YOUR KEYWORDS ARE NOT DETERMINED BY YOUR CONTENT. YOUR CONTENT IS DETERMINED BY YOUR KEYWORDS.
I see so many people who will just find the most repeated word on any given page and call that their keyword. NO! Just because it is there does not mean it’s your keyword. You should be determining your keywords FIRST, then writing your content around said keyword(s). If you’ve not yet watched the Keyword 101 video in a previous post, now would be a good time to do so.
Keyword Research Tools for Local SEO
There are tons of shiny, expensive tools on the market for keyword research. The fact of the matter is that for local SEO, you just don’t need them. In fact, most won’t be of much value for local SEO anyway since they measure stats on a national basis. While some keywords won’t vary much by geography, others will be wildly different. For example, if you’re working with a basement remodeling contractor, the search volume in southern states will be nil since most homes don’t even have a basement. If you’re working with a stucco contractor, they will get far more search volume in FL, CA and AZ than they will in any New England state where it’s quite rare to see a stucco home. If you were working with a snow removal company, the search volume in the cold northern states will be very different than it would be down south, where it rarely snows. If you looked at ahrefs or some other keyword research tool that measures on a national level, the search volume for any of these keywords would be quite high, but if you were targeting a city/state where the service is not applicable, you’re not going to get any searches for that keyword. So what can you use? ….
Google Business Profile
For local SEO and maps, this should always be the first place you go to begin your keyword planning. Keep in mind that every online asset the business has (GBP, website, citations, social profiles, etc) will ultimately create the companies digital footprint. Every asset should be consistent in name, address, phone number, and niche/category so when the bots crawl each asset, they can connect the dots and know that each asset pertains to the same business. This is essential in gaining trust and authority. Supporting the GBP category(ies) with the website content is also a significant factor in ranking in the map pack.
Some niches will only have a single applicable category on their GBP. A contractor who ONLY offers kitchen remodeling would be a good example of this, as would be a gym, bed & breakfast, dog groomer, church, etc. If there is only 1 category used on the GBP, then that should be a keyword that is used on the home page of the website too, ideally as an <h2> and the website content should support the category selection.
If the niche has multiple categories listed on the GBP, each of those categories should appear on the home page of the website and should also have a dedicated service page for each. So if our contractor offers kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, and basement remodeling, we would include all 3 categories on the GBP. Those then become our top-level keywords for the service pages. On the website, we would want to include a section on the home page for “our services”, which would include each of those categories as an <h2> sub title, followed by a short blurb about each service, and a link from each service blurb to a dedicated service page. We’ll dive deeper into this when we get into the anatomy of the ideal page layout in a subsequent post. For the time being, just know the importance of repeating your GBP category(ies) on your website.
Your Brain
Don’t make keyword planning harder than it has to be. If you’re working with a roofer, what terms might you use to search for one? Some top level keywords will be roofer, roofing contractor, roofing company. The GBP category for this niche is “roofing contractor”, so I would begin my keyword research from there.
If you were searching for a specific service that a roofing contractor offers, those are typically roof installation, roof repair, roof maintenance, roof inspection. Many will also offer gutter installation and repair. Some may install and/or repair skylights, flashing, soffits, etc. Ask your client what services they offer and start there. Conduct your own searches with the keywords that the client gives you, or the ones that you come up with on your own. Look at the websites for the roofing contractors who are in the top 3 map pack results and the top 3 in the SERPs. Look at the structure of their website, the breakdown of their service pages, and the keywords that they are using. These are the sites that you are trying to beat so you need to do everything they are doing, and do it better than them.
Related Searches
For just about any search query you make, Google will display a list of related search terms. If Google is showing you these terms, you’d better believe that people are searching for them. If the related search terms make sense for your client, you can incorporate some of these into your keyword planning.
People Also Ask
Another free tool that Google gives you is the People Also Ask section of the SERPs. The main objective of your content is to answer peoples questions, so it only makes sense that knowing what people are asking is going to be a huge opportunity for you to model your content around. You might find some of the questions make for great sub-titles on your service pages, some may lend themselves to an FAQ section, others may be ideal to use for the Q&A section of the Google Business Profile. However you choose to use them, the PPA section will be a goldmine. It’s fine to copy the questions verbatim, but do not plagiarize the answers to the questions. Write your own or spin them with AI.
Google Keyword Planner
Honestly, I never use it but it’s there, and it’s a free resource. Just go through the motions of creating an adwords campaign, without proceeding to placing the ad. SemRush offers a great step-by-step tutorial here: https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-keyword-planner/
Keyword Planner by Mangools
This is a fremium tool, and by far one of my favorites. It’s actually 5 tools in one, and unlike most other tools, it is made specifically for LOCAL SEO. The 5 tools are keyword planner, rank tracking, local SERP analysis, backlink analysis, and SEO metrics.
With the free version, you can run 5 keyword reports per day. Results will not be quite as robust as what you get with the premium version, but if you are a DIY’er optimizing your own site or an SEO who is just starting out and doesn’t have many clients yet, you can get by with the free version.
If you upgrade to the premium version, this is seriously the only tool you will ever need for Local SEO. It’s basically ahrefs lite, without the thousand dollar price tag. Monthly plans start at just $29 or if you pre-pay annually, it is only $19/mo.
The next post includes a video tutorial on using Mangools Keyword Finder. If you’d like some first hand engagement, give the keyword tool a try here:
If you would like to upgrade to the premium version, please consider using my affiliate link here:
https://mangools.com#a5e209269feebf86ce48aa93d
Pro Tips for Selecting Keywords
The 2 main factors when choosing the best keywords are search volume, and buyers intent.
Search Volume: You don’t want to be #1 for something that nobody is searching for. This seems self-explanatory. Your primary money words should get decent search volume. that’s not to say that you should never use keywords that have low search volume, but those should not be your top level money words. Keywords with lower search volume will generally rank faster and easier than those with higher search volume, so they are great to use for blog posts, supporting pages, or to sprinkle into the service pages as keyword variations.
Buyers Intent: Buyers intent simply means that the viewer is looking for a business or contractor who provides a product or service they need, e.g. they are not looking for a DIY solution. “Plumber near me” has buyer’s intent, while “home remedies for a clogged drain” has DIY intent.
Diversify Your Keywords
Keyword Variations and Synonyms
People use different search queries, so your content should include different variations too. You can include several variations of related keywords on the same page. For example, roofer, roofers, roofing company, roofing contractor, and roofer near me all mean the same thing and can be included on the same page. By utilizing keyword variations, your content will not only sound less redundant and more natural, but you will potentially rank for that many more search queries too.
Mix Short Tail and Long Tail Keywords
Short tail keywords are going to be more difficult to rank than a long tail keyword, so don’t be afraid to sprinkle in some long tail keywords to get some easy wins. Those long tail keywords will get some traffic to the site quickly, which will help boost the rankings for the short tail keywords as well.
If you’ve found this tutorial helpful and would like to buy me a cuppa coffee, contribute to my cats’ lavish lifestyle, or add to the lambo fund, a donation is never expected but is very much appreciated.
