Is there an easy way to see how competitive a local search term is?
-
Is there a quick and easy way to see how competitive local search terms are? I am looking at helping my clients show up on the local search results. Some times all I have to do is claim a listing and they move right to the top. Sometimes I claim a listing and nothing happens so I get links and I get reviews and it takes awhile. I want to be able to put an accurate price point on the service I am offering. I have looked at the search volume and it hasn't been the best indicator because some industries are more competitve than others. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
-
Hi JimmySEO,
Thank you for reaching out with your question about evaluating the competitiveness of local search terms for your clients. It's great to see your dedication to helping your clients improve their visibility in local search results.
Assessing the competitiveness of local search terms can indeed be challenging, as it varies depending on factors such as industry, location, and the level of competition. While search volume can provide some insights, it's not always the most accurate indicator of competitiveness.
Here are a few strategies you can consider to better understand and evaluate the competitiveness of local search terms:
Google My Business Insights: Utilize the insights provided by Google My Business to gain a better understanding of how your clients' listings are performing. Pay attention to metrics such as views, clicks, and actions taken by users, which can give you an idea of the level of competition in your clients' local market.
Competitor Analysis: Take a closer look at your clients' competitors who are ranking well in local search results. Analyze factors such as their website optimization, content strategy, reviews, and backlink profile to identify areas where your clients can improve.
Local Search Ranking Tools: Consider using local search ranking tools such as Moz Local, SEMrush, or BrightLocal to assess the competition level for specific keywords and locations. These tools can provide valuable insights into keyword difficulty, local search rankings, and competitor analysis.
Review and Reputation Management: Pay attention to your clients' online reviews and reputation, as positive reviews can significantly impact their visibility in local search results. Encourage your clients to actively solicit and manage their reviews to improve their local search rankings.
When it comes to specific keywords like "balloon garlands," it's important to analyze the search volume and competition level in your clients' local market. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to get insights into keyword trends and search volume.
Consultation with SEO Experts: If you're unsure about the competitiveness of certain local search terms, consider consulting with SEO experts or agencies who specialize in local search optimization. They can provide valuable insights and recommendations based on their experience and expertise.
Ultimately, accurately pricing your services will depend on factors such as the level of competition in your clients' local market, the complexity of the optimization work required, and the potential impact on their business. By leveraging a combination of the strategies mentioned above, you can better assess the competitiveness of local search terms like "balloon garlands" and provide your clients with informed recommendations.I hope these suggestions help you better understand and evaluate the competitiveness of local search terms for your clients. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out anytime.
-
@jimmyseo
To quickly assess the competitiveness of local queries:- Use keyword research and competitor analysis tools.
- Analyze search results and local listings.
- Actively gather reviews and links, and optimize your website for local search.
- Track and analyze metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy.
-
To gauge the competitiveness of a local search term, utilize keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush. Analyze the search engine results page (SERP) to see the number of ads and local businesses competing for the keyword. Check local business directories and listings to assess the local competition. Use location-specific modifiers in your keyword research to narrow down competition. Additionally, consider analyzing competitors' websites to understand their targeted keywords and rankings.
-
All this time later, Google Keyword Planner remains one of the best options for assessing the competitiveness of a local search term. It provides insights into the average monthly search volume, competition level, and suggested bid for specific keywords. Enter your desired search term and location to see how competitive it is. For example, if you're a local bakery in New York City, you can use Google Keyword Planner to gauge the competition for keywords like "bakery NYC" or "best cupcakes in NYC." Also, you can explore related keywords and their competitiveness to refine your local SEO strategy. Remember to consider factors like search volume and relevance to your business when analyzing competitiveness.
