Local Miami SEO vs Regular SEO

Google's search algorithms continue to change and become more sophisticated, which means franchises and multi-location businesses must continue adjusting their SEO strategy to appear in both national and local Miami SEO search results. When it comes to search engine optimization, many local Florida business owners face a huge dilemma about whether they should have their website rank on local search or organic search results. If you're not familiar with these two terms, here's a bit of a primer.

What is Local Miami SEO?

Local SEO is a specialized form of online marketing that increases your visibility for local geographically-related search results. If you have ever used Google maps on your phone to find nearby businesses, that's just how local SEO works. As an example, local SEO techniques would help your business rank better for a term like "chiropractor in Miami," rather than "chiropractor."

In the past, you had to click on the "Maps" tab on Google's search results to see the map search results, but these results are now integrated within the main search results page. Google place results are not blended with organic results on the main search results page, so if you hire SEO services to help you rank locally, your business may appear on one of these prized spots. Your business will also be visible on results displayed on smartphones and tablets, which increases foot traffic to your store front.

What is Organic SEO?

Many businesses who do not have a local location or presence turn to regular SEO services to help them gain national or international visibility, although it may also be important for business websites that sell products online. Organic SEO is basically the process of improving your website's visibility on search engines' organic (unpaid) search results.

Organic SEO typically refers to traditional SEO techniques to help your website rank on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Before web content became so localized, this was the only way to optimize a website, and some organic SEO strategies may still be used to help a website rank on geographic-based search results.

Both organic SEO and local SEO are ranking strategies to help your business become more visible on Google, but they are very different in terms of how and where they're displayed. You will need to consider whether you want to be visible on the main Google search results for target keywords, or if it would be more profitable to be visible to local users on mobile and tablet devices.

Local SEO is just as important as regular SEO, so most businesses tend to strike up a balance when they hire an affordable SEO company to manage their campaign. For example, a corporation may want to drive traffic to its corporate website, but also want to make local results visible for nearby potential customers who want to visit one of their fast food chains. Failing to do either one may result in countless missed opportunities, so it's important to find common ground between these two strategies as, while both require different resources and tactics, there are overlapping areas.