Step By Step Guide To Perform Keyword Research For Local SEO

Want to rank your local businesses on top of Google Searches Results?

The first step to being on the top is to conduct well-organized “Keyword Research for Local SEO”.

You might be knowing the basics of keywords for any SEO strategy but,

Do you know, how to do keyword research for SEO…?

Not to worry,

This blog will help you with… 

A Step By Step Guide To Perform Keyword Research For Local SEO.

So here we go…

Steps To Do Local Keyword Research

List The Services You Offer

Before thinking about performing keyword research first, you need to identify the services you can offer to the audience.

It is very important to do so, whether you are doing local keyword research or even for your own business.

This is what I recommend you:

1. Ask Or Brainstorm

If you’re doing local keyword research for your own business, you might have great ideas of what services you offer.

But if, you are doing this local keyword research for a customer…

Ask them for a list of services they offer.

This is because sometimes people do not think about the services they actually offer.

Let’s take an example of a ‘plumber’

A plumber could offer many services like,

• Drain Unblocking
• Boiler Repairs
• Boiler Installation
• Boiler Servicing
• Radiator Installation
• Burst Pipe Repair

This explains that it is not about the job title. Instead, it is all about the services you can offer

Sometimes, people search for a plumber but, there is a certainty that they also look for “specific” services too.

That is the reason to identify the services you offer to the public.

2. Expand Your Ideas

It rarely happens that with brainstorming you’ll get to know all the services people are looking for.

But here you can find the services that you have missed…

The easiest way to do this is,

Go on SEMrush keyword explorer and enter brainstorm ideas in the search box.

Choose your desired country.

And click on the search button.

As result, you’ll get more options that could be the service you might have skipped or missed while brainstorming.

Here is an example to explain,

As you can see, when searching the keywords “boiler installation”

The results come out to be “Gas Boiler”, and “Home Boiler Installation” which we actually missed in the list.

3. Filter Your List

Collaborate with the client and refine your list. By adding the missing services you found.

Look how easily you finished the first step. 

Now let’s move on to the second step which is…

Understand Implicit And Explicit Keywords

Implicit means the query asked, is not properly expressed.

Similarly, Implicit keywords are the keywords where the user has not specifically expressed the location.

Like; “plumbers”, “barbers”, “electricians”

Confused? Wait, let me explain this with an example.

For reference, I live in Manhattan, New York. When I searched for “barbershops” (implicit), here are the results I got:

This states that even if I do not mention the place name in the implicit search,

Google automatically inferred that I am looking for a barbershop in Manhattan.

But, here is some problem…

If you search for such implicit keywords, the estimated result will be of the whole state or country.

But you have to gather the keywords for the area where you are located.

So how will you do this?

To make this task easy, you can use local keyword research tools. One of them that I prefer is, “Google Keyword Planner”

The process includes;

1. Go to Google Keyword Planner

2. Choose the option to get search volume and forecast.

3. Apply the filter of location according to the area.

4. Write the implicit keywords.

And here is the search results;

The results will reflect the outcome of the average monthly search of the keywords.

On the other side:

When talking about explicit keywords, includes a specific and proper query that is expressed in the search results.

Like; “barbers in Manhattan”, “plumbers in New Jersey”, and an “electrician near me”.

This means that I have to use the direct statement.

When comparing explicit with implicit keywords, you can add intent to them such as locations or any other specifications.

It looks like this;

By understanding the concept of implicit and explicit keywords, you can accurately perform keyword research for local SEO.

Also, it will help you out in improving the rankings of your local business in google search results.

I think, now things are getting more clear!

So, let’s quickly jump to the next step

Add Your Core Term To Your Keyword Research Tool

By taking the help of these local keyword research tools, you can make modifications to the keywords.

Such keyword research tools make your overall SEO strategy much more diverse.

By pinpointing less competitive keywords which can rank higher.

One such factor is the ‘keyword density’ which reflects the organic competitiveness of a query.

It is calculated by identifying the “power” of the domain pages. 

You can simply filter the keyword density from the search results of the keywords.

The image shows a brief example of Keyword Density.

The upcoming step will tell to how to…

Add Locations To Your Keywords

The most powerful way to be found in the search results is by adding locations to your keywords.

But before you do that, be clear about;

The locations you are looking to rank for. That is a country or a specific region.

To which part of the country is your target audience?

For example,

If You are a plumber and you live in Idaho in the USA, now you have to decide whether you want to rank for the particular area in Idaho or the whole USA.

Some of the most common examples of localized keyword research are:

“Best Plumbers in Boise’

and Hairdresser in Manhattan.

Quick image illustrations;

See, when searching for ‘Best hair salon in Albany, NY’ you’ll get a list of search results such as,

‘Hair salons near you in Albany, NY’, 

‘Albany NY hair salons and barbershops’, 

‘Best hair salons in Upstate New York.

By looking at this you can analyze what the audience in your location is searching all related keywords.

You can also identify the target locations in your local business keyword research by taking the help of some keyword research tools.

One of them is Google Analytics

By typing the niche of your local businesses, you can also identify the target locations by adding filters to them.

Organize Your Keywords With Search Intent

It’s important to understand search intent before you start organizing your keywords. 

Search intent is the purpose of why someone is looking something up. 

There are three different types of searches:

Informational

Navigational, and

Commercial  

Once you understand the type of searches your keywords are being used for, you can begin to organize them.

Each keyword in your SEO strategy contains a specific search intent.

Think from the perspective of your customers… 

Like, what are they looking for, or want any information? or want to purchase your product?

For Informational Intent

Let’s take the example of my company only,

My company (Incrementors Web Solutions) is an SEO Service Agency that helps you to grow your website traffic and rankings.

This means if people want to get information about any SEO-related services such as

• How to write product descriptions for Local SEO?

• How to increase the rankings of your local businesses on Google?

• How can you Boost your Local SEO search?

They will get the information for their query. This will increase the chances of them visiting your website to get more information related to their question.

Let’s ask google “ How to rank on google’s first page” here you go…

You don’t even have to click on any link for your query. Google will tell the information right on the top.

Next Up is Navigational Intent

This is where the user wants to know the best place to get the product.

This means the customer wants to reach a location to get the product but doesn’t know the exact location or website.

Examples such as; “best restaurants near New York City”

“Places to visit in London”

“Amusement parks near me”

Are considered keywords for navigational intent

Let’s see what search results we get for these localized keyword results;

The Google search results come out to be, 

‘Popular Destinations In Idaho’ where the user can visit, ‘Points of attraction’, 

Also, after scrolling down there are many websites related to ‘top 10 places to visit in Idaho’.

Navigational intent keywords will definitely help you in driving more traffic to your website.

Read More: SEO Ways To Enhance Clicks For “Near Me” Searches

The last one is, 

Commercial/Transactional Intent

The customer intends to look for options available in the local area.

This means your customer or user is still investigating more options.

For example, 

‘List of top Nike Shoes’, ‘Best Apple Appliances’, and ‘Best Jeans of Tommy Hilfiger’

Here’s what you get in the search results when searching on Google.

So, here’s the end of this step. 

Now that you know about the intent of the keywords you are using to perform keyword research for your local search engine optimization.

But you must keep a check on these keywords and make required improvements if needed in your SEO strategy.

Group And Map The Keywords

Now that you collected all the keywords for your local keyword research.

It is time to group them… by Grouping them it will be much easier to further map them.

Grouping means bringing two or more keywords together to form a group that is the most relevant to your web pages.

By this, you will be able to optimize your web pages for the most relevant keywords.

For example, if we have two keywords “Local SEO” and “Best SEO tools”

Here we can observe that these two keywords are ranking high on Google.

So, we can group them together as “Best SEO tools for Local SEO”

Later, when grouping the keywords it is time to map them…

It is a pretty complex process but when done correctly it will showcase pretty good results.

This will also help you in your On Page SEO Strategy

To do this, first, you have to maintain a spreadsheet.

Decide which keywords can be assigned to each section of your website.

Categorize them accordingly, Primary Keywords, Secondary Keywords, LSI Keywords.

In Primary Keywords place those keywords which are the most relevant and should be there in your page’s title and meta description.

Secondary Keywords are those which are present in the H1, h2, and h3 tags.

LSI Keywords are the relevant keywords with the least intent and are present in the paragraphs.

The table below represents, Mapping of the keywords.

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research is an important part of any SEO strategy. 

After all who doesn’t want to rank higher…

To perform effective keyword research for local SEO, you need to know the best keyword research tools.

These tools will help you find new keyword ideas for your local business keyword research.

Which as result, can boost your overall ranking in the local search results.

Several different tools can be used in Keyword Research for local SEO.

The list includes;

Moz Keyword Explorer

Google Keyword Planner

SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

Keywords Everywhere, and the list goes on…

Conclusion

There you have,

A Step By Step Guide To Perform Keyword Research For Local SEO,

I hope this article has helped you with the information related to how to do keyword research for local SEO.

So, if you want to climb up the ranking in the search results, 

Go and perform effective local business keyword research for your website,

This will surely help you in keyword research for your local businesses.

And if you have any queries, do let me know in the comments section below.

FAQs

1. How do you do keyword research for local SEO?

To accomplish the ultimate goal of your business, you have to perform effective local keyword research that will help you identify the right keywords.

Local keyword research tips:

List your services to offer, Understand your core term, add your core term to your keyword, add locations to your keywords, identify the best keyword research tools, and finally analyze the results.

2. How do I track local keywords?

To track local keywords that the audience is searching for, simply write the keyword on Google and locate the top 10 websites in the search results.

Then with the help of Keyword research tools, extract the list of keywords that are most related to your niche.

3. Which tool is free for keyword research?

There are many local keyword research tools available, but to start with a free tool I would recommend using the Ahrefs Keyword Generator.

4. What is a good keyword search volume?

The minimum range of search volume for any keywords should vary between 100-1000. 

5. Which keyword is most searched?

Here are some popular keywords which are the most searched,

a. Facebook with 160,000,000 search volume

b. Youtube with 151,000,000 search volume

c. Amazon with 121,000,000 search volume

d. Weather with 103,000,000 search volume

e. Google with 70,000,000 search volume

f. Walmart with 63,000,000 search volume

There are many more keywords in the list but these are the top 6 keywords with the highest search volume,