If you—like most businesses out there—are seeking a substantial improvement in your search engine rankings, especially for specific, targeted areas, you’re in the right place.
Ideally, you’d like your business to pop up in search engine results as high as possible on the list, right?
Whether you’re well-versed in SEO or not, it’s easy to see why—the closer to the top of the list you are, the more clicks you’re likely to get. More clicks, more opportunity for conversions—that’s how business works (for most of us, anyway). But how can you begin ranking higher on search engines, and further, how can you ensure that consumers are finding your business?
That’s not as complicated or loaded of a question as it sounds. While there are plenty of techniques and strategies out there that can help you improve your SEO ranking, one of the most valuable (and clever) tactics can be to include local SEO as part of your SEO strategy.
But what exactly is local SEO, why does it matter, and how does it differ from a more broad-spectrum SEO strategy? Even more important, how can you use the right keywords in your kitchen and bath construction marketing to ensure that customers are finding your business by conducting local SEO searches?
That’s precisely what we’re here to dive into. Let's talk local:
What Are Local Keywords & Why Do They Matter For Your Kitchen & Bath Business
Local keywords aren’t a terribly complex idea. In fact, defining them is essentially as simple as breaking down both terms. You already know what keywords are and how they can help your business—tack on the other word, local, and you’ve got your answer—local keywords are simply location-specific phrases that populate results that are related to that geographic location.
Local keywords can play an instrumental role in optimizing your SEO strategy as a whole, but they can also ensure that you’re drawing in the local crowd to your physical store or website. Even Google admits this to be a helpful tool—they report that about 76 percent of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone will pay a visit to a related business within a day. Further, they report that 28 percent of people will purchase something as a result.
It’s easy to see why your kitchen and bath business would want to show up with a solid result when it comes to local searches, right?
Local SEO, as we mentioned, is simply a keyword that’s location-specific—think of keywords like “kitchen contractor + Your Town Here” or something along the lines of “custom kitchen contractor + Your Town Here.”
The idea behind implementing local SEO keywords is to ensure that your business is at the top of the list when a consumer searches local businesses that pertain to you—in this case, kitchen, and bath contractors.
More than that, though, local SEO keywords are important for people—not just search engines. By investing in your local SEO strategy, you can genuinely help more people find what they’re looking for.
At Hexnet, this is a skill we’ve honed and perfected over the years. While all aspects of SEO are crucial to your success as a business, local SEO is often overlooked and underappreciated—but we see the vast potential it can bring.
How to Pick & Optimize the Best Local Keywords
The importance of local SEO has already been covered, but you’ll need more than just a lesson on the value of it to make a difference for your business—you need to put that lesson into action.
Picking the perfect local SEO keywords might seem tricky at first, but there are several strategies you can lean on to select the most effective, efficient ones.
Zero-In On Your Location
Take the time to establish which areas you’ll want to target as “local.” This can be where your business is located, where you’re traveling to offer services, or even where you’re planning to open your business (there’s nothing wrong with establishing strong local SEO for an area before you move there).
Include all the places you count as local or nearby—and maybe even a few that might be a bit of a stretch. Ultimately, you want to ensure that you’re covering a broad swath of local area that makes sense.
Focus On The Top Keywords For Your Kitchen + Bath Business
Don’t try to rank for keywords that don’t make sense for your business. You’re in the bath and kitchen industry, so attempting to rank for top terms for another industry just because you think it might drive traffic to your site or improve your SEO simply will not work. Why? Because those keywords don’t actually drive qualified, hot leads to your page.
When someone pops onto your site looking for the keyword you ranked for but doesn’t necessarily apply to you, they’ll click out faster than they clicked on—that bounce rate is going to dramatically impact (and hurt) your SEO.
Focus on terms that make sense for your industry, the terms people are actively seeking for your business, and terms that describe what you offer your customers.
Consider the Most Important Keyword Modifiers
Adding keyword modifiers to your list of local SEO keywords is also a helpful way to select the perfect picks. Try to add on keywords that modify through the use of quality, type, occasion, unique services, and more. Ultimately, adding modifiers to your keywords (like “best kitchen contractor in Houston” or “all-inclusive bathroom remodeling Portland”) can help you connect with those who are searching for more specific terms.
Think About What You’d Search
Off the bat, this might sound like silly advice, but often, the best local SEO keywords can be found just by taking a step back and thinking about what you’d type into a search engine if you were on the hunt for something in your area. Think about keywords like “best kitchen contractor Birmingham” or “custom bathroom designer San Francisco.” Sure, they’re obvious, but we’re willing to bet that, once you conduct the research, several of your best guesses will show up as top-hits you should be targeting.
Top Tips For Picking the Perfect Keywords & Improving SEO
Still need a little guidance to light the path for your keyword search? That’s normal. SEO isn’t as overwhelming as it might seem, but it does take a practice makes perfect mentality. We’ve laid out a few more of our top tips for finding the perfect SEO keywords for your bath and kitchen contractor business below.
Keep Terms Both Broad & Competitive
Some of Google’s latest updates are giving more emphasis to local searches. This means that, while in the past it might have been beneficial to just use keywords like “kitchen contractor” or “bathroom designer,” now it’s vital to include an emphasis on local areas.
Ultimately, this means that the new emphasis search engines are placing on local is going to be impactful for your keywords, but you’re also going to want to keep the focus on generic phrases, too. While investing your keyword strategy in a local direction can help you improve local SEO, thanks to the update, it can now also help you improve general SEO, too.
This is a great opportunity to leverage both broad industry terms (think kitchen islands, panel-ready appliances, and other high-volume search terms for your industry) in conjunction with location.
In other words, don’t give up on generic terms—just make sure you’re including them as part of your local keywords.
Do Your Research
Before you begin selecting your perfect keywords, you’re going to need to do a deep dive into some research. This research might seem tedious, but without it, you’ll be unable to really pin down which popular key terms will help you appear in the top results of search engines—especially when it comes down to your industry, your business, and your target market.
Get comfortable with at least one keyword research tool. There are many out there, some free and others that require a monthly subscription. At HEXNET we prefer Ahrefs Keyword Explorer but there are many good free alternatives as well.
Here are some free keyword tools to help get you started with your local SEO:
- Google Trends;
- Keyword Sheeter;
- Answer the Public;
- Keyword Surfer;
- Keyworddit;
- Google Search Console;
- Questiondb;
- Bulk Keyword Generator;
- Google (bottom of every page after you search will provide suggestions);
- Keyword Generator
#3... Keyword Surfer, might be where you want to start. It's a Chrome extension that allows you to see suggestions right inside Google Search and add those suggestions to your clipboard. See screenshot below:
#9... Google will always show you valuable suggestions at the bottom of any search you do. See screenshot below:
Here’s a quick pro-tip—don’t be afraid to expand your search. Yes, you want to master your local area, but try to redefine what local means. Include research that covers locations close by, too.
Partner With A Qualified Firm
Your local business SEO is a huge part of your marketing strategy — in turn, it’s a huge part of your business’ success. Need a hand with getting your local SEO perfected? We can help. Hexnet is the qualified partner you’ve been looking for to dramatically enhance and improve your digital marketing strategies.
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