Ah, SEO. Three little letters representing a BEAST to keep track of. And there’s not just one type. For today, we’re tacking “national” and “local” SEO.
What’s the difference between the two? Where do their results show up? How are they similar? What platforms do you use for each? How can you best measure performance? When does it all stop?!
Strap in, this is your crash course on both, but we’re gonna focus on local a lot.
What’s the difference between the two?
- National SEO is reaching audiences on a national scale, usually with your website. You want everyone to find you.
- Local SEO is reaching your local marketing and that often involves channels that aren’t your direct site.
Local Search 101: Sometimes search engines are all about confidence. How do you build up your confidence in their eyes? NAPs! Name, Address, Phone Numbers. Businesses with consistent listings across local directories tell search engines the same thing, making them feel good about showing you off.
Reputation is everything. Reputation monitoring, managing, and generating reviews on the various listings is essential to local SEO. The key players being Google My Business, Facebook, and Yelp, in most cases. Obviously they boost overall reputation, but the more engagement your brand has, the more visibility it gets on search engines.
Now, with measuring your local SEO, you just have to remember to set up a UTM strategy, collect your GMB insights, and make sure your local directories are consistent (Yext and Synup are the go to for help doing this in bulk).
National SEO big takes: When you think of national SEO, think on-page. And your on-page SEO has to be bangin. Everyone loves to say “quality over quantity,” but what is quality content in the eyes of Google? They keep a lot of their requirements a little hush hush, but we do know a little of what they’re looking for. The basics are that top performing pieces of content are 1,500 – 2,000 words+ and on-page content optimization is key (title tags, meta descriptions, H1s, H2s, keyword density, internal linking).
Root & Branch Group are shaman in SEO teaching. Check out the rest of their post for tools, best practices, and insights specifically for local SEO!
