I work with a lot of small, independent insurance agencies and have found through keyword research that most people search for insurance by state (e.g. pennsylvania auto insurance) or simple by product (e.g. auto insurance). Only if an agency is located in a densely populated city like San Francisco do I see people searching for insurance by city. As you can probably guess, these keywords are extremely competitive. Big companies like Geico and Progressive tend to take over page one for these searches.
So, if I'm trying to optimize a website for an insurance agency in Quakertown, PA, for example, a small town with very few monthly searches (zero according to Google's keyword tool), how should I focus my on-page SEO efforts? Should I focus on "state + insurance," "city + insurance," or a combination of both? Or am I approaching this all wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help. I'm feeling really stumped and would appreciate any fresh perspective.