Google Suggestions when searching

Just curious if there is any rhyme or reason to the options Google provides you when typing in a search query. What are these suggestions based on? Are these other terms we should be targeting, the ones related that is?

Just wondering if these suggestions are possibly ranked by popularity. My guess is no but....

These suggestions are ranked by relevancy, zeitgeist, localisation, personalisation and popularity. They change over time due to these factors.

Relevancy for the typed in words: if many sites start popping up with the phrase in the page title and page content, a 10.000 times specific mention of a phrase in onpage relevant factors such as pagetitle, will outrank a generic 5.000.000 result. A word or sentence might also change its meaning, but this is a very long process.

These suggestions will incorporate zeitgeist like mechanisms: if a movie just came out, many people will be suddenly searching for this, and you can see this reflected in these suggestions.

Localisation: If I type "girlfriend" I will get suggestions of names of famous people from my country.

Personalisation: I notice different suggestions when logged in or out of Google account, but maybe that is because I am paranoid.

To confirm popularity try these suggestions in Google Adwords Keyword Tool and sort by search volume.

Type in "I like to t" and see what pops up. That one's my favorite.

haha! what's this? This was included on the title: YepYep - Your Daily Waste Of Time!


To Jesus Nofollow, thanks for the info!