What a lot can change in just a couple of years! When I wrote the initial version of this post in January 2014, the local SEO industry didn't have quite the wealth of paid tools that now exists, and many of the freebies on my previous list have been sunsetted. Definitely time for a complete refresh of the very most useful free tools, widgets, and resources I understand of to make marketing local businesses easier and better.
While all of the tools below are free, note that some will require one to sign up for access. Others are limited, no-cost, or trial versions that enable you to get a common sense of what they provide, enabling you to consider whether it may be worth it to get into paid access. One thing you may notice: my new list of local SEO tools offers increased support for organic SEO tasks, reflective of our industry's growing knowledge of how closely linked organic and local SEO have grown to be.
Now, let's open this toolkit and get 2018 off to a great start!
For Research
US Census Bureau Tool Set
Looking to better understand a target community for marketing purposes? You will discover 20+ useful resources from the united states Census Bureau, including population statistics, economic data, mapping and geocoding widgets, income and language information, and much more.
Client Onboarding Questionnaire & Phone Script
Onboarding a fresh client? Reduce repetitious follow-ups by asking all of the right questions to begin with with this thorough questionnaire and easy-to-follow phone call script from Moz. Includes tips for why you are asking each question. As local SEO veterans will tell you, a missed question can cause unhappy (and costly) surprises down the marketing road. Make sure to have the total picture of an incoming client in clear view before starting strategizing.
Location Information Spreadsheet
Vital when marketing multi-location businesses, this free Moz spreadsheet will make sure that you've got all of the info at your fingertips about each locale of an organization.
*Pro tip: Whenever using large enterprises, ensure that the data you're inputting in this spreadsheet has been approved by all relevant departments. It's really no fun to discover six months into a advertising campaign that there's internal disagreement about company NAP or other features.
Local Competitive Audit Spreadsheet
Now we're really getting down to brass tacks. If you want to watch out for answers to the perennial client question, "How come that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet will help you document key competitive data. The outcome of filling in the sheet will undoubtedly be two columns of stats you can compare in your quest to find competitors' ranking strengths and weaknesses. Need more guidance? Read my post where I put this audit spreadsheet into action for two SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Bay Area Chinese restaurants.
Manual GeoLocation Chrome Extension
Watch Darren Shaw demo using this tool to show what sort of local pack changes whenever a user virtually crosses a street and you will quickly understand how useful this Chrome extension will be in approximating the impacts of user-to-business proximity. Works well on desktop devices.
Our industry still hasn't fully recovered from Google removing the neighborhood Search filter from its engine in 2015, and I still reside in hope that they will bring it back one day, but in the meantime, this extension gives us an excellent sense of how searcher location affects serp's. In fact, it could even be a superior solution.
The MozBar SEO Toolbar
Local businesses in competitive markets must master traditional SEO, and the free MozBar offers a wonderful introduction to the metrics you have to look at in analyzing the organic strengths and weaknesses of clients and competitors. On-page elements, link metrics, markup, HTTP status, optimization opportunities - get the data you need instantly with the MozBar.
check here , per se, but the best tutorial I have ever seen on using Google advanced search operators to deepen your quest. Dr. Pete breaks this down into 67 steps that will allow you to use these search refinements for content and title research, checking for plagiarism, technical SEO audits, and competitive intelligence. Be totally wizardly and impress your clients and teammates, by just focusing on how to format searches in smart ways.
Google Search Console
Apologies if it already appears like a no-brainer to you that you ought to be signed up for Google's console that provides you analytics, alerts one to serious errors, and so much more, but local SEO is merely now crossing the threshold of understanding how deeply connected it is to organic search. When playing in Google's backyard, GSC is really a must-have for businesses of every type.
BrightLocal's Search Results Checker
This popular tool does an excellent job of replicating local search results at a city or zip code level. Sometimes, you need to search by city (for example, when there are multiple towns covered by a single zip code), but other times, it's better search by zip code (as regarding a big city with multiple zip codes). The tool does not have the capability to recreate user-level results, so remember that the proximity of confirmed user to a business may create quite different results than what you will see searching at a city or zip code level. I consider this an excellent tool to suss out the lay of the land in a community, identifying top competitors.
Offline Conversion Tracker Form
Give this handy Whitespark form to anyone who answers your phone so that they can document the answer to the important question, "How did you hear about us?" Submitted information is saved to Whitespark's database and tracked in Google Analytics for your future reference and analysis. For local businesses, knowledge of offline factors can be priceless. This form offers a simple point of entry into amassing real-world data.
For Content
Answer the Public
One of the best-loved key word research tools in the digital marketing world, Answer the Public lets you enter a keyword phrase and generate a lot of questions/topics related to your search. One of the awesome facets of this tool is that it has a.CSV download feature - ideal for instantly generating large lists of keywords you can input into something similar to Moz Keyword Explorer to begin the sorting process that turns up the most powerful keywords for the content dev and on-page optimization.
Buzzsumo
Another great content inspiration tool, Buzzsumo shows you enables you to enter a keyword, topic or domain name, and shows you which pieces are receiving the most social shares. For example, a seek out wholefoodsmarket.com shows that a highly shared piece of content during my search is approximately an asparagus and broccoli soup. You can even sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Usage of Buzzsumo can help you generate topics that might be popular if covered on your own website.
OSHA Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System Search
Another interesting resource for brainstorming a wide pool of potential keywords for content dev consideration, OSHA's SIC search returns big, comprehensive lists. Just research your industry's SIC code, and enter it along with a keyword/category to get your list.
USPS RESEARCH a ZIP Code Widget
Dealing with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the second tab in the menu of the widget: Cities by zip code. When you know the zip code of a business you're marketing you can enter it into this simple tool to get a list of every city for the reason that zip. Now, let's not have a wrong step here: don't publish large blocks of zips or city names on any website, but do use this widget to be sure you know of all the communities that an SAB might strategize content, link constructing, brand building, real-world relationship building, social media marketing, and PPC.
