Keyword Research
Find the search terms people actually use near you, with the volume and difficulty to judge whether they are worth pursuing.
Local keyword research finds the terms people search near you, with volume and difficulty scoped to your market rather than the country, so you target phrases that can actually produce local enquiries.
What it does
Keyword research built for national campaigns actively misleads local businesses. A term reporting 40,000 monthly searches nationwide might carry forty in your city, while a phrase the national tools barely register drives most of your enquiries. Planning a local campaign from national figures means optimising for demand that does not exist where you trade.
Local research narrows the question to the geography you actually serve. It reports volume scoped to your market, difficulty that reflects who you are genuinely competing against locally, and the modifiers people really type — the suburb name, the “near me”, the specific service phrasing that converts rather than the tidy industry term.
The second thing local research changes is how you read the numbers. Volume alone is close to worthless as a priority signal. A term with 200 searches a month and unmistakable buying intent will out-earn one with 20,000 searches from people comparing definitions. Cost-per-click is usually the better proxy, because advertisers only bid on terms that produce revenue.
The output that matters is not a list of a thousand keywords. It is a short, defensible set per location: the handful of phrases worth building pages for, tracking positions on, and judging the campaign by. Everything else is noise that makes reports longer without making decisions better.
Everything Keyword Research gives you
Location-scoped volume
Search volume reported for the city or region you serve rather than the country, so the numbers reflect demand you can actually capture.
Local difficulty scoring
Difficulty calculated against the businesses genuinely competing in your market, not national brands that will never appear in your map pack.
Commercial intent signals
CPC and competition data alongside volume, so you can tell a research query from a buying query before committing to it.
Modifier discovery
Surfaces the “near me”, suburb, urgency and qualifier variants people actually type, which national tools frequently collapse or ignore.
Per-location keyword sets
Build and store a separate list for every location, since the right terms in one suburb are often wrong in the next.
Competitor keyword gaps
See which terms rivals rank for that you do not, which is usually a faster route to a target list than brainstorming.
Grouping by intent
Cluster terms into research, comparison and buying intent so page planning follows the funnel rather than the alphabet.
Seasonality view
Identify terms that spike in specific months so campaigns are timed rather than permanently on.
Export to tracking
Push a chosen keyword set straight into rank tracking so research and measurement use the same list.
From setup to first result
- 1
Enter your service and area
Start from what you actually sell and where you sell it. Broad category terms produce broad, unusable lists.
- 2
Review local volume
Read the volume scoped to your market. Expect numbers far smaller than national tools report — that is the point, not a fault.
- 3
Check difficulty against real rivals
Local difficulty tells you whether the businesses ranking are beatable, which national difficulty scores cannot.
- 4
Read CPC as an intent signal
A high cost-per-click on a modest-volume term is usually a strong indicator that the traffic converts.
- 5
Mine the modifiers
Add the suburb, “near me” and urgency variants. Individually small, collectively they often exceed the head term.
- 6
Group by intent
Separate people researching from people buying. They need different pages and should not compete for the same one.
- 7
Commit to a short list
Pick the handful worth building and tracking. A list of five acted on beats a list of five hundred filed.
What changes with Keyword Research
- Planning from national volume
- Chasing the highest-volume term
- Ignoring “near me” and suburb variants
- Tracking everything you find
- Targeting one keyword per page mechanically
- National volume misleads local planning
- Intent beats volume for local revenue
- Difficulty is local, not universal
- Modifiers are where the volume actually lives
- Research and tracking should share a list
National volume misleads local planning
Optimising for demand measured across a country produces pages targeting traffic that does not exist in your city.
Intent beats volume for local revenue
Local searches skew heavily toward immediate need. A small, urgent term outperforms a large, curious one almost every time.
Difficulty is local, not universal
The same phrase can be trivial in one city and impossible in another, depending entirely on who else is there.
Modifiers are where the volume actually lives
Head terms attract the attention; the long tail of suburb and “near me” variants usually delivers the enquiries.
Research and tracking should share a list
Researching one set of terms and tracking another is how campaigns end up unable to prove anything.
A short list gets acted on
The practical value of research is a decision. Lists that are too long produce no decision at all.
What it measures
- Local monthly search volume
- Keyword difficulty against local competitors
- Cost-per-click as a commercial signal
- Competition level
- Seasonal variation by month
- Competitor coverage of each term
What you get out of it
Target demand that actually exists
Stop building pages for national volume you will never see locally.
Find the terms competitors missed
Gap analysis surfaces reachable keywords faster than brainstorming.
Prioritise by revenue, not by size
CPC and intent grouping put buying terms at the top of the list.
Plan pages that do not compete
Intent grouping stops two of your own pages fighting for one term.
Time seasonal pushes
Know which months a term spikes before committing budget.
Feed tracking directly
Chosen terms flow into rank tracking without re-keying.
What Keyword Research produces
Every output is exportable and white-label, with your branding and none of ours.
Local volume report
Search volume scoped to your market per keyword.
Difficulty scoring
How hard each term is against local competitors.
Intent groups
Terms clustered into research, comparison and buying.
Modifier list
Suburb, near-me and urgency variants worth targeting.
Competitor gap list
Terms rivals rank for and you do not.
Tracking-ready set
A short list exported into rank tracking.
Who uses Keyword Research
Prove movement to clients with location-level evidence rather than a single national figure.
Compare visibility between sites and find the branches losing ground in their own city.
Give each franchisee their own numbers while head office keeps the estate view.
