No matter what type of business you are in, to rank highly on Google searches, and get more customers, your local service business website needs to have high-quality content which adds value to your customers. You see, your Google rank is based on a number of factors, but at minimum, to rank highly your website must contain rich and relevant content, be informative, interesting and user-friendly.
When it comes to search engine optimization, great content is essential!
But what SEO technique should you use?
Well, you could hire a local SEO company to implement it for you. And although you’d be hiring a specialist in the art of SEO, be prepared to spend upwards of hundreds of dollars per month.
Or, you could do it yourself. Be warned, however, that there is a learning curve and this will take up a lot of your time. Fortunately for you do-it-yourselfers, there are many free online tools available for you to use to aid in your success. This article is intended to get you started.
So how do you make your content quality and relevant? The fundamental practices begin by applying keyword research techniques to your content. Keyword Research is simply a method of identifying the specific words or terms your customers are searching for. This is important to you because knowing these words will allow you to craft website content that better aligns with these search terms.
For example: If you determine that there are quite a few local customers are searching for “Reliable auto-body shop near me”. Your strategy might be to write a blog post titled – “How not to get screwed by your auto-shop; 3 questions to ask before choosing an auto-shop.”
Seems easy enough. So how do we get started researching keywords?
Search Engine Research: Google Suggestions
Look at the keywords that are being searched for on various websites (Google, Bing, etc…). You can do this by starting to type in relevant keywords into Google’s search box. You’ll notice that Google shows you different types of results in the drop-down. These are trending, or common terms searched for including the most popular searches in the past few days.
Below you will see an example of what I mean. A search for “squeaky breaks”, provides a number of “google guesses” based on what others are searching for. That said, if you run a brake shop, you now have a handful of useful content ideas for your website blog posts. The more useful content your website provides, the higher it will rank.
Each of these Google Suggestions is a keyword/keyphrase. Therefore, when writing your content, try to use these terms/words in your writing. You will want to pepper your articles with these different keywords to create unique content. Write as effectively as possible your keywords, but try not to overuse them. Rather focus on creating content on the subject that is worth viewing and provide value to your customers.
Online Forums
Another method to identify topics your customers are searching for is to visit internet forums relevant to your business to get ideas for content. There are hundreds of forums out there. Spend some time on these, and see what kinds of topics are already being discussed. Maybe you will discover reoccurring topics or problems that your customers are writing about that you can use for topics on your blog.
Keyword Analytic Tools
Another way to get ideas for quality content is through the use of keyword analytics tools. These advanced tools display detailed information on which keywords are being searched for, how often, and can even be refined to regional searches. In addition, some of these tools will provide suggested keywords based on popularity and total competition.
The free way – Google Keyword Planner, Keeword Sheeter
Google offers a free tool to help you identify quality search terms and trends. Despite the lack of functionality and user friendliness, it’s one of the most accurate sources of keyword data on the market. For beginners I would reccomend reviewing Googles documentation to help you learn the ropesGoogle does provide some helpful documentation to help you learn the ropes. This can be found here – https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6325025?hl=en
Google Keyword Planner is a simple option serving up a few basic features. The data comes directly from Google and the results integrate well with AdSense monetization.
If you want thousands of keyword ideas in seconds, then Keyword Sheeter is the tool for you. This application pulls hundreds of Google auto-complete suggestions in seconds. Although it’s capabilities are pretty basic, it does allow the user to use positive and negative words to help further define your suggestion lists.
Paid SEO Tools
There are many options as it relates to the paid tools available. They range from very simple research to complex research and deep learning technology to identify potential topics. For the beginner, I suggest going with something that provides a good balance of simplicity, capability, and price.
One of my personal favorites is the KWFinder by Mangools. This tool is priced very well as it relates to its competitors and provides a lightweight, easy to use and intuitive client interface. Not only does the KWFinder help identify related topics to your keyword, but it also shows you suggestions for keywords based on their competition; the lower the competition, the better chances your article will rank higher. The KWFinder standard plan is $29.90 per month, but they do offer a 10 day free trial – no credit card required!
Summary
Quality content on your local service business website is an absolute must these days. Search engines give preferential treatment to websites that provide content that is original, informative and user-friendly. While we here at TukTukDigitalMedia.com do provide SEO research, content generation, Local SEO, and many more SEO services, we want our readers to feel empowered to take a bigger role in understanding and implementing the factors resulting in higher search results.
Get in touch with us if you would like additional information or would like to learn more about the services we can provide for your business.