Local SEO?

[Seabrook]

Hello everyone,

I've just been through the Moz Local learning area, which is pretty informative. However, a lot of it seems like good practice for general online marketing (mobile friendly websites, goals per page...).

I'm new to all this - am I missing the point?

William

[danwebman]

William,

Welcome to the world of SEO, it's a journey which switches paths and takes you down dark alleys!

What are you trying to accomplish? The main rules of SEO

Domain, Structure of Site & URLs, W3C, Unique Content, Relevant Content, Easy to Read Content, Direct Content, New Content and More Content.

Lack of Errors, Monitoring, Analysis, Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Still up for it? Good luck, let me know if I can help.

[Seabrook]

Thanks Dave!

I was just thinking what were the differences between SEO and Local SEO, as the technical stuff you mention I assume is part of both.

Blood, Sweat and Tears - not sure. Cake perhaps?

[iSTORM-New-Media]

White-hat SEO (which Moz is completely about) incorporates good general marketing practices (like mobile experience, design, CRO...) Moz Local is a tool that will get and maintain your most important online citations for your business. These citations hold value for local search results for your business.

If you want to learn more about local SEO, check out some of these Moz resources:

• http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
• http://moz.com/blog/category/local-seo
• http://moz.com/blog/free-local-seo-tools

[MiriamEllis]

Hi William,

Good question! Let me give a definition of Local SEO that I think may be helpful.

Local SEO is good SEO + geography.

What does this mean? If you're familiar with SEO best practices, nearly all are directly applicable to Local. You'll need:

• An optimized, crawlable, high quality website

• A presence on other websites, namely via the building of citations on local business directory-type sites, but also via other types of websites such as industry publications, local blogs, etc.

• In competitive niches, links and social

• A plan for ongoing content development.

All of this is, indeed, just good design, usability, SEO and SEM, but the main difference is that geography is at the heart of what you're doing in each of the above practices. You're not trying to rank for the world, for the US, for a whole state; you are trying to rank for a specific city or a number of specific cities, and so everything you do must reflect this.

SEO is an excellent lead-in to learning Local SEO, because so many of the best practices you've already learned will be directly applicable. Does this help answer your question? If not, please let me know. I helped create the Moz Local Learning Center and if you've found something about it to be unclear, I'd be happy to chat further!

[Seabrook]

Hello Miriam,

This is a really good answer, very clear and helpful so thanks very much.

I shall now read the rest of it..!

William

[MiriamEllis]

So glad to be of help, William!