The are really only two steps to find a powerful domain for local marketing. The first thing you need to do is find a low competition, local type keywords. The second thing you need to do is find a local domain that is available. It really is as easy as that.

I am going to walk you through the process, starting with the keyword research...

Keyword Research

The first thing you want to do, is type in a search for a geographic area that you are interested in creating your local campaign within. The most natural step is to search within your local proximity, however this is not required. Remember, we are living in a global, connected world and you no longer need to live in your area to help a local business.

You could live in Canada and help local businesses in Europe, or you could reside in Seattle but help companies in New York. It does matter and I will explain more on this later.

So, the first thing I am going to do here is type a search into a keyword tool, in this case I am going to use Jaaxy (you can use any keyword tool you like). Let’s take an example niche where businesses are willing to pay a good deal of money for leads, “insurance”.

I choose a city, this case Seattle and my search begins. My first search is “seattle insurance”...

As you can see, I get some great ideas right away.

When I am looking for a domain, the most important thing I am looking for is one that has very little competition. Low competition, means easy to rank (this is really the low hanging fruit). In order for this to work, you need to get 1st page rankings.

The metric I look at in Jaaxy is QSR, this is the “quoted search results”, an internal mechanism that tells you exactly how many competing pages there are for that exact search term in Google. This is your real competition, competition data that Google no longer accurately provides (one of the main reasons Jaaxy is such a timesaver).

My goal is to aim for under 400 QSR. As you can see from the above image and denoted by the Green check mark, there are a lot of potential keywords that fit this criteria. Now that I have this data I am ready to start looking for a domain name. Let's see what I can find.

Finding an Available Domain

The next thing you need to do is see if the domain is avaiable. If the .com or the .org TLD’s are not available, then there is no point in buying a domain. These domains rank well in Google and this is for good reason.

If you think about any brand out there, Google ranks them typically at the very top of the search results. When you buy a keyword rich domain, Google is assuming that you are the owner of this brand, in particular if you own the .com domain. This means it is much easier to get rankings under a keyword if you own the domain for that associated keyword.

Google gives the most power and credibility to a .com domain. Secondary is the .org. Anything other than this will be very difficult to rank for a local domain, so save your time (and money) and focus only on these two domain extensions.

So, let the search being...

In Jaaxy, that there is a feature that allows you to check domains efficiently, but if you don't have this tool, you can use any domain search tool that you like (ex. namecheap.com). I am going to walk through all of the keywords that fit my competition criteria (under 400 QSR) to see what is available.

Domain Search #1: seattle auto insurance (No GOOD DOMAINS)

Domain Search #2: business insurance seattle (DOMAIN FOUND!)

My second search came up successful. For the small fee of less than $10, I can be the proud owner of businessinsuranceseattle.org!

I am not going to buy it though, I am going to continue through my initial list of search terms to see what else I can come up with.

Available Domains:

businessinsuranceseattle.org
seattlebusinessinsurance.org
seattlehomeinsurance.org
insuranceagenciesseattle.com
seattlecarinsuranceagent.com
seattlebusinessinsuranceagent.com
carinsuranceinseattle.org
motorcycleinsuranceseattle.com
seattleinsurancecompany.org
seattleautomobileinsurance.org
seattlehomeownerinsurance.org
commercialinsuranceseattle.com

Guess what? These domains are worth something already. These are sought after domains that I have been able to find in MINUTES, and to be honest with you, there are millions like this (Aha!!).

Here are some other generic searches you could implement to reveal a wider set of potential keywords...which will in turn, reveal domains.

ANY OCCUPATION LOCATION (ex. insurance seattle)
ANY OCCUPATION FULL LOCATION (ex. insurance seattle wa)
ANY OCCUPATION in LOCATION (ex. insurance in seattle)
LOCATION ANY OCCUPATION (ex. seattle insurance)

And then you can precede the phrase with terms and proceed with terms like:

Find OCCUPATION in LOCATION (ex. find insurance in seattle)
Best or Cheapest OCCUPATION in LOCATION (ex. cheapest insurance in seattle)
OCCUPATION in LOCATION search (ex. insurance in seattle search)

Think of all the occupations and the types of businesses out there, and then think of all the counties, cities, provinces, states, and countries out there you will quickly realize how massive this opportunity really is.

Now that I have put unlimited domain opportunities in your hand, your next step is going to be getting these domains ranked in the search engines.