Local SEO and traditional SEO have a lot of overlap. Search Engine Land informs us that SEO is developing website content to drive more relevant search results. SEO makes sure that the people who get your website after a search are the ones who want to be there. In the early days of the internet, the quality of the results was nowhere near as important as the quantity. Over time, however, companies that used websites as their primary interface with customers began to realize that qualified searchers who came to their pages produced better results. These buyers already wanted to be on the site and it was more likely that they would buy something they had already been looking for. SEO is the backbone of most website marketing strategies today, but local SEO and traditional SEO differ in a few ways. Here we examine the details of these differences.
What is Local SEO?
The best way to think about local SEO is optimization geared towards a specific geographic location. When someone searches a city or state, they get localized search results along with their keywords. Google has developed a way to provide users with relevant search results close to their current geographic position. Local search engine optimization is a marketing method that companies can use to register themselves in a local directory and present their companies on Google Maps. However, it can be much more than just this simple update. Local Search Engine Optimization can associate a specific company with a locale and make sure it shows up when searching for company keywords in that city.
What about traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO is more comprehensive than local SEO. Instead of focusing on one place, traditional SEO looks at intentions and keywords. The aim is for the company to rank for a specific keyword on the first page of search results in Google. As WebFX mentions, 68% of website search results clicks are for the top five results. Because of this, traditional SEO is an essential factor in many companies’ marketing strategies. However, ranking on a given keyword can be quite costly. Some keywords have more competition than others, and the research and content production required to maintain this top 5 score point can be overwhelming for smaller businesses.
More similarities than differences
Immediately, most readers would notice a stark overlap in local and traditional search engine optimization. Since both focus on building the online presence for a particular term or keywords, the similarities between their methods are obvious. Both local and traditional SEO focus on the same basic ideas – relevant content marketing, keyword-oriented websites, and white hat link building, to name a few. The only significant difference between the two is in their area of focus. Traditional SEO doesn’t try to be limited to one geographic location, but local SEO depends on that limitation.
Companies looking to qualify for local SEO can rely on Google My Business or Yahoo Business to list their business locations. These directories also offer great backlinks for building the local SEO authority they need to rank high in search results. Local SEO backlinks can also be developed by contacting other local businesses for guest posting and features. Similarly, traditional SEO can go further with the same goal. A company could develop a relationship with an affiliate to post content that would benefit both companies’ SEO services.
Success starts with understanding
SEO is not a complex field, but it takes a lot of work to get it right. Search engines are finicky, and as the algorithms for ranking them get more complex, business owners may need to hire others who specialize in SEO to help rank based on local results. In order for local or traditional SEO to work at any level, the business owner needs to understand what it is doing and how it is doing it. This basic understanding gives them the benefit of making decisions about their local SEO strategy to grow their business using the internet as a stepping stone.
Published on March 20, 2021