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Local SEO Basics

What Is the Difference Between Local SEO and Regular SEO?

Regular SEO tries to rank your website for searches from anywhere. Local SEO tries to put your business in front of people searching near you, mainly in the map results, and it leans on your Business Profile, reviews, and location signals. Most local businesses need both, and they share the same website.
By Eric Walker · Last updated October 2026

Two results pages, two sets of rules

When someone searches for a service near them, Google often shows a map with three businesses at the top, followed by regular website results. Local SEO is mostly about the map. Regular SEO is mostly about the website results below it. They are ranked by overlapping but different signals.

Google describes the map side on its page about improving your local ranking: relevance, distance, and prominence. Regular results look at the content and authority of a web page, and they do not care where you are standing in the same way.

What the 2026 survey shows

Whitespark surveys local SEO specialists on what drives each kind of result, and the 2026 results show how different the mix is:

  • For the map pack, the top factors were the primary Business Profile category, the searcher’s distance to the business, and keywords in the business name.
  • For regular local organic results, the top factor was a dedicated page for each service, and the quality of links to your website ranked third.

In other words, the map rewards your profile and your location. The website results reward the pages you build and the sites that point to them.

A different scoreboard

Regular SEO is usually measured in visits to your website. Local SEO is better measured in calls, direction requests, and messages from your Business Profile, because many local customers never visit a website at all. Check both. A plumber can get fewer clicks and more phone calls in the same month, and that is a good month.

Where they overlap

The two share a foundation. Your website needs clear pages for each service, correct contact details, fast loading, and links from other sites. Those help both the map and the website results. Your Business Profile links to your site, and your site backs up what your profile says. Weak website content holds back both.

Which should you do first?

For most small service businesses I would start with the profile: the right primary category, complete services, accurate details, and a steady flow of reviews, using my Business Profile guide. Then build a solid page for each service. Links and extra content come after that. If you want the full picture of what local SEO covers, read what is local SEO?.

A quick way to tell which problem you have

  • You do not appear in the map results for your service and city: that is a local SEO problem, so start with your profile and reviews.
  • You appear in the map but your website gets no visits and no one finds your service pages: that is a website problem, so work on the pages and the links to them.
  • You rank for your business name but for nothing else: you probably have a profile and a home page and not much in between.
  • You rank well in one neighborhood and nowhere else: distance is doing the work, and the fix is usually category, reviews, and service pages for the weaker areas.

Most owners find they have a bit of each problem. Work on the one that is costing you the most calls first.

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