Author: Celeste Gonzalez
Understanding your potential customers has never been more valuable than it is today. “Speaking their language” isn’t just a marketing cliché—it can be very lucrative to know the precise language people are using to search for local products and services like the ones you sell.
Doing keyword research is how you can learn to “speak their language.” It can be as simple as describing your products/services and can involve identifying new ways to explain your offerings for different types of customers. It can even introduce your business to new audiences.
This process is essential for any local business that wants people to check them out online. To find out where to start, you have to do keyword research—so, let’s get started.
Table of contents:
What is local keyword research?
Local keyword research (or keyword research for local SEO) refers to the process of identifying keywords that potential customers might search for to find local goods and services. Regularly performing this type of research and executing a strategy based on it can help local businesses appear in the searches best suited to bring customers their way.
The difference between traditional and local keyword research
Local keyword research is best suited for when a potential customer searches online for a product or service available locally, otherwise known as “local search intent.” This makes it a valuable technique for local business owners (or the marketers and SEOs that work for them).
Traditional keyword research, on the other hand, is not limited to local search intent (more on this in the section specifically about search intent).
This means that the businesses that engage in local keyword research are looking to appeal to customers in their service area, whereas traditional keyword research would be more appropriate for businesses that serve customers regardless of their geography.
So, a larger company that operates in many markets, like Optimum Nutrition, might perform traditional keyword research to identify opportunities to get in front of searchers—such as those that want to learn whether plant-based or whey protein is better, for example.
A local business would essentially do the same thing, except to cater to their audience that is looking for products/services locally. So, for example, a falafel restaurant chain might perform local keyword research to identify an opportunity to get in front of people looking for falafel catering in the Boston area and create a page specifically for that purpose.
In practice, many parts of the keyword research process are similar whether you’re a local or global business, but there are important nuances, which I’ll explain next.
How to find local search keywords
In general, the content you create—whether it’s a local landing page or informational blog post or anything in between—should be informed by two perspectives:
What you offer
What your target audience wants
Let’s look at keyword research for local SEO from both perspectives, starting with your offerings. For this portion of the process, it’s helpful to break down your keywords into two categories: general and modified.
General local keywords based on your offerings
When you think of general (or broad) keywords, think of all the products/services your local business offers. These are the main keywords you want to target (i.e., create content based on).
Targeting these general keywords can help improve your business’s visibility in the organic search results. That way, when someone searches for detailing burbank, for example, your page about your Burbank-based auto shop’s detailing services might appear in the search results, which brings you closer to winning over a new customer.
It helps to come up with a list of products/services you offer and organize them based on priority or how essential they are to your business.
For example, a medical spa might list the following services (which could also function as general keywords to create content about):
Botox
Juvederm
Restylane
CoolSculpting
Laser hair removal
Facials
B12 shots
Depending on the nature of the product/service (and the questions customers have about it), you could create one page that lists them all or create a dedicated page for each one.
Modified local keywords based on your offerings
You can modify the keywords you identified (in your list of general keywords from the exercise above) by finding long tail variations—variations of the keyword that have low search volume, but higher intent behind them.
This approach helps you appeal to potential customers that have a very specific need; for example, the way a local bakery’s page about their gluten-free, vegan breads appeals to a niche audience.
Going back to the medical spa example, this can be as simple as specifying the types of Juvederm offered.
Juvederm XC
Juvederm Ultra XC
Juvederm Ultra Plus XC
Juvederm Volbella
Juvederm Vollure
This also applies for home services businesses. If your home service business offers 24-hour or emergency services, you should add that to your main service keywords as well.
Lastly, another way to refine your list of keywords is by adding a relevant location to the front or end of the keyword. You can use “offering + location” (e.g., tacos near me) or “location + offering” (e.g., los angeles tax services) for your keyword research.
Identifying local keywords by search demand (using tools)
Other than listing out your offerings, how else can you find keywords for your local business?
Keyword tools like Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, etc. can give you a sense of the keywords people are searching to find businesses like yours. You could even use Google’s autocomplete suggestions to help with keyword ideas.
