SEO local affects how your site or web page ranks in the unpaid results of Google for searches tied to a specific area. Local SEO aims to get your business listed in Google Maps, so your listing appears next to the Google Maps icon on Google search result pages. For example, someone searching “Cleveland sushi restaurant” will see a Cleveland sushi restaurant listing on the first page of results.
How is local SEO different from national SEO?
National SEO focuses on ranking in the organic and paid results that show after a user clicks a link from Google or a Pay-Per-Click advertising network. Organic results include sponsored listings. Paid results are ads shown by websites and companies that pay Google to display their ad on a search result page. When someone types “How do I increase my Google Places rank” into Google, the page mixes organic listings with ads from companies paying to appear there.
Local SEO works the same way for visibility, but its objective is to get your business listed in Google Maps. That listing appears next to the Google Maps icon on any Google search result page when searchers look for products and services in your area.
Why should you care about SEO local?
Two practical reasons stand out:
You can target local customers
People who live in the same area as your business are more likely to use search engine results to find you. If your product or service solves a particular problem for people in your local community, focusing on SEO marketing helps more of those people find your business.
You can get better search rankings
Showing up on the first page of Google when people search for a particular business draws more customers to your door, which leads to more sales and more profit for your business.
What happens if you skip local targeting?
SEO is less efficient without a local focus. A large portion of customers looking for a particular product or service go to organic listings, which means they search for businesses based on location. If your keywords are not targeted to local citations, you won’t benefit from the upside of SEO. Submitting content to directories that don’t feature your business name as the first result also won’t deliver the traffic boost you’d get from optimizing for your business’ local citations. Those directories don’t pay for the right to display your listing, so spending money there without targeting local SEO is wasted spend.
The bottom line
The negatives of local SEO exist, but the positives match them. The most important thing for your business to succeed is attracting visitors. Local SEO efforts let you do that, and search engines are always improving their algorithms to give better results to their searchers.
FAQ
What is SEO local?
SEO local affects the visibility of your site or a particular web page within the unpaid results of a search engine called Google, with the specific objective of getting your business listed in Google Maps so nearby searchers can find you.
How does local SEO differ from national SEO?
Both affect Google rankings, but local SEO targets Google Maps listings that appear beside the Maps icon on search result pages, while national SEO focuses on broader organic and paid rankings across search results and Pay-Per-Click networks.
Why should a business invest in local SEO?
Local SEO lets you target customers in your area, helps your business rank on the first page of Google for nearby searches, and avoids wasted spend on directories or keywords that don’t match local intent.
