If you own or operate a business, then you already know how important search engine optimization (SEO) is to your success. It’s likely you’ve already created a list of keywords you include in almost every piece of content for the internet. You also have probably analyzed who your target audience is and their pain points. While you may have done your research, here’s one aspect you may have overlooked: Using Google related searches to drive more traffic to your website.
Use Google’s Related Searches to Help with Keyword Planning
Related Searches are those words that are found at the bottom of many Google search engine pages.
Let’s assume for a minute that we have a business selling baseball cards. Enter “baseball cards” into the search engine box. Then, scan all the way to the bottom of the page.
You will see related searches include:
- Baseball cards 2017
- Baseball cards Topps
- Baseball cards for sale
- Baseball cards Walmart
- Baseball cards eBay
- Baseball cards Amazon
- Baseball cards 2018
Sometimes, if you go on to the second page and beyond, it will give you even more words to check.
Now, you can add each of those keywords in your favorite keyword checker to see how many people searched for them.
You can add these popular Google “searches related to” long tail keyterms to better optimize your webpage or article for both search engine and user search queries. Through recent algorithm updates, Google’s page crawlers are know intelligent enough to realize linguistic connections between words and phrases. Your page will automatically rank higher if your content is filled with seamless, common user keyterms.
Use Google’s Related Searches to Discover Pain Points
Using the “searches related to” section is a great way to discover popular searcher questions and pain points. People search because they’re trying to find information to solve a problem or question they have. Use those popular search queries to your advantage and answer them in your content.
Let’s take another example. Assume you are a maker of necklaces.
You enter “necklaces” into Google’s search engine and you find:
- Necklaces for girlfriend
- Necklaces for her
- Necklaces for men
- Necklaces with names
- Necklace diamond
- Necklaces gold
- Pandora necklace
- Necklaces for girl
You can learn a lot about what your target audience is looking for when you study the related searches. By analyzing those results, you can find common topics that your target audience is searching for.
Not only does the related searches section give you good SEO ideas, it can also give you ideas on where to expand your market or product offerings. In this example, if you are a jewelry retailer, you could consider offering engraving services for personalization means. Using the “searches related to” section for your business can help your small business evolve to meet the ever changing requirements and expectations of your customers.
You may also want to consider creating a web page targeting specific keywords on your site so that your target audience can find these options easier. Once you create that main page, you can link various other content pieces to it, creating “topic cluster” pages.
From this one simple search, you can analyze how your target audience is searching and what they’re searching for. Use that valuable data to construct your website and webpages around your customers’ needs.
Using Related Searches to Expand Your Marketing Efforts
You already know that it can be difficult to compete with big companies who often have a much larger advertising budget than you have, so let’s see if we can find a niche market opening.
As you scroll through the search results page, look at the top results and see what they’re about. What holes do they have between them? What information or questions are remaining unanswered?
That’s where you can swoop in and fill a potential customer’s need.
You can also use these same ideas in a different way. Take a look at the content on your site and see if you can repurpose some of it to include similar long tail keywords. There’s no reason why you have to exhaust your small business resources creating new content, if you can just update and republish previous quality content.
Yes, search engines loves to rank new content, but updated content can still boost your page’s ranking significantly. Including the term “udpated” in your article title and changing the published page date to a recently modified date can also give internet searchers confidence that your page has the relevant information they’re searching for.
Using Google’s “searches related to” section can also alert you to other businesses in your shared market. You can either use that information for competitor research or you can reach out to them to see if they have guest blogging opportunities your small business could get involved with. This can in turn expand your small business reach and connect you with valuable leads going forward.
In Conclusion
If you are not currently using Google related searches in your efforts, then you are missing a potential gold mine. These terms can help you determine what items you need to add to your inventory to attract new customers. They can also lead the way in showing you your target audience’s pain points. Finally, they can be incorporated into your marketing efforts so that people know that you are offering what they are looking to buy. Your SEO gets much easier when you consider these terms in your own niche market.