Let me introduce you to a cool search query data visualisation tool called Answer The Public. It fetches and maps keyword suggestions/predictions that you see when you perform a Google search.
Enter a keyword in Answer The Public and you’ll be presented with questions, prepositions and alphabetical lists related to your query. It is part of the semantic search we’re seeing more of as machine learning begins to take precedence online.
You could regard it as a means of generating search engine infographics on the fly. These images can be downloaded and used in reporting or presentations. You may also export the data to a .CSV file in a spreadsheet.
Warning: Google seems to be revoking its autocomplete keyword API for many keyword search tools. Answer The Public may have scraped Bing keyword data instead of Google keyword data at some point in the past. It was mentioned here at Search Engine Land.
I asked someone on Twitter about it:
@SmallBizGeekUK @garydpreston will be able to say…
— kelvin newman (@kelvinnewman) October 23, 2015
I first learned about the API situation with keyword tools from an organiser of a local meetup, so I asked his thoughts:
@SmallBizGeekUK @kelvinnewman @garydpreston I have presumed they are. We use in conjunction with this https://t.co/uIq6Sp4Pla
— Wayne Barker (@wayneb77) October 23, 2015
The maker of Answer The Public tweeted and confirmed it is pulling from the Google API:
@kelvinnewman @SmallBizGeekUK google data is back…;)
— Gary Preston (@garydpreston) October 23, 2015
So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the tool.
Question Based Keywords
The first data set is 8 question modifiers prefixed to the beginning of the key phrase followed by the Google search suggestion keywords.
The question modifiers are:
- Which..?
- Who..?
- What..?
- When..?
- Why..?
- How..?
- Are..?
- Where..?
I performed a search for “small business” questions and saw results that included:
- Which small business credit card is best?
- Who is the best small business bank?
- What small business to start from home?
- When to register small business?
- Why small business need a website?
- How small business become big?
- Are small business loans easy to get?
- Where to get small business funding?
Preposition Based Keywords
The first data set is 8 question modifiers prefixed to the beginning of the key phrase followed by the Google search suggestion keywords.
The question prepositions are:
- For
- Like
- Without
- With
- Versus
- To
- Near
The “small business” prepositions query returned results including:
- Small business for sale uk
- Small business funding like kickstarter
- A small business loan without collateral
- Small business with no website
- Walmart versus small business
- Small business to earn money
- Small business Saturday near me
Alphabetical List Keywords
Finally, there are 26 lists of alphabetically ordered results related to your keyword search.
While these are useful, some of them can be difficult to understand outside of a meaningful context so I suggest you look them up online and find out what some of the more cryptic phrases actually mean.
Alphabetical lists about “small business”.
What Are the Benefits of Answer The Public?
If you’re looking for ideas about content creation topics, this tool provides the cues you need to start thinking about particular subjects.
Once you’ve generated lists of topics, you could begin drilling down these keywords in a competitive keyword analysis tool like Long Tail Pro, SEM Rush, Google Keyword Planner etc.
Word of warning: Rand Fishkin of Moz documented some concerns in his article Keyword Planner hides data?! Crazy.
Yes, it seems Adwords encourage webmasters to bid on the more expensive keywords instead of truthfully presenting real search volume on of other keywords.
These are 3 of the advantages I see from using Answer The Public:
- Could be a good companion tool to Google Trends
- Fills in the blanks of Adwords
- Easier to generate user search keywords than always using Google search homepage
Understanding Your Audience
Now, make no mistake – some of the keyword questions will be completely irrelevant. There is a lot of manual sifting required to shortlist the queries.
This data can give you inspiration for the content you product. If you can answer FAQs or address concerns an audience has about things related to your products, you’re not only assured that the content is relevant and useful, but you win potential customers.
- Once you have the data, you need to know how to use it and incorporate it into your content
- Depends a lot on the inside understanding you have of your customers/audience
- Text blog post is a good place to start using this data
- You could also produce infographics, eBooks, white papers, video, podcasts
Video Overview
Lovely post.
Just one point: why we need Answerthepublic if we have free search suggestion from sg.serpstat.com, which is way bigger in dbs?
I hadn’t heard of that one. Thanks for bringing it up!
Heeey! I really liked your post, I think is a great tool and I share all your thoughts, thanks for the tutorial!
Thanks for tutorial! I want to share my own experience of using Answer the Public – I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of suggestions, so I started to looking for another way of content idea results. And I found the best alternative – Kparser – https://kparser.com/answer-the-public-alternative/ it has more sources for keyword research. I also use filters and sorting. With the help of Kparser I expanded semantic core on my pages. Highly recommend this tool!
Have you tried it?
Never heard of it until now – checking it out
Answer The Public is a very strong and great tool. Our tool is much smaller, but can add value to the Answer the Public results: we are able to show you related questions that do NOT contain your keyword. Feel free to have a look at it: faq.directory