Where do you go when you need to find a lawyer, restaurant or interior designer? To Google, of course!

But with so many businesses competing for everyone’s attention, if you are a service-based business you really need to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) as one of your main marketing strategies.

Wondering if your business could benefit from SEO? Read: 5 Service-Based Businesses That Really Benefit from Local SEO

One of the main components of SEO is to find relevant and targeted keywords that make a connection between what your ideal target market is searching for and the services you provide.

Here are 3 SEO keyword research strategies to help service-based businesses get started:

Dive deep into your business

You can’t develop an SEO keyword strategy for your service-based business until you understand who’s coming to your site and what they’re looking for.

Head to your Google Analytics account and look at stats like:

What keywords people are using to land on your site

What pages they’re leaving/staying on

Their geographic location

Then, you can fine-tune which keywords to target (like adding city names to service-based phrases), see which keywords aren’t showing up in your data, and create content to enhance the user experience.

See what the competition is doing

Whether it’s a company who’s been in the business for years and appears in the top-ranking position or a newer service-based business on the scene, you need a picture of the competitive keyword landscape.

See who comes up when you Google what your customers are looking for. Find out who else is selling your services in a specific location.

Make a note of the type of content they provide potential customers and how well optimized their site is for certain keywords. This helps you understand which keywords they are and aren’t targeting.

Focus on longtail keywords

The more general the keyword, the harder it will be to rank for that search term. Service-based businesses should also be researching and utilizing longtail keywords – those keywords that are ultra-specific to whatever you are selling.

While they may bring in less traffic than high ranking, shorter keywords, the traffic they do bring in is very targeted.

Maybe you’re a tax accountant who specializes in returns for people who own a second home in another country. Or a home stager who mostly works in three-bedroom ranchers in the east side of the city. Whatever your niche is, let the (local) world know!

First keyword research, then an SEO strategy

SEO is a necessity for any service-based business – whether your company is all online or has a storefront location. Do your research to develop a solid keyword strategy that will help you dominate the local search rankings.

Next step: implement an effective SEO strategy for your service-based business. Read how in our blog here.

You don’t have to do this alone! Why not hire an expert in professional search engine optimization? They’ll do your keyword research and SEO strategy the right way so you can focus on building your business in other ways.