How to Find Locally Relevant Keywords for Your Business

What makes a keyword locally relevant?

A keyword is a word or phrase someone types into a search engine. A locally relevant keyword has a credible connection to a local customer’s need and to your business. It normally combines one or more of the following:

For example, “roofer” is broad. “Emergency roof repair in St Albans”, “flat roof replacement cost”, “MOT garage open Saturday” and “physiotherapist for running knee pain” each reveal more about the searcher’s situation. They may deserve different pages or sections because they need different answers.

Google explains that local results are mainly shaped by relevance, distance and prominence. Complete, accurate business information helps Google understand relevance, but distance still matters; no keyword can remove that physical constraint. Google’s guidance on local ranking factors is useful context when deciding which places to prioritise. Google Business Profile guidance

Start with the customer’s language, not a keyword tool

Keyword tools are useful for expanding and checking ideas, but the strongest starting point is the language already used by people who contact you. It exposes the questions, outcomes and local details that a generic tool can miss.

Collect your raw phrases

Set aside 30 minutes and gather wording from recent enquiries, job notes, emails, contact forms, live chat, call logs and conversations with reception or sales staff. Reviews can be particularly useful because customers often describe the service in their own words.

• What did customers say was wrong, difficult or urgent?
• What service name did they use?
• Did they mention a locality, nearby landmark, property type or travel constraint?
• What questions came before they booked: price, timings, suitability, availability or guarantees?
• Which services are commercially worthwhile and which enquiries are a poor fit?

Keep phrases as written at first. If five customers ask whether you handle “gutter clearing” and your website only says “rainwater goods maintenance”, that is a valuable language gap. You can still use accurate professional wording on the page, but lead with the phrase customers recognise.

Build a local keyword universe in five layers

A useful list is deliberately broader than a list of town-name phrases. Create a spreadsheet with one row per phrase and columns for service, location, intent, evidence, suitable page and priority. Then work through these layers.

1. 1

   List your core services and profitable specialisms

   Write the services you actually want more of, including popular variants. A builder might separate extensions, loft conversions, structural alterations and kitchen fitting. A vet might separate vaccinations, dental care, neutering and urgent appointments only where these are genuinely offered. Avoid creating a keyword target for every minor task.

2. 2

   Add natural service modifiers

   Look for meaningful qualifiers: emergency, same-day, repair, replacement, installation, bespoke, family, private, commercial, weekend, mobile, home visit, cost, quote and booking. These modifiers often indicate a different need, rather than a longer version of the same phrase.

3. 3

   Map the places you can serve well

   Start with your actual base, then list nearby areas where you have capacity, customers, local knowledge and a sensible travel time. Include alternative local names where residents use them. For a premises-based business, place emphasis on the immediate catchment. For a tradesperson, use the realistic service area rather than an aspirational county-wide list.

4. 4

   Sort phrases by search intent

   Group each phrase by the outcome it suggests: ready to contact, comparing options, researching a problem or looking for a specific local venue. This prevents a common mistake: sending every searcher to one generic page.

5. 5

   Assign each cluster to one useful destination

   A cluster is a group of closely related phrases that can be answered well on one page. For instance, “MOT test in Woking”, “book MOT Woking” and “MOT garage Woking” could belong on a single MOT page. “What fails an MOT?” is more likely to need a helpful guide or FAQ section.

Use the right tools to validate and expand ideas

No single tool tells you every keyword worth pursuing. Local searches can be low-volume individually, and a phrase with modest apparent demand may still bring excellent enquiries. Use several sources, then apply judgement.

1. Google Search Console: mine the searches already showing your site

If your website is verified in Search Console, open the Search results Performance report and review the Queries tab. This shows search terms that led to your site appearing in Google Search. Look for:

• unexpected services or locations already generating impressions;
• queries with plenty of impressions but a low click-through rate, which can signal an unclear page title, description or intent match;
• groups of similar phrases that should be handled by one stronger service page; and
• pages appearing for the wrong query, suggesting your on-page explanation is too vague.

Google specifically suggests using query data to identify expected and unexpected searches, as well as high-impression, low-CTR opportunities. Treat it as evidence of visibility, not a complete record: some queries are anonymised or omitted from the table. See how Search Console query data works. Google Business Profile guidance

2. Google Keyword Planner: expand service and location combinations

Keyword Planner is built for advertising, but it is still useful for discovering related phrases and comparing demand patterns. Start with a few service terms and your website URL, then filter ideas for relevance. Google says you can begin with words related to your offering or a website, and then refine the resulting suggestions by categories and filters. Use Google Keyword Planner to discover ideas. Google Business Profile guidance

Use the tool to test vocabulary, not to chase a single monthly-volume number. In paid campaigns, Google advises using location thoughtfully and not automatically adding locations to keywords where campaign location targeting will do the job. For organic local SEO, however, town and area names can still be important clues for page topics and customer language. Google’s keyword research best-practice guidance is a helpful reminder to begin with several specific, relevant seed phrases. Google Business Profile guidance

3. Google Trends: compare wording and spot seasonality

Google Trends is most useful for comparing variants, such as “gutter cleaning” versus “gutter clearing”, “hairdresser” versus “hair salon”, or “air conditioning installation” versus “air con fitting”. Set the country to the United Kingdom, select a useful time range and inspect related searches and regional interest.

