Many online businesses can benefit from search engine optimized traffic but have unrealistic expectations on the number of visitors localized SEO might actually produce. When localizing a search phrase with a city or regional phrase, traffic estimates for search referred visitors will become even smaller - at times so small, there are no estimates available from keyword services or data present in Google’s avg search numbers.

For example, SEO is a broad phrase and currently Nichebot is reporting a 24hr estimate of 1892 searches per day. michigan seo shows 1310, while nebraska seo estimate is 3 in 24 hours. If the paragraph format didn’t dramatically show this difference here it is:

• seo 1892/24hrs
• michigan seo 1310/24hrs
• nebraska seo 3/24hrs
• omaha seo 0/24hrs

Google’s Avg Search Volume bar graph estimate supports these numbers to some degree:

Now, 3 estimated searches per day across ALL search engines is going to make for a limited number of visitors from any one engine - even Google. But if the keyword phrase is a money phrase (converts visitor to paying customer) then putting the resources toward localized SEO could be worthwhile.

Take time with your SEO consultant to discuss not only how many visitors the keywords might bring, but if tracking is in place to identify the money keywords (Google Analytics). But that’s another article all together. Without knowing the value per visitor, you’ll never know if your marketing efforts whether by search engine optimization, pay per click, or offline methods are allowing you to be profitable.

Just remember, whether the 24 hours estimates are big or small - you’re only going to get a fraction of that traffic.