This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 128.
Local SEO versus regular SEO.
You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that
doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work.
I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you
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my SEO agency for the last 14 years.
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this industry.
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will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet.
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I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy.
Let me tell you why I'm Grumpy today.
I'm Grumpy today because some people
are perplexed by the difference between local SEO and regular
SEO.
So in this episode, that's what we're going to talk about.
But first, some reminders.
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So, but before we do that, my lawyer
tells me that I have to say this right now.
A quick disclaimer, before we get started,
everything I say here is based on my experience
and opinion from 14 years in the industry.
I don't officially know how Google or any other search
engines work.
Everything I say here is hypothetical
and based on my experience.
This podcast does not constitute advice or services.
What worked for me may or may not work for you.
OK, back to the show.
On to the episode.
In this episode, we're going to talk about local SEO and regular SEO.
And we're also going to talk about how to do both of them.
OK, but it's going to be pretty brief
because this is not a complicated episode.
So, let's start by explaining the difference.
Did you ever search for something
and see a map in the results?
OK, and that map has addresses and businesses on it.
OK, that is local SEO.
So, when you see a map, that is local SEO.
If you do not see a map, it is not local SEO.
So, local SEO means map results, OK?
And normal SEO means you're without a map, OK?
So, anyways, you can do local SEO and regular SEO, OK?
Just to be clear, if you're in the map, it's local SEO, OK?
And by the way, when you see results in a map,
that's called a map pack.
So, let's talk very quickly about how to do them, OK?
So, we're going to start by talking about normal SEO.
Now, possibly you already know this from Grumpy SEO guy,
but in order to do normal SEO, in order to rank
there are four things you need.
We're going to talk about them very briefly here.
In order, one, avoid penalties.
OK, if you get a penalty, you're not going to rank.
So, your highest priority is to avoid getting a penalty, OK?
It is to avoid having a penalty.
By the way, we have an entire episode
that talks about different kinds of penalties,
and I will put a link in the description.
So, OK, the second thing you need is content.
All right, content does not help you rank
just because it's good quality, OK?
Content actually does two things on your site.
One of them is it puts something on your site, OK?
Because if you don't have content on your site,
then you have an empty website.
And that's not going to be useful for anybody.
Number two, it helps create relevancy,
which is what we're going to talk about in a minute, OK?
Quality of content is not a ranking factor.
Good content ranks just as well as bad content.
Three, relevancy.
Relevancy means what is the subject of your website, OK?
In order to rank for something, in order to rank for keywords,
you have to be relevant for those keywords, OK?
And number four, you need authority.
So, authority comes from backlinks, OK?
Authority is a measure of strength, trustworthiness,
or power of your website, OK?
So, these four things are explained very completely
in other episodes.
So, I will put links to those, and you can listen to them
and learn more.
Just want to say this so that we know that there's a difference
between normal SEO and local SEO, OK?
Now let's talk about local SEO.
So, people will tell you that there are different numbers
of things that you need for local SEO,
and I'm going to tell you what they are,
and then we're going to talk about why sometimes it's not the same, OK?
It's just the way things are categorized.
Anyways, let's get started.
Number one, the first thing you need to do local SEO
is you need a Google My Business account, OK?
You might have read this as GMB, OK?
You need a Google My Business, OK?
You need a Google My Business account.
Now, let's talk about the reason local SEO
is different from normal SEO, OK?
A long time ago, so listen, actually, local SEO is fairly new, OK?
A long time ago, you could rank for locations by doing normal SEO.
So, what would happen is people would make lots of pages
on their website, one for every city in the country, OK?
And they would do normal SEO, and they would rank
for all of those keywords for all of those cities, or whatever, right?
And it was because there was only normal SEO.
Now, here's the concern.
Sometimes you would search for something,
and you'd see a result because remember, it was all normal SEO.
And the result would be for a company that's nowhere near you.
That doesn't help anybody.
So, you can do local SEO so that your business is specific to a certain area,
and people searching in that area are likely to find you.
So, anyways, in order to do this, you need a Google My Business, OK?
You have to have it.
When you create this, they will mail you a postcard
to verify that you have a business in the location
that you say you have a business, OK?
And there's different things you can do with your Google My Business account,
but we're going to keep this episode short.
So, that's the only thing that we're going to talk about right now.
You have to have a Google My Business to appear in the maps, OK?
So, number two, second thing you need.
NAP, name address phone number.
Number two, you need NAP.
OK, what is NAP?
What is name address phone number?
Every time your business is mentioned on another website,
it will list the business name, the address, and the phone number.
These always have to be the same every time it's mentioned.
So, the name always has to be the same, OK?
The address always has to be the same,
and the phone number always has to be the same, OK?
So, try not to, you know, spell anything differently or whatever.
Just, anyways, OK.
Number three, citations, OK?
Now, the reason that there's different numbers of things is
because sometimes citations are classified the same as NAP, OK?
A citation is a mention of your business on another website.
It's not necessarily a backlink, all right?
So, in order to rank in the local results, you need citations.
Your business needs to be mentioned on other websites, OK?
So, number four, reviews.
Did you ever notice that most of the businesses at the top of the local results
have a lot of good reviews?
All I'm going to tell you about this is make sure you are getting actual reviews.
Number five, proximity.
Proximity means how close is stuff to something else.
That's all it means.
So, here's how this works for local SEO.
If people are searching for, you know, your company or whatever,
they are more likely to see you in the results if they are close to you.
They are less likely to see you if they are further away from you, OK?
And if you want to think about it a different way,
if you are closer to the person doing the searching, they will probably see you, OK?
And if you are further away, they will probably not see you, OK?
That's what proximity means.
Number six, authority.
You need to get backlinks, same as with regular SEO.
There's other factors involved obviously with local SEO, but you backlinks, you know,
they're still great.
So, anyways, those are the things that you need to do local SEO.
Sometimes people email me and they ask me questions about local SEO.
And there are two articles that I send most people who ask these questions.
And I will put those articles in the description so you can, they're not,
they're not really like giant articles.
And I'll put them in the description so you can read them and learn more about local SEO.
Anyways, I hope this episode was helpful.
Let me know what questions you have.
Thanks for listening.
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I hope this episode was helpful.
If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode,
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And I will talk to you later.
Join us next Wednesday for another episode.
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