Local keyword research sounds technical, but it is really a listening exercise: finding out the words your customers type when they need you, then making sure your website and Business Profile use those words clearly. Most small businesses skip it and describe themselves in their own industry language, which is often not how customers search.
A salon calls it 'balayage'; many customers search 'hair highlights'. An accountant says 'Self Assessment tax return'; a sole trader types 'someone to do my tax return'. A vet lists 'small animal practice'; worried owners search 'emergency vet open now'. This guide gives you a free method that takes an afternoon.
The three types of local search
You do not need to write 'near me' into your pages. Google understands that the searcher wants something nearby and uses their location. What you need is to be clear about what you do and where.
| Type | Examples | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Service plus place | 'wedding photographer Cornwall', 'physio Exeter' | A page for that service and place can rank |
| Near me or implicit | 'dentist near me', 'Thai restaurant' | Google uses the searcher's location; your map listing matters most |
| Problem or question | 'boiler losing pressure', 'how long does a tattoo take to heal' | Helpful guides and FAQs can attract customers earlier |
Step 1: write down how customers talk
Before opening any tool, list the words customers use in calls, emails, WhatsApp messages and reviews. Look at your last twenty enquiries. Which phrases come up? Which problems do people describe? What do they call your service when they do not know the trade term?
- The services you offer, in your words and in the customer's words.
- The problems people come to you with.
- The places they say they are in: towns, villages, neighbourhoods, postcodes.
- Qualifiers that change the job: emergency, same day, cheap, luxury, for kids, wheelchair accessible, NHS, private, vegan.
Step 2: use Google itself
- Autocomplete: type each service and your town slowly into Google and note the suggestions. Try the service followed by each letter of the alphabet for more.
- People also ask: the question boxes in the results show what people want to know. Each is a possible FAQ or guide.
- Related searches: at the bottom of the results page, Google lists related queries worth noting.
- Competitor pages: look at the page titles and headings of the businesses ranking well. What words do they use?
- Map results: note the primary categories of the businesses in the map pack for your main searches.
Steps 3 and 4: Search Console and Keyword Planner
If your website is already live, Google Search Console shows the actual searches that led to your site appearing. Open Performance, then Search results, and look at the Queries tab. Sort by impressions to see what people searched when your site was shown, even if they did not click.
Look for three things: queries where you appear but rarely get clicked (the page might need a clearer title), services you offer that appear nowhere (you probably need a page for them), and towns that show up that you did not expect.
Google Keyword Planner, inside Google Ads, is free to use with an Ads account. It shows ranges for how often terms are searched, and it can be set to a location such as a county or city. Accounts without active campaigns may see broad ranges rather than exact figures, which is still enough to compare options.
For local businesses, the numbers are often small and that is fine. Twenty searches a month for 'emergency dentist Barnstaple' can be worth more than thousands of generic searches, because every one of them is someone who needs you now.
- Enter your list from steps 1 and 2.
- Set the location to the areas you serve.
- Note which terms have measurable demand, and which similar phrasings are more common.
- Do not discard low-volume terms that are clearly high intent.
Step 5: map keywords to pages
The output of keyword research is a page plan, not a list. Each page should target one main topic, with closely related phrases supporting it. Two pages chasing the same search compete with each other.
| Page | Main search | Supporting phrases |
|---|---|---|
| Home | dentist Newton Abbot | dental practice, NHS and private dentist |
| Emergency dentist | emergency dentist Newton Abbot | toothache appointment today, broken tooth |
| Invisalign | Invisalign Newton Abbot | clear aligners, invisible braces cost |
| Hygienist | dental hygienist Newton Abbot | teeth cleaning, scale and polish |
| FAQ or guide | how much is a dental check up | NHS band prices, private check-up cost |
Reading search intent for your type of business
Two searches can look similar and want completely different things. 'Wedding cake Exeter' is someone looking to buy. 'How to make a wedding cake' is someone planning to do it themselves. 'Wedding cake prices UK' is someone researching, who may buy later. Before targeting a phrase, look at what Google already shows for it: if the results are all guides, a sales page will struggle; if they are all local businesses and a map, a guide will struggle.
For a local business, the most valuable searches usually combine a service with a place or an urgent qualifier. They are the ones to cover first with dedicated service pages. Question searches are worth answering in FAQs and guides, because they bring people in earlier and give AI assistants something clear to quote.
- Restaurants and cafés: cuisine plus place, occasion searches ('Sunday roast', 'private dining', 'dog friendly pub') and 'open now' searches driven by the map.
- Salons and clinics: treatment names, often in several phrasings, and price questions. Customers frequently search the treatment rather than the business type.
- Professional firms: problem-led searches ('dispute with builder', 'setting up a limited company') alongside service plus town.
- Trades and home services: urgent qualifiers ('emergency', 'same day') and specific jobs ('fuse box replacement', 'flat roof repair').
- Shops: product plus town, 'stockist' searches and opening hours.
Step 6: use the words naturally, and avoid the usual mistakes
- Put the main phrase in the page title and main heading, written for a person: 'Emergency dentist in Newton Abbot' rather than a string of keywords.
- Use it in the first paragraph, then write naturally. Repeating it does not help.
- Use customers' words in headings and FAQs, such as 'How much does Invisalign cost?'.
- Mirror the same language in your Business Profile services and description.
- Write about the places you genuinely serve, with real local detail, rather than listing towns.
- Targeting national terms a local business will never win, such as 'accountant' with no place.
- Chasing the biggest number rather than the most relevant search.
- Creating a separate thin page for every village, which Google's spam policies may treat as doorway pages.
- Using only industry jargon customers do not search.
- Doing the research once and never checking Search Console again.
Keyword research is part of every website we write at Nerdsharks: every page title, heading and service description is based on what customers in your area actually search for, not on generic templates.