Big issues with Local Keywords

Be creative when researching your keywords. This is an issue a lot of people have when ranking local keywords - they don't do the proper research. If you can't find keywords that are getting traffic, there is no reason to rank for them. Your client wants to rank for keywords that are being searched by their target market. This about if you were a potential customer looking for your clients business, what might you search for? If the long-tails aren't getting you the results you need, try shortening it up and using something more popular.

It's a good point how people will find it, if I just get a bunch of SEO terms. If you don't mind me asking, what keywords did you end up using. See my contractor prefers using the big ticket jobs, like additions, home renovations, remodeling, stuff like that. Have you seen any success from keywords containing that?

I have a local site where, for the past 2 years almost, like clock work, I get 4 visitors for a 4 word keyword that Google says nobody's searching for. In addition, I get another 150 visitors, 1 per keyword, via 150 keywords Google says nobody's ever used.

They all use the root keyword (a 1 word keyword).

In addition, don't sell being #1, sell dominating page 1... make them have all the spots on page 1... and don't sell them traffic, sell them the satisfaction of kicking their competitors off page 1, sell them the satisfaction of being #1, sell them on the idea that over 50 percent of people check you out on the internet and, if you're at the top, assume you're good at what you do.

Also, find out how much revenue they get off the internet. Then, if they have analytics, look at how they're found... If they don't, tell them it wouldn't be fair to them to pay you anything till they have something to compare you against, so install analytics, for free (but with a written understanding that within the month they will hire you... or pay you $x for installing analytics), set up a meeting one month later... tell them, Hey, you've got 24 visitors last month... I can get you 100... or something to that effect.

If they have any revenue, they should be happy to pay you something for getting them more... The question will be how much? That will depend on how much revenue you bring them. Revenue here means money and satisfaction...

First client I ever had wasn't interested in getting new clients. He just wanted to be ahead of the prick who owned the company he 1st worked at! I mean, he wanted more revenue too. But the revenue was secondary, the icing on the cake on showing the prick who was the man!

Find out, first and foremost, what has value to them. Then sell based on that.

Take those 80 Keywords, set up an adwords campaign, target the top position regardless of click price..... Monitor the impressions over a 3-7 day period.

You're looking at impressions. Not clicks. And this will give you the raw data you need. It's possible to have enough data after just 24-48 hours to determine if keywords are getting enough search volume to scale a campaign.

And for a client similar to Wally's (excavation contractor), if you were to send them 10 paying clients over the course of a month.... doubt they'd be able to handle it unless they're a very large company with tons of equipment and man power.

Like the others said... the normal local service business would not be able to handle 50-100 new clients each month.

just like fight club...

Not only could they not handle it, they'd lose.

They'd try to handle so many, their systems would fail, they'd end up with a bunch of pissed of clients who would happily bad mouth them for a total negative net gain to the business.

If you're a small (1- 4 people) insurance office, 2-5 new customers off the internet might represent 25% of all the new customers you're used to getting, and all you could handle.

If you're a mortgage company with 3 officers, your max capacity might be 25 clients a month. In your wildest dreams would be to getting 35 consistently.