SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising are two essential digital marketing tactics for your junk removal business. Both require the use of relevant keywords to reach homeowners and business owners who need junk removed from their property.
A successful junk removal SEO campaign involves the creation of unique website content that is based on keywords that correspond to the services that your junk removal company offers. Local SEO involves getting your business to rank high in the search engine results in your local area for services you offer. Keywords can help you to rank, and can also help you to round out your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) to let a potential customer know that you meet their service requirements.
Google Ads for junk removal involves the setting up of a Google Ads campaign that will get your advertisement in front of a potential client precisely at the time they're searching for your junk removal services. You will use the keywords to trigger your Google Ad when someone goes to Google and enters a search term related to your services.
Both methods can get people to visit your company website where you'll be able to convert a qualified lead into a paying customer.
Search for Your Personal Keywords
In this post, I will first go over the techniques and tools you can utilize yourself to locate additional keywords for your junk removal marketing efforts.
Use Our Search Keyword List
At the end of this article, I will give you 83 keywords related to junk removal services. You can review, modify and then use keywords relevant to your business in your own search engine optimization marketing campaigns. It is also possible to utilize these keywords as a basis for developing SEO optimized content than can bring in free clicks to your junk removal website.
Notice that in every example, I use 1 seed keyword - like "junk removal". This is a reasonable place to start, but you'll want to dig much deeper into your own services when using these tools. Plug in terms like “trash pickup”, “mattress removal”, “junk removal cost” to get additional keyword ideas that can be used for both SEO and PPC.
KWFinder is a paid tool which starts at about $29/month, but they do have the option of a free trial for 10 days.
Enter your keywords, location, and language into KWFinder, and it will return a bunch of valuable data that can be useful for SEO as well as PPC purposes. While the actual data won't be 100% accurate (only Google has access to 100% accurate search data) however, the information will assist you in choosing the right keywords.
Mangools KWFinder results for "junk removal"
In this case, we chose "junk removal" as the keyword, and then set the place of operation in the format "Chapel Hill, NC" (1). By default, it shows Related Keywords (2).
Also, you can switch between "Autocomplete" or "Questions". Making content for your website based on Google Autocomplete or Questions is a fantastic SEO Strategy. These are usually lower volume keyword phrases which generally aren’t that challenging to rank for - yet they can still help in bringing free traffic to your website.
Keyword Table (Left Panel)
Below the search results are the keywords found in the table of keywords.
Keywords (2) - These are the terms you could want to research for use in paid search or SEO campaigns.
Search (3) - This is the monthly average volume of searches for the past 12 months based on the parameters of the search (searches for "junk removal" for Chapel Hill, NC). It is evident that about 30 people each month search in Chapel Hill, NC for "junk removal". You’d think that number would be much higher in this location - but this is just an estimate provided by KWFinder.
CPC (4) - This is how much you will pay per click for the keyword in Google Ads. Again, using an example like the junk removal example, you'll observe that the cost per click will be roughly $24.91. This is an estimation of course, and the cost per click for your advertisement campaign will vary widely based on many factors including ad position and your location. But, based on the data, it is safe to say you can bid on "junk removal" for an estimated CPC of $24.91 will probably be more costly than bidding on "got junk prices" at $7.18.
PPC (5) - PPC shows how difficult the competition is for paid search ads. 100 is higher and indicates extremely competitive bidding. 0 indicates very little competition and likely much lower click costs. 61 is a relatively high number indicating that there are a lot of advertisers bidding on this term.
KD (6) - This is keyword difficulty and it is for SEO purposes. For junk removal, keyword difficulty is 28 - which they claim to be "Still Easy". It isn’t easy to get any keyword to rank unless you have a deliberate SEO strategy and a lot of great content on your junk removal website. The higher the KD value, the harder it will be to rank the keyword. Note that the KD isn’t supplied for most keywords on the left panel. You’ll have to click the magnifying glass to reveal those keyword difficulties.
Keyword SEO Data (Right Panel)
The right-hand panel consists of SEO information for the keyword that is highlighted in the left-hand panel. We can see the keyword difficulty highlighted once more (7) and Search Engine Results Page (8) overview. Search Engine Results Page (8) overview for the keyword will show your potential competitors who are currently ranking for the keyword. Notice that the top search result is held by junkdrs.com.
Make Lists and Export
You can make lists and export your data using this interface. This allows you to take this data and run it through your spreadsheets - or your analysis tool of choice.
