59 Experts Reveal Best Local SEO Tools for 2020 (With Leaderboard)

Marie Howey

BrightLocal is a great tool we use for managing local listing cleanup and maintenance. We are able to manage the directories for hundreds of clients in one central place and keep them all consistent. They also offer great reporting for this.

Because we are a dental marketing agency, local SEO is extremely important for our clients. Dental practices rely on location-based searches. BrightLocal makes it easy and convenient for our agency to keep these listings accurate. Consistent and up-to-date directory information is vital for driving traffic and increasing conversions for each of our clients.

WebCEO and Screaming Frog are our go-to tools for managing SEO audits. WebCEO really breaks down which areas of a website need improvement for optimal SEO performance. With Screaming Frog, we are able to get a full crawl of our sites. Performing extensive SEO audits for our clients allows us to make effective local SEO updates to all aspects of a site.

Monica Sirignano

We use a variety of tools, but probably the ones used most are Mangools and SEMrush.

SEMrush because it’s so comprehensive, and it’s great for in-depth research. But, sometimes when you’re talking to a potential client, you need a quicker picture and Mangools is great for that.

Patrick Leonard

There’s a lot of useful tools for local but only a handful that I use on a daily basis – BrightLocal is one of them.

Although citations are relatively less impactful as a ranking factor, having core citations completed with good NAP consistency is still fundamental to local search success. The Citation Builder makes it easy to review your citations at a glance, fix inconsistencies, and acquire missing citation opportunities.

Local SEO’s with clients in multiple cities can leverage the free local search results checker to emulate search results based on the client’s actual location – even down to the postal code. This is invaluable for more accurate SERP analysis to see who’s ranking well and which SERP features are being displayed in a particular area.

Lastly, the rankings checker breaks down positions for organic, local pack/finder, maps, and mobile for a fairly comprehensive snapshot of visibility and opportunity areas.

Kateryna Quinn

1) Ahrefs. We found Ahrefs to be an outstanding tool for link building. Their batch analysis tool allows you to enter up to 200 links each time and it provides extensive data on each link. DR and UR rating is so helpful in analyzing backlinks and choosing the best page on the potential domain to build.

We also use ahrefs to estimate traffic and domain authority for client websites if we don’t have access to Google tools for that domain yet. It helps analyze competition in all organic traffic, keywords and link building status.

We also usually pay attention to the traffic value that helps us understand which direction we are moving on the content development (commercial vs informational traffic).

2) SEO Power Suite. We have started with these tools and found them so great because of how affordable they are. We mostly use Rank Tracker and Website Auditor but Seo SpyGlass can be also helpful for some of the projects.

– Website Auditor is the first program we go to at the beginning of the project, while the website is still in development. It helps A LOT with technical SEO and internal link building to make sure your structure is correct and on page SEO is in the good shape.

– We use Rank Tracker throughout the project to daily analize positions in all the search engines and all locations we are interested in. It is the first program that shows the drops or increases in the positions. Any changes are very visible which allows us to pay close attention to what is going on.

Michael Quinn

BrightLocal for Citations
I think BrightLocal has put together one of the best suite of tools for a local small business, beginning with its Citation Builder. The Citation Builder allows local businesses to easily and cost-effectively create online business listings in up to 100 directories and niche sites.

Unlike its biggest competitors, Yext or Moz Local, which have ongoing price commitments, with BrightLocal you only pay once per citation. Our average order is $152 per business location, which is still less than one year of Yext ($499) or Moz Local ($199). I also like the control you have with BrightLocal’s Citation Builder to hand-pick your listings. You have the ability to select every directory and niche site individually as you see fit. And the best part is each citation is created manually by real people, not pushed out via an API integration.

This process is more time consuming, but the results are listings that you can control ongoing (they provide login credentials for most) and that will stay up forever. BrightLocal also has some great SEO tracking and reporting tools which are great for small businesses or agencies.

GatherUp for Reputation Management
I’ve gone through several reputation management tools over the years due to features and price. There seem to be new ones arriving on the scene and correspondingly going-out-of-business almost monthly. I’ve landed on GatherUp.

Online reviews are a huge part of the customer journey, and more importantly, your local Google rankings. GatherUp is a tool that easily allows you to ask your customers to leave feedback and review your business online through an easy-to-set-up funnel that includes emails and/or text messages. The cost might be the most attractive part at only $75 per location (and even better pricing for agencies, including the added benefit of only paying per location, rather than having to buy a minimum number of seats).Keywords Everywhere

When it comes to keyword research, I keep it stupidly simple with a combination of Google autocomplete, Google Ads Keyword Planner, and Keywords Everywhere.

Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that displays monthly search volume, cost-per-click (CPC), competition, and related keywords directly in Google, YouTube, Bing, and Amazon search results.

While this tool is not as robust of some, it is easy to use, saves a ton of time, and the price is right. I purchased 100,000 credits for $10 over 4 months ago and still have over 80K credits left.

Matt Calik

1. SEMrush – it is powerful keyword research tool. You can also check if any product has a potential in other markets (f.ex. we recently discovered that in Germany people often search garage gates adding “aus Polen” – “from Poland” to the keyword). SEMrush can show you also direct competitors at any market.

2. Schema for Local SEO – structured data help the search engine to understand what elements a given website contains. Therefore, in case of local SEO, it is worth to mark the contact data with structural data, so that search engines can classify the website as local.

