SEO Cape Town Guide To Autocomplete
In this SEO Cape Town Guide, we will explore how to use Autocomplete through Google to help us create more appropriate content for each of the stages in our funnel or buying cycle, according to actual search queries. Let’s jump into how you can use this tool to help understand how people search for your products and services but also how the knowledge graph is revealing itself to achieve better topical relevance in SEO strategies. Think of a drag net of leads for higher-propensity-to-convert keyword phrases, each appealing to different stages in the buying cycle. Trust an SEO company!
A good start to understanding Autocomplete would be, understanding how it actually works. How does Google know what we may be interested in? Google Search will offer an auto-completion or completed suggestion of what you may be searching for before your very eyes, in a dynamic way. This is also very suggestive of what’s linked in its knowledge graph of related searches that are popular to users using Google Search. Sounds like pure SEO gold to us!
How Does Auto-suggest work according to this SEO Cape Town Guide?
Google uses factors such as what you have searched for in the past, your geolocation, and most importantly, currently trending hot keywords related to your input. It is really a clue machine for topical breadth and granulation. One way to get rid of your personal skewing of that precious data is switching off your personalisation, and the data will be more geo- and trend specific, thereafter.
Humans are creatures of habit and thus we often will be looking for the same information pertaining to our needs, many times during the course of a year. Google keeps records of our searches and the URLs we tend to click on after using certain search queries. This way Google knows that when you enter the first few letters of the search phrase you are actually looking to access your corporate website instead of just alphabetically relevant past searches.
Relative to your position Google will use search queries connected to your search query on its Knowledge Graph emanating from your specific location. For instance, if you were looking for the “best pizza”, it would then autocomplete with geolocation descriptors either the suburb, nearby areas or even “near me”. These are all relative to your immediate surroundings and can be used for location targeting but we will jump into that a little further down in this article.
When people read a news article about a famous actor and there is noteworthy news, then they naturally spread them via word of mouth on WhatsApp, phone calls, or even social media platforms. As people hear of the news, depending on the severity, they will naturally want to confirm it via the source article and will then begin to add the rumour to the brand name as a rough example. Google’s systems will then detect these extended search queries and then use them to autocomplete when the name is searched. We will explain further down how this function may be used as an online reputation tool.
SEO Cape Town Guide: Understanding The Buying Cycle
So in order to fully use the Autocomplete tool, just like an SEO would, you would have to fully understand the buying cycle. Let’s jump into the six stages of the buying cycle in this SEO Cape Town Guide. We will also give examples of content that would match each stage, the idea would be to do keyword research with the Autocomplete tool.
Awareness:
The first stage of the buying cycle is awareness of a need. Think of a user identifying that they need a new lawn mower, because their lawn mower is faulty and just doesn’t cut grass as well anymore, and the lawn is beginning to attract negative attention of their neighbours. What type of questions are being used for that first needs-awareness-search? For instance would the searchers use “how”, “what” or “why” questions?
Think blogs and they should be comprehensive in solving the need from an educational point of view to showcase industry expertise with no sales pressure.
Example content from Autocomplete: “what type of lawn mower is best for uneven ground”
Consideration (and research):
As the user browses online there are many lawn mower google shopping search ads and search results. The user would have a better idea of the type of lawn mower they need specifically for their garden. There are a variety of options to choose from with special offerings from several suppliers with regard to function, quality and design. The focus is more about the perfect solution rather than a specific brand
This stage is about defining options. All options are being reviewed but the decision on specific one is not there yet. One way to begin the process of differentiating a specific solution would be highlighting expertise through downloadable resources such as ebooks or guides but focusing on the utility instead of the brand.
The content should highlight how specifically the solution being offered is the best solution. Webinars are another option for more complex needs and solutions.
Example content from Autocomplete: “zero turn mowers vs ride on mowers”
Intent:
The third stage, is where your conversion optimisation, differentiation and value-proposition copy really has to shine and that the content encourages the actual intent to buy a specific brand. The user no longer wants to read long articles on lawn mower performance but are ready to buy based on social proof through reviews, the brand equity and the right price and specific performance points of the lawn mower relative to a brand.
Think of landing page design, we could imagine less copy but more important differentiation points here in comparison to competition. These are your product pages.
Example content from Autocomplete: “best zero turn mowers”
Purchase:
This is the most important stage of the buying cycle that translates into the sale. Here specific sale attributes become increasingly important such as price. Also, the smoothness of the payment gateway and the checkout process are very important. This stage is where the relationship with we reached the stage where money was changed for goods.
Example of content from Autocomplete: “ride on mower prices south africa”
Post-purchase:
Content would be sales support or extended value proposition, think monthly lawn mowing tips to go wth your new lawn mower. Now that the user has purchased our product, how do we keep the relationship alive by helping the user use it better.
