saseb68865: A Complete Guide on Google Autocomplete for SEO

A Complete Guide on Google Autocomplete for SEO

14 Mar 2023 at 06:30

The Google search box serves millions of people every second across the globe and has revolutionised the way of searching things on the internet. The autocomplete search is something that is revered in the SEO community and is used in many different and unique ways by digital marketers and SEO professionals across the globe.


Exploring user intent, looking up the most searched for terms, and finding trending keywords are just a few ways Google auto suggest feature helps digital professionals. 


While you may think that Google autocomplete is only meant for basic purposes of exploring the internet, there is much more to it than meets the eye. This comprehensive guide on Google Autocomplete and how it can be leveraged to boost your SEO will show you how big a deal this feature is. Let us dive in.


What Is Google Autocomplete?


Google search autocomplete is a feature designed by Google to make it faster for users to complete their search terms as they type it out. This feature is integrated into almost all places like the quick search box on Android phones, Google homepage, the address bar of Chrome, and much more. A study published by Google highlighted that Google search suggestions save over 200 years’ worth of typing time every single day!


While the primary purpose of Google Autocomplete is to cut down the time spent by users to type their search queries with smart predictions, there are other useful ways to leverage this feature to your advantage.


Google autocomplete also helps businesses in generating content ideas, finding keywords, online reputation management, exploring competitors, and much more. The amount of data-driven tasks one can carry out with Google autocomplete is quite staggering, and it has proven to be one of the most useful tools of the 21st century.


How Google Autocomplete works


Google’s algorithm for its search engine has grown smarter over time with more processing and predictive abilities. It determines its predictions based on the search history of the users coupled with real searches happening worldwide. Then, it shows the most common and trending pages on SERPs based on the characters in the search query along with additional factors such as user location.




  • Do the suggestions differ country-wise? 




In most cases, yes. Google search suggestions “follow” the users based on their location. For instance, if you are in Brazil and you typed “best restaurants in” in the search box, it will provide autocomplete suggestions on nearby areas. The same search term when typed in India would provide completely different autocomplete suggestions.




  • Do Google Autocomplete suggestions differ language-wise?




The autocomplete suggestions also differ based on what language you type in the search box. If you have set a default language in your Google account, you will be shown autocomplete suggestions in that language.




  • Impact of Your Search History on Google Autocomplete Suggestions




If you are making any searches while being logged into your account, Google will remember those search terms when it shows its suggestions.


You can easily identify these suggestions as they have an “X” button right beside them. This is a prediction that is based on your search history, and the remove button helps Google recognise if it was just a one-time search or if it is prevalent to your future search.




  • Google Autocomplete Guidelines




Google search autocomplete suggestions come with some strict guidelines which disallow certain types to be displayed for users. Search terms containing the following material are not shown on autocomplete:



  • Violence or gore

  • Sexually explicit or vulgar terms

  • Hate speech or terms that promote violence

  • Dangerous terms that can lead to life-threatening or harmful situations for humans and animals


How to Use Google Autocomplete for Boosting SEO? 


1. Keyword Research


Keyword research is the foundation on which all SEO strategies are built on. Targeting explicit keywords is a practice that has evolved over time, and related ideas and keywords have become equally important to focus on.


Google autocomplete is a good place to start your keyword research. You can use it alongside tools like Google Keyword Planner to gather new content ideas and get an overview of the right keywords to target. You can gather all the popular results from the autocomplete suggestions of your search terms. Then, you can check their monthly search volume, CPC rates, competition, and much more.


Google autocomplete can help you in keyword research by uncovering good quality, popular long-tail search terms. Since autocomplete suggestions consider popularity as one of the key factors, you can find many valuable keyword ideas and suggestions from this feature. 


Google autocomplete holds an undeniable value when it comes to looking up related search terms and generating keyword ideas. It can nudge you in the right direction to help start off your keyword research process. It can even help you in refining your existing SEO strategies by giving you an overview of the latest trends under the targeted keywords. This can help you in updating your existing strategies to generate even better results over time.


2. Define User Intent


To drive organic traffic on your website, it is important that you understand your users’ intent. The messaging, layout, designs, and even media you put on your website should be reflective of the search terms you’re targeting.


