By Ken Chase, Content Specialist for Fintech & Business
Last Updated: March 11, 2025
Is your search engine optimization strategy getting the results you need? If you’re a small to medium-sized business owner with an established online presence, then you know how important it is for your SEO to effectively drive traffic to your website. Of course, that can only happen when you’re employing the right type of local and national SEO for your business needs.
In this article, we’ll explain local and national SEO and how each can impact your search results. We’ll also explore the benefits of each and provide some simple tips and guidance that you can use to decide which option is best for your business needs.
Key takeaways:
Local SEO is a strategy that seeks to maximize your online visibility for local searches in a specific geographic area. This targeted approach to SEO is important for businesses that maintain a physical presence in a neighborhood or city. Successful local SEO improves your visibility in search results, making it easier for customers to find your business online.
National SEO is a strategy to maximize your brand visibility across an entire region or country. This broader approach to SEO is great for companies with multiple locations, online offerings, and a geographically diverse audience.
There are several key differences between these two types of SEO:
Optimizing your website for local SEO can ensure that your site ranks high for “nearby” searches – the results people search for when they’re looking for businesses within a certain distance of their location.
Location-specific search features include:
About 48% of searchers click on one of the three businesses featured in the local pack. To achieve those results, local SEO focuses on using local citations, Google Business Profile listings, and reviews from local customers.
Here is an example of a Google 3-Pack:
Google’s local 3 pack shows three local businesses and a map
Here is an example of similar local results from Bing:
Bing’s local business results for medical malpractice lawyers
It’s important to understand which type of SEO will be the best fit for your business needs. When it comes to choosing between local SEO vs national SEO, you should consider these factors:
Local SEO can offer a host of advantages for your business. Each month, consumers visit more than a billion locations that they’ve located through Google searches. In fact, three-quarters of people who use their smartphone for Google searches visit a local business within one day of that search. By focusing on local SEO, a business can:
Local search can increase customers’ ability to quickly identify local businesses, learn about their offerings, and acquire key information like phone numbers, addresses, and business hours.
This SEO strategy isn’t right for everyone, though. It won’t work well if you lack a physical presence in the community or if you conduct your business exclusively online.
National SEO can offer many advantages for the companies that use it. Obviously, the regional or national focus can help to expand a company’s reach and improve its overall national presence. Other advantages include:
National SEO helps customers to compare offerings from many different businesses, providing key insights that they can use to make more informed purchasing decisions.
However, national SEO often comes with disadvantages. The competition for national SEO keyword targets and higher rankings can be fierce, so national strategies need to be carefully tailored to gain that visibility.
For many businesses, the choice between local and national SEO isn’t clear-cut. Use this flow chart to determine which approach aligns best with your goals. If your customers visit your store, local SEO should be a priority. If your business operates online or serves a nationwide audience, national SEO will likely be more effective. Should you fall somewhere in between, a hybrid strategy could be the right fit.
A chart to help you determine if you need local, national, or hybrid SEO.
A hybrid SEO strategy combines both local and national SEO tactics, making it the best choice for businesses that:
You can pick and choose from the strategies below if this applies to your company.
There are several key elements of any local search results strategy. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most important things you need to include in your strategic plan.
The Google Business Profile feature can help you manage your company’s online presence with accurate real-time contract information and photos. Claiming your GBP profile is an important way to build your local SEO strategies from the ground up.
Note: You should always claim your GBP – but if you don’t do so, Google will simply generate a profile for you, using information it finds in online reviews of your business.
Here’s an example of what it looks like on Google when a business has claimed their business profile:
Google Business Profile shows important features for businesses
To further bolster your local search rankings strategy, you can add your business to a wider array of free local market directories. These directories include Bing Maps, Apple Maps, Yelp, Yellowpages, Foursquare, Facebook, and Nextdoor. Platforms like Angi and Thumbtack are also great options for some business types.
Your business can also make great use of customer feedback by asking customers to provide online reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. Search engines like Google and Bing give serious consideration to authentic positive reviews when determining search engine rankings.
It’s important to build and maintain reliable lines of communication with your customer base. Surveys, in-person and online conversations, and review responses can be a great way to engage with your audience, learn more about why they visit your site and store, and demonstrate your ongoing commitment to meeting your community’s needs.
Backlinks are an important part of any SEO strategy. Backlinks are links on other local websites that direct viewers to your company’s site. You can build a volume of local backlinks by getting your business listed in directories like the local Chamber of Commerce or by partnering with other local companies. Additionally, you can create online content, engage in community outreach, and work with local influencers.
To further refine your local strategy, you need to understand what your competitors are doing to market their companies and sites. For example, if the other coffee shops in your city have a blog, then you should consider starting your own blog about roasting practices or where you source your coffee beans.
Your strategy will need to incorporate long-tailed keywords relevant to your business and its geographical location. For example, a donut business in Aurora, Colorado should optimize for keyword phrases like “donuts in Aurora,” “donuts near me,” “donut shop with free wifi,” or “easy parking donuts Aurora.”
