How do I best use kw's for local SEO please?

[mikepcservice]

Hello all, I am new here. I have posted this question in other forums but getting conflicting advice so I came here hoping to find someone who has been successful with local SEO and can tell me how to use my kw's for optimum results please.

My immediate city is South Ozone Park [zip code is 11420] in which I would like to rank at the top for my kw's. There are many cities in my County which is Queens County and there are different Counties in the State of New York. So my extended address would be South Ozone Park, Queens, NY 11420.

If I were to have a kw on my site's Data Recovery page like "data recovery services technician near me", can anyone tell me the best way I present this kw to cover my city? I don't know if it should be like only Data recovery services technician near me south ozone park or Data recovery services technician near me 11420 or Data recovery services technician near me south ozone park 11420 e.t.c. Which would be best please? Thanks.

 

[djbaxter]

I'll let the real experts here chime in, but for starters "near me" as a keyword won't do you any good at all. "Near me" is determined by GPS location, not keywords, so you're wasting your time trying to optimize for that.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks, that makes sense to me. I paid someone to do kw research so I have lot kw's for my niche but it's the usual deal, conflicting advice on which kw's to choose from the list. Wish I could find someone who can advise me on which kw's to choose from the list even if I have to pay the person for it.

 

[djbaxter]

You posted late last night so most of our experts won't have logged in yet. I'm in Eastern Canada and it's early yet even for me.

 

[mikepcservice]

Oh I see, no worries, I am seeking a formula for the geo-targetting which I can apply to all kw's I should choose so for like "Data recovery services technician" as an example, if someone can advise what should be added to it [city or zip or county] then that would be of great help.

Meantime, I will go through this article I found on the net yesterday to see what I can learn:

https://www.thehoth.com/local-seo/

 

[djbaxter]

Personally I would go for city.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks, that's what I was thinking so "Data recovery services technician south ozone park" but wouldn't adding the zip code to it make it more precise? On the other side of that coin I have to wonder if adding the zip code would be limiting myself from showing in searches in the neighboring cities too?

 

[djbaxter]

What is your customer service area? That should tell you. Is South Ozone Park too narrow as a definition of your customer base? Is it too broad?

I think city plus zip is a bit spammy. Pick one or the other but give preference to city or suburb of city. My opinion only.

 

[mikepcservice]

My services area believe it or not is all of NY as I sometimes get customers even from Manhattan, Bronx and Long Island but those are far and few. Most customers come from all over my County Queens and Brooklyn and Nassau County on Long Island and I am situated right smack in the middle of those three.

 

[djbaxter]

My suggestion is to wait until our experts log in but my feeling is you may be limiting yourself.

Perhaps using either “New York City” or your three main areas in tandem, “Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island”.

 

[mikepcservice]

Well right, that is why I was originally thinking to list the full address including county, State and zip. Yes, I will wait and hope an expert can chime in here.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I typically recommend "KW City, St" or sometimes in reverse order depending on how it sounds.

BUT FYI you have another KW problem to worry about. Some of your KW combos aren't going to pull a local 3 pack. That's OK if you just want to rank in organic.

But if you are trying to rank in the pack, you need to manually check each query to see if it pulls a pack.

So for example when I search "Data recovery services technician south ozone park"
I don't get a 3 pack, I get a one pack and those are hard to break! The 1 pack only shows "All computer and internet services" and other businesses aren't listed (in the local results).

I would also recommend doing shorter more precise KW phrases. I think the one above waters it down too much. For example...

When I search for "Data recovery South Ozone Park NY" it DOES pull a 3 pack.
Does this make sense?

You also need to think about how a potential customer would search.

"Data recovery technician" - may have some volume but my guess is those KW are what someone would search thats looking for "Data recovery technician jobs" (At least off the top of my head - you'd need to research it more)

"Data recovery service" I don't think many potential buyers would search.
It's like "Plumbing Service" most users will just search for plumbing or plumber, city.

Think like your ideal prospect - what would they search for?

Maybe ask your Mom and some friends, "if your hard drive crashed and you were freaked out about getting your data back, what would you search for in Google?"

Again just my quick assumption on those specific KW phrases, no research to back it up.
Just common sense and trying to give you some examples and food for thought.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thank you very much for helping! That's a whole lot of info for me to try to decipher so I will need to go through it all bit by bit to try to understand.

Ok so first, please tell me what is a "one pack"? I always see 3 sites showing in the local pack. When I type the same "Data recovery services technician south ozone park" on my end I am seeing 3 sites showing in the local pack.

Yes I would normally list a "title" or h1 tag as Data recovery service south ozone park NYC, leaving out the zip code so is this best practice?

The other advice given regarding what someone may potentially type is well heeded, thanks.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thank you very much for helping! That's a whole lot of info for me to try to decipher so I will need to go through it all bit by bit to try to understand.

Ok so first, please tell me what is a "one pack"? I always see 3 sites showing in the local pack. When I type the same "Data recovery services technician south ozone park" on my end I am seeing 3 sites showing in the local pack.

