One mandatory task for ranking your site on the search engine is local SEO keyword research. Researching local keywords means you are focusing especially on local business-related keywords. Selecting the perfect keywords through research helps your business appear on the top search list. Being on the search result’s top means increasing traffic and increasing ROI.
Many business owners don’t know about local SEO. So without any plan, they lose the opportunity to rank on the Google search engine locally. Mainly people focus on their keyword ranking and overlook other benefits.
However, 46% of local searches on Google offer an increasing opportunity for the business owner to rank their business locally. But unfortunately, most of the users are not aware of the importance of local SEO and focus on traditional keywords only.
However, in this article, we will discuss all the details of keyword research for local SEO. How you can do it, and many more things. So keep reading!
What Is Local SEO?
For getting the best local search results, the search engine optimization practice is called local SEO. On Google, local SEO means helping to list your business site on the Map Pack or Local pack. Local SEO helps your business to appear on a greater search volume of relevant queries. Also, your business can rank higher in local search volume due to this SEO strategy.
Go through this example to make it more transparent. Think for the last time you search for something on Google that you need. Maybe it was the co-working spaces, daycare providers, or luxury products. Now Google aims to provide you with the best search query results.
When Google algorithms successfully detect your search intent and find its local, Google shows the Map Pack results on the search result’s first page. When you search for a product explicitly mentioning the local areas as a default view, you will see the local results.
However, the local search result’s available information is your business name, website, address, and phone number. Also, your business products-related photos and videos, star ratings, and customer reviews become available in the search results.
In general, the best practice for local SEO is to adhere to the Webmaster Guidelines of Google. And, on your site, generate a significant user experience. If you desire to rank your website in Google’s organic search results, then it’s incredibly essential.
Following these guidelines, Google can quickly determine the query’s local intent. Most importantly, for local SEO Google has specific guidelines. So it’s better to follow all these guidelines to get the best results.
What Is Local Keyword Research?
Local businesses conduct a process to find all those search terms that the local area’s consumer uses, called local keyword research. When the local area customers search for nearby products, services, or a local business, they use specific search terms. Finding all these terms through a particular research process is known as local keyword research.
Local businesses can correctly target their SEO efforts by finding the local search terms. As a result, their business site, products, and services become visible to local customers when someone searches for them.
Keyword research is a major cornerstone for your local business’s marketing success. The perfect keyword is essential to increase the local search result’s visibility. If you want to boost the local pack presence of your website, you must follow the local keyword’s well-organized research process to achieve that goal.
Why Is Keyword Research Crucial For Local SEO?
Local keyword research is crucial to understand the type of products and services the local searcher searches for on Google. Most business owners don’t know what people search for on Google, and that’s the problem. Most people guess these search terms and assume they know their customer’s demands. As a result, they target the wrong keywords and fail to impact their business.
Every effective local SEO’s base strategy is finding, targeting, and focusing on the correct search terms. Local SEO ensures that whatever words your target customers are using, you are focusing on those terms. Using incorrect terms creates business risk. Therefore the importance of local SEO to rank your business in the local search result is behind the description.
If you successfully develop a keyword list after doing well-research, you will get the following benefits:
- To create landing pages based explicitly on the searchable phrases and words
- To deepen your target audience’s understanding
- You will better understand your customer’s search behavior
- You will get the chance to refocus on your business products and services by finding the related markets
- Greater ways will be available to attract more local customers
How To Do Local SEO Keyword Research
Local keyword research is all about following specific steps. Those steps are to list what services or products you offer, check for your offered service’s local intent and inspect the search volume. Then the next step is to group and map the target keywords and finally look for things to mention. So, now let’s go through all these steps in detail:
Step 1: List Your Offered Services
In keyword research, the first thing is not searching for the keywords. Instead, the first step is to determine and understand what products and services your business offers. Whether you are researching keywords for your own business or your client, you should follow this step first.
However, the recommended process to understand your business services are:
i. Brainstorm Or Ask
When you research keywords for your business, you already know what goods and services you offer. Therefore probably you have enough idea about your business services. Now your job is to create a text document to note down your provided services. And then move forward to consecutive steps.
Now, if you are doing your client’s work, first ask for a list from them, including the service they offer. Sometimes business owners provide different services, but they can unconsciously miss any point. Therefore creating a list of the provided services is crucial.
For example, you will understand better if we talk about the services that plumber offer, like the following:
- Boiler installation, servicing, and repairs
- Unblocking the drain
- Burst pipe repair
- Radiator installation etc.
But while researching keywords, you may overlook all these services and think only about the title job plumber. Searchers search for plumbers, but local searchers search for plumbing-related, many specific services. Therefore, what services you offer is crucial to understand at the first step of researching keywords.
ii. Expand Ideas
Brainstorming can’t explore all the relevant products and services that your clients are looking for. So, we recommend you expand your keywords ideas by checking for services you may have missed. Some of the easiest ways to do this are:
- On the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, enter all your brainstormed ideas
- Now from the dropdown, choose the country
- Finally, visit the report named “Having Same Terms.”
The report contains your keywords related to all the words and will also present your database’s all queries. So, don’t miss any service and find all the relevant keywords.
iii. Refine your Keyword list
When working for your clients, you must send all the ideas you have gathered from the second step. By sending the list to your client, ask them whether they provide these services or not. Work with only services that your clients confirmed.
Step 2: Inspect the Local Intent
Local SEO is all about ranking the local intent-based keywords. So, in this step, you have to check the intent of local searches that people are searching for or want to shop it. However, the easiest way to perform local keyword research is to search for your services on Google.
