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What is the Difference Between Local SEO and Organic SEO Services

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SEO can be complicated, and many people often wonder the difference between local SEO and organic SEO. Chances are you have heard about both types of SEO and may have a general idea of what they mean but cannot distinguish between the two.

It is essential for any business entering the digital marketplace to understand the differences between local SEO services and organic SEO services. For your online campaigns to be effective, it is vital to understand the difference in how they work and how success can be measured. When contacting an SEO company for help with your website, they are most likely to ask if you are looking for local or organic SEO help. Knowing the difference can save you a lot of time and money.

To understand the difference, it is essential to know the fundamental definitions of both local SEO and organic SEO. Organic SEO is a term for all the natural ways of making your website rank higher in search results. This includes searches performed on search engines such as Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc.

Local SEO is based on organic SEO but has a location-based focus. Local SCO is strictly built on making sure your local business appears higher when people in your area are looking for your product or service. When a potential customer searches for a type of business that matches yours, with proper local SEO, you will appear higher in the results on Google Maps, Bing Places, and so on.

Both types of SEO have to do with optimizing websites and online presence for search engines, but they deal with different rank factors and positions in search results pages. To understand how SEO works and how local is different from organic, we will go more in-depth into each to get a clearer understanding of what they involve.

Local SEO

Local SEO helps you to appear higher in local results. When someone searches for something locally, Google will show results that are based around what they think best matches the search query. So, if someone is searching for an Italian restaurant in Kitchener, they should see all of the choices around their area. There should be no Italian restaurants listed in Buffalo, NY or anywhere that is not near Kitchener, ON. 

As you can see in this screen shot, Google will show the closest Italian restaurants on a map and then list each business. Google reviews will be shown along with the address, distance to the location, hours of operation, and other relative information. All of this information will be collected from a business providing it through local SEO. 

Italian Restaurants in Kitchener

Optimizing local SEO is generally based on building citations, generating positive reviews, and optimizing website content with local keywords. It is vital for those with a local business to work with someone who offers local SEO services which understands how important it is to be indexed by Google. 

Our team at Unwire Web Solutions can help optimize your website to ensure your local business gets highly ranked for customers to find you. Our local SEO services offer several benefits to your online marketing efforts, which can significantly drive more foot and digital traffic to your store. When done right, you will gain more leads and sales from local customers and establish more of an identity within your community of trust and expertise.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO is focused on relevant and informative content. An organic search in Google is often someone searching for content and information who needs an answer to a question. They are doing research, not necessarily to make any transaction but just to know the facts and information to solve their current issue. This could be the latest news on a given topic, a food recipe, or DIY guide.

Organic SEO is based on links and keywords. With keywords, your website content can use specific words and phrases that people use in search engines. This is what tells the search engine that your content is relevant to what the user is searching for. When other websites that are topically relevant to your website link to you, it can help establish to Google that other people and websites thought you were relevant and authoritative.

Links and keywords both touch on the two central elements of organic SEO – relevance and trust. When Google sees that your website is relevant and trustworthy, your organic search rankings will increase.

Content

Content is a vital part of both local and organic SEO but in very different ways. Local SCO has content focused on location-based information, including the businesses city, town, or region. It can even include zip codes, streets, and intersections. Highly localized content can help attract a local audience and establish your geographic focus to search engines.

Organic SEO is more concerned with content focused on families of topics and the grouping of keywords that will help people find the information they are looking for. Instead of focusing on location-based keywords, organic SEO will have keywords that focus on the business or topic itself.

Both Are Important

Both local and organic SEO serve important but different purposes for businesses. They are both based on similar concepts of optimizing your business for search engine rankings. Still, there are differences between the two that you need to know if you want a successful marketing strategy. When SEO services are done together, you get the best of both worlds.

To know if your website is optimized correctly, many SEO analysis tools are available that can help give you an idea of if you are on the right track. If your site is not ranking the way it should be in Google, contact our experts today. We will be happy to sit down with you and discuss our organic and local SEO services.