For me since I'm searching long distance I only get a one pack. That's essentially where there is NO 3 pack, but just a single listing on the right. It looks just like if you searched directly for your biz name and city. Your listing would show on the right and no others. (unless something was wrong or Google was confused.)

Yes I would normally list a "title" or h1 tag as Data recovery service south ozone park NYC, leaving out the zip code so is this best practice?

I wouln't do NYC because I don't think you are in NYC right? YOu are in NY state tho so that's what I'd use. And again I would personally leave out "service" You can use that word on a different page for instance computer service.

But Data recovery service south ozone park NY is kinda long and again the word service I think just kind of waters down your most important KW.

IMO, other opinions welcome!

 

[mikepcservice]

For me since I'm searching long distance I only get a one pack. That's essentially where there is NO 3 pack, but just a single listing on the right. It looks just like if you searched directly for your biz name and city. Your listing would show on the right and no others. (unless something was wrong or Google was confused.)

Understood, thanks.

I wouln't do NYC because I don't think you are in NYC right? YOu are in NY state tho so that's what I'd use. And again I would personally leave out "service" You can use that word on a different page for instance computer service.

Wow, nice pickup which I had never noticed. Yes, NYC normally refers to Manhattan so best to use only New York or NY, thanks, will do.

But Data recovery service south ozone park NY is kinda long and again the word service I think just kind of waters down your most important KW.

I had been told on a different forum that it does not matter to google how long a kw is or even how the kw is structured as google will "piece it together". So for example Data recovery service south ozone park NY, google will see this one long tailed kw as a few kw's such as data recovery NY, data recovery south ozone park, data recovery service NY e.t.c, is this info accurate please?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I had been told on a different forum that it does not matter to google how long a kw is or even how the kw is structured as google will "piece it together". So for example Data recovery service south ozone park NY, google will see this one long tailed kw as a few kw's such as data recovery NY, data recovery south ozone park, data recovery service NY e.t.c, is this info accurate please?

Yes that's true. Google can see it and figure it out.

But I think hyper targeting for a competitive KW might be better.

Google tries it's best to match the query.

So if people aren't typing out the whole string "Data recovery service south ozone park NY" when they search and most leave out the word service, then 1) "Data recovery south ozone park NY" is likely the query Google will want to match. And 2) "Data recovery service south ozone park NY" may be what more competitors are targeting. So if you are adding an extra word that is essentially fluff then you are watering down your most important key phrase. Now if it was a more distinct KW you might want to add it. But Google already knows it's a service, so adding that word does not add much value. (Again just IMO and if you ask 10 people you may get 10 diff answers.)

 

[mikepcservice]

But I think hyper targeting for a competitive KW might be better. Google tries it's best to match the query.

Ok so would be best to list the kw's separately Data recovery south ozone park, data recovery NY e.t.c within the content of the page instead of in one long string?

and if you ask 10 people you may get 10 diff answers.)

Oh God, story of my life sighhhhhhhhhh which is what's causing the stress for me

Alright so next up to clarify is if I am using say 6 kw's within the content of my data recovery page, every kw should end with south ozone park NY and this would be ok?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Ok so would be best to list the kw's separately Data recovery south ozone park, data recovery NY e.t.c within the content of the page instead of in one long string?



Oh God, story of my life sighhhhhhhhhh which is what's causing the stress for me

Alright so next up to clarify is if I am using say 6 kw's within the content of my data recovery page, every kw should end with south ozone park NY and this would be ok?

Hey Mike, IMO you are over thinking this one. And understandably when you are getting all kinds of advice. Linda has provided some gems of insight so hold on to those.

There's no reason why a single page can't target multiple keywords. In fact, well optimized pages often rank for a lot of search term variations.

So the page can target Queens as well as South Ozone Park, for instance. No problem there.

Yes, you want to include the "keyword" in the content but don't over due it. Approach the page with the mindset "how can I solve the problem that the user who lands on this page is having?" Figure that out first.

 

[Linda Buquet]

There's no reason why a single page can't target multiple keywords. In fact, well optimized pages often rank for a lot of search term variations.

So the page can target Queens as well as South Ozone Park, for instance. No problem there.

Yes, you want to include the "keyword" in the content but don't over due it. Approach the page with the mindset "how can I solve the problem that the user who lands on this page is having?" Figure that out first.

Great advice Colan!

FYI Mike all my comments were regarding title tag as I thought that's what you were talking about. With title tags on home page you want your most important KWs + city. Content on the page, totally different story. So go with what Colan said there.

Yes I would normally list a "title" or h1 tag as Data recovery service south ozone park NYC, leaving out the zip code so is this best practice?

Guess I zeroed in too much on this Q.

 

[mikepcservice]

Alright I'm back. Sorry Linda, I was referring to kw's in the page content but good the title and h1 was addressed so will include city and State [to cover all areas too].


For clarity, for the page content, would be best to list the kw's separately Data recovery south ozone park, data recovery NY e.t.c within the content of the page instead of in one long string?

Also if I am using say 6 kw's within the content of my data recovery page, should every kw end with south ozone park NY please?

Yes Colan, you are correct, I do tend to overthink things, reason being I would like to be as detailed and accurate as possible.