Transcript
Joe Troyer: How do I estimate local search volume? Now, if I had a dollar for every single time that I have been asked this question, if I had dollar if I could just provide a great answer for this, at the end of the day local search volume stats are kind of [inaudible 00:00:17], they’re bullshit. If you use Google’s keyword tool for example, they’re going to provide you a number. You’re going to put in your location, the areas that you target. You’re going to put in your keywords. They’re going to provide you with some numbers, but you’ve got to understand that the numbers, the data is just bad. The data is just bad.
Joe Troyer: How many of you guys have experienced when doing keyword research that you’ve actually had some stats, and you’re looking at it, and you’re like, “This is what I see in analytics, this is what I inside of Google’s keyword tool,” and they’re not even close? Give me some feedback in the chat.
Joe Troyer: They aren’t even close. I can give you guys a real example here that I think will help you guys truly understand how bad this data is. So, we in Jacksonville have a website that ranks for Jacksonville plus service. So, it’s two keyword long keyword phrase. It’s only got two words in. It’s a big head turner, and it drives a lot of calls to us.
Joe Troyer: So, on a weekly basis we get anywhere from 80 to 100 phone calls from that one keyword phrase. 80 to 100 phone calls a week. Now, the search volume for that one keyword stays about the same, anywhere from 100 to 120 searches per week. And we’re getting that many calls just from one keyword. So, there is a huge, huge discrepancy. Understand that there is no real good way to estimate, “Local search volume.” There is no good way. The best way to do this is to run a Google Ads campaign, and simply you’re going to count your impressions.
Joe Troyer: So, let’s say that you’re going to go after Jacksonville, or Chicago. Let’s say you’re going to go after Chicago roofing, you’d let that ad run for a day, two days, three days just on that one keyword. And then see what the search volume is in terms of impressions. So, you’re going to look at your campaign, and you’re going to say, “Yep, all right, so we got 110 impressions yesterday for this one keyword phrase.” Running Google Ads campaigns is the best way to do this. And I know that sometimes that’s not really possible.
Joe Troyer: The other thing that you should be thinking about is not just local search volume, but what’s the intent of the keywords? And what’s the conversion rate going to be like? Understand that whenever possible, folks, you should be running Google Ads campaigns as your primer, as your test, to then go and apply Google Local, or Google Organic to. You’re going to find what keywords drive search volume.
Joe Troyer: So, for example in one of the verticals that we played very highly in, we managed up until recently about $100,000, $120,000 a month in ad spend. With all that ad spend I can tell you that there are three to four keyword variations, they’re very, very similar keywords, three to four variations that 90% or so of that spend, and those conversions come from.
Joe Troyer: So, there’s literally hundreds and thousands of keywords that we could potentially go after, but all that really matters is three to four of those variations, or three to four of those keyword phrases.
Joe Troyer: So, I could be spinning my wheels, and I could be doing SEO. And I could be building links, targeting all these keywords that aren’t actually going to drive conversions for me. Does that make sense? So, you shouldn’t just be thinking about how do I get local search volume, you should be thinking of how do I test the market so that I know what to do with the rest of my marketing? Give me a three if that was an aha moment, if that was good stuff for you guys?
Joe Troyer: So, I’m going to put a key idea here on my slide, use Google Ads to test the market. So, then I’m going to put underneath there what keywords are really important, and what keywords drive most of the volume.
Joe Troyer: So, you guys have all heard of the 80:20, right? 80:20, you guys have all heard of that I’m sure. So, 80:20 philosophy is great, but I think it’s more like 64:6, or 66:4, meaning quite literally the 4% of what you do gets you the 66% of the results. So, you’ve got to be strategic, and that’s why when I do these AMA’s, and when I do content that I give you guys, I really want to teach you guys the context of my answers. I want to teach you guys how to ask the right questions. I don’t want to just give you guys the answers, I want to teach you guys who to fish, so you guys can keep doing this. Rinse and repeat, over, and over, and over, and over. And I can really teach you guys how to think correctly.
Joe Troyer: Give me some feedback in the chat if that makes sense. I don’t want to just say yes or no, do this, do that. I want to give you guys the context of why I’m saying that. Okay, yeah, I think it’s called the 96:4. No, the 64:4, something like that. 64:4, 66:4, something like that.
Joe Troyer: All right, makes sense, good stuff. This is not going to get you 100% of the results, but understand that getting 80% of the way there, and doing that really, really effectively, and smart, and very leveraged, is it really worth getting that extra 30%? You’re probably going to have to double your comms, double your effort. You’re going to have to do a whole lot more work for kind of diminishing returns. So, that’s why the equation doesn’t add up to 100.
