Positioning your website, content, and business well in internet search engines is one of the best strategies for reaching people and attracting new audiences, and that's the main goal of SEO.
When we talk about SEO, we can refer to its global form, or "normal SEO" as many call it, and the increasingly famous and widely used Local SEO . Its differences and particularities are still sources of doubt and confusion.
To succeed with each of these strategies, it's necessary to understand them, and that's why we're going to talk a little more about these two SEO possibilities so that your relevance grows more and more each day in search engines. Follow along!
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a set of practices used to make it easier for search engines, such as Google, to find your website and display it to those using these search engines in their various searches.
When we talk about best practices, we're talking about optimizing websites, blogs, and web pages used by your company. These improvements involve content, images, speed, code, and many other possibilities to make your website increasingly relevant and high-quality, ensuring consumers receive value when interacting with you.
Investing in SEO is a way to attract people and increase your audience without investing in ads, but rather in content and relevance, and this makes all the difference to the results. After all, the number one result on Google gets 27.6% of all clicksand has a CTR 10 times higher compared to the number 10 result.
To achieve top rankings and appear at the top for customers, Google uses its search engines, which operate in three stages to rank websites:
- Crawling: Search engines crawl the content of the web using robots. These robots follow the paths indicated by the links and search for new pages and updates.
- Indexing: Once crawled, the pages are indexed, meaning they are added to a kind of search engine index. There, the pages are organized according to a series of collected information, such as page load time, keywords, images, text, and more.
- Ranking: At this stage, the order in which the results are displayed is defined based on their relevance and quality.
There are over 200 ranking factors in Google's algorithm, and these factors are constantly updated with the goal of always offering the best quality to the user.
What is Local SEO?
Now that you know a little more about the basics of SEO – and understand that we've been quite simplistic in our definition here, as there are many other possibilities, techniques, and strategies related to it – we can talk more about one type of SEO: Local SEO.
While search functionality is very important within search engines, it's even more crucial when we talk about "near me." Users not only want quick and efficient answers, but also solutions, products, and services that are physically close by.
Therefore, Local SEO also aims to optimize your content for search engines, but here ittakes into account the geolocation of the device performing the search.
In other words, here SEO relies on the geographic component to deliver relevant solutions to users that are near their location.
One of the differences between "Normal SEO" and Local SEO is the ranking factors for searches. In this category, the search engine uses three main pillars to classify content and businesses: relevance, proximity, and prominence.
Relevance
The criteria consider how relevant your business is to offer users; therefore, keywords are the main ways for search engines and consumers to understand you and why your business is the best.
It's very important to have a Google My Business listing with all the updated information that makes a difference, because that's how Google will match you with information.
Proximity
Proximity is the criterion that analyzes the distance of the business from the user or the location term they are searching for. The closer to the user, the more Google believes the greater the tendency for speed and ease of use, which is why it is so relevant for Local SEO.
Reputation
Reputation refers to the level of popularity of your business in the region, that is, the brand's reputation. At this point, it's necessary to talk about customer reviews, as these are crucial points for a brand's success or failure. After all, this is the opinion of those who have already used your product and service, and this is a major indicator of quality, both for Google and for other consumers.
Benefits of Local SEO
You've already got a sense of how local SEO makes a difference for businesses and how it's a great opportunity for results, haven't you? To make this strategy even clearer, we've gathered some – of the many – benefits of this type of optimization:
- It increases regional visibility: this is clearly the great benefit of an SEO strategy, after all, optimization helps to better position the company among its competitors in the region, making the company better known – without spending on media and advertising.
- It encourages action: people want "help" in making their decisions, and by having Google and other consumers, through reviews, talking about the company, the decision-making process in the consumer journey becomes faster and more assertive. Research from Think With Google says that 76% of people who perform a local search visit the business within 24 hours, and 28% of these searches result in a sale.
- Attract a new audience: local searches are a way for people to discover new businesses near them, and therefore, this is a great opportunity to reach people with just a few clicks.
Google My Business
We can't talk about Local SEO without talking about Google My Business, as this is the main ranking factor for this type of SEO. At the top of the search results, Google displays information extracted from the Google My Business profile.
A complete Google My Business profile helps a business achieve a top 3 ranking in the local pack, and according to Moz, an optimized profile on the platform impacts the Local Pack by 25.12%.
It's worth mentioning that the Local Pack is the section of Google search results that shows the 3 most relevant local businesses for a locally intent search.
What is the difference between SEO and Local SEO?
Now that we've discussed the two types of SEO, is the difference clear? It's worth emphasizing that the main difference lies in the location, delivery, and target audience of your content.
While SEO aims to increase the quantity and quality of a website, blog, or any type of content, Local SEO actually showcases solutions, products, or services and provides options for consumers, positioning your business as a relevant alternative among competitors.
Here, in addition to delivering content, Google and the user are searching for more information about the final product and are already at a different point in the journey, resulting in increasingly higher visibility and, most importantly, higher conversion rates because the business reaches an audience with clear purchase intentions.
Having good local SEO is about being in the right place at the right time, and this is called ZMOT, the Zero Moment of Truth. This is the discovery research stage that precedes the purchase decision, and here people rely on reviews, experiences, and existing content to make their decision.
In other words, ZMOT is the moment when the consumer researches and evaluates options to make their decision, and that's why being well-prepared and positioned at this stage makes all the difference.
It's clear how crucial local SEO is for business results, isn't it? Investing in this strategy is a turning point for companies and their deliverables, and there are many ways to deliver the best SEO and position yourself on social media – without investing in ads.
How clear was SEO and Local SEO to your business, and how are these strategies designed and actually being used for your success? Now that you know more about the topic, learn how to create a Local SEO strategy to attract customers to your store!
If you own a physical business and want to rank higher in Google searches, count on Harmo to help you sell more through Local SEO.