Geographic SEO Strategy What to Know & What Factors to Consider

There's no doubt that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains a top digital marketing strategy, next to email marketing. When done correctly, SEO can put your website in the digital spotlight and give your business a lot of opportunities—lead generation and sales conversion primarily. 

Geographic SEO is a part of the overall SEO equation. The goal of G-SEO is to ensure that your business is physically located with the search engines, such that local customers can find you. The right G-SEO strategies will help your local business rank better for local business searches on Google.

In the following section, we'll cover what geographic SEO entails and what factors to consider for your G-SEO strategies.

What to know about geographic SEO

While today's modern businesses exist and operate in the digital realm, SEO doesn't ignore the realities of distance and locality. That's why it takes knowing the three buckets of searches, as follows:

• Local result

The local result focuses on search results based on the proximity to the searcher. For instance, if you search for a restaurant in your city, then local results show food businesses in your locality. If you see a Google map pack, the chances are that you've performed a local search. Local search is a potent battleground for business exposure. It is vital for businesses that compete in the local area.

• Non-local result

The non-local result means that it doesn't have a local influence on the searches at all. In most cases, this result springs from informational searches, which occur when someone wants to gather information about a certain topic. For instance, when you're looking for health information on treating diabetes, then you'll get various results relevant to this topic.

• Hybrid result

Google doesn't make anything simple when it comes to SEO. A hybrid result is a combination of local and informational searches. This suffices the users with a variety of options who may or may not be looking for something local. For instance, you have keyed in the word "ramen" for your google search. The chances are that the search result will give you a combination of some ramen restaurants in the area and information about what ramen is, such as the Wikipedia result. 

Factors to consider for your strategy

Now that you understand the geographic considerations for Google searches, let's focus on what factors to consider when creating your SEO strategies. Know, however, that your SEO strategies all boil down to what industry you're in, the type of business you have, how it operates in the locality, and the resources your company has. But on a more specific note, consider the following:

• Basic SEO: When coming up with your SEO strategy, you have to factor in the following:

• The level of competition in the industry
• The resources your business has
• The timeline in achieving your SEO goals

• Advanced SEO: For those more advanced in SEO, you have to consider the following factors specifically:

• Keyword difficulty
• Domain authority or rating of competing websites
• Referring domains or backlinks of competing websites
• Content levels of competing websites

Whether creating content (use of keywords), optimizing your website (navigation, speed, layout, etc.) or building backlinks (quality links from credible sources), the aforementioned factors can impact your SEO strategies significantly.

Final words

In the world of SEO, G-SEO shouldn't be ignored if you truly want your website to rank for local business searches on Google. Knowing how the three buckets of SEO work—local results, non-local results, and hybrid results—can help you decide on your SEO strategies. Furthermore, consider the factors outlined above for both basic and advanced SEO and see how your SEO strategies can work wonders for your business.

If you’re looking for an SEO agency in Vancouver, get in touch with us today, and see how we can help.

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