Essential Local SEO Tools Every Small Business Should Use

Local search is a significant market segment in the cut-throat competitive world. Choosing the right tools and services can help you to lead the world. Research shows that 46% of all Google searches are seeking local information, and 76% of people who search for something nearby visit a business within a day (Source: Think with Google). To small businesses and large enterprises with multiple locations, using the most effective local SEO tools is the key to being on the front line and prominent or being among the forgotten entities.

This blog will highlight some important local SEO tools that can transform your approach to SEO. We’ll cover each tool’s unique features and provide real-world examples to indicate how they can be integrated into your strategy for maximum impact. Let’s get started:

Why Your Business Needs Professional Local SEO Services:

Before moving towards the tools, let’s first shed some light on local SEO Services and their importance for multi-location businesses:

Local SEO services are essential for any business aiming to bring local traffic and drive more customers to their online store. With 97% of consumers searching online for local businesses and 93% of these searches leading to an in-store visit or phone call (Source: Hubspot), enhancing your local presence and adding a solid boost to your company.

Effective Local SEO services for multi-location businesses ensure that your website is optimized for the locality, observe your online reputation in the targeted markets, and ensure your business stands out in the marketplace.

Top Local SEO Tools For Businesses:

Read how the following tools help your business growth and how to improve local search rankings with SEO tools:

• Google Business Profile (GBP)

Purpose:

It’s important for every business to have a managed listing on Google Search and Maps and this is provided by Google Business Profile. It helps boost local appearance as it allows for correct business information, reacting to customer reviews, posting new updates, and monitoring all the corresponding interactions and directly influences the local search results and customer involvement.

Features:

• Update Business Information: It allows you to continuously update your business details like your business address, phone number, operating hours, and website link. This ensures that potential customers are armed with the most accurate information.
• Respond to Reviews: Replying to customer reviews is an excellent way of interacting with your clients. Not only does it improve your company’s status among the customer but also makes the business appear more reliable and trustworthy.
• Post Updates: Post key details, business updates, or upcoming events on your Google business profile. These posts can gain more visits or reach a wider audience of your customers to brief them on what’s new with you.
• Track Insights: Get statistical information about the way your customers view and perform searches within the business profile. Concerning metrics, it implies search queries, actions performed by the users (for instance, calls, Web site visits), and other statistics.

Example: 

A local bakery employs GBP to alter the business hours and to announce the current holiday offers. When replying to the reviews and analyzing the profile measures, the bakery increases foot traffic and attracts more customers who are searching for local food options.

• CallRail

Purpose:

CallRail monitors and calculates phone call conversion from the marketing initiatives including the local SEO. By tracking, recording, and reporting calls, business owners learn just how their SEO efforts affect call traffic and customers.

Features:

• Call Tracking: Tracks incoming phone leads by distinguishing between those that originate from the website directly, or from the click-to-call buttons.
• Call Recording: Uses a recorder to record calls with customers with a view of determining how competent the leads are. This is helpful in determining the customer needs and a way of trying to satisfy the customer’s needs.
• Detailed Reporting: Offers detailed reports on the number of calls received and the origination of such calls, as well as conversion rates of landing pages and other marketing elements.

Example: 

A local law firm uses CallRail to get insights into the calls that they receive through their website. Analyzing calls they notice that the most popular source of calls is the “Free Consultation” page which helps them to optimize that page for more conversions and client attraction.

• Moz Local

Purpose:

Moz Local makes it easy to monitor and update your business listings in various directories, and keep them up-to-date. It manages the duplication of the listings, and it tracks the rankings locally, which are useful for increasing the visibility on the web and enhancing the local listings.

Features:

• Automated Listing Distribution: Promotes your business information to the list of major directories and review websites automatically to save time and ensure wide coverage.
• Monitor Duplicates: Eliminates duplicate listings that may create complexities for the search engines, as well as the users. Having a duplicate entry on the internet will have a negative impact on your local search rankings.
• Track Local Rankings: Offers tools to track the position of your business in local search results to help you understand your ranking position and identify areas for improvement.

Example: 

A particular national chain of coffee shops uses Moz Local in order to manage its store data across multiple directories. The tool ensures consistency and manages any duplicate listings, enhancing the local search visibility and eventually upgrading the customer experience.

• Whitespark Local Citation Finder

Purpose:

The Whitespark Local Citation Finder works on creating and enhancing local citations to improve local search results. It helps in finding new citation opportunities, monitoring the existing citations, and managing the reputation, which is an essential factor in boosting local presence and search rankings.

Features:

• Identify Citation Opportunities: Identifies those new directories that can be used to list the business, hence enhancing its viability and credibility in local search.
• Track Current Citations: Monitors and verifies existing citations to check if they are accurate and if the citation data entered into the system is the same as the data on the web. This assists in avoiding the problems that might lead to local search ranking problems.
• Reputation Management: Helps in managing and enhancing your business’s online reputation through citation building and monitoring, which can impact local SEO performance.

