Local SEO vs Paid Search: What does the Data Show?

Search doesn’t respect borders. And you should know your buyers don’t either.

Someone in Brazil is reading your docs. A team in Germany is comparing your product. A founder in Southeast Asia is actively searching for a solution like yours. This demand already exists, whether you’re targeting it or not.

What’s surprising is how little of it is actually supported.

We looked at seven leading SaaS companies and compared where their organic traffic comes from and where their paid search budgets go. 

• A huge share of organic traffic comes from outside the US
• This demand spans over 100 countries
• Paid search investment remains heavily concentrated in the US

The difference between the two points to a broader gap in how global demand is captured versus how budgets are deployed.

We’ll look at that gap more closely and see what shows up when you map traffic against spend, and what that means if you’re already getting global interest but not really doing much with it.

What we looked at (and how to read this)

We didn’t set out to find “new markets.” We wanted to see where these companies are already getting pulled.

So we took seven SaaS companies, across different categories, and looked at how their demand actually breaks down, with Ahrefs data: Box, Databricks, Figma, HubSpot, Stripe, Twilio, and Zoom.

For each one, we mapped a few things:

• Which countries are already driving organic traffic
• How far their keyword footprint extends beyond their core market
• Where paid search is actually live
• And where there’s clear demand, but no spend behind it

Again, this is not a market expansion guide. You can look at it as a distribution study. Or, you can say it’s closer to you later looking at your pipeline and asking, “where are these people coming from?”

Because in most cases, companies aren’t starting from zero in new regions. They’re already getting inbounds, already getting traffic, already getting signals.

They’re just not set up to notice it, or act on it.

Note: All the data in this report comes from Ahrefs. We’ve used their organic keyword and traffic data (based on the “top location” field) along with paid keyword signals inferred from URL patterns. The numbers reflect a point-in-time snapshot, so think of them as directional rather than absolute.

Key Findings: Organic is already doing the global work

Across all the seven companies, the aggregate picture is such:

You might feel it is a marginal skew, but it’s not. It is, what you call a fundamental mismatch.

• Organic behaves like a distribution system. Once content ranks, it surfaces across markets without requiring explicit expansion decisions.
• Companies are reaching users across India, Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia without actively targeting them.
• Paid search, on the other hand, stays heavily anchored in the US.

Here are a few patterns that’s worth looking at:

• Figma’s growth is driven by a truly global audience, not just the US. 
• Zoom sees unusually high demand concentrated in specific countries like Turkey.
• Box and HubSpot rely heavily on the US for most of their organic discoveries. 
• Stripe approaches international markets more intentionally than the rest.
• India already contributes significant demand across multiple SaaS categories.
• Wider keyword spread reflects stronger ability to rank and scale across countries.

Organic reach vs. paid presence (country view)

This is where things get more concrete.

We mapped the top countries driving organic traffic for each brand and layered in whether paid campaigns are active in those same markets. 

Here’s a quick way to read this:

• Each cell shows how much of a brand’s organic traffic comes from that country
• The dot (●) means paid search is also active there
• No dot means organic demand exists, but there’s no visible paid support

So, what starts to show up?

• The US is the only market where everyone is consistently investing in both organic and paid.
• India drives meaningful traffic for almost every brand, but paid presence is almost non-existent.
• Countries like Brazil, Japan, and South Korea show steady organic demand across multiple companies, with little to no paid activity.
• In some cases, a single country dominates unexpectedly (like Turkey for Zoom), without any paid backing.

India, Brazil, France, Japan, South Korea, aren’t edge markets. They show up consistently, often as top 3 or top 5 contributors.

This isn’t necessarily a mistake. In many cases, these markets may not yet be fully operational from a sales or support standpoint.

But it does tell you something important. The hard part, getting demand, is already happening. A little bit of nurturing it with localized content, hreflang, and market-specific CTAs could convert this latent organic reach into qualified international pipeline.

The gap between traffic and spend

We looked at key non-US markets and checked where traffic is already coming in, but paid support is missing.

