Local keyword research can transform your online presence and bring your services into the spotlight in your community.
But how do you find and use the right local keywords to increase organic traffic?
In this guide, we’ll discuss local keywords, why they are important for search engine optimization, and one of the top SEO tools you can use for local keyword research.
Let’s start!
What are Local Keywords?
Local keywords are phrases and words that users are most likely to use when searching for specific products or services in a particular area.
They are a crucial component of local SEO, aiming to boost a business’s search engine position in a specific locality.
By optimizing the best local keywords, you can significantly increase your online visibility, generate more website and foot traffic, and lead to more customer inquiries. Monitoring local keyword rankings can help you track your progress and adjust your strategies accordingly.
In local keyword research, a key tactic focuses on search terms specific to the location, including phrases with explicit local intent like ‘local,’ ‘nearby,’ ‘near me,’ and location names related to the business area.
Understanding the types of local keywords is crucial to conducting local keyword research. So, you can easily incorporate local searches into your keyword research strategy, which can help you better target your audience.
Types of Local Keywords
There are two types of local keywords: explicit and implicit.
Explicit local keywords include a geographical location or a spatial term like ‘near me,’ signaling that the user is considering a location in their search.
For instance, if someone is looking for a marketing agency in downtown Seattle, they would use explicit local keywords like ‘marketing agencies in downtown Seattle’ or ‘marketing agencies near me.’
These keywords often use modifiers like ‘near me,’ ‘in my area,’ or a specific place. Explicit local keywords allow for precise search volume estimates as the query specifies the searcher’s location, making them a valuable tool for tailor-made local keyword research.
The search results for such queries will differ based on the searcher’s location.
For example, if I search this from Lahore, Pakistan, this is what the results will look like:
However, if another team member were to search for it from their location, they’d see different results.
On the other hand, implicit local keywords do not necessarily imply the location. They are usually such terms that search engines automatically show localized options for.
For example, if someone searches for a marketing agency without adding any location, it’s more likely that Google will show the ones nearest to the searcher’s location.
Now that we know what local name research is, the process that keywords are, and their types, the question arises—how do we start with local keyword research?
Let’s explore that.
How Do You Research Local Keywords?
Here are the steps to follow to conduct local keyword research:
- Start by listing your business’s core services or products.
- Pair those with the areas you serve.
- This approach helps create a comprehensive list of local keywords, including general service categories and specific local terms.
- This way, your business can cater to broad and niche market searches.
You can also expand your keyword list by incorporating questions about your services or products and integrating long-tail phrases. These phrases reflect specific search intents, making your business more discoverable to targeted audiences.
But wait, what about your competitors?
Understanding what keywords your competitors are ranking for can give you a competitive edge. So, investigate related keywords, search results, and current SERPs to adjust your list of local keywords accordingly.
The next step in your local SEO keyword research is to analyze and select the right local keywords. Analyzing top-ranking local business pages can identify relevant long-tail keywords and help you understand what potential customers seek. This ensures that your keyword intent aligns with user searches.
Utilizing short and long-tail keywords in content results in a balanced strategy that boosts overall traffic and attracts targeted visitors.
To build out geo-modified keyword strategies, follow these steps:
- Create templates with city or geographic placeholders.
- Use a keyword replacer tool to generate location-specific keywords.
- Organize and prioritize keywords by search volume and competition.
- Use this information to guide effective content creation and implementation of SEO strategy.
Let’s take a closer look into how to assess search volume and competition and determine keyword intent.
1. Brainstorm Seed Keywords
Brainstorming seed keywords is an essential step in local keyword research. To generate seed keywords, catalog your business’s types, services, or product categories. This process helps to construct the fundamental elements of a local search strategy. The goal is to capture all the relevant services and products consumers might search for.
The list of seed keywords might differ in size, reflecting the diversity of the business’s services or product offerings. Pairing the business’s offerings with location terms is a fundamental step in local keyword research, laying the groundwork for attracting local queries.
2. Assess Search Volume and Competition
Assessing search volume and competition is a crucial step in local keyword research. Average search volume is a critical metric that indicates the monthly searches for a keyword, revealing potential reach for search results.
You can use free keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner to identify search volumes for implicit local keywords, helping to prioritize local SEO efforts. Keyword difficulty scores provide insights into a keyword’s competitiveness and the challenge of ranking for it.
Or, if you want to optimize your content from start to finish, opt for more advanced SEO tools like SEOBoost. With SEOBoost, you can map and optimize the keywords in your content.
Remember, local metrics are instrumental in analyzing the difficulty level of ranking for specific keywords within a particular location, which aids in keyword prioritization for local SEO.
3. Determine Search Intent
Understanding the intent behind local search queries is pivotal for local online visibility as it helps local customers discover a business online.
