Find Leads Search Strategies Explained — Industry, Issues, Location, Competitor Gap, and Custom

A deep dive into all five Find Leads search strategies: when to use each one, what inputs they need, and how they affect the leads you get back.

The LeadRanks Team 2 min read August 10, 2026Find Leads

Find Leads offers five search strategies, each designed for a different prospecting scenario. Choosing the right one is the single biggest factor in lead quality.

Search Strategies Explained

Industry Strategy

Best for: targeting a specific vertical — plumbers, dentists, real estate agents, law firms, etc.

The Industry strategy searches for businesses in a given industry using search engine queries like "plumber near me" or "best dentist in [city]". It's the most straightforward strategy and a great starting point for new users.

Input: An industry name (e.g., "Plumber", "Legal Services", "Real Estate"). Optionally pair with a location to narrow results.

Specific Issues Strategy

Best for: targeting businesses with known technical problems — missing SSL, broken links, missing meta tags, slow pages, etc.

Instead of searching by industry, this strategy queries for pages likely to have the issues you specify. For example, searching for "missing meta descriptions" across law firm websites surfaces businesses with a concrete, fixable problem.

Input: One or more SEO issues from the checklist, plus an optional industry or location filter.

Location Strategy

Best for: saturating a geographic market — "find me every business with SEO problems in Brisbane."

The Location strategy aggressively targets a specific city or region, combining multiple search queries to cast the widest possible net within that area.

Input: A location and an optional industry filter.

Competitor Gap Strategy

Best for: finding businesses that rank alongside a competitor you want to benchmark against, or finding leads in a competitor's market.

This strategy analyzes the search landscape around a keyword or competitor domain and surfaces businesses that are visible in the same space but likely have SEO weaknesses.

Input: A keyword (e.g., "cafe Melbourne") or a competitor domain (e.g., "competitor.com.au").

Custom Strategy

Best for: maximum control — combine keywords, issues, industries, and locations into a single targeted search.

The Custom strategy lets you mix and match all available parameters. Want to find "Melbourne cafes with broken links and missing SSL"? Custom strategy can do that.

Input: Any combination of keywords, issues, industry, and location.

Strategy tip: If your first search returns too few leads, switch strategies. An Industry search that returns 3 leads might return 30 with a broader Location search.

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