When most people start doing SEO, it feels like guesswork.
You pick a few words that sound right — like “plumber” or “auto repair” — and hope Google connects the dots. But Google doesn’t work like that.
It doesn’t fill in the blanks or assume your “HVAC services” page is the most relevant to someone searching for “emergency AC repair.”
Google prioritizes the result that matches the exact words people type — and downranks or completely ignores the rest.
That’s why your business may stay invisible — not because your website is bad, but because it doesn’t use the same language your customers do.
In this video, I’ll break down the exact process of finding the keywords people are typing into Google and show you how to build the right pages around them, so Google understands what you do and where you do it.
Introducing the Framework
The good news is, finding the right local keywords doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, every successful local SEO strategy starts with the same simple structure – or the Keyword Blueprint.
It’s built on just three steps: Services, Modifiers, and Locations.
Once you put those three pieces together, you’ll know exactly which phrases real people in your area type right before they call a business like yours.
Services
The first step of your keyword blueprint is defining your services — what you actually want to show up for. You can follow along using the template I’ve prepared for you. It’s a simple spreadsheet you can copy into your own drafts and fill in as we go. The link is in the description. Also to make it easier to understand, I’ll use a kitchen remodeling contractor as an example throughout this video.
In the first column called Services, list every main type of work you do Think in terms of real jobs, not marketing phrases. For a kitchen remodeling company, that list might include::
If you struggle to remember everything, do a quick check: Open a few competitor websites and look at their Services menu — it’s a great simple way to spot something you forgot. Add everything you genuinely offer — even smaller jobs like cabinet refacing or kitchen sink replacement. Each one can be a separate opportunity to show up in search. The services you end up with are your foundation keywords — the building blocks that we will expand with modifiers and locations next.
Modifiers
Now that you’ve listed your services, it’s time to expand them with modifiers — the words that shape how people actually search. Modifiers are small, but powerful. They turn a broad phrases into specific, high-intent searches like:
Each of those tells Google exactly what kind of customer is behind the search.
Here’s how to find the ones that matter for your business. Let’s take the phrase “kitchen remodeling” as the core keyword and brainstorm a few possible modifiers. Think about what customers usually ask for or care about most — like price, size, style, or urgency. Write a few ideas next to that service. I’ll use affordable, modern, small and luxury.
Now open Google Keyword Planner. You will find it inside Google Ads — it’s free and you don’t have to run ads to use it. Click “Discover new keywords,” then paste in your service along with the modifiers you just came up with. And click “Get results.” Keyword Planner will generate hundreds of related search terms — real phrases people type into Google. You’ll see suggestions like “small home kitchen remodel”, “inexpensive kitchen remodel” and so on. Go through the list and save the ones that fit your business.
Repeat this process for every service in your list and add the modifiers you collected next to each core service in the template.
Verify Your Keywords
Before you start adding locations, let’s make sure people are actually searching for those keywords. To do that, open Google’s Forecast tool inside Keyword Planner. Click “Get search volume and forecasts,” paste in all your service + modifier phrases, and hit “Get results.”
Set your Location to a larger area — your county or DMA region.
This gives Google enough data to estimate how often people search for those services in your broader market. If your Google Ads account already has some spend history, you’ll see exact monthly numbers.
And if it’s a new account, Google will only show ranges:
Once you’ve checked the data, remove the keywords with no demand and keep the keywords that show consistent search activity. These are the ones worth building into your local pages in the next step.
Locations
Now that you’ve confirmed which keywords people actually search for, it’s time to connect them to the cities you serve. Go back to your template and find the column called Locations.
Start with your main city — the one where your business is based — and then add every nearby city where you take projects. For example, if your company is in Chicago, you might add Naperville and Aurora.
Next, combine your verified service + modifier keywords with those cities. Each phrase becomes a real local search term you can build a page around. Do this for every major city you want to target.
The goal is to create a list of all the location-specific phrases that represent real demand — one for each page you plan to build. When you’re done, your sheet will have a complete keyword map, ready to guide your local service pages.
Pages
The next step is to turn those keywords into real, high-quality pages. Each city-specific page should focus on one main service + modifier + city combination you verified earlier. Make sure that exact phrase appears in:
Some modifiers will mean roughly the same thing — for example, “affordable” and “budget”. In that case, use just the stronger one (the one with more demand) as your primary keyword.There’s no need to build separate pages for every small variation. You can still include the others naturally in H2 headings or within the text.
And the page has to look good and convert, not just rank. A wall of text stuffed with keywords might get traffic for a while, but it won’t get calls.
The best approach is to create one strong service page layout and reuse that template for each service and city, adjusting content where needed.
Outro
Once these pages are live, they’ll start bringing you consistent traffic — especially in the less competitive markets. But if you’re really want to take it to the next level, there is a missing piece: backlinks.
Backlinks are simply links from other websites that point to yours. They tell Google that your site is trustworthy and worth showing higher in search results. I’ll cover how to build strong local backlinks in one of my next videos, so make sure to subscribe if you don’t wanna miss it.
And if you need help with your SEO, send me a message using the link below — I will check your site presonally and tell you exactly what needs work..