If you’re wondering what the difference is between local SEO and traditional SEO, you’ve come to the right place! While there is considerable overlap, both require individual strategies that serve different purposes. We explore how each strategy works, which can benefit your business the most, and how to choose the right one to help boost your business online.
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What is traditional SEO?
Traditional SEO (sometimes referred to as organic SEO) involves improving the visibility and rankings of a website in the organic search results. This entails a wide range of strategies and practices to optimise the content, structure, and technical aspects of a site.
A successful traditional SEO strategy will help search engines better understand and rank your site while also improving your credibility and connection to customers. This is typically achieved in 3 ways:
- On-page SEO involves optimising the individual pages of your website for specific target This can include content optimisation, internal linking, URL structure, and image optimisation.
- Technical SEO ensures your search engine crawlers can crawl and index your website without issues while also improving the user experience. This can include site speed, mobile-friendliness, XML sitemaps, robot.txt files, and ensuring a secure connection.
- Off-page SEO involves taking action externally to improve your rankings. The most common method for this is gaining backlinks, although brand mentions and social signals can also have an influence.
How does it work?
Traditional SEO works through a simple four-step process. The first step is to publish your website or web page. Once you have published a page, your page should get discovered by search engines provided there are no technical issues.
A search engine crawler will then crawl the page to determine what the page is about and its content. This is crucial for indexing and determining the search terms your page is relevant to show up in depending on the search query.
Afterwards, an algorithm is used to determine where your page will rank when displayed in the search engine results pages. Web pages that are better optimised for SEO are more likely to rank higher than a page without.
Traditional SEO benefits
There are lots of benefits to using traditional SEO, from improving your online presence to building credibility. Here are the most significant benefits you can gain:
- Increased organic traffic
- More cost-effective than PPC (paid ads)
- Provides long-term results as opposed to short-term wins
- Much stronger brand visibility and awareness
- Stronger quality of traffic and leads attracted to your site
- Builds your trust and authority online
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is another strategy that focuses specifically on optimising your online presence in the local search results. The main goal of local SEO is to attract more business from customers in the local area through relevant local searches.
These searches typically include phrases or terms, such as “near me” or a specific area. Unlike traditional SEO, a successful local SEO strategy helps you reach a local audience and build trust with them. This is done through several key elements, including:
- Creating and optimising a Google Business Profile
- Ensuring Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) consistency online
- Researching and optimising for local keywords
- Building local citations or mentions of your business
- Building and managing your online reputation through reviews
- Develop local content, such as blogs or web pages
- Gaining backlinks from relevant local businesses or organisations
How does it work?
A successful local SEO strategy will differ considerably from that of a traditional SEO strategy. The ranking factors and algorithms are also different for local SEO, requiring a dedicated strategy to achieve success.
With local SEO there are 3 main signals to pay attention to:
- Proximity – how close the searcher is to your business
- Relevance – how well your business matches the search intent
- Prominence – how well-known and trusted your business is
A Google Business Profile is also an essential aspect of local SEO, as the information you use here has a big impact on whether you show in local results and maps. Information such as business details, categories, and reviews all influence rankings.
It is also possible to carry out some on-page optimisation to aid local SEO efforts. This will typically entail creating and optimising content for specific local keywords, creating dedicated location pages, embedding Google Maps, and implementing schema markup.
Other crucial factors that play a role in determining local rankings include:
- Mentions and citations online, such as local directory listings, which helps build trust that your business is legitimate and established.
- Ensuring the details of your business are consistent across all online mentions and citations.
- Building and managing your online reviews to try and build trust with customers while also strengthening your visibility.
- Optimise for mobile and voice search as most local searches happen on mobile devices. Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly, has fast load times, and answers common questions will all help.
Local SEO benefits
There are lots of benefits you can gain from local SEO, including increased local footfall, growing your customer base, and building trust. Here are the most significant benefits you can gain:
- Increased visibility in local search results
- Generate more visits, calls, and sales
- Provides a better ROI compared to traditional paid advertising
- Bring more customers to your physical store
- Build trust and credibility through strong reviews
- Provides a competitive advantage over bigger brands
Do SEO and local SEO affect each other?
Despite the different algorithms and methods, SEO and local SEO do affect one another. In particular, there are 4 main ways they affect each other:
Content quality and authority
High-quality content is a core SEO factor for ensuring higher rankings. Ensuring high-quality content boosts your site’s authority, which helps local SEO rankings too. Google still uses those authority signals in local packs for determining rankings.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is also another way that SEO and local SEO affect each other. Optimising title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, and internal linking improves both organic and local rankings.
Backlinks
Another aspect of how SEO and local SEO affect each other is backlinks. Traditional SEO builds backlinks for authority. The same is true for local backlinks from local blogs, news sites, and chambers of commerce, which can be powerful for local SEO efforts.
Technical SEO
The last SEO and local SEO affect each other is technical SEO. Ensuring a fast, mobile-friendly website with a good user experience is rewarded in both types of SEO. A slow or poorly structured site will affect your traditional and local SEO performance.
Which is more important for your business?
Both traditional SEO and local SEO can be beneficial. However, choosing the right one for business ensures you gain the most benefit. In this section, we will outline what is important and beneficial for your business.
Traditional SEO is more beneficial to businesses that compete in national or global markets and target non-location-specific keywords. Examples would include large companies with a global or national presence, eCommerce brands, and bloggers.
In contrast, local SEO is more beneficial to businesses that serve a specific geographical area. In particular, businesses that have a physical store or are service-based companies (e.g. tradesmen) will benefit most from local SEO. Some examples include:
- Restaurants and cafés
- Salons, spas, and gyms
- Local contractors and service providers
- Medical and dental offices
To summarise the main differences between local SEO and traditional SEO:
Local SEO:
- Has a local customer target audience
- Keyword focus is location-based
- Google Business Profiles and local directories are the main tools used
- Metrics to measure success include map pack ranking and local search results
- Better suited for businesses that target a specific location with a brick-and-mortar store or location-specific services.
Traditional SEO:
- Has a global or national target audience
- Keyword focus is general or industry-related
- Backlinks and content marketing are the main tools used
- Metrics to measure success include organic search result rankings
- Better suited for businesses that are purely online or target nationally with no local restrictions.
While traditional SEO focuses on boosting your website’s visibility on a national or global scale, local SEO focuses on attracting nearby customers. Ensuring a successful local SEO strategy can be an effective way to help skyrocket your business!
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