Local SEO vs. National SEO: How to Optimize Your Approach

Posted on August 25, 2025 in Blog

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a pillar of digital marketing, and within the field, there are several niche markets to meet the needs of various business structures. Franchises and multilocation businesses rely on a mix of national SEO and local SEO to achieve specific goals, from raising brand awareness to driving quality leads within the service areas of owned markets.

As a leading national and local SEO agency, Oneupweb has developed a philosophy for aligning national SEO strategy and local SEO strategy for efficiency, results, and long-term success.

What’s the Difference Between SEO and Local SEO?

The differences between national and local SEO center on specificity and intent. The inclusion or omission of just a few words can dramatically impact the search volume, intent, and overall value of a keyword, but that’s exactly what sets these strategies apart.

What Is National SEO Optimization?

National SEO is the ongoing, research-focused process of optimizing existing content and creating new content to reach a national audience. In addition to improving website technical health and performance, the national SEO strategy focuses on identifying and targeting relevant keywords for brands, markets, services, or products on relevant web pages.

National SEO supports the parent brand, usually the franchisor, by increasing brand awareness within existing and new regional markets. In most cases, national SEO campaigns are designed to win market share, win new customers, and establish trust in the brand to benefit local owners.

Because the target is national (essentially geographically undefined), keywords tend to be broad and highly competitive. Here are a few good examples showing how much more search volume there is for non-localized terms:

National: plumbing services – 49,500 US-based Google searches per month
Local: plumbing services traverse city – 10 searches per month

Volume is not necessarily the value. Imagine Marv’s Plumbing Services in Traverse City held the #1 position for “plumbing services” and he won 3% of all clicks for the keyword.

It wouldn’t just be useless, it’d be inconvenient. Marv (as enterprising as he is) can only serve customers in a small geographic area. Instead of winning 1,485 sessions per month from across the country, he’d probably take three sessions from within his service territory instead.

At the same time, a national plumbing franchise company would be able to introduce its brand to nearly 50,000 potential customers per month, ultimately directing those users to the national website and encouraging them to find the franchise location nearest them.

Local vs. National SEO: On the Ground

Local SEO strategy differs from national by both keyword localization (targeting cities within their service area or customers who may realistically come to their brick-and-mortar location) and intent.

Localization: The basis of local SEO, individual franchises or stores pair core product or service keywords with cities or terms that are geographically relevant. To build on the previous example, here are some additional terms:

home remodeling arlington va – Targets the exact city and state.
home remodeling northern virginia – Targets a commonly used regional term that aligns with the service area.

These geomodifiers (fancy term for any city or regional term that modifies a keyword) can be tagged onto any core keyword, but some may have little or no search volume. Oneupweb uses a keyword research tool to find local keywords with the most volume and, just as importantly, intent, to shape our local SEO strategies.

Keyword Intent: Roughly 46% of all searches on Google are local, which means users want information on local businesses or services. Local search implies intent to contact, hire, or book an appointment with a local business – they are your customers looking to convert!

These types of searches are often categorized as commercial or transactional, meaning simply the user wants to do business. They are the primary focus of local SEO strategy: win clicks and drive conversions.

Read the Case Study: Local SEO for an HVAC Franchise Location

Where Does “Near Me” Fit In?

There are other keywords with clear local intent that don’t include a geomodifier. “Near me” keywords are the best example; “near me” obviously means local, but everywhere is near me to everyone!

In most cases, we recommend targeting “near me” keywords on national service or product pages. This increases brand awareness, benefiting all locations and enabling users to find their nearest franchise easily. For example, if the McDonald’s in Cadillac, Michigan, held the top spot for “mcdonalds near me” or “burger chain near me”, every user would only get information about the Cadillac location. Many would leave the search engine results page (SERP) immediately; frustrated, they might check out Burger King instead.

It’s worth noting that there are roughly 800 million “near me” searches conducted every month in the US, with approximately 82% on mobile devices. That is a huge opportunity for national brands and significantly lifts brand profile.

It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to include the words “near me” on web pages to rank for “near me” keywords. Google’s algorithm recognizes and considers various factors when deciding what content to serve to which users, including but not limited to:

The user’s location
Your company’s location
Their proximity to each other
The user’s search intent
Your company’s products or services
How relevant your products or services are to the user’s search intent

Other examples of non-geomodified but localized keywords include:

local appliance repair – 1,900 US-based Google searches per month
local flooring company – 880
local clothing store – 210
local hvac contractor – 50

These terms tend to be more valuable on actual local pages, rather than national services pages. Most have relatively low keyword volume and much lower keyword difficulty, which means a local homepage or service page has a great chance of ranking for local search queries.

Finding the Balance Between National and Local

There is clear value in local SEO for a national company, which is why many franchise organizations carefully screen and select preferred local SEO vendors for their franchisees. Having the same SEO agency run national and local SEO strategy reduces conflicts, improves efficiency, and delivers superior results compared to an ad hoc, too-many-chefs-in-the-kitchen approach.

With nearly three decades in franchise marketing and SEO, Oneupweb is an ideal partner to shape your national and local SEO efforts. Start the conversation and see what our expert team can do for your organization.