Is there a tool out there that can help me determine how people in a particular area search for things?

[tunatraffic]

I'm attempting to create geo-specific landing pages for a client. For example if I'm targeting southern Milwaukee very specifically I'd have to target Oak Creek, South Milwaukee, Bay View, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to create landing pages for every one of those. Is there a tool to help with this issue?

The tool I use right now is this http://www.5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php I like it for getting the names of every city/village/town in the area. However, it doesn't answer the nagging question ... how do people search for services in those areas?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Mike,

Thanks so much for clarifying the business model! So, the client is an SAB, and, yes, developing geo landing pages would be the right way to go. Typically, such landing pages are built around city terms. I believe what I'd do in this case is build one landing page per town/city and then encourage the client to continue on with narrowing down this subject by blogging about their projects in neighborhoods like Riverwest and Oak Creek.

The main thing, of course, is to be sure you've got something unique and important to say on each landing page you build or blog post you write. Covering completed projects in the various cities is a good way to go with this. But as for a tool that's going to reveal what you want to know regarding whether people are using neighborhood names to search for services, I'm afraid I just don't know of anything reliable. Between 'keyword not provided' and the loss of the old Google Adwords Keyword Tool, it does seem to me that one has to rely mainly on common sense these days. No tools were ever very good at providing geo data, because the data centers were seldom local, but with the recent changes in what's available, I think the situation has gotten even tougher.

I think you are right about trying different things and seeing what works, once you've built the core landing pages for the major service cities.

[tunatraffic]

Bill and Miriam,

Thank you for the information and further inquiry. Indeed the business model is an SAB which unfortunately makes the landing pages a necessity. I'd love to do some Local SEO for their service locations if we could. I do have the Google Places set up to cover all their service locations, but that has limited value in driving traffic to their website.

I've also tried Google's keyword finder with local parameters and on this micro of a level it doesn't provide any useful information.

I do wonder about the vocabulary in specific neighborhoods and suburbs. I actually live in a neighborhood called Riverwest in Milwaukee. If I wanted to know about coffee shops or bars in my neighborhood I would search using the neighborhood name. However, if I wanted a plumber I'd search using "Milwaukee".

In the case of the original question I believe users would search using their neighborhood or suburb name. However, I still can't figure out (without throwing a few things against the wall to see what sticks) if a user in Oak Creek searches using "Oak Creek" or "South Milwaukee" or some other specifier.

This may be a case of try a few things and see what works.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Mike,

As I mentioned to Bill, I think it might be helpful if you clarified what the business model is. Is the client a franchise with multiple physical locations (like a fast food chain) or an SAB (service area business like a plumber) with only a single physical location but multiple service cities?

Unfortunately, regardless of the business model, there is no tool that I know of which is going to show you how someone in Oak Creek might search for a plumber vs. someone in Bay View. Likely, if they are all in the same part of the state, their language usage is going to be similar. One runs into differences across the country with things like attorney vs. lawyer or international differences like french fries vs. chips, but within part of a state, I would expect people have a relatively common vocabulary.

Google's new keyword finder tool does have the ability to set local parameters, but personally, I find the resulting statistics to be a bit useless. I've heard other Local SEOs complain of the same.

Would you like to provide a bit more info about the business model and what you're trying to accomplish?

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Bill,

It's great to have you here in the forum. Totally agree with you about making sure the site is optimized for the physical locations a business has, but thought I would add that for SABs, creating landing pages on the website for service cities is considered a best practice. Hopefully, Mike can clarify his business model for us a bit.

[billhartzer]

Mike, you may want to re-think your strategy here. There is no need to create specific targeted landing pages for each location. Rather, you would want to make sure your site is optimized (or the location pages are optimized) for the locations that you do have. When you set up your Google Plus local pages you can specify the area that you service.

You'll want to also work on getting more local citations for your business, which will include mentions of your NAP data (name, address, phone number).