AnswerThePublic provides information for keyword research a little differently.
This tool pulls data from Google to show you the questions being asked about your keywords, as well as related queries.
The results are a valuable resource for additional blog post topics and other items to cover in your posts on the topic.
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What is the goal when performing keyword research for your blog?
Keywords with the highest search volume?
Probably not. Those keywords will likely be too competitive to rank for in search engines.
Finding what people are actually searching for would be a better approach, right?
What is the difference?
People don’t typically search for single keywords. With voice search today, more and more searches are in the form of a question.
And that is what makes AnswerThePublic so powerful.
Keyword Search in Google
When performing keyword research on Google, there are three valuable places to pay attention to when you are typing and in the results.
You can find phrases people are searching for on Google when you search. As you type, the autocomplete items that appear are some of the most popular searches on your topic.
Additionally, Google also shows a “People also ask” section after some of the results.
Finally, at the bottom of the results, Google shows a “Searches related to…” section.
All of these results provide insights on what you should cover in your blog posts to address the queries and search intent of Google users.
So am I telling you to search for all of your keywords on Google and manually pull all of this information from these sections?
No, of course not!
This is where AnswerThePublic comes in handy.
AnswerThePublic for Keyword Research
When you first arrive at the Answer the Public keyword tool, you used to find an agitated older man waiting for your search. If you took too long, he’d even say, “Oh, come on!”
The welcome page changes occasionally, but it is typically someone waiting impatiently for you to enter your search query.
However, once you enter your keyword and hit “Get Questions,” the magic of this keyword tool begins.
Keyword Result Categories
AnswerThePublic keyword tool search results appear in beautiful diagrams separated in the following categories:
- Questions
- who
- what
- when
- where
- how
- why
- are
- which
- will
- can
- Prepositions
- with
- without
- to
- for
- can
- is
- near
- Comparisons
- versus
- and
- vs
- like
- or
- Alphabeticals
- Lists of keywords that would show up if you type a, b, c, etc., after the keyword you are searching for (i.e., typing “keywords a” or “keywords b” in Google).
- Related
- Lists some other keyword combinations that are related to the keyword you are searching for.
All of these variations can be looked at using the image or in a list of the data. Additionally, when viewing the data, it can also be downloaded as a CSV file for further evaluation.
Using Answer the Public’s Keyword Data
Initially, when looking at the visualizations, you may think it is just a pretty graphic and not that helpful. However, if you take a closer look, you’ll see that the shade of green shows their ranking in the diagram.
The darker the shade of green, the higher that question ranks in Google suggest.
The diagrams may be more appropriate to use in a content marketing meeting or to create beautiful presentations. However, they can be useful to anyone looking to get a variety of keyword data.
Downloading the data by clicking on the Download CSV button allows you to further analyze the data in a spreadsheet tool.
Additionally, if you use the Keywords Everywhere browser extension, the keywords will show search volume and CPC values.
AnswerThePublic is a Huge Time Saver
The real strength of AnswerThePublic’s tool is the time it saves. It would be a very tedious and time-consuming task to gather the data it provides.
Imagine going to Google and Bing and typing in all of the different questions, prepositions, comparisons, and letter combinations.
For each individual search, you’d also have to transfer all of the data to a spreadsheet.
Besides, the data isn’t exactly copy-and-paste friendly.
Due to the nature of internet searches, some of the keyword phrases won’t be of much use.
However, the insight provided on what is searched for is priceless. Especially considering how little time it takes with this tool.
As you can see, each node provides excellent insight into people’s searches.
This example is for the keyword of “keywords.” Several of these could be used for individual posts, or additional sections within a post, to address what people are looking for, including:
- Where should keywords be placed?
- Where are keywords stored in google ads?
- Where to put keywords for SEO?
- Where to find keywords in google analytics?
Furthermore, this is just one node of the question section. There are nine other question nodes in this section, as well as the other four sections mentioned earlier.
The results provided can be used as long-tail keywords. They can also be used to generate additional ideas for related keywords.
Most importantly, the results can provide valuable insight into user search intent.
Understanding user intent is vital in creating the appropriate type of content to attract customers.
While this isn’t a standalone keyword research product, it should definitely be part of your keyword search toolkit.
Available Plans
AnswerThePublic has two plans to choose between, Starter and Pro.
The Starter edition is free. However, it is somewhat limited in features.
Most importantly, the Starter edition limits the user to three searches per day.
Some of the features the AnswerThePublic Pro plan adds include:
- Unlimited searches
- If you need to perform more than three searches a day, you’ll want to consider the Pro plan.
- Saved reports
- After you run a report, the tool saves it for future reference or comparison.
- Compare data
- The tool highlights new topics when running the same searches.
- Hide unwanted sections/individual suggestions
- If you use the keyword tool search results for reports or presentations, being able to hide items is a great feature.
- It allows you to remove items that aren’t relevant to your work.
- Unlimited team members
- If you have multiple people that will be using the tool, this is a great feature.
- You only need one account for your organization.
As you can see, the Pro plan has some great features. Furthermore, the ability to save one account across an entire organization is huge!
How-to Video
Here is an excellent video from Search Listening, the official education partner of AnswerThePublic.com, giving an overview of the tool.
For other useful tools, please visit our Toolkit.
Summary
The Answer the Public keyword tool is an excellent resource for keyword ideas. Above all, it provides data on what people are actually searching for in search engines.
Is it a standalone keyword tool?
Not really. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles of other keyword tools.
Other tools, like SEMrush, provide metrics on search volume, trending, and competitor insight.
However, I highly recommend AnswerThePublic as one of the tools in your SEO arsenal.
In addition to the valuable data it provides for keyword research, it is presented in a beautiful layout.
But above all, AnswerThePublic tells you what people are asking. And providing people with answers to their questions should be your main goal.
Do you use AnswerThePublic? What are your experiences with it and how it compares with other keyword research tools? Please share in the comments below.
