Local vs. National SEO: The Ultimate Guide

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Local vs. National SEO: What’s the difference?

There is, a big one, especially if you operate in the local or national market.

In both cases, the appropriate SEO strategy must be used—otherwise, your customer will find your competition (and believe me, there’s a lot of them).

From the basics to the details—let’s begin.

What is the Local SEO?

Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the process of optimizing a website or online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. These searches take place on Google and other search engines.

It’s particularly important for brick-and-mortar businesses that serve specific towns, cities, regions, or even states. 

The primary goal of local optimization is to optimize a business’s physical location or service area in search results. This engages:

• Claiming and optimizing a Google My Business listing.
• Earning positive customer reviews on Google.
• Creating localized content on your website.
• Acquiring local citations (mentioning your business name, address, and phone number on other websites).
• Ensuring the consistency of your business details across various online directories.

By focusing on local efforts, you choose exclusively local businesses. For example: hairdressers, cosmetologists, mechanics, local restaurants, etc.

You might say there are hairdressing or restaurant chains that operate even globally: Domino’s Pizza, Jean Louise David. Sure, you’re totally right. But these businesses also operate in both larger and smaller cities and towns.

If you want to focus on large, international businesses, a local SEO campaign will be essential. The more you select keywords focusing on the locality in which you operate, the better.

What is the National SEO?

National SEO, focuses on broader keyword terms and is used to target audiences on a countrywide scale. This time you need to consider the aspect of the country or international business.

Instead of focusing on localized content and keywords, national optimization emphasizes ranking for broader phrases based on cites, and even countries.

It’s ideal for businesses that aren’t tied to a specific location and offer products or services to a broad audience. 

Key aspects of national SEO include:

• Comprehensive keyword research to identify broad terms that potential customers might use.
• Creating high-quality, authoritative content around these keywords.
• Building a robust backlink profile from high-authority websites, also from various countries.
• On-page and off-page optimization techniques that aren’t necessarily tied to a specific location.

The best industries for this type of SEO: consulting and training.

These are two types of service businesses that are desired worldwide, and they usually don’t have brand advocates who promote them by word of mouth.

The best example of a company with brand advocates: Apple.

What’s the Key Difference Between the Two?

Target audience and reach.

In the case of local work, you will focus only on a smaller locality, and sometimes even just on a street.

You can’t compare the reach of a dentist in Poznan with the number of dentists in London. However, in both cases, there’s significant competition.

For example, results for a keyword dentysta w Poznaniu (written in Polish):

Number of results in October 2023: 10

On the other hand, dentist London:

Number of results in October 2023: 2,900

Nevertheless, the choice of audience plays a crucial role.

And, of course, reach. The more people come to you, the more you can earn.

At a quick calculation—yes, that’s the case. However, upon further reflection, you need to adjust the right strategy.

A local dentist has limited human and time resources. He won’t accept 300 people a day; it’s rather impossible.

Whereas a consulting firm, e.g., McKinsey, could afford to do so, although they won’t need being high in search rankings, so we can focus on someone less recognizable in their industry.

In choosing a local or national organic strategy, the key is reach, audience, and consequently—the selection of keywords. It then plays a crucial role in finding suitable clients for your business.

Keyword Research in Local vs. National SEO

It’s the process of identifying terms and phrases that potential customers enter into search engines. Therefore, when creating an SEO campaign, you need to focus on selecting phrases, considering your business and its target operating location.

Why are keywords so important in both strategies?

1. Relevance to Audience: Keywords provide insights into what your audience is searching for. Your business is being searched for by specific people in a given city. Adjust your strategy for the right people—you’ll gain customers this way.
2. Increased Visibility: Gain more organic traffic through increased visibility. By using the right keywords for your business, Google will notice it and boost your website’s search rankings.
3. Competition: Understanding and targeting keywords that your competitors might be overlooking can give you an advantage over your competition on the internet.

