There is a distinct difference between GLOBAL SEO and LOCAL SEO, and the wrong strategy employed on your campaign can have disastrous effects. Global SEO is the targeting of keyphrases and traffic within a global environment, meaning that you are attempting to attract potential customers to your website from all over the world. This strategy has the obvious benefits of huge potential sales if you are able to service customers who are not located in an area that they can physically travel to your store, and also has the pitfalls of global competition. Essentially, as you attempt to compete in areas that are outside of a specific physical area, you are competing with every other website on earth that is attempting to capture that space. Your competition level for products that you sell on your website outside of your local area is not the same as inside, and what this means is that if you have a physical store with a specific location in a city, you can exploit the localized portions of Google’s algorithm to display your website to customers within that region. If you are also selling products online, those customers within that region will see you and be able to buy from you. If you are targeting potential customers outside of the physical region of your store, the localization effort will not help you rank globally. As a matter of fact, there are specific instances where too much localization can harm your global rankings, as Google perceives you as only servicing a specific market.
Global SEO is far more difficult as the competition for the keyphrases involves every website on earth within that space. While it may seem like a dream to sell your products all over the world, you might be setting yourself up for failure on a local basis if you only shoot for the global market. Carefully decide your strategy before beginning a global SEO campaign.
Local SEO is a search engine optimization campaign that modifies the targeted search phrases to include a specific region. Along with the specific spaces that Google provides to display localized businesses within an area and the citation/review websites that provide the ability for customers to review your business, a localized SEO strategy enables your business to be displayed in searches for specific phrases from people physically located in the region you service. Localized SEO is appropriate for businesses with physical locations in a specific area who only provide goods or services to that area, and are not attempting to be seen by a global audience.
If we ask you the question “can you provide your goods or services to someone in another city,” and you answer yes, a global SEO strategy might be for you. If you do not have the budget to compete with every website that provides the same goods or services, then stick with a local SEO strategy and capture your local market.
What is “Local SEO?”
There are two kinds of search engine optimization, global and local. Global SEO focuses on large scale generic keywords to get traffic to a website. Local SEO focuses on generic keywords modified with a local environment (generally a city name) to get specific traffic from an area to a website. For example, indexing for the word “car wash” is wonderful, however it probably will not bring much actual traffic to your business. The reason is that searches for “Las Vegas car wash” are returning local results that people can use to make a choice about where to spend their money. While a global indexing might show lots of traffic, it probably isn’t going to result in sales because people are not willing to drive from one state to another just because your website showed up in that list. Local SEO utilizes locally modified search phrases and keywords, as well as local results listed in the major engines specialized “local” sections. Google Places/Maps is an example of this concept. If you are not listed in the Places section, you are not being found locally. Focus manages local SEO for businesses that draw customers from a specific geographic location. A good example of this would be found in the example of trying to gain rankings for “SEO company” vs “Las Vegas SEO company.” Trying to gain rankings outside of our local city opens up a competitive space that is enormous vs one that only involves companies that specialize in Las Vegas, or are located physically in Las Vegas. Even though it would be great to rank for the broader terms and be seen globally, there is so much competition that it is better for us to attempt something that is achievable in order to gain more business. For this reason we concentrate on rankings for the local area, which gives us a higher probability of success for the amount of work time we have at our disposal.
All programs are custom tailored and based on strategic planning and research. Please contact a representative at 702-767-4637 for a free consultation about your project.
If your business is located in Las Vegas NV, we can meet with you personally to discuss your local Las Vegas SEO program. If you are located outside of Las Vegas, we can conduct your meeting via phone or webchat. Our local SEO programs are applicable for any city or region, and our global SEO programs will target either the entire United States or the world, depending on your sales strategy.
