The Difference Between Local SEO and Organic SEO?

 

Google Logo officially released on May 2010

What’s the difference between Local SEO and Organic SEO?

Before October 17th 2010 it was a clear distinction, but on that date (in Denver Search Engines Results
anyway) Google began merging search engine rankings between the Local Maps and the organic
results. Some search terms that the day before had returned the traditional 7 pack,  now had a few
organic results listed above the Maps, and some had a mix of maps and organic.

We have been researching how your organic rankings relate to your maps rankings recently in our
attempt to get  further understanding of what really determines Google places rankings. We know there
are lots of factors of course.  You can read about them all over the Internet. The common factors being
claim your profile, complete your profile, get good citations.

Yet, we have found several highly ranked places listings that have no citations, partially completed
profiles, and don’t seem to represent the common understanding of why a listing would be highly
ranked. One doesn’t even have a web site.

So we are comparing the highest ranked Places accounts in average to very competitive categories.
We are using the sites SEOmoz page authority as the organic score.  The theory is, if great on site SEO
scores are the major factor in Google places rankings.  Before October 2010, this was not the case.

We will be publishing some of the results as we get a broader base, from multiple cities, and keyword
categories.  In the early view there appears to be very little doubt that your SEOmoz score is a huge
indicator of your places rankings. We are looking into how your “categories”  relate to your rankings as
well. (An early hint is, not as much as you think) SEO News

Lot’s of data points to look at, and the first run we are keeping it simple.  SEOmoz page authority
compared to Places ranking and a few other tidbits.

There are some early surprises.  Where we do see a consistent  correlation between SEOmoz rank and
Places rankings, there are some glaring exceptions, and those are the situations we are most interested
in.

We will keep you posted on results as we understand them.

 

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