How to find the right keywords?

1. Brainstorming: Start by listing terms related to your business, products, or services. Think like your client—what might he look for?
2. Keyword Tools: Platforms like Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs can provide valuable insights into popular search terms, their search volume, and competitiveness.
3. Analyze Competitors: Look at the keywords your competitors are targeting. This can give you ideas for something you might have missed.
4. Consider Search Intent: It’s not just about the keyword, but the intent behind it. Is the user searching for information, or are they ready to make a purchase? Tailoring your content to match this intent is crucial.

Adjust the keywords to your business and the area in which you operate. Choose the right tools for it. And remember—think like your customer. After all, you’re creating this strategy for them.

Integrate Social Media with SEO

Your audience loves social media. It doesn’t matter what your industry is. Unless you sell weapons, but let’s assume you don’t.

Therefore, being present on social media should be part and parcel of your daily business.

If you’re a dentist, a vet, or you repair furniture—post your work and progress every day. Your audience will see that you’re active and trust you. And what’s important in business? Gaining trust equals acquiring a paying customer.

But that’s not only about your audience; search engines also love social media.

Google or its competitors will notice that you’re present and frequently active on social media, which will consequently influence the organic ranking of your website.

Which platforms should you choose? It depends on your business, but focus on the key ones in terms of active users: Facebook (Meta), Twitter (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest.

Your presence on social media = client engagement + Google authority. I highly recommend you engage on social media platforms.

Local vs. National SEO: Which One is Better?

There is no unequivocal answer. But I’ll put it this way—one cannot exist without the other.

The question again comes down to the type of business you operate in. If it’s within a city or village area, then only local optimization for that area comes into play. However, if you operate in cities but operate throughout the entire country, then work on your local results has to be combined with the national one.

It’ll be more expensive—certainly—but over them this investment will pay back itself.

To determine which solution is better, you need to know what to focus on and what you’re able to work on.

SparkToro prepared a ranking of the most important and holistic aspects that truly matter in SEO nowadays.

One by one; the more you implement (correctly), the better and quicker your online venture will rank.

Focus on Link Building

Local SEO values community-driven trust. It prioritizes backlinks from neighborhood sources such as blogs or city-based events.

National SEO seeks a wider audience. It emphasizes links from authoritative sites. They’re based on podcasts and various social media.

Focus on link building in your SEO strategy to gain robust, organic traffic faster.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Local SEO and National SEO

Wrapping Up

Local or National SEO? Now you know—both strategies are equally important.

In fact, one strategy cannot exist without the other.

However, before you prepare a strategy for an SEO campaign, start with a thorough business strategy. Identify which customers you reach or want to reach, where you see your area of operation in 3 months, and where you see it in 2 years.

Why is this so important?

Because good SEO (without black-hat SEO techniques) is time- and cost-consuming, but over time it really pays off, and your customers will essentially find you on their own.

The more common SEO elements, the better. The more organic strategy, the faster the growth in the number of customers and profits.

Focus on a holistic preparation of the strategy—lots of content, building a link background, frequent content and product updates (if you have an e-commerce) on your website, and social media engagement. Let me call it the recipe for SEO success because it will bring real money into your pocket.

How do you manage to prepare an SEO strategy for a chosen area?

Let me know in the comments, and if you liked it—I’ll be more than happy if you share this post with your friends and clients! 🙂

However, if you’ve come across something intriguing, feel free to hit me up privately: LinkedIn & X.

Thanks,
Simon

Author Profile

Simon Gorlak

Simon Gorlak is a Digital Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience. He specializes in 3 areas: SEO, Lead Generation on LinkedIn, and Email Marketing. Simon's blog gathers knowledge that helps Marketers & C-level to increase profits from their online businesses. Also, his content helps to reach the most difficult customers, make others' content to be read & purchased. Besides digital marketing, Simon speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish & works as a Head of Business at an Indian Start-up.

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