At first, several companies looked “global.” But that label hides an important distinction.

There’s a difference between:

• Having traffic from multiple countries
• Having SEO that actually scales across countries

Traffic is coming in from all over. As mentioned before, India shows up again and again. So do places like Brazil, Japan, and parts of Europe.

↑ = Organic traffic, no paid support

● = Paid active

In some cases, a single country becomes a major traffic driver out of nowhere, like Turkey for Zoom.

But when you look at paid, almost none of that is being supported.

So what you end up with is this:

• Organic demand is spread across multiple countries
• Paid investment stays heavily concentrated in the US
• The same countries keep appearing as meaningful traffic sources, but with no follow-up

India is the clearest example. It’s a top market for most of these companies, but hardly anyone is investing in it through paid.

Stripe is doing something different. They’re actually running campaigns in multiple countries, which lines up with how global their product is.

Everything else points to the same thing.

The companies fall into four clear patterns

Once you look at the data this way, the companies cluster naturally based on how their demand is distributed.

Figma: Global reach with minimal paid backing

Figma has the most distributed demand in this dataset by a wide margin.

• 81% of its traffic is international
• 12.1M monthly organic visits
• 4.3 countries per keyword, the highest in the set

India alone drives a disproportionate share of that demand, with other countries consistently contributing smaller but meaningful volumes.

What’s behind this scale:

• Strong adoption among designers and product teams globally
• Community-led content like templates and tutorials that naturally rank across countries
• Content that travels well without heavy localization

Despite this reach, paid activity is almost entirely US-focused.

So most of Figma’s international growth isn’t being pushed. It’s happening on its own.

Zoom: Heavy global demand, but highly uneven

Zoom’s reach is global, but not evenly distributed.

• 63% of its traffic is international
• 15.6M monthly organic visits
• 1.6 countries per keyword, showing a more concentrated footprint

One market stands out immediately.

What’s happening here:

• Extremely high brand search volume in specific countries like Turkey
• Strong adoption across emerging markets
• Product familiarity driving direct and branded search

Despite this, paid activity is almost entirely US-focused, largely around pricing and product pages.

So while demand is clearly global, investment is still centered on the US. And in many cases, it is focused more on expansion within existing markets than capturing new ones.

Databricks: Strong US base with a quiet international pull

Databricks looks US-heavy at first glance, but there’s more happening underneath.

• 23% of its traffic is international
• 816K monthly organic visits
• 1.7 countries per keyword, showing a fairly concentrated footprint

There’s a clear secondary layer of demand outside the US.

Where this traction comes from:

• Strong developer and data engineering communities, especially in India
• High-intent, technical searches that translate across markets
• Enterprise keywords that carry value globally, not just in the US

Paid investment, however, is entirely US-focused.

So while international demand is already there, especially from technical audiences, it’s not being actively supported or expanded.

Stripe: Steady global spread, backed by actual investment

Stripe’s footprint is still US-led, but it’s one of the few that actually follows through internationally.

• 23% of its traffic is international
• 4.1M monthly organic visits
• 2.2 countries per keyword, showing broader spread than most

The distribution is more even across markets.

What’s supporting this footprint:

• A product that needs to exist in every market it serves
• Consistent demand from businesses setting up payments globally
• Strong presence across Europe, Latin America, and Asia

Unlike the others, paid activity isn’t limited to the US.

So even if the share is smaller, there’s a clear effort to support international demand, not just rely on organic to carry it.

Twilio: Developer demand exists, but stays under-supported

Twilio is heavily US-led, but there’s a clear layer of developer demand outside it.

• 18% of its traffic is international
• 1.1M monthly organic visits
• 1.8 countries per keyword, showing a fairly tight footprint

The second layer is small, but visible.

What’s behind this spread:

• Large developer communities, especially in India
• API and documentation searches that travel across markets
• Comparison and tooling searches from technical audiences

Paid activity is entirely US-focused.

So even though developer demand shows up across multiple countries, it’s not being actively supported or expanded.

Box: Almost entirely US, with one clear exception

Box stands out for how concentrated it is.

