Local search is one of the most competitive arenas in the world of online visibility. One of the key strategies to improve your business's presence in local search is to track relevant keywords that potential customers are using to find products or services like yours.
However, actually finding and choosing all the right keywords to track your local ranking for can be a challenge.
Whether you're new to keyword rank tracking or looking to refine your existing local SEO strategy, this guide will provide you with tips for finding the right keywords for local rank tracking to help you succeed in local search.
Why Do Keywords Matter for Local Rank Tracking?
Keywords are crucial for local rank tracking because they are the terms that potential customers use when searching for products or services in a specific location. They are the foundation of your local SEO strategy, and tracking them is essential for optimizing your Google Business Profile and website, attracting local customers, and improving your ranking in local search results.
Relevance
Keywords help ensure that your website and business listing content is relevant to the search queries of local customers. By tracking relevant keywords, you can optimize your content to better match what your target audience is searching for.
Visibility
Tracking keywords allows you to monitor your own visibility in local search results for different terms. By identifying which keywords are driving traffic to your business, you can focus your efforts on optimizing for those terms to improve your ranking and visibility.
Competition
Tracking keywords in local search also provides insights into your competitors' strategies. By tracking the keywords they are targeting, you can identify opportunities to differentiate your business and capture market share from them.
Traffic
Local rank tracking helps you understand which terms are driving the most traffic. By focusing on high-performing keywords, you can optimize your content and marketing efforts to attract more qualified leads and customers. You can also identify keywords that may drive less traffic, but are less competitive, which are a sort of "low-hanging fruit," meaning you may be able to rank highly for them with minimal optimizations.
Local Targeting
Local keywords include location-specific terms that help you target customers in your area. By tracking and optimizing for these keywords, you can ensure that your business is visible to local customers who are actively looking for products or services like yours in specific areas, such as cities or towns, neighborhoods, commercial districts, and service areas.
How To Find Keywords for Local Search Rank Tracking
- Start with Your Own Business Listing Categories
- Check Your Competitors' Categories
- Do Local Keyword Research
- Use Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords Feature
- Track and Monitor Keyword Performance and Trends Over Time
Start with Your Own Business Listing Categories
The easiest way to start choosing keywords for local rank tracking is by looking at your Google Business Profile categories (and categories for any other business listings you have).
The categories themselves can be great keywords to start with, but they can also help you brainstorm other related keywords to track.
For example, if your categories are "pizza restaurant" and "pizza takeout," you might decide that you also want to track your ranking for keywords like "pizzeria" and "pizza to go."
This is also a good time to remove any categories that aren't highly relevant to your business and add any relevant categories that aren't already there. Doing this will help optimize your Google Business Profile listing and potentially rank for additional category-based keywords.
Check Your Competitors' Categories
After you've chosen some keywords to rank track based on your own business listing categories, you should look at your competitors' categories to get additional ideas.
Start by identifying top competitors in your local area. Look for businesses that offer similar products or services to yours and look at their Google Business Profile categories. This can give you some additional ideas for category-based keywords that you might not have thought of when looking at your own profile.
For instance, let's say your business is an auto repair shop and you see that one of the top competing auto mechanics in your area has the category "auto dent removal service," which you don't have. If you also offer dent removal, you could add this category to your listing and start tracking your ranking for that keyword.
Do Local Keyword Research
Local keywords are geo-modified varieties of general keywords, meaning they include some variation of a term that specifies a certain location. For example, if your business is a bakery in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, some examples of local keywords would be "Seattle bakery," "Queen Anne bakery," and "bakery in Queen Anne Seattle."
There are a few different ways to do local keyword research to come up with a list of local keywords to track your ranking for.
One option is to use a dedicated keyword research tool to generate lists of local keywords for you. You can also check what keywords competitors are ranking for and pick out the relevant local keywords from those that you want to target and track.
Another option is to come up with a list of geo modifiers that are relevant to your area, then add those to each of the other keywords you've already found that you know you want to track your ranking for.
For example, if your business is located in the Mile-End neighborhood of Montreal, geo modifiers might include "Montreal," "Mile End," and "MTL." Then, if "pizzeria" is a keyword you already know you want to track your ranking for, some geo-modified versions of that would be "pizzeria Montreal," "pizzeria Mile End," and "pizzeria MTL."
Use Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords Feature
If you want to save time on finding keywords to track your business's ranking in local search, Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords feature can help.
To get keyword suggestions in Local Falcon, log in to your account and start setting up a new scan for the business location you want to track. Then, click on the keyword search box to pull up a list of Suggested Keywords based on your categories and other terms that people are using to find your business.
Finding keywords to track using Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords feature is the most efficient way to do so because you're just a few clicks away from actually running a local rank tracking scan with them! It takes the time-consuming manual work out of performing keyword research, allowing you to dive right into the performance monitoring and optimization side of your local SEO strategy.
Track and Monitor Keyword Performance and Trends Over Time
Once you have an initial list of keywords to track in local search, make sure to run regular local rank tracking scans for those keywords and keep a close eye on competitors and trends. The local search market is always changing, and new keyword variations might appear that you want to start tracking for.
For instance, a new competitor might enter the local competition and be ranking for a whole different category that you hadn't thought of before, so you might add that to your Google Business Profile and start tracking keywords for it.
Ultimately, doing local SEO for any type of business is a continuum — you must constantly monitor performance and adapt your rank tracking and optimization tactics accordingly in order to secure a top spot in local search results.
Final Words
Tracking the right keywords is essential for improving your business's visibility in local search and attracting more local customers.
While it can be challenging, especially for those new to keyword tracking, following the best practices and using the tools we've discussed above will set you off on the right foot during this step of your journey to local SEO success!