In this article, I'll explain how Search Box Optimization (SBO) works and how it can help Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), consultants, and professionals increase visibility and exposure on search engines by utilizing the Autocomplete feature in the search box to attract more customers.
SBO (Search Box Optimization) is the process of positioning your brand or business in the drop down lists of the most common search boxes! Consider being'suggested' by Google's all-powerful search engine during a potential client's search query. This could be a game changer for any small or medium-sized business seeking to increase leads, phone calls, walk-in traffic, and clients.
Despite Google's near-unassailable 92% share of all search traffic, Microsoft's Bing search engine saw explosive growth in user traffic thanks to the clever integration of ChatGPT into Bing's search experience. As a result of a more interactive, positive, and friendly user experience, Google saw an unprecedented decline to 85.6% of users, while Bing saw a rapid increase to 7.6% of users.
When users start typing in a search engine's search box, autocomplete suggests keyword categories, places, products, services, and what is trending to them.
Autocomplete is defined by Google as "a feature for predicting the remainder of a query a user is typing, which can improve the user search experience.... By providing well-formatted queries, it can also improve search response quality and thus generate more revenue."
The autocomplete appears to effectively complete a user's thoughts by finding the "right" keyword before they finish typing, which has proven to be extremely helpful in preventing typing errors, particularly for difficult-to-spell search terms, and in saving users' time.
According to Google, Autocomplete is a feature within Google Search that speeds up the completion of searches that users begin to type. This automated algorithmic system generates predictions that allow people to save time by quickly completing a search that they had already planned to conduct.
As previously stated, and contrary to popular belief, the Autocomplete actually provides predictions rather than suggestions to search queries by analyzing billions of data points to determine the best predictions of relevant keywords based on the most common and/or trending Google searches. Because Google can number crunch such a large pool of data so seamlessly, it appears that Autocomplete is suggesting rather than predicting query answers in the search box.
According to Google, 75% of search users choose their answers from the options provided by Google's autocomplete feature, and these answers help users save up to 25% of the time they would have otherwise spent had they completed their search queries on their own.
Google is able to save search users so much time with just a few keystrokes and a mouse click; all while skipping the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP's), which means that business owners can painlessly bypass their competition by appearing in the autocomplete before the SERP's are displayed! This is a huge benefit for any business owner who is constantly having to pay more for PPC or SEO, especially in highly competitive niches!
To fully and properly capitalize on SBO, your company must be positioned to demonstrate the authority, expertise, and social proof that potential clients require, so that they are comfortable enough to know, like, and trust your company and make the decision to become customers, and eventually loyal clients, because you provided a solution to a problem that they were actively looking to solve.
As a Digital Marketing Specialist, I believe that SBO provides the best bang for your buck for the following simple reasons:
It is inexpensive.
It provides your company with an unfair competitive advantage.
It gives your company unrivaled Exclusivity in either local or national searches.
That being said, you and your company can prepare to reap the full benefits of SBO by focusing on three (3) key areas of Local SEO.
These areas are, in brief, as follows:
1. Conducting Keyword Research in order to Optimize for Autocomplete. Find out what keywords and phrases your potential customers use to search for your company, products, or services. Simply put, "What keywords are my potential customers using to find my business in search?" However, a good place to start is to ask your clients what keywords they used to find you online. Another frequently underutilized resource is your monthly Google Business Profile (GBP) report, which is emailed to you and lists the top keywords used to search for your business listing.
2. Creating High Quality Content that Adds Value by addressing your target audience's needs immediately with highly relevant, informative, and engaging content that includes a clear call to action directing users to the next action step you want them to take, such as "Call Now."
3. Prioritize local SEO because it is the lowest hanging fruit in terms of online visibility for your business. Make sure to claim, optimize, and verify your free Google Business Profile (GBP) listing as well as your free Microsoft Bing Places business listing. Next, ensure that all of your social platforms are optimized for local search with all relevant information such as correct and consistent business names, addresses, and phone numbers. Register on relevant industry or niche specific online directories and then use location-specific keywords in your content and meta tags, as well as register on listing or directory services like Yelp or Yellow Pages, to name a few.
This is the 800-pound gorilla in the room because most people who hear about SBO for whatever reason assume it's a black hat method, so let's address it head on!
A quick online search for SBO turned up very few articles or discussion threads about it. Most were only a few years old and said one of two things:
1. That SBO is a black hat scam technique that is illegal, and that it cannot possibly work because if it did, why does the term'search box optimization' not appear as one of the autocomplete suggestions in the search box when you type it into Google's search box? The fact that it does not demonstrates that SBO does not work!
2. The majority of the in-depth articles discuss search box optimization as it relates to optimizing an individual ecommerce or business website search box in order to help website visitors find what they are looking for on a website faster and easier.
I'll address the first point by looking at any of the major technological revolutions that changed the way we interact and work throughout history. We discover that there was always opposition, ridicule, laughter, and even violent opposition before acceptance.
Whether it was the arrival of Ford's motor car in the early 1900's, which was followed by legislation in New York requiring flaggers to walk in front of any car because they were deemed dangerous; the internet in the early 1990's, which was followed by ecommerce, both of which were heavily ridiculed as fads that would never work; or the arrival of smart phones with Steve Jobs' iPhone in 2007; and social media that exploded as a result of smart phones. With the advent of cryptocurrency, the battle has intensified as the old established centralized behemoth industries fight tooth and nail to maintain their dominance.
With ChatGPT bursting onto the scene in late 2022, AI is now at the center of many conversations, and history is repeating itself as the naysayers collectively say, "it's a scam and it won't work."
The difference this time is that, thanks to AI and ChatGPT, SBO no longer appears as far-fetched as it did just a year or two ago, and change is occurring at an exponential rate!
So, if you are a business owner, consultant, or professional in a highly competitive niche, and you have a digital marketing budget; but are concerned about the diminishing returns in terms of leads, phone calls, or clients you have been receiving recently, especially with heightened competition and changing consumer habits due to the economy, among other factors; then it may be worthwhile taking a closer look at SBO and how it just might be the solution to your current challenges, frustrations or problems attracting your perfect leads and clients; and beating the pants off your competition at a fraction of the cost of traditional SEO or PPC marketing!