What a lot can change in just a couple of years! When I wrote the original version of the post in January 2014, the local SEO industry didn't have quite the wealth of paid tools that now exists, and several 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 know of to make marketing local businesses easier and better.
While all the tools below are free, remember that some will require you to sign up for access. Others are limited, no-cost, or trial versions that enable you to get a good sense of what they provide, enabling you to consider whether it might be worth it to get into paid access. A very important factor you may notice: my new set 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
Seeking 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 check here -ups by asking each of the right questions to begin with with this particular thorough questionnaire and easy-to-follow phone call script from Moz. Includes tips for why you're 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 full total picture of an incoming client in clear view before you begin strategizing.
get more info when marketing multi-location businesses, this free Moz spreadsheet will ensure that you've got all the info close at hand about each locale of an organization.
*Pro tip: Whenever using large enterprises, ensure that the info you're inputting in this spreadsheet has been approved by all relevant departments. It's really no fun to learn six months into a advertising campaign that there surely is 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 consider answers to the perennial client question, "How come that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet will assist you to document key competitive data. The outcome of filling out the sheet will be two columns of stats you can compare and contrast in your quest to discover competitors' ranking strengths and weaknesses. Need more guidance? Read my post in which I put this audit spreadsheet into action for just two San Francisco Bay Area Chinese restaurants.
Manual GeoLocation Chrome Extension
Watch Darren Shaw demo using this tool to show how a local pack changes when a user virtually crosses a street and you will quickly understand how useful this Chrome extension will undoubtedly be in approximating the impacts of user-to-business proximity. Is effective 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 live in hope that they will take it back one day, however in the meantime, this extension gives us a good 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 provides a wonderful introduction to the metrics you must 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 at a glance with the MozBar.
Google Advanced Search Operators
Not a tool, per se, but the best tutorial I've ever seen on using Google advanced search operators to deepen your research. Dr. Pete breaks this down into 67 steps that will enable 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 enrolled in Google's console that provides you analytics, alerts one to serious errors, and so a lot more, but local SEO is just now crossing the threshold of focusing on how deeply connected it really is to organic search. When playing in Google's backyard, GSC is really a must-have for businesses of each type.
BrightLocal's Search Results Checker
This popular tool does a fantastic 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 in the case of a large city with multiple zip codes). The tool doesn't have the ability to recreate user-level results, so always remember that the proximity of a given user to a small business may create quite different results than what you'll see searching at a city or zip code level. I consider this a great 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 in order to document the solution 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, understanding of offline factors could be priceless. This form provides 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 general public lets you enter a keyword phrase and generate a large number of questions/topics linked to your search. Just about the most awesome areas of this tool is that it includes a.CSV download feature - ideal for instantly generating large lists of keywords that you can input into something similar to Moz Keyword Explorer to begin the sorting process that arises the most powerful keywords for the content dev and on-page optimization.
Buzzsumo
Another great content inspiration tool, Buzzsumo teaches you lets you enter a keyword, topic or domain name, and shows you which pieces are receiving the most social shares. For instance, a search for wholefoodsmarket.com shows that a highly shared piece of content during my search is approximately an asparagus and broccoli soup. You may also sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Usage of Buzzsumo can assist you generate topics that might be popular if covered on your 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 look up your industry's SIC code, and then enter it plus a keyword/category to get your list.
USPS Look Up a ZIP Code Widget
Working with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the next tab in the menu of the widget: Cities by zip code. Once you know the zip code of a business you're marketing you can enter it into this simple tool to acquire a list of every city in that zip. Now, let's not take a wrong step here: don't publish large blocks of zips or city names on any website, but do utilize this widget to be sure you know of all the communities that an SAB might strategize content, link building, brand building, real-world relationship building, social media, and PPC.
