Local Keyowrds Search?

[Visiblics]

Is there any way to search for best local keywords for my local salon business, in NSW (Australia)

I tried searching for keywords using Google adwords keywords tool by selecting country as Australia but again there is no way to find keywords for a specific area or few cities in NSW

[mrdavidingram]

Hi Parvesh,

Although not perfect, the best way to find localised keyword usage is combing the data from the keywords tool with Google Trends.

For example, if you find the search volume for 'beauty salon', you can then see how this volume is divided across the subregions and cities across Australia. Here is an example:

http://www.google.com/trends/?q=beauty+salon&ctab=0&geo=au&geor=all&date=2012&sort=0

Sadly this data isn't too specific, but it's a great way of getting an indication of what Cities the search demand is coming from.

Another way is to lookup keyword + location in the Google keyword tool. So rather that search for 'beauty salon' you can search for 'beauty salon Melbourne' 'beauty salon Perth' etc

Again, this will give you a strong indication of how the main 'beauty salon' search volume is divided across the country.

The only real way of getting the cast iron data, with no interpretation required, is to actually run some test campaigns through AdWords and see the impressions data for each region. This will give you the exact information, but will also mean you'll have to dip your hand in your pocket (which can get expensive dependant on how many regions/Cities you want to cover)

Thanks,

David

[MoosaHemani]

I don’t think there is any specific tool for local keyword search but you can always go with Google keyword tool, Google Insight and more to have a little idea of it…Word Tracker and Free keyword discovery are also a good place to start!

But personally to find the REAL actionable keywords I would suggest you to invest a little on PPC and test all local keywords for a week or two to find out the list of keywords that will produce you traffic as well as conversions…

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Parvesh,

I apologize that your important question didn't receive a speedier response from me. For some reason, our system failed to notify me. So sorry about that.

Your question is an excellent one, and one that has come up many times over the years since the dawn of Local. Basically, there is no keyword tool from which you can get reliable geo data. Even if you are in a major metro city (like New York City) and tools show you some data reflecting use of your city name in searches, that data is not really reliable.

Because of this, I (and just about every other Local SEO I know) follow this method in performing research.

1. Brainstorm your core terms and plug them into your keyword tool of choice, without any geo terms. So, for you, that might be terms like hair salon, spa, salon, makeovers or whatever it is that your business offers.

2. Open a spreadsheet and document the findings of your keyword research, based on what data you've been given about your brainstormed terms as well as any others that the tool shows you that you may not have thought of on your own. Very often, people search for things in surprising ways you might not have previously considered.

3. Now, go back and add in your geo terms. These would include city names, county names, regional names, state names, neighborhood names and postal codes.

4. For every service/product term, you now have geo terms with which to pair it. So, if you've got a hair salon in Bathurst, one section of your spreadsheet might be:

haircuts bathurst

haircuts bathurst, NSW

haircuts in bathrust

cheapest haircuts in bathurst

best haircuts in bathurst

haircuts postal code

etc.

So, essentially, do your KW research without geo terms and then add them back in, based on your locale. As of this moment, there is no accepted better method. Good luck!

Miriam