Get ready for some low-cost user insights delivered straight to your browser for free by the leading search engines. Autocomplete suggestions offer a view into the collective search psyche of your current and potential customers. The suggestions can be funny at times, damaging for some but for you they can become a valuable user research tool. You only need some time and a browser.
Autocomplete explained
Suggestions on an Adroid phoneThe auto-complete is a drop-down menu below search boxes which contains ‘suggestions’ that are shown once users start formulating a query. Those suggestions are based, for the most part, on other users' search activities.
Autocomplete is a relatively new addition to the search experience, first introduced by Google in 2008. The Autocomplete suggestions attract increasing attention from users as Google rolls out the functionality on android phones, in browser toolbars and other web apps.
Suggestions are based on a secret algorithm that takes into account:
- Popularity of that combination of search terms by other users. Trending searches by users are pushed up in the suggestions temporarily.
- Spell checking.
- Location of the user.
- Personal search history (in case this is turned on and the user is signed in to Google).
- Some no-go areas built in the algorithm are: porn, illegal downloads, hate suggestions targeting a specific group, legally mandated removals (when Google is sued for a suggestion) and personally identifiable information such as phone numbers.
It is not possible to ‘buy’ suggestions and although some have tried, generating enough fake queries to push up suggestions artificially is difficult, if not impossible.
Autocomplete suggestions as a reseach tool
Content editors, marketeers and SEO specialists are starting to discover Google suggestions as a research tool. They realize autocomplete suggestions reveal what people are searching for in relation to topics and brands and this is an opportunity for low-cost research. It is primarily interesting when:
- Writing content covering a specific topic.
- Developing new products or services around a specific need.
- Improving your SEO for existing products/services.
So how does that work? Let’s give an example…
Example: Selling Vacuum cleaners online
Imagine you have a business selling vacuum cleaners online and you want to add content that will help you engage with your audience. Ultimately, this should increase visits and sales. You could go and find out by interviewing a lot of users on their wishes and needs. However, suppose you start off using Google:
First search terms: Vacuum Cleaner (followed by a space) will produce the suggestions:
- Reviews, Ratings, Parts, Bags
Now adding a trailing ‘a’ to your query gets you:
- Amazon, attachments, Accessories, Amps;
adding ‘b’ gives you:
- bags, best, belts, brands
Example of the search for vacuum cleaner
Go down the alphabet and you will end up with a large set of keywords people actually search for. This exercise took about half an hour of searching and typing and gave the following potentially useful keywords for attracting visitors, creating content and expanding the product portfolio, based on real needs.
Service needs:
parts, bags, Filters, accessories, belts, attachments, covers, just stopped working
Information/Orientation:
reviews, comparison, consumer reports, video, brands, amps, power, watts, sound, quietest, quiet, noise, smells, odor, types, upright, using water vs. carpet cleaner, without a beater bar, how it works, when it was invented, history, dog hair, for hardwood floors, for car, for stairs, German made, guide, lightweight, cordless
Buy:
coupons, deals, under 100
Funny finds & Internet celebrities:
vacuum cleaner kid, jet engine, versus fire, toy, games, jokes, museum
Another way to get more keywords is to add a common string behind it: Vacuum Cleaner ‘how many’ or ‘how much’, ‘when should you’, ‘why’ etc.
Digging deeper: broaden the keywords
This short exercise is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to dig deeper and uncover more keywords people search for you can:
- Broaden the keywords you enter: using the verb ‘vacuuming’, or specific vacuum cleaner brands such as ‘Hoover’.
- Recursively add other letters to your string (aa, ab, ac, ad - az, ba, bb, bc, bd - bz etc...)
- Perform the trick at different search engines that offer autocomplete based on search behavior of other users (Bing, Yahoo, YouTube)
Tip: start automating the work
Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool that can automate the keyword research? Actually, there are some keyword research tools out there such as Traffic Travis (free) and Wordtracker that extend Google’s Adword tools to generate related terms and there’s Super Suggester which actually does the mundane job of recursively scraping the actual Autocomplete menus.
Screenshot Super Suggestor
Listen… your customers are talking to you!
In conclusion: Autocomplete Suggestions can provide you with valuable information on the needs of your potential customers. But there are other easy and inexpensive ways of doing user research as well: For example going over your own site’s search logs. In this case, questions are much more insightful than answers! Or search on Twitter for some of your main keywords to find out what people are saying about you or your products. Twitter can be a great channel to directly ask feedback from your customers. Use web analytics to see what your visitors are doing: Through which keywords are they entering your site? What is the most popular content?
In any case, it is important that you (start to) listen to your customers and improve your products and services based on that information. The suggestions in this article are a great start but let’s not forget about more traditional interviews and observations. It turns out the combination of several methods is the way forward.
Do you want to improve your website based on these insights? We can autocomplete you!
This article was published in the online magazine Frankwatching.nl in January 2012.