Satisfying user intent can help you boost your rankings based on search terms relevant to your page. One way you can achieve this is using Google autocomplete. You can find the most searched for queries under your targeted keywords to understand the totality of user intent. Keywords very often overlap with different types of user intents and without the context of keywords, it would be quite hard to gather what users want.


It is important to satisfy the intent of the users across all stages, and autocomplete can provide you a holistic view to determine these stages. 


3. Online Reputation Management (ORM)


Online Reputation Management is also a significant factor that autocomplete can help you propel on the digital space. Whenever users are searching for a specific brand name, it should show up on the autocomplete suggestion before even the SERP is loaded. This is an indicator that the brand is authoritative or established.


Another factor here is what autocomplete suggestion shows up after your brand name. It needs to be positive. If you are searching “X car dealership” and the autocomplete suggestion finishes it with “under investigation”, it will leave a very negative impact on the user, and they most likely would not visit the business or even their site.


It is imperative that you balance out any negative connotations associated with your brand name so they do not appear on autocomplete suggestions. Here are some ways in which brands can eradicate negative autocomplete suggestions:



  • Taking holistic control over conversations about the brand online to guide Google autocomplete in making the right connections and removing negative associations.

  • Optimizing the social media accounts of the brands and reinforcing the positive conversations to outweigh the negative ones.

  • Regular branding efforts in existing and new online profiles with positive messages and keyword association.

  • Associating positive keywords and anchor texts in the backlinks with the brand name to push positive suggestions out. For instance, a restaurant named “A” can use terms or anchor texts like “A 3-star restaurant” or “A best reviews”.


Online Reputation Management is an imperative factor for SEO and having users see only positive autocomplete suggestions can have a great impact on your site’s traffic. Make sure to associate your brand with positive words and phrases so Google autocomplete does not display the negative ones and drives users away with negative impressions.


4. Finding keywords for Local SEO


Local SEO plays a huge role for location-based businesses and brands. And autocomplete suggestions play a huge role in driving traffic to local searches.


For instance, if you are looking for a restaurant in Mumbai, autocomplete would consider search factors like area name, zip code, neighborhoods, and city name to rank the results. Google autocomplete will instantly let you know what type of local searches are happening for restaurants in Mumbai.


Once you look up the results for this search term, you will see which restaurants have their local SEO optimized properly to show up on the first page. Autocomplete will also show suggestions of landmarks or neighborhoods which are linked to the search query to give you keyword ideas.


It might seem easy to guess the most common local keywords by associating the city name with your service. But Google autocomplete is a great resource to find some more which can help you rank even higher for local search queries.


5. Creating a User-Friendly Website


An estimated 2.14 billion people will shop online in 2021. Ecommerce has become the biggest attraction for customers, and it will only grow in the coming years. And with an abundant amount of competition online, it is important for businesses to use every avenue to get ahead.


Google autocomplete can help you find the most trending and popular search terms to target in your SEO strategy. But you also have to ensure that your website is user-friendly and offers good value to the visitors. For instance, if your eCommerce site sells travel accessories, it is crucial to make it as accessible and easy to navigate as possible.


Google autocomplete can help you in refining your website in the following ways:



  • Discover the most popular categories to ensure the landing pages for those categories are up to date and responsive.

  • Find the most popular brands for the products you are selling. If you are an online purchase website for men’s shoes, then Google autocomplete can help you find the most popular brand in the category to display at the top of your search result to attract more visitors.


6. Content Ideas


While Google autocomplete gives great suggestions for finding long-tail keywords and terms, it is also a great source for discovering FAQs and related search queries from users. This can prove to be an essential tool for discovering new content ideas for your website.


Since autocomplete suggestions are popular, creating content on those suggestions can bring in high organic traffic to your website. You can use autocomplete suggestions to flood your website’s FAQs page with good quality content for the most searched queries on the search engine.


Time to Put Google Autocomplete to Work!


Google autocomplete can prove to be a great asset for SEO professionals, digital marketers, and all businesses looking to refine their website’s SEO and rankings. Now that you know all that you can do with this tool, it is time to put in some work to leverage it to your full advantage. Get in touch with an established SEO company like Infidigit to uncover the advantages of this amazing feature and reap great



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