Very often, you are advised to use keyword research tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Keyword Surfer, etc. But do you know that the easier and most underused keyword research tool is Google itself? In this post, I’ll show you how to do simple keyword research on Google to write a powerful SEO masterpiece.
Also, I’ll show you why contrary to many opinions, you may not have to use sophisticated or fancy “keyword research tools”.
To be honest, I tell you again, the Google Search engine is grossly underused as a keyword research tool simply because it is at your disposal, costs you nothing, and because you think it is not a 3rd-party “sophisticated keyword research tool”.
Anyway, the essence of this post is to let you know how to make the best use of Google as your keyword research tool.
Before going further, there are some important things to take note of.
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Contents
Important Points To Take Note Of When Making Keyword Research on Google
In doing keyword research on Google, there are 5 important things to take note of. They are:
- Does your Key phrase autocomplete on Google?
- Search Box Key Phrase Suggestions
- People Also Ask Section
- Related Queries Section
I’ll explain each of these points and let you know how best to use them in your Keyword research process and improve your SEO.
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1. Does your Key phrase autocomplete on Google?
Although Google will not tell you the search volume of each keyphrase, you can still find valuable information about a keyphrase on Google.
When you type in your key phrase in the google search engine, does it autocomplete?
If your key phrase auto completes on Google, it is a very strong indication that the key phrase has a good search volume.
If your keyphrase does not autocomplete, it does not mean your keyphrase has no search volume either.
It’s just that you can’t be too sure of the exact format or order of words of the exact key phrase with the same meaning that is being searched on Google.
Such doubt is eliminated when your Key phrase auto-completes on Google.
What to do:
Nothing.
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2. Search Box Key Phrase Suggestions
When your keyphrase autocompletes on Google, before clicking “search” or “go”, Google would suggest some other related key phrases to you.
You’ll see something like this:
What Google is simply telling you is that other searchers are also searching for these key phrases.
What to do:
All you have to do is write down those key phrases and find a way to cover them in your content as logically as possible.
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3. People Also Ask Section
Google’s People Also Ask section (otherwise known as PPA) is one of the best keyword research “tools”.
On Google’s PPA section, you’ll see related QUESTIONS to your key phrase. Questions only.
What to do:
Click on the most relevant question to get a dropdown of the answer. What that does is that more questions show up in the PPA question box.
Then, copy or write all questions down because you can use them in two ways:
A. Answer them naturally in your content; or
B. Use an (SEO-friendly) FAQ block and answer the most relevant questions.
Whichever method you use, your content would be very “rich” and you’re simply telling Google that your content is a perfect answer or solution to a searcher’s query. Hence, better snippets and ranking opportunities.
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4. Related Queries Section
Right underneath the SERP (Search Engine Result Page), you’ll see another section called “related queries”.
What to do:
Copy or write down all the related key phrases.
For better keywords, click one of the related key phrases and go to the PPA section of the result page then copy new questions and related key phrases to add to what you already have.
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Complementary Tools or Techniques For Keyword Research On Google
In case you want to make life easier for yourself as you do keyword research on Google, you may need some complementary tools or techniques. They are;
- Chrome extension
- Google Keyword Planner
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Chrome Extension
If you use the Google Chrome browser, you may benefit from adding some extensions to your browser to make keyword research on Google even better.
Extensions provide added functionalities to your browser.
Examples of some SEO extensions are Moz, Ubersuggest, keyword Surfer, etc. With these tools, you can know the estimated search volume for each key phrase.
Using these extensions may be a good alternative to having to create an account or logging into the tool itself to conduct keyword research.
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Google Keyword Planner
Google keyword planner is another helpful tool that could help you apart from regular 3rd party SEO software like SEMrush.
On Google keyword planner, you get an estimated CPC of your keywords. CPC simply means how much advertisers are willing to pay for their ads to show up.
How does this information help your SEO? If you rank your content with high CPC keywords, there are chances that you’ll make more money on that content if you monetize your website with display ads.
Learn More: CPC and CPM Meaning on Google AdSense
Conclusion
Now, you see how undervalued Google is when making keyword research.
Most marketers would rather recommend tools like SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, etc. to conduct keyword research. But if you do not like to use these tools, watch the video below to learn more about how to do keyword research.
However, by now, I assume you know how to do Keyword research like a pro on the Google search engine.
Remember these key points:
- Does your key phrase autocomplete?
- Search Box key phrase suggestions
- People Also Ask section
- Related queries section
While others pay a couple of bucks for these SEO tools, you could take advantage of the best Keyword research tool – Google.
