Open any guide on local SEO keywords, and you’ll see the same process. Pick a service term, add your city, check volume, repeat.
It looks like a plan. It rarely explains why businesses following it still don’t rank.
The keyword list is rarely the problem. The problem is what happens after the list: which page gets which keyword, which system you’re actually targeting, and what ‘near me’ actually does in Google’s algorithm.
This article covers those gaps.
“Near Me” Is Not a Keyword. It’s a Behavior.
Someone searching ‘plumber near me’ is not giving Google a keyword. They’re expressing urgency.
Google already knows where they are from their GPS signal. The ‘near me’ text gets stripped. What determines who ranks is proximity, GBP quality, and review signals. Not whether you’ve written ‘near me’ on your page.
Test it yourself. Search ‘plumber’ and ‘plumber near me’ from the same phone. The results are almost identical. Google localised the first query automatically.
This matters. Because most businesses waste real effort here. They add ‘near me’ to title tags, stuff it into service descriptions, and build pages around it. None of that moves rankings.
What moves rankings is being physically closer, having a more complete profile, and having a stronger review count than your competitor.
The useful thing ‘near me’ tells you is intent stage. Not location. Not keywords. Intent.
Someone using it is done comparing. They want one number to call. Your job isn’t to rank for the phrase. It’s to show up close enough and look credible enough that they call you and not someone else.
There’s a related mistake with explicit location modifiers. Many businesses add their city name to every keyword and call it done. That’s a start, but it misses something important.
Google already localises many searches automatically. Search ‘renovation company’ from Bristol and you’ll see Bristol results without any modifier in your query. Google infers location from your IP and search history.
This means some of your most valuable keywords are implicit. They don’t include a city name but still trigger local results.
What this means for your keyword list:
- Remove ‘near me’ from page titles and H1s — it doesn’t affect rankings
- Search your top 5 service terms without a city modifier — if Google shows local results, those are implicit local keywords
- Keep explicit geo-modified terms for location pages and secondary service areas
- Treat implicit service keywords as your highest-priority targets for your homepage and main service pages
The Local Pack and Organic Results Need Different Keywords
When you search for a local service, you see two types of results on the same page.
The local pack: the map block with three businesses. Organic results: the links below it. They look similar. They’re built on completely different systems.
The local pack ranks based on Google Business Profile signals. Your primary category, proximity to the searcher, review volume and recency, NAP consistency. On-page content barely factors in. You can have a weak website and still rank in the local pack if your GBP is strong.
Organic results rank pages based on on-page content, backlinks, site authority, and relevance signals. A well-optimised service page can rank organically even if your GBP is incomplete.
Most businesses build one keyword strategy and apply it to both. That’s where they lose.
If you’re trying to understand how to structure local SEO keywords across both systems, start here: treat your GBP category selection as your primary keyword decision for the local pack, and treat your page content as your keyword investment for organic.
Your GBP primary category is the single most important local pack decision you’ll make. Google uses it to determine which searches your listing is eligible for.
Most businesses choose the broadest category available. That’s usually wrong.
A company doing bathroom renovations should choose ‘Bathroom Remodeling Contractor,’ not ‘General Contractor.’ The more specific the category, the more precisely it matches what your customers actually search.
For organic, keyword-to-page mapping matters more than the individual keywords. Your homepage targets your broadest primary service plus your main city. Each service page targets one specific service plus location. No overlap between pages.
When two pages target overlapping keywords, they compete against each other. Google can’t confidently pick one to rank. I see this on nearly every local site I audit: a homepage and a service page both targeting ‘renovation company Bristol,’ splitting ranking potential between them.
Map your current pages against these rules:
- Homepage: primary service + primary city
- Service pages: one specific service + city, no overlap between pages
- Location pages: primary service + secondary city or district
- Blog: informational queries only, not service keywords
- GBP primary category: most specific available category that matches your core service
The Keyword Data You Already Have Is Better Than Any Tool
Most local keyword research starts with a paid tool. That’s not wrong. But it usually means ignoring two sources that are more accurate and more specific to your actual situation.
The first is Google Search Console.
GSC shows you the exact queries that brought people to your site. Not estimated volumes from a database. Real clicks and impressions from real searches. Filter by page and you can see which queries are landing where. This tells you what you’re already ranking for, often for keywords you never intentionally targeted.
I audited a renovation company last year that was getting consistent impressions for ‘kitchen extension cost Bristol.’ They had never targeted that phrase. It appeared in one blog post almost by accident. Once they built a proper page around it, impressions became clicks and clicks became enquiries.
GSC also shows high-impression, low-click keywords. These are searches where your page appears but people don’t click. Usually it means your title tag doesn’t match what the searcher wants. That’s a quick fix with real upside.
The second source is Google Business Profile Insights.
It shows which search queries triggered your GBP listing. These are people who found you through the local pack, not organic. The queries here often differ from what GSC shows.
Many businesses have GBP Insights showing strong impressions for terms they’ve never put on their website. That’s a direct signal: build a page for that term. The demand is already confirmed.
The third underused source is customer reviews.
Read the language your customers use to describe what they hired you for. ‘They did our bathroom renovation in two weeks.’ ‘Best kitchen retiling company in the area.’ Those phrases are keywords. They’re written in customer language, not industry language. Customer language is usually closer to how people actually search.
Most keyword tools give you estimates based on aggregated historical data. Useful for discovery. But for a local business with an existing site and real customers, the data you already own is more current and more specific.
Before opening any keyword tool:
- Export GSC data for the last 6 months, filter by impressions above 50, identify keywords you rank for but haven’t intentionally targeted
- Open GBP Insights, note the top 10 search queries that triggered your listing, check whether you have dedicated pages for those terms
- Read your last 20 customer reviews and pull out service descriptions — those phrases belong in your page titles
Keyword research for local SEO isn’t about finding more keywords. It’s about understanding which keywords belong where, which system you’re targeting, and what the data you already have is telling you.
Most local businesses have enough signal to build a solid keyword strategy without spending a cent on tools. Start there.