15 Local SEO Tools For 2024

I can’t stress this enough: as long as your business serves a geographical area or has a physical presence, you shouldn’t neglect local SEO.  

You may ask why. Well, a majority of searches on Google want information about a local business. So, you’re probably missing out on massive opportunities if you’re not positioning your business to be seen by these people. 

Suppose you’re new to local SEO or you’re not happy with your results. Don’t worry. In today’s guide, I’ll show you 15 local SEO tools to get you up to speed. 

First things first…

What is Local SEO? 

Local SEO is a search engine optimization strategy that increases your chances of appearing among the top results for relevant local searches on Google. Say you’re an HVAC contractor in Texas and you implement the following local SEO strategies:

• Claim your Google Business profile listing 
• Optimize your website for local or location-specific keywords. 
• Build NAP (name, address, and phone number) citations in online directories 
• Encourage user reviews 

You’ll likely appear high up on the organic results or local 3-pack section when someone searches for “HVAC contractor around Texas.” 

But let’s untangle its benefits first.

Why Local SEO is important 

I can go on and on about why you should consider local SEO. But in the end, all that really matters is that it will bring in clients for you—lots of them. 

How? It’s simple: local searchers mean business. For example, when someone searches for “divorce attorney near me,” they’re most likely ready to employ a divorce lawyer. That’s why 76% of those who conduct local searches visit a business location within a day, and 28% eventually patronize a business. If you can nail your local SEO, chances are you’ll appear before these hot leads before your competitors do. 

What’s more? Your brand reputation gets a significant boost, too. Encouraging happy clients to leave positive reviews is an important local SEO move. This can double as incredible social proof for your business. When used alongside solid PR services, you can ensure your brand is painted in a positive light and attracts even more clients down the line.

Top 15 Local SEO Tools to Boost Rankings

But having a local SEO strategy isn’t enough. You also need the right local SEO tools to reap the benefits above. Here are 15 local SEO tools I believe every business shouldn’t do without:

1. TrackRight

TrackRight is a local rank tracker that can act as a one-stop shop for almost all your local SEO needs. First, its local rank tracker helps you monitor your local search rankings for various keywords, whether on local 3-pack or organic search results. 

Suppose your business is underperforming for certain keywords. This tool also provides actionable recommendations to fix this issue.

TrackRight also performs excellently when it comes to: 

• Comprehensive competitor analysis 
• Google business profile management 

You can take TrackRight for a free test drive for seven days. If you love what you see, the paid plan starts from $25

2. Google Business Profile

For starters, you need a Google business profile (GBP) before you can have any shot at appearing on local 3-pack search results. So, this should be one of your top priorities since this section alone sits on 42% of clicks in Google local searches. 

That aside, Google filters local search results based on three criteria, and a GBP makes it easier to meet these conditions. 

The first is relevance. Essentially, your local business’s online presence has to match what the searcher is looking for accurately. This means you must put as much information as possible about your GBP, including your services, business hours, etc. 

The Q&A feature of GBP is another valuable opportunity to provide more information. You can leverage it to include several questions and answers related to your business on your profile. This gives Google even more information to evaluate your relevance. See Redmond Law Firm, for example: 

To make things easier, use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to come up with commonly asked questions about your service. These tools can help you answer these questions, too.

With GBP, you can also include your location so Google can display your business to those who are actively looking for your service around you. 

Google also uses factors like the number of reviews your business has to evaluate its prominence. GBP has a feature that allows you to collect these reviews from satisfied customers. 

3. GrowthBar

When optimizing your website and listing for local SEO, it’s very important to use the right keywords. With Growthbar’s keyword research, you can discover the keywords most of your audience is searching for. Incorporating these into your descriptions and content gives you a better chance of appearing before the searchers:

GrowthBar also has other features that can help you optimize your online presence to boost local rankings. These include: 

1. Keyword ranking tracker
2. Competitor research, including their backlinks and keywords
3. Google Search Console integration 
4. On-page audit and optimization

For first-time users, there is a 7-day free trial. The paid version starts from $36

4. Yext 

Yext offers another effective way to meet the “prominence” criterion of Google’s local search ranking. It allows you to list your business on up to 200 platforms, including Bing Places and Waze. This increases your business’s popularity, making it more likely to show up in top local search results.

The best part is that you can manage all these listings in one place. For example, you can change opening times on all listings at once without needing to log in individually. 

With Yext, you can also manage your online reviews across all these listings in a single location. Using the tool, you can proactively ask for reviews from your satisfied clients, aggregate these reviews across several platforms, and even analyze them to understand customer sentiments and areas of improvement. 

5. Synup 

Like Yext, Synup also has an excellent review management feature, with functionalities like: 

• Review analysis
• Review acquisitions via SMS or email.  

But it also takes things further by offering an automatic response generator and response templates for reviews:

Apart from reviews, Synup can help you aggregate and manage your business listings across over 60 websites. It also helps you make sure that your information is consistent across all your listings, especially your NAP (name, address, and phone number). That’s because any trace of inconsistency will affect your credibility and can cause search engines to de-rank your service. 

6. Localo

Localo is another popular local SEO tool to build local citations for your business and gain prominence. What sets this tool apart is that it allows you to check where your top competitors are currently listed. Chances are they’re getting good results from there, so you might want to consider taking your citations to these directories as well. 

