Startups and small business believe that new customers will find them through different search engines.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an evolving field and Google regularly comes up with new updates that have an impact on local and organic SEO.
Wait for a second! do you know the difference that separates Organic SEO from Local SEO? If you said no, today we will help you get a better understanding of the subject.
If you have been marketing your new business online, you must have heard people talking about the pros and cons of organic and local SEO. But are you wondering what exactly differentiates the two? While there are lots of differences, but both start with the keyword search.
Organic and Local Search
While organic search happens, where the online user is looking for an information in general, without concentrating on a specific location, local search is more location specific.
For instance, when a user searches for a keyword+location, it is considered as a local search. On the other hand, if he searches for a keyword without any geographical component, it is an organic search.
Search engines use a variety of factors including inbound links, keywords, outbound links and even content to rank and index different websites.
Should you rank in Organic Searches or Local Searches?
If you have a motor and brick business with an office at a specific location, you may want to rank high on a specific location search, i.e. local search. The users are more likely to search for your business by using the name of the location as well.
On the other hand, if you want your business to show up on specific keywords without focusing on a location, you can try to rank high in organic searches. To rank on latter, you don’t need to have a physical store or serve a specific area. However, if you choose to target a specific area, you will be losing your targeted customers around the globe.
What is Local SEO?
How many times have you visited a local store after searching it on Google? It has been found that approximately 50% of searchers visit a business after finding it online.
Therefore, it is important to optimize your business for local searches as the search engine needs to know where you are based, so that when someone searches for a keyword+location, it can show up your business. To make your business local search optimized, you need to make sure that your business name, logo, address and phone number remain consistent with the website across all the local listing directories.
Organic SEO – What Is It?
Organic search or organic SEO has more to do with whether the keywords are relevant to the website than focusing on the location. Organic search results are often a mix of social media profiles, magazines, businesses, articles and a lot more.
When you choose to optimize your business website for organic search, you need to make sure your website shows up for certain keywords and searches. While it could be a two-word keyword, it could even be a voice search on a smartphone.
Do Local and Organic SEO affect Each Other?
Certain search engine optimization practices help both organic and local search rankings.
For example, when listing your business page in a local directory like TripAdvisor, Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Bing, you have the option to add a backlink to your website. This local listing gives you the advantage to use your business name, phone number logo and address to help the search engine by specifying your business location.
They make it easy to create back-links to your business website which is considered as the link building strategy, part of the organic SEO. Moreover, on-site local SEO also helps in organic SEO endeavor. Search engines prefer keyword rich fresh content, so while local SEO makes it easy to attract local traffic, it also adds value to your organic SEO efforts.
Conclusion
When done by a professional, both local and organic SEO efforts will help improve your business website ranking however when done in an unprofessional manner, it can have a detrimental effect on your SEO efforts.
Moreover, the approaches for doing organic SEO and local SEO are different. While in organic SEO, a lot of On-page and Off-page optimization is required to help place the website at the top place on SERPs, Local SEO aims to crack places that display local search results.
So if your business sell products in a particular location, Local SEO is your thing, but if your targeted customers are not location specific, you should choose Organic SEO.