Example: 

A local gym employs Whitespark Local Citation Finder to increase its online visibility. By identifying new citation opportunities or correcting the wrong listing, the gym enhances its overall ranking in local searches and attracts more people from the area to join the gym.

• BrightLocal

Purpose:

BrightLocal has a range of local SEO tools for reporting, auditing, and monitoring possibilities. Local SERP monitoring, citation, and Google Business Profile tool with actionable data to help businesses improve their local SEO plans successfully.

Features:

• Local Search Rank Tracking: Compares your business’s local rankings for the specific search phrases to the competitors’. It is useful in determining the effectiveness of your SEO work and redesigning your strategies when necessary.
• Citation Tracking: Monitors your business citations in the various platforms with the aim of maintaining the accuracy of your business.
• GMB Auditing: Conducts thorough audits of your Google Business profile in detail, coupled with recommendations to enhance your profile for a better presence in the local markets.

Example: 

A bookstore opts for BrightLocal to monitor the position it occupies in the local search results and to oversee citations. Through audits and other recommendations obtained from the GBP service, the bookstore increased its visibility on the local search services, consequently attracting more clients.

• Places Scout

Purpose:

Places Scout offers all kinds of local SEO information that a user may need, such as rank position and competitor data. It ensures businesses the best local search results by providing information on local ranking factors, citations, and GBP that are crucial in local search.

Features:

• Local Rank Tracking: It tracks your business’s positions for particular local keywords or search queries, which can give you information on your search position.
• Citation Analysis: Review the location of your citations and pinpoint which of your citations is performing poorly to improve upon it and enhance your local search engine results.
• GMB Audit: Audits the efficiency of your GBP listing and provides suggestions on how it could be made better.
• Reviews Monitoring: Records customers’ feedback enables the identification of the overall reputation with people in the market and acts as a solution to any negative comments.

Example: 

A boutique clothing store intends to monitor the ranking of the local keywords as well as the efficiency rates of citation. When using competitive analysis features, the store brings optimization results for localized SEO, aiming to beat competitors in the area and improve visibility.

• Local Falcon

Purpose:

Local Falcon focuses on geo-grid rank, which shows your business positioning in different regions on Google Maps. It points out local rank differences, which in turn means that companies can find the markets to focus on SEO effectuating and optimizing local search presence successfully.

Features:

• Geo-Grid Visualization: Demonstrates the top positions of your business on different places used for mapping and pins out strengths or areas of weakness.
• Share of Local Voice (SoLV) Metric: Measures the extent to which your business is visible on Google Maps for certain keywords, to reveal your local prominence.
• Local Ranking Insights: Offers information on position shifts, which may be used to better understand and produce more specific local SEO campaigns.

Example: 

A regional dental clinic uses Local Falcon to identify its ranking status for the keyword ‘dentist near me’ in neighborhoods. This assists the clinic in knowing where much more SEO energy and strategies are needed to boost its local visibility and get more patients from all the targeted locations.

• Whitespark Reputation Builder

Purpose:

Whitespark Reputation Builder emphasis on the promotion and monitoring of your company’s online reputation. It sends automated requests for reviews, tracks reviews, and provides tools for responding— essential for managing your online profile and improving local SEO through positive client feedback.

Features:

• Automated Review Requests: Streamlines the process of requesting reviews from customers, making it easier to gather feedback and improve your online reputation.
• Review Monitoring: Can track reviews from different websites thereby helping one to know the feedback given by customers and respond to these as needed.
• Response Tools: This enables you to address the reviews and easily get back to customers in case they are dissatisfied or have complaints.

Example: 

An HVAC service provider from the local area uses Whitespark Reputation Builder for auto-sending of review prompts and for review tracking. Through the active management of the online presence, the provider works on the local SEO ranking and acquires new clients via favorable comments.

• Localo

Purpose:

Localo delivers local SEO analytics and suggestions on enhancing the website’s ranking. It monitors rankings, and citations, and performs SEO audits so that enterprises are aware of how effectively they work within the scope of local search and what can be done to improve the existing SEO effort.

Features:

• Local Rank Tracking: Checks your positions for local phrases, which contain information about your business’s performance in local search outcomes.
• Citation Building: Helps in creating and monitoring local citations, which is vital in increasing your search engine results.
• SEO Audits: Performs assessments to determine your strengths and weaknesses within your local SEO management plan and makes suggestions.

Example: 

An auto detailing company that is based locally uses Localo to keep track of its search ranking and citation. By implementing all the recommended optimizations, the business increases its chances of being found locally, thus increasing the number of customers in these areas.

• Yext

Purpose: 

Yext deals with managing business listings across various websites to maintain accuracy. It can offer information updates, reviews management, and performance indicators– the data essential for the centralized management of reputation and local SEO, as well as increased customer attraction.

Features:

• Real-Time Listing Updates: Provides instant updates to business listings on various directories, ensuring that your information is always current and accurate.
• Review Management: This enables you to address the reviews emanating from different areas and in a way assists in handling reputation.
• Analytics: Provides information about the listing and users engaged with it which will assist in knowing how the listing is doing and the changes required.

