May 29, 2009

Google wants you to find the information you're looking for fast, without having to search multiple times to get what you want.

While I won't bore you with all the details of what's changed, I'll briefly summarize the main changes: Google has added AdWords ads to the Google Suggest box, tries to point searchers of "navigational queries" directly to the website, and makes suggestions not just on the homepage of Google.com, but on the search results page as well.

An example of a search suggestion box showing a navigational link and an AdWords ad is below:

Pretty cool, huh?

Well, I'll give you some ideas on how you can use this new tool to research variations of major keywords, observe what customers are saying about you and your brand, and see what people think of your competitors.

Open up a new window and start to type in your brand name or product and see what comes up.

Many times I see "scam", "fraud", "reviews", "complaints", and "alternative" being suggested for particular brands. There's nothing you can do to change this, but it should give you some insight into what your customers are typing in regarding your brand or product.

Keep your customers happy and the search volume should be very low for these types of terms, meaning Google won't suggest them, and therefore people won't get the funny idea that you're running some sort of scam. Remember, it's not what you say about your brand that counts; It's what Google says that matters.

You can use this same method for your competitors' brands and products. It will give you great insight into what others are saying, be it praise or frustration.

Another way to use this feature to grow your business is to begin to type in some of your major keywords. Do you see any that you're not bidding on? Do you see any that might make for good negative keywords in your account? These search terms that Google is suggesting to its users are sure to gain additional volume over time, as searchers realize that one of the suggestions being made is actually what they meant to search for in the first place.

I predict the wide, broad terms might even lose volume as users begin to type in a broad search term, then refine it with one of the suggestions Google makes.

For fun, if you want to just play around with the tool, I like to type in a brand with the word "is". You'll get some pretty funny suggestions:

What is Google's Search Suggest tool saying about your business?

If you are a self-managed AdWords advertiser and found this tip helpful, you may want to learn more about our Google AdWords account audit and strategy session where we'll research and then present specific tips for your account structure, campaign settings, keywords (including negatives), conversion tracking analysis and much more.

We've recorded a few more AdWords strategies and posted a six-minute video to help you get better results with your online advertising.