What's the difference between doing National SEO vs Local SEO?

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Hello, can anyone explain to me please what's needed to do differently for National SEO than what one does for local SEO?
#difference #local #national #seo
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  • Profile picture of the author Old Molases
    Local SEO is optimizing your online presence to drive maximum traffic to your website from a specific area. National SEO is reaching customers on a national or global level. The biggest difference between local and national SEO is the keywords you'll use. National businesses can use general keywords because they're big enough to benefit from doing so. When customers buy online or can find your business at their local mall, you don't need to worry too much about locational keywords.

    Local businesses do need to worry about locational keywords. They help local customers - the ones most likely to frequent your business - find you online.

    Depending on your business, you may choose to use words that incorporate the name of your state, city, or neighborhood.
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    • Profile picture of the author seigell971
      The main difference between local and national SEO is the keywords. The keywords used for local seo is location based whereas national do not use location based keywords. It is very easier to rank for location based keywords because there is less competition as compared to national SEO. National SEO or global SEO is difficult to get result beacuse there is compeition on national or world level.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    It all comes down to the words you use. Local SEO pages are optimized around words for regions, cities, towns, states. National SEO does not include any of those type of words.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    The easiest way to explain the differences comes down to 2 terms "Backlinks" and "Citations" once you understand those terms the difference is very clear.

    Citations are used with local SEO ONLY.

    Backlinks are used in both, but have more benefit in national listing efforts. With local backlinks you want to ensure they are on pages that are about and have other links to your local target market. Where as National backlinks you want to place on pages with matching relevance ( same or parallel topic IE backlinking a page about watches to your page about watches )

    Location vs Topic is another way to look at it.
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  • Profile picture of the author getseowebsite
    Local SEO can be defined as getting the traffic from local or specific are while national SEO can be defined as the traffic getting from global countries.
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  • Profile picture of the author davistheraraavis
    National SEO is done to attract national or global traffic, whereas Local SEO is done to attract traffic from a specific area. They both have a lot in common, but there are differences too. The biggest difference being the keywords. For National SEO, you can use keywords with high search volume, but for local SEO, you have to use keywords around the location.

    Also, it is essential to have NAP (Name, Address and Phone No.) in Local SEO. It is good for consistency and reputation management. For national SEO, creating valuable content and increasing domain authority is a must.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chapla ankita
    local SEO means getting traffic from local regions, cities, towns, states. while national SEO means traffic generate from a national level. national SEO means optimizing your website for the national level. local SEO means optimizing your website for a specific local area.
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  • Profile picture of the author mattlaclear
    A local campaign requires accurate NAP Listings and local links. The locality of the links is king in local. Relevancy of the links is king for national SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author tarungurang
    The major difference between national SEO and local SEO is the use of keywords. Simply, local SEO means you need local (specific particular area-wise targeted audience) keywords to get a target and according to it, you can do local citations along with the backlinks.

    The main purpose of doing local citations is to increase the brand visibility of the business locally i.e. in the targeted location.
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    • Profile picture of the author mikehende
      Originally Posted by tarungurang View Post

      The major difference between national SEO and local SEO is the use of keywords. Simply, local SEO means you need local (specific particular area-wise targeted audience) keywords to get a target and according to it, you can do local citations along with the backlinks.

      The main purpose of doing local citations is to increase the brand visibility of the business locally i.e. in the targeted location.
      Thanks for the help you guys!

      I am wondering which locality should be given to the kw's for targeting local customers? For example I am in Queens, NY 11420 but want to reach customers in all of the surrounding 4 boroughs in NY [queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, bronx].

      Also considering the many zip codes in each borough and for New York you have variations NY, NYC and New York, how would YOU use the location for say "Computer repair" to target all costumers from all 4 boroughs please?
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      • Profile picture of the author tarungurang
        The best solution is to create separate pages for all 4 boroughs and individually target them (keywords) so that it will give you a huge boost in SERP, not only in one but in all 4.
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        • Profile picture of the author mikehende
          Originally Posted by tarungurang View Post

          The best solution is to create separate pages for all 4 boroughs and individually target them (keywords) so that it will give you a huge boost in SERP, not only in one but in all 4.
          I was always told that one can get penalized for cresting multiple pages for different locations?
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          • Profile picture of the author tarungurang
            Who told you this? Weel, that is not correct. You won't get penalized for this until & unless you have different content on each page.

