To do keyword research for a local business, write down your services in the words customers use, check how many people search for each one in your own city, and match the phrases with real demand to pages you can build. The search figures below are monthly Google searches measured on 2 November 2026, so each step is shown on real numbers for plumbers, roofers and painters.
Step 1: Start with the words customers type
Your trade's name is not always what people search for. Across the US, "house painter" gets 6,600 searches a month. "house painters near me" gets 110,000, and "painting companies near me" gets 74,000. A painter who checked only the job title would conclude there is hardly any demand, and would be wrong.
Heating and cooling shows the same gap. "hvac repair" has 74,000 US searches a month, while "ac repair" and "air conditioner repair" have 368,000 each. Customers describe the problem they have, not the industry that fixes it.
So list every service you offer, then write two or three ways a customer might ask for it:
- the job: "water heater repair near me"
- the person: "plumber"
- the business: "plumbing companies near me"
That list is your set of seed keywords. Everything after this step checks which of them deserve a page.
Step 2: Check the numbers in your own city
National figures tell you a phrase matters somewhere. City figures tell you whether it matters where you work. Here is "plumber" and "roofer" in ten of the 20 US cities we measured.
| City |
"plumber" searches a month |
Top-of-page bid for "plumber" |
"roofer" searches a month |
| New York, NY |
27,100 |
$7.00 to $32.25 |
4,400 |
| Los Angeles, CA |
9,900 |
$21.64 to $116.02 |
1,000 |
| Chicago, IL |
8,100 |
$15.55 to $61.18 |
480 |
| Houston, TX |
6,600 |
$20.00 to $76.25 |
480 |
| Phoenix, AZ |
5,400 |
$61.62 to $137.61 |
320 |
| San Antonio, TX |
4,400 |
$28.00 to $100.05 |
480 |
| Dallas, TX |
4,400 |
$30.23 to $65.02 |
320 |
| Austin, TX |
3,600 |
$33.09 to $113.13 |
390 |
| Denver, CO |
2,900 |
$40.00 to $128.68 |
390 |
| Boston, MA |
1,300 |
$13.30 to $58.70 |
110 |
Average monthly Google searches, measured with KeywordQuasar on 2 November 2026. Bids are the top-of-page range advertisers paid, in US dollars.
Two things stand out. New York has by far the most searches for "plumber" and the lowest bid range in the table, while Phoenix has under a fifth of New York's searches and the highest range, up to $137.61 a click. Demand and the price of a customer are separate questions, and you need both.
The painter from Step 1 is a warning about small figures. "house painter" gets 40 searches a month in Austin and 10 in Nashville. That says little about whether people in those cities want their houses painted; it says they don't type those two words.
If you work in a small town, its figures are less precise than a big city's, because fewer searches go into them. Read a small town's figure as a guide, and check the county or the nearest city as well.
Step 3: Group the variants
The monthly figure for a keyword covers that keyword and its close variants. Longer phrases are separate keywords with their own numbers, so a city's figure for "roofer" leaves out "roof repair near me". Look at the national roofing ideas:
- "roofing companies near me": 165,000 a month
- "roofers near me": 165,000
- "roof repair near me": 90,500
- "metal roofing": 90,500
- "roofer": 60,500
- "standing seam metal roof": 49,500
- "commercial roofing": 18,100
Sort them by what the searcher wants. The first three are people hiring now. "metal roofing" and "standing seam metal roof" are people choosing a material. "commercial roofing" is a different customer altogether. Each group usually needs its own page, and each page should aim at one group, not one keyword.
Step 4: Read the bid range as a value signal
The top-of-page bid is not an SEO metric, but it tells you what a customer from that search is worth to businesses already paying for ads. The range runs from roughly the 20th to the 80th percentile of what advertisers paid over the last 30 days.
In Austin, "plumber" bids ran from $33.09 to $113.13. "landscaping" ran from $3.18 to $18.39, with 880 searches a month. Both trades get searched, but a plumber's customer is worth far more to the business, which also means a plumber will value ranking for it more.
The competition band (Low, Medium or High) counts how many advertisers bid. It does not measure how hard a phrase is to rank for in the normal results. "plumber" in Austin is Low competition, and that says nothing about the plumbers' websites already on page one.
Step 5: Give each group one page
- Your main service page takes the head term and its "near me" versions: "plumber", "plumbers near me".
- One page per service with real demand. "water heater repair near me" has 90,500 US searches a month and "emergency plumber near me" 135,000. If you do that work, it deserves a page that says how you do it, how fast, and roughly what affects the price.
- One page per place you really serve, only if you can say something specific about working there.
You rarely need to write "near me" on the page itself. Write the service and the place plainly. Avoid two pages chasing the same group, because they end up competing with each other.
Step 6: Check again before you write
A keyword's monthly figure is an average over 12 months, so a seasonal service can look steadier than it is. Before you write a page, look at the trend for the keyword, and recheck your city's figures once a season if your work is seasonal.
Doing all six steps in one place
KeywordQuasar, LeadQuasar's keyword tool, runs Steps 2 to 4 for any city. Type a keyword and a place, and it shows the monthly Google searches there, related keyword ideas in the same place with their bid range and competition, a live trend chart, and how many businesses of that kind LeadQuasar holds there. It is free to try with no account: 5 searches a day with exact figures in the US, UK and Canada, and one preview search elsewhere. The Plus and Max plans add more ideas, more cities and the lead list; the feature page lists what each plan includes.
For whole trades, the roofing keyword report and plumbing keyword report list the national ideas and 20 US cities from the same snapshot, and the local SEO keyword research guide goes deeper on choosing pages.
Frequently asked questions
How do I do keyword research for a local business for free?
List your services in the words customers use, then check each one's monthly searches in your city. Google Keyword Planner is free inside a Google Ads account, once the account setup, billing details included, is complete. KeywordQuasar shows monthly Google searches for a city, free for 5 searches a day in the US, UK and Canada, with no account needed.
How many searches a month does a local keyword need?
There is no fixed minimum. "roofer" gets 110 searches a month in Boston, and one roofing job is a large sale, so a page for it can still pay. Compare the figure with what one customer is worth, and use the bid range as a guide to that value.
Should I target "near me" keywords?
Target the service they contain. "plumbers near me" (823,000 US searches a month) is a person hiring a plumber close by, so a clear plumbing page with your real address and service area answers it. You rarely need the words "near me" on the page.
Why are my city's numbers so much smaller than the national ones?
Because they count only searches from that place. The figures are also rounded, so figures for several places may not add up exactly; treat city figures as a guide rather than an exact count.
Check any keyword in your own city: try a free search on KeywordQuasar, with no account.
