Finding Local Keywords: How Customers Search in Your Region

A beautiful website is of little use if no one finds it via Google. And only those who hit the words customers actually type in get found. «Hairdresser Schaffhausen», «trustee near me», «repair bike Winterthur», these are local keywords. In this article I'll show you how to find exactly these search terms for your business, without expensive software and without marketing gibberish.

The nice thing about it: you know your customers better than any tool. We just have to make this knowledge visible.

What local keywords actually are

A keyword is nothing other than the term someone writes into the search bar. It becomes local as soon as a place or a nearby intent is added. Three patterns keep coming up:

• Service plus place: «landscaping Schaffhausen», «tax return Winterthur».
• Service plus «near me»: Google knows the phone's location and delivers matching businesses, even without a place name.
• Concrete question or problem: «dripping tap plumber», «wedding photographer Zurich region».

Your goal is to find the terms that meet two conditions: they match your offering, and there are people in your region who really search for them.

Step 1: Think your way into your customers' language

Professionals talk differently from their customers. You might say «periodontal treatment», your patient googles «gums inflamed dentist». This is exactly where the best keywords arise. Sit down for a moment and write out:

• Which services do you offer, in simple words?
• Which questions do customers ask again and again on the phone or in the shop?
• Which problems do you concretely solve for people?

This list is your raw material. Feel free to also ask employees or regular customers, often terms come out that you'd never have thought of yourself.

Step 2: Ask Google itself

You don't need paid programs to discover real search terms. Google reveals a lot for free:

• Autocomplete: type in your service plus your place and see which suggestions Google adds. Those are real, frequent searches.
• «People also ask»: below the first results Google shows a box with questions others ask. A treasure trove of topics.
• «Related searches»: right at the bottom of the results page are further terms that fit the topic.

Note down everything that fits you. After half an hour you usually have a surprisingly long list of real, regional search terms together.

Step 3: Peek at the competition

Search for your most important service with a location and look at who's right at the top. Which words do these businesses use in their titles and headings? You don't have to copy anything, but you'll see which terms evidently work in your region. Often you'll discover niches that no one has properly occupied yet.

Step 4: Sort out and prioritise

Now you have a long list, and it gets shortened. Not every term is equally valuable. Watch two things:

• Intent: «painter Winterthur quote» is worth gold, because there's a concrete job behind it. «What does painting cost» is rather non-committal.
• Realism: very general terms like «insurance» are fiercely contested. With the addition of your region, «insurance advice Schaffhausen», you as a small business have real chances.

Exactly this regional addition is your advantage over the big providers. Whoever searches locally wants to buy locally.

Step 5: Use the keywords sensibly

Found terms only help if they appear in the right spots of your website, naturally phrased, not stacked:

• Page titles and headings: here every word weighs the most.
• A dedicated page per service: whoever offers several services gives each its own, cleanly described page with the matching keyword.
• Honest texts: write for people. If the text sounds good and names the place naturally, Google is pleased too.

What the technical foundation for this looks like and how to use your Google Business Profile I've described in other articles.

Staying at it is worthwhile

Finding local keywords is not a one-off exercise. Language changes, new services are added, customers search differently. Check a few times a year what has changed, and supplement your pages accordingly. That way you stay visible exactly where your future customers are searching right now.

If you like, I'll help you find the right terms and anchor them cleanly on your website, so that searches turn into real enquiries. Just write to me via the contact form.