Local SEO Keyword Research & Analysis
There is more to keyword research than just picking keywords with the highest volume and CPC. In this guide I will go through how to rank the keywords in Google Maps, organic, and Craigslist that will get you results.
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The Advantages To Ranking Locally VS Nationally
The advantage of local SEO is that you are mainly only competing with other people targeting the same geo location. That means that right off the bat your money keywords and secondary keywords are easier to rank. The simplicity of ranking that term will generally have to do with the highest keyword search volume and CPC in that particular geo location. For example “carpet cleaning London” is a lot harder to rank than “carpet cleaning San Bruno”. There are several reasons for this. One being that there is more money to be made by ranking the London term, so there are probably a good amount of affiliate SEOs trying to rank for it. Secondly, there are more businesses competing for the top spot and the marketing budgets for those businesses are forced to be a little higher. Page 2
Keyword research and content creation are the two most important factors for SEO success, so how do you do keyword analysis link a local SEO expert? You can start by using our local keyword finder to find the best geo modifiers to rank your niche in, and test them out on various online channels using the methods explained below.
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Keyword Research for Google Maps/ Google My Business SEO Begin by typing into Keywords Heaven the most profitable search term in your niche. It will then suggest to you some good geo modifiers to use. Once you have the list of cities, plug them into Google Search and look at the map pack in each city. I like to have the Keywords Everywhere plugin installed to give me keyword insights inline in my search. You want to look for a result that has a high volume, a decent CPC, as well as a low keyword competition map pack, like this one:
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Map Pack Keyword Competition Factors
1. What do the reviews look like? Reviews are a ranking factor for the map pack, and you should also think of them as click through rate competition when analyzing the difficulty of getting calls from a particular keyword. In this case there is no company with too many reviews, and none with 5 star reviews. Page 5
2. Are there any exact or phrase match keywords in the business names? If not, this is a good opportunity to take advantage of that. Keywords in the business name are a pretty large ranking factor for Google Maps, probably because Google wants people to find business that they are searching for directly. In this case, we can see that none of these businesses have the search term “asbestos removal� or the city name in their business name. 3. How far are the businesses from the city center? You can’t always control how close your Google Maps address is to the city center, but this is also a ranking factor to keep in mind. Looking at the photo below, we can see that Allstate Environmental LLC is 4.4 miles away from the city center, which should be easy to outdo.
4. Do all of the listings in the first 4 or 5 Google Maps results have websites attached? In this case we can clearly see that the third listing does not have a website and is ranking. If you create a listing wit a strong expired domain, you should be able to overtake this ranking. Page 6
5. What are the categories of the businesses that are currently ranking? Are they relevant to the search term we put in? In this case, only one of the business has the category “Asbestos Testing Service” and that’s probably the main reason that that listing is ranking. In fact, the top ranking listing has a category that appears to be incorrect. They most likely meant to put “Environmental Consultant”. When optimizing your GMB listing, make sure to max out your categories with as many of them as possible that accurately describe your business. 6. What are the average metrics for the websites attached? In this case the top 2 have about a 20+ DA and PA, which is decent, but by optimizing everything else we should be able to rank. 7.
What is the on-page like for the websites that are ranking? The only website with a decent and relevant on-page to the search term is Titan Environmental Services. The middle one is irrelevant to the search term, and the third one doesn’t even have a website.
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What is the citation volume and NAP consistency for the listings? In my opinion, this isn’t as important, but it doesn’t hurt to do a quick citation audit using a tool like Moz Local.
After this analysis, rinse and repeat to find more terms from the related searches list at the bottom of the search results.
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“asbestos testing kansas city” seems like a good one to try.
Although at first glance this may look like a somewhat competitive 3-pack, take a look at the city in the third listing. It is not in Kansas City, and the search term has “Kansas City” in it. Therefore, Google would probably really like to show a business in Kansas City if they had a viable option. Additionally, the domain authority for that third website is currently only 9 and the on-page is lacking quality content. This, in my opinion, can easily be out ranked. Page 9
Keyword Analysis for Google Organic Search
We go over this in more detail in our rank and rent and local seo lead gen article, but here is a brief explanation. When doing keyword research and analysis for ranking in organic search results, you should look for high ticket, low difficulty keywords, preferably that do not bring up the map pack. For example a good one in the water damage restoration niche is “water extraction + city�. Even though keyword search volume tools may tell you that these search terms have 0 search volume, you can still get traffic off of them, especially if you are ranking at the top for many geo modifiers. Page 10
Google is currently not filtering duplicate content when used in a local SEO context, so take advantage of this by using mass page generators! Here is a good example:
You can see that two out of the top three results are likely mass page generated websites. These are websites that are created using software generate pages and target multiple cities by only changing the geo modifiers. To do this you can use the WordPress plugin Page Generator or something similar. Page 11
Keyword Research for Craigslist
In my opinion, advertising on Craigslist with pay-per-lead local service offers is the easiest way to make money online, that I am aware of. It requires next to zero technical knowledge, and you can get started with it right away! How do you do this? Well first you will need to choose a niche to promote on Craigslist. In my experience (and yours might be different) I have found that good Craigslist PPL niches are often low/medium ticket and high volume services like:
Movers (competitive) Fence services Tree services Mobile dent repair Hauling Mobile mechanics Glass repair Cleaning services (carpet, upholstery, etc) Locksmith (competitive) Page 12
The main downside to Craigslist is that there are some tire kickers on there who price shop, but if you advertise services under 1k or so, they will be more likely to convert. Let’s say I choose to go with fence services. After doing a quick search in the Google Keyword Planner, some of the main keywords for fencing are: “fence repair”, “fence company”, “fence installation”, and “fence contractor”. Many people also search terms with the fencing materials in front like “wood fence repair”, “vinyl fence installation”, etc.. Now I would need to pick a city to do this in, and I would recommend using the geo locations with the highest volume and decent CPC (can be found on Keywords Heaven). There is no direct way that I am aware of to do Craigslist keyword research, but if these terms are being searched a lot in Google and bid on in AdWords, they are probably being searched in Craigslist as well.
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Writing Craigslist Ads for the Services Section
So let’s draft a title: “Fence Repair & Fence Installation Company”. I would then proceed to put the keywords in the description as well as a couple times towards the top, if possible. I’m not going to tell you exactly how to write your ad, but you can test various formats by simply using different call tracking numbers in each one. What I have generally found to convert well are personable ads. You can do this by including a picture of your lead generation partner and including their name in the ad. Page 14
What Images Should I Use for My Craigslist Ads? If you do not have a lead generation partner, I recommend using a few royalty free stock images. If you do have a partner, I’d recommend asking them for photos and a head shot. Posting Craigslist Ads in Bulk Craigslist is most effective if you can post very often (at least once a day). After you have got all of the above together, it is time to try to post in bulk, which you can achieve in 2 main ways: 1. Use an ad posting tool 2. Outsource the ad posting. (Here is a good Fiverr seller for it. You’ll probably have to PM him and ask if he can post craigslist ads for you daily.)
And that is it! You can scale to $100/day pretty easily with this as a beginner and establish some good client relationships.
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Finding a Lead Generation Partner
Chase Reiner does a good job of showing how to find rank and rent or local lead generation clients in this video. Basically what you need to do is post on the craigslist gigs section and you’ll get calls coming in fast for most industries!
In Conclusion Using these keyword analysis formulas you should be able to rank in all of these local mediums. Enjoy!
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