What city are you in? Write it down.

What is your main keyword? Write it down.

Combine the two and get to a keyword research tool.

For example, I am a mortgage broker in New York. My main keyword is “mortgage broker” and my city is “New York.” Combined, those two give: “new york mortgage broker.”

Plug this into a keyword research tool and wait for results. Here what Google gave me:

As you can see, those keywords have less search volume than our previous keywords. The up side, however, is that there are fewer competitors and it will take less time, effort and money to have a web site optimized for those keywords, while still enjoying a good flow of customers.

Optimization for local keywords is the first stage of optimization for new web sites. We usually optimize our clients for their local city first and only then for more competitive keywords. This way clients see the power of search engine optimization, gain rankings fairly quickly (no delusions; search engine optimization takes at least four to six months if you’re going for the first page) and start making profits on a local level. It also costs less.

Only after we achieve good rankings for local keywords do we optimize for more competitive ones. This strategy is perfect if your web site is new and is not found anywhere on search results. Here are three reasons why:

• It establishes a link profile (links are everything for Google, and Google is becoming everything).
• It establishes a level of trust from search engines.
• It tests effectiveness of keywords and search engine optimization for a particular business model.

Research several local keywords and test.

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