The “Dummies” series by Wiley is one of the more well-known “how to” series out there. On almost every topic, there is a “Dummies” book and, especially prior to the Internet, Wiley did a great job promoting the brand. It became the go-to guide on how-to topics. With the advent of the Internet, however, clearly revenues took a downturn, and the speed of how to information sped up, making it harder and harder for the dummies series to stay relevant. That said, a lot of people search for ‘SEO for Dummies’ and especially by adding on keywords such as ‘SEO For Dummies PDF’ or ‘SEO For Dummies Free Download.’
What do these add on searches tell us about the mentality of people searching for search engine optimization information? First of all, let’s use Google Autocomplete and Related Search to see some of the more common add-on search terms:
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What do these searches and related searches tell us? First, of course, they tell us that SEO for Dummies remains a strong brand in the book business. People clearly still know the brand, and clearly still search for SEO for Dummies. Second, the addition of a word like PDF indicates people want the information online, so that they can “get right to it” and “start doing SEO.” This speaks against the print versions, even print from Amazon with same- or next-day delivery. Notice that there isn’t an autosuggest for SEO for Dummies kindle, meaning that the Kindle format isn’t that popular (yet). Next, notice the years such as 2014, 2015, and you can predict 2016. People want timely information from the Dummies books. Finally the download means that people want information that they can download, again like SEO for Dummies PDF, indicating that people want information that they can get immediately.
In some, a little attention paid to Google Autocomplete and Google Related Searches tells us a lot not just about dummies but about what people want: simple, easy-to-understand, timely information that they can download immediately.
