It’s a beautiful summer afternoon, and you’re hosting a big party this weekend. There’s lots to be excited about until your air conditioning goes out. You rush to search for fixes online and see a guide to troubleshooting AC problems. Unfortunately, after almost an hour of trying, you have failed to make any progress. You decide to call an expert.
You search “air conditioning repair near me,” and three results come up. You immediately recognize one of the brands from the troubleshooting article you read earlier. You make the call, and within 2 hours, your AC is fixed.
Many regard local and organic SEO as separate strategies, but in reality, the best strategy is to leverage them both. Above was an example of how local SEO and organic SEO work together. Organic SEO builds trust and authority, which helps drive local conversions. On a technical side, any time spent on either local or organic SEO improves your domain authority. Higher domain authority causes the SERP to recognize your site as an industry leader, meaning better rankings.
Local SEO
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your business website for local and geographically related searches. An example of a local search is “auto shops near me.” On-site optimization for local searches will help your business be one of the top results for these types of queries and help drive more traffic to your website.
The top results from this type of search, which usually will show alongside some sort of pin to show the searcher where they are on a map, are considered local results. In contrast, any content below is an organic result (which we’ll cover later). Note that organic results can still involve locations.
Without proper local SEO, it becomes increasingly difficult for a brick-and-mortar shop to make sales. Think, how likely are you to click “More Businesses” when there are already a few options at the top of your search results? Not very, so being a top option for your locale is crucial to long-term organic success. We’ll include some tips for local SEO later in this article.
If you’re already excited to dive in and start improving your local SEO, we’re just an email away at any time.
Improve SEO With Video Content
The second most visited website in the world is YouTube. Who owns YouTube? Google, of course!
Creating a YouTube channel you optimize with keywords, including a content title, description, and tags for each video upload or live stream, could boost your SEO. This is how you can attract organic traffic.
Beyond using YouTube, adding video content to your website design helps your SEO because a visitor will remain on your site for longer. The time that a visitor stays on your page is important for ranking on search results. Google thinks that your webpage is more important than similar ones when people stay on your pages for longer visits.
This does not mean creating lengthy videos will rank better, though. Actually, that will bore your visitors. Trying to keep them too long will do more harm than good.
It helps to give bite-size, digestible video content.
Working with a superb partner that can offer video editing services and video animation will help you create good video content with the right message at the right time.
Organic SEO
Organic SEO is all about establishing trust and authority. For search engines, it is any result that is not a local result, like a Yelp article highlighting businesses in the category you searched for that are on that platform instead of the location of a business near you. Organic content is the backbone of organic SEO. To rank, you need high-quality blog writing (like this article) and your site needs to be optimized for content, so that SERPS (like Google) can index your site effectively. Optimizing for content involves speeding up your site, using easily indexed URL structures, and properly formatting your blog posts.
The job of organic SERPs (like Google) is to help whomever is searching get the best results possible. By being the best result possible, you will improve your brand awareness and authority, and maybe even make a new customer. Effective content marketing is based on picking keywords (search terms) you want to rank for and then creating content that answers those search terms. SEO content writing involves using those keywords in a well-written article.
Which one is better for you?
It is natural for a local business to gravitate toward local SEO and an online business to gravitate toward organic SEO. In reality, it is incredibly important for a business to do both to be effective. Local businesses can create organic content that targets local keywords. For example, an auto shop in Miami, Florida, might write an article titled “Best Auto Shops in Miami.” With success, you may become the first organic result and can point visitors toward your shop. This onsite local content can also help your local seo.
Let’s say that you are based in Boston, but you sell your consulting services all across the world. There may be reason to spend more time on organic SEO, but what about the over 500,000 people who live in Boston? Surely, some of them will Google “Consulting Services near me,” making a strong case to still optimize your local search presence.
Ultimately, the answer to the question is both organic SEO and local SEO! As in the story at the beginning of the article, local SEO and organic SEO go hand-in-hand and a proper SEO strategy uses both.
Improving your local and organic SEO
How can a business improve their local and organic SEO? Aside from creating high-quality content and optimizing your business’ technical foundation, backlinks and citations are a huge part of organic SEO.
Backlinks are links from another website to yours. For example, if I am referencing an article from Forbes and include a link to a study they conducted, I would be giving Forbes a backlink. Getting backlinks from high quality and authoritative sites, like Forbes, are worth a lot in the eyes of search engines like Google. It’s essentially another site saying “I trust you and your content.” A proper link building strategy often involves guest posting, organic links, social media engagement, high-quality content, and citations.
Citations are the local SEO equivalent of backlinks. They are a mention of your site that includes your business address, hours, phone number, and any other relevant location or contact information. These can often be from sites like Facebook, Yelp, and Yellow Pages. Many of these sites involve reviews, which is where reputation management comes into play. Managing your business’s reputation and keeping happy customers will ultimately help your local SEO.
Summary
No matter what stage of business you are in, from start-up to enterprise, SEO is always worth investing in. Both local and organic SEO can make a huge difference in your business by establishing brand authority and driving customers to your site. It is important to note, however, that SEO is a long-term investment, and it can often take months to see results. Consistency is key throughout this process, and staying the course will reap benefits down the road.
Need help with your local and organic SEO? Don’t worry. Here at CTI Miami, we are SEO experts. Contact us to take your SEO to the next level!