Find out where you actually appear before spending anything on improving it.
Get more out of it
- Read CPC before volume. Advertisers bid on terms that make money, which is the strongest free intent signal available.
- Target one intent per page. Two pages chasing the same term compete with each other rather than the competition.
- Collect modifiers per suburb rather than assuming one phrasing covers the whole area.
- Cap the tracked list at ten to twenty per location so the report stays something people read.
- Re-run research quarterly. Local demand shifts with seasons, competitors and how people phrase things.
- Use competitor gaps as the starting list — it is faster and more grounded than brainstorming from scratch.
Planning from national volume
The most common and most damaging error. It produces pages built for demand that does not exist in your trading area, and campaigns judged against impossible expectations.
Chasing the highest-volume term
The biggest term in a category is usually the most competitive and the least commercial, attracting researchers rather than buyers.
Ignoring “near me” and suburb variants
Tools report each variant as low volume, so they get dismissed individually. Collectively they frequently exceed the head term and convert far better.
Tracking everything you find
A hundred tracked keywords produces a report nobody opens. Research should end in a short list, not a long one.
Targeting one keyword per page mechanically
Related variants rank on the same page naturally. Building a page per variant creates thin, competing content.
Manually vs with Keyword Research
| Doing it manually | With Keyword Research |
|---|---|
| National volume applied to a local market | Volume scoped to the city you actually serve |
| Difficulty measured against national brands | Difficulty measured against local competitors |
| Modifiers dismissed as low volume | Modifier clusters surfaced and totalled |
| Keyword list disconnected from tracking | Chosen terms exported straight into rank tracking |
| One list applied to every location | A separate keyword set per location |
| Priority decided by volume alone | Priority informed by CPC, intent and difficulty |
- Define the service and the exact area you serve
- Pull local volume rather than national
- Read CPC alongside volume for intent
- Collect suburb and near-me modifiers
- Group terms by intent before planning pages
- Cut the list to what you will genuinely act on
- Export the final set into rank tracking
Keyword Research is 1 of 42 tools you get
Every tool below is on the same plan at the same price. Nothing here is an add-on, an upgrade, or a separate subscription.
Rank & Visibility
Manage Profiles
Posts & Automation
Reviews & Reputation
Reports & White-Label
Others vs Local SEO Tool
How the usual pricing and packaging in this category compares with ours.
“Other tools” describes the common pattern across the category, not any one named product.
Keyword Research is included on every plan
One flat price per location covers all 42 tools. There is no higher tier, no add-on, and no per-seat charge.
- All 42 tools on every plan
- No per-seat charges
- No setup fee and no contract
- Cancel or change locations any time
Keyword Research questions
What is local keyword research?
Finding the search terms people use in a specific geographic market, with volume and difficulty scoped to that area rather than to a whole country.
Why is local volume so much lower than other tools show?
Because it should be. A term serving one city cannot carry national numbers, and planning from national figures produces pages targeting demand that does not exist where you trade.
Should I chase high-volume keywords?
Rarely. A lower-volume term with clear buying intent usually outperforms a broad, popular one, particularly for local services where urgency drives the search.
How do I judge commercial intent?
Cost-per-click is the best free proxy. Advertisers bid on terms that convert, so a high CPC on a modest-volume term is a strong signal.
What is keyword difficulty?
An estimate of how hard it is to rank for a term. Local difficulty measures the businesses genuinely competing in your area rather than national brands.
How many keywords should I track?
Ten to twenty per location. Beyond that the list stops being reviewed and becomes decoration in a report.
Should I target one keyword per page?
Target one intent per page. Related variants will rank on the same page without needing a separate page for each, which would create thin content.
Are “near me” searches worth targeting?
Yes. They are dismissed individually because each variant reports low volume, but collectively they often exceed the head term and convert considerably better.
How do I find what competitors rank for?
Gap analysis compares their ranking terms against yours and lists what they cover and you do not, which is usually a faster starting point than brainstorming.
Does search volume change through the year?
For many local services, substantially. Seasonality data shows which months a term spikes so campaigns can be timed rather than run flat.
Can I research keywords for several locations at once?
Yes, and you should keep a separate set per location. The right phrasing in one suburb is frequently wrong in the next.
What is the difference between competition and difficulty?
Competition usually reflects paid advertising density. Difficulty estimates organic ranking effort. They often disagree, and both are worth reading.
Should I include my brand name?
Track it separately. Brand searches convert extremely well but tell you nothing about whether your non-brand visibility is improving.
How often should research be repeated?
Quarterly for most businesses. Demand, competitors and phrasing all shift, and a year-old list usually contains terms that no longer matter.
Do long-tail keywords still work?
For local services, they are frequently the main event. Specific, longer phrases carry clearer intent and far less competition.
Can I export the list into rank tracking?
Yes. Keeping research and tracking on the same list is what allows a campaign to prove anything later.
Why do two tools report different volumes?
Different data sources and modelling. Use one consistently for relative comparison rather than treating any figure as exact.
Should I target terms I already rank for?
Check position first. Moving from position 8 to 3 on an existing term is usually cheaper than ranking a new one from nothing.
What about voice search phrasing?
Voice queries tend to be longer and more conversational, which overlaps heavily with the question and near-me modifiers already surfaced.
How do I know when research is finished?
When you have a short list you are willing to build pages for and be judged on. If the list is still growing, you are collecting rather than deciding.
Every tool. One price. No add-ons.
$5.33 per location per month gets you Keyword Research and the other 41 tools.