What's the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?

What's the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?

Local SEO is a part of SEO that focuses on helping businesses become more visible to people searching in a specific geographic area. Regular SEO can target searches regardless of where the searcher is located.

The two overlap quite a bit. Local SEO just adds location and proximity to the equation.

What does regular SEO focus on?

SEO is about helping your website appear when people search for things related to your business.

That can involve improving your website's content, structure, technical performance, authority, and overall relevance to the searches you want to appear for.

For example, a company that sells accounting software across Canada might want to appear for searches like:

"small business accounting software"

The searcher's location may not be particularly important.

What does local SEO focus on?

Local SEO becomes important when where you are matters.

A person searching for "accountant near me" or "accountant in Calgary, AB" is looking for a business they can actually access in a specific location.

Local SEO helps search engines understand things like:

• Where your business is located
• What areas you serve
• What services you provide
• Whether your business is relevant to a local search
• How your business compares with other local options

That's where things like your Google Business Profile, local reviews, business directories, location-specific website content, and local mentions become especially important.

Do you need local SEO or regular SEO?

For many businesses, both.

A local business still needs a well-optimized website, useful content, good technical SEO, and all the other foundations of SEO.

At the same time, it needs to make its location and local relevance clear.

A Calgary-based contractor, for example, might want to rank for both:

• "deck builder"
• "deck builder Calgary, AB"

The first is a broader service search. The second has clear local intent.

Local SEO isn't really a replacement for SEO. It's SEO with a stronger focus on location.

Ready to increase your local visibility?

Let's look at where your business is currently sitting and what opportunities are actually available.

→ Let's talk