Keyword Research
Find the phrases people search near you, with the volume and the difficulty to judge whether they are worth going after.
Local keyword research finds the words people type near you, with volume and difficulty scored for your market instead of the whole country. That way you chase phrases that can actually bring in local enquiries.
What it does
National keyword tools are built for websites that sell to everyone. They tell you a phrase gets forty thousand searches a month, which is true and useless if you fit windows in one town. What you need is the slice of that number that happens near you.
Local search also behaves differently. People type shorter phrases, add a place name, or add nothing at all and let the phone do the work. Someone searching for an emergency plumber at eleven at night wants a different thing from someone searching for bathroom fitting costs, and only one of them is going to call tonight.
This tool scores every phrase against your own market. You get the local volume, how hard the map pack is to break into, and what kind of search it is. Then you pick the ones you can win and that lead to money.
It also finds the phrases you never thought of. The words customers use are rarely the words a business uses about itself. A shop calls it a service. A customer types a problem and the words near me.
Everything you get
Volume scored for your area
See how often a phrase is searched near you, not across the whole country. That is the number that decides whether the work is worth doing.
Map pack difficulty
A score for how hard the local three pack is to break into for each phrase, based on the profiles holding those spots now.
Near me and place name phrases
Pull the versions people really type, including the ones with your town in them and the ones ending in near me.
Search intent labels
Every phrase is marked by what the searcher wants. Ready to buy, comparing options, or just reading. It changes which page should answer it.
Question phrases
The questions people ask before they buy, which are the ones worth turning into page content and profile answers.
Grouped by service
Phrases sorted into the job they belong to, so one service does not swallow the whole list.
Rival phrase gaps
Phrases the businesses above you rank for and you do not.
Seasonal view
See which phrases climb at certain times of year, so the work lands before the season and not during it.
Straight into rank tracking
Send a shortlist into the rank tracker and start measuring the phrases you chose.
From setup to first result
- 1
Start from what you sell
List your actual services first. The research should build outward from what you get paid for.
- 2
Add your town and the ones around it
Local searches carry place names. Include the towns you serve, not just the one you sit in.
- 3
Pull the phrase list
The tool returns the phrases people use near you, with volume and difficulty against each one.
- 4
Cut anything you cannot serve
A phrase you cannot deliver on brings enquiries you have to turn down. Delete those first.
- 5
Sort by what you can win
High volume with a brutal difficulty score is a long project. Modest volume you can win this quarter pays sooner.
- 6
Pick three to five per service
A short list you track properly beats a long list you never open.
- 7
Send them to the rank tracker
Research without measurement is a document. Track the shortlist and you have a plan.
What changes when you use it
- Judging by national volume
- Ignoring difficulty
- Tracking too many phrases
- Writing the list from memory
- Mixing intents on one page
- National volume misleads local businesses
- Difficulty decides your order of work
- Intent decides the page
- Customers do not use your words
- It stops the guessing
National volume misleads local businesses
Forty thousand searches a month across a country can be sixty near you. Deciding on the national figure is how local businesses end up chasing phrases they will never earn a job from.
Difficulty decides your order of work
Two phrases with the same volume can be years apart in effort. Doing the winnable one first gets you results while the hard one is still in progress.
Intent decides the page
A ready to buy phrase belongs on a service page. A question phrase belongs in an article or a profile answer. Putting them in the wrong place wastes both.
Customers do not use your words
Businesses name their services. Customers describe a problem. The gap between the two is where most of the easy wins sit.
It stops the guessing
Most local keyword lists get written from memory in a meeting. A scored list is an argument you can settle with numbers.
It aims all your other work
Rank tracking, location pages and profile categories all need a list of phrases. This is where that list should come from.
What it measures
- Search volume scored for your area
- How hard the map pack is for each phrase
- What the searcher is trying to do
- Which service a phrase belongs to
- Which rivals rank for it now
- How the phrase moves through the year
Reports you can send
Every output can be exported and carries your branding, never ours.
Scored phrase list
Every phrase with local volume, difficulty and intent.
Shortlist by service
The three to five phrases worth tracking for each thing you sell.
Question list
What people ask before they buy, ready for content and profile answers.
Rival gap list
Phrases your competitors rank for and you do not.
Seasonal chart
Which phrases climb and in which months.
Export
The whole list as a spreadsheet or a branded PDF.
Who this is built for
Build a phrase list you can defend to a client instead of one written from memory.
Score the same services separately in every town, because the numbers are never the same.
Give each franchisee a short list built on their own market, not on head office guesswork.
Find out what people near you actually type before you pay anyone to chase it.
Get more out of it
- Start from the services you sell, then find the words. Not the other way round.
- Include the towns you serve, because local searches carry place names.
- Delete any phrase you could not deliver on. Wrong enquiries cost you time.
- Pick winnable phrases first. Momentum matters more than a perfect list.
- Keep three to five phrases per service and track them properly.
- Redo the research twice a year. The words people use move.
Judging by national volume
A big national number tells you nothing about your town. Local businesses regularly build a whole plan on a figure that does not apply to them.
Ignoring difficulty
Picking the biggest phrases means picking the hardest ones. You end up with a year of work and nothing to show at the six month mark.
Tracking too many phrases
Thirty phrases per location makes a report nobody reads. Five tracked properly tells you more.
Writing the list from memory
The words a business uses about itself are almost never the words its customers type.
Mixing intents on one page
A page trying to answer a buying search and a research question at the same time does neither well.
By hand, or with this
| Doing it manually | With Keyword Research |
|---|---|
| National volume you cannot apply | Volume scored for your own area |
| No idea how hard a phrase is | A difficulty score for the local map pack |
| Guessing what the searcher wants | An intent label on every phrase |
| A list written in a meeting | A list built from real searches |
| No link to what you measure | A shortlist that goes straight into rank tracking |
| Seasonal work planned too late | A month by month view of what climbs when |
- Write down the services you actually sell
- Add every town you take work in
- Pull the scored phrase list
- Delete anything you could not deliver
- Pick three to five phrases per service
- Check which rivals hold them now
- Send the shortlist to the rank tracker
One of 42 tools on the same plan
Every tool below is on the same plan at the same price. Nothing here is an extra, an upgrade or a separate subscription.
Rank & Visibility
Manage Profiles
Posts & Automation
Reviews & Reputation
Reports & White-Label
Questions people ask
What is local keyword research?
Finding the phrases people search near you, with volume and difficulty scored for your market rather than the whole country. It tells you which searches can realistically bring you work.
How is it different from normal keyword research?
Normal tools report national numbers, which are far too big to act on locally. Local research narrows the volume to your area and scores difficulty against the businesses holding the map pack near you.
Do near me searches show up in the data?
Yes. Phrases ending in near me and phrases with your town in them are pulled in, because those are the ones local customers actually type.
How many keywords should I track?
Three to five for each service you sell. A short list you review every month beats a long one you stopped opening in week three.
What does the difficulty score mean?
How hard it would be to reach the local three pack for that phrase, based on the strength of the profiles sitting there now. It helps you choose which fights to take first.
Does this help with my Google Business Profile?
Yes. The same list tells you which categories to pick, what to put in the description, and which questions to answer on the profile.
How often should I redo it?
Twice a year for most businesses. Sooner if you add a service or start covering a new town.
Every tool. One price. Nothing extra to buy.
$5.33 per location per month gets you Keyword Research and the other 41 tools.