Using Keyword Research To Race Your Blog To The Top of Google's SERP

SEO is an ever changing concept.

Today, as far as SEO is concerned, the importance of content has increased and the importance of keywords and other things are tending to decrease.

But even after all those Penguin and Panda updates by Google and after all those improvements in its algorithms, any experienced SEO consultant or blogger would agree that even today the most important factor for SEO is - keyword research.

Keywords are still the most important factor around which the concept is SEO is based.

So if you are not utilizing the real value of 'best' keywords for your articles, you are missing a lot of SEO right from the beginning.

This article is targeted for both beginners as well as intermediates. So first we will look at the meaning of keyword research and the idea behind it. Second, I will give you the chance to peep into my secrets of keyword research that I use to get my blog posts rank high on Google's (and other search engine's too!) search engine results page.

And third ... is a bonus for all of you. At the end of this post, you can get another tutorial which will help you achieve something more out of your SEO efforts.

But don't scroll down to the bonus now! Read this entire post to learn the secrets to get your blog posts on top of the SERPs by utilizing the maximum out of keyword research.

So What is Keyword Research?

I had explained in my previous post that search engines rely on algorithms to determine the key points of your content and to decide the topic about which you have written.

These key points are your keywords.

Now let us see the same thing from a common visitor's point of view.

Suppose someone wants to find a web page about 'Blogging Tips'. So what does he do? He heads towards a search engine and enters those 2 words in the search field. Now all the relevant web pages with the content related to 'blogging tips' will be shown.

So here 'blogging tips' are the key points in the content of those web pages shown in the results page.

So here 'blogging tips' is the keyword!

Now suppose a web page is better optimized for the keyword - 'Blog Tips'. So he would lose rank (and traffic) for the previous keyword. Now what if 'Blog Tips' is a more searched term than 'Blogging Tips'?

The second web page would get more traffic?

But what if there are thousands of top blogs optimized for 'Blog Tips' and they secure the first 2-3 pages in Google? If would be too difficult for you to get ahead of them!

In short there are 2 things that define keyword research - Traffic level and competition level.

What do you want?

The maximum traffic and the least competition, isn't it?

That is what keyword research is all about! Even for the same content, there are different combinations of keyword phrases and all those combinations have different search levels and competition levels.

Keyword research is the art of finding out the keyword phrase related to your content with the maximum traffic potential and the least competition!

What Can You Achieve With These Keywords?

Let us get back to the example of 'blogging tips'.

Someone search for that keyword phrase on a search engine. That person gets to see lakhs of results.

What differentiates the top few with the last few? The top results have the best content full of useful information and... has... proper SEO...when it comes to keyword.

The top sites are said to be ranking high for their desired keyword phrase.

Got it?

So you need to choose the best keyword phrase and optimize your post for it (Remember the maximum traffic and least competition part). The choosing part is known as - keyword research.

How to do this? We will see later on. Before that, let us discuss what one can achieve with keyword research.

You must have got an idea yourself too, isn't it?

If not, think this way - You are writing about suppose 'how to make money', and you know too many people search for it everyday, now what would happen if you get on first page of Google for that keyword phrase? Large traffic isn't it?

So what would you get by mastering over keyword research? High rank on search engines for your targeted keywords, that directly means traffic that can be converted into conversions and sales for you!

No need to explain any further I guess!

Basic Idea Behind Keyword Research And SEO

Below are the things you would be doing with keyword research in order to get high rank in SERPs.

You are going to write a blog post - You research for the best keyword phrase for your content (Maximum traffic and least competition) - You create your useful content according around that keyword phrase - You optimize some special areas with your keyword phrase.

Now let us see how!

How To Do The Research Part In Keyword Research

I have already explained this thing a lot of times in this post that you would be researching for the keyword phrase with the maximum traffic potential and least competition.

Now let us get deep into the method.

There are some free as well as some paid tools that can be used for keyword researching.

The tool that I primarily use is the free tool- Google Adwords Keyword Tool

This tool is easy to use, free and accurate.

Now let us try to find out the best keyword phrase for an example of a blog post about some methods for making money online using blogs.

