Are there benefits to signing up for SEO services from a company located in another city or state? What does it matter if your consultant is based in Ohio and your firm is located in California? This is the internet age, and everything you need can be done over the internet, by phone, or using video conferencing. There is no advantage to using local services, right?

Wrong: Local Can Be Better

Imagine your business caters to a very specific group of people. Their mobility is limited, so in order to obtain services, they take the bus or a taxi; walk, cycle, or carpool. These consumers come from all over the city, but they are located within a 50-mile radius.

In that case, your website and marketing approach must reflect the particular needs of these clients whom you rely on to stay in operation or receive funding as a non-profit organization. Examples would be a teens’ drop-in center, rehab counseling facility, or seniors’ organization. The website will be geared to a particular age group but will also include information that endears the reader to your establishment.

Respectful Approach

What might that mean to an elderly individual seeking companionship from a center for local seniors? She wants content to be large enough to read and in a sensible style like Times New Roman with no fancy colors she can’t make out. She is potentially drawn to trivia about the area which includes some home-grown knowledge about the people who have lived and worked there over the years, about staff at the center, or even short profiles of patrons using the center. What if the area is known for its love of certain types of music or an ethnic background prevails and influences the architecture and art of a place? The best person to know and reflect all of these and many other details is a local.

Finding Direction

There’s more to it than that. Even an absent consultant can find these things out, thanks to the client or an internet search. What about giving directions to the teens’ center? How do teens normally find a route from one place to the next? Locals have it all worked out, especially if they used that same center when they were in high school. They can pick out landmarks: a shortcut near an old church, convenience stores selling slushies, etc. A map is helpful and anyone can pull up something from Google maps and insert it into a website, but residents are better at inserting the personal touch.

Isn’t That Just Content?

Do you need an SEO consultant to write website content for you? Not necessarily. The points above suggest that if a local wrote the site for a center he runs, then an SEO pro is better suited to other elements of the job like website construction, analysis and reporting, and getting social media accounts on their feet. There is one more thing you don’t want to forget, however: local economy.

The team at your local SEO agency is part of the fabric of your community the way those centers above are part of the fabric. They help keep a community remain cohesive and give it character. So do local businesses.