There’s a lot of attention paid to national SEO, or search engine optimization, because of how much difference it can make in brand awareness and the overall return on your marketing efforts.
But what exact impact will local SEO services make, and what’s the difference between national and local SEO?
Let’s take a closer look.
National vs. Local SEO
In a nutshell, national SEO services are all about getting an online store to show up for a set of keywords, at the national level.
That is, two online shoppers in California and Florida would go on the internet, type in a search term, and get the same results (ideally), with the website in question at the top of them.
In local SEO, that focus is shifted on locality. So let’s say the shoppers in California and Florida both searched for “landscaping services” or “landscaping services near me.”
They would both get different results, and justifiably so, as well as different search features.
This is the key difference between national and local SEO – local SEO deals with keywords as well, but also focuses on the location of the shopper as well as the business.
What the Best Local SEO Services Do
So now let’s say you look at one of those shoppers – take the one in Florida – and let’s assume that shopper is looking for landscaping services, as indicated.
The websites and Google My Business listings that show up for that search are the ones that are most proficient in local SEO.
Now with local SEO, there is a focus on keywords, including some location-dependent keywords containing qualifiers that are unique to a specific area.
The best local SEO services will also place an emphasis on optimizing the map pack as well as Google My Business listings.
This will increase the chances that those search features will populate for the desired search terms, so that when a hypothetical shopper in Florida searches for landscaping services, either the map listing or the GMB profile shows up in the search results.
Not Just About Your Online Store
One unique aspect of local SEO is that it isn’t just for online stores. Whereas most online stores are mostly interested in national SEO – and for obvious reasons – local businesses that invest in local SEO services can profit as well.
Now here’s the interesting part – local SEO services are also for small shops and businesses, even those that have no eCommerce operations whatsoever.
This is because people are increasingly reliant on their mobile devices, and by extension, the internet, to help them connect the dots when they’re looking for something.
People get on their phones to look for shops, automotive services, home services, healthcare, and a million and one other things. They aren’t looking for eCommerce stores, but they’re looking for services using the internet nonetheless.
The businesses that show up in Google Maps, and the GMB profiles that show up in the search results, have a distinct, decided advantage over those that don’t.
And therein lies the value of the best local SEO services.
Get Started with Local SEO Services for Your Local or Online Business
As you can see, investing in local SEO, whether you actually invest in local SEO services, can be the defining factor in the success of your business – eCommerce or otherwise.
Whether you hire the best local SEO services you can find or simply task someone on your team with optimizing your GMB and map pack listings, get on that sooner rather than later – a well-optimized profile can and will result in leads.