The Importance of Images in Content Marketing

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In content marketing, images are vital. Adding visuals to practical, well-researched content can help to resonate with your audience over time. They don’t just stand out at first sight; they are also easier to remember. But it isn’t just the images themselves that help your page stand out, image optimization for SEO must also be implemented to help your site gain the ranking it deserves. 

Eye-catching visuals can help the reader to focus and get a better idea of what a message is genuinely trying to say. They can give a better understanding of the message but can also explain easier and faster to some rather than just a cluster of written words. 

Plan Your ContentPlan Your Content

When creating content for your site, always start by planning the content with its messaging, audience, and goals in mind. This thought process should include some compelling visual content. From the very beginning, you should consider what type of images, infographics, or other rich media could be added to the content to enhance its messaging. 

Web content containing visuals has been shown to perform approximately 94% better than content with no visuals. Email marketing campaigns are no exception, and any emails that include images have a higher click-through rate compared to campaigns that have no visuals. 

Image Optimization for SEO

It is not only important to have the images in your content, but they must be optimized for SEO. Image optimization is considered as an integral element in SEO optimization. It is essential to optimize the image for a better user experience and is also needed for search engines.

Images can give search engines important contextual information and speed up page loading, increasing user engagement and search engine rankings. It is vital first to understand the basics of image optimization before attempting optimization. 

What Is Image Optimization?What Is Image Optimization?

Image optimization is the process of creating and delivering high-quality images in size, format, and resolution required for the channel. It also includes accurately labeling images so search engine crawlers can read them and understand page context. 

File names for your images are extremely important and should be chosen even before uploading them onto your page. Before uploading, name the file with relevant, descriptive keywords to get the most SEO power. Use target keywords at the beginning of the name and separate them out with hyphens. 

Alt tags are essential in the world of SEO. Without properly labelled alt tags, search engine crawlers can’t accurately index your image content. Provide more detail in the alt image than you would in the title, and aim for 10 -15 words that convey something about the image. 

Images That Please Your Audience

In today’s digital climate, customers are more likely to be quickly captivated by an image than just words on a page. The trend of images within content is unlikely to change anytime soon. With the dramatic shift in content preferences with the growth of faster phones, faster internet connections, better picture quality, and more, it is critical to have visuals that will please your audience. Unwired Web Solutions can help to make sure all images on your website are up-to-date and have the proper SEO to accompany them.

Images That Please Your Audience

As an SEO company in Kitchener, we understand the needs of our local clients. As a local business, appealing to the community is important for your success. Let our team help with your content needs that can help drive more customers and sales your way. Contact us today!

How Backlinks Affect SEO

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For those trying to build a website and get traction in SEO, backlinks may be an important part of your strategy. This may be why you have been doing link-building outreach, guest blogging, or producing data-driven content, hoping that other sources will cite. After all, getting more backlinks has been an SEO tactic since the early days. But are they still necessary?

SEO services have long provided backlink strategies for companies looking to gain higher site rankings. So, surely with the number of backlinks that websites have racked up over the years, they must have impacted the SEO, right? Google says, not necessarily. According to John Mueller, a webmaster trends analyst at Google, the total number of backlinks on a website doesn’t matter at all. In fact, it isn’t even something that a search algorithm looks at. 

Quality Vs. Quantity

In the link-building world, quantity is now out, and quality is where you should be putting your focus. Just one good link from a high-authority website can be more impactful than thousands of low-quality links. Google really only looks at how relevant each link is to the website that it is pointing to. Mueller suggests that even a page has only one high-quality link from a major news site, that signal would be enough for Google to categorize it as a quality page. 

High-quality backlinks have always been the ultimate SEO trump card, so this should not come as a surprise to some people. It seems that many business owners get carried away in practices that only focused on getting more links. SEO experts agree that time and effort should be put into producing content that people will want to link to. Although it is not easy, it will prove to be much more valuable to Google and its user experience-focused future. Google’s page experience update is currently being rolled out, and user experience should now be your top priority as a business owner. 