Optimize for long-tailed keywords like “coffee shop with free wifi”
You need to make sure that your online SEO is optimized for mobile searches, since about 72% of searches are conducted using mobile devices. Your website should be designed to ensure that it can be easily read on a small screen.
Your website content also needs to be optimized with a focus on your local audience’s search intent. To do that, your site should be optimized with keywords and meta descriptors that include your company’s physical city, state, or neighborhood. This geographic information should be connected to your key products and services. For example:
As you’re creating your local strategy, don’t forget to incorporate social media platforms. One great way to build engagement and attract more attention to your website is to use social media sites to share events with your audience. Having a sale next weekend? Announce it on social media and direct your audience to your site.
Google features nearby offers and events from local businesses
An effective national SEO strategy requires careful planning. Let’s review some common SEO tactics for a business with multiple locations or a nation-wide reach.
It can be helpful to include subdirectories within your website to help search engines navigate your site’s content. Subdirectories are content folders that subdivide content on a website. This is especially helpful for companies that target customers in multiple states or regions of the country. Subdirectories can enable your site to deliver tailored information to customers in diverse locales.
National strategies benefit from backlinks. To develop your site’s backlinks, focus on obtaining mentions from national media, industry organizations, and other notable entities. You can also try to build relationships with national influencers or submit guest content to influential websites.
When creating any national search strategy, conduct broad keyword research to identify the right keywords for your business. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Semrush to gain insight into high-volume, low-competition keywords and phrases. The goal is to find keywords that can help your site content match the terms users are searching for when they’re looking for your products and services.
Take some time to think about how potential customers might be searching for businesses like yours. Are they looking for specific company types or searching for a product or service? Understanding their search intent can help you to better focus your SEO strategy on key phrases that meet their needs.
Make sure that your online presence includes optimized local landing pages that focus on improving your visibility in search results. Effective local landing pages should include your company’s name, address, and phone number, local keywords like “gardening supplies near me” or “best electrician in Boston” and details about the area your company services. You should also make sure that the page is integrated with Google Maps to help users find you.
Incorporating short videos about your company can expand your audience reach. Make sure that any videos you produce include your target keywords in the video title, tags, and description, and deliver compelling content that illustrates how your brand’s offerings can meet customer’s needs. Embed these videos on your website and share them on social media.
Mobile results include videos related to local searches
Continually monitor your business mentions across the internet, including mentions on social media, online discussion platforms like Reddit, and news sites. This monitoring can help you to analyze brand awareness and any potential harm to your business reputation. Tools like Google Alerts, Mention, and Meltwater can be useful for automating that monitoring process.
Mobile results include discussions and forums for local searches
This boba shop is an excellent case study for local SEO strategies and how to increase online traffic. The company seems to have a number of advantages: it’s a family-owned operation with a sound location offering foot traffic from the local high school. The company receives good reviews, high ratings, and even offers a variety of snack and food options.
Google Business Profiles show ratings, photos, and features to interact with businesses
When the market is saturated, it’s smart to go after long-tail keywords that differentiate your business from your competitors. For example, this boba shop appears in the local 3-pack on Google for “boba in Concord with food” thanks to its customer reviews highlighting the fresh ingredients.
Long tailed keywords like “with food” help some local shops stand out
Grocery store chain Trader Joe’s has many locations across the USA. Instead of having each location manage their own website, Trader Joe’s has dedicated pages on the corporate website for each store. This strategy allows one or more locations to appear in local search results.
Local search results for multiple related locations
In addition to individual pages for each store, Trader Joe’s has structured its site to include pages for similar locations. In the example below, there are multiple Trader Joe’s stores in New York, NY.
All Trader Joe’s locations in New York, NY listed on the website
ZipJob, a resume writing company that operates fully online, launched a campaign that used a hybrid approach to national and local SEO strategies. Through a combination of tailored landing pages and blog content based on long-tail keyword research, the brand became more strongly associated with the target locations despite not having a physical presence. According to the former ZipJob marketing manager, Caitlin Proctor Huston, these hybrid SEO efforts helped to generate an 87% increase in organic traffic from ZipJob’s US audience between 2019 and 2021.
No matter how great your website is, it won’t drive business if it doesn’t appear in search results. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right SEO campaign for your business.
Still not sure? The experts at ZenUp have the experience and expertise you need to help you with the local search or national SEO strategy that offers the best results for your optimization needs. Get a free marketing plan custom to your business to get started.
During Ken's two decades as a freelance writer, he has covered everything from banking and fintech to business management and the entertainment industry. Throughout his career, he’s been dedicated to helping individuals and companies market themselves, by providing the quality content needed to achieve their career and business goals. When he's not working, Ken can usually be found adventuring with family and friends or playing fetch with his demanding German Shepherd.
Last Updated: March 18, 2025
Last Updated: March 11, 2025
Last Updated: March 11, 2025
