Categories
Managing a local business comes with its perks and challenges. One of its perks lies in your ability to fully identify who your buyer persona is, but the challenge is in finding the keywords these potential customers use while making search queries.
Identifying the phrases your customers are using on search engines is one piece of the puzzle. You have to create quality content around these keywords. Quality content will help you rank high on search engine result pages (SERPs), and also help in driving some traffic to your business.
But how do you identify these keywords? Well, you’d have to do some thorough local keyword research. And that’s much different than the regular keyword research that’s done using free Google tools.
In this guide, you’d discover all you need to know about local keyword research, and how to go about the process. To get started, you’ve got to figure out what localized keywords are.
Just like the standard keywords, local keywords help you rank high on search engine platforms, and position your business in front of your potential customers. But there are some differences between local and standard keywords.
First, local keywords contain some phrases that are specific to your business and local audience – and these phrases help your visitors to learn more about your product or service offering. With these locale-specific keywords, people within your business region get to easily find you and also learn more about your business.
Therefore, if you’re looking to optimize a business for a specific region, you’ve got to pay attention to these local keywords. There are variations of local keywords, but you can identify the core terms, and optimize your business for these terms.
There are instances where modifiers and locations are added to these core terms. Modifiers could be “best restaurant near me” and the location could be the city, state, or community.
Local keyword research helps you dive into the minds of your target audience. With local keyword research, you get to discover what your potential customers are looking for when you make search queries. There are business persons who fall into the trap of making an assumption.
However, local keyword research eliminates the need for guesswork, and you get to identify what your potential customers are looking for.
Guesswork, to a large extent, may make you target the wrong keywords. And when you target the wrong keywords, coming up with quality content that resonates with your audience will be an issue – and that’s not good for business. With local keyword research, these errors are eliminated and you get to come up with a better marketing strategy.
Standing out from the competition lies in how well you understand your customer intent. And a robust understanding of customer intent helps you build a better marketing strategy. Intent-based strategy all starts with a thorough keyword research process – and when it comes to keywords, you need to understand following classifications.
Here are easy steps to follow while performing local SEO research.
You need to broaden your search. What are the possible words or phrases people within your industry will be searching for? Well, you can start your keyword research from there. When it comes to phrases people are using to make search queries, such phrases could be product or service names, or popular jargon in the industry.
The key is to start your keyword research from somewhere – probably from a broad term and narrow down your search to more specific terms or keywords.
Potential customers who are on the lookout for local businesses and brands will likely insert some modifiers when making some search queries. Modifiers help describe what the searcher is looking for. This way, the searcher gets to generate results that fit their needs. Here are some modifiers you should consider:
Modifiers almost always change the user intent, and if you do a good job with it, you’d pretty much boost your clickthrough rate and also drive lots of traffic to your business.
When it comes to local keyword research, you need to pay close attention to the “local” part of the term. Nowadays, everyone wants products or services delivered to them on a speed dial. If a potential customer needs a product or service offering, they’d most likely opt for the businesses that are close to them.
You need to focus on how to target keywords that have your location in the phrase or term. How will your target audience perform some search queries when they search for businesses close to them? Well, there’s no clear answer to this – but they’d most likely add some state, district, neighborhood, or city when looking up businesses on search engine platforms.
As a rule, it would be best to create multiple landing pages that cover the various locale-based keywords you’re targeting. These landing pages should be optimized in such a way that you get found when a locale-based keyword is inputted in the search box of search engines.
Furthermore, the local keyword should be found on your headings, metadata, on-page content, and title tags. They should also be evenly spread throughout your social media posts and blog posts. These create search signals and it shows Google that your business is worthy of all the attention and traffic generated from the search platform.
Using specialized key phrases may not drive massive traffic, but these keyword types typically lead to the most conversions. With highly specialized key phrases, you’re more likely to get customers who would show up in person to buy your product or service offering. However, that’s not to say you should focus only on these keyword types. You’ve got to mix things up and target broader keywords that are more likely to generate good traffic.
To be on the safe side, you need to have a healthy mix of both highly specialized key phrases and broad key terms. You should also consider mixing and matching things up using modifiers, locations, and core keywords to uncover great options that may be a great fit for your SEO campaigns.
For instance, if you’re managing a coffee shop within the Chicago area, you need to consider keyword phrases like “best coffee shops near Chicago”, “cheap coffee shops near me”, and other keyword phrase variations.
Local keyword inspiration doesn’t come easy. You can start by using the Google search box to come up with possible keyword phrases that may fit your brand. To do this, you’ve got to type your primary keyword into the search box and look out for the “related searches” and “People also ask” sections. Suggestions from these sections could be a great source of inspiration.
There is the option of checking out what keyword phrases or search terms your competitors are ranking for. It could provide some solid suggestions to help you during your local keyword research.
