Every business owner needs to understand the difference between organic and local SEO

If you’re a local business, there’s a good chance you’re overspending on your organic SEO package. While organic SEO is important, local SEO should be your focus, especially for service-based local businesses. Local SEO is less expensive and more likely to help you rank higher in local search results, and it is more focused on what you need. Most businesses get this utterly wrong wasting time and money when moving budgets around to focus on what matters most is a better strategy. Let’s explore why SEO is a confusing subject and how we can help you understand it better.

The importance of Local SEO cannot be understated, and if your current strategy only includes organic SEO campaigns, you might need to reconsider. Local SEO is a specialised form of marketing that helps businesses promote their products and services to local customers.

On the other hand, organic SEO is a broader form of marketing that covers all aspects of search engine optimisation, including keyword research, content creation, and link building. While organic SEO is effective for some businesses, it doesn’t have the same focus on local customers that Local SEO does.

If you want to reach your target market and improve your visibility in search engine results, Local SEO is the way to go. Here are some tips to get started:

1. Optimise your website for local keywords

2. Create local content and share it with social media groups

3. Build local links and citations

4. Claim your local listings

5. Monitor your online reviews and respond professionally

By following these tips, you can improve your Local SEO and attract more customers from your target market.

How Local SEO Works

Local SEO works by optimising your website and business listings for localised search visitors. This means ensuring your website and business are visible to people searching for businesses like yours in their local area. There are a few different ways to do this. Still, the most important thing is to ensure your website and business are listed in local directories; you have a constant flow of reviews, quality content, and boosted social posts linking to your website.

Another way to optimize local SEO is to create relevant content for your local audience. This could be anything from blog posts about local events to instructional videos about how to do something specific to your city or town. The more relevant and valuable your content is, the more likely people find it when searching for something related to what you do.

Asking for reviews from customers

Another way to improve your Local SEO is by asking your customers to leave online reviews. Online reviews are one of the most important ranking factors for Local SEO, so it’s essential to encourage your customers to leave them. The best way to do this is simply by asking them! You can include a link to your business listing in your email signature, or even add a review widget to your website.

Keeping an eye on your online reviews and responding to them is also important. If you see a negative review, don’t ignore it – try to publicly resolve the issue with the customer. This shows other potential customers that you’re willing to listen to feedback and make changes based on it.

How Organic SEO Works

What is Organic SEO, and what does it entail? It’s a type of search engine optimization (SEO) that involves using methods or techniques to improve one’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be done by creating high-quality, relevant content, boosting keywords, meta tags, and backlinking. Because you don’t have to spend money on advertisements but rather make an investment in producing great content, organic SEO is a low-cost alternative.

Organic SEO works well for e-commerce, business in competitive industries and websites targeting large audiences. We do this by making every page on your website a landing page with keyword research and targeting audiences. Done correctly, this strategy is ideally used in conjunction with Google Ads and Social Media posting to get more visibility on more platforms and to remarket your past website visitors. Keyword research is vital so your website, ads and posts all target the same keywords and topics.

It’s not that organic SEO isn’t essential, but the focus of this post is to compare SEO and local SEO. You need to rethink your strategy if you have a small business and only target customers in a local area. Organic SEO is very important for businesses in competitive industries as you will get more visibility. You will gain more authority and engagement when used with a target content strategy. If you have the budget, we highly suggest Local, and Organic SEO work together for even more visibility.

Reasons additional why I should use local search engine optimisation to grow my business

1. People are searching for local businesses online

With over 3.5 billion searches being made on Google every single day, it’s clear that people are increasingly turning to the internet to find the products and services they need. And, if your business isn’t appearing in local search results, you could miss out on many potential customers.

2. Local SEO is more cost-effective than other marketing channels

Local SEO is relatively inexpensive compared to other marketing channels, such as print or television advertising. Not only that, but it’s also highly practical, meaning you’re likely to see a good return on investment.

3. Local SEO helps you to build trust and credibility

Appearing in local search results is a great way to build trust and credibility with potential customers. After all, if your business appears in Google’s search results, that must mean you’re doing something right!

4. Local SEO is essential for mobile users

With more and more people using their mobile phones to search for local businesses, your website must be optimised for mobile. Local SEO can help you to achieve this, ensuring that your website is easy to use and navigate on a mobile device.

5. Local SEO can help you to stand out from your competition

If you’re not using Local SEO, you could miss out on a huge opportunity to stand out from your competitors. With so many businesses competing for attention online, you must use every tool at your disposal to make sure your business is visible in search results.

Local SEO is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy; if you’re not using it, you could miss out on many potential customers.

Sharing localised content on social media

One of the benefits of creating localised content on your website is that it can be shared on your social media pages and shared out to local groups you follow. It’s essential to focus on social media outreach, for example, promoting deals, news or offers about your business, which increases brand awareness.

How to adjust your marketing budget for better results

A potential customer typically needs 7-15 touchpoints before they’re willing to engage with you, so we recommend using a multi-channel approach. This means moving your budgets around to focus on more channels and not just SEO. For more information on touchpoints, read this article. It’s an essential topic for business owners to be familiar with.

Adjust your budgets and focus on local SEO, ad management, and content production. The money you’re investing in organic SEO should be sufficient to cover additional touchpoints without spending more.

For example, many tradies only focus on getting enquiries from Hipages and other similar websites. However, suppose you focus on local SEO (optimising your website for local search results), website content, social media sharing, and reviews. In that case, you will be seen by more people in more locations and save money by not paying for leads that don’t convert.

Let’s discuss your current digital marketing strategy (if you have one) and see how we can improve it. We’ll also discuss how to allocate your budget for maximum impact better. Book a free 30-minute strategy call with me today!

Conclusion:

Local SEO is important for any business that wants to rank higher in search results and reach its target audience. Optimising your website and business for local search visitors can save money while still getting the necessary visibility.

At RCS Digital, we understand that as a business owner, your time is valuable. That’s why we offer full-service digital marketing packages–to take care of the nitty-gritty details while focusing on what you do best. We’ll design and execute a tailored plan for your brand that covers all the bases and gets results. Think about all the new customers you could reach with an effective online presence! Interested in learning more? Contact us today to see how easy (and affordable) it can be to upgrade your digital marketing efforts with our help.

At RCS Digital, we do the heavy lifting so you can focus on what you do best. Get in touch today for a 30-minute strategy session.

More Resources:

How to Create a Content Strategy That Boosts Google Rankings

All About Touchpoints – 44 Touchpoint Examples

Businesses are gearing up. 7 ideas to help your business in trying times

The Future of PPC: 4 Trends in Advertising You Need to Know