Today, search has become a global phenomenon thanks to the Internet. More and more people can now obtain information through the channels of online search engines. While search engines are at the core of this rapid behavioural shift, having a business website with a good ranking in the search engines when people look for a service or product it offers, is absolutely essential to the longevity of that business.
As you would probably know by now, SEO remains a fundamental segment of search engines. In simpler terms, SEO refers to the tactical approach of improving the search engine ranking of website pages based on their quality and relevance.
Search is often the underlying point of digital traffic for company brands because it provides many opportunities to put your name in front of the user and keep up with the current technological trends of different marketing channels.
When a user makes a query online, whether it is doing research about a product, looking for a café, or finding a hotel to make a booking, if you appear at the top of the search results, this gives you better visibility and attracts potential and existing customers to your business. While there are different types of SEO available to work around this marketing stratum, the two main examples are international (global) and local SEO.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO prioritises business entities that are listed in major search engines, with a focus on localised mediums. For example a user could be searching ‘dentists near me’ to fix an appointment with the nearest dentist available in their town or ‘best car wash service in [name of location]’ to get their car washed by a good local car washing service company.
Hence local SEO benefits businesses that are smaller in size and want to be accessible to local searchers rather than general Google searchers. SEO strategies implemented by agencies such as SEO consultants will take into account top factors such as local contact information, reviews, native language, and specific words that allow business brands to link to what they specifically offer when optimising. Yet, the major drawback is that the boundaries of that particular business website are rather narrow due to less exposure.
What businesses should use local SEO?
If you run a local service or store, it’s crucial to focus on local SEO if you want to grow your business and engage new prospects who stay within the physical region of your store. People conduct local searches on their phones, call or visit a store throughout the day. As a result, here are some industries that continue to opt for local SEO:
- Home and repair
- Garage store
- Engineering and construction
- Real estate
- Barber shop
- Medical clinic
- Supermarket and grocery store
What is International SEO?
Also known as global SEO, international SEO goes beyond just translating keywords and phrases into searchable appliances. If you’re a business that offers services and products to customers in a global market, location doesn’t really matter.
Your priority is to have a far bigger online presence with the help of generic keywords and content that needs to appeal to a variety of different cultures and demographics. Thus, some companies choose to have their content translated into various languages and, likewise, cater to several domain names customised for different parts of the world for smoother collaboration.
The difference between local SEO and international SEO
Strategies recommended by a good SEO expert consultant that are incorporated for local traffic can guarantee greater local reachability for human site visitors within the same location. Integrating location specific keywords into your copy on your dedicated website will enable a robust increment in your ranking in localised SERPs. Whereas, a global SEO strategy reaches out to a global audience with country-specific versions and the competition will not be the same. Appearing in foreign search engines can give you much better online visibility as it demands you maintain multiple domains and update all the sites each time you change the content or install new features. The ultimate goal when using global SEO might be to get people to sign up for a newsletter or make an online purchase.
| Local SEO | International SEO |
|---|---|
| Low cost campaigns | High cost campaigns |
| Spread within local areas | Spread across wider geographical regions |
| One language content | Multilingual content |
| Low competition | High competition |
Conclusion: On making the ‘right’ choice
Although the right SEO strategy leverages you from the others in the market, at the end of the day it really depends on what you want to achieve and how far you would like to take your business forward. And while this is essential for local domains, it’s arguably too significant of a task to go international considering that it warrants optimisation to bolster content and keywords that are of high quality targeting regions and countries which could be a costly investment.
Looking for an SEO consultant agency in Singapore to localise your brand? Get in touch with us at SEO Consultant to get started with your local SEO strategy today!