After coming up with a list of keywords, you need to put things into perspective. To determine the exact phrase to target, you need to pay attention to the keywords with significant search volume and those that are relevant to your brand. Simply put, there has to be a balance between keyword search volume and relevance.
This strategy helps boost your ranking on search engines and also shows Google that your keyword is relevant to your target audience. For emphasis, you need to be ahead by optimizing your website for search engines – and having relevant social signals will help you along the way.
As a business person, you need to have an updated Google My Business Profile. It’s a great way to establish your brand as an authority within your industry.
Local keyword research plays a vital role in your marketing strategy. However, most keyword research tools have limited functions, and getting the most out of these tools seems to be an issue. If you desire to drive massive traffic to your business, you’d need the right keywords and tools to help you expand your keywords. And that’s where the PPCexpo Keyword Planner comes in.
The PPCexpo Keyword Planner offers hundreds of keyword suggestions and other vital information like estimated CPC and search volume. There are alternatives like the Google Keyword Planner. Any of these two tools can help you get the most out of your local keyword research process.
Let’s say you’re managing a plumbing business, and you’re making keyword research for the phrase “Plumber near me”, here are some features you’d discover by using the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
The number of searches a given keyword generates within a timeframe is the search volume. Search volume helps you know the number of people who are searching for your keyword, and it also helps in ranking your website.
Here’s how to identify the search volume using the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
The low bid and high bid sections show you how much you’d most likely pay when a potential customer clicks on your ad. If you’re on a budget, you’re better off choosing keywords with a low bid. This way, your campaign cost will be within your budget.
Filters help you narrow down your keyword research. It’s an option that helps you sieve out the exact keyword you’re looking for. You can use the Filter feature to search for keywords that start and end with certain phrases. And possibly eliminate the ones that do not have your desired phrases. All these can be done with the one-click quick filters.
The PPCexpo Keyword Planner comes with a visualization tool that helps you figure out the right keywords for your business. Navigate to the chart section and choose your preferred visualization tool. Your keyword will be represented using the tool.
For instance, you can represent your keyword on a Bar chart by merely clicking on the bar chart option.
Global search shows you the global search volume data of your preferred keyword(s). The data is usually gotten from the search engine platform, and it’s an ideal fit for marketers who are targeting global keywords. Getting the global search is somewhat easy with the PPCexpo Keyword Planner. All you need to do is navigate to the “All” section on the location menu and see the global search data of your preferred keyword.
Long tail keywords are typically more specific and longer than regular keywords. They generate less search volume than the regular keywords but the clickthrough rates and conversions are usually higher.
Ranking for long-tail keywords is easy. And the more specific they are, the easier it is to rank them. Since the internet has a global audience, finding an audience for your long-tail keywords is easy. To get the most out of your local keyword research, you have to put in some effort in creating quality content around long tail keywords.
The PPCexpo Keyword Planner comes with the option of identifying short-tail and long-tail keywords. By merely navigating to the Keyword Type section, you get the option of either choosing short-tail keywords or long-tail keywords.
After the local keyword research process, there is an option of downloading the report so you can use it during blog post writing. To do that, you need to click on the Export icon.
If your website is an authority in your industry, and you’re properly optimized for the right categories, a high ranking can be achieved within four to eight weeks.
To rank high, you’ve got to leverage industry keywords, use keyword modifiers, and properly research local keywords.
Paying money directly to Google won’t cut it. To rank high on Google, you’ve got to carefully optimize your website for long-term results. You need to take a close look at factors Google considers while determining your web relevancy – and optimize for these factors.
To get the best out of your local SEO, you need to keep upgrading and figuring out better ways of being ahead of the curve. Keep a close eye on search engine algorithms and keep creating relevant content that ranks high on search engines.
To achieve all these, you need to keep performing robust local SEO research, and you can get the best results by focusing on high volume keywords, low competition and high intent.
Tools like the PPCexpo Keyword Planner will go a long way when it comes to find your local keywords for your niche.
Now you’ve figured out what local keyword research is, how would you identify the right keywords for your business?
How much did you enjoy this article?
We will help your ad reach the right person, at the right time
Actionable insights discovered for you. Now you can do more in less time.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner will help you align your keywords with the customers’ intent.
Frequent audits will help you optimize your PPC campaign for success.
Visualizations give you the ability to instantly grasp the insights hidden in your numbers.
Experience the new revolution in reporting … click your way to insights, don’t scroll.
Calculate the number of combinations in your PPC campaign. It may surprise you.
Related articles
A landing page is a web page designed to drive specific actions. Learn the essentials of creating high-converting landing pages in our guide.
ROAS calculation can help you evaluate every PPC campaign's performance so that you know which of your campaigns are converting the best.
Discover the marketing lifecycle stages and how they shape customer relationships. You’ll understand their role in driving customer engagement and retention.
