Need some new keyword ideas? Did you know that one keyword tool doesn't necessarily fit all when you're considering keyword optimization for Google vs. Bing or search vs. social? Beyond researching keywords for Google, there aren't a lot of other tools out there that can help. Fortunately, many networks have a mini keyword research tool built in to their search box known as autosuggest or autocomplete. The following are the best networks for researching long tail keyword phrases and seeing what social properties are best optimized for your target term.
Search Engine Optimization
Your first optimization goal should be getting your website ready for the top three search engines, i.e. those that make up 95% of search queries generated in the U.S. Are their keyword suggestions the same? Let's find out.
While you can use Google's search box for suggestions, the better bet is on Uber Suggest. This tool will give you the A to Z of suggestions based on the keyword you enter, providing you with a potential of 260 ideas (plus an additional 90 involving numbers)
If you're struggling with finding informational vs. commercial intent keyword phrases, browsing through the suggestions can give you some options to choose from relatively quickly. You can even click on these keywords to get even more related matches.
Bing
Beyond Google, you will have to use the search box to get autosuggested terms. But as you will to see, each search engine network has different ideas of suggested terms, starting with Bing.
Yahoo
Even though Yahoo's results are powered by Bing, the suggested terms vary from both Google's and Bing's results.
Social Search Optimization
If you want people to be able to find you on social media, then you need to do a little social search optimization for your profiles, pages, updates, and groups. One of the tough parts about social search optimization is that most results - and therefore autosuggests - are personalized based on your account and connections. This means you have two choices when it comes to getting a close to accurate view of autosuggests:
Use a relatively blank profile - no connections, no profile information filled out, etc.
Use a profile that is set up like your ideal customer's profile would be based on location, interests, public pages liked, groups followed, etc.
Once you have that set up, you can continue trying the follow autosuggests on social media.
Twitter generally offers up two types of autosuggestions based on what you are typing in - general searches (noted by a magnifying glass icon) or profiles.
The people suggestions can be particularly useful in finding the top profiles optimized for the keyword you are targeting. In this case, you learn that having keywords in your profile name can be especially helpful.
Autosuggest on Facebook is quite interesting, thanks to Graph Search. First, people will get the basic Graph Search options.
If this doesn't distract them, then they can type in their keyword and get a variety of types of results, from people to groups.
Again, you learn that Facebook entities with the keyword in the title will rank first in autosuggest. It also goes to show that having a group on a particular topic can help you lure in potential customers.
LinkedIn search, similar to Facebook, shows different types of suggested of results including profiles, groups, and companies.
You guessed it. Anything with the keyword in the name - people, companies and groups - makes it to the top of the suggestions.
Google+
Google+ also gives you a selection to choose from when it comes to suggested results for people, pages, and communities.
Google+ completes the social media trend of suggested results having the keyword in the name.
The moral of the story: the first suggested results would almost always be connections. Therefore, it's good to make sure your profile / page is connected to as many of your ideal customers as possible.
What networks do you like using autosuggest / autocomplete to learn from?
About the Author: Scott Cohen