Follow the screenshot below:

Enter all your keyword thoughts in the given box and make sure to select 'Exact' in the 'Match Types' section on the left side of the page. Hit the search button and you will get the analysis of your chosen keywords as shown in the screenshot.

Check that 'make money' keyword has a lot of traffic! 33,100 global searches! Nice, isn't it?

Wrong. See that I have encircled the word 'High' which shows that it has a high competition that means a lot of web sites are competing for that keyword phrase. And as I said before, your target must be to find the least competing keyword with the maximum traffic potential.

So moving ahead, see the other two keyword examples, they have medium competition and have some nice search levels. Finding a low competition keyword might be difficult and especially for this example here, I couldn't find any good low competition keyword myself!

Now see that both these phrases have the same meaning and sense, still they differ in traffic levels. The 3rd keyword has a greater search than the 2nd one, with the same competition.

So that means you have got a better phrase to focus on, got it?

Exactly. Keyword research is all about finding the best available phrase for your content.

There is one factor that would help you in finding low competition keyword and that is - Long Tail Keywords.

What exactly are Long Tail Keywords?

Long tail keywords are a combination of a somewhat larger number of words that form a profitable keyword phrase. Check the screenshot below for an example:

See the two keyword phrases in the screenshot. The second one is actually a more targeted one and at the same time has low competition and see the global searches! 14,800!

So it would be easier to rank yourself for the keyword phrase 'How To Make Money On YouTube' rather than just 'How To Make Money' and at the same time, you would get good targeted (that means interested or engaging) traffic who seriously want to make money from YouTube and not by other methods.

That is the meaning and importance of 'long tail keywords'.

In this example, I had used Adwords Keyword Tool for the keyword research work, which is a free tool. Apart from this there are many paid keyword research tools which make your work a lot easier and some of the paid tools have a long list of features that are completely out of scope with Adwords keyword tool.

One such professional keyword research tool is - Market Samurai.

First of all - Have I used it?

Yes.

Just few days back I had started using it's trial version and I am happy with the results. Also there are many features which make me think of buying the full version. But still I use Adwords as the primary tool for my research work.

Second - How is it better than Adwords and should you buy it?

In a lot of ways, Market Samurai is better than Adwords because it has some extra features and it makes your work a lot easier by doing all the finding work itself.

I won't tell you if you should consider purchasing it or not because it depends on your skills and your comfort. There are some people you exceptionally like this tool and there are also some who have a hard time understanding this tool. So you should consider trying out a trial version to test it and if you are happy with its results, then and only then buy the full version.

Now let us get back to keyword research.

Now you know that you have got to work on finding long tail keywords with low competition and high traffic potential. Then you would have to optimize your content according to that keyword phrase.

How?

Let us see.

Optimizing Your Content For Your Desired Keyword Phrase

In my previous post (read here), I had written about what is SEO and how to implement it.

The same points are application here too.

• You need to create a decent keyword density (about 2-3%) along with using the exact keyword phrase 2-3 times in the content. 
• Place your keywords once in the first 100 words and once in the last 100 words.
• Bold, underline and italic your keyword parts once or twice in your content.
• Use your keyword phrase in the title and URL.
• Use your keyword phrase in H1, H2 etc heading tags
• Optimize alt and title tags in images with your keyword

But whatever you do, make sure that you don't overdo it. Because over SEO would be considered spam and the content will lose its importance and value.

Bonus - SEO Checklist

Here is the bonus I had promised to give you!

Its a checklist for not just optimizing your posts, but for publishing a master content. This is the checklist I personally follow and I am sure this would help you if you struggling in terms of SEO.

So go ahead and download this checklist by doing a small favor to me. The favor is of subscribing to my blog's newsletter which would let you get more blogging tips and SEO guides right into your inbox.

A healthy deal, isn't it?

So subscribe now and download the SEO checklist right now!

What did you learn here?

People would say that today the importance of keyword research, those professional keyword tools and even SEO is decreasing. But according to my thinking and my experiments, the whole idea of SEO would never die because however intelligent those search engine robots become, they are still robots and not humans.

So ever after all those algorithm improvements, there would still be the need to optimize web pages for them, to make their work easier and keyword research is the base for SEO, not just the base but also the skill, which once mastered can help you achieve success in the world of search engines.

