5 Ways of Finding Keywords for Local Search

You can have the best business in the area, but unless your customers know how to find you, you’ll never succeed. The majority of consumers will go to search engines to look for any product or service before ever leaving their house. If they can’t find your business, you’re leaving money on the table, that another competitor is going to grab. But the way businesses are discovered depends on something called keyword research. It’s not a random discovery but an algorithm showing online users any potential companies of interest when they search.

What are keywords?

A keyword is the search term that an individual will use when trying to find your business. In the past, the search results would often turn up identical, regardless of the user location. These generic results brought little value to the consumer, especially if results were from out of state, country, or local area. Over time, specific areas were developed to offer a more substantial result section for users. Meaning, if an individual was searching for a product in Nevada, the results started to organize for the local area first. Google encouraged and promoted small businesses for local search results, along with big corporations. As these results continue to improve, the importance of keywords continues to rise.

Essentially, the more you target your content to local search results, the increased likelihood you’ll remain visible online. When you become visible online locally, you’ll improve the targeted audience. Having targeted keywords can bring you more sales long-term.

How to Find Local Keywords

Your keywords are more than just your industry or your specific location. They need to ensure that they work with your current marketing efforts and drive home both traffic and sales. That’s why it’s so essential to opt for keywords that bring in the highest search volume. Remember, it’s not about getting traffic to your website. You want local, targeted traffic that’s going to increase your sales.

Where to find keywords for your local traffic

1)      Brainstorm a Few Ideas

Currently, there are several keyword tools available to help you generate a list of SEO your business needs. Before jumping into those platforms, it’s essential to identify what you expect from your search results. You need to think like a consumer and understand what is going to drive them in their search. Here are a few critical questions to ask during your analysis:

1. What industry is my business in?
2. What are people looking for when they search online?
3. What services am I offering within my industry?
4. Who are my biggest competitors?
5. What are common phrases associated with my business?
6. Which products are the largest sellers on my website?

As you answer each of these questions, write down anything you think of in an excel sheet. These will be the baseline for your keyword research. Keep track of any standard terms or phrases that work with your business. The idea here is to come up with as many keywords as possible while remaining relevant.

2)      Look into your competitors

The easiest way to get the upper hand in the competition is to research what they’re doing. It isn’t unethical; it’s simply business. Go to a popular search engine and enter the most common keyword for your industry, plus a specific location An example of this would be sugar daddy in west palm beach. Take a quick look through the results that show after the ad sections. Copy down a few of the results and visit a popular website analysis tool. Companies like SEMRush, for instance, can offer insight into the organic positions of each company based on relevant keywords. It will tell you the current keyword, its position on Google, and the volume that keyword generates. 

3)      Think About Specific Locations

The point of receiving local traffic is to increase sales. If you’re trying to improve your business’s appearance online, you’ll want to start by considering what areas, cities, or locations are most likely to use your products or services. Make sure to review significant cities and small towns within the local area and any neighbourhoods, regions, or municipalities. Every keyword you establish should also include a keyword with every specific location identified. Depending on the number of cities, this should increase the number of keywords you have exponentially. 

4)      Use an Automatic Keyword Generator

Many search engines will offer an automatic keyword generator based on a few specific terms. These terms are entered into the search function and will generate a list of additional keywords you can use for your industry. It’s essential to keep keywords for your specific business or potentially face lost marketing efforts for products or services that don’t apply. If you’re trying to generate organic traffic through SEO, these are keywords you can use online. For businesses wanting to capitalize on PPC ads (those ads that cost money per click or price per campaign), it’s better to spend money on location-specific advertisements. These will keep your business from showing up on generic search results.

5)      Take Advantage of Suggested Searches

Whenever you go to Google and enter in a search term, you’ll be able to generate a list of effective keywords for your business with a few steps. Start by entering in a generic keyword for your industry with your specific location. Scroll through the results to the bottom of the page. There will be a section at the bottom titled, “searches related to.” Note the keywords listed in this category in your excel sheet, especially if they relate to your business. Click on one of the suggested search results and follow the same process. 

 You’ll be able to generate hundreds of standard search terms for your local business based on the recommended search results. Once you’ve spent time collecting the different keywords, restart the process with another basic search term.

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