An SEO agency that sells to local businesses should research two things together: how many people in a city search for a trade, and how many businesses of that trade are there to pitch. Search volume answers the first question, a business database answers the second, and KeywordQuasar puts both on one screen.
Why agency keyword research is different
A business owner researches keywords for one website. An agency researches to choose a market: which trade, in which city, has enough search demand for SEO to be worth paying for, and enough businesses to sell it to. Get the first half wrong and you sell a result the client never feels. Get the second half wrong and you have a good niche with nobody to call.
The method below works through one city, Austin, TX, using monthly Google searches measured on 2 November 2026.
Step 1: Compare trades in one city
This is the main keyword for each local trade in our snapshot, searched in Austin.
| Trade |
Keyword |
Searches a month in Austin |
Competition |
Top-of-page bid (USD) |
| Dentist |
dentist |
6,600 |
Low |
$12.00 to $42.29 |
| Hair salon |
hair salon |
5,400 |
Low |
$0.90 to $3.16 |
| Plumbing |
plumber |
3,600 |
Low |
$33.09 to $113.13 |
| Veterinarian |
veterinarian |
3,600 |
Medium |
$6.91 to $24.01 |
| General contractor |
general contractor |
2,900 |
Low |
$5.62 to $29.31 |
| Electrician |
electrician |
1,900 |
Low |
$16.64 to $59.99 |
| Auto repair |
auto repair |
1,600 |
Low |
$4.02 to $12.89 |
| Law firm |
lawyer |
1,300 |
Low |
$10.98 to $38.86 |
| Moving company |
moving company |
1,300 |
Medium |
$14.82 to $47.80 |
| Pest control |
pest control |
1,000 |
Medium |
$12.27 to $54.32 |
| Real estate agent |
real estate agent |
1,000 |
Low |
$3.38 to $24.05 |
| Landscaping |
landscaping |
880 |
Low |
$3.18 to $18.39 |
| Cleaning service |
cleaning service |
590 |
Medium |
$7.11 to $25.00 |
| Accountant |
accountant |
480 |
Low |
$8.87 to $54.94 |
| Roofing |
roofer |
390 |
Low |
$16.86 to $65.00 |
| HVAC |
hvac repair |
390 |
Low |
$41.77 to $125.00 |
| Insurance agent |
insurance agent |
170 |
Low |
$10.46 to $32.08 |
| Painting |
house painter |
40 |
Low |
No figure |
Monthly Google searches for Austin, TX, measured with KeywordQuasar on 2 November 2026. Restaurants are left out because a restaurant is not a service someone hires for a job. There was no figure for "chiropractor" in this snapshot.
Read this table as a first sort, not a ranking. Each row is one keyword, and the keyword a trade's customers use most is not always the trade's name. "house painter" gets 40 searches a month in Austin, but nationally "house painters near me" gets 110,000 a month against 6,600 for "house painter". For heating and cooling, "ac repair" has 368,000 US searches a month against 74,000 for "hvac repair". Before you write a trade off, check its main phrases one by one.
Step 2: Read the bid range as willingness to pay
Search demand tells you the market is there. The bid range tells you whether businesses in it already pay to win customers online, which is the clearest sign they will understand what SEO is worth.
In Austin, HVAC has only 390 searches a month for "hvac repair", yet the top of its bid range, $125.00, is the highest in the table. Plumbing pairs real demand, 3,600 searches, with bids up to $113.13. Compare hair salons: 5,400 searches, but bids of $0.90 to $3.16. A salon can be a fine client, but each click is worth far less to it than to a plumber, which limits what it will want to pay for SEO.
The competition band is about ads, not rankings. "Low" means relatively few advertisers bid in that place; it does not mean the trade's websites are easy to outrank.
Step 3: Compare cities for the trade you pick
Once a trade looks promising, check it in several cities. For "hvac repair", Houston has the most searches of the cities in our snapshot outside New York and Los Angeles, at 720 a month. Las Vegas has 320, but the highest bid range of all 20 cities, $74.17 to $192.66, with Phoenix close behind at $63.34 to $184.83. Where ad clicks cost that much, HVAC companies have a strong reason to want organic rankings.
KeywordQuasar's "best cities" list shows where LeadQuasar holds the most businesses of a niche: the top three cities on a free search in the US, UK and Canada, ten on Plus and fifty on Max. Plus and Max also compare one keyword across several cities side by side. The trade reports, such as HVAC keywords and plumbing keywords, show the snapshot's 20 US cities for each trade.
Step 4: Count the businesses you could sell to
Demand is half the decision. The other half is supply: how many businesses of that trade are in the city, and how many of them look like they need help.
For any keyword and place, KeywordQuasar shows how many businesses of that kind LeadQuasar holds there, how many have no website and how many have an email address. On Plus and Max it opens the full lead list in one click. Those two counts suggest the pitch:
- Many businesses with no website: sell a website first, with local SEO built in.
- Most have websites, and bids are high: sell SEO, and show them what their clicks cost in ads.
- Few businesses, high demand: each client is valuable, so a more personal approach is worth the time.
We don't print business counts here because they change every day as LeadQuasar adds businesses; the tool shows the live figure.
Step 5: Pitch with the client's own number
A plumber in Austin may not know that people there search for "plumber" 3,600 times a month, or that advertisers pay up to $113.13 for one of those clicks. That one sentence, about their own city, makes a better opening than any general claim about SEO. KeywordQuasar's share link and image carry the headline number, so you can drop it into an email.
From there, LeadQuasar's CRM and email sequences from your own Gmail are in the same account as the list. The KeywordQuasar feature page shows what each plan includes.
What this method does not tell you
- How hard each keyword is to rank for. KeywordQuasar has no keyword difficulty score and no backlink data. For that, Semrush and Ahrefs are the tools; see our Ahrefs vs Semrush comparison.
- Demand for every phrase in every city. The snapshot measured one keyword per trade in each city. Check the phrases that matter for the trade you choose.
- Exact figures for small places. A small town's figure is less precise than a big city's, because fewer searches go into it, so read it as a guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best niche for a local SEO agency?
One with real search demand in your city, businesses that already pay for clicks, and enough of them to pitch. In Austin, plumbing combines 3,600 monthly searches for "plumber" with bids up to $113.13, in figures from 2 November 2026. Check your own city before choosing.
How do I find clients for my SEO agency?
Choose a trade and a city from search demand, then list the businesses of that trade there, starting with those that have no website or a weak one. Open with their own city's search figure. KeywordQuasar shows both the figure and the businesses.
Do I need Semrush or Ahrefs to choose a niche?
Not to choose one. Choosing needs demand by city and the businesses there. You need a full SEO platform once you start the work, for keyword difficulty, backlinks and audits.
Are the search figures Google searches?
Yes. KeywordQuasar's figures are monthly Google searches for the place you type, always the latest month's, and LeadQuasar does not adjust them. Like every keyword tool's, they are rounded.
Find a niche and its clients in one search: try a free search on KeywordQuasar, with no account.