Example: 

A chain of dental offices apply Yext to change their data in a vast number of directories. Through having proper consistency and conducting proper management of its reputation, the dental chain also increases its ratings in local SEO and gains more patients.

Impact of Citation Management on Local SEO

Citation management is vital in local SEO as it highly influences the search engine’s perception of your business’s credibility and relevance. These online mentions of name, address, and phone number (NAP) serve as an essential form, which is used to determine their ranking on the local search results. The proper way of managing these citations proves to be a clear indication that local SEO can also benefit.

1. Consistency and Accuracy: Proper citation helps to build confidence in the business and enables people to have faith in the business. Citations are useful to search engines to get the details of your business. Having incompatible data related to NAP undermines the search engines and the potential clients in equal measure since rank reduction and brand credibility will be affected. Citations management makes sure that all details about your business appear consistently in all the directories, this helps in improving the local search rankings and visibility.
2. Local Authority and Relevance: To increase local authority, use high-quality citations from high-quality sources. Citations received from reputable websites are also looked at by search engines as a vote for your business. The more authoritative and relevant the sites mentioning your business the better your credibility in the eyes of the search engine. This improved authority can result in better positioning when it comes to local search rankings and therefore increased visibility when it comes to local search.
3. Increased Local Visibility: Correct citation management ensures that all companies are listed correctly, meaning your business gets the visibility it requires in the market. Comprehensive citation management covers getting your business listed on specific industry listings, local listings, and review sites. This increased online presence increases your visibility on local search as and when people tend to look for businesses in your local vicinity.
4. Enhanced Local Competitiveness: By engaging yourself in proper citations, then it is easier to rank against close competitors within a locality. By having well-claimed and frequently optimized citations, your enterprise will have more visibility when it comes to local customer searches if your competitors have numerous imperfect listings. This, in turn, suggests a greater proportion of the local traffic that can be exploited to gain new customers.
5. Improved Search Engine Rankings: Direct relevance factors play a great role in local search ratings as well. According to Moz’s Local Search Ranking Factors, citation signals account for about 13% of local search ranking factors (Source: Moz). Using citations properly is very useful in massaging this factor in a way that enhances the possibility of ranking high in local search engine displays.

Case Studies on Successful Local SEO Strategies:

• BrightLocal Case Study: 

How a Law Firm Improved Their Local Search Rankings

A prominent multi-office law firm in the U.S. faced the challenge of increasing the local search rankings in several cities to boost the number of consults. BrightLocal was the tool that helped out. By using the comprehensive suite that BrightLocal offers, local SEO audits, citation management, as well as Google Business Profile optimization, the firm was able to improve its online presence. Carrying out these specific activities consistently for 6 months saw a remarkable improvement of the local search visibility by a massive 48%. (BrightLocal)

This improvement was a significant uplift in the number of enquiries and consultations from clients as a direct result of the BrightLocal tools boosting local search results and clients’ acquisition.

• Moz Local Case Study: 

How a Small Retail Chain Boosted Local SEO

A small retail chain running stores in the Midwestern states had inaccurate business listings and low online presence resulting in lessening customer traffic to the stores. To solve these problems, they used Moz Local aimed at correcting and normalizing the business information on the web listings and refining Google My Business profiles. These efforts in 4 months yielded an increase of search visibility of 38% (Source: Moz Local). Also, they have reported a 22% boost in ‘footfall’, and it is clear that all the issues that Moz Local deals with – the challenge of different listings and the necessity to manage them as the method to improve local SEO performance– can be the real way to make people visit the store more often.

• Whitespark Case Study: 

Dental Clinic’s Ranking and Patient Growth

A Toronto-based dental clinic aimed to enhance the clinic’s online prominence in a relevant local market share in order to attract clients. Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder was used in the clinic to establish and maintain citations in regional directories and used its review tracking tool to manage patient feedback. Application of these strategies led to an improvement in search engine ranking position for local keywords by 30% (Source: Whitespark). In addition, overall patient appointments increased by 25 % for the clinic as a result of citation and review management by Whitespark showing well-documented increases in local SEO results and patient acquisition.

• Yext Case Study: 

Improving Local SEO for a Restaurant Chain

A national restaurant chain operating in numerous units in the United States experienced difficulties in regulating its Web 2.0 profile and enhancing its local search ranking. In order to deal with these challenges, the chain opted for Yext’s services, which helps coordinate the business listings in such platforms as Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, as well as effectively monitor the reviews. All these efforts culminated in an increase of 42% in online orders and reservations (Source: Yext). It proved how the centralized listing management and review handling of Yext provided significant benefits in improving the company’s local SEO standing and customer response, leading to more online sales and bookings.

Conclusion

While using all these local SEO tools in your workflow you will find it easy to overcome challenges associated with local SEO services, increase your local search rankings, and manage citation and review effectively. Whether you’re focused on a single location or handling local SEO for multi-location businesses, these tools will keep you on the right path toward local SEO success.

Feel free to contact us to enquire more about local SEO strategies to further enhance your understanding of local SEO services. Call us now!