By now I'm sure you've heard '
Google Suggest' is coming out of the lab and into the main Google search page.
Some are saying this is going to severely cut into long tail keyword and typo traffic volume. Google is going to make it too easy for Joe Surfer to just pick from one of the suggestions instead of typing in that
nice juicy long tail phrase you are so nicely optimized for.
But there's a hidden opportunity here I think, at least in the beginning before everyone starts capitalizing on it. So check this example and then follow along below the image to see how to use Suggest to your advantage.
Google Suggest Results for: Reverse Mortgages
Above is a search I did for "Reverse Mortgages" a
very lucrative and
very competitive key phrase. There are over 2 million competing pages. Now let's look at an interesting phrase Google 'suggested' when I searched. If I was a consumer interested in reverse mortgages, I think I'd be pretty likely to click the #2 result and would click "
Reverse Mortgages pros and cons".
If I were a Reverse Mortgage affiliate or Adsense publisher, what do I see? A hidden gem!
"Pros and cons" is at the very top of the list, YET has the lowest # of results. Hmmm, interesting - let's do some more keyword research.
allintitle: "reverse mortgages pros and cons" only has 63 competing pages. Looks like it would be pretty easy to get to the 1st page!
When I checked the term "Reverse Mortgages" with the Adwords keyword tool and Wordtracker the phrase "Reverse Mortgages pros and cons" was so low down the list I may not have optimized for it and evidently not many other people did.
Yet if 'Suggest' sends some visitors to the phrase and it's super easy to get ranked for, then it would probably be worth optimizing for.
What about PPC? Let's see if Google gives us an opportunity there too.
Reverse Mortgages has 49 pages of PPC ads.
There are OVER 500 Adwords ads to compete with!
Check out the
Reverse Mortgages pros and cons page Google Suggest just sent Joe surfer to!
How many competing ads? Only 8! I'm dying to know if those 8 advertisers see a boost in traffic for this term. Maybe I got lucky with this example, but I've tried a few others and found some interesting gems too.
Below are some good articles about how Google Suggest could affect
SEO.
How Google Suggest Changes SEO
Google Suggest to Go Live
Free SEO Tips for Google Search Suggest