Besides, using Localo, you can conduct comprehensive audits to assess your business profile’s visibility. If there are areas to improve, it also shows you ready-to-implement tips that you can follow. 

This tool uses a freemium pricing model, with the paid version starting at $29/month/location. 

7. BuzzStream 

Your offsite efforts are just as important as your on-site optimization in local SEO. And one of the most important offsite local SEO strategies is link-building. When a reputable website links to your website, they’re sharing their authority and prominence with yours, which can ultimately boost your local ranking. For a successful link-building campaign, BuzzStream is a tool you should have in your corner. 

Starting at $24/month, this outreach management tool lets you:

• Send personalized outreach pitches
• Track link-building campaign progress 
• Automate email address search and prospecting 

But before using the email address provided by the tool for your outreach, I’d recommend running it through email verification software. You never know; you might be sending your emails to the wrong people and risk getting flagged as spam. 

8. Moz Local 

If you think the local listing tools mentioned so far are too pricey for you, try Moz Local. At $14/month, you can still use this tool to manage your reviews and sync your listings across various platforms:

But the best thing about Moz Local is its automated duplicate deletion. Having multiple listings of one business on a platform can confuse customers and even make them doubt your legitimacy. Moz Local helps you detect this issue automatically and completely delete duplicate listings. 

9. Semrush 

Semrush is another one of the top local SEO tools that offers an excellent listing management tool. But the tool has a more clever way of going about this. Before listing your website, it allows you to insert your business name to search for listings relevant to your business. From there, you’ll find websites where you’re already listed and opportunities you can leverage. 

It also shows potential errors in your listings. Fixing these gives you a better shot at local SEO ranking:

Lastly, you can count on Semrush for other functionalities like review management, rank tracking, and keyword research. 

10. UberAll

If your business runs at multiple locations, UberAll is a tool you can use to manage local SEO across all these locations effectively. 

This tool also makes local SEO a bit more effortless for you by using artificial intelligence to automate almost every task. Using AI, it can help you; 

• Automatically compress your images to meet various directories’ standards 
• Match your street address better with location coordinates 
• Personalize responses to reviews 
• Analyze your visibility and provide intel on how to improve. 

Note that UberAll also does excellently when it comes to listing and review management. 

11. GeoRanker

GeoRanker definitely deserves a spot as one of the top local SEO tools to try. 

It has four of the important features I’ve mentioned so far that could help local businesses improve their ranking. These include:

• Rank tracker 
• Keyword research 
• Competitive intelligence  
• Local citation analysis 

So, as you’re discovering the keywords your audiences are searching for, you’re also finding out where your competitors are getting their listings. That’s a goldmine of information you can use to your advantage. 

GeoTracker’s pricing starts at $99 monthly. 

12. BiQ

BiQ is an intelligence tool that helps you find the right keywords to target. You can also subsequently use this tool to monitor how well you’re ranking for those keywords. This way, you can measure the impact of your efforts and detect strengths and weaknesses. 

Of course, I’ve mentioned several tools doing the same but not at the scale that BiQ does it. With this option, you can analyze as many as 1,000 keywords at a time. Even better, it monitors each keyword in real-time and immediately informs you of unusual movements. 

BiQ’s paid plan starts at $55/month. 

13. Bright Local

Bright Local is one of the most comprehensive local SEO tools out there.

 It has most of the features you’d need for successful local SEO, including:

• Citation building 
• Listing opportunities identification 
• Rack tracking  
• Listing management 
• Local SEO audits 
• Review management  

What makes Bright Local truly stand out is its free academy, where you can learn local SEO directly from professionals. You can also try it for free for a longer period of 14 days then request a custom price depending on what you want to use it for specifically. 

14. WhiteSpark 

WhiteSpark has four main local SEO services. These include:

• Reputation/review management 
• Local citation opportunities discovery 
• Local rank tracking 
• Google business profile management. 

The beauty of this tool is that you can pay for just the service you need. For example, if you only want to opt for business profile management, you’d only have to pay $1/month/location: 

That aside, WhiteSpark also has some other local SEO tools that could supplement your various local SEO efforts. For example, it has a free review checker that allows you to see your reviews across various platforms in one spot. You’d typically pay for this feature in other tools mentioned so far. 

15. Google Analytics 

If you want the best insights on how to improve your local SEO efforts, you should have Google Analytics in your toolbox. 

With this tool, you’ll be getting insights like traffic sources, bounce rates, and dwell time on your page. These insights can help you make necessary adjustments to your local SEO strategy. 

Suppose you’re recording high bounce rates from visitors coming from your local listing, for instance. That could mean your page’s content isn’t meeting the needs of your local target audience. So, you might want to revisit your content strategy before this bounce rate hurts your ranking.  

Final Thoughts

More local search visibility is key to your business success. It can help you boost your local search visibility, build your reputation, and therefore, bring in more customers. To help you achieve the best results with this effort, I covered 15 of the best local SEO tools you may consider trying. 

But note that before you fully invest your money in the paid options, take advantage of their free trials to see if they fit your bill. 

And hey if you need a dedicated local SEO agency to take care of your local search marketing end-to-end, just contact us.

Author: Chris Norton is the founder of specialist PR agency Prohibition, former University lecturer, author of “Share This Too,” and his social media training blog, which has been listed in the UK’s top 10 PR and social media marketing blogs for more than seven years.