How to find keywords specific to local area

[buntrosgali]

Hey everyone, new to this game, but been working hard to learn, have a website for an independant insurance broker in Northern Ireland, I have been using adwords and insights to try find good keywords to build his site around. But really struggling to find any keywords which people in Northern ireland are searching for, that are not in high competition.

Anyone give me a pointer how i could better identify the keywords i seek

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for using Q&A for your very good question. The trouble is that unless your business is in a true metropolitan location (think Los Angeles) keyword research tools are unlikely to show you helpful geographic terms. This has been a problem with Local SEO since day 1.

Most of my colleagues in Local agree that you should follow a process something like this:

-Use tools like the G Adwords Keyword Tool and Insights to identify your basic service/product keywords.

• Make a list

• Take out your plurals and odd spellings

• This will get you down to your core list...in your case, things like Health Insurance, Automobile Insurance, Automobile Insurance Company, Accident Insurance firm or what have you.

• Now go in and add your geographic terms (city names, regional names, county names, neighborhood names, postal codes, etc.) to your core terms.

• Now add back in plurals (companies vs. company etc.)

• Now you have a very big list because you've got Automobile Insurance Company Belfast, Personal Liability Insurance Belfast, Automobile Insurance Newcastle, Personal Liability Insurance Newcastle, etc.

This is basically how it's done, and it tends to work quite well. Good luck!

Miriam