How To Do Local SEO Keyword Research In 30 Minutes or Less

Organisations invest in SEO to increase organic visibility and get quality website traffic. An effective SEO strategy will also boost your business’s credibility. These benefits will be even more pronounced if you focus on local SEO. But what is local SEO, and how does it work?

Local SEO

Local SEO is a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy that focuses on improving a website’s visibility within the local search results. Google uses unique ranking factors such as location when creating results for a search query with local intent.

The main components of local SEO include on-site optimisation, online reviews and testimonials, and local listings and directories. On-site optimisation mainly involves using the right keywords.

Benefits of Local SEO

There are several advantages of investing in local SEO:

• Get more foot traffic.
• Reduce ad costs.
• Improve online visibility.
• Increase website authority.
• Get better conversion rates.
• Achieve long-lasting rankings.
• Gain more local reviews.
• Stay competitive.

Doing and Maximising Keyword Research for Local SEO

You need to find the keywords that your intended audience is searching for. Here’s how you can do it.

Find industry-related keywords

The first step is to find popular terms that pertain to your narrow industry vertical. This typically will be a list of your business’s products and services.

You can find the popular terms by adding a search bar to a website. This will enable you to track the most searched phrases by visitors to your website. In addition, you can use Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool. Another way to find niche keywords is to identify your customers’ opportunities and challenges by doing a buyer persona analysis.

Use keyword modifiers

Once you’ve found a list of popular terms in the industry, you will need to add a location modifier. The modifier doesn’t change the meaning of the term — it just provides additional information. For instance, the popular search term may be cheap restaurants. You can add Sydney to this term to create cheap restaurants in Sydney. This will ensure that you rank well for search queries with local intent.

Find questions related to your services and products

It is advisable to expand the list of keywords to include long-tail keywords. You can do this by finding common questions related to your products and services.

Long-tail keywords are more specific and rank well for voice search. They can also be used as content titles for your blog pages.

Check your competition

You also need to figure out your competitors’ keyword strategy. You can use your competitors’ keywords if they are ranking well. Alternatively, you can find keywords that your competitors are not using and start utilising them.

Find keyword search volume

You need to know the number of people searching for the specific keyword. Moreover, you should determine each keyword’s click rate, localised vs global volume, and keyword difficulty.

Keyword difficulty is a measure of the effort it takes for your website to appear on the first page of search results for a specific keyword. Several factors, such as content authority, page authority, and domain authority, affect keyword difficulty.

The best way to find keyword volume is to search the keyword on the Google Trends homepage. This will show your audience’s interest in the keyword on a 100-point scale. Next, filter the results by location to know the keyword’s search volume in your local area.

Work With an Award-Winning Marketing Agency

Whitehat Agency is a professional marketing agency that can help you with local SEO keyword research. We use strategies that will increase traffic to your business. Selecting our services also means long-term growth and a solid SEO foundation. If you are still stuck on what is local SEO or want some more information on SEO in general, Contact us to get started.