A few days ago, we went through how to start your local marketing research and how to better compete online.

As we discussed, your local marketing will continue to “suck” if you don’t use the right keywords.

In this post, I want to give you a sneaky little trick to pull a list of really juicy keywords right from your competitors websites.

After the last exercise, you should have a list of the competitors you are competing with online in your local area. (Here is the link to that post if you didn’t read it..http://www.marketfin.com/does-your-local-marketing-suck/ )

Re-cap, after the last effort you should have a list of all the websites fighting for eyeballs in your local search space.

Ok, time for a little local marketing espionage:

Step 1) Visit your competitors website in your favorite web browser

Step 2) In your web browser, Go to View | Page Source

Step 3) In the middle of all the crazy looking HTML programming, look for the text that says:

“<title>” and “<meta keyword=>”

Each of these will be followed by a list of keywords that your competitors are using. Yep, right there out in the open. Pay attention to how they are used.

DON’T just copy and paste these on your website. You can use these keywords to maximize your results quickly, especially if yours are blank.

Many small businesses have a blank title or keyword tags. At a minimum have your web developer add those local terms that make the most sense. Including your business name as well is always a good idea.

Repeat this step for the top competitors on your list and you will be well on your way to competing head to head in your local online marketing space. You can use this keyword list for optimizing your website, integrating into your online blog or website content, and Pay Per Click or Social Media campaigns.

As always, let me know if I can help!

Go Target, Attack, and Profit,

Matt