Google recommended dropdown in search bar
-
When Google drops down and tries to predict what you're searching for, are the terms in order of popularity from the top down?
-
Thanks Michael!
-
It is not directly sorted by popularity, no. I have run several cases in recent history against their associated search volumes and they really vary. I believe a keyword does have to have at least a credible amount of monthly search volume to be listed there at all, but Google appears to be truly predictive, perhaps based on recent search history, Google+ data, trending topics, etc.
-
Are you referring to the order or just the presence of the terms in general?
-
Based on the research I have done, the predictive search is based on:
1. Popularity
2. "other factors" - and that's all that Google has seemed to ever say about it.
Not much help, but besides popularity, other factors could include: your past searches, related sites, etc...
-
Right. But, how about the order? If you have a dropdown of several suggestions, are they sorted in order of search volume?
-
The algorithm tries to predict what the rest of your query might be based on popular queries typed by other users. (credit to: Google Support)
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I do keyword research when search volume is unknown
Hi Mozzers! I do a lot of work in niche areas, and one issue I often confront in keyword research is unknown search volume. That is, I'll be doing keyword research in Keyword Explorer or Gooogle Search Console, and for the most relevant keywords, I find either very low search volumes, null search volumes, or "Data not available." How do I make good keyword planning decisions when I can't find good data for search volume? Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Andy
Keyword Research | | AndyKubrin0 -
My start up brand name is 1# on Bing and Yahoo but not in the google top 50!
Hi all, I really hope you can help with this one! My brand/domain name "oboem" is nowhere to be seen on the Google rankings (france) but is number 1 on Bing and Yahoo. We are a young art crowdfunding start up and a full page article about us getting published in a magazine that will come out in december. "Oboem" is not a real word and no one else exept us should rank for it. 😞 I'm a bit out of ideas here. Thanks for the help
Keyword Research | | Oliver33
Oliver
oboem.com0 -
On Google Analytics under search queries, the most popular query is "(not set)", how do I find out what this is?
I am trying to discover what users are searching for and what keywords drive traffic to our site.
Keyword Research | | Sable_Group0 -
How accurate is Googles Keyword Planner?
I did some keyword research for our company. Some of the terms we got 100,000 search volume for in 2011 now have only 90 monthly searches. I am doing exact match for both US and Global and neither are any where near those high of numbers. Now I can't say how the old report on this was done but we are all a little skeptical of these numbers. Is there any other tool out there for search volume on Google? The Moz tool while it lists Google as an option only does Bing. Thank you!
Keyword Research | | Sika220 -
Branded vs Generic keywords - is Google treating their rank equaly!?
Several times I have noticed that website receiving sort of a rankings drop penalty for certain wrongly built on-page strategies that involves keyword stuffing, wrong keyword density(too much) etc. The question is - how you guys think - is branded keywords receiving the same treatment from Google then generic ones? And here is why - for one popular brand I see that they ranking for their brand keyword very high(1th) but keyword density is awful - more then 10%. So, my guess is - if this keyword density you would apply for generic keyword you will end up nowhere to be found for it! Is that could be truth? Any experiments info about that? thanks and regards, Jungles
Keyword Research | | Jungles0 -
Google Keyword Tool - Competition - How does it compare to SEOMoz Keyword Difficulty?
Hi, Many times, when I look up a keyword in google using their Keyword Tool, the competition might be low or medium, but, it doesn't seem close to the keyword difficulty on SEOMoz. For example, I looked up fantasy sports. It's low competition on Google. I thought, wow, that's amazing. How can that be when it's so popular? Huge search volume, low competition. Then, SEOMoz says 76% difficulty. It sort of shatters my enthusiasm all of a sudden. Maybe I have to change the order of how I look at it 🙂 What is the difference that's going on? What would be considered low keyword difficulty on SEOMoz? How about medium and high? I know someone might argue that for some guru, what's hard for one person isn't hard for the guru, but, for the average webmaster who does some seo, uses SEOMoz, and some other SEO tools, is there some general breakdown? Thanks.
Keyword Research | | webtarget0 -
Is there any sites other then Google Insights which have cataloged search volume for particular queries over time?
I know Google Insights gives this data, but the fact that it's relative to overall search requests make it very difficult to see anything other then obvious trends (Toys sell better in November, go figure?). Each query I've looked up[ is showing degradation over time, but I'm postulating that this has more to do with search volume increasing then with the volume of my queries decreasing.
Keyword Research | | bbelgard0 -
A good rule of thumb for competition and local searches when selecting keywords
I'm doing keyword research in the Google Keyword Tool and was looking and spending a lot of time looking at keyword competition and local searches. I'm trying to determine what is a good rule of thumb for what level of competition and local searches people have used when selecting the keywords they will optimize for. I've currently been trying to find ones that have less than 50% (moderate) competition and less than 1,000 monthly searches. Also, which do you put more weight on the competition or the number of searches.
Keyword Research | | EricVallee341