What a lot can change in just a few years! When I wrote the original version of this post in January 2014, the neighborhood 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 most useful free tools, widgets, and resources I understand of to create marketing local businesses easier and better.
While each of the tools below are free, note that some will require you to join access. Others are limited, no-cost, or trial versions that enable you to get a good sense of what they provide, helping you to consider whether it may be worth it to buy 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 understanding of how closely linked organic and local SEO have grown to be.
Now, let's open this toolkit and get 2018 off to an excellent start!
For Research
US Census Bureau Tool Set
Looking to better understand a target community for marketing purposes? You'll find 20+ useful resources from the united states Census Bureau, including population statistics, economic data, mapping and geocoding widgets, income and language information, and many more.
Client Onboarding Questionnaire & Phone Script
Onboarding a fresh client? Reduce repetitious follow-ups by asking all 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 let you know, a missed question can result in 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.
Location Information Spreadsheet
Vital when marketing multi-location businesses, this free Moz spreadsheet will ensure that you've got all of the info close at hand about each locale of a company.
*Pro tip: Whenever using large enterprises, be certain that the info you're inputting in this spreadsheet has been approved by all relevant departments. It is no fun to discover six months into a marketing campaign that there surely is internal disagreement about company NAP or other features.
Local Competitive Audit Spreadsheet
Now we're really getting right down to brass tacks. When you need to search for answers to the perennial client question, "How come that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet will allow you to document key competitive data. The end result of filling out the sheet will undoubtedly be two columns of stats it is possible to compare and contrast in your quest to find competitors' ranking strengths and weaknesses. Need more guidance? Read my blog 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 what sort of local pack changes when a user virtually crosses a street and you will quickly know 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 live in hope that they will bring it back one day, however in the meantime, this extension gives us an excellent sense of how searcher location affects serp's. In fact, it may even be considered 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 - obtain 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 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 seems like a no-brainer to you that you ought to be enrolled in Google's console that gives you analytics, alerts one to serious errors, and so much more, but local SEO is just now crossing the threshold of focusing on how deeply connected it is to organic search. When playing in Google's backyard, GSC is a must-have for businesses of every type.
more info Checker
This popular tool does a fantastic job of replicating local serp's at a city or zip code level. In some cases, you need to search by city (for instance, whenever there are multiple towns covered by an individual 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 does not have the ability to recreate user-level results, so always remember that the proximity of confirmed user to a small business may create quite different results than what you will see searching at a city or zip code level. I think about this a great tool to suss out the lay of the land in a residential area, 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 keyword 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. One of the awesome areas of this tool is that it includes a.CSV download feature - ideal for instantly generating large lists of keywords that you could input into something like Moz Keyword Explorer to begin with the sorting process that turns up the most powerful keywords for your 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 then shows you which pieces are receiving the most social shares. For example, a search for wholefoodsmarket.com shows that a highly shared piece of content at the time of my search is about an asparagus and broccoli soup. You can also sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Use of Buzzsumo will let 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 broad pool of potential keywords for content dev consideration, OSHA's SIC search returns big, comprehensive lists. Just research your industry's SIC code, and then enter it along with a keyword/category to really get your list.
USPS RESEARCH a ZIP Code Widget
Working with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the second tab in the menu of the widget: Cities by zip code. Once you know the zip code of a small business you're marketing it is possible to enter it into this simple tool to have a list of every city for the reason 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.
