{"id":1160,"date":"2026-04-28T20:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seversondigitalmarketing.com\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:52:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T20:52:04","slug":"what-is-local-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seversondigitalmarketing.com\/es\/what-is-local-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Local SEO \u2014 And Why It’s Different from Regular SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most local business owners have heard the term SEO. Some have even paid for it. But a surprising number of them \u2014 contractors, cleaners, salon owners, landscapers, dentists \u2014 are investing time and money into the wrong kind. There is a meaningful difference between regular SEO and local SEO, and confusing the two is one of the most common and costly mistakes a local business can make. Business owners who want expert help getting their local SEO right can explore done-for-you local SEO services<\/a> \u2014 but first, it helps to understand exactly what local SEO is and why it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular SEO vs. Local SEO: What’s the Difference?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regular SEO \u2014 sometimes called organic SEO \u2014 is the process of getting a website to rank in Google’s standard search results. Think blog posts, articles, and website pages competing for broad search terms. A business trying to rank for “how to unclog a drain” is doing regular SEO. The competition is national, sometimes global, and it takes significant time and resources to move the needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local SEO is different. It is the process of getting a business to show up when people nearby search for the services that business offers. “Plumber in Indianapolis.” “Hair salon near me.” “Best restaurant in Carmel.” These are local searches \u2014 and they show up differently in Google than regular organic results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When someone does a local search, Google often shows what is called the Map Pack \u2014 a block of three business listings with a map that appears above the regular organic results. Those three spots are prime real estate. They are what most local customers see first. And getting into those spots requires local SEO, not regular SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Leah Severson of Severson Digital Marketing explains, “Local SEO and regular SEO are not the same thing \u2014 and most local business owners don’t realize that. If you’re a contractor or a salon owner, you’re not competing with businesses across the country. You’re competing with businesses in your zip code. That changes everything about how you approach Google.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Local SEO Lives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Regular SEO lives primarily on a website. The focus is on page content, keywords, backlinks, and technical factors that help individual web pages rank in Google’s organic results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local SEO lives in two places at once: on the website and on the Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business). That free listing Google gives every business \u2014 the one that shows the business name, address, phone number, hours, photos, and reviews \u2014 is not optional for local businesses. It is often the first thing a potential customer sees before they ever visit the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the part that catches most local business owners off guard. They spend money building and optimizing a website, then completely ignore their Google Business Profile. They end up with a great website that ranks well in organic results \u2014 but they are invisible in the Map Pack, which is where local customers are actually looking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting both sides of the equation right is what Google’s local ranking factors<\/a> are all about. Relevance, distance, and prominence \u2014 the three factors Google uses to rank local businesses \u2014 apply specifically to local search, not to organic SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Real Example of What Ignoring Local SEO Costs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consider a restaurant owner who claimed and verified their Google Business Profile \u2014 then never touched it again. The profile had minimal photos, no posts, an incomplete services section, and almost no recent reviews. The restaurant was rarely showing up in the Map Pack, even for searches directly related to what they offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the profile was fully optimized and actively maintained \u2014 with complete information, regular posts, updated photos, and a steady stream of new reviews \u2014 everything changed. Impressions went up. Interactions went up. Direction requests went up. And most importantly, customers came through the door who had found the restaurant directly through Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing about the restaurant’s website changed. The improvement came entirely from taking the Google Business Profile seriously as a local SEO tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pattern plays out across industries \u2014 contractors, salons, cleaning services, healthcare providers \u2014 any local business that serves customers in a specific geographic area. The Google Business Profile is not a secondary concern. For local search, it is often the primary one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Most Generic SEO Advice Doesn’t Apply to Local Businesses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A lot of SEO content online is written for national or e-commerce businesses. The advice focuses on building domain authority, targeting high-volume keywords, and producing large amounts of content. For a local plumber or a neighborhood salon, most of that advice is either irrelevant or overkill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local businesses do not need to rank nationally. They need to rank in their city. That is a fundamentally different goal, and it requires a fundamentally different strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local SEO focuses on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n