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Google Search Results as a Keyword Research Tool For Better SEO

Using google search result pages as an seo tool
The hidden secret of using Google result pages as an SEO tool

Improving the visibility of our websites in search and improving organic search results on Google are two important actions we need to take to improve our overall SEO.

Your website might not be performing as well as you’d like it to, but there are tools you can use to discover where your site is falling short and find new ways to improve your website’s organic search traffic.

Here you have the best keyword tool to use when creating search engine optimized content for your website.

Google Search Results

Out of my more than ten years of experience in SEO, I’ve learned that Google is the best Keyword tool for finding the right keywords.

SEO tools out there are based on their own databases and algorithms to determine what they call Keywords Metrics. But you will be shocked at how different they really are when it comes to the real Keyword data.

Let’s check two examples using some of the most well-known tools for SEO Ahrefs and Semrush.

Ahrefs example using the keyword “Keyword tools” targeting the United Kingdom:

Keyword tool
Ahrefs Keyword Research Tool

Based on the results for the moment, we can highlight:

  • Monthly Search Volume: 250
  • Cost Per Click (CPC) 5.00 USD
  • Keyword Difficulty: 96

The other metrics like clicks, Cost Per Search (CPS), and Return Rate (RR) are cool features ahrefs offers. (if only they were real!). These metrics are merely averages, and these metrics are generated by the ahrefs keyword database, that regardless of how big it can be, we can rely on the 100%.

Semrush example, again using the keyword “Keyword tools” and targeting the United Kingdom:

Keyword tool
Semrush Keyword Research Tool

From The results extracted from Semrush we highlight:

  • Monthly Search Volume: 2.900
  • Cost Per Click (CPC) 3.15 USD
  • Keyword Difficulty: 73%

We can see also other things like the trend over time of the keywords, SERP Features, the number of results, etc. These are common features both tools offer, but under different keyword metrics, deciding on a keyword to target can confuse you when deciding on a keyword to target. But fear ye not, for we are here to help you.

Why using Google and not other tools for Keyword research?

Because Google provides enough information to make an educated decision about which keyword to target. And even what format your page should have. Furthermore, you can also see where your competitors are falling short and why you should outrank them.

All you need to do is to understand Google language. Yes, Google speaks loud and clear, but few are the digital marketers listening.

The first thing you need to know about Google is that it is not a search engine; it is more like an Answer Engine. For you, make the question, and Google will always try to provide the best answer available based on how its algorithm understood those first 10 result pages it will show you.

It doesn’t mean that because those pages are there today, they will be there tomorrow. Google algorithm is always indexing content, and anytime they deem a content better than others, it will move up or down on the rankings positions the pages that could retain those ranking places.

You need to use Google because it is Google the search engine you need to convince that your web pages deserve a prominent place on the Search engine Result pages rankings. How do you convince google about this? by simply giving the people what they really need to see or read.

The more people interact with your web pages, the more attention from Google and other Search engines your site web attracts, motivating search engines artificial intelligence to up rank your page. Note that your page will be as high on the ranking as long as no other web page offers something better than yours.

5 steps to use Google Search Result as a keyword research tool?

First let’s take this out of the way: You don’t need special skills to use Google Search result as a keyword tool.

Step 1, understand your target audience: It doesn’t matter how good your reword research skills are if you don’t target the right audience. You might end up driving a lot of traffic with zero interest in your products or services. To avoid this waste of time and resources, you need to understand your audience. We created a post about creating a digital marketing strategy; you will learn all you need to understand your target audience.

Step 2: What is your audience looking for: The topic of interest is the new name for keyword words. The more search engines evolve, the less they care about keywords. As the most important search engine, Google changed its algorithms and redefined the keyword distribution criteria web pages need to deserve a prominent SERPs place.

You need to provide your audience with the info they need. Regardless of your industry, a targeted audience is always looking for something. You need to provide that something and turn their attention towards your products or services. Google will follow the audience’s interest in your site, and there is where your ranking starts to rise or fall, based on such interaction.

Step 3, convert the search interest into a topic: Now that you understand your audience and know what they want, it’s time to select your topic of interest. You can keep calling it a keyword, but you are forcing your skills to stay in the past by doing it. You need to evolve with the new digital marketing trend and adapt your web pages’ content.

Step 4, select your topic of interest or keyword and search it on Google: You can take the words that convey the whole idea of your content type. Whether it is an image, a video or an article, Google will provide you with results it considers that matches the best with your topic. Let us see an example:

Google search results
Here we are using the topic of interest or keyword "Keyword tool". Do you think this topic represents the whole wording of this article?

The answer is no.

As you can see on the results pages. The topic used for the search is needing an answer which is implicit in the words.

A searcher using this keyword is attempting to find keyword research tools, so the Google answer engine is trying to match that intent with the best results it has indexed and ranked for that topic of interest.

What we need to do is to search for a topic of interest that fully represents our content. now let us search for something more in tune with our content:

Google search results

The topic of interest is “Google as a keyword tool”.

Does this topic represent the overall focus of this article?

The answer is yes!

For we are focusing on using Google as the keyword tool.

When you look at the results, you can see that Google also provides the People Also Ask SERP feature for this keyword. It is even more interesting because it displays a Search Engine Ad offering its own keyword tool for Google Ads. Google Keyword Planner is not bad, but it is aimed to pay traffic and not for organic traffic. Therefore we will ignore it by now.

Step 5, Open 10 taps with the best 10 results: Lastly, you need to see what is google telling you about the format and type of information Google consider that topic of interest should provide. Here is where you need to take note of things like:

  • Word count on page
  • Type of content on those pages (video, images, text, infographics, audio, pdf, etc.)
  • Relationship between the topic of interest and the industry of the website
  • Text writing style
  • Wording expertise
  • trustworthiness of the website
  • Authoritativeness of the author(s)
  • Loading speed
  • User experience
  • Responsiveness

You can see that it is not something to take it loosely. You need to merge all these steps into a great content marketing strategy if you want your website SEO to get stronger.

Final words

We don’t advise using keyword research tools to decide which topic to target or the type of content you should create. We are not saying that you should not use Ahrefs or Semrush at all. On the contrary, you can use other features they provide and check their keyword research tools as a basic overview of how a keyword performs.

You should always use your common sense and try to compete not in terms of search volume but for your business’s topic relevance. Try to get people to share, like and interact with your web pages; by doing it, you will send the best ranking signals Google use to determine a web ranking position.

It should be noted that keyword research tools are great for measuring keywords’ performance, but the results do not necessarily reflect the effectiveness of the keyword itself. You need to select your topics by understanding your audience, knowing what they want and how you can provide it.

Too many websites create content with not a realistic understanding of their audience or what they actually want. But your website will not be the one. You can help create audience-targeted content and improve your SEO results by driving more sales and business to your marketing efforts.

Contact us for a free consultation at +357 99762835