With the rise of technology and the monetization of major parts of the internet, it is now more than just a fun tool for communication and entertainment. Whole careers are being built on the internet, be it social media influencing, blogging, Youtube or just to promote one’s business on the internet to the world, being a shrewd digital marketer for one’s brand is as important as the business idea.
Sometimes the person is the brand, look at the thousand influencers, they are in themselves the brand they built a business on. So now due to so much traffic on the internet, one needs to stand out but also be with the trend of the majority so as to connect with the masses.
This is where Search Engine Optimization(SEO) and Local Search Engine
Optimization(Local SEO) comes into play. SEO is to connect with the target audience and increase traffic to a website or webpage, and not just traffic but one that is also good in quality and quantity. This is based on computer algorithms and they take into account keywords, image search, video search, academic search, basically anything you input into the search box can be used to get you the perfect result and the site, the traffic.
SEO vs Local SEO
The main difference between SEO and Local SEO is the target patron, that is, in the first one, it is targetted to the global audience while in the latter one it is mainly geographically bound to the local area.
Comparison Between SEO and Local SEO
| Parameters of Comparison | SEO | Local SEO |
| Geography | National or even Global. | As the name suggests, it is geographically restricted. |
| What is it | It is a process used by individuals or businesses to advertise their products by using computer-generated algorithms and connect with their perfect consumer base, worldwide. | It is the same just on a lower scale, and it is more about growing their already known local business. |
| How does it work | It depends on the keywords search and other similar techniques used. | The same basic principle but it is more dependent on local reviews than just keywords. |
| Traffic Optimization | Creating Backlinks from other reputable websites is essential. The creation of quality in-depth content with less loading time of the website really helps in generating traffic as well. | “Google my business” is a major tool in this and so is targeting local keywords, that is with which the local people are more acquainted. Also, the creation of a location-specific website is very important. |
What is SEO?
The elemental process of an SEO is crawling, indexing, and ranking, at first when any keyword is put in a search engine, it uses internet spiders to scour the webspace for related article irrespective of the format, it might be a word document, a website, a pdf, etc. Then comes indexing where they compile all the found data and finally ranking wherein they show the most compatible links at the top and so on. So it is very essential for the company or individual to create such a website that can come up in crawl search and improve their ranking as well.
Now to improve the ranking, there is another process called keyword research, the user should know what their client or consumer is looking for, in what format, and what are the keywords are that the user can use to optimize their chances of getting discovered. The best way to know the keywords is to ask questions just like one searches on the search engine. However, one should keep in mind not to overdo the keywords in their content as overstuffing is never helpful. One should use descriptive texts but should also be concise and to the point and most importantly non-repetitive.
The brand should keep in mind to make their content mobile, tablet, and desktop friendly. As with most things, there are two sides to any situation, and as good as SEO is for business and content creators there are Black Hat tricks and White Hat tricks to improve ranking. Like the name suggests black hat tricks are not usually approved by the search engines while the White Hat tricks are better suited ethically.
What is Local SEO?
It is essentially a subcategory of SEO, it is just directed at the local market, businesses, and consumers. The basic structure thus remains the same, which is crawling, indexing, and ranking. However, here the ranking is often dependent on how good the business is offline, which is how well-known it is in real life. The “near me” feature offered by most search engines is what local SEO is all about. The traffic here is generally generated by sites like Yelp, Linked In, and even social media(Facebook marketplace). The “Google My Business” forum is really important for local SEO and also the creation of a location orientated website than just fancy keywords is essential.
The few drawbacks of this might be Fake reviews, as the competitors might put up better reviews just to generate more traffic to their businesses.
Main Differences Between SEO and Local SEO
- The geography of their service, the local SEO is mostly restricted to a certain geographical area whereas the SEO is international.
- Though both are keyword orientated, local SEO is better with a keyword that is better known locally than internationally.
- Local SEO and normal SEO may not give the same result in the same search based on the keywords used.
- Reputation management is more important in local SEO than SEO as the reviews both online and offline are a major part of their traffic.
- Location-based searches are an integral part of Local SEO.
Conclusion
The user needs to decide what or who their target audience is and optimize their website for their products based on it. It is most important to find their niche, do the research, and use the technology to their advantage.
References
- https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1203980
- http://www.chicagostyleseo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/SEO-Overview-Presentation.pdf