The usual advice for finding blog ideas is to start from your trade's name and write about whatever people search for most. I wanted to see if that holds up, so I took three small-business trades, pulled the 300 most-searched US Google phrases containing each trade's name, and sorted every phrase by who was probably typing it.
For two of the three trades, most of those searches didn't come from customers.
Roofers: the advice works
216 of the 300 phrases containing "roof replacement" are questions a homeowner asks while deciding. "roof replacement cost" alone gets 18,100 US searches a month. The rest is price by material, whether insurance covers it, how long the job takes.
A roofer who writes about the trade's top searches ends up writing for customers. Fine.
Bookkeepers: the advice sends you to the wrong audience
203 of the 300 phrases containing "bookkeeper" come from people who want to become a bookkeeper. Jobs ("bookkeeper jobs" is 27,100 a month), salary, courses, certification.
A bookkeeping firm following the top searches ends up with a careers blog its clients never read. Only 36 of the 300 phrases are questions a business owner asks, led by "what does a bookkeeper do" (4,400) and "bookkeeper vs accountant" (2,900).
Dog groomers: the big numbers aren't blog topics
The biggest searches are "dog grooming near me" (450,000 a month) and grooming supplies (40,500). Neither is a post. Google answers "near me" with a map, so that's a Google Business Profile problem. Supplies searches come from people grooming their own dog.
The real customer questions are smaller and more specific, and the largest group is by breed. "cocker spaniel dog grooming" and "poodle dog grooming" get 12,100 a month each. That's more than three times "dog grooming prices" (3,600).
How I counted
US Google data from DataForSEO's keyword suggestions, pulled 10 November 2026, top 300 phrases by monthly volume for each term. Each phrase went into one group by its wording:
- "jobs", "salary", "course": job seekers
- "near me", "services", "company": looking for a provider
- "cost", "how long", "vs", "insurance", breeds, roofing materials: customer questions
- "supplies", "clippers", "software": DIY and products
"Other" holds the bare term, chain and city names, and unrelated meanings like RV roofs. I checked the groups by hand, but some phrases fit two groups, so treat the counts as close, not exact. Volumes are Google's rounded monthly averages.
The questions that turned into posts
Google reports close variants ("roof replacement cost" and "cost of roof replacement") as one number, so each question is counted once.
| Business | What customers search (US/month) | A post only that business could write |
|---|---|---|
| Roofer | roof replacement cost (18,100) | What a roof replacement cost our customers in [town] this year, from the last 20 quotes |
| Roofer | asphalt shingle roof replacement cost (8,100), metal roof replacement cost (720) | Shingles or metal: the price difference on a typical house here |
| Roofer | how long does a roof replacement take (1,600) | Day by day: what happens during a replacement and what you need to move |
| Roofer | does homeowners insurance cover roof replacement (880) | When insurance paid for a new roof and when it didn't, from claims we worked on |
| Dog groomer | cocker spaniel / poodle (12,100 each), shih tzu (6,600) dog grooming | One post per breed you see often: the usual cut, how often to book, the cost |
| Dog groomer | dog grooming prices (3,600) | Our prices by size and coat, and what makes a groom cost more |
| Dog groomer | how much to tip for dog grooming (3,600) | What we tell customers who ask about tipping |
| Bookkeeper | what does a bookkeeper do (4,400) | What a bookkeeper does each month for a five-person company |
| Bookkeeper | bookkeeper vs accountant (2,900) | Which one a small business needs first |
| Bookkeeper | how much does a bookkeeper cost (720) | Monthly cost by number of transactions and accounts |
The last bookkeeper volume is from Serpstat's US database, since DataForSEO didn't return it. Same day.
Every post on the right uses something only that business has: its quotes, its jobs, its price list, the breeds that come through its door. I think that's the only way a small company gets anywhere against national articles already ranking. A local roofer won't outrank a home-improvement publisher on the national average price... but real prices from the last twenty jobs in town is a better answer for the person about to ask for a quote.
Five shapes the questions take
- Price. "how much", "prices", "is it worth it". Usually the biggest group and the one most businesses avoid. A range with the reasons it moves is enough.
- Comparison. "X vs Y". Bookkeeper or accountant, shingles or metal.
- Process and time. "how long does it take", "what happens during". Asked right before booking.
- Who pays. Insurance, financing, permits. Searched when the price worried them.
- Their specific case. A breed, a material, a house type. Small volume, very ready to buy.
Some popular searches belong somewhere other than the blog. "Near me" is won on the map. Job and salary searches belong on a careers page if you're hiring. DIY and product searches only matter if you sell the product.
Free sources for the first twenty questions
No paid tool needed for this part:
- Sent email and call notes. Three months back, every question that came up more than once, in the customer's words. "Do you take the old roof off?" beats "Our roof removal process" as a title.
- Google autocomplete. Type the service plus "how much", "how long", "vs", "does", "should I". Then "People also ask" and related searches on the results page.
- Reviews, yours and competitors'. Anything a reviewer says surprised them is a question nobody answered beforehand.
- Whoever answers the phone. Ask which three questions they're tired of answering.
- Search Console, once the blog has been live a few months. A query you show up for without a dedicated post is the next post.
Three filters before a question becomes a post
- Is the person asking someone who might pay? "bookkeeper jobs" has 27,100 searches and zero value to a bookkeeping firm.
- Can you answer it with something of your own? If the answer reads the same from any company in the country, it won't stand out.
- Is there an obvious next step on your site? Price post to quote form, breed post to booking page.
The owners asking on r/smallbusiness and r/localseo why nobody reads their posts mostly fail the first one. The posts cover what the business wanted to say, not what its customers search.
I pulled these numbers for a post on the blog of JustBlogged, the blogging platform I build. Only the roofer list matched what the usual advice would have given.
