Millions of businesses throughout the world rely on local keyword research. While the way individuals do business has changed in the last year or so, real businesses and services continue to exist.
But how do you go about conducting keyword research for local SEO? What exactly is a local keyword? What about the best keyword rank checker for local searches? In today’s piece, SEO Agency addresses all of these questions and more, so keep reading.
What is a Local Keyword Research?
A local keyword is a term used to search for results that are specific to a given location. These keywords are especially important for companies that sell products or provide services in a specific area.
But what exactly is a local keyword?
People aren’t going to go for the ‘best hunting shoes’ or something generic like that because the terms are more or less particular.
A local keyword usually consists of a main term, a modifier, and a place. Knowing this framework will help you comprehend not only the process of keyword research, but also your objectives.
The best thing about local keywords is that people who make searches can use a variety of them, and you don’t have to utilize them in any particular order. If you want to rank for ‘hairdresser Glasgow,’ for example, you’ll almost certainly rank for ‘Glasgow hairdresser,’ as well.
Returning to the components of a local keyword, the modifier and location can alter based on the query. What we mean is that while some people search for something “near them,” others search for a specific service in their area.
The ‘near me’ aspect is a little more complicated, and you’ll need to make sure your business is listed in several local directories as well as a Google My Business listing, but more on that later.
How to Research Local Keywords
Although it may appear that selecting the proper search phrases is simple at first, you’ll soon discover that it is not.
First and foremost, there are existing competing businesses that you must outperform, so you must choose low-competition keywords that will nonetheless attract customers through the door.
Second, based on the structure of your desired local keyword, you must determine the best keywords. That includes determining your basic phrase (or terms, if there are more of them), extending it with modifiers, and adding your location.
1-Choosing the best core phrase
This should be simple enough because you already know what kinds of items or services you sell. When performing a search, try to put yourself in the shoes of an online user.
You’ve probably used Google to find a service before, whether it was a plumber, a dentist, a hairdresser, or anything else. What were you looking for and how did you find it?
If you already know who your competitors are, look at the terms they’re ranking for to see if you can copy their method to some level, as it appears to be working.
You should aim to focus on industry-specific search terms in this section of your study because they will help you get more leads and lower your bounce rate because your content and site information will be incredibly relevant to the query.
2-Modifiers
Long-tail keywords appear to function best when it comes to local keyword research. This implies that the search terms you should target should include more words.
Using a service like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or any other local keyword digger, you can add modifiers to your main terms.
Always consider keyword difficulty when choosing a term to utilize in your headings, title and meta tags, URL, and the remainder of your content. The one in Ahrefs is the easiest to use, but there are many more options available, some of which provide free trials.
3-Intent to search
It’s a good idea to rank for a lot of local keywords that include your service, but it wouldn’t hurt if people in your neighborhood came across other pages of your site as well.
While one individual may have a commercial intent, indicating they are ready to call or order something, another person may want to conduct a little more study before settling on a particular service.
Both of these categories of keywords should be targeted. Additionally, you should be able to rank for your brand name in case someone wants to learn more about you and what you can do for them.
4-Location
Because the city you conduct business in can be quite huge in some circumstances, you’ll have to get creative and use the neighborhood name, counties, or smaller towns nearby — assuming you can get there to fix someone’s plumbing, for example.
When it comes to location-based search phrases, ranking for as many as feasible is a smart idea. However, your competitors have almost certainly used the same method before, so utilize a tool to determine the keywords with the lowest difficulty in those areas.
It may seem contradictory, but it is occasionally necessary to ‘invent’ a term even if there is no search volume. You’d only build one page or post on your website depending on that term, allowing you to save money on crawling.
Even if people have never looked for digital marketing services in that part of the city or town before, you never know when they will. You may check Google Trends to see if that query has been searched for in the last 12 months.
For example, if you come across a phrase with a search volume of 0 or 10, use Google Trends to check how many people have searched for it previously.
5-Your article’s keywords
Unfortunately, the majority of the search terms you might be able to target with your blog entries are general.
Try to locate one that allows you to explain what you’ve done on specific projects, including images or even videos of your work, and use the term throughout (your SEO guide will give you some guidance in this sense).
However, the most significant disadvantage is that the majority of these terms are not geographically localized. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that someone in your neighborhood will find you through one of them and want to learn more about what you do.
What happens if you have multiple locations?
If you merely have 2-3 locations, especially in the same nation region, it makes more sense to put them all on your contact page rather than having to construct different pages for each.
However, you may create distinct pages for each and every place, which works as well, but you must remember that you must have content on all of those pages, which adds to the workload.
However, if you have a lot of places and can’t fit them all on your homepage, this can be a decent alternative.
By the way, put the links on your homepage, no matter where in your navigation menu, to ensure that Google searches your locations as quickly and readily as feasible.
Because search engine crawlers see the homepage first, it’s the best location to start with everything, including internal linking to your other most significant posts and pages.
What is the greatest tool for local keyword research?
If you’re new to this, you might want to check out our comprehensive guide on the best local SEO tools.
Here are a few examples to consider: Ahrefs, SEMRush, Serpstat, Bright Local, Moz Local, SE Ranking, and CognitiveSEO.
All of these function reasonably well for keyword research and local keyword tracking, which should be a significant part of your marketing strategy – rankings change all the time, and Google modifies its algorithm on a regular basis, so you need to be on top of things.
Tracking local keywords
While the conventional consensus appears to be that you should review your keywords every six months, the reality is that things can change dramatically month to month.
If you have a SEO in-house or have hired a freelancer, have them examine your rankings once a month to see if you are still ranking on Google for your most critical terms.
The Listing Management Tool is a useful tool of SEMRush that you may utilize to your benefit. There you can enter whatever you wish to check up on regularly from the keywords you should follow to your rankings on Google Maps.
Local keywords are insufficient
We’ve discussed local keyword research before, but the truth is that if you don’t place your business on Google My Business and at least a few other directories when you first start your online adventure, the odds of people finding you are minimal.
Of course, keywords are important since without them, no one will find your business, and while it is true that Google ranks sites or information based on relevancy and distance, there is no other way to go about things than by implementing effective, broad local SEO.
Your Google My Business listing should include all pertinent information about the services or goods you provide, as well as your brand name, full address, phone number, and a link to your website.
If your firm is seasonal, try to choose the category as carefully as possible. Add images of your storefront to make it simpler for people to locate you; you can also include images of products you’ve created or anything else that’s entirely relevant to what you do.
Another factor beside local keyword research that can significantly effect your local SEO efforts is whether or not you receive reviews. If your competitors have been around for a while, they are likely to have more reviews than you.
Create a review-building strategy in which you ask as many consumers as possible to post reviews on your Google My Business listing and social media pages (Facebook is a good example).
Local citations, proper on-page SEO, and clean link building (obtaining connections only from industry-relevant websites or local magazines, for example) are all things you should consider including in your plan.
Conclusion
Local keyword research is usually the easiest task you’ll have to complete. The rest of the tactics we’ve listed, such as optimizing your Google My Business profile, gaining reviews, optimizing your website pages, and boosting your site speed, may take more time and work.
When conducting your study and determining which pages to develop on your website, keep the elements we’ve outlined in this short guide in mind.
Include anything else that might be relevant to your company. If you’re a baker, for example, you shouldn’t simply focus on ‘baker + location’ or ‘cookie shop + location,’ but also add terms like croissants, baguettes, cakes, and pretty much everything else you have to offer your potential clients.
These terms will usually not be suggested by the keyword research tools you use, or if they are, it will take some time to figure out where they might be included. In reality, Ahrefs has a search suggestions option, which you should take advantage of.
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