Cost-free Local SEO Tools This Belong in Your KitPosted by Pittman Brandt on April 26th, 2021 What a lot can transform in just a couple of 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 several of the freebies on my previous list have been sunsetted. Definitely time for a whole refresh of the very most useful free tools, widgets, and resources I know of to create marketing local businesses easier and better. While all 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. read more might 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 become. Now, let's open this toolkit and obtain 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 US 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 of the right questions the first time around with this thorough questionnaire and easy-to-follow telephone call script from Moz. Includes tips for why you're asking each question. As local SEO veterans will tell you, a missed question can result in unhappy (and costly) surprises down the marketing road. Be sure you have the full 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 ensure that you've got all the info close at hand about each locale of a company. *Pro tip: Whenever using 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 find out 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 right down to brass tacks. When you need to watch out for answers to the perennial client question, "How come that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet will let you document key competitive data. The end result of filling in 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 blog post where 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 will quickly know how useful this Chrome extension will undoubtedly be in approximating the impacts of user-to-business proximity. Additional hints on desktop devices. Our industry still hasn't fully recovered from Google removing the Local 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 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 should 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 research. 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 appears like a no-brainer to you that you should be signed up for 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 really 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 serp's at a city or zip code level. Sometimes, it's best to search by city (for instance, when 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 capability to recreate user-level results, so always remember that the proximity of confirmed user to a business may create quite different results than what you'll see searching at a city or zip code level. I think about 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 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 could 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 numerous questions/topics linked to your search. Additional info of the awesome areas of this tool is that it includes a.CSV download feature - ideal for instantly generating large lists of keywords that one could 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 teaches you lets you enter a keyword, topic or domain name, and shows you which pieces are getting 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 may also sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Usage of Buzzsumo will help you generate topics that could be popular if covered on your own 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 enter it along with a keyword/category to really get your list. USPS RESEARCH a ZIP Code Widget Dealing with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the next tab in the menu of this widget: Cities by zip code. When you know the zip code of a small 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 understand of all the communities for which an SAB might strategize content, link constructing, brand building, real-world relationship building, social media marketing, and PPC.Like it? Share it! More by this author |