Getting content and keyword ideas for geo-targeted SEO campaigns

Let’s say you are an internet marketing agency. And let’s say your client is Iron Maiden Repair Company: a national company that repairs iron maidens* in markets throughout North America. One day the client comes to you with a serious problem:

CUSTOMER: “Hey man, what’s for dinner?”

YOU: “Hi, how have you been…”

CUSTOMER: “Awesome, look – our Columbus and Cleveland locations are really great, but we’re not doing any business at any of our other locations.”

YOU: “Sure, we can help you.”

CLIENT: “Impressive.”

YOU: “We just need to target search traffic in those other markets. Where else do they have repair shops?”

CLIENT: “Everywhere.”

YOU: “OK, well, do you include all of these locations on your website?”

CUSTOMER: “Yes, it says we offer Iron Maiden repair… Everywhere.”

You are amazing.”

Like any marketer, you want to make sure your customer is targeting specific geographic searches in all its markets. So, instead of just offering “iron maiden repair everywhere”, your client should offer “iron maiden repair in Detroit, MI”. And they also need to offer “iron maiden repairs in Chicago, IL”. They need to offer “iron maiden repairs” in each individual market. This way, no matter where customers search from, they’ll find the Iron Maiden repair company whenever their iron maidens break…or need cleaning…or whatever requires them to be fixed.

I thought this blog post was about ‘Google Sets’…

Is. So the first step in creating your geo-targeted search campaign is to create landing pages for all the cities you want to target. In this case… everywhere. Well, ‘everywhere’ is many cities. In fact, they are all of them. And if content is still king when it comes to search engine optimization (and it is), it’s going to be a lot of content.

Writing a single landing page about Iron Maiden repairing every city in North America would probably be a bit daunting and would quickly get repetitive. Since each geo-targeted page will only appear for searches in its specific market, it’s fine to have a paragraph or two of canned copy about repair services. But you still need unique information for each page. What makes Iron Maiden Repair Philadelphia different from Iron Maiden Repair Los Angeles?

The problem is that you want to create a good SEO content page that connects each city with the nuances of Iron Maiden repair, but you are missing a bridge. What other information can you include? Research is the obvious solution, but you need a starting point.

Go to Google Sets.

Google sets is an interesting tool that is part of Google labs: labs.google.com/sets. You put in a few items that are related, and Google Sets gives you more items that could belong on that list: a kind of semantic association list generator. Although the formula is officially top secret, the information likely comes from Google’s research and insights into user search habits and trends.

In this case, you enter elements related to your service and your market:

1. iron maiden

2. Repair service

3. Flint, Michigan

4. Metal bands

5. Medieval torture

*Depending on how you’re reading this post, “Iron Maiden” could refer to either of the last two items.

Google will then generate a list of new items related to the items you entered. These results may seem strange at first, but after studying them for a while, you will begin to understand them. Each of the items in the new list is related in some way to the group of terms you entered. Of course, not every suggestion will make for great information on your landing page. But if you play long enough, chances are you’ll find a gem or two.

Perhaps the list will include a new industry jargon keyword for “iron maiden repair” that customers (and the competition) in Flint, MI are using. Or maybe she’ll learn that wizards are an audience in that market that’s frequently in need of an iron maiden fix. At the very least, you’ll likely get some ideas to help create unique content for your landing pages that’s viable for search engines.