Now that you know what local SEO is, we can move onto the exciting bit: how to win with it!

In the chapters to follow, I’ll be sharing with you some of the foundational and game-changing tactics to help you climb the rankings in local search.

Chapter 2: Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the most important foundational things you can do for your local SEO.

Think of this as your bread and butter. You need to know what search terms you want to rank for before you can begin optimizing your business or undertaking these ranking tactics.

Keyword research is also important for a few other reasons:

1. To create landing pages that focus on searchable words and phrases.
2. To understand searching behaviors better and, overall, understand your target audience better.
3. To find related markets to expand into, and/or refocus your products or services to.
4. To discover more ways to attract target customers (through providing answers to their questions).

You need to know what phrases are being searched for that relate to your business. 

For example, you might be an artisan plant-based pizza restaurant, but that’s not necessarily what your customers are searching for. They might be more likely to search for ‘veggie pizza’, ‘healthy pizza’, ‘best vegan pizza’, or something else. So you need to be aware of the search trends and adapt to them.

For example, here I’ve performed a pretty basic search for ‘pizza New York’. Underlined are all the phrases that might be…