Targeting Global Search Terms For Local Businesses
Sometimes, it is just as challenging to rank on the first page with a local search term as it is for a global search term. I have noticed of late that some local terms are almost as competitive as global search terms for the same industry. In most circumstances, it is service related offline industries.
Recently, I scored a global search term that started producing traffic and leads for a company before we ranked for the local search. It caused me to start thinking about the way I approach local search. There are several advantages to targeting global search terms for a local business:
- Many searchers start with a global search term and narrow their search when it does not produce the desired results. If a local business is ranked for a global term, the searcher has only one legitimate option to click through. This eliminates most of the local competition in the first search.
- Most SEO competitors are not targeting global search terms for local companies. It is always difficult to score a global search term, but it may only require the same amount of work as some highly competitive search markets, like Atlanta.
- The business has marketing in any area that it might want to expand.
Overall, it is a good idea to target global search terms while still scoring the local searches. In the long run, even if you only gain one global term in the top ten of Google, you will see increased results.
I agree with you in the sense that if you target both local and global in the same keywords you can’t go wrong. What it really comes down to though is the research you put in before. If you find a niche that you know you can take out that is local then just focus on that local niche because sometimes it can really pay off.
Keep up the cool articles!
Good point. Almost by accident I discovered the same thing. Sometimes, you just want the local traffic, but the general keyword brings in enough traffic that has your local market in it that it is worth targeting (did that make sense?)… especially if you can get it with less effort than the local keyword.
makes a lot of sense Mike, most times people will search with a general keyword first and if they do not find what they want then they will start narrowing down their search through the long tail.
I agree I usually start searching with a pretty broad term and then when I am not satisfied then I add more words to get what I need.
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Nice information about SEO services and web design. You are discussing a good topic like if you are using general keyword then it will bring a enough traffic for your site and it is always difficult to get traffic if you are using global keywords. This will make a lot of sense for SEO services.
Interesting. Many times competing for a certain small keyword, I found that my sites are ranking for most competitive terms. I think it can happen the same with global and local searches.
It is a challenge getting your website on page 1 of google. Keywords are one thing. There are still other things that needs to get done to get your site to page one rank.