Finding the keywords your customers type in Marseille

Most business websites are written in the business’s words, not its customers’. A law firm writes “support in criminal matters”, its clients type “police custody lawyer Marseille”. A tradesperson writes “renovation of wet rooms”, their customers search for “redo bathroom price”. Finding the right keywords is the foundation of all SEO.

What makes a good local keyword?

A good keyword combines three qualities: it’s searched for, it’s relevant to your business, and it reflects an intent close to purchase. “Restaurant” is heavily searched but too vague. “Fish restaurant Vieux-Port” is searched less, but the person typing it is ready to book.

The four families of searches

• Service + city: “electrician Marseille”, “real estate agency Aix-en-Provence”.
• Service + neighbourhood or district: “physio Castellane”, “hairdresser Marseille 6th”.
• “Near me” searches: Google then uses the user’s location; it’s your Google profile that does the work.
• Questions and problems: “how much does an amicable divorce cost”, “leak under the sink what to do”.

Six free sources to find your keywords

1. Your customers

Note the exact words used on the phone, in emails and at meetings. Which questions keep coming up? What terms do they use to describe their problem? It’s the most reliable source.

2. Google’s suggestions

Start typing your service into Google and look at the autocomplete suggestions. They reflect real searches. Also scroll to the bottom of the results page for “Related searches”.

3. “People also ask”

This block of expandable questions is a goldmine of ideas for your FAQ and your blog articles.

4. Google Search Console

If your website already exists, it shows the queries you appear for. Our Search Console guide explains how to make the most of it.

5. The Google Ads Keyword Planner

Accessible with a Google Ads account (with no obligation to spend), it gives orders of magnitude for search volumes and new ideas, filterable by geographic area.

6. Your competitors

Look at the pages ranking first for your main queries: their structure, the services they highlight, the questions they cover. Paid tools like Semrush or Ahrefs let you go further, but they’re not essential to get started.

Organising your keywords into pages

Group the keywords that express the same intent, then assign one group to one page. Example for a plumber:

• Homepage: plumber Marseille, plumbing and heating engineer Marseille.
• Emergency page: emergency plumber Marseille, water leak, unblocking.
• Bathroom page: bathroom renovation Marseille, walk-in shower.
• Water heater page: water heater replacement, heat pump water heater.
• Blog: price of a bathroom renovation, what to do in case of water damage.

A page shouldn’t target several different intents, and two pages shouldn’t compete for the same keyword. We develop the example of the building trades in our article on the tradesperson’s website.

What about other towns?

If you work in Aix, Aubagne or La Ciotat, you can create one page per area, provided it offers genuinely specific content: jobs completed locally, response times, local particularities. Duplicating the same page and changing the town name is a practice Google penalises.

Where to place your keywords

1. In the page’s title tag and main heading (H1).
2. In the URL, kept short.
3. In the subheadings and the first paragraph, naturally.
4. In the text of the links pointing to the page.
5. In your Google Business Profile, notably the categories and services.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, discover the 12 levers to improve your ranking. And if you want to save time, our SEO agency in Marseille carries out this keyword research for you and turns it into a page plan.