SEO vs Local SEO

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a variety of areas of a website to drive more organic traffic. This is primarily done by better aligning website content and structure so it is more relevant to users and how they are searching for information and solutions.

Local SEO is taking the above process and applying it to a local business that competes within a local market or multiple local markets.

That’s about it.

Now, some of the efforts and factors are different when dealing with local businesses, such as relevance to the local market, the reputation of the company in the local market, and proximity to the searcher.

However, many are consistent between local businesses and other types of websites and businesses, such as well-optimized site structure, high-quality content, good technical SEO and crawlability, and overall authority of the website.

Local SEO is more popular because a) there are more local businesses than there are national/international businesses and b) it’s easier and more predictable than more technical enterprise-level SEO.

So for a lack of a better description, Local SEO is a sub-set of SEO strategies, methodologies, toolsets, and tactics that are designed at providing more visibility and traffic to local-focused businesses while not necessarily touching some of the complexities and strategies that you may need to consider when dealing with international organizations, media publishing websites, eCommerce websites, and others.

What does Local SEO mean to you?