• 11% of its traffic is international
• 795K monthly organic visits
• 1.5 countries per keyword, the narrowest spread in this group

There’s very little distribution outside the US.

What this points to:

• Strong historical presence in Japan’s enterprise market
• Limited keyword spread across regions
• Minimal localized content outside core markets

Paid activity is almost entirely US-focused.

So while Japan shows real traction, everything else remains thin, and there’s very little infrastructure supporting international growth.

HubSpot: Strong US base, early signals elsewhere

HubSpot is still deeply US-centric, but there are early signs of global demand.

• 11% of its traffic is international
• 1.9M monthly organic visits
• 2.0 countries per keyword, showing moderate spread

International markets are present, but small.

What this tells us:

• Strong brand recognition in English-speaking markets
• Growing interest from SMB and mid-market teams globally
• Early traction in markets like India

Paid investment, however, stays almost entirely in the US.

So while demand is starting to show up internationally, it’s not yet being actively captured or scaled.

Local SEO vs paid search: What actually shows up across markets

Across these seven companies, the difference between local SEO vs paid search is easy to spot once you look at the data side by side. One brings in demand from multiple countries. The other is usually limited to where teams are actively spending.

Here’s what stands out.

1. You’re already getting international traffic

 This shows up across every company here.

• Visits are coming in from countries with no paid campaigns
• In many cases, these aren’t small numbers
• The starting point is understanding where this is happening

Local SEO surfaces this. Paid search usually comes in later.

2. Some brands travel better than others in search

Not every site shows up globally for the same keywords. Figma's 4.3 average countries per keyword versus Box's 1.5 is the clearest signal of genuine international SEO strength

• A wider keyword spread means visibility across more countries
• A narrow spread keeps you tied to one primary market
• This is a good way to understand how far your content reaches

Local SEO builds that reach over time. 

3. India keeps appearing in the data

India is consistent and shows up as a meaningful organic market for 6 of the 7 brands 

• Strong share of organic traffic for SaaS and developer-led products
• Shows up even without dedicated pages
• Rarely matched with paid campaigns

Brands that are not intentionally targeting Indian search intent are leaving significant organic pipeline on the table. This is one of the clearest gaps between local SEO vs paid search. 

4. One global page can only do so much

At some point, you need to get specific.

• Country-level pages help with local rankings
• They give you better entry points for paid campaigns
• Without them, both channels stay limited

This is where local SEO and paid search start aligning.

5. Markets show up before strategy does

You don’t always plan for where demand comes from.

• Traffic appears from countries you’re not targeting
• Often driven by product usage and word of mouth
• This shows up clearly in organic before anything else

Local SEO captures this early.

6. Brand searches are a strong signal

People searching your name in a country are not random. Take for example:

1. Zoom: 32% from Turkey: no local strategy
2. Figma: 61% from India: no dedicated India page 

It usually means awareness is already there. It shows up before any real investment and is extremely useful for deciding where to go deeper.

Paid search tends to follow this, not lead it.

7. The way both channels behave is different

This is where the difference becomes practical.

• SEO content keeps bringing in traffic over time
• Paid campaigns work as long as they’re running
• One builds on itself, the other needs constant input

That’s the tradeoff when you think about local SEO vs paid search.

How we looked at this (and how to read it)

Before you take anything away from this, it’s worth grounding how we approached it.

All the numbers here come from Ahrefs. So they’re estimates. It’s useful for direction, and not something to treat as exact.

What mattered more to us was the pattern.

Across all seven companies, organic reach goes far beyond where teams are actively investing. Paid stays concentrated. The gap between the two is consistent.

A few things to keep in mind as you read this:

• This is a point-in-time view. Traffic and rankings will change
• “Top location” shows the primary country, not the full spread
• Paid presence is inferred from URLs, not actual campaign data

So don’t get too caught up in the exact percentages. Use it to sense-check your own.

If there’s one thing we’d leave you with, it’s this. You’re probably already getting demand from markets you’re not paying attention to.

The question is…what would you do with it?