-
Yes, several tools and methods can help assess the competitiveness of a local search term. One straightforward approach is to conduct a manual search on search engines like Google, using the target search term and observing the number of results returned, as well as the types of websites ranking prominently. Additionally, utilizing keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can provide insights into search volume, competition level, and potential difficulty for ranking locally. These tools often offer data on keyword difficulty scores, estimated competition levels, and suggested bid amounts for paid search campaigns. Analyzing local business directories, competitor websites, and social media platforms can also offer valuable insights into the competitiveness of specific search terms within your locality. By combining these methods, businesses can gain a comprehensive understanding of the competitiveness of local search terms and formulate effective strategies for optimizing their online presence.
-
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool provided by Google Ads that helps advertisers and website owners research keywords for their ad campaigns and SEO efforts.
-
Yes, there are several methods you can use to gauge the competitiveness of a local search term:
Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner is a free tool within Google Ads that allows you to research keywords and see their competition level. While it primarily focuses on paid search, it can still provide insights into the competitiveness of keywords in general.
Google Search: Simply searching for the term on Google and observing the number of search results and the types of businesses or websites ranking can give you an idea of the competition level. Look for the presence of local businesses, directories, and other relevant websites.
Local SEO Tools: There are several SEO tools specifically designed for local SEO that can provide insights into keyword competitiveness. Tools like Moz Local, SEMrush, and BrightLocal offer features to analyze local search terms and competition levels.
Google Maps: Searching for the keyword on Google Maps can show you how many businesses are listed for that term in the local area. Pay attention to the number and quality of the listings, as well as the presence of reviews and ratings.
Google Trends: Google Trends can help you identify the popularity of a search term over time. While it doesn't directly measure competitiveness, a consistently high search volume for a term may indicate higher competition.
Manual Analysis: Manually reviewing the top-ranking websites for the keyword and analyzing factors such as domain authority, content quality, backlink profile, and on-page optimization can give you insights into the level of competition.
By using a combination of these methods, you can get a better understanding of how competitive a local search term is and make informed decisions for your SEO strategy.
-
-
Thank you Greetings واتساب الذهبي .
-
+1 for mozbar overlay & getlisteg.org
You can also look at your competitors' Google Places and review the "More about this place" section. You should be able to get a good idea of where your competitors are obtaining local citations.
-
Hi JimmySEO,
Some good responses here. I also thought I'd throw into the mix SEOverflow's competitive analysis toolkit:
http://www.localsearchtoolkit.com/
I think you might find that very helpful.
Cheers!
Miriam
-
Casey's answer pretty much nails it, here are a few specific tricks I use to make the process faster though:
Using the moztoolbar do a SERP overlay on the sites for the search term to easily get a feel for the difficulty of competition based on domainrank.
Do a whitespark report to see how many citations the other sites have compared to your site.
Do getlisted.org search on their sites/your sites to get a basic idea of how involved the other sites on the local search are.
Run on page optimization reports for the terms, local and not, to see if you can gain a relevancy advatnage.
-
Hi Kicksetc - it's not quick and easy, but you can do some comparisons that will be helpful.
Basically, you'd want to build an Excel chart (or Google Spreadsheets / OpenOffice) that mimics the metrics that might go into local rankings. For example, see this post talking about all the potential ranking factors and how they correlate - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-places-seo-lessons-learned-from-rank-correlation-data
You could extract out those data points and compare them against each other for different queries to get a sense of how competitive/hard it might be to rank in the top results on a local/maps/places search.
Sorry there's nothing quick and simple. We're working in the long term to expand our KW Difficulty tool to perform analyses on local/places results, but it's going to be a while before we get there.
Best of luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Local SEO: Ste vs. Suite vs. #
Hi, I used the spelled out "Suite" in my local NAP, but sometimes it's been shortened to Ste by citation websites. I'm trying to remain consistent here Should I use Ste H, Suite H, or #H? This is a good article on it: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-citations/1605-suite-vs-ste-vs-your-citation-addresses-2.html but I'd still like your opinion.
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Google+ Local Reviews
Hi everyone, Is it against Google+ Local's guidelines to request one's customers to post reviews on their page? For example, asking my customers on my email list, or through Facebook if they can leave a review on the G+ Local page? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | FernwoodFitness0 -
How do you know if you are listed in google+ local?
