When you create an SEO Strategy for your business, the two most common types of SEO to target are local and national. Local SEO means that your website is optimized for the specific locations near your business. National SEO, on the other hand, is designed to improve a company’s page ranking or visibility in an entire country. Each type has different sets of rules and may cause confusion as to what factors are essential for each type of application.
What Does Local SEO Entail?
Local SEO encompasses setting up your website to generate a high rank in your area. Local SEO is specifically designed to help improve your rankings in the exact location where you live. A critical factor in doing this is ensuring your website contains nearby locations so Google can associate your business with your location. It’s important to target your local area or within a certain radius of your business on your website. This will help both Google and potential customers identify the areas you serve. Generally, if you can include a location-related keyword without feeling unnatural, it can be beneficial. Local SEO pages usually differ from your website’s central focus because they can target smaller areas.
Local SEO is commonly used for service industries or local small business shops can benefit from being more visible in their general area.
When To Use National SEO
National SEO is often used to increase a company’s visibility on a national scale. To do this, you can target specific states or major cities throughout the entire country. This is different from local SEO because it does not require any specific areas near your business location and focuses on how to share your business across the nation. National keywords are often more difficult to rank for but can be beneficial if you are willing to put the time into the strategy. In addition to targeting national keywords, you will want to incorporate internal links to improve SERP rankings because they are seen as “trusted” by Google. These are often the most recommended strategies used by a professional digital marketing and SEO company.
National SEO is often used for Ecommerce businesses or industries that work in several states and not just one area.
How To Determine Your SEO Needs
Each strategy plays a very different role in helping you increase your rank and visibility on search engines such as Google. The SEO method you choose depends on the need of the company, your goal, and your budget. Sometimes you only need to invest efforts in one type of SEO, and sometimes you need both. There are many variables to consider when deciding what SEO is best for your company.
Effective SEO is about finding the best keywords for your business. But not every keyword in every town will be suitable for your business. If you are competing against a small business in the geographic area, you might want to put some effort into local SEO efforts. If it is a matter of 1 or 2 local competitors and they are dominating the SERPs in that area, you need to approach the best local SEO companies to take action if you want a shot at success.
If you are looking to expand your business across the U.S, you can start mapping out your targeted states and locations to build your national strategy.
Target Audience Size
Going national might not make sense if you are in a relatively small market (such as within 500 miles of NYC). You can still do local SEO to improve your site’s overall performance and capture more visitors from different locations (such as northern New York vs. southern).
If you are in a small market and your product/service has a limited audience, it might be practical to focus on local SEO efforts instead of national ones. For instance, if your target market is people with diabetes in the local area, you will not receive much bang for your buck when you invest in national SEO because many companies are trying to reach the same people. However, investing in national SEO makes more sense if your company can specialize and serve a unique niche that is not being served by other businesses.
Geographical Demand
If you are a new business, it could take a while before you reach the critical mass needed to justify an investment in national SEO. However, as long as your business remains relevant and provides a service/product that consumers need, you should be able to generate some additional traffic with local SEO efforts. For example, launching an online bakery store would make more sense to invest in local SEO (such as building regional links from bakeries in your target area) because of regional demand for your offer.
Contact Us For Leading SEO Services
Many business owners wonder which SEO strategies will be best for their website and company. They also struggle with what type of SEO efforts they should focus on, whether local or national, content-driven or paid advertisement-driven. No one answer fits everyone, but the above general guidelines you can use to help make your decision.
For more information or to consult with our SEO company, contact SEO Locale today.