Do not read its 0–100 chart as search volume. Google normalises Trends data by geography and time, so it shows relative popularity rather than a count of searches. It can also show no data for lower-volume terms. Google’s explanation of Trends data and its limits is worth reading before making decisions from a small local sample. Google Business Profile guidance

4. Search results and Maps: study the result, not only the phrase

Search each candidate phrase as a local customer would. Look at the kinds of results Google presents: map listings, service pages, price guides, booking pages, directories, videos or informational articles. This is the quickest way to judge the likely search intent — the task a person is trying to complete.

For example, a search for “best brunch in Bath” may show maps, menus and review-led results; a restaurant needs a useful location page, accurate menu and strong local proof more than a long article about brunch. “How to prepare for an MOT” is educational, so a concise guide that leads naturally to booking is a better fit. Make notes on what the leading results answer, but do not copy their text or invent pages simply because competitors have them.

Prioritise keywords by business value and page fit

A short, well-supported keyword list is better than hundreds of phrases that never become useful content. Give every keyword cluster a practical priority based on the following questions.

Choose a sensible page type

If a page exists only to swap “Reading” for “Slough” or “Birmingham” in the same paragraph, do not publish it. Google’s people-first content guidance warns against creating content primarily to attract search visits or producing many pages with little care or added value. Google’s people-first content guidance supports a more useful, selective approach. Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

For a practical framework for turning approved clusters into useful pages, see our guide to planning locally relevant website content.

Put local keywords where they help customers make a decision

Keywords are not a checklist to insert everywhere. Once you know the topic of a page, write the page so a local customer can quickly confirm: “Do they offer this?”, “Do they serve me?”, “Are they suitable?” and “What should I do next?”

Google’s Business Profile guidelines require businesses to use their real-world name, keep address or service area accurate and select as few categories as necessary to describe the core business. Categories should be specific and representative, not used merely as keywords. Read the Google Business Profile representation guidelines. Google Business Profile guidance

For website titles, prioritise clarity over repetition. Google recommends descriptive, concise titles and specifically warns against keyword stuffing. A page titled “Emergency Roof Repairs in York | Clear Next Steps” is clearer than “York Roofers, Roofing York, Roof Repair York, Best Roofer York”. Google’s title-link documentation explains why distinct, useful titles matter. Influencing title links in Google Search

A practical 30-day local keyword action plan

Measure whether your keyword work is helping

Track outcomes at page and enquiry level. Rankings can vary by searcher, device and location, so they are only one diagnostic signal. Better measures include non-branded impressions for target themes, organic clicks to priority pages, phone calls or forms that mention the relevant service, booked jobs and the quality of those leads.

• Which local service pages gained impressions for relevant non-branded queries?
• Are people clicking through when the page is shown?
• Do enquiries match the services and areas you want?
• Are there recurring questions that should become a page section or FAQ?
• Are customers seeing consistent service and location information across your website and Business Profile?

Search Console recommends focusing on trends in impressions and clicks rather than average position alone when evaluating page performance. Google’s Search Console performance guidance also shows how to compare queries and pages to find specific opportunities. Google Business Profile guidance

Make local relevance part of your ongoing marketing

Locally relevant keywords work best when they reflect a business that is genuinely useful and recognisable in its area. Keep listening to enquiries, add answers to new questions, update services as they change and collect customer feedback that describes what you do well. This creates better evidence for future page improvements than endlessly expanding a spreadsheet of place names.

If you have identified the right local topics but need consistent help turning customer feedback, local proof and page improvements into an ongoing process, a fully managed Review Flywheel can take that work off your team’s plate. If you prefer to run the process in-house, the DIY Review Flywheel software is designed to keep collection and use of customer feedback organised.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

The guidance in this article was checked against the following current sources. Platforms, laws and interfaces can change, so confirm important details before acting.

• Tips to improve your local ranking on Google — Google Business Profile Help
• Guidelines for representing your business on Google — Google Business Profile Help
• Performance report (Search results): Dimensions and data groupings — Google Search Console Help
• Use Keyword Planner — Google Ads Help
• FAQ about Google Trends data — Google Trends Help
• Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content — Google Search Central
• Influencing title links in Google Search — Google Search Central