapest Keyword Research Tool | Vertical Measures

Mar 26, 2010 at 08:21 AM Share »

Pingback from  The Fastest-Easiest-Cheapest Keyword Research Tool | Free Internet Marketing Videos

Mar 26, 2010 at 08:24 AM Share »
Add a Comment
*        
*  




Connect With Clickable
The Clickable Blog by RSS The Clickable Blog by EmailFollow Clickable on Twitter Clickable on Facebook
Take the
5 Minute Tour
Take a Tour of Clickable
Expert Analysis of Your Search & Social Ad Campaigns
 
 
   

 

 
 
   
 
or call us at 877-775-6699 Link accounts to Clickable with monthly ad spend totaling $5,000 or more, and our expert team will identify problem areas and surface untapped revenue opportunities—FOR FREE.
Tags
Most Popular Posts
Archive
Friends