While both SEO and Local SEO play an active role in potential customers discovering your business online, knowing the key differences between them can help you decide which one to invest in.
Depending on the type of your business and its needs, you may opt for one or the other, or maybe even both, as each has different purposes.
In any case, you should be up-to-date with the relevant digital marketing trends and discover if they could potentially make your online campaigns more effective, lead to more leads and sales, increase foot traffic, or your search engine results ranking.
So let’s start by comparing the two.
SEO vs. Local SEO
While both traditional and local SEO share the same goal of making your website visible in online search results, there is a difference when it comes to what they focus on in helping you achieve that.
Traditional SEO works on a national or global level and it’s all about your website’s content optimization.
Local SEO, however, makes use of your geographical location and looks to connect you with searchers in your particular area. This means that when a potential customer googles the type of products or services you offer in their vicinity, your business will appear higher in the results on Google Maps and other location-based apps. This requires location-based optimization.
Both SEO and local SEO have the same goal of improving your online presence for search engines. However, in doing so, they focus on different ranking factors. When combined, these digital marketing strategies significantly improve your chances of connecting with more potential customers. To help you get the best out of these services and formulate the best strategies, hiring an SEO Agency can prove fundamental in helping you to determine the right marketing techniques for your business.
Let’s get into more detail on both.
Local SEO
The factors that are crucial to your local SEO are your business’s location, type, and the online reviews your business receives testifying to its quality.
Therefore, if you are in the spa center business in New York and a potential customer searches online for “best spa center in London”, spa centers employing local SEO would come up higher in their search results. Local SEO makes use of each piece of information given: “London”, “spa center”, and “best”, and this has numerous benefits for your online marketing.
Local ranking can be boosted by citations, on-site optimization, content marketing, link building, and reputation management.
To be locally recognized and relevant, local SEO is a must. It can drive more foot traffic to your business and offer you more leads and sales. Also, it can help you grow trust within your community resulting in long-term customer loyalty.
Not sure how to go about local SEO on your own? Hiring an SEO company in the UK can be of great help.
Traditional (Organic) SEO
Traditional or organic SEO is about relevance and trust. It helps you position yourself better in search engine results if you provide searchers with the most relevant and useful information.
An organic search might look like “how to replace airtag battery”. As organic SEO relies on keywords and links, you can optimize your website content to use the words people tend to type into search engines. This will enable them to find your type of services or products. This creates a connection between what is searched for and your website, making your content relevant to Google and other search engines.
Backlinks can help considerably, too. If you have other websites that deal with similar topics link to you, Google will recognize your website as authoritative and direct users to you.
Traditional SEO offers many benefits. It targets relevant traffic, no ads are needed, it helps your PR, and you can outrun your competition.
The Summary of Differences
The differences between these two digital marketing strategies come down to:
Organic vs. Local Searches
Organic searches tend to come from people who need specific information: an answer to a question, instructions on how to do something, etc. Local searches are usually made by people who are looking to shop for a product or service nearby. They are more purchase-oriented.
Search Engine Results
Organic SEO is focused on helping a website rank higher in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. Local SEO, however, helps you rank higher in Google Maps, Apple Maps, Yelp searches, Bing Places, etc.
Organic vs. Local Content
Organic SEO places importance on topics and keywords, while local SEO functions on location-based information such as town, city, state, country, postal/zip code, street address, etc.
Organic Links vs. Local Citations
Organic citations testify to your content being authoritative enough to be cited by websites covering similar topics. This gives your website the status of relevance and ranks it higher in search engine results.
Local citations are achieved through online mentions, including your business name, address, and phone number. These are usually found in local business directories and review websites. When it comes to backlinks, they should come from relevant websites with anchor text including keywords.
Conclusion
Both organic and local SEO help your business rank higher in search engine results. Investing in both would be an ideal solution for any type of business that is looking to obtain local customers.
You can achieve relevance and authority by offering quality and useful content. In addition, you can enable people to locate you and visit your business in hopes of making a purchase.
When combined, organic and local SEO can help your business thrive both online and locally.