Keyword research, even though is the most important factor is SEO, still it is something a very new blogger won't be able to understand easily and properly.

If you are one of the beginners and did not get the points here, then don't worry. Day by day you would get to learn everything from your experiences in this blogging world. And do remember that you can comment your questions and doubts anytime!

For experts who read this post to get something unique out of it, let me know in the comments if I did a satisfactory job or not.

Finally I would like to ask you a question - What do you think about keyword research and how important is it according to you?

Do comment and share your thoughts!

Image courtesy of Kromkrathhog/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Google And Bing Play With Mirrors

Just when I was spending some of my free time on Facebook, I discovered about another cool easter by Google. And after doing some more research, I found the same about Bing too!

And this time, its not made by Google, but some other site. What is the easter? You would have guessed by the title, right?

Google Mirror - elgooG

This easter site was created by a company named 'All Too Flat'. And its a really old one actually but it was worth sharing. On this site, as the title suggests, you see all the text in a mirror style view, i.e. flipped horizontally.

Visit elgoog.im and check yourself.

I have also seen that there is one problem with the site and that is, when you enter any term to search, it returns an error that the doc has moved. So you can't access the result page full of flipped text. But anyways, you can get an idea from the homepage about what it really meant.

And not only that but at the bottom of the page, I found links to some other Google Easters like- Underwater Google, Gravity Google, Guitar and many more. Just visit the site and check it out!

Bing Mirror - gniB

The same thing here. Visit gnib.org and look for yourself. And this time, the search function also works properly. So you can type a term to search and you'll find that the whole SERP (Search Engine Result Page) has mirror like flipped text.

This is what I got when I searched for 'Bing'. Are you able to understand anything? Open the full sized image, then maybe you would get something more clear.

There are still lots of cool mysteries to unfold and there are many interesting secrets hidden in this hugh online world what we call Internet. What do you think about these easters about Google and Bing? Do comment and let me know...

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Google Launches Disavow Tool to Filter Unwanted Inbound Links

Google has finally released their disavow tool which was much anticipated ever since Bing's release. This new tool lets you disavow (filter or you can say remove) low quality incoming links to your site that have a negative impact on your SEO. Thus Google has launched a new gift for webmasters. So what actually it is and why should you use it?

Credit: techwyse.com

SEO is an ever changing concept. The definitions and methods of SEO keep changing, improving and dying. Some SEO methods that we choose can prove beneficial while many can lead to a negative impact also. One of the most important factor that affects our positive SEO is the quality of inbound links ie. backlinks to your site. Whenever the term 'link building' is discussed, quality is given preference instead of quantity. If there are 100s of links to your site from a spam site, then it creates a negative impact on your site's SEO. But there are times when you can't control which sites link to you. And here is when Google's new disavow tool comes into play. With the disavow tool, you can submit the links of those web pages to Google which contain a link to your site that you do not want. After accessing your request, Google starts neglecting those links to your site while considering your backlinks. The disavow tool can be accessed here.

Here is the video by Matt Cutts which tells more about the disavow tool:

How to Disavow Links

First of all, keep in mind that the use of disavow tool can be very helpful as well as can be very devastating. An unknown mistake here can lead to a downfall of your SEO strategy. The disavow tool is not complicated for use but it's impact can be very complicated. So before using this tool, think about 10 times or even more. And use it at your own risk.

Visit the disavow tools page. Here you will find your sites that are listed in Google webmasters tools as shown above. Select you site and then proceed to the next page where you will be prompted to submit a list of links you want to disavow. You have to prepare a plain text file with all the links you want to disavow. An example is as follows:

The lines starting with # are considered as comments and neglected by Google. It is not necessary to add comments. You have to write each link in a seperate line as shown above.

Now submit this file to the disavow tool and let Google access your request and crawl to the sites. It can take weeks to come in action and Google also has the right to reject your appeal if they do not trust your appeal.

Conclusion

The disavow tools tells Google to neglect specific backlinks to your site. This tool can be very helpful if you have a lot of unwanted inbound links to your site from spam and low quality sites. But general use of this tool is not recommended by me because this tool is newly released and may contain faults. A few number of low quality inbound sites do not have a major impact on your SEO and reputation.

