If you are a local business with a local audience, it is essential to target them using local keyword research. It is the best way to target the right audience for your business, and also lead them to your store!
Think about when you search for ‘restaurants near me, a whole range of restaurants near you are shown by Google. To make the Google local search more effective, sources say that 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information.
Without knowing how to perform local SEO keyword research properly, your website will not generate any leads, traffic, or sales for your business.
With all the various strategies, tools, and obscure information on the Internet, it can be overwhelming when trying keyword research for a local business. If you want to reduce the excess of information and learn to do SEO, then continue reading the piece.
This article will dissect the process into steps and show you how you can perform local SEO keyword research
1. Identify Local Keywords
Ensure to research what your competitors are doing first and foremost. How are they targeting locations? Do they have pages dedicated to each location? Do they have their contact details on every page? Enter their contact page URL into Google’s Keyword Planner tool, and you’ll be able to see what keywords they are using. Then you should put these words in your target keyword list.
While researching your local keywords, you should also use the Keyword Planner to get search volume for your location. Do not just stay in your exact location, such as your city, but also think of different areas. You can think about your area in the places where you can serve.
The individual search volume for such specific areas will probably be small, but cumulatively, it may provide a modest amount of pre-qualified traffic capacity with high intent. However, you mustn’t adapt to location conditions away from your chosen location, as this will reduce your chances of ranking for your actual location.
2. Use the Right Words
Colloquial words are not only just spoken, but they are also used in search engines. It means that the words you use may not actually be the words your customer is searching for. Local keyword research can help you identify ways or words your target audience is searching for your product or service.
3. Leverage the Seed Keyword
A seed keyword is usually one or two words that describe a service, product, or solution. If you have insight into the phrases, vocabulary, and slang used in your industry, this information is beneficial for coming up with keyword topics.
Start with what you already know and expand from there. Brainstorm a list of keyword topics that relate to your business’ services, products, or solutions.
4. Target Competitive Search Terms
Previously, it would have been not possible for local organizations to feature search queries such as “strawberry” or “floriculturist.” But with the Possum update, Google’s algorithm started placing great emphasis on the user’s location for local searches.
Each update only refined the process. And with Google’s emphasis on local, you can now rank for much more competitive and common phrases.
5. Use Keyword Modifiers
As soon as you find keywords for local search, you will have to add keyword modifiers to some of your terms. Keyword modifiers add more impact to your original keywords and help increase your reach, so you can get more relevant traffic and leads.
There are 4 types of keyword modifiers you can use with your keywords:
- Quality: As the name suggests, quality modifiers tell about the quality of your business. These include phrases such as “best” or “top.”
- Opportunities: Opportunity modifiers focus on a specific event or time. It includes phrases such as “fall,” “birthday,” or “Christmas.”
- Type: The type of keyword modifier focuses on something your business provides. If you are an event planner at a specific location, you can offer catering or an event hall.
- Special Offer: Your business is unique, and you can use keyword modifiers with special offers to help people find unique things about your company. These keywords may include offers such as same-day shipping, all-inclusive, and more.
These keyword modifiers help you connect with local people who do more specific searches.
6. Target High Search Volume Keywords
Whatever search terms you choose to optimize your site, target the keywords that provide the highest search volume and are still relevant to your niche.
It will enable you to attract more traffic, which will also help you maintain a good ranking by showing Google that your site is absolutely relevant for the search result.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that this would mean that you will face more competition for fewer spots on SERPs. That’s why it is essential to promote your local SEO by focusing on on-page SEO, social signals, and link building, giving your website a solid foundation.
7. Determine Keyword Difficulty
Put each of your keywords into a keyword research tool to determine their search volume and keyword difficulty. The higher the search volume of your keyword, the harder it is to rank in search results. It is related to the difficulty level and SERP features of a keyword. For example, a keyword with multiple SERP attributes may limit the number of traditional search results and, thus, your ability to rank on the first page for that particular keyword.
On the other hand, you do not need to target keywords with shallow search volume because there is a risk of not driving any traffic to your website. A good rule of thumb targets specific keywords with low competition and high intents.
While long-tail keywords typically have lower search volume, they often convert at a higher rate because the search intent of these keywords is higher.
8. Group and Map Keywords to URLs
Local keyword research is not just about what people are looking for. It is also about understanding how you will target those keywords.
Most of the time, your homepage is not going to rank for all the services you provide. That’s why most local businesses create dedicated pages for each service. This is where things can get a bit confusing as it is not always clear what services do and do not require dedicated pages.
The best way to check is to analyze the current top-ranking results for the keywords.
If you are unsure on any level, just think about whether a site visitor would find a page dedicated to a specific helpful service. If it seems that you can quickly tell them everything you need to know about that particular service on a comprehensive page, then it is probably not worth it to create a dedicated page.
Final Verdict
Local SEO is a continuous process that requires constant nurturing and attention to various platforms and ranking factors. Therefore local keyword research is an integral step to ensure that your efforts never waste.
When we talk to keyword research for local SEO, the most important things to remember are:
- Focus on keywords with high search volume.
- Take advantage of broad, high-competition keywords for local search.
- Ensure your content is relevant to your targeted keywords.
- Do not neglect your overall SEO campaign.
If you want to rank your organization in Google SERPs, you can contact us. Our local SEO experts will give you a free consultation about how can you grow your local business and beyond. Call now!