Local News Articles Carry 2.2 Times as Many Business Links as National News Articles

A local TV station runs a story about a new bakery opening downtown and links to its website. A national outlet covers a bakery chain's earnings and links to a wire story instead. Both mention a business; only one sends readers, and search engines, to the business itself.

For a local business, that difference decides where to pitch. A link from a news article is one of the strongest signals a small business website can earn, and it sends readers who are already interested. National coverage looks bigger, but if national reporters rarely link to the businesses they mention, a local story may be worth more.

It usually is. Local news articles carry 0.76 business links on average, 2.2 times the 0.35 of national articles, and 28.7% of local articles link to at least one business, against 21.9% of national ones. National outlets link out more in total, but nearly half of their articles link to another news outlet.

On September 23 and 24, 2026 we collected the articles that ranked in the Google News top 10 for 2,000 news searches and grouped the outlets into national and local. That gave 938 articles from 28 national outlets and 488 articles from 133 local outlets, such as local TV stations and city newspapers. For each article we counted its links to outside websites and grouped them by the type of site: company, news outlet, government, university or nonprofit.

A business link is a link to a company or commercial website. Business links per article is the total number of business websites linked, divided by the number of articles, so an article with three business links counts three times. The share of articles linking to a business counts each article once. The median article is the one in the middle by word count.

A local news article links to 0.76 business websites on average, against 0.35 for a national article. 28.7% of local articles link to at least one business website, against 21.9% of national articles. Local articles that do link to businesses tend to link to several, 2.6 business websites on average against 1.6 for national articles, because local stories list the venues, shops and organizers involved.

This happens even though local stories are shorter, with a median of 443 words against 759. A local reporter covering an event, an opening or a fundraiser links to the business at the center of the story, because the reader is likely to want to visit it.

National articles are more likely to link out at all: 58.4% link to at least one outside website, against 40.4% of local articles. But much of that goes to other news organizations. 45.2% of national articles link to another news outlet, more than twice the 19.5% of local articles.

National reporters link to credit a scoop, cite a wire report or point to a rival's fuller coverage. Local reporters more often link to the people and organizations in the story instead. Government links are the same in both, at 7.6% of local articles and 7.5% of national ones.

The business sites local news links to most are community-facing: lottery sites, a chamber of commerce and fundraising pages. powerball.com and slchamber.com, the Salt Lake Chamber, are each linked from 6 local articles, megamillions.com from 5 and gofundme.com from 4. National articles link to reference and platform sites instead: court records on courtlistener.com (13 articles), tickets on seatgeek.com (11) and amazon.com (9).

The pattern points to what local reporters cover: jackpots, community fundraisers and local business groups. A business that is part of a community story, as a sponsor, host or organizer, is the kind of business a local article links to.

Pitch local newsrooms first. They link to businesses 2.2 times as often per article as national outlets, and their stories are about the places their readers can visit. A local TV station or city paper is the most practical source of news links for most small and mid-sized businesses.

Give local reporters a story with a community angle: an event you host, a local survey or data point, a hiring push, a fundraiser you sponsor or a milestone for the neighborhood. Make the link obvious by sending the exact page you want linked, such as the event page or the data page, rather than your homepage.

Keep national pitches for stories where your business is the primary source, since national reporters more often link to other outlets than to the companies they mention. Our media relations services team builds local press lists and pitches community stories that earn links.

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