Local, National OR International seo

Businesses may have different requirements and goals, when it comes to Search Engine Optimization and digital marketing. The methods adopted by one company may or may not suit the other. A major deciding factor in the decision off the nature, level and reach of SEO services that a company must adopt, is the location or the reach of the business.

A small business, operating in a specific area, catering to a limited audience, would preferably invest in local SEO activities, as it would be more cost-effective and logical. Whereas a big business that caters to a nation-wide demand, and also aims to expand across boundaries, would adopt national or international SEO efforts, investing way more than the small business.

When a business wishes to optimize its website, in an attempt to capture the attention of the local or regional crowd, it adopts Local SEO techniques, which only targets location specific audience and hence makes the website visible to the specific targeted audience.

The growth of Local SEO has been bagged by the rapid development in the smartphone world and location based services. Local SEO is a great way to promote products and services to local customers online, as millions of people use location based searches daily, to cater to some or the other need, ranging from restaurant, movie theatre, hotel, hospital, grocery store, etc.

Local SEO is booming and has great potential because local customers often turn to the internet to find locally provided services. It is a highly targeted approach and enjoys high conversion levels. It does not cause any wastage, unlike traditional advertising methods. Also, many of the best local SEO methods are free of cost and having an online presence increases credibility of the business.

National and local SEO are more or less, similar in context, but national SEO focuses more on broad keywords and less on specific geographic areas. It is also more competitive in nature due to increased number of companies at a national level, which is why it is more costly than local SEO.

National SEO techniques are also used by small businesses who wish to expand their operations from regional audience to nationwide customers. Today’s tech-driven society has caused businesses to pay more attention on building an online presence.

A national SEO campaign would comprise of more concepts like advanced keyword search, content building, web development, etc. it is usually hard to perform all these services efficiently by a single person. National SEO may require professional assistance, so that you get proper returns on your investment.

As the name suggests, companies that target customers from all over the world undertake international SEO services. If you know that many of your customers are from different countries and speak different languages, you must invest in good international SEO. This would not only involve targeting audience worldwide and making your website visible to them, but also includes providing best user experience when they visit your website. One must cater to the language diversity, and hence provide language specific website content to varied audience. Paying extra attention to currencies, time zones and contact information like addresses and phone numbers is also significant.

Another issue that arises is of translations. Automated or machine translations are still not very well developed and hence may cause confusions amongst customers. It is best to use human translation for important website content. A website considered to be attractive and desirable in one country might be considered less interactive in the other. Localisation in terms of site designs can be of paramount importance. It’s preferable to have a separate sub domain for each country you want to target and have country specific local address mentioned in the subdomain.

Before a business chooses any kind of SEO activity or marketing approach, it must consider all the consequences and possibilities that might arise from the decision. Choosing correctly is very important as huge investment and irreversible changes are involved in some of the measures.