Keyword tracking- Local
-
Silly question about Local ranking monitors.
If I have a local client in Pheonix, AZ and I want to track rankings for keywords. Is it best to monitor city+keyword or just keyword?
I have ran tests with multiple clients and locations, and cannot ascertain the difference- as far as rankings go. I appreciate all input.
-
Hi Tammy,
We now have local ranking tracking! Check out the information over at http://moz.com/blog/local-rankings-in-moz-analytics.
-
Excellent thank you so much!
-
Very nice, thank you!
-
Hi Tammy,
A couple of suggestions.
-
You might want to check out Whitespark's Local Rank Tracker (see: https://www.whitespark.ca/rank-tracker). The creator, Darren Shaw, is extremely Local-aware.
-
If you are in the dental space, you might like to follow Linda Buquet, if you aren't already doing so. Linda used to be a specialist in Local SEO for dentists before she started her forum (see: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/) and she often shares good tips related to this.
Hope this helps! Dentists are really nice clients, in my experience. It's a nice market in which to specialize!
-
-
Tammy,
As a side note something I am doing in the Chiropractic and horticultural space is doing you tube videos and pictures with good key words. This seems to shoot up in the rankings higher. Especially if you have authorship set up. I would also suggest virtual seminars on Google Air that are saved to Youtube. These are great ways to get top rankings on harder key word sets. Another simple thing is to do a quick presentation in Presenter(powerpoint) with voice overs and export to video. Either of these can be done on a fairly small budget and they get good results.
Ron
-
Excellent answers, thank you everyone.
1. Currently using Myseotool ( and Moz of course) - Myseotool allows you to set the 'city, region' when you have a campaign.
2. Yes, I STRESS to the clients that rankings are essentially eye candy and not much more, that traffic and conversions are the most important. But, as with most clients, they are determined to look at rankings.
3. I understand geo targeting and expect it - as well as personal results based on user intent and previous searches. I have also explained this phenomenon to the clients, but not sure 100% of them get it or recognize the fact.
4. While world domination is on my list, over 70 of the clients are dentists, so local is by far the most important. I do find the longer tail keywords to be easier when combined with a local G+ place optimized - yet have a few that will show up in National rankings, which is what made me ponder.
Thank you again, these are all awesome answers- I heart Mozzers!
-
Tammy,
First of all this is not a silly question, it is very astute. The problem/opportunity is that the search engines are in transition and location is just one consideration on your ranking in any given search. The answer depends on what your ultimate goals are as well as where your client is at now.
What I have observed is that long tailed key words like SEO Phoenix are in relative terms easier than general terms. As you improve your ranking factors in general relative to your local competition you will start showing up higher in the rankings. As these other factors improve more you will start showing up everywhere on more and more general terms.
So if your goal is just local listings just track the long tailed key words. If your goal is to rule the rankings universe on the searches your client wants I would track the general terms as well as the more specific long tail strings for your area.
because of my own megalomania issues I always track both ;).
Ron
-
Hi Tammy,
Your question isn't at all silly. What are you using to track local rankings? What tool? Or are you doing this manually?
Do bear in mind that there is no authoritative, set ranking for any local business. Why? Because Google personalizes the results for all users. So, what you see ranking #1 on your computer in your location may not be what I see ranking #1 for this term. Though you can get a relative idea of rankings, you can't really get an exact idea, making it important to educate clients on the fact that other metrics are a better gauge of marketing results. Traffic and conversions really matter! Rankings matter, too, of course, but not as much as phones ringing.
-
Google has geotargeting enabled for everyone searching on google.
What does Geotargeting mean?
1. Potential customers/clients might search for a "dentist" and not type in "phoenix" however google knows that they are in phoenix so google provides search results as if you typed in "dentist in phoenix."
For local search terms, always use the keyword + city. In some cases, there are multiple cities with the same name in different states. In that instance, monitor keyword + city + state, spell the state out or use initials.
-
I would definitely monitor city+keyword.
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
-
Relevant but not-relevant keywords impact to SEO
Hello, I would like to know if the selection of individual keywords(that are not primary, secondary or tertiary) are important for SEO regardless of the relevancy to the page topic. I am wondering how much of a contribution a non-P1/P2/P3 can make in terms of SEO? For example it is a product page and I have built my content with P1,P2&P3 based only on the product and its properties itself. Do you think that a content gap for the page could be the production process of that product? So even if it is a product and its properties page, I can add 2 sentences about the production, so that I can drive more traffic by including these 2 informative sentences.? EXAMPLE:
Keyword Research | | Siir
So lets' say my topic is "hair types" (P1) and my subtopics are "Straight," "wavy," and "curly"(P2s) which I used as subtitles. But throughout the page, I am planning to add some relevant but not-directly-relevant keywords here and there since they have high metrics and volumes. For example a potential sentence I can add: "innovative hair products these days can offer amazing results for the desired hair types". It is not specifically about "hair types" but I am using the keyword "innovative hair products" (good metrics keyword) which may help for the traffic... Another potential not-so-direct sentence can be: "For all hair types, the hair damages are common: heat damage, chemical damage and mechanical damage". Would adding this extra sentence where I am not specifically talking about "hair types" (my topic) but "hair damages" and damage examples (off-topic high metric keywords) help me to drive traffic to my website? And how much of an impact would it be?0 -
What place does plural versions of keywords have in keyword research?
Working on doing a massive keyword research project for my sites, one of the things I am trying to figure out is if I should be including plural versions of keywords. For example, should you include yoga mat as well as yoga mats?
Keyword Research | | ShockoeCommerce0 -
How to do a comprehensive SEO Keyword Research
Hi, What are the best tools and techniques to do a comprehensive keyword research on all the relevant search engines? There are times when there are no stats available on the Google keyword planner tool, in that case what do you suggest? Thanks
Keyword Research | | LaythDajani0 -
Setting Up a Keyword Matrix
Greetings MOZ community!! My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms. The following terms are among the most valuable: New York City office space,
Keyword Research | | Kingalan1
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space Such variants as: Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well How would I match different terms to different URLs? For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page) Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices? For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links. Is this approach sensible? In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords? Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants? As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant? Thanks, Alan0 -
How do I use two keywords?
Hello! I am ranking very well with a keyword. But that same keyword without an S at the end (making it singural) gets quite a few more searches per month according to Google's Keyword Tool. However, dropping the S just doesn't sound quite right or make as much sense. So how can I target both keywords? Thanks in advance!
Keyword Research | | 2bloggers0 -
Keywords in SEO Moz versus Keywords on pages
II'm a little confused by how the SEO Moz keywords relate to our page keywords. Should all the keywords we put in SEO Moz be in our page keywords? Can our SEO Moz keywords span the kepywords of severla pages or do we need ot tighten up and only use 5 for example keywords in SEO Moz and on our pages? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | THMCC0 -
How is the keyword difficulty score calculated in SEOMoz?
The SEOMoz PRO tools provide a keyword difficulty score. How is this calculated? And is it a score for organic search competition or for PPC competition?
Keyword Research | | BenHuntLtd0 -
Where do you Peoples Get Keyword Ideas?
Hey everybody, I thought I would get your opinions on the sites where you like to mine keyword phrases. Before determining competition, I like to get ideas from the Adwords Tool, Keyword Optimizer Pro (a Google suggest scraper), Insights, Trends, and by looking at the phrases competitors are optimized for. How about you guys? Jared
Keyword Research | | JaredBroker5