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keyword + city or keyword

by rafterman
22 replies
Are people targeting a keyword like "plumber" and hoping google evokes the local results based on the users entered location. Or are you targeting the "keyword + city/state" and sacrificing search volume for lower competition.
#city #keyword
  • Profile picture of the author iranklocalmarketing
    you'll want to use "plumber + city" and now with google instant...not a bad idea to through the state in. If you take a look at google keyword tool, you see more and more searches with the state attached. It seems people are following suggested searches. When doing sem for small offline businesses, search volume isn't a major concern. I have a dental client I ranked for "dentist + city + state, google returns no searches, but analytics say otherwise and the dentist has received new business. On another note, there is so much mark up in dental work, just a few customers can bring in thousands of dollars in business. This is true with many other industries as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinP
    I did a site for a client 2 years ago where it was LOCAL CITY NAME + "Restaurant" and they didn't pay for any SEO but we still got them to #3. Through almost 100% organic searches, they have added over 300 people to their mailing list for dessert coupons. Go with keyword + location for sure!
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    • Profile picture of the author MarkR
      If you've ever tried to rank for "plumber" you'll know that it takes too much time and costs the client too much money to make it worth your while. Go with keyword + city! Just make sure your keyword gets lots of searches and the city is big enough to support sufficient traffic.

      If you've got the time, build more pages with:

      keyword + city + the two letter state abbreviation
      city + keyword
      keyword + city + county name
      keyword + city + full state name

      Your volume will depend on the size of the city/county/state/province you decide to target.
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  • Profile picture of the author oatmeal
    It's true, you do need the keyword, city and state abbreviation.

    I use a free little software program that does it all for me. It spits out a text file with everything put together for you keyword, city and state.

    It's called "Keyword Localizer" and has a built in data base of around 200 top US cities. I'd give it to you, but I don't have enough posts yet to be able to put in
    a link or image yet. You might be able to google it and find it that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Genesis1
    I would go with keyword + city, you will get more targeted visitors
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    • Profile picture of the author mrtrance
      When you target a local niche is it better to go for "niche city" or "city niche i.e. "plumber miami" or "miami plumber"? Or do you guys look at which one has more search volume?

      The only issue is alot of times for smaller cities there will be very low or no search volume for either of these variations. So what do you do in that situation?
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      • Profile picture of the author MarkR
        mrtrance,

        Great question! Six months ago I did a study by going to the Google AdWords keyword tool, setting the match type to exact (critical) and typing in "new york", "chicago", "los angeles" etc. I then sorted the resulting list descending, then looked to see the first 3-5 search terms that contained a profession like "plumber", "dentist", "electrician" and so on. I then kept track of how many had the city first, and how many where the city was second. I also did the reverse, typing in "plumber" and tracking whether the city was first or second.

        As I recall, it varied by city. In most cases, the city was listed first. The search volumes were +- 58% city first, and 42% city second. For example, you'll get numbers like "los angeles plumber" = 880 searches/month, "plumber los angeles" = 720 searches/month. Netted out, this means you'll get a 38% jump in search volume by targeting "denver plumber" versus "plumber denver".

        My assumption was that if people typed in the city first for big cities, people in smaller cities would do the same. People are people....except for IMrs.

        HTH

        I think I just spilled the beans on a perfectly good WSO again! LOL
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        • Profile picture of the author mrtrance
          Originally Posted by MarkR View Post

          mrtrance,

          Great question! Six months ago I did a study by going to the Google AdWords keyword tool, setting the match type to exact (critical) and typing in "new york", "chicago", "los angeles" etc. I then sorted the resulting list descending, then looked to see the first 3-5 search terms that contained a profession like "plumber", "dentist", "electrician" and so on. I then kept track of how many had the city first, and how many where the city was second. I also did the reverse, typing in "plumber" and tracking whether the city was first or second.

          As I recall, it varied by city. In most cases, the city was listed first. The search volumes were +- 58% city first, and 42% city second. For example, you'll get numbers like "los angeles plumber" = 880 searches/month, "plumber los angeles" = 720 searches/month. Netted out, this means you'll get a 38% jump in search volume by targeting "denver plumber" versus "plumber denver".

          My assumption was that if people typed in the city first for big cities, people in smaller cities would do the same. People are people....except for IMrs.

          HTH

          I think I just spilled the beans on a perfectly good WSO again! LOL
          Great analysis. But what if we want to get the exact domain to match our keyword. Majority of the time "city niche" is take for the com/net/org, but alot of times "niche city" is there for the majority of the time for the com and about 100% available for net/org.

