How to do keyword research for a local business

Keyword research is how you find out what your customers actually type into Google before they call someone. For a local business, it decides which pages you build, what you name your services, and which towns you write about. You can do a solid first version yourself in an afternoon. Here is how, with real Orange County search data and the tools worth your time.

What is keyword research, and how do you do it?

Keyword research is the process of finding the searches your customers use, measuring how often they happen, and deciding which page on your site should rank for each one. The goal is not a big spreadsheet. It is a short list of searches that bring buyers, matched to pages.

Here is the order we work in, and the one we suggest if you are doing it yourself:

1. List what you sell. Write down every service and product in the words a customer would use, not your internal names. "AC repair" beats "HVAC diagnostics."
2. Expand the list. Type each service into Google and note the autosuggest phrases and the People Also Ask questions. Look at the service pages of the businesses that rank above you.
3. Add location versions. Add your city, nearby cities (Newport Beach, Irvine, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach) and "near me" versions. If you serve specific areas like South Coast Metro or the Eastside, note those too.
4. Check volume and difficulty. Run the list through a tool (see below) and record monthly searches and how hard each term is to rank for.
5. Tag the intent. Mark each keyword as informational ("how to fix a leaking faucet"), commercial ("best plumber costa mesa") or transactional ("emergency plumber near me"). Transactional and commercial terms go first.
6. Look at the results page. Search each important keyword. If you see a map pack, you need a strong Google Business Profile. If you see an AI Overview or a People Also Ask box, a clear question-and-answer section helps. AI Overviews also take clicks: in Ahrefs' 2026 AI Overviews click study, which used December 2025 data, the top-ranking page earned a 58% lower average click-through rate when an AI Overview appeared. Treat those keywords as visibility plays and put your buying keywords first.
7. Map keywords to pages. Give each keyword one page: an existing page to improve or a new page to build. Two pages chasing the same term usually split your rankings.

That last step is where most do-it-yourself research stops short. Mapping turns a list into a plan, and it is the core of what our keyword research for Costa Mesa businesses delivers. Once the map exists, each page still needs the keyword placed in the right spots, which is what on-page SEO covers.

What are some examples of keywords for a local business?

Good local keywords combine a service with a place or with buying intent. A Costa Mesa dentist, for example, might target "dentist costa mesa," "emergency dentist near me," "teeth whitening newport beach" and "how much does a crown cost." Here are the main types, using a plumber as the example:

• Service + city: "plumber costa mesa," "water heater installation irvine."
• Near me: "plumber near me," "24 hour plumber near me." These are driven by the searcher's location, so your Google Business Profile matters most.
• Problem searches: "water heater leaking from bottom," "low water pressure in shower."
• Cost questions: "how much does a tankless water heater cost."
• Comparison searches: "tankless vs tank water heater."
• Neighborhood or landmark: "plumber mesa verde," "plumber near south coast plaza." Low volume, but very little competition.

Real numbers help set expectations. In Google Ads data for Orange County, "web design costa mesa" gets about 110 searches a month at a $9.59 cost per click, while "website design orange county" gets about 320 at $17.48. Most other Costa Mesa service phrases show under 10 searches a month, which Google does not report in detail. That is normal. In Ahrefs' study of long-tail keywords, keywords with fewer than 10 monthly searches make up almost 93% of its U.S. keyword database. Low reported volume does not mean nobody searches them. It means you should target the county phrase on your main service page and still write for the small local phrases, which are often easy to win.

Can I use ChatGPT for keyword research?

Yes, for brainstorming, but not for numbers. ChatGPT and similar tools are good at listing the ways people might describe a service, suggesting questions customers ask, and grouping keywords into topics. They do not have live access to Google's search volume, so any volume or difficulty figures they give you are guesses unless the tool is connected to a real data source.

AI tools also matter as a place customers search. BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of 1,002 US adults found that use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local business recommendations rose from 6% to 45% in a year. Ask an AI tool your main service questions and note which businesses it names, since those answers draw on the same web pages and reviews your keyword plan targets.

A sensible workflow is to ask ChatGPT for 50 variations of each service, including questions and comparisons, then paste that list into Keyword Planner or a paid tool to see which ones people actually search. Throw out anything with no volume and no clear buying intent. For searches limited to Costa Mesa, where volumes are tiny, our local keyword research team pairs city phrases with Orange County terms so the list still reflects real demand. Also check your own Search Console, since it shows searches you already appear for, which no AI tool can see.

What tools are used for keyword research?

The main keyword research tools are Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, Google Trends and paid tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush. You can get far with the free ones. Paid tools save time and add competitor data.

• Google Keyword Planner (free): Search volume and cost-per-click estimates, filterable by location. Inside a Google Ads account with no active spend, it often shows broad ranges instead of exact numbers.
• Google Search Console (free): The searches your site already shows up for, with clicks, impressions and average position. Look for terms where you sit on page two; those are your fastest wins.
• Google itself (free): Autosuggest, People Also Ask and related searches show the language customers use.
• Google Trends (free): Seasonality and which of two phrases is more popular in a region.
• Paid tools: Ahrefs, Semrush and data providers like DataForSEO (which we use) add difficulty scores, competitor keywords and larger lists. Most offer trials, which is enough for a one-time project.

Competitor keywords are often the most valuable list of all, because those searches have already been proven to bring someone traffic. Our guide on how to do an SEO competitor analysis walks through finding them.

Mistakes we see in local keyword research

• Chasing big national terms you cannot realistically rank for from one location.
• Ignoring "near me" searches, which depend on your Business Profile more than your website. The same BrightLocal survey found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, so reviews belong in your plan too.
• Building one page per city with the same text and the city name swapped.
• Targeting informational terms with no path to a call or quote.
• Never revisiting the list after the business adds services.

If you want the research done for you, our keyword research service starts wide, cuts down to the terms that bring buyers, and hands back a page-by-page content map. Your list then becomes the plan for any content marketing you do next.