If you’re serious about driving qualified traffic to your site, understanding the difference between National SEO and Local SEO isn’t optional; it’s foundational. I’ve seen businesses waste tens of thousands of dollars chasing the wrong strategy because they didn’t stop to ask where their customers actually come from. This guide breaks down the differences between the two approaches and gives you the same advice I’ve given dozens of clients and internal teams.

What You Need to Know

National SEO targets broad, non-geo-specific keywords and helps you reach buyers across the country.
Local SEO is all about showing up when someone nearby searches for your product or service; think “plumber near me” or “best dentist in Austin.”
If you align your strategy with your business model, you win. If you misalign, you waste time and money.
SEO isn’t about chasing vanity metrics. It’s about visibility that drives revenue.

My Take on Strategic Focus

This isn’t about which approach is better in general; it’s about which is better for you. One of the worst mistakes I see? Businesses trying to rank nationally when 80% of their revenue is tied to local demand. Unless that national ranking drives revenue, it’s a flex without function.

That said, if you’ve got the infrastructure and the product to support a national presence, there’s no reason to play small. We’ve helped businesses scale nationally by investing in long-tail content, strong site architecture, and authority link building. If you get those right, you can absolutely compete at scale if you have the resources to do so.

Bottom line: win where it counts. Sometimes that’s owning your 10-mile radius. Sometimes it’s outpacing national competitors coast to coast. Either way, your SEO strategy needs to match your operational reality.

Key Differences Between National and Local SEO

Both strategies share the same backbone: great content, strong technical SEO, and relevant links. But the execution looks very different.

Audience & Intent

National SEO is about reach and visibility, targeting people across a country who don’t care where you’re located.

Local SEO is about proximity and intent, showing up when someone nearby is ready to buy now.

Keyword Targeting/Strategy Examples

National: “buy running shoes,” “best CRM software for XYZ industry”
Local: “running shoe store in Phoenix,” “best orthodontist near me”

Competition

National SEO means you’re going head-to-head with Amazon, Forbes, and other enterprise brands. It’s a longer game, but a very winnable game with the right resources in place.

Local SEO? You’re up against nearby competitors and directories. With the right signals, you can outrank larger businesses in your own backyard.

Link Building & Citations

National SEO is all about building authority through industry-relevant backlinks.

Local SEO is about local relevance, proximity, directories, citations, and local press matter more than most people realize.

Content Focus

National: industry guides, national data studies, scalable resources
Local: city landing pages, localized blog content, customer stories tied to geography

What Is National SEO?

National SEO is how you build visibility. You’re targeting searchers from all over the country, but no city, GEO coordinates, or ZIP code are attached. That means you need to go deep without going generic.

To compete nationally, you’ll need:

Long-form content targeting high-intent keywords
Deep topical authority (think hubs, silos, internal linking done right)
Backlinks from top-tier publications or partners
A technically sound, fast, mobile-friendly site

One of our mobile notary business partners saw a 1461% increase in leads after implementing our national strategy. That wasn’t luck. That was content + links + execution and a lot of TIME.

“Organic search drives over 53.3% of all website traffic.” Investopedia

But here’s the trap: I’ve seen teams burn six months chasing “best CRM software” with zero ROI. Why? They skipped the intent. You don’t need traffic, you need conversions.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO gets you in front of people who are ready to buy now. It’s not about visibility for its sake; it’s about foot traffic, phone calls, direction requests, and form fills.

To win locally, you need:

A dialed-in Google Business Profile (hours, services, categories, images, products, services, posts, etc.)
NAP consistency across all citations (and you’ll likely need a lot of citations to compete in certain industries)
Local reviews and responses are critical. No need to start SEO if you can’t get customers to leave positive reviews.
Schema markup for local business
Pages tailored to specific cities or service areas (these need to be super unique to each location, otherwise you’re going to get penalized by Google)

We helped a regional law firm triple its local traffic in under a year by cleaning up citations, optimizing city pages, and fixing its GBP. Nothing fancy, just consistent execution.

Local SEO is underrated because it feels “small.” But I’ve seen $100M+ service-based businesses built almost entirely on local dominance. Don’t sleep on it.

“Local searches with smartphones lead to action—76% result in a visit within a day, and 28% result in a purchase.” Searchatlas.com

Choosing the Right Strategy

Here’s how I guide this decision with prospective partners:

Where are my customers? Are they regional or nationwide?
Do my searchers care where I’m located? (Check your keyword data.)
What kind of growth am I targeting? Quick foot traffic or long-term brand expansion?
Can I handle nationwide demand if/when it comes in?
What does my current budget allow me to do well, not just halfway? Half-assed budgets get half-assed results or to put it another way “you get what you pay for.”

If you’re a local service business, start with Local SEO. If you’re a DTC brand shipping nationwide, invest in National SEO.

And if you’re a franchise or multi-location business? You’re playing both games. That means building out scalable content and managing location pages + GBP listings with precision.

Just don’t fall into the trap of thinking National SEO “covers” local. Ranking #1 nationwide doesn’t guarantee you’ll appear in the map pack. Two different algorithms. Two different strategies. Layer them strategically.

Final Word: What I’d Focus on If I Were You

If I’m building a national SEO strategy, I’m starting with the questions my buyers are asking across the entire funnel. I’m not jumping straight into volume-driven keywords. I’m identifying what content needs to exist at every step of their decision-making process, then building the architecture around it. I’ll spend real time on site performance, crawlability, and internal linking. Once that’s solid, I’m investing in content and authority. No shortcuts. No fluff.

If I’m focused on local, I’m making sure every single one of my listings, Google, Apple, and Bing, reflects accurate info, down to the last comma. I’m not just creating a page for “dentist in Salt Lake,” I’m building the most helpful, honest resource that searcher will find. And I’m earning trust offline so that online reviews come in naturally. If a location doesn’t have reviews or a complete profile, I’m not wasting ad dollars sending traffic there.

If I were doing both, I’d treat them as complementary, not interchangeable. My national content would build trust and visibility, while my local signals would help me win close to the conversion. I’d structure my site and content strategy to allow both to grow independently, and I’d monitor performance weekly to avoid blind spots. No set-it-and-forget-it SEO. Sorry, but that’s just not how SEO (or any marketing channel) works in my experience.

The fact is, we’ve done all of this. We’ve helped businesses go from invisible to dominant, both locally and nationally. What worked every single time was knowing who we were trying to reach and building an honest strategy around that. Not copying competitors. Not chasing keywords that don’t convert. Just real strategy tied to revenue.

SEO isn’t a game of hacks. It’s alignment. If your strategy matches how your audience searches, and you build consistently toward it, you win. Simple as that.