Should You Focus on Local or National SEO? Or even Google AdWords?

[RealDreams]

Hey guys, I was wondering: should you focus more on local vs national SEO?

My hometown is a small city (140k inhabitants) and I was wondering how profitable it would be to focus my efforts on entering the local market.

I've searched a few queries on google and my competition is pathetic. 95% of the web designers have slow websites (40% PageSpeed Insights) so it should be very easy to rank up with the right keywords when my website is much faster.

What I don't know, is how much demand there is in my city for web designers. This is an important aspect to consider, because what's the point of ranking first for certain queries if 20 people search for it every month?

On the other hand, what if spending some money with Google Adwords would be more profitable compared to creating pages filled with keyword aimed solely for local businesses? The magnitude principle would be non-existent here.

I'm wondering whether I should focus my SEO efforts nationally or for local businesses. Or simply just doing active sales (cold calling, cold emailing) and trying with Google AdWords.

What's your experience?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Hey guys, I was wondering: should you focus more on local vs national SEO?

My hometown is a small city (140k inhabitants) and I was wondering how profitable it would be to focus my efforts on entering the local market.

I've searched a few queries on google and my competition is pathetic. 95% of the web designers have slow websites (40% PageSpeed Insights) so it should be very easy to rank up with the right keywords when my website is much faster.

What I don't know, is how much demand there is in my city for web designers. This is an important aspect to consider, because what's the point of ranking first for certain queries if 20 people search for it every month?

On the other hand, what if spending some money with Google Adwords would be more profitable compared to creating pages filled with keyword aimed solely for local businesses? The magnitude principle would be non-existent here.

I'm wondering whether I should focus my SEO efforts nationally or for local businesses. Or simply just doing active sales (cold calling, cold emailing) and trying with Google AdWords.

What's your experience?

@BizyDad ?

 

[Andy Black]

Me, I’d get known locally. Meet people for coffee or a Zoom chat. (But then I don’t even have a website.)

 

[Fid]

Some points from my experience:

• Most of the web design leads I get from Google are low quality - price-shopping, cheap, small, local businesses
• 10-20% of them are decent but rarely great
• It's not as easy to outrank those sites as it seems. I come from an even smaller town (~60k inhabitants) and the top spots are taken by big sites with doorway pages or Flash banners. I rank at spot 10-12 (note that I've never done much more than the on-page SEO, though)
• Nationally and in big cities, you compete with big players and all the black hat ninjas - good luck with those
• I'd start with Google Ads - you can gauge the search volumes and get a feeling about the quality of the leads quickly
• I've had the most success with networking and direct outreach (Linkedin, FB Groups, email), not my own website

Remark: I might live in a different culture/environment than you, you might get different results in there.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[virginiaj.yates]

I think you should focus on local SEO and get link back to your site from each site you are building on the anchor text you want. Also, work on GMB. Grow on the local level first and then move to national. Ascend.

 

[Andy Black]

> HOT TOPIC - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

 

[BizyDad]

So... I'm a little late to reply here. Thanks for the tag Andy.

Personally I start locally since, generally speaking, it'll be easier to rank in the city where you have an address. And since SEO will take a while no matter what, I would start with an Ad campaign.

Use the data from the local Ad campaign to decide if local SEO is worth it or not.

And while you have that Ad campaign running, use Google's keyword tool to find some niche categories you might be able to compete for. Others are right, you won't rank for "web designers" anytime soon. But could you rank for "web designers for rock bands" or "lumber yards" or "landscapers"? The longer and more narrow you make the search term, usually, the easier it is to rank for it.

Notice, I didn't say doctors or lawyers because some industries are congested with designers targeting them. But if you can find a niche of under-served small businesses, you'll have a nicely profitable agency.

Best part about starting with an Ads first strategy is you'll field the calls and see if the customer quality is worth it, before you take the time and trouble it'll take to rank your site.

And while I won't share specific ideas for niche that I'd actually want to target, I will say that there are plenty of under-served business verticals who can use some help.

What I don't know, is how much demand there is in my city for web designers. This is an important aspect to consider, because what's the point of ranking first for certain queries if 20 people search for it every month?

Personally I am a big fan of 20 search type phrases. You rank #1 for that and you get 1 or 2 paying clients (a month), if the phrase has the right specific search intent and you have the right sales pitch. Plus most people ignore those kinds of phrases, so you have a better chance of ranking (although Google is making this kind of sniper rifle approach to SEO harder and harder with every update). As a (I assume) solo web designer, how many simultaneous projects can you really handle? Even on the super cheap side, that is a $3k per month revenue stream. And if you can rank for one 20 person phrase, you can rank for 5 more...

Anyways, that's my thoughts on what's possible. But frankly, I don't think anything beats getting out there and letting people see your face. Build relationships. Build a reputation as someone who delivers a quality product.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[RealDreams]

So... I'm a little late to reply here. Thanks for the tag Andy.

Personally I start locally since, generally speaking, it'll be easier to rank in the city where you have an address. And since SEO will take a while no matter what, I would start with an Ad campaign.

Use the data from the local Ad campaign to decide if local SEO is worth it or not.

And while you have that Ad campaign running, use Google's keyword tool to find some niche categories you might be able to compete for. Others are right, you won't rank for "web designers" anytime soon. But could you rank for "web designers for rock bands" or "lumber yards" or "landscapers"? The longer and more narrow you make the search term, usually, the easier it is to rank for it.

Notice, I didn't say doctors or lawyers because some industries are congested with designers targeting them. But if you can find a niche of under-served small businesses, you'll have a nicely profitable agency.

Best part about starting with an Ads first strategy is you'll field the calls and see if the customer quality is worth it, before you take the time and trouble it'll take to rank your site.

And while I won't share specific ideas for niche that I'd actually want to target, I will say that there are plenty of under-served business verticals who can use some help.



Personally I am a big fan of 20 search type phrases. You rank #1 for that and you get 1 or 2 paying clients (a month), if the phrase has the right specific search intent and you have the right sales pitch. Plus most people ignore those kinds of phrases, so you have a better chance of ranking (although Google is making this kind of sniper rifle approach to SEO harder and harder with every update). As a (I assume) solo web designer, how many simultaneous projects can you really handle? Even on the super cheap side, that is a $3k per month revenue stream. And if you can rank for one 20 person phrase, you can rank for 5 more...

Anyways, that's my thoughts on what's possible. But frankly, I don't think anything beats getting out there and letting people see your face. Build relationships. Build a reputation as someone who delivers a quality product.

Thanks a lot! I'll follow this strategy.