3. NAP for link building strategy – this is not a specific tool, but an element of the strategy we use in local positioning and link building strategy. NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone Number. These elements should be taken care of not only on your website, but you should also remember about them when linking from other places in the network.

Chris Gregory

KWFinder: we use this to help us get localized keyword data/search volumes/cpc. We used to regularly use Google’s Keyword tool but as you know they continually limited the amount of data you received (if you received anything at all). So we went on a search for a tool that would provide localized search volume data.

Most of the tools that give search volume are only really good for national volumes, but we’ve found KWFinder is a great tool for drilling down to a local level. This tool allows us to really focus on the best local terms for our clients so we’re optimizing their sites for and targeting the correct terms their customers and potential customers are searching for.

As with every tool there are a couple drawbacks though:

The SERP tool (which details who is ranking and where for a term) is only pulling organic results — it would be a home run if it pulled in maps data as well.

Search by Domain function allows you to put a competitor in and see their ranking keywords — but it’s also only really useful for national/organic rankings (you cannot change the location except at a country level on this part of the tool).

This is common with virtually all the tools we know of though.

Devin Schumacher

By the far best tool is SERP Pro.

We manage 50+ campaigns in it seamlessly. No more spreadsheets. No more separate PBN software. No more separate rank tracker. Its all done in one area, and easily collaborative between your team. It consolidates all your tools into one and makes managing SEO unimaginably easier.

Joseph Colarusso

Yext pushes your business information to the major local listings sites. This saves time because you don’t have to manually login to each site to ensure accuracy. Also, you can manage online reviews with Yext.

With BrightEdge, you can monitor local search rankings and follow new search features. This makes it easy to follow search visibility for clients and their competitors.

Google Structured Data Testing Tool: This tool comes in handy when you need to create schema markup for local businesses.

Travis McGinnis

Google My Business, Google Search Console and Ahrefs.

Google My Business is critical for any brick and mortar company. Without a claimed and optimized GMB listing, companies will be essentially a black hole in local search. It’s also important to ensure all major directory sites and those in your niche exactly match the information on the GMB page.

Further, include an embedded Google Map on your contact page and the exact name, address and phone number (NAP) info from the Google My Business Listing on your website’s contact page. If it’s a single location business, the NAP can be in the footer as well.

For multi location businesses, create a page for each location. These pages should have an embedded Google map for it’s location and the NAP info from it’s corresponding Google listing.

Further, each location page (or the website as a whole for single location/single market businesses) should be optimized for local search. This is where Ahrefs comes in. You can use Ahrefs to research local search terms in your niche. Plus, you can explore competitors websites to see what terms they rank for. This gives you an opportunity to steal their search traffic.

Finally, Google Search Console brings it all together and shows what local search terms actually brought traffic to the site. It also shows insights about what possible new terms you’re appearing for in search, which might be an opportunity for new content.

Marcus Miller

I am not a huge fan of SEO tools. Maybe I am just old school but I tend to believe you can use Google for almost everything SEO related. I really feel that before folks pony up for a tool they should really get to grips with Google and advanced search operators.

Want to know what sites rank for your keywords? Google it? Want to identify potential citations, directories or portals that your customers may visit? Google it. Want to know who ranks so you can study them? Google it.

Using this Google first approach you can get answers direct from the search engine rather than from other sources that are attempting to understand what the search engine is doing.

You can also utilize free tools from Google like Search Console to get recommended technical suggestions if that side of things needs work. Again, a free tool that provides advice direct from Google.

An honorable mention here would be Bright Local. We do use this tool for local rank tracking, review tracking and automating a few other jobs that helps us as an agency.

Stuart Derman

Ahrefs is currently my favorite tool due to the quality of data available and keyword tool.

Brian Jensen

Years ago, one of our biggest challenges was attribution – more specifically, understanding what campaigns were driving phone calls. To solve this problem, we started using CallRail, and I’d consider it one of the most important local SEO tools we use.

Once you’ve installed a script on your website and reserved a small pool of local area service numbers, you’ll have access to reports on who is calling and from what source. The script also integrates with Google Analytics and reports calls as events which can then be set up as goals.

You can take it a step further and reserve a separate number for your Google My Business profile for additional insight on your GMB profile performance.

Having data on all desired visitor interactions not only helps show the full value of our local SEO campaigns, but helps our team be more strategic by understanding what channels act as touch points and the typical path-to-purchase.

Chris Steele

Google Trends – used to determine traffic volumes of keywords with local modifiers.

Google Search Console – used to determine what keywords with local modifiers I’m generating impressions for.

Keywords Everywhere – when I search a keyword that is locally based, the tool suggests related keywords and provides keyword volume.

Kyle Douglas

Google Search Console – with local SEO, often the keywords the client wants to rank for is the service they provide + the location they perform it in – and there are some variations of this that are always the variations that drive 80% of the traffic.

Search Console allows me to see which variation is working the best and “double down” on improving the ranking of that keyword.

Kyle Sanders

Sitebulb, Bright Local, and Ahrefs.

Sitebulb provides comprehensive website audits and allows junior analysts to easily prioritize technical SEO fixes. Sitebulb also allows us to identify pages that haven’t received any organic search traffic over a given time-frame (usually 12 months) and noindex/remove those pages or add them to the queue for improvements.

Bright Local provides a great overview of where a client stands with their citations, local rankings