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Need some help from the family

Art, I think you are at least partially right. But if your moving to Alabama you don't want your local Home Inspectors, you want one in Alabama.

I did several searches and watched what came up and if you search with a city name one of the things that comes up is a Google Map with Home Inspectors locations on the map. Thats good for some things but I travel up to 50 miles so I won't show up in most areas I cover just using the location.

Thats why I was just asking for Key words.
 
Art Mulder said:
...What I mean is, I doubt that YOU need to worry about the zip codes, I think that the Google search will deal with that. For instance, on google maps........
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But in that instance Google has reliable geographic information to work from - i.e the map location you searched for. If you are jst making a google search then the only geographic information they have comes from your IP address. That may be enough to get the country and maybe even the state right but not a close location.

Jeff's problem is not just to find lots of people to click on his web address, it is to find people who will click on his web address and be motivated to do business with him. Gegraphy is a big part of that as far as I can see so narrowing the search may well be helpful.

If you use the adwords tools you can see how often people have searched for specific terms. Testing "Home inspector 90210" might show only a handful of searches but they may just be the handful that you want because they are looking for you rather than somebody at the other end of the country. Adwords shows an average of 90,000+ searches a month for "Home Inspector" and only 46 for "Home inspector in VA". By all means consider the first but don't forget the second because they are more likely to end up as paying customers. Remember , it costs nothing to cover a keyword that gets no traffic but if it gets one hit and yields one customer because nobody else is chasing it then it has earned its keep.
 
Jeff

I ran adwords for about a year. I have to say that for me it didn't earn its keep but that may be because I have an excellent google ranking in the main listing for the keywords that I think most relevant. I do think that it is a good sytem, just didn't work well enough for me.

Don't get blinded by volume. Somebody who clicks on your adwords link but isn't really a warm prospect is a waste of money. Similarly, unless you are willing to bid high for the most popular (traffic wise) keywords there is less advantage to being fifth in the adwords listing for a hot keyword than being first for a targetted one. Without looking I would guess thet the No1 spot for "Home Inspector" costs at least five times as much as the same spot for "Home Inspector in VA" (or PA or FL etc.....). Personally I believe that the best way to survive as a small business man is to see what all your competitors are doing and do something else. When the world zigs, zag.

Don't neglect optimizing your main listing position as well. This site - http://www.bruceclay.com - help me a lot.
 
No way do I want to appear every time someone types in just 'home inspector'. 99.99% of them are not potential clients. That point was not one I missed. ;) My keywords phrases all have location in them.

I did some searches and saw nothing pop up when I typed in local specific searches. I am assuming that I will be the only one that shows up in the paid ad section. Not a bad place to be.

Just did a search and I showed up with three other ads. Two were training and one was web site that lists Inspectors around the country. So I can't complain about that placement.
 
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