OK This Google+ local and Google places merge is confusing. My first question is how do you know if your company is listed in Google+ local? I've done a search in Google Plus (logged in with another gmail account) but couldn't find my company on the results. Second question is that I am also not able to be found in maps.google.com, is this related? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | donovanfox0 -
What is the best way to embed a link back to our site in our video embed codes?
Our site has over 100 great videos. We are currently streaming them all from our YouTube channel. I noticed SEOMoz is using http://www.wistia.com and that when I copy and paste a video from SEOMoz that code has a link back to the SEOMoz site in it, which of course is awesome for SEO. My question has several parts: Is this possible to do with an embed code from YouTube? Specifically directed towards SEOMoz: Which of the 3 types of player did you choose, HTML5, Flash or javascript? Why? Is Wistia just creating a video feed, or are they actually hosting your video content too? Our goal is two-fold: 1. We want people who embed our videos to be also embeddding a link back to our site and 2. We want our videos to be found in SERPs and have those direct people to our site instead of our YouTUbe channel. I'd welcome any comments regarding video SEO in this thread. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | danatanseo0 -
New Local Tracking Number for Places vs an 800 Number.
I am having a problem with local search for my business. I submitted the same NAP (Name, Address, Phone) info to Google Places as I have submitted via LocalEZE and Universal Business Listing. Here is the issue. The local number that is being used does not have any way to track calls, meaning the phone company (xo communications) does not give us the number of incoming calls. To add call tracking to the local numbers through our PBX system is very expensive, $2000 per store. Also to transfer this local number to a call tracking company (like callsource or whoiscalling) is a lot of trouble and not an option either. I need to track the call count somehow so I have two options left. 1) Get a new local number (that is also a tracking number through a phone tracking company) and then submit this to Google Places, LocalEZE and Universal Business Listing. The issue with this is that all of our citations will be re-set with a new local number, basically we'd have to do local SEO all over again. 2) Use the main 800 number in Google Places, this can be tracked. However, then our local number is on all of the NAP citations and Google Places will be the only web property with an 800 number. What are your thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0 -
Does adding the city to your business name in a Places page help or harm Local SEO?
Hi, All! Another local SEO question... For one of our clients, the title on their Place page is <official business="" name=""><city>. Example: John's Sporting Goods Detroit. Now, most citations will say "John's Sporting Goods." Is having "Detroit" as part of the business name in Places problematic (NAP inconsistency) and we should remove it, or is it helpful for ranking for "sporting goods detroit" or is it neither?</city></official> Thanks! Aviva
Image & Video Optimization | | debi_zyx0 -
Can you get in trouble/get results by sub-dividing one physical address into suites for local search?
We have a client in our area that offers a multitude of home services -- plumbing, HVAC repair, landscaping, etc. -- out of one physical location. It makes it difficult for them to rank highly for all of their services in local search since many of the competitors that rank highly only offer one of the services that they do. They have come to me asking if they could create a Google place page for each service by making imaginary suites for their main address. So, for example, plumbing would be located at 100 Main Street, Suite A; and HVAC repair would be located at 100 Main St., Suite B; etc.? Seems like this is either a great idea or could get you into some Google trouble. Has anyone experienced anything similar? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | monkeeboy0 -
Multi-site listings in Google Local/Place pages
I've had problems with a client that is a local medical center with multiple sites/addresses. We've created a Place Page for each location and linked it to the location page on the client's website that matches the address on the Place page. But that means we're not linking to the medical center's home page -- and Google Places doesn't like that. I know this because after we'd owner-verified each Place Page, Google went in and just changed the website link that was a deep link to a location page and replaced it with a link to the home page. But now there's not an address match. How should we handle this? Related question: Does it make sense to claim a separate listing in Yelp and other local directories for each of the separate locations since they each have a unique address? Will Yelp & other local directories allow for links to non-home pages on the client's website?
Image & Video Optimization | | DenisL0