Ahrefs isn’t cheap, but offers comprehensive SEO tools starting at $99/month. It is used mostly by agencies, but it could be a good fit for larger junk removal companies - or companies with multiple locations.
Once you've signed-up, you'll be able to navigate to keywords explorer and enter a seed keyword. We've entered the keyword "junk removal" (9) - and just used the default settings of United States as our location and Google as our search engine.
Enter the seed keyword into Keywords Explorer - then click on "Related Terms"
From the results page we can click on "Related Terms" (10) to get a better understanding of the keywords available.
In the following results that appear, you can see that we have 6,001 possible keywords to pick from. You can save these keywords as a list or export for offline analysis on your preferred spreadsheet.
ahrefs returns a lot of extremely useful SEO and PPC data
Here's a quick overview of some of the more important columns that might be helpful for you to find junk removal campaign keywords:
Keywords (11) - A listing of keywords you can apply to Google Ads or search engine optimization campaigns.
KD (12) - This is the keyword difficulty that is derived using proprietary methodology by ahrefs. Higher numbers are much harder to rank. The KD is a logarithmic scale, which means that the ranking for a KD of 20 is much more than double the effort to rank for keywords with a KD 10 .
Volume (13) - This is the average monthly volume of searches for the specified keyword based on the search parameters from our original search.
CPC (14) - This is the expected cost per click for PPC ads for this keyword. This is based on data provided by Google - and your results may vary significantly from this estimate.
SERP (15) - Here you will see the search engine results for the word. By clicking here you can see the top 10 competitors. This gives you some insight into who you’ll be competing against should you attempt to rank for a given keyword.
Export (16) - You can export the ahrefs database for offline analysis
Keyword Sheeter is a tool that generates keywords based on Google’s autocomplete suggestions.
We start with the "Keyword Ideas Tools" tab (17). Utilizing the default settings (18) I entered "junk removal" (19) as a seed keyword and pressed the “Sheet Keywords” button (20).
Keyword Sheeter provides results from Google Autocomplete
You can copy the results to an Excel spreadsheet. The cost of subscriptions starts at $9/month.
We’ll have more on Google Ads for junk removal companies in an upcoming post. For now, we’ll show you how to access the keyword planner tool to get keywords ideas for your SEO and search ad campaigns.
If you've already registered for Google Ads, you can access Google's Keyword Planner by going to "Tools and Settings" (21) and choosing "Keyword Planner" (22)
Accessing Google Keyword Planner
Once you're in the Keyword Planner, go to “Start with Keywords”(23). Then enter as many keywords as you can related to your junk removal services (24). Here we entered "junk removal" - but you should enter more. When you're ready, click on the "Get the Results" button (25).
Seeding keywords in Google's Keyword Planner
Below are Google results - 888 keywords in a Keyword Plan (26). In the table, you will find keywords (27) as well as the average monthly Google searches per keyword idea (28) and the top of page bidding information (29) and (30).
You can expand your results by broadening your search or by clicking the suggested keywords by Google near the top of the interface (31). You can edit or refine keywords as well as download your keywords by clicking on the appropriate link in the upper right corner (32).
Keyword Planner Results for "junk removal"
If you like what you see, you can use these keywords directly in your Google Ads campaigns.
Based on the experience of using several of the tools mentioned above, here is a starting set of 83 terms to be considered for your junk removal marketing. These keywords apply to both paid campaigns and SEO.
This isn't a complete list. Note also, that not all keywords will be relevant to your business. You should conduct your own research to find terms that are relevant to your company and add them to this list. Then apply your list to your digital marketing efforts.
Note that for paid search campaigns, you will want to add qualifiers on some of the words below.
Location qualifiers
For instance, lots of people are searching for "near to me", "my area" or where they want their junk hauled away from (e.g. "junk hauling memphis"). Therefore, for some keywords, you may wish to append city names that you service as well as the "near to me" qualifier.
Price qualifiers
There are some keywords that are associated with price. You’ll see terms like “price”, “cost”, and even “cheap”. Bidding on these keywords in paid search or optimizing for these keywords in SEO may not be the best strategy. While everyone wants to get a good deal, prospects that focus solely on price can be a headache for home services providers - including junk haulers. Good customers are likely to be willing to pay a little extra for a company that has good reviews, arrives on time, and removes the items that they have agreed to remove in a timely manner without leaving a mess behind.
Negative Keywords
We’re showing keywords that have a lot of search volume for hunk haulers. If your service doesn’t match some of these keywords, you’ll want to make them negative keywords in your paid search campaign. Using the above example about price, “cheap” is always a good candidate to be a negative keyword.
