Hey, I’m Andrew Breen. I run Outshine Online Marketing. We’re a small company with big ambitions. Let’s connect on Twitter: @breenandrew.
By now you’re probably well acquainted with Google Suggest. Its Google’s search tool that gives you Search suggestions as you type your query into the Google search box.
And while Google Suggest can generate some hilarious and weird results, you can also you it to quickly generate a massive longtail keyword list in minutes.
This article will show you how to combine two awesome Google Suggest scrape tools to generate a list of hundreds or thousands of related keywords in minutes. Then I’ll show you how to turn that huge list of keywords into something you can actually use.
What the heck do I want all those keywords for?
If you’re wondering why you’d want such a list of longtail keywords, wonder no more. I use this Google Suggest scrape method to find keywords for two things:
- New content ideas– Stuck on topics to write about in your niche? Scraping Google Suggest will give you content ideas you’re not going to find anywhere else.The results Google Suggest shows you are a reflection of search activity on the web. Sure, the keyword phrases it suggests may not get a lot of searches, but they are getting some. You can use this scrape method to unearth great longtail phrases that are easy to rank for and still generate traffic.
- PPC campaigns– Think you’ve found all the right keywords to bid on in Adwords? Maybe not.By scraping Google Suggest keywords, you can find keywords to add to your campaign that you would have never thought of.Just as importantly, Google Suggest scraping is a great way to find negative match keywords to target before you waste your money on them.
Now that you know why you want to scrape Google Suggest, let’s get into my method of actually doing it.
Step 1
Start at Ubersuggest. It’s a free web-based tool that lets you export lists of Google Suggest phrases based on a keyword you enter. Kudos to Ken Jurina for showing me this.
Enter your keyword and select your language. You can choose to scrape Google Suggest phrases from the web, news, or products searches. In this case I’ll use the web results.
Now check the txt box – that will let you download the results in a text file.
Click “suggest” and a suggestion.txt file will download to your computer. Open it in NotePad++, regular Notepad screws up the spacing.
Now I have a list of 242 “prepaid credit card” related keywords that Ubersuggest has extracted from Google Suggest.
Step 2
Here’s where the fun starts. We are going to take all 242 keywords from the previous step and look for even more Google Suggest results using ScrapeBox. While UberSuggest lets you scrape the results for one keyword, ScrapeBox lets you scrape the results for hundreds of keywords at a time.
Not familiar with ScrapeBox? You should be. It’s a powerful way to speed up SEO tasks like keyword research and link building.
I should fully disclose here that ScrapeBox is typically a black hat SEO tool. Sure, it’s popular for mass blog comment spamming, but it’s also a versatile tool that can be used for white hat SEO too. Think of Scrapebox as a weapon – in the wrong hands it’s deadly, but it can be used for good too. And we’re all about the good.
Once ScrapeBox is open, drop that list of keywords from Step 1 into ScrapeBox’s Keyword Scraper Tool.
Select your scrape sources and search engines. There are a number of options here, and your choices will depend on the type of site you are doing keyword research for. The product and shopping suggestions are handy for ecommerce research, but for content ideas I just focus on the main search engines:
Click “Scrape” and kick back as ScrapeBox does its thing. This can take a few minutes depending on the number of scrape sources you picked, the number of keywords in your main list, and the speed of your proxies.
When ScrapeBox finishes running, I click “Remove Duplicate Keywords” and I am left with a list of 574 keywords related to prepaid credit cards.
Want even more keywords? Transfer the list you just scraped back into the main keyword list and run another scrape.
What do I do with all these keywords?
So now you have 100’s of keywords. Are they all useful? Of course not. But with a few minutes of work in Excel, you can turn this unmanageable mass of keywords to a targeted list that you can actually use. Here’s two different ways you can refine the list.
- If I’m using the list for PPC keyword ideas, I rely on Excel’s Conditional Formatting and Sort & Filter functions to hone in on the keywords I’m interested.Let’s say I’m running an Adwords campaign offering prepaid credit cards from a major credit card provider. The client is sensitive about their brand image – they don’t want to appear to be marketing to minors.With Excel, I can use the “Text That Contains” Formatting option to highlight uses of keywords like “teen,” “kid” and “child.”
This highlights all keyword phrases that contain my specified text. But the highlighted keywords are still mixed in the regular keywords, so I’d then filter the list using the “Sort by Color” option. The “Sort by Color” option brings all the highlighted keywords to the top of the list so I can review them all at once.
The Google Suggest scrape method is great for finding new negative match keywords you didn’t consider. In this case I found people were using phrases I hadn’t considered, like “under 13,” which I immediately add to my negative match list in Adwords.
- If you’re doing keyword research for content ideas, you’re going to love what I am about to tell you: With Richard Baxter’s Google Adwords API Extension for Excel you can take your list of keywords from Scrapebox and, from within Excel, grab Adwords search volume data.That’s right – no more flipping back and forth between the web-based Adwords Keyword Tool and your Excel sheet. Talk about a timesaver. Now you can sort all your content idea keywords by search volume, which will show you where you’re best off investing your content-creation time.The Excel extension is free; all you pay for is the API costs to Google, which are negligible. High-five to John Doherty for showing me this.
So now that you know how to build a huge list of longtail keywords using Google Suggest scrapers, what are you waiting for? Get cracking! Test it out now and start generating new ideas for your website or PPC campaign.
