seo
Local Vs National SEO: Which one is right for you?
Published: 05/09/25 - Updated: 05/09/25
If you’re a business owner it’s important to ensure you’re targeting the right people at the right time, and as a result your SEO strategy needs to best reflect where your customers are. Not taking the right approach, or failing to target your customers where they are can have large implications for your business.
So what is the difference between Local and National SEO and which one is right for you?
Local SEO
Local SEO is the process of optimising your website and landing pages to target specific searches in your local area. This can be local ‘near me’ searches for someone looking for products or services in their local area, or it can be specific location based searches ‘best restaurants in london’. Typically this type of optimisation is needed when you have a limited service area or single physical location e.g. doctors, retailers, local services (plumber, electrician, garage etc).
National SEO
National SEO on the other hand, as the name suggests, is much broader and targets a more generic search intent, or one which isn’t necessarily location specific. This might be the case for an ecommerce site which doesn’t have a physical location but still services all of the UK for example e.g. ecommerce retailers, nationwide retailers, SaaS companies etc.
Local SEO vs National SEO Differences:
Here are the main differences between the two approaches:
| Local | National | |
| Keywords | Specific local intent e.g. ‘restaurants near me’ or ‘best restaurants in London’ | Broader general intent e.g. ‘buy men’s shoes’ |
| Google Maps & Local Listings | Highly important | Less Important |
| Targeting | Users in your local/service area | All users nationwide |
| Conversion Intent | More targeted lower funnel searches and higher conversion intent | Broader higher funnel searches, less conversion intent |
| Competition | Local businesses | National businesses |
Which is right for my business, Local SEO or National SEO?
Only you will be able to decide ultimately which approach is best for you, but typically if you have physical locations, Local SEO will be better suited for you, and if you don’t have any physical locations, national SEO and broader targeting will be more beneficial.
A mixed approach
Typically, it will be easy to identify if your business has either a local, or a business focus, however, there may be some instances where this is slightly less clear and a hybrid approach is most beneficial. Take a chain of car washes that have physical locations all over the country – each location will need a local approach to SEO, but also a national approach to ensure the business isn’t restricting its potential client base. This hybrid approach allows for hyper relevant targeting of local ‘near me’ and location based terms ‘car wash in bristol’, whilst also allowing much broader targeting for generic higher funnel searches – ‘car wash’, ‘where can i get my car washed’ etc.
Whether it’s local or national SEO, it’s vital to ensure your audience targeting is appropriate for your business in order for you to maximise its potential. Both approaches have their pros and cons but it’s important to target the one which makes the most sense for your business.
Ed Coles
Ed is the SEO Lead at Kaizen, with 8 years experience in the SEO industry. Having worked across various agencies from small to large multinational independents, Ed initially started in the world of PPC before quickly moving to the world of SEO. From helping clients in the third sector and retail, to working on larger global ecommerce sites, Ed has been responsible for supporting the roll out and delivery of global SEO strategies in EMEA and NORA across some iconic brands such as Vans, Timberland, The North Face, LEGO, and Adidas, among many others.