So go for the disavow tool only if you are sure that a large number of low quality inbound links to your site is causing a major negative impact on your site's SEO and reputation. Or use it if you have been penalized due to low quality inbound links.

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Alexa Rank #1 Goes to Google..Facebook..Google

Everyday thousands of searches are carried out on Google, everyday thousands of people update their status on Facebook. Facebook connects lives of people and Google connects the world. I wonder if they both link up together then how they could completely change the internet. Our lives are incomplete without both of these sites. I don't want you to imagine a life without Google search and status 'likes', so don't. Both these sites are completely different from each other if you think about their content and motives, but for an international site rankings, like Alexa, they compete on the same ground.

The long race for #1 spot in Alexa
Image courtesy of Rosen Georgiev/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

From last many years Google has been on top of the Alexa rankings. The reason is obvious- largest traffic. Alexa rank depends on traffic and backlinks. Google got both of them more than any other site. It just became a natural phenomenon like 'Sun rises in the east' and 'Google is world's top site'.

Just a few days back, Facebook with its increasing number of users overtook Google to take the #1 spot in Alexa rankings. Then came the first Facebook commercial when it reached a milestone of billion monthly users.

But well, it didn't last very long. After a few days, Google is now back to #1 rankings in Alexa. But this quick action and reaction changes suggest that in terms of traffic, Google and Facebook are the largest and top notch competitors of each other. The race for the top spot would continue and maybe in future, Facebook can get another chance to get on top. As for now... Alexa Rank #1 goes to Google again.

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How Google+ is Effective For Bloggers

Google is like a God for all bloggers because this is the main source of their traffic. Whenever we talk about search engine traffic, we say Google traffic. Whenever we talk about SEO, we say SEO for Google. We have always been running after Google. So to secure good position in Google, why not take some help from Google itself! Google+ is the latest social media giant from Google. And here is how Google+ works in the best way for bloggers.

Do-follow Links

One of the best advantages of using Google+ is that anything shared on Google+ has a do-follow link. Facebook, twitter and others do not provide do-follow links. So whenever you share your content on Google+ you get one of the best do-follow backlinks. Also whenever someone uses a +1 button on your blog, it gives the blog post a do-follow backlink. So sharing your content on Google+ improves the site's backlink SEO.

A Better Social Connection

Google+ has rapidly grown to overcome other social media like facebook and twitter (though not replacing them). Google+ circles are full of like minded people. So sharing a post on Google+ ensures that it reaches to people who are most likely to read your content. 

In case of facebook, today people are addicted to it and usually pass their time on facebook by sharing funny pics and chatting and all these stuff (no offense towards facebook, I personally do like facebook too much,OK?). As far as my experience with Google+ goes, I have seen that Google+ has given my some good quality as well as quantity of readers for my blog. 

As a blogger, I also like to read what other people share on Google+. Connecting to other blogs gives me new and new ideas to blog about. This type of author and reader circle is created on Google+. Daily on Google+ one can get to know more and more about how to blog successfully, just by living actively on Google+.

The +1 Button and Author Information

As I told earlier in this post, the +1 button gives a do-follow backlink to your shared contents. The +1 button is very similar to Facebook's 'Like' feature. 

Another feature that relies on Google+ is the blog's author verification. If you search for something on the net (on Google search), then most of the times, you see a photo of the author along with name just next to the blog's listing in the search result page. This is possible only for those bloggers who own a Google+ account. Most of you would have a Google+ account, right? 

Using your Google+ profile, you can assign an author to the content of your blog. Once the verification is done, you can see your photo next to your blog listing in search engine (as shown above). This increases of the chances of your search listing to be clicked and visited by users.

And many more...

Source: Webilus.fr

Recently Google has introduced Author Rank to decide the quality of content. Google+ is the real weapon in this war. Here is nice article about Author Ranks from itechcode.com.

By building a good blogging circle on Google+ one can get a large audience and +1s from Google+ which in turn also increase site rankings, pagerank and what not!

From Google+ one can connect to other top bloggers to learn tips about blogging, and get new ideas for blogging. Google+ gives new bloggers a platform to share their content with the best available audience.

