Local SEO using an international business directory

yourmaritime · Mar 16, 2024

Hey all, a few years ago I launched a business directory in the maritime industry. It is slowly but steadily receiving good traffic and new business listings on a daily basis.

I allow businesses to add their address & map location. Is this considered a "Local SEO" practice? Should I advertise it as such?

You can check it out at https://yourmaritime.com. Open to any suggestions!

tazarbm · Mar 16, 2024

yourmaritime said:
Is this considered a "Local SEO" practice?

only if you operate, and allow listing from a certain area (not country), like city, state, county.

If you allow businesses from all over the country then it's not local SEO (at least according to my logic, other people and google's logic might be different), although - technically - it is local SEO because you're only working with your own country. But I don't think that anyone considers it local if the entire country is allowed in

yourmaritime said:
Should I advertise it as such?

Again, technically, it is local SEO so yeah, you can advertise it... although, you should probably advertise only the city / state specific page / category in their respective city / state. That's what makes the most sense to me.

yourmaritime said:
You can check it out at https://yourmaritime.com.

oh, so you're covering the entire planet... Well, in this case things are simple: you're anything BUT local. I mean, if you want to consider Earth as a geolocation of the Mikly Way sure, that's one way to look at it

But seriously now, your site is not localized to anything, I think you should forget about doing local SEO (citations), and focus your advertising on low penetration markets or countries with openness to seasides / oceans (for which reason I can't understand for the life of me why there are maritime companies in Austria)..

yourmaritime · Mar 17, 2024

tazarbm said:
only if you operate, and allow listing from a certain area (not country), like city, state, county.

If you allow businesses from all over the country then it's not local SEO (at least according to my logic, other people and google's logic might be different), although - technically - it is local SEO because you're only working with your own country. But I don't think that anyone considers it local if the entire country is allowed in

Again, technically, it is local SEO so yeah, you can advertise it... although, you should probably advertise only the city / state specific page / category in their respective city / state. That's what makes the most sense to me.

oh, so you're covering the entire planet... Well, in this case things are simple: you're anything BUT local. I mean, if you want to consider Earth as a geolocation of the Mikly Way sure, that's one way to look at it

But seriously now, your site is not localized to anything, I think you should forget about doing local SEO (citations), and focus your advertising on low penetration markets or countries with openness to seasides / oceans (for which reason I can't understand for the life of me why there are maritime companies in Austria)..

Awesome thanks a lot for the feedback! So "local SEO" is entirely for local sites, not global directories as mine. Great advice, appreciate it

tazarbm · Mar 17, 2024

yourmaritime said:
So "local SEO" is entirely for local sites, not global directories as mine

usually, not entirely (I have seen directories that have started as local but still had listings from outside of their geolocation). But your directory is pretty obvious that it's not local since you're targeting the entire planet.

yourmaritime said:
Great advice, appreciate it

no problem

NeedMyLink · Mar 19, 2024

Yep, adding address and map locations is a part of local SEO. It helps businesses get discovered in local searches and map queries. Since you're seeing steady traffic and listings, it suggests the directory's got value for local visibility. Flaunt that as a selling point. If you're not already, get those businesses to encourage reviews on your platform too, that'll amp up the local SEO benefits.

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