Now Google will personalize the results using your location. So by inspecting the SERP for two things, you can tell whether there is a local intent or not. However, put the keywords with local intent on one side and those without intent purpose on another side.
Step 3: Check The Keyword’s Search Volumes
For local intent keywords getting the specific local search volumes is challenging. Almost all primary SEO tools present global or country-wide search volumes. But unfortunately, people focus too much on the local SEO search volumes and worry about it.
Out of 10, if your service’s search volume is nine times super low, you may still be eager to create a page for your audience. However, there is a low chance that in the small town, very few people are looking for this product. But if you offer this service, you will still use the page creation option.
However, except for all these above discussions, you may wonder why you should focus on checking the keyword’s search volumes. The simple answer is that by inspecting the search volume, you quickly learn which pages you should prioritize for ranking.
Now the most crucial question is how you can find your keywords or service’s local search volumes. Actually, the answer depends on the keywords you want to search for. The answer will differ when you check the search volume for the explicit or implicit keywords. Below, we will discuss how you can find the search volume for the implicit and explicit keywords.
i. Finding The Implicit Keyword’s Search Volume
Through the implicit local keywords, your visitors search for a local result but don’t mention the location in the search query. Some examples of implicit keywords are:
- Car Repair
- Plumber
- Radiator installation
Even for the local business, most people search like this. They want to get rid of their job just by typing “Plumber” why bother writing the whole word “Plumber in Orange County”? But the problem is when you look for the implicit keyword’s search volumes, the keyword Explorer estimates the entire country’s search volume.
Now, the question is how can you find the implicit keyword’s search volume? Arguably the Google Keyword planner is the best tool for it. The process to find the keyword is the following:
- Go directly to the “Google Keyword Planner.”
- Then select the “Get Search Volume and Forecasts” option
- Now paste the implicit keywords
- Change your service area’s location
Now, you will find the average monthly search volume for your implicit local keywords.
ii. Finding The Explicit Keyword’s Search Volume
The searchers in explicit local keywords explicitly mention their location. Some examples of this type of keyword are:
- Plumber in Washington
- Orange county radiator installation etc.
Turning an implicit keyword into an explicit one is easy. If you find any of your implicit keywords are not coving the local intent, turn them into explicit keywords by adding location.
Step 4: Group and Map Keywords to URLs
Through local keyword research, you can get a clear insight into what your visitors are looking for. But you can also understand the way to target those keywords. Mainly, for all your offered services, the homepage will not rank. And for this reason, most local businesses create pages based on each service they offer.
Here, things can become complicated because it’s tough to decide which services require dedicated pages and which do not. For example, if we talk about boiler installation service, there are two types of it: oil boiler installation and combi boiler installation.
The dedicated pages are unclear about which boiler installation you should create. Sometimes the business owner can confuse about whether a single page is enough to rank or whether they should focus on the dedicated pages. So, one easy way to get rid of this trouble is to analyze the keyword’s current top-ranking results. However, this is not the exact result.
So, whenever you are confused about this state, think about whether creating service pages for each service will benefit the visitors. Also, think about whether the visitors will find your site or not. If you think on a broader page you can tell them about your particular services, then creating the dedicated pages is not worthy enough.
Step 5: Search For “Thing To Mention”
Let’s start with an example. Assume that you offer boiler repair services. How will you create the page that will locally rank for the “Boiler Repair” or its nearby terms? Unfortunately, many people follow the keyword-stuffing approach. That’s not right at all.
Directly saying keyword stuffing is not good and you shouldn’t do it all. Rather, it’s best to look for the relevant thing that you can mention. The reasons behind searching for the relevant “Things To Mention” are:
- It can improve the relevancy of your topic
- You can rank the long-tail keywords with the help of this
- It helps your audience or searchers
i. For the Similar Pages, Check Keyword Rankings
Go to Google, pick one of your services and search for it on Google. Now search for the local business’s top-ranking page. Keep that top-ranking page’s URL on the site Explorer. Then go to the “Organic Keywords” report and filter for the results based on the top 10 rankings.
ii. Look For the Common Questions
While people are specifically searching for your services, they want to learn the answer to a few questions before hiring you. So, it’s really wise to look for those questions and answer them on your page. In a couple of ways, you can do this.
The first easy method is to enter your service-based keyword on Google. And then look in the search results “People Also Ask” box. In this section, you will get all the related questions that searchers ask on Google.
Now the second option is on the Ahrefs’ “Keywords Explorer” plug the service and investigate the questions report. The question report contains all the popular questions related to the service name.
Whichever method you follow, if you find any of the questions worthy enough that your customers can search for, you should select them. And then give the answer to all these questions on your page.
The Way to Track Local Keyword Rankings
You need to follow a specific way to track your service-related local keyword rankings. However, you can use the “Rank Tracker” of Ahrefs. To track the ranking, follow the easy steps below:
- Navigate to your project
- Click on the option “+Add Keywords.”
- Now from the dropdown, choose the country
- Then in the text field, start typing your city/state/zip
- Again from the dropdown, select the locale
- Finally, add your keywords
Final Thoughts
Local SEO keyword research is not tough; instead, it’s easy. Your local SEO’s one crucial aspect is researching the local keyword. Along with keyword research, you should also create your “Google My Business” profile and optimize your pages. Also, don’t forget to build local citations, get reviews, and many more things.
After going through the above article, you can comment if you have any other queries on local keyword research. We will answer soon.