            The best example of this is when I search in Google computer repair services NY I found in the top 10 results, one of your competitors is ranked and it has two separate location pages https://smartphonenycfix.com/kings-h...-phone-repair/
            https://smartphonenycfix.com/park-slope-phone-repair/

            So, if this is something penalized then not in top 10 position.
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            • Profile picture of the author mikehende
              Right but he is showing 2 "physical" locations each with their own different address so does not factor into this topic.

              Every Marketer I have ever spoken to have told me that you would need to have a physical location in another area outside of yours in order to dedicate a page to it to stay within Google's rules.
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              • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                Originally Posted by mikehende View Post

                Right but he is showing 2 "physical" locations each with their own different address so does not factor into this topic.

                Every Marketer I have ever spoken to have told me that you would need to have a physical location in another area outside of yours in order to dedicate a page to it to stay within Google's rules.
                Whatever marketers told you that are absolutely clueless.

                You can create a page about whatever you want.

                The issue you will have is you need a physical location to show up in the maps results and Google Local Pack.

                But for organic results, you can create whatever pages you want.

                https://www.airbnb.com/sitemaps/v2
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                • Profile picture of the author mikehende
                  Hey Mike, how've you been? Been a long time.

                  I have to try to expand my reach here in NY. Since Covid, the little business I used to get has been reduced to almost nothing at all now.

                  Ok so if outside of my immediate area won't work for maps/local pack, I might still rank in the SERP's from all of the extra location pages would still be worth it?
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  • Profile picture of the author mattlaclear
    Get them from all those places you listed. You will run out of opportunities fast. So target all of them.
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    • Profile picture of the author mikehende
      Originally Posted by mattlaclear View Post

      Get them from all those places you listed. You will run out of opportunities fast. So target all of them.
      To clarify you mean use every possible variation of the base kw so would be like:

      computer repair queens
      computer repair Brooklyn
      computer repair bronx

      computer repair 11420
      computer repair 11411

      computer repair ny
      computer repair New York
      computer repair NYC

      e.t.c e.t.c?
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  • Profile picture of the author zakria maqsood
    Local SEO Is to Rank Your Local Buisness ,in google search engine
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  • Profile picture of the author volcan
    Local SEO is optimizing your online presence to drive maximum traffic to your website from a specific area. National SEO is reaching customers on a national or global level
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  • Profile picture of the author Shizuka
    National Seo focuses on improving your site's visibility on a global scale level and local Seo focuses on capturing local search to connect with searchers in your area. Both of these use many of the same strategies.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      Not Mike, but a resounding yes.

      Depending on how difficult the keyword is, you might be #1 just from having the name of a neighborhood on a page.

      For harder keywords, you'll have to do everything, including back links.

      Look at big sites, Redfin.com, dominos pizza com, yelp.com or the site Mike linked to.

      They're not #1 for every keyword at every location, but they're at the top for a boat load of keywords in every city or village they have a page for.

      The thing with targeting small locations, neighborhoods? You do not get a lot of traffic but it is easy to get some and it is constant.

      And math says 2 visitors a month from 100 small locations is better than 0 visitors from one big one.

      And not all locations produce only 1 or 2 visitors. Some produce 8, 14, 11, you get the picture.




      Originally Posted by mikehende View Post

      Hey Mike, how've you been? Been a long time.

      I have to try to expand my reach here in NY. Since Covid, the little business I used to get has been reduced to almost nothing at all now.

      Ok so if outside of my immediate area won't work for maps/local pack, I might still rank in the SERP's from all of the extra location pages would still be worth it?
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  • Profile picture of the author digitalstar
    Local SEO is Specifically for Keywords that include the name of their local area at the end. This is most helpful for offline businesses to increase footfalls. Nowadays as local businesses are also going online Local SEO can help them too.

    National SEO may sometimes end up using country at the end of keywords or adding country-specific meta to the website. otherwise, this can be considered global.
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