Internal Links

Internal links are also important for the SEO of your website. Unlike backlinks which go from an external website to your site, an internal link points to content within the same domain which can help the user navigate a website. These internal links can help Google index the website’s structure. They help to organize content and will tell search engine “crawlers” to discover and archive more relevant pages. This will help benefit the site’s SEO. 

While there is no right or wrong in how many internal links you should have on your site, it should make sense where you are directing your customers. For example, many “FAQ” pages have direct links to a “contact page.” It makes sense for the customer to be directed to one page after the other. 

SEO Services

If you require SEO services, our experts at Unwired Web Solutions can help with backlinks or any other concerns you may have about your site. As Google rolls out its new user experience-focused requirements, it is vital to have your site ready for the new changes. This includes ensuring your backlink and internal links are creating a user-friendly experience for your customer. Contact us today to learn how we can make sure you stay high in Google rankings. Click here to learn more about our services. 

What Is a Featured Snippet?

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The featured snippet is the most coveted position pursued by search engine optimization Kitchener companies. Not every search option returns a featured snippet, but the most popular search questions do. Companies love to rank for this position because it provides the opportunity to distinguish themselves from competitors. It also confirms that they are the subject matter experts on the specific topic, which customers begin to notice when this ranking is consistent across related queries.

What Is a Google Snippet?

Featured snippets are the highlighted answers in search position zero. They illustrate what Google decides is the best answer to a query. Google displays this information without the need for a potential client to click on your website while still crediting you for the information.

Google also provides rich text associated with every other result provided. It increasingly highlights the specific text on web pages that answer a question, even if it does not rank in search position zero.

What Are the Different Types?

Google provides four main types of featured snippets. The main difference between all four is formatting.

Listicles

If you write a listicle article, Google might use the headings from the list to answer someone’s questions. For example, say you write an article on how to change a tire. Each step and its subheading would be another item on Google’s list.

Tables

Google might go a step further with formatting and present the information in the form of a table. The table does not always have visible lines, so you might confuse it with lists. A common query Google responds to with this format is when you look for the annual weather averages of an area. It provides a table showing the month, high and low temperatures and the inches of rain received.

Paragraphs

Not surprisingly, most featured snippets take the form of regular paragraphs. In some cases, Google will string together information from different paragraphs to create a new paragraph that answers the specific query.

Video

Sometimes, the best answer to your question is a video. Marketers believe that videos will become more prevalent as featured snippets, over time. Videos are most likely to rank in featured snippets for how-to queries, such as, “How to change windshield wipers”.

Google featured snippets

Is It Worth Ranking for This?

Some companies believe ranking for a featured snippet does not provide any real benefits to the business beyond exposure. After all, if clients can see the answer without clicking on the website, why would they visit? In spite of these concerns, one study showed that when companies rank for search position zero, they increased organic traffic by roughly 516%.

Another important reason to rank for featured snippets is the prevalence of voice search. Virtual assistants, such as Google Home, Siri and Alexa, have popularized the practice of asking Google questions by speaking to it.

These answers tend to come from featured snippets and rich text. Voice search does not immediately lead to sales conversions, but Google credits the website for the information. Over time, consumers notice when they hear the same subject matter expert’s name over and over again.

What Can I Do To Get Started?

The high competition for the featured snippet position makes it difficult to rank for, but that depends on the keywords. When you work with our search engine optimization Kitchener specialists, they complete keyword research and determine which keywords are easiest for you to rank for. Niche keywords, especially long-tail keywords are worth aiming for when the competition is too stiff for more popular search terms.

Are you looking for new ways to improve your website ranking performance? Unwired Web Solution can help you outrank your competitors and convert current onlookers into your best customers. Contact us for a quote.