A Should question

Should I choose a local or remote SEO company?

3 min read Cites 2 sources

Choose on skill, experience with businesses like yours, and how the company communicates; location comes after those. SEO work is delivered remotely, from research to reporting, and the company’s address has no effect on where your business ranks. A local company can still bring real advantages, mainly knowledge of your market and the option of meeting in person, while a remote one widens the choice to specialists you would not otherwise find. Weigh those against each other, but do not confuse local SEO with the need for a local company.

Local SEO does not need a local company

Google’s explanation of how local ranking works lists distance as one of its factors and defines it as how far each business is from the customer who is searching. The distance that matters is between your business and your customers, not between you and your SEO company. A company anywhere can do the work that local ranking depends on, such as keeping your Business Profile complete, building pages for the areas you serve, and earning mentions from local sources, as long as it understands your area well enough to do it properly.

What a local company can offer

A nearby company may already know how people in your area search, which neighborhoods and suburbs matter to your trade, and which local publications, associations, and directories carry weight. It may have worked with businesses like yours in the same market. A business in the capital, for example, can read how one Washington, DC agency describes search in that market, a city it describes as driven by policy, research, legal advocacy, education, and health infrastructure, and then put the same questions to that agency as to any remote candidate. A nearby company also makes meeting in person easy, which some owners value when reviewing strategy, and it shares your time zone.

The limit is the size of the field. Restricting the search to your city leaves out companies elsewhere that may be better suited to your industry or your type of site.

What a remote company can offer

Looking further afield lets you compare companies with direct experience in your industry, your platform, or your specific problem, such as a site migration or recovery from a penalty. Video calls, shared reports, and screen sharing cover much of what a meeting would. What needs checking is responsiveness across time zones and how well the company will learn your local market, if your customers are local.

Tests that apply either way

Ask any company, local or remote, for examples of work for businesses like yours, the names and roles of the people who will work on your account, how and when you can reach them, and how they will learn the specifics of your area or field. If your customers are local, ask a remote company how it researches a local market it does not know; if the company is local, ask what it knows about your industry beyond the shared zip code. The answers decide more than the distance does.

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