Being a big fish in a small pond can be an advantage for businesses based in second-tier cities, according to a guest opinion piece at Search Engine Land.

Hanan Lifshitz uses the example of Columbus, Ohio, with a population of less than 1 million to illustrate the point. While a coffee shop in a bustling metropolis like San Francisco might be inundated with digital marketing, the equivalent coffee shop in Columbus is more likely to be able to take a step back and think strategically about search engine optimization (SEO) and other online marketing strategies.

Lifshitz, using data from research firm Palore, shows that different types of small-city businesses use different types of online marketing at different rates. Plumbers, for example, are more likely than most to take advantage of non-website-related online marketing techniques than other small-city businesses.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help boost the localized online search profile of any business, and being one of a few rather than one of many makes the SEO effort that easier.