Example content from Autocomplete: “zero turn mower blade replacement”
Repurchase
This is the stage in this SEO Cape Town Guide where the product eventually reaches its lifespan and it’s now time for new version and the same type of product is repurchased if the experience was positive. This stage relies on the experience with the purchasing process and the product example were very positive. The brand has now entrenched itself in the user’s mind positively, content can now be focused on using additional products in addition to the original products.
SEO Cape Town Guide: Intent exploration
In this SEO Cape Town Guide,, we realise that conversion intent is very important, especially for e-commerce sites but also the stages leading up to it. We know that owner of the website wants to drive sales.
It is often very difficult to be absolutely certain of the intent of a keyword phrase. The intent of keyword phrases often overlaps and a certain percentage of users will be more concerned with conversion or immediate gratification and others will be in the earlier stages of their buying cycle. The better we can predict intent, the better content format may be fabricated to provide the user behind that search query with the exact information they are looking for.
Let’s look at a simple analogy to illustrate intent in the buying cycle and the appropriate experience. Think of a brick-and-mortar clothing store, a couple of month before it gets cold you think to start casually looking at coats on a quiet afternoon but it is not a necessity at this stage. You decide to look through the racks while you have nothing better to do, you just want to plan your clothing budget for the upcoming months when it becomes seriously cold. All of a sudden a hungry salesperson is all over you, even though you politely attempt to turn down their request. The store was providing the wrong experience for where you were in the buying cycle.
Now, imagine the opposite, it is freezing outside, and you desperately need a new coat as your other coat looks terrible and has a gaping hole. You literally cannot leave the store unless you find a jacket due to the freezing outside temperatures. As you search from rack to rack, no salesperson even remotely looks your way. Again the store is offering the wrong experience for your stage in the buying cycle.
So in the first example, you were at your early stage of the buying cycle and thus wanted to browse with low intent to purchase at that stage and the salesperson was too much. In the second example, you were at the purchase phase of your buying cycle, due to weather and desperate need for a new jacket, and thus you were at a high intent to purchase but did not have enough assistance. Just like the appropriate sales experience in a brick-and-mortar store must match the buying cycle stage, we need the appropriate content in the online world.
When the wrong type of content is provided is just becomes irritating and the entire funnel grows in friction to conversion. The great news is that with Google’s autocomplete tool, Google is showing us by Autocomplete, the potential topics for the awareness, consideration and intent stages. These longer-tail phrases are entities!
Use Autocomplete to research entities like an SEO Cape Town
As mentioned in this SEO Cape Town Guide, all the suggested phases are actually connected on Google’s Knowledge Graph and thus autocomplete may be used to research entities to ensure better topical coverage.
In “Keyword” Google’s famous search blog, in the article where they introduced the Knowledge Graph, they mentioned “things not strings” in the title. Google basically goes on in that article to explain how words may be things that can be interconnected in their database or Knowledge Graph: people, places or things.
Autocomplete is basically reflecting all these interconnected entities relative to what people are searching and how Google connects everting on its knowledge graph to paint the bigger of the topic semantically. By using these keyword phrases we can provide content that drives the user further down their buying cycle stages.
SEO Cape Town Guide: Online Reputation Management
As we mentioned autocomplete reveals to us what people are searching for, often the longer-tail versions of keyword phrases and thus if we search a brand same and then we see “let customer’s down” “or bad service” then we know the brand has reputation issues that need to be resolved and that’s searchers have heard about this from a bad reputation are then actively searching it to query whether it is true or not.
When other people search the same brand name and see those negative Autocomplete then this will start adding friction to the conversion process for those searchers, people really look at social proof positively or negatively in purchase decisions. Think of checking reviews on Amazon before you make a purchase, what you are doing is essentially checking the product’s reputation among other users through their reviews.
The PR team can use these Autocompletes as early warning signs of issues with interaction with the company, executives or even product or service defects or issues. Very wise PR teams could even create content to outrank the most severe of these Autocompletes ahead of time while addressing the issue, to help re-convince searchers that allowed Google to autocomplete with the negative sentiment looking for more information about the Autocomplete. The brand in question could have a thoughtful piece of content already designed to address these issues and this content would rank quite quickly as it is connected to the brand.
Use tools to access it at scale
To use tools to access it at scale, you can try Ubersuggest or even Answerthepublic. This will allow you to collect the fragmented longer-tail keyword phrases, that are sourced from Autocomplete that can be included in your content pieces offering real value to users at each stage of the buying cycle, thus pushing them down the buying cycle.
Make sure to manually test each Autocomplete by searching them and then look at the type of content already ranking highly. The intent of the Autocomplete will decide what buying cycle stage you attribute it to.