Organic SEO vs. Local SEO: What is the Difference and the Advantages of Both?
What is organic SEO?
Organic search engine optimization, or traditional SEO, is the process by which companies try to appear in the top search results of search engines like Google in order to drive traffic to their website.
This is achieved by optimizing the structure of the website and creating content that matches the search intentions of consumers. The creation of internal links between the individual pages of a website also makes it easier for Google to search a website and capture topics. On the basis of external links (so-called backlinks) that a company website receives from other websites, Google determines the authority or trust that a website enjoys.
This means that the trust factor and content relevance are not only essential factors for the user experience online, but also decisive ranking factors for your organic search engine optimization. The better Google understands the content on your website and the more authority the search engine attaches to your website, the sooner you will appear in the search results and reach new customers every day.
Numerous measures, such as enriching your website with important and relevant keywords, creating backlinks and creating high-quality and informative content, can improve a website’s search engine ranking.
Advantages of organic search engine optimization:
- Ranking for those search queries that lead the right new customers to the company
- Generates more relevant traffic on your website
- Users are more receptive to your “pitch” because they have found you
- Establishes your company as a thought leader in your industry
- Cheaper and often more effective than paid search ads (e.g. Google AdWords)
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the process by which companies seek to optimize the online visibility of each of their local sites — specifically for users who search online for products and services in their area.
Local search results suggest relevant business locations to users, and are played out when search queries have a local reference, such as “supermarket now open”, “restaurants near me” or “electronics store in central London”.
If you want to be successful with local search engine optimization, you should pay attention to different ranking factors, from the customer ratings of a location to its opening hours. Each individual company location is made relevant for the local search through various measures. Citation building, creating directory entries, managing customer reviews and ensuring the accuracy of all location information are important local ranking signals for search engines.
Advantages of local search engine optimization:
- You reach “ready to buy” consumers looking for products/services offered by your company
- Optimal directions bring customers directly to your locations
- Local search queries tend to end with a purchase rather than organic queries
- Building local online visibility through entries in maps and navigation services, directories and social media
- Creates credibility and trust through evaluations
- Can be cheaper and more effective than paid search results
What is the difference?
The biggest difference between local and organic search engine optimization is the search intent of the user a company wants to reach.
Search engines show the websites that offer the most relevant and appealing content for a search query — a search engine goes through this process regardless of whether a query is location-specific or not.
If Google and other search engines understand a user’s query as “local”, they will show relevant locations in the searched region or near the user’s location in addition to the organic search results. Similar to organic search results, the search engine also prioritizes those locations with the most relevant and accurate company information for the respective search query.