Google Search Console is always a great place to start. You’ll be able to find out what queries your business is already gaining impressions and clicks from. You could easily use this data to create part of your SEO strategy.
For example, you can see the queries that a particular page has shown in the search results for. To do so, visit Google Search Console, then:
Select Search results in the left-hand navigation menu
Click + New in the filters section
Select Page
In the Page pop-up, select Exact URL from the drop-down menu
Enter the page URL you’d like to check out
The table beneath the chart shows you the queries that page has shown up in search results for. (Note: Google Search Console is not 100% accurate and does not reflect all data.)
From here, you could enter these queries into Google Keyword Planner or Semrush to get local search volumes. You can then narrow down which keywords you’d like to target based on this list.
And, remember, targeting a term doesn’t always mean creating a dedicated page for it—it could also mean adding a section about it onto an existing page, for example.
Factoring in search intent
Once you have a narrowed-down list of keywords you’d like to target for your business, it’s time to address their search intent. It’s important to look at the search results for the keywords you are researching. This will let you know the type of content that Google serves to people searching for these terms, which will influence your success when pursuing the given keyword.
Take a look at what’s on the search engine results page (SERP) for a keyword you’re interested in. Are there videos? Are there mainly directories (Yelp, Angi’s, etc)? What you see in the search results can hint at the type of page and even the type of content you should include on the page for the keyword you want to target.
Let’s say I’m doing keyword research for my medical spa and I noticed that I’m getting a few impressions for what is botox. So, I might want to target this keyword on my service page. Let’s check out how what is botox looks in the SERP.
If I scroll down, I see that Google is mainly showing medical resources.
This tells me that this keyword (what is botox) is not a good match for my botox service page. The intent of the search is informational, meaning that someone searching this term isn’t likely looking to pay for botox just yet. The results also primarily display medical sources, meaning that it may be difficult to create a blog post and try to rank for this term as a local business.
If you look up another term like botox (insert city), you’ll see local businesses or directories appear (as shown above). These are signs that the intent is to make a purchase or pay for a service. It’s a good signal that a service or location page could rank for this type of keyword.
What you need to know about keyword research for local business blogs
There are some important benefits to keeping a blog on your local business site. It can help you:
Build up your site’s topical relevance
Increase traffic and eventually funnel qualified readers to your goods/services
Gain relevant backlinks
Going back to the what is botox example from earlier, you remember that there weren’t any local businesses showing up in the search results—it was all informational pages or blog posts. However, they were from very well-known sites, like WebMD, not from local medical spa businesses.
This can happen with all types of blog post keywords. Depending on the niche, Google may operate with stricter standards for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, so the odds of a local business ranking for these keywords are lower. But, as long as you are producing quality content that is helpful to your audience, the blog posts will always be valuable.
Sometimes, customers simply expect you to have a blog post detailing why your product/service is unique, for example—just because ranking for the ideal keyword for it might not be realistic shouldn’t deter you from creating that content.
Ultimately, this is a marketing decision—you need to evaluate whether building credibility on a larger scale matters to your local audience. If it does, you can follow basic keyword research best practices, along with some of the tactics mentioned above, to get started with content your audience may be looking for.
Get found in more ways than one
What I’ve discussed above falls under the category of on-site optimization—just one aspect of controlling your business’s online presence. But, what goes on on your site is only half the equation for local businesses. Prospective customers may search for your Google Business Profile in Search or Maps, or look you up in a directory with reviews, like TripAdvisor or Yelp.
In addition to the local keyword research you’re doing for your site, make sure to build out your presence in all locations that potential customers might look for you:
Select the most accurate GBP category for greater relevance
Earn local reviews for better rankings and more leads
Use Posts to market and communicate with potential customers on Google for free
Altogether, making sure that your website and profiles provide information that’s helpful to people looking for your offerings will be key to getting discovered by new customers.
Celeste Gonzalez leads RooLabs, RicketyRoo's SEO testing division, where she drives innovative strategies and engages with the SEO community. She is passionate about pushing SEO boundaries and sharing insights on both successes and challenges in the industry. Twitter | Linkedin