          What I have done with a site that I started was I went with the "niche city" keyword and domain and ranked it #1 for that keyword. I think this keyword showed like 220 exact and "city niche" had like 320. But I then optimized it for "city niche" as well as "niche in city" and now I'm ranking #2 for those keywords as well. I think what helped the most was getting the exact match domain even though it was not for the more search term "city niche" I was able to rank easily for "niche city" and then a few months later rank high for "city niche" and "niche in city".
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Hoogasian
    Ummm... remember Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool (External)?

    First research to see if people are actually searching for those city/keyword combos.
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  • Profile picture of the author redcell1
    Well you can put plumber in their google maps listing ? that would help and then just have their site rank for niche cityname and cityname niche.
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    Just here to see the shenanigans.

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  • Profile picture of the author AdBankPro
    Google usually knows you are looking for a local business when you put in a service like "plumber". You'll notice instant 'local' results just by typing in plumber. So far as your Google Place page is concerned, you can put the city name as a keyword phrase in your description...not category! Using your address, search results will populate based on the optimization of your website paired with the Place page.
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  • Profile picture of the author luxusindi
    Depends on your target, you can use either KW or KW+CT. If your object is to atract attention, keyword is good enought. If you want to make it on sale (require shipping), Keyword + city is the best choice.
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    • Profile picture of the author butnotbush
      Banned
      Hello,
      Great discussion. Would love to join with a simple question/dilemma.

      Let's say we have a keyword "master blaster". It has 20k US search volume montly. Exact match.

      I am getting a keyword rich domain.

      And I want to localize it. I mean - I want to rank well for longtails like:

      master blaster new york
      master blaster bronx
      master blaster queens

      etc.

      What is the best way to localize and rank well for those longtails?
      Create pages with exact match? Create posts with exact match?
      Create tags, categories, alt tagas?

      Lets say - all those long tails are very low competition.

      I think we're talking about "white hat" doorways or something similar.

      If I create pages with exact match - what do I put there? I cannot put the same content there, because it will be duplicate - should I put pre-spun articles there and just correct them by adding different locations (bronx, queens etc) ? What is the best and fastest way to dominate longtails for your domain?

      Main keyword = keyword.com
      Longails = keyword.com/longails

      What about creating pages with exact longtail match, putting a url with longtail anchor redirecting to homepage. + creating some backlings for that page. In that case - we don't need actual content for that page and would we rank well using this tactic?

      I hope some of you will be able to share some practices which working for you well.

      Thanks in advance!
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      • Profile picture of the author butnotbush
        Banned
        Originally Posted by butnotbush View Post

        Hello,
        Great discussion. Would love to join with a simple question/dilemma.

        Let's say we have a keyword "master blaster". It has 20k US search volume montly. Exact match.

        I am getting a keyword rich domain.

        And I want to localize it. I mean - I want to rank well for longtails like:

        master blaster new york
        master blaster bronx
        master blaster queens

        etc.

        What is the best way to localize and rank well for those longtails?
        Create pages with exact match? Create posts with exact match?
        Create tags, categories, alt tagas?

        Lets say - all those long tails are very low competition.

        I think we're talking about "white hat" doorways or something similar.

        If I create pages with exact match - what do I put there? I cannot put the same content there, because it will be duplicate - should I put pre-spun articles there and just correct them by adding different locations (bronx, queens etc) ? What is the best and fastest way to dominate longtails for your domain?

        Main keyword = keyword.com
        Longails = keyword.com/longails

        What about creating pages with exact longtail match, putting a url with longtail anchor redirecting to homepage. + creating some backlings for that page. In that case - we don't need actual content for that page and would we rank well using this tactic?

        I hope some of you will be able to share some practices which working for you well.

        Thanks in advance!
        Any suggestions?
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  • Profile picture of the author butnotbush
    Banned
    Originally Posted by bamafan84 View Post

    I start with: keyword "city, state" and use the Google keyword tool to find the local market. Then I go and find as many keywords as I can that represent the bulk of the local market. Using this information, I then use google search to turn up local results based on : keyword "city, state"

    HTH
    And whats next? when you have the keywords and keyword combination?
    How you optimize the site to rank? What are your steps to rank for those keywords?

    Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheBigShow
    I just searched traffic Travis for plumbers and it has plumbers in Charlotte at 2 searches a day and plumbers in Denver Co at zero...... Ha, I hardly think that is accurate
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