How to Do Keyword Research for Bars & Pubs

In today’s digital world, understanding your online audience is more crucial than ever for businesses of all kinds – and pubs or bars are no exception. 

“How to do Keyword Research for Bars & Pubs” will guide you through the strategic process of identifying words and phrases potential customers use when searching for a happy hour, the best dirty martini, or just a fun night out.

This article breaks down how to use keyword tools, analyze competition, and align your offerings with customer intentions. By the end, you’ll have a solid foundation to not only increase your online presence but also attract and better cater to your target market. 

What is the Point of Keyword Research for Bars & Pubs? 

It’s about understanding the language your ideal patrons are using when they’re searching for your establishment. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal patron and brainstorm words and phrases they might use to search for your pub or bar.

By understanding this language, you can better optimize your content to match these search queries, helping your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), driving more traffic to your site, and increasing the likelihood of converting this traffic into customers.

Know Your Patrons & Have a Consistent Brand Image

Before you go doing any digital marketing, you need to know who your audience is. Everyone’s not going to love your venue. Try to target everyone and you’ll miss every time.

In other words, don’t add a few meat dishes to the menu of your vegetarian restaurant to cater to carnivores.

Start by creating a profile of your ideal customer. What are their interests? What type of ambiance do they prefer – do they seek out lively places with live music, or perhaps more cozy, quiet environments? How important are factors like craft beer selections, cocktail options, or food offerings? Answering these questions will help you align your keyword strategy with the language and search terms your patrons use.

The next key piece to consider is your brand image. A consistent, well-defined brand makes it easier for people to remember and recognize you – incredibly important in today’s saturated market. From your website to your social media accounts, ensure your branding is reflected in everything you do online. This includes the keywords you choose.

Your keyword strategy and brand image should work hand-in-hand. The right keywords will draw the right audience to your pub or bar, and a venue consistent with that online brand image will keep them coming back for more. This unity leads to a powerful online presence for a thriving real-world establishment.

Free Keyword Research Tools for Pubs & Bars

Google or Bing Autocomplete

You know how Google & Bing seem to complete your sentences? All those suggestions are based on the most commonly searched phrases. Just start typing something like [your location] and “bar” and see how Google or Bing finish the search. If you want to be a real expert at it, you can type every letter in the alphabet and see what the extra options are. 

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner, although mainly intended for Google Ads, is a freely accessible tool that enables anyone to explore and analyze keywords. It provides a range of 150 keyword suggestions.

Answer the Public

Get terrific insights into the questions and phrases people are searching for online. “Answer the Public” generates visualizations of search data, presenting a wide range of related queries and providing valuable information for content creation and SEO strategies.

Ideal Keyword Categories for Bars & Pubs

Location Keywords

Start small and work your way out. Start with your street & neighborhood, then your larger area & neighboring areas, then your city and maybe even nearby cities. You could include your state, but probably only if it’s a small one.

Use them all constantly. Slather them on like you do cheese on nachos.

Music Genre Keywords

Music is a terrific keyword focal point, particularly if you host music-related events like live performances, karaoke nights, open mic nights, battle of the bands, etc.

If consistent music is part of your brand, then start with the genre: “jazz”, “rock”, “pop”, “blues”, “folk”, “country”, “rap”, “latin”, “hip-hop”, “reggae”, “soul”, “punk”, “metal”, etc.

Decades are always good too. People are highly likely to search for music from their youth, so if you’re targeting a more mature patron, you could include of 80s and 90s music in your keywords and for a younger crowd you could go for the ‘00s & ‘10s – or something like “the hottest music of [year]”

Sports & Team Keywords

Manchester United? UFC? American Football? The key is that you find a passionate smaller community in your community. If you have a lot of American expats in your neighborhood, play lots of American sports. If there are a lot of Australians then Aussie rules football and rugby may be the way to go.

If you’ve got a huge Korean community in your area, don’t forget to play the World Cup football/soccer games that Korea is in – and hold promotions to bring their fans in. A free appetizer for everyone with the team jersey on is a good way to fill a room with the true fans who have made an investment in their team. And if you’re the only bar that comes up when they search for “Where to watch Aussie rules football in Las Vegas”, then you’re sure to get some customers!

Another thing to keep in mind is that some of these international games could be at obscure times in your area. This is the perfect opportunity to bring in expats at times that your bar would otherwise be empty. As an example, there are many bars in South Korea & Japan that make a killing selling Bloody Marys & Western breakfast from 7 am on a Monday morning thanks to Super Bowl Sunday!

Cocktail | Beer | Wine | Drink Keywords

Look, you run a bar, so you don’t need us to explain this to you. Whether it’s cocktails, wine or beer there should be some unique hard to find items that bring people in. Specialize in something. From local brews to martinis to bourbon, be the best and have the best selection of one thing that your avatar patron will love.

The bigger the fanatic community in your area, the better. Is there a community of local brewers in your area? Or maybe there’s a group of Scotch aficionados?

Do you have or specialize in something that no one else has? Do you carry Opus One wines? How about a 1926 Macallan? Even if it’s just a bottle on the shelf that no one has the money to order, if it’s on brand, it could be a very good investment that gets people talking. And if they search for it and find you have it, you may just get a great customer!

Event Keywords

Everyone loves a good happy hour – so you can bet they’ll be searching for it! That may be a little competitive, so it may take some work to get to the top.

Some other common searches people are looking for in every area – Karaoke Night, Trivia Night, Open Mic Nights & more.

There are more uncommon (long-tail) keywords that you can try to own too. If you’re a Latin Bar, get serious about being at the top of “Salsa Night in [location]”, along with Bachata, Meringue and Latin Dance Night!

Build a Keyword Chart for Your Bar

Finally, here’s a little sample of what we would do for a bar just like the one we’ve used in this Free Bar Website Template.

There’s your sample. Build your own keyword chart for your establishment and keep it handy any time you’re writing marketing materials for social media, website posts, or even print posters. Keep a consistent brand!

Keyword Planning for Pubs & Bars is Never Over

Regularly monitor and update your keyword strategy. Keyword research is an ongoing process, and it’s important to stay up to date with changes in search trends and user behavior. Continuously analyze and refine your keyword list to ensure it remains relevant and effective for driving organic traffic to your pub or bar.

Remember that keyword research is just one aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy for a pub or bar. It’s also important to optimize your website, create high-quality content, and build relevant backlinks to improve your search engine rankings.