How will Google Suggest affect keyword research?

[Makaveli2007]

I'm wondering how the Google suggest feature (I think it's also used in the type-in bar of the google chrome broswer?) will affect kw strategy.

I think that lazy people who type in generic phrases will select more descriptive ones, which should actually be good for the long tail. Or well for the middle of the tail.

On the other hand people typing in very specific phrases might choose another popular suggestion before finishing what they were going to type in. Those popular suggestions are usually not long-tail searches (a long-tail term is never really a very popular one, I guess). Thus the long-tail would loose.

Or would people who care to type in a very long keyword phrase be determined enough to follow through with what they had in mind?

What do you guys think?

I think the short-tail and the long-tail will lose some, whereas the middle of the tail will gain some.

[Marcia]

My guess is that pages with longer, more targeted and specific keyword phrases might benefit.

[Makaveli2007]

Hi Marcia thx for the reply,

don't you think this would only be true for targeted/specific keyword phrases of say 3-4 words or so, whereas really long/targeted phrases (I think what people usually refer to as the long-tail) will lose?

After all google suggest features the most popular phrases (or am I wrong?), which are rarely very long ones. Thus the very long ones should lose and somewhat targeted, but not highly specific ones should win...at least that's my guess?

[Receptional Andy]

It's difficult to be sure - those that may have once typed a single or two-word search (delivering overly-generic results) will most likely end up at SERPs for three word searches. Most suggestions I've seen add additional words to the ones typed.

[Robert Charlton]

I've just encountered a situation where there are two ways of spelling the name of a product that a client has just started distributing... as one word or as two words.

The Google keyword tool shows the one-word form on the average is searched 4x as much as the two-word form, but the Suggest feature is pushing the two-word form (and the spell check on search is also suggesting the two-word form). There is actually no "correct" way. The manufacturer uses both spellings.

In cases like this, the Suggest feature will inevitably distort how people search... or at least how they search from the Google home page.

[maximillianos]

We have seen a steady slow drop in traffic over the last few weeks while the suggest feature rolls out. Out site does very well on obscure long tail searches.

We are guessing our steady decline is related to the rollout of the suggest feature. All our big keyword rankings and short phrases have held steady in SERPS. So we are thinking our long tail is taking quite a hit to the tune of about 25% loss of traffic, after 10 years of steady climb.

[Makaveli2007]

Has only your traffic from Google declined or has the traffic from yahoo, etc. declined, too? If it has declined from all search engines, I'd say this has nothing to do with Google Suggest.

If traffic form other SEs has declined, too, however, I'll ask a few friends working in web analytics (who are constantly monitoring data and all :)) if theyve seen the same thing