So…you have a local business and you are ready to jump into the SEO game and drive some serious organic traffic to your site, and potentially to your store. Step 1: Develop your strategic keyword list. Step 2: Optimize your site for those keywords.
As you begin to think about your keywords you will come across this question…”Should I optimize with a geo modification that includes the city and the state, or just the city? For example, you own a fish bait store in Buffalo. Is your keyword string that you want to optimize for “fish bait store Buffalo” or “fish bait store Buffalo NY”? Surprisingly this is a pretty big decision and could lead to a much more successful SEO campaign.
My opinion…Optimize for Keyword + city + state. NOTE: This strategy applies to not all, but the majority of situations. That was a disclaimer designed to Cover My Ass!
Optimizing for keyword + city + state as opposed to keyword + city is a long tail keyword strategy that yields slightly less searches, but also yeilds less competition. Optimizing for keyword + city + state gives a site a better change to rank high and still drive enough traffic to provide a solid ROI. Also, Optimizing for keyword + city + state actually keeps you in the game for the keyword string keyword + city. If you optimize for keyword + city you run the risk of being out of the game for keyword + city + state reducing the possible traffic gain.
Here is an example (numbers pulled from Google Keyword Tool)
Searches for HVAC Phoenix – 2500 Competition – 5,470,000
Searches for HVAC Phoenix AZ – 820 – Competition – 1,560,000
Searches for Plumber Buffalo – 2400 Competition – 2,310,000
Searches for Plumber Buffalo NY – 1300 – Competition – 333,000
The example above outlines the long tail SEO strategy…a company can spend years worth of SEO $$ and effort trying to beat 5,470,000 worth of competition to access the 2500 searches that they might never reach. Or….using the long tail strategy a company can spend less time and $$ trying to beat a smaller amount of competition but still realizing a healthy traffic yield…enough to prove a nice ROI. And…at the same time keeping themselves open to the shorter tail keyword with the 2500 in searches.
There is a formula we use in the industry to measure keyword effectiveness. It is called a KEI, Keyword Effectiveness Index.
This takes into consideration both the popularity, and competition, and creates a number that indicates the best keyword to optimize for your investment. The formula is…P=Popularity, C=Competition P2/C*1000 = KEI.
Based on the KEI alone, HVAC Phoenix has a better KEI. See chart below.
|
|
SEARCHES |
COMP |
KEI |
|
HVAC Phoenix |
2500 |
5470000 |
0.914077 |
|
HVAC Phoenix AZ |
820 |
1560000 |
1.051282 |
I hope this was helpful. If you have questions about this feel free to contact me.
Good Luck with your local SEO strategy!
