You can’t get inside peoples heads. 

Problem is, as content creators we need to. And in an interesting way, we can.

When people are on the web, googling, something, let’s say, no one else is there. So what do people think about, and ask about, when nobody’s listening?

Stripped of formality, of pretense, of their own personae and the masks we all wear in social interactions: what are they asking and what’s really on their minds?

A growing list of apps and tools enable us to listen in.  It's just that until recently, we haven't thought of them that way: as part of an approach to audience research which has come to be called Search Listening.

Here are some of our favorites.

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Content seekers, treasure lies in the autocomplete suggestions from Google, as well as in Google’s fabulous People Also Ask and Related Keywords panels, all of which are found every day on every Google search results page.

These might be the most underrated, taken-for-granted audience insight features in Google search.

The suggestions in these three features (did we mention they are right on Google's SERPs?) are more than alternative searches. They can and should be used as invaluable suggestions for content. They are literally the questions your ideal customers are asking.

Price: free. 

A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, Keywords Everywhere looks at the keyword suggestions from autocomplete and other the Google panels, and adds analytics to them, right on the search page. 

No need to sign into a separate search analytics app, and navigate its dashboard.

Instead, right adjacent to Google’s free autosuggested keywords, you find their popularity (volume of searches per month), as well as their average cost if used in paid ads (one good measure of competitive difficulty), and more. 

That’s it and thank you. We like things that are fast and full of value. We’ve got a business to run.

Price: pay as you go, and won’t break the bank.  $10 buys you data for 100,000 keywords. 

Still, if you want to dig further, other search-sifting browser extensions are on offer for your Search Listening. Of special note is the free MozBar, which features some deepgoing keyword research including a drill down to the individual webpage to mine for insights there.

The MozBar extension comes with the valuable Moz.com community account, also free.

Price: Free with (also free) Moz Community account.

Based in the UK, Answer the Public  is probably the best known SL tool.  

Answer the Public claims it “listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword. It’s a gold mine of consumer insight.”

Yep. It is. Fast and simple, if not dirt cheap. 

Those phrases and questions are neatly packed into baskets categorized by their intent words: “what“, “how“, “can.”  

Answer the Public also includes a visualization, which we find cool but maybe a little obscure. Might just be us. 

Price: begins at $99/month. 

There are plenty of alternatives to ATP, such as the direct competitor Outranking.  This app adds interesting content ideation features such as analysis of the top 50 SERP results for a given keyword phrase.  It also uses AI to generate an SEO-optimized outline for your blog or other piece.  And more. 

Of course, by adding features, Outranking sacrifices the utter simplicity of ATP.   But we have found it extremely useful. 

And, look, let’s put it in perspective: Outranking is still easy and fast compared to the more well-known players, some of which we discuss next. 

The Outranking starter plan is significantly more affordable than its, ahem, main competitor. More features for less money… you have to like that. 

Price: starts at $39/month

These and others are the old gangsters, the once-ground-breaking apps which made a science of fighting the good fight for visibility on Google Search. Moz, Ahrefs, SEMRUSH , Ubersuggest were, and still largely are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools.

This in turn, at first, meant one thing only: keyword research. That is, tools to help you and me identify the phrases users enter into search engines, looking , we hope, for us.

Lots of tools. Resulting in lots of data.

But not, at first, seen as platforms to help content creators tell their stories.

Still, the erstwhile "keyword research apps" remain powerful tools for search listening if you take the time to use them that way.

Moz.com today offers more than 55 SEO tools alone.

A changing landscape

Maybe most compelling, the Coke Classic apps have begun to morph into both SEO and content creation platforms. Many of them are repositioning themselves as, in part, content ideation tools.

The SEMRUSH platform now includes content marketing help, competitive landscape data, helps SEO-optimize your blog post, and even will sell you finished content.

For all that, they are still Google Search-centric: “The information you take from SEMRUSH,” the app explains “is based on the actual standings of Google's most recent results pages.”

Yes. We got that.

Of great value if you've got the need, the bandwidth, and in most cases, a fat budget.

Price: ranges from free to freemium to wallet busters. Eg SEMRUSH, per month - Pro - $119.95. Guru - $229.95. Business - $449.95..

MoRe On audience insights: HoW to create blogs like your users depend on them 

How to choose your weapon? 

It depends, of course, on what you need. If you are a startup, or say rolling out a new product line, we do not recommend a complex nor very long-term content creation strategy. 

That’s because your brand and its marketing campaigns will change, iterate, and change again before they mature. 

In this case, when it comes to tools, the simpler, the quicker, the easier— the better. Besides, your resources may not be bottomless right about here, so a price like, well, free might be just right. 

Then again, if your brand and messaging is clear, if you are in a tightly competitive space and fighting for position on Google, and have the resources, the Ahref’s or SEMRUSH’s of the world may be your ticket. 

For an organization of any size, creating or re-creating its marketing campaigns, our recommendation is to start small and simple. 

A good start could be Google alone, maybe folding in a browser extension like Keywords Everywhere.  See where this gets you (read: measure those results!). And then decide about the larger investment. 

Meanwhile, watch this space. Content marketing continues to explode, it’s trends relentlessly  changing. We’ll keep you posted. 

Interested in digging deeper? Talk to an expert.

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