Local searchers often have a high purchase intent, indicating that a notable percentage call or visit the business the same day. Content that matches user search intent is more likely to achieve higher rankings on Google search results, underscoring the importance of understanding keyword intent and optimizing for local search results.
SEOBoost’s Topic Reports feature can reveal commonly mentioned keywords and phrases, aiding in determining keyword intent.
4. Use SEOBoost for Keyword Research and Mapping
If you want to rank higher on the search results page, I recommend keyword research with SEOBoost’s Topic Reports feature.
This feature allows you to map complete keywords for any topic. Whether you’re writing content for targeted landing pages or to increase local rankings, it generates a complete list of relevant keywords for you to use.
Here’s an overview of one of the sections from the Topic Reports feature:
5. Leverage Local Reviews and Citations
Local reviews and citations play a crucial role in boosting local SEO.
For enhanced local SEO, using the same business address on all online presences, including the website, social media accounts, and Google Business Profile, is important.
Ensure that the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across different online platforms.
You can also use AIOSEO’s local SEO feature to do this automatically. Set up your business details and schema without any coding, and the plugin will do the rest for you.
How to Incorporate Local Keywords into Your SEO Strategy?
Once you’ve selected the right local top keywords for your business, the next step is strategically incorporating them into your SEO strategy.
Local keywords should be strategically placed and naturally integrated into on-page elements like content, title tags, meta descriptions, URL slugs, headings, and image tags. Doing so will improve the click-through rate and influence search engine rankings.
Understanding the intent behind local search queries enables the creation of content that aligns with the audience’s search goals, effectively drawing in the target demographic.
You can also use SEOBoost to optimize your content for the right keywords. The Content Optimization feature helps you include all the relevant keywords for improved search rankings. It also helps you create better content with increased readability and proper structure.
This is how an overview looks to help you track your content performance on SEOBoost.
Once you’ve optimized your content for local keywords, you should move to optimizing your Google Business Profile.
How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile for Local SEO?
As a local business, optimizing your Google Business Profile is a must.
Ensure that only specific and representative categories are chosen for your Google Business Profile, as adding extras for SEO purposes goes against Google’s guidelines. Carefully picking the most relevant categories can significantly improve visibility in search results related to your business’s products or services.
Creating a separate Google Business Profile for each location can help a business’s rankings in the local pack and Google Maps, which is crucial for attracting local customers.
How to Manage Multiple Locations in Google Business Profile?
Managing local keyword research across multiple locations presents unique challenges. To alleviate this, you can create a template list of long-tail geo-modified target keywords. This strategy effectively manages local keyword research across multiple locations.
Begin the local keyword strategy by identifying seed keywords related to local businesses’ services that are specific to each location.
Featuring each local business owner’s location prominently on the website can boost local keyword effectiveness. Incorporating specific location information into keywords is particularly important for service businesses covering a wide geographical area.
How to Monitor and Track Local Keyword Performance?
To monitor and track local keyword rankings and performance in GA4, you must follow these steps:
- Connect GA4 to your Google Search Console account, which involves verifying ownership of your website.
- After linking GA4 and GSC, you can add GSC data to GA4’s report dashboard.
- Begin seeing organic keyword data through ‘Queries’ and ‘Google organic search traffic’ reports.
The ‘Google organic search traffic’ report in GA4 shows the performance of individual pages, including:
- Search clicks
- Impressions
- CTR (click-through rate)
- Average position for the page
This can help identify areas needing optimization. Regularly monitoring keyword rankings using reports like ‘Queries’ and ‘Google organic search traffic’ in GA4 allows adjustments to the keyword strategy, ensuring its effectiveness over time.
Final Word
From understanding local keywords and their types to getting started with local keyword research and selecting the right keywords, each step plays a pivotal role in boosting your business’s online visibility.
Use SEOBoost to streamline your keyword research and content optimization process. It helps you map your journey from local keyword research easier and selection to ongoing monitoring and tracking. This way, you can create better-ranking content for search engines using just one platform!
Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
FAQs
What are local keywords?
Local keywords are crucial for local SEO. They improve online visibility and help reach potential customers by targeting specific things in a particular area.
What are the types of local keywords?
Local location keywords can either be explicit, including terms like ‘near me’ or implicit, relying on the user’s location to provide relevant results. It’s important to consider both types when optimizing for local search.
How do you start with local keyword research?
Start by listing the core services you offer and the areas you serve, and then expand your keyword list with related questions and long-tail phrases based on that. This will give you a solid foundation for your local keyword research.
How to optimize the Google Business Profile?
To optimize your Google Business Profile, select relevant categories, create separate profiles for each location, and follow Google’s guidelines. This will help improve your online visibility and attract more customers.
