Keyword research services that start from the jobs you want.

A keyword research project ends with a short map of the exact searches your customers type into Google, with an estimate of how many people make each one and the one page on your site that should answer it. Everything else in organic SEO is built on that map.

I start from your jobs

Before I look at search data I ask which services carry the best margin and which ones your crews have capacity for. The keyword tool comes second. I also ask what callers say when they describe the problem, because homeowners rarely use trade terms. A plumber says “hydro jetting” and a homeowner types “main line keeps backing up”. Both go on the list, and the homeowner’s wording is frequently the one with the searches behind it.

What search volume numbers can tell you

Every figure a keyword tool reports is an estimate, and the estimates get rougher as the area gets smaller. The tools give an approximate monthly figure, usually for a whole country or a metro region. For a search such as “furnace repair Santee” the real number is small enough that a tool may show nothing, even though people do make that search. So I use volume to rank searches against each other, and I don’t read any single figure as a forecast of calls.

Your own site’s data is more reliable. Google Search Console, the dashboard Google gives site owners, lists the searches your pages already appeared for and how often.

Reading the results page for intent

I run each candidate search and note what comes back: a map pack, company service pages, long articles, directories such as Yelp, or a mix. What Google already shows tells you what kind of page can rank there. If the first page is all cost guides, a short service page is unlikely to break in, and the search needs an article. If it’s a map pack and little else, the search is decided mostly by map pack ranking, and page writing won’t win it alone.

City names and “near me”

A city in the search changes which page should answer it. “Water heater replacement Oceanside” can be answered by a page about that service in that city, provided you work there and have something specific to say.

“Near me” is different. Google works out what is near from where the searcher is, so I wouldn’t expect adding those words to a page to change much.

One group of searches, one page

“AC repair” and “air conditioner repair” mean the same thing, so they are one group and belong to the same page. Splitting them across separate pages makes your own pages compete. You receive a table: each group, its rough volume, its intent, and the one page assigned to it. Groups with no page become candidates for new content. Where those pages sit and how they link together is site architecture.

What only measurement can settle

No keyword list shows whether you’ll rank, or whether a search brings callers who book. Difficulty scores are each tool’s own estimate, and Google doesn’t use them. The real check comes once the page is live and can be measured. If you already advertise, there’s a faster one: Google Ads reports many of the actual search terms that triggered your search ads and, with call tracking in place, which of them led to calls.