Local Keywords are not turning up any data (is it still worth it?)

[chrisnegro]

Warriors:

I have a client wanting to do some local search for the heating, plumbing, and cooling business. The problem i'm having is when I use the Google Keyword Tool....NONE of the keywords have any data to support if this is a valuable search keyword. I live in a population area where towns between 400-10,000 are the norm (so you can see the problem).

Because I want to show the value of how many local people are searching (so I can show the lifetime value of the potential clients that come per month at 1%) what am I suppose to do? I can't show them fake data.

In closing, they definately want SEO but it sounds like it may not be worth it to them because (the area I live is is predominately uneducated and are not conducting local searches as much as the urban cities). It sad because they want the service...but it may not be worth it to them.

P.S. They don't want business in the city areas so choosing keywords like "Chicago Heating Contractors" is not even an option for this client. They have a 50 mile radius for their business here in Illinois.

Any suggestions?

Thanks Warriors!

Chris Negro

[Kelvin Brown]

using this example, "Chicago Heating Contractors"

you can use that, but that is just the start. Ask yourself or your client, ' what do heating contractor do.


air conditioner repair
furnace repair
furnace cleaning
furnace installation
furnace installer
duct installer
duct cleaner
duct repair
radiant heating
hvac
hot water tank
hot water tank installation

etc., etc.

Then just put chicago in front of it.

Kelvin

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Brown

using this example, "Chicago Heating Contractors"

you can use that, but that is just the start. Ask yourself or your client, ' what do heating contractor do.


air conditioner repair
furnace repair
furnace cleaning
furnace installation
furnace installer
duct installer
duct cleaner
duct repair
radiant heating
hvac
hot water tank
hot water tank installation

etc., etc.

Then just put chicago in front of it.

Kelvin

I understand your logic Kevin but this is the problem: When someone types up Chicago Heating Contractors, THEY WILL BE from the Chicago and surrounding areas. My client's business is 2 hours away and their clientele is a 50 mile radius and they will not go to Chicago. So that traffic will not be a viable customer for my client.

Any other thoughts out there? I really want to sell them SEO and be able to show some statistics on monthly searches but at the same time....the keyword searches be relevent to what they would be getting.

Am I stuck here or what?

Chris Negro

[Kelvin Brown]

Chris,

You don't have to use chicago, Use your actual location. Also, let them know that when their prospects finally get online, that their business info will already be there.

If you use adwords, you can limit your PPC to the physical area.

Kelvin

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Brown

Chris,

You don't have to use chicago, Use your actual location. Also, let them know that when their prospects finally get online, that their business info will already be there.

If you use adwords, you can limit your PPC to the physical area.

Kelvin

Ok....but I guess I want to show them how many searches per month this key word gets. And we can do a hypothentical: For example, I see 1000 searches per month. Lets pretend that 1% of them become buyers = 10 Customers @ an avg of 1500 per item or transaction. That equals an aditional $15000 of sales per month.

Because these keywords do not have data, I cannot confidently show them of the potential of dominating these keywords.

Any advice out there?

[CaseWhitney]

Originally Posted by chrisnegro

Ok....but I guess I want to show them how many searches per month this key word gets. And we can do a hypothentical: For example, I see 1000 searches per month. Lets pretend that 1% of them become buyers = 10 Customers @ an avg of 1500 per item or transaction. That equals an aditional $15000 of sales per month.

Because these keywords do not have data, I cannot confidently show them of the potential of dominating these keywords.
Any advice out there?

If there's no data, you can't make it up. Try using a different metric to prove usefulness of doing seo/ online marketing.

If you want to find the actual searches done on Google make a campaign with the local keyword set and use the data from there to draw your ROI calculations. Otherwise you can do a localized ppc campaign and use that traffic as a pilot to the prove how many prospects are actually searching before doing an organic campaign.

Even if there aren't 1,000 people searching a month for your clients niche. What if there were 300 a month you'd be visible to them. You can still run your conversion to sales proving usefulness.

If there are 100 and 1 converts thats 1 new client at 1500 per month.
If there are 200 and 2 converts thats 2 new clients at 3000 per month.
What if there were a steady 1-5 new clients per month for them? That would make a difference in their bottom line. You can still build in enough for your own consulting fees with numbers like that.

Also, you can ask how many leads a day are they getting through their existing lead gen. (like yellow pages or newsletters). Then offer a pilot campaign to see if it matches or exceeds the amount of leads done per day. Just make sure to track your efforts to gauge the effectiveness.

The best data a client will ever understand is the phone ringing for new customers.

[chrisnegro]

Originally Posted by CaseWhitney

If there's no data, you can't make it up. Try using a different metric to prove usefulness of doing seo/ online marketing.

Ok...what SPECIFIC metric are you proposing? Bottom line is I'm want to present solid date for local keywords. The challenge is.....that their is not data.

So what specific steps would you recommend.

Thanks Case (your the bomb)

Success !

Chris Negro

[CaseWhitney]

Chris,

If you want search volume data and there isn't enough data showing and need to have this to move forward with seo, run a localized adwords campaign to find actual search volume happening right now. Run it for a day or two or 2-4 weeks and you'll have actual data of how many people are searching for your keywords right now to base your ROI metrics.

Here's how you can set this this actual volume campaign:

In an adwords account
Load up put your keywords in exact match only
Set your max bid price high (like $2)
In network and device settings: have it be only to Google search.
Like this:

for the copy
Write ads (headling/desc.) that are irrelevant to the actual keywords you are targeting
Use a non-related disply/Destination urls.

What you are getting from this campaign is number of impressions as actual search volume for your keywords. For however long you run the campaign, 1 day, 14 days. Its actual search volume right now, not estimated search volume.

This test campaign uses irrelevant ads so no one clicks on them so you don't get billed for running this test.

That's how you'd get actual provable search volume for your keywords.

For more data related to your clients niche and localization is with Google's insight tool which is very useful for finding trends and demographics of keywords.

I queried up the state for general terms to see what parts of the state had interest over time:
Google Insights for Search

That state/metro area trending information will be enough to measure your baseline search volume for the general keywords related to the clients business.

For help getting a list of keywords for your local client, this is a local keyword generator tool that will help you create a list of local keywords: http://www.5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php


That should be plenty to get you going.

Vanessa