Posted by Michael D Jensen on August 26th, 2008
As I write this Google is rolling out their Suggest feature to the main page of Google. Suggest essentially feeds you suggestions in real-time as you type, suggestions for popular keywords. It is an exciting new feature, but not without implications to SEO as we know it.
It will look something like this, except it won’t be just in the Google Labs anymore:
How Google Suggest Changes SEO
The real way that Google Suggest changes SEO is for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are typically 4-6 keywords in length, words that probably won’t appear on Google Suggest. Just look at the keywords in my screenshot above, Google will only show relatively popular keywords based on what you type.
Like Bumper Bowling
Instead of giving users free reign in what they type, Google is holding your hand to help you figure out what you want, and will essentially bias searches towards “head keywords” or “short-tail keywords”, which are the more popular keywords usually 1-3 words in length. It’s kind of like going to a bowling alley and your friends want to use the bumpers. It makes people lazy and doesn’t incite thinking or testing.
Killing the Long-Tail Keyword?
Will this kill the long-tail keyword? I doubt it will kill it, but I do foresee a drop in long-tail keywords. Think of your grandma, after typing a word, if she sees a list of related keywords what will she do? Yes, she’ll pick one of them. What will you do? I think overall, Google Suggest will particularly be used by less technically adept users that may feel like those are the only options they get to search with, instead of really typing what they are looking for.
Change of Game? What to do
I do think this changes the SEO game a bit. Let’s say your main keyword is “SEO Tools” like in the screenshot above, what keywords are you going to make sure you have a blog post or page for first? Yes, those pages that Google suggests first, probably starting at the top. It’s almost like there is a new layer of ranking, where the actual keyword that a user picks now goes through an added filter, and then they see the SERPs. It’s the same principle, the higher the keyword, the more likely it is to get clicked.
My recommendation is to hold a keyword meeting, start with your seed keywords and use Google suggest for all of them. The 10 keywords you get for each of your seed keywords should be your first priority (if they are relevant obviously), starting with the keywords listed at the top.
What say you?
Update: A few other write-ups about Google suggest you might like, the best being by Aaron Wall at SEOBook.com:
http://www.seobook.com/seo-tips-google-search-suggest
http://searchengineland.com/080825-201142.php
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/018095.html
Update 2: A nice post by Scott at SiteCreations.com made me realize that it might also work the opposite way, making for less 1-2 word keywords. After typing in one or two keywords you then get 3-4 word keywords suggested. Maybe we call these “medium-tail keywords”, which would be less popular than 1-2 keywords, but more popular than 4-6 word long-tail keywords. Very interesting dynamic that this brings to the SEO table, and it definitely should make all of us revisit our keyword lists as well as our content using those keywords.
Visited 7220 times
August 26th, 2008
Michael D Jensen
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Posted by Michael D Jensen on September 4th, 2007
Marketing, in whatever form, is all about the experience. This is the why behind how link bait and viral marketing work.
We recently moved to Southern Utah, and in our family we like to be tourists everywhere we go, even where we live. We heard about these dinosaur tracks, so we set out to find them. We had a map that had directions that appeared pretty specific, even down to having an extra digit after the decimal point of how many miles from point X to point Y. With my iPhone (sweet Maps app), GPS on the car, and our handy dandy map, I thought we’d be there in 20 minutes, see the tracks, and be on our way to the next historic site. Instead, we had a safari adventure in our minivan, with 3 young kids in the back, hunting for dinosaur tracks in 100 degree weather, on a dirty bumpy road, that lasted two and a half hours.
Now if you are still a kid like I am (and like my kids are), this was awesome. We turned down a road which ended up being more of a 4-wheeler road, having to turn around and backing into a cactus. We saw a few guys off the road, but after approaching them on foot I realized they were carrying weapons. Luckily they were harmless and gave us some hints as to where to seek the dinosaur tracks. We traveled down the road for what seemed like an eternity, all the while enjoying the beautiful Utah desert and the sweet sound of kids nagging each other. Finally, a sign; of course it was 3 inches by 3 feet with the words “Dinosaur Tracks” in a single column, in white and brown (camouflage), and a small arrow pointing the way. We turned and kept looking, another 3″ x 3′ sign. We found the parking lot, and another 3″ x 3′ sign. We walked a ways and finally came to the end of our hunt, with about 10 footsteps from dinosaurs, engrained in stone for us to stare at in amazement. This ain’t plaster of paris my friends, these are dinosaur tracks.
So, if you’re still reading, hopefully you’ve imagined our experience and smiled at least a tad. It was a blast, and tucking my kids in tonight they remember our trek of finding dinosaur tracks. What would this have been like had this rock with the tracks been cut out and taken to my local museum? We could have walked right past them. We wouldn’t have spent more than 2 or 3 minutes looking at the tracks. A portion of the visitors to the museum probably would miss the tracks altogether. And when those kids were tucked, I guarantee they wouldn’t remember the dinosaur tracks.
It’s all about the experience. There is a fantastic article written on the topic titled The Experience is the Marketing by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II. This is the inner workings of link bait and viral marketing, it is the experience the user undergoes. The experience may not last two and a half hours like my dinosaur track safari, but if the user has a memorable experience, the marketing worked. The article gives several examples, such as “The American Girl Place”. It’s not your typical toy doll store. Parents take their daughters with doll in hand to get the doll’s hair done ($20), get their picture taken together ($21.95), watch a theatrical production together ($25), and to have dinner together ($18). Yes, you can buy a new doll there, but it’s the experience that drives thousands each year, and millions in revenue, not the dolls.
In the online world, we don’t have the advantage of a physical setting to create an experience. We do, however, have many forms of medium to create an experience.
Online Mediums for Creating an Experience
First, your design and usability is the first part of the experience. Is your design clean, does it speak to your audience (high-end consumers, women, older folks, college kids, etc), are products easy to find with available details?
Second, do you offer more than just product? What about a section of all the crazy ways your product has been used (think Duck brand Duct Tape), or a photo blog of people wearing your product in different locales (like Beast Clothing)? What about an application that helps people with some aspect of your product or service, that they find useful (like our Link Search Tool). What about a viral video (think Diet Coke & Mentos) that showcases or includes your product, or is a captivating commercial that makes it viral?
Tapping into your Audience
Just because your marketing medium isn’t a physical building, it doesn’t mean you can’t tap into the physical senses of your audience. You can appeal to emotions, appetites, feelings, memories, hopes, and vanity. There’s no step by step how to and no online experience generator to accomplish this. But there is your innovation, and the imagination of your team and company.
Get Started and Create an Experience
To start, read the article The Experience is the Marketing. It’s a great jump start to making an experience for your audience, which is the ultimate in branding and marketing.
Visited 2852 times
September 4th, 2007
Michael D Jensen
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