Use Google for Writing Inspiration, not just Traffic

Guest Post by Andy Walton

For those of us who blog for profit, Google is the god of traffic. Such is their share of global search you simply cannot ignore their impact on your reader base.

However, have you ever considered how Google can help improve your writing itself? If not, read on and I'll give you some great new creative tips.

Quick keyword ideas

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Here's a quick first tip. When you've chosen your topic and have written your fist draft, you should spend a few minutes to ensure you have scattered all relevant keywords throughout your page. And where to get the key phrases to use? The search box on http://www.google.com/ of course.

You've probably noticed the search suggestion drop down that appears as you type your search on the Google homepage. This is designed to predict the user input, and so by definition is offering a list of the most commonly entered terms that match your initial letters.

It's therefore a great way of borrowing your readers' search terms. Let's take an example - I'll enter the phrase "writing blogs". The drop down then offers me:

1. writing blogs for money

2. writing blogs tips

3. writing blogs online

4. writing blogspot

5. writing blogs for pay

These are listed in descending order of popularity, and so the higher up the list the more searches that term receives. So try to incorporate any phrases that are relevant for your article - remember to think of your reader though, so don't just stuff words into your page for the sake of it.

Have a go, and you'll see how easy it is to play around with different words and phrases to get ideas for keywords. You can even use this process for getting new angles on topics about which you've already written.

Write about the moment

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If you can't even think of a theme for your page, you could try using Google Trends (www.google.com/trends).

This is a page where Google show you the hot search terms and topics about which their users want to read. Writing about the day's big issues is a great way to get readers, interest and comments. Think Twitter, but with more words.

As I write this article, I can see the Kraft takeover of Cadbury is big in the business world, the Australian Open tennis has sports fans excited and searchers want more info about storms in California. You can drill down into more search terms, or enter some of your own ideas to see how popular they are.

You'll notice the variety of subject matter is very varied so there will generally be something that catches your eye.

So the next time you're sat in front of your screen feeling the onset of writers block, head over to Google and let them do the brainstorming for you.

Author Bio:

Andy Walton is inviting you to use Wikinut, a new publishing platform that pays lifetime royalties for your writing on a massive range of topics. Use promo code "5more" at http://www.wikinut.com/ today, and get an extra 5% in royalties.