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
-
Paid vs Organic Keyword Optimisation
Hi Im wondering whether I should optimise my site with Organic search terms that drive traffic to the site or the paid terms i use in Google search ads?
Keyword Research | | aplnzmarch180 -
How do I use Google Keyword in onsite seo?
Hello to all, I wanted to ask if I am doing this correctly. So I own a Bernese mountain dog website I used the google keyword research tools to view keyword ideas. I listed my results below. So my questions are: 1 - Bernese Mountain Dog Puppies (the keyword) blow away the other keywords. So when you are looking at your sites most popular keywords, do you make the most popular keyword your homepage? Because it gets the most link juice? Like would you build the homepage around the best keyword instead of branding - like the company name etc? Or does it matter? Basically just as long as you use it for one page? 2 - When you have keywords that have parts of other keywords, is it safe to use the longer keyword because it has parts of the other phrases? Such as Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale is a part of Bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado. So if you use bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in Colorado, it will also hit the bernese mountain dog puppies for sale? ( without the In Colorado) What type of strategy would you use for this type of situation? 3- Lastly, and thank you for your time - I watched a video from a grey hat seo guy. He said to take a keyword or phrase like say Colorado home builders, create a page like example.com/Colorado-home-builders/ Then make you h1 tag - The Best Colorado Home Builders Add The Best Colorado home builders to your meta description and one more time in your h2 tag Then create a Bold, and italic The Best Colorado Home Builders in your unique content paragraphs. So my question is - is this grey hat and bad? Or the standard? I do not want to get hit for over optimizing. So just wanted to ask you opinion first. In the end, I truly thank you for taking the time to read my questions. I appreciate everyone's help and greatly appreciate your knowledge. So my results look like this | bernese mountain dog puppies | 590 | Low | $0.45 | 1% | |
Keyword Research | | Berner
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale | 90 | High | $0.42 | 9% | |
| bernese mountain dogs | 90 | Low | $0.37 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppies for sale in colorado | 30 | Medium | $0.76 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog breeders in colorado | 20 | Medium | $0.32 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dogs colorado | 40 | Low | $0.08 | 0% | |
| bernese mountain dog puppy breeders | 10 |0 -
Does combining keywords in the page title help or hurt you?
I am working on a site which sells elliptical equipment. I used Google Adwords to determine number of searches on the following keywords: Elliptical trainer – 3.,600 searches Elliptical machine – 14,800 searches Elliptical trainer machine - 22 searches I am currently optimizing “elliptical trainer” – but after seeing results above would also like to optimize “elliptical machine”. My question is: if I add “machine” to “elliptical trainer” will Google now only read “elliptical trainer machine” or will it read “elliptical machine” in addition to “elliptical trainer”. How do you know what word or “chunk” of words Google picks up?
Keyword Research | | ChristieC1 -
Keyword Difficulty Report
Hi I am a seo beginner, please help me to know and usability of Keyword Difficulty Report. Actually, i see the difficulty percentage is 28 for a keyword and i have option to generate defficulty report. Bit confused how can i use this?
Keyword Research | | Webworld_Norway0 -
Keyword Ranking Issue
For one of my campaigns I have running all the keywords are appearing as having a position > 50, when in fact I know these keywords are appearing on the top 5 pages of Google after a manual search. Can anyone have a solution for this? Thanks
Keyword Research | | dancody20 -
Google Keyword Tool Category Selector
Has anyone developed any useful techniques for using the category selector in the GKT? Perhaps in conjunction with a site URL. Always looking for something better
Keyword Research | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Keyword categories.
Hello everyone, After watching keyword research for motivated marketers (pro webinar), I've put together a master framework. This works like a charm, however, I'm having trouble with a few categories. They are picking up keywords that are not in the marker that are assigned to the category. For example, I have one category with 10 simple markers like red, green, blue, but when I apply the filter, the results include words that are outside these markers like Career One. . Baffled! Anyone help? Thank you in advance. J
Keyword Research | | jasonlewisdiiigy0 -
Keyword Updates
I have a list of keywords in a campaign that I need to update. I use the keyword report card to review those keyword performance by page. I dont currently see a way to update those keywords, I only see the option to add or delete. I don't want to delete and re-enter because then I will lose that "mapping". Is there a way to simply update a keyword?
Keyword Research | | webdecorators0