Google+ is the social media which has the least spamming content. Google+ is more authentic and business-like compared to facebook and twitter.

Maybe there is still more that I missed out. Let me know from your comments!

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Feedburner is NOT closing on 20 Oct 2012

Hope you got the title in one sight only. Recently a misunderstood news went viral on the net that said about feedburner to be closed on 20 October 2012. But don't worry, this best ever service is NOT going to close any sooner. Let us discuss the real story behind all this misunderstanding.

The Real Story:

The ZERO Glitch:

From the last few (a little more than few) days, if you had noticed then you would have seen that feedburner kept showing zero subscribers and all stats are '0'. Same is the case with every feedburner user. See my screenshot below.

Actually, feedburner is just facing a glitch and according to feedburner status blog, they are currently working on it. See the 'known issues' post on feedburner status blog here. This glitch led to many misunderstanding that maybe Google is going to abandon feedburner. But, well this issue would be solved in a short time (I guess so!)

The feedburner API is going to close...But not feedburner.

According to Google Developers Feedburner page, The Google Feedburner APIs have been officially deprecated as of May 26, 2011 will be shut down on October 20, 2012.

But the API is just a part of the whole program. Yes, this API shutdown would prove harmful to some third-party applications that make use of it, but as far as I know, this has nothing to do with us bloggers. So it is true that they shutting feedburner API, but it would not harm us as they are not closing feedburner service. The program would continue to run perfectly once the 'zero' subscribers glitch is solved.

And if Google decides to really stop any of its services, then they would surely announce it to its millions of users before executing a shutdown. So there is no need to worry about your feed or its subscribers...

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Apple vs Google: Clash of the OS Titans

Jelly Bean is Google’s attempt to vie against the iOS 6 but can it really outrun Apple and be a match for its finesse? This issue can best be tackled comparing the two operating systems in terms of the features they have to offer. In order to place both equally before the court we will be comparing the similar features in both OSes.

The Last OS standing

Google Now Voice Search is Google’s response to Apple’s all-hearing virtual assistant Siri, which has been the center of several security related and other discussions. Apart from being depriving Google Now of a name, Google has not really made an attempt to personify this tool as Apple has with Siri. Even though the feminine voice of this search feature might tickle your fancy but its going to be only a tease compared to the mechanical sounding Siri, as it does not engage the user like Siri does. As it usually is the case with voice recognition, neither of the tools are always accurate. While Siri is connected to Wolfram Alpha, Google takes pride in its own search engine and both are useful in finding quick information. However, Siri’s greater precision and much better presentation put the ball in Apple’s court.

Image credit

However, Siri fails to expand the search results once information is delivered, whereas Google Now put forth the Google search results as well which gives the user way more convenience in terms of search options. Siri also has an edge with regards to its ease of access in terms of various features and apps. For example, one can update Facebook statuses and tweets using Siri and also command it to open a particular app from a number of apps, which would be difficult to locate otherwise. While it might have a hard time finding apps with odd names, these features accompanied by better appearance give Apple Siri quite an advantage over Google now.

Apple has a brand Maps app too, which is much nicer looking in its 3D satellite view compared to Google maps, nevertheless, the set of features that Google offers, through years of dedication to this realm, is still unparalleled and exceeds Apple’s Maps app by light years. Apple is also unable to provide a street view incase the user needs to navigate by address whereas Jelly Bean had much more up its sleeve as one can create customized routes, define mapping layers and also locate friends who sign up for it. One of the most important advances from Google is offline map viewing whereby you can select a region for which Map data is downloaded and it can be viewed where there is no internet connectivity. This can come off as a great aid to users trying to locate a point in a remote area or a region struck by a natural calamity where internet links are down.

So…who bites the dust?

There are several other features in which Jelly Bean and iOS 6 compare, each one having their individual highs and lows. Apple has accommodated for notifications later than Google but the way they have integrated them, pushing notifications to the lock screen, brings great ease to maneuvering interactions. Jelly Bean on the other hand is much easier to use when it comes to social media as the OS has a separate drop down list for this and one can choose according to his/her discretion, despite Google’s redundant promotion of Google+. Similarly for browsers, there are some features for both Chrome and Safari that make them unique and user friendly. Chrome offers unified search along with URL field whereas Safari comes out with a read it later features called Reading List which helps it maintain its edge.

