SEO for Birmingham Businesses Using Google’s Wonder Wheel

by Cathy Reisenwitz

Many Birmingham-based businesses already know the power of Google’s local search. Appearing in the 7-pack of local results can give you a huge leg up over your competition.

Let’s say you’re a Birmingham-based restaurant. Clearly you want to show up when someone Googles “Birmingham, Alabama restaurants.”

What many businesses don’t know is that you can get even more qualified traffic to your site, and to your store, by targeting longer-tail keywords. But first you’ve got to find those keywords.

That’s where Google’s Wonder Wheel comes in. Google’s Wonder Wheel is a search tool that helps you find new keywords to target. To use it, go ahead and Google “Birmingham, Alabama restaurants.” You’ll see a results page with the local listings at the top, and the regular results below. On the left rail, you’ll see a link that says “more,” click it.


This will reveal several options, one of which will be “Wonder Wheel,” click it.



The Wonder Wheel gives you ideas of phrases people search that relate to your search. Every result is clickable, and clicking reveals the searches related to the search you clicked. These ideas are phrases you can target to get more traffic, and more customers.


So with the “Birmingham, Alabama restaurants” example, some related searches are “Birmingham, Alabama restaurant coupons” and “romantic restaurants Birmingham Alabama.” These, if you have coupons or your restaurant is indeed romantic, would be great phrases for you to target with some of your site’s interior pages.

Hope that helps. If you’re a Birmingham-based business and you’d like consultation on how to get the most out of search, don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.


Cathy Reisenwitz is a Birmingham, Alabama-based blogger, SEO and internet marketer. She is addicted to her Google Reader, longs for her very own iPad, and blogs at the Birmingham SEO Blog.