Wanting to make the most of your online presence, website, or business profile requires you to use SEO. It is the base of your online popularity, as it helps you put your business or product in the eyes of potential customers.
SEO has several strategies, and they adapt to international and local businesses. But how do you know which one works better for your business? Stay tuned as we answer all the questions on the battle of local SEO vs. global SEO.
What SEO Entails
SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is optimizing a website to search engine standards. The main goal of SEO is to improve your website or business profile to boost its ranking on SERPs (search engine result pages) and consequently increase its organic traffic.
Furthermore, there are two main SEO strategies: traditional and holistic SEO.
Traditional SEO
Implementing this type of SEO strategy implies working with backlinks and quality content. Traditional SEO focuses on finding high-quality inbound links and posting content consistently.
Many SEO experts and marketers believe this strategy is outdated, as it doesn’t consider all current SEO efforts.
Holistic SEO
On the other hand, holistic SEO is the most common strategy marketers and SEO experts use. Holistic SEO covers areas like the one’s traditional SEO does (backlinks and high-quality content), and it also takes aspects like technical SEO (coding, UTM tracking, optimizing the website or business profile’s performance, etc.), keyword research, and other techniques that take SEO practice to the next level.
Understanding Local and International SEO
When working on SEO campaigns, it’s crucial to choose between local or international SEO.
Local SEO means optimizing companies’ websites and business platform profiles, such as Google My Business in a specific area. This strategy targets a local audience. Its SEO target is the local market, which means the campaigns must use the local language, understand where the business is located, etc.
International SEO, also known as global SEO, is the practice of targeting a large, international audience. When a company offers products or services to different countries, it must work to gain the attention of the global audience. Global SEO strategies include learning about the markets in the countries they want to reach.
Differences Between Local SEO and Global SEO
The main difference between these two strategies is that local SEO focuses on the local area the business is in. Simply put, local SEO helps companies stand out within their city or town. In contrast, international SEO must reach the targeted countries and use tools like geo-targeting.
Another difference is that international pages use global keywords. The main focus is to stand out to people from the country the business wants to reach. For this, websites will need versions for multiple countries and languages and not just direct translations from one language to another.
Likewise, local SEO uses local keywords to help businesses stand out in local search results. If global SEO focuses on a wider audience, local SEO targets the people around the business owner.
What Local and Global SEO Strategies Look Like
After seeing the key differences between local and international SEO, let’s learn what each strategy requires.
Local SEO Tasks
Some of the most common local SEO campaign tasks include:
- Conducting local keyword research.
- Optimizing local business listings: Google Maps, Facebook Business page, etc.
- Managing reviews.
- Monitoring local results on search engines like Google.
- Ensuring your products and services reach local customers through social media marketing.
- Working on and with local blogs. Backlinks are a valuable tool for all strategies.
Global SEO Tasks
Some standard global SEO campaign tasks include:
- Performing global keyword research. All countries have different keywords you will work with.
- Optimizing content in the language of the countries you are targeting.
- Extending your backlinking horizons. International link-building is needed.
- Geo-targeting.
- Optimizing your website for each country you’re targeting.
Staying Local or Going Abroad: Local or Global SEO
When deciding between staying local or going global, your business will show you the direction you must take.
If you own a small business, local search engine optimization is the way to go. Your SEO plan must consider local directories and utilizing keywords that make the company relevant for people around the area. For example, if you’re running a healthcare business in Orlando, your SEO efforts should focus on search engine queries like “best dentists near me” or “dentists in Orlando.”
If your business targets a global audience, you must focus on International SEO. When using this strategy, consider crucial points, like currency conversions, proper translations instead of direct translations, and understanding the audience you wish to reach. Your company’s SEO efforts might be successful in New York but may need changes to resemble people in Montreal.
Why Choosing the Right Strategy Is Important for Your Business
When you want to enhance your SEO rankings, you must know which is right for you.
Working with national SEO techniques while running an international business can be harmful not only to global search engine results but also to your business’ profit.
Similarly, if you own a local business but don’t use the right strategies to drive traffic to your website, you could lose potential customers and, consequently, miss the chance to boost your revenue.
SEO and Google Analytics
Google Analytics is part of the Google’s Marketing platform. It has analytics and factors that can help SEO and marketing campaigns. Furthermore, it is a free tool.
If your main focus is appearing on Google’s SERPs, this instrument will be crucial for your SEO needs. However, there is a drawback: it works with HTML.
By producing a JavaScript code, Google Analytics allows you to learn about your site’s bounce rate, conversion goals, and average session duration. Additionally, provides conversion, behavior, and acquisition reports.
This tool works alongside UTM tracking codes and schema markups, which makes it an excellent way to stand out from your contenders and their SEO efforts. It’s almost the Trojan Horse of SEO, as it allows you to understand aspects that your competitors might not be considering.
Additionally, this tool can be implemented in local and international SEO campaigns. You can use local business schema markups or take it worldwide with a product markup, which allows Google to provide information about your products on their SERPs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Businesses Need SEO Work?
Every company needs SEO work. In today’s digital world, it’s crucial to have an online presence and build a brand since most businesses have taken their practices to the Internet, too. Working with agencies like Accelerate Marketing can help you create this essential presence for your business.
What Is the Difference Between Organic SEO, Local SEO, and International SEO?
While Local SEO focuses on the area a business is in, and international SEO can target specific countries, organic SEO does not focus on a specific geographic market, but instead targets users regardless of their country or city. This SEO technique is helpful if you’re running an entirely online business, like a graphic design services business.
What Type of SEO Is Best?
There is no best SEO technique but the right type for each company. Some SEO types are crucial for all websites, like on-page, technical, and mobile SEO. Other techniques work for specific businesses, so they should be chosen wisely and carefully.
What Are the 5 Main SEO Rank Factors?
Similar to SEO types, there are no main SEO ranking factors. For example, Google has more than 200 ranking aspects. However, it is known that there are some crucial factors, such as:
- Domain Authority: Having a high domain authority means a website is relevant to a specific topic or industry. To improve a site’s DA it is required to work with high-quality backlinks.
- Backlinks: When another site links to yours, Google sees your page as authoritative. Gaining quality backlinks gives you relevance within your niche.
- Mobile optimization: Websites that work properly on mobile have a higher chance of ranking on SERPs in comparison to the ones that don’t.
- Website speed: Google focuses on providing the best experience possible to their users, so having a fast-loading website (including its mobile loading speed) helps improve SEO for businesses.
- Content: A website’s content must be as optimized as possible without risking having an over-optimization issue. Keywords, using high-quality images, alt text, meta titles, descriptions, and more, are essential to show up on Google’s SERPs.
What Are Toxic Backlinks?
Toxic backlinks are the ones that harm a website’s authority and, consequently, damage the website’s SEO. Simply put, these links hurt your website’s reputation in Google’s perception. Ensure you always work with high-quality links to avoid having issues with your page’s SEO.
Wrapping Up
Understanding local SEO vs. global SEO can make a difference for your website. Implementing the correct SEO technique will help you see a boost in your online presence and profits.
We hope this article helps you choose the right kind of SEO for your business, so you can make the most of this digital marketing tool. And, if local SEO is the right option for you, Accelerate Marketing can help you leverage your business through our local SEO services. Thank you for reading!
