How to Search Location Based Keywords for SEO

Keyword usage is not the same everywhere. People use different search phrases at different places for the same items.

This poses a dilemma to the website owners as to which key-phrases to use for optimizing their websites. More importantly, they need to know which key-terms are more popular in the different countries. This may make researching keywords a bit difficult for many SEO.

In the following video, 3 Google tools have been described that can help you to search area-specific or country-specific key-phrases that are popular for the same items. The tools are briefly explained thereafter.

Google Insights for Search

On September 27, 2012, less than a month back from now, the popular and sophisticated Google Insights for Search has been merged with Google Trends. This completes a little over 4 years of lifespan for Google Insights for Search.

The new Google Trends is also helpful. The following image represents the information for the search term life coaching, in Google Trends.

Google Trends (above) has replaced Google Insights for Search

The concept between the 2 tools remains similar, which is to give a historical perspective of search terms across various geographical territories.

However, as the above video was recorded with Google Insights for Search, let me continue explaining the tool for the benefit of the viewers.

The following 2 images respectively show the usage pattern of 1 keyword in 5 different locations(different countries in this case) followed by that of 5 search terms in 1 location (United States in this case).

Erstwhile Google Insights showing data for 1 search term in 5 locations

5 search terms for 1 location in Google Insights for Search

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google AdWords was launched in 2000, and today it is the main source of revenue for Google. The keyword tool that is provided for the bidders assist them by providing a list of related search terms for a specific key-phrase or a website.

Using AdWords successfully requires a good understanding and deep pockets. The keyword tool however is a good reference point to find out the actual demand of related search terms both globally and locally (you can choose your location).

The following image (of an earlier avatar of Google AdWords) gives you an idea of how many times the related key-phrases have been searched for. In other words, these figures show the ‘demand’ of those key-phrases for a given period.

Global and local demand of related keywords shown in Google AdWords Tool

Google Search

The normal, usual search in Google for a chosen term yields a list of webpages that are ‘related’ (in Google’s eyes) to that search term.

The number of pages in the search result represents the ‘supply’ side for a given keyword. With the demand and supply figures known, the website owner now has a fair idea of the competition he may face with regard to the keyword chosen.

As can be expected, both the demand of keywords and supply of webpages vary a great deal from country to country. There are various tools by Google that give the demand figures in different countries, but the only way to know the supply figures for keywords is to search for key-phrases in the different country-specific Google websites, like google.com.au for Australia, google.ca for Canada,google.co.za for South Africa, and so on.

It can be a tedious work to search in country specific websites, but fortunately there is a good way out. Google Global is a free Firefox and Chrome add-on that is really helpful. Take a look at the following image.

You can get Google Global here for Firefox.

Google Global is available for both Firefox and Chrome browsers

Conclusion

Apart from the 3 Google tools above, there are a good number of other tools that help in finding location based keywords for your website.

If you have suggestions on this post or about keyword research, do use the comment form below. Also, refer to my other search engine optimization tutorials for startups, and don’t forget to watch theSEO videos as well.

 Source:  hubskills