Cost-free Local SEO Tools That will Belong in Your KitPosted by Pittman Brandt on April 26th, 2021 What a lot can change in just a few years! When I wrote the original 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 already been sunsetted. Definitely time for a whole 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, remember that some will require one to sign up for access. Others are limited, no-cost, or trial versions that let you get a good sense of what they provide, enabling you to consider whether it may be worth it to buy into paid access. One thing you may notice: my new set 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 become. 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 much more. Client Onboarding Questionnaire & Phone Script Onboarding a new client? Reduce repetitious follow-ups by asking all the right questions the first time around with this thorough questionnaire and easy-to-follow phone call script from Moz. Includes helpful 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. Be sure you 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 the info at your fingertips about each locale of an organization. *Pro tip: When working with large enterprises, be certain that the data you're inputting in this spreadsheet has been approved by all relevant departments. It is no fun to discover six months into a advertising campaign that t here '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 find answers to the perennial client question, "Why is that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet can help you document key competitive data. The end result of filling in the sheet will undoubtedly be two columns of stats it is possible to compare in your quest to find 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 by using this tool to show what sort of local pack changes whenever a user virtually crosses a street and you'll quickly know how useful this Chrome extension will undoubtedly 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 take it back one day, however in the meantime, this extension gives us an excellent sense of how searcher location affects search results. 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. Google Advanced Search Operators Not a tool, by itself, but the best tutorial I have ever seen on using Google advanced search operators to deepen your quest. Dr. Pete breaks this 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 knowing 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 signed up for Google's console that gives you analytics, alerts you to serious errors, and so much more, but local SEO is merely 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 each 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. In some instances, it's best to search by city (for example, whenever 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 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 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 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 the future reference and analysis. For local businesses, understanding of offline factors can 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 keyword research tools in the digital marketing world, Answer the general public lets you enter a keyword phrase and generate numerous questions/topics related to your search. 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 may input into something like Moz Keyword Explorer to begin the sorting process that arises the most powerful keywords for your content dev and on-page optimization. Buzzsumo Another great content inspiration tool, Buzzsumo shows you lets you enter a keyword, topic or domain name, and shows you which pieces are getting the most social shares. For example, a seek out wholefoodsmarket.com shows that an extremely shared piece of content at the time of my search is approximately an asparagus and broccoli soup. You may also sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Use of Buzzsumo will help you generate topics that could 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 look up your industry's SIC code, and enter it plus a keyword/category to really get your list. USPS Look Up a ZIP Code Widget Working with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the next tab in the menu of this widget: Cities by zip code. Once you know the zip code of a business you're marketing it is possible to enter it into this simple tool to obtain a list of every city in 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 utilize this widget to be sure you know of all the communities for which an SAB might strategize content, link building, brand building, real-world relationship building, social media marketing, and PPC.Like it? Share it! More by this author |