Dominating “Near Me” Searches with a Local Keyword Strategy
Client: A single-location plumbing company in a competitive major city.
Challenges We Faced
The client was a skilled plumber but was invisible online, losing all high-intent, emergency service calls:
No “Map Pack” Ranking
The business was invisible on Google Maps for “plumber near me.”
No “Suburb” Rankings
They were not ranking for any “plumber in [Suburb Name]” keywords.
Generic Content
The website had a single “Services” page that was not optimized for any specific, high-value jobs.
No Inbound Calls
The website was generating almost zero leads, forcing the owner to rely on expensive mailers.
Weak Local Authority Signals
The business had little to no Google Business Profile optimization, reviews, or local citations, making it hard for Google to trust and rank the company for local search intent.
Dominate Local Search
“Want to rank #1 in your neighborhood? Our Local Keyword Research services will find the ‘near me’ keywords that drive calls.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
Local Keyword Research
Our seo services keyword research focused on finding all high-intent “near me,” “emergency,” and “[city] + [service]” keywords.
Competitor Keyword Analysis
We analyzed the GMB categories and on-page keywords of the top 3 “Map Pack” competitors using BrightLocal.
On-Page & Keyword Mapping
We deleted the generic “Services” page. Our keyword research service agency then built 10 new, unique service pages (e.g., “Emergency Plumbing in [City],” “Water Heater Repair [City]”).
SEO-Optimized Content Briefs
We created briefs for each new local service page, optimizing them for local intent and “problem” keywords.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Click-to-Call” (from GMB & Site) | 5/mo | 70/mo | +1300% |
| “Map Pack” Rankings (“plumber near me”) | 18th | 3rd | +15 spots |
| Organic Leads (from new service pages) | 1/mo | 22/mo | +2100% |
Free Local Keyword Analysis
“Not sure why your competitors are getting all the calls? Book a Free Local Keyword Analysis from our expert team!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- For local, your GMB is key, but it must be supported by strong on-page local content.
- You must have a separate page for every service. A “Water Heater Repair” page will always outrank a generic “Services” page for that query.
- Local Keyword Research is about “near me” and “[service] + [city]” intent. You must target both.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- Using BrightLocal and Ahrefs to find the competitor’s local keywords and citation sources.
- The new, unique service pages were the key to ranking for high-value terms.
- The Competitor Keyword Analysis of GMB categories revealed two high-intent categories our client was missing.
