Geo-Local SEO Keyword Research Tips
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When you are building a website for a local business, it's important to optimize the site for geographically-specific keywords and keyword phrases in order for your site to come up high in the local listings. For this example we'll use a flower shop in Washington, DC. A prospective customer is a man who lives in Capitol Hill, which is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C. He's in the doghouse, so he wants to find a florist close by so that he can buy flowers on his way home. He opens up a browser and types in: "washington dc florists," a whole list of flower shops in different parts of the city show up, but what he really wants is, "Washington DC Capitol Hill florist," if he wants to find one specifically in his neighborhood. The listing for the florist shop in Adams Morgan doesn't help him because he does not have time to make it all the way across town in rush hour before his wife gets home.
Let's look at how that Capitol Hill florist can make sure that their listing gets to the top of the search engine rankings for either one of the above-mentioned searches.
Keyword research for local search marketing
You must always keep in mind the geo-local search terms that your prospective customers will be using when they are searching for your website. In order to do that, you would come up with an initial list of keywords and then add geo-local prefixes and/or suffixes such as:
washington dc florists
washington dc flowers
washington dc flower shop
florists in washington dc
flowers washington dc
flower shops in dc
flower shops washington dc
best florist in washington dc
To get even more specific, we are narrowing it down by neighborhood:
capitol hill dc florists
flower shops in capitol hill, etc.
Put all of these keyword phrases through your favorite keyword research tool to come up with the best list of geo-specific and niche-specific keywords to improve your website's SEO.
Get clues from your competitors
Here's a sneaky way to get some keywords ideas. Plug in the URL of your competitor's site into the Google keyword research tool to get a list of the keywords they are trying to rank for. You can also plug them into a site called SEMrush.com, which will analyze their keywords for you.
Optimize your site for local search
Once you have come up with a nice list of geo-local keywords, now it's time to make sure that you use them on your site in an effective, natural, non-keyword spamming way. Use geographic keywords in the title tags of every page of your local business website, and in the meta-description text, and where it makes sense in the body copy of each page. Remember that you can get penalized for over-optimizing, so don't go crazy with it. Keep it natural and add the geo-local keywords only where it makes sense on the website.
Using geo-local keywords to help your local business website get found in the search engines is a good way to attract more traffic to your website. For more tips, visit http://googleupdatesexplained.com/ today.
Let's look at how that Capitol Hill florist can make sure that their listing gets to the top of the search engine rankings for either one of the above-mentioned searches.
Keyword research for local search marketing
You must always keep in mind the geo-local search terms that your prospective customers will be using when they are searching for your website. In order to do that, you would come up with an initial list of keywords and then add geo-local prefixes and/or suffixes such as:
washington dc florists
washington dc flowers
washington dc flower shop
florists in washington dc
flowers washington dc
flower shops in dc
flower shops washington dc
best florist in washington dc
To get even more specific, we are narrowing it down by neighborhood:
capitol hill dc florists
flower shops in capitol hill, etc.
Put all of these keyword phrases through your favorite keyword research tool to come up with the best list of geo-specific and niche-specific keywords to improve your website's SEO.
Get clues from your competitors
Here's a sneaky way to get some keywords ideas. Plug in the URL of your competitor's site into the Google keyword research tool to get a list of the keywords they are trying to rank for. You can also plug them into a site called SEMrush.com, which will analyze their keywords for you.
Optimize your site for local search
Once you have come up with a nice list of geo-local keywords, now it's time to make sure that you use them on your site in an effective, natural, non-keyword spamming way. Use geographic keywords in the title tags of every page of your local business website, and in the meta-description text, and where it makes sense in the body copy of each page. Remember that you can get penalized for over-optimizing, so don't go crazy with it. Keep it natural and add the geo-local keywords only where it makes sense on the website.
Using geo-local keywords to help your local business website get found in the search engines is a good way to attract more traffic to your website. For more tips, visit http://googleupdatesexplained.com/ today.