It seems like Apple is leading the OS race so far as most of its features have seeped into our beings to the degree that they are deemed necessary, however, Google is right behind in terms of its developments. The future looks promising for both the OSes.

About the Guest Author:

Beth Janick's work in the field of spy apps such as iphone spy, spyware on android etc. has been getting a lot of attraction of late. Her articles on spy on blackberry have gotten a lot of attention and continue to wow her readers.

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Oh Spyware My Spyware…Beware!

As the battle cries of computer monitoring software and cell phone spyware continue to echo the hollow binary spaces within your frontiers, they have always met their worst nightmare by confronting Google’s consistent neutralizing efforts. In this vein, Google has been the next best thing to Sherlock Homes in sensing whatever malignant evil crouches underneath your skin while you are mesmerized by the beguiling flashy pop ups. My apologies for the caricatural farce, but it’s beyond doubt that Google has played its role in combating these ghosts that have haunted our daily electronic lives for last 5 years, so it would be fair to try and understand how they have done it.

Image courtesy of Njaj/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Your shining armour hurts my eyes

In a call to reveal how Google plumes itself in achieving the milestone of marking five years of protection from malware, Google has kept busy egotisticly attempting to shoot a line. The company elucidated its accomlishments in terms of putting forth a safe environment for its users, in a recently published blog post. They give stack loads of statistics basically alluding to the home run hit by Google in terms of obviating the attacks by spyware like the variety of computer monitering software sneaking around these days. Google has apparently been the bullet to your gun, rather the bullet and the gun, in putting down the attacks directed at its users from spyware, even the government funded ones. Indeed, Google has swashed its victory to the highest degree, but as the statistics indicate, the company’s efforts seem worthy of the red carpet moments that it continues to savour.

With statistics... go ballistic

Ingeminating the pride that Google claims, it is quintessential to consider the numbers mongered by the company. Approximately 600 million Chrome Safari and Firefox users come across several warnings regarding phishing and spyware on a daily basis, while about 9500 malicious websites are found by Google. The search items on Google that correspond to the “compromised site” warning are numbered between 12 to 14 million. In addition to these massive figures that tend to suck your brain cells dry, Google prompts warnings for around 300000 downloads using the download protection for Chrome, on a daily basis.

If you are biwildered by images of green characters running down your computer screen by now like in the Matrix, well don’t be, because this Google giant sends thousands of notices regarding malware to the ISPs and webmasters for removal each day. Additionally, it is also responsible for the elimination of phishing pages within sixty minutes of detection.

The cat and the rat

After spreading extensively across the anti-spyware terrain, Google aspires to reach out its iron grip to malware as well. Google has moved its gaze to Chrome extensions and Web Store’s plug ins while raising the stakes on downloading protection and phishing detection. Furthermore, there is ongoing discussion over safeguarding Android apps meant to fend off threats from Android spyware looming over Android phones. Google is already known to put up bulwarks for any Android spyware that come in storming and these new trends point in the same direction.

The cat and mouse chase continues for Google just the way it has for past five years. While the adversary grows stronger Google is also adapting to the ways and continues to strengthen its counter moves.

About Our Guest Author:

Beth Janick's major effort has revolved around latest gadgets. Recently she's been playing with the many Blackberry spy that are diverting the interest of the new generation. Readers can find out more about what's most recent and happening in the Blackberry tracker world.

This post has been written by one of our guest authors. If you would like to submit a guest post for our blog, you can contact us.

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Future Rival Of Google : DuckDuckGo

Want to know more about something? Then just 'Google it'. Google has become a new word in our daily dictionary. Whenever we want to search anything on the net, we use Google. All other search engines stand nowhere in front of this giant. But a relatively new search engine DuckDuckGo is progressing rapidly and gaining popularity now-a-days. DuckDuckGo is fast, simple and clean, just how Google looked a few years back. We can say that maybe one day, DuckDuckGo can give a nice competition to Google. DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go, but up till then, lets look at what DuckDuckGo promises.

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