- How to Uncover 100s of New Longtail Keywords in Minutes - March 12, 2012
33 Comments
Brilliant idea here. Thank you for sharing. I am curious to know more about ScrapeBox for white hat SEO abilities. Not so sure I would invest in something that is more Black Hat than not. Definitely going to be checking our Richard Baxter’s Google Adwords API Extension for Excel!
@DaliBurgado Remember, it’s only a black hat tool is you use it as one. If you do a lot of link building or keyword research, ScrapeBox is definitely worth the cost. Thanks for the comment.
@DaliBurgado Remember, it’s only a black hat tool is you use it as one. If you do a lot of link building or keyword research, ScrapeBox is definitely worth the cost. Thanks for the comment.
Really innovative thinking Andrew, I’ve done similar, but a few points here really bring fresh ideas to my process.
Cheers!
@ChristopherM That’s why I love the SEO/online marketing world – there is so much great content out there that helps you improve your own processes. Glad I could contribute
Is there any way off running scrapebox on mac os x without using parallels or vmware? Can’t seem to get it to work with crossover
Is there any way off running scrapebox on mac os x without using parallels or vmware? Can’t seem to get it to work with crossover
simply kickass article buddy. I really admire the use of scrapebox as a white hat tool. Also the excel extension by Richard Baxter’s is really effective and a real timesaver. Just curious to see what your next article will be about.
This is a really nice post. Thanks very much. I’ve been working Ubersuggest into my process for a while but I’ve never used Scrapebox for keyword research (although I have used it for link prospecting). I’ll have to give it a go.
@Ben Johnston How did you use it for link prospecting? I love to hear about how people are using it…
@breenandrew Pretty quick and dirty, really – just take the target keyword, use it to look for relevant sites and get in touch from there.
I’ve also used it to find the kinds of blogs it would typically spam to, get in touch with the webmaster there and give them a hand with setting up their spam blocker (or set them up with one). People are usually eternally grateful for that one!I don’t really use it anymore now I’ve got Buzzstream, but it definitely had its uses.
@breenandrew Good call. I missed Google’s wonder wheel days. I even had a scrape tool that would make a nice charted tree showing the suggests.
Like jayleishman I also miss Google’s wonder wheel. I think what you have outlined is a pretty great alternative.
Excellent information. This is going to make life a lot easier. Thank you for sharing this.
Hi Breen, I’ve tried using ubersuggest but I can’t see the export to .txt checkbox that you’ve got in your post’s screenshot? Has Ubersuggest changed recently?
@AdamCasey Great question – yes, UberSuggest’s lay out has changed since I wrote the article. Now you have to click the “GET” button after selecting your relevant keyword to export them. The GET button is on the right hand side of the screen (it’s kind of hidden, but it’s there)
@breenandrew Fabulous post, my dude. Would love to learn more ways to implement ScrapeBox into my white hat processes. Will have to explore. Also, for those that are having trouble getting a Google API account (like me!), use Microsoft’s Ad Intelligence Tool https://advertising.microsoft.com/small-business/adcenter-downloads/microsoft-advertising-intelligence Good for trend analysis
@breenandrew Fabulous post, my dude. Would love to learn more ways to implement ScrapeBox into my white hat processes. Will have to explore. Also, for those that are having trouble getting a Google API account (like me!), use Microsoft’s Ad Intelligence Tool https://advertising.microsoft.com/small-business/adcenter-downloads/microsoft-advertising-intelligence Good for trend analysis
@breenandrew Fabulous post, my dude. Would love to learn more ways to implement ScrapeBox into my white hat processes. Will have to explore. Also, for those that are having trouble getting a Google API account (like me!), use Microsoft’s Ad Intelligence Tool https://advertising.microsoft.com/small-business/adcenter-downloads/microsoft-advertising-intelligence Good for trend analysis
These KWs can provide great titles/themes for supporting articles.
i.e.
“Prepaid Credit Cards” – Parent
“Prepaid Credit Cards Canada” – as a child of “Prepaid Credit Cards”
“Prepaid Credit Cards Paypal” – as a child of “Prepaid Credit Cards”
etc.
I have seen this to be very effective in strengthening a silo’s theme–all tightly related and great for providing relevant internal links.
Hey thanks for the wonderful tips.
Hey thanks for the wonderful tips.
hey i think the uber suggest tool does not allow an export any more, any other suggestions?
@DavidSuarez You can still export from Ubersuggest. However I would expect that they will switch to a pay model at some point.
oops nvm, i just read the comments below, yea i got it, thanks bro
Yeah, I can pretty much bet the reason we no longer have the ability to export from Uber suggest any more is because of the exact technique laid out on this page.
I would say the use of Scrapebox in this instance was certainly not ‘for good’. Thanks for screwing up a good thing.
is this tool can give how many searches each month?
Ubersuggest is an excellent tool – we’ve been using it for sometime now. For a free service, this is one of the best. Unfortunately that is also a problem in that there are times when it cannot obtain suggestions as it’s been hit too much. But it’s one of the best out there!
Such a great idea for choose afforatable keywords, I really happy to read this post…….
Sorry I’m a little late to the party, but great post. Glad you found Ubersuggest interesting.
Quick tip, use asterix * to have ubersuggest terms within phrases. Eg: “How does * make money?”
Check out Infinity Google Keywords. AWESOME keyword scraping tool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJON54j6Mj4
Long tail keyword research with Googe KW tool is better to be paired with tools like SERPstat. Gives me greater span and insight into competition level. Long tails can be artificially twisted – Google will show incorrect competition level for such keywords.
great one longtail keywords are the best in seo field
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