When it comes to keyword research, many marketers make it sound like a difficult process; however, if you use these strategies and methods, performing local keyword research will be a snap!
1. Recognize Your Target Audience’s Goals
It’s critical to know who your target audience is and what they hope to achieve before diving into local keyword research. You may find these answers by posing a series of questions to yourself.
Let’s imagine Ishnala Supper Club in the Wisconsin Dells as a case study. They might ask themselves the following questions to figure out who their target consumers are:
- What kinds of restaurants are the residents of the Wisconsin Dells asking for on Google?
- Is there a lot of interest in supper clubs?
- Who is looking for these questions? Residents? Visitors? Both?
- When are people looking for supper clubs? Are there any seasonal patterns?
- What keywords and queries do clients use to find supper clubs? Do they search on their phones?
- Why are people in the Wisconsin Dells interested in supper clubs?
- Where are our potential consumers located? Is it in the neighbourhood? Are they from out of town or locally?
- What are the most common search terms that people use to find supper clubs?
- How can we give the greatest content on our website to encourage visitors to visit our supper club rather than a rival’s?
Whether you’re an electrician or a restaurant owner, you may adapt these questions to your company’s products or services. You may proceed with keyword research by answering these questions!
2. Discover What Keywords your Target Audience is Looking for
Local keyword research is the process of looking for commercial categories that people use when searching for places to eat, drink, or work. Ishnala Supper Club’s seed terms, on the other hand, could be anything like supper clubs in Wisconsin dells, supper clubs in Wisconsin Dells, and supper clubs near Wisconsin dels.
Start by plugging your seed keywords into Google’s search bar to see what SERP features appear when users search for them. Is Google displaying the Local Pack for your plant keywords? How can you improve your organic local search results? Is there any way to rank higher in organic local searches for your seed terms?
You may also use a keyword tool to get more information about your seed keywords (such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and SERP analysis), as well as other associated terms or questions. This data can help you decide whether a term is worth targeting and whether you have a chance of ranking in local search results if a keyword is worth targeting.
If you type the keyword “Wisconsin supper clubs” into a paid keyword research tool like SEMrush, you’ll see that it has significant search traffic in the United States and is thus a difficult keyword.
Many of the keyword variations and associated keywords appear to be strong possibilities for Ishnala Supper Club.
Finally, SEMrush provides a SERP analysis so you may see whether or not your website will rank for the term you’re seeking. Ishnala has a small probability of ranking on the first page of organic search results for this phrase because most findings are for travel sites.
SEMrush, for example, will examine online pages in organic search results, but it’s also vital to search for the same phrase on Google to see whether there are any extra opportunities for your business to rank. When you search for the same term on Google, Local Pack is displayed (which implies that if Ishnala Supper Club improves their Google My Business account, they could rank in the SERPs!)
After you’ve compiled a list of seed keywords and other related keywords and questions, you may calculate the search volume and keyword difficulty for these terms.
3. Determine the Volume of Searches and Keyword Difficulty
As the second example, use a keyword research tool to determine the search volume and difficulty of each term. The higher a keyword’s search volume, the more difficult it is to rank for in search results. This usually reflects on a term’s degree of difficulty and SERP features. A broad keyword might limit your ability to rank for that term on the first page because you won’t be able to appear in as many organic search results.
On the other side, you don’t want to focus on keywords with excessively high search traffic since you’ll be wasting your time. When targeting specific phrases with less competition and a higher intent, utilize long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords have lower search traffic, but they convert at a higher rate since these keywords have a high level of intent. Let’s use our Ishnala Supper Club example again. If someone searches for “supper club near Wisconsin dells,” they’re probably looking for a restaurant in Wisconsin Dells that day or shortly. If someone searches for “ishnala supper club in Wisconsin dells,” it’s quite likely that they want to eat there soon.
According to Ahrefs, while long-tail keywords make up a tiny percentage of overall search demand, they nevertheless account for the most queries. This implies that you have several alternatives to respond to your target audience’s most frequently asked questions with useful information!
The final stage is to analyze the SERPs for your target keywords.
4. Examine the SERPs for Your Target Keywords
While looking at each target keyword’s SERP, be sure that your web page aligns with searcher intent and the other results shown. Because Ishnala won’t rank on the top page of search results based on the other organic search results displayed, focusing their efforts on “Wisconsin supper clubs” on one of their websites wouldn’t make sense. This shows that searchers are either transactional (they want to do something or go somewhere) or inquisitive (they want to find the best solution for their specific needs).
