Difference Between Local SEO and International SEO

When expanding your business online, SEO is a vital part of your digital marketing strategy. A strong SEO strategy ensures that search engines can find your site quickly and enable your business to grow in the digital space. However, do you know if you should focus on local or international SEO? We discuss the differences and what is best suited for your business goals.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimising your website for local search to generate leads and brand awareness. It’s a more popular approach with those who have a physical presence in different areas, and it’s normally focused on a specific city or region such as “marketing agency in Oxford”, or “marketing agency in Oxfordshire”. The aim is to provide results that are relevant to a searcher based on their current location.

What is International SEO?

International SEO is the process of optimising your website so you can be found in the search engines in the countries and languages you are targeting. International SEO can significantly boost your reach and is a great way to grow your business if your products and services have the potential to be marketed globally.

Local SEO vs International SEO

With local SEO, you are targeting specific cities or regions, so the level of competition will not be the same as international SEO which targets products/services on a global scale.

What Should I Choose?

Both local and international SEO can be used together and work well depending on your goals and what you aim to achieve. If you are a small business then it’s better to focus on local SEO, this will allow you to expand slowly and grow at a rate that is in line with your business. On the other hand, if you already have local SEO in place, you might want to start expanding on an international level. This is especially true if you feel your products/services would succeed in a different market.

Before implementing SEO you’ll want to understand what type of SEO services you need (local or international), the areas you want to target, your target audience, and keyword research.

Conclusion

It can be easier to implement a local SEO strategy in comparison to an international SEO strategy. Therefore, we would recommend using an international SEO agency such as GA Agency to assist in the planning, implementation, and management of an international SEO campaign. There are many important aspects you need to consider such as using multilingual specialists in order to fully understand your target markets globally and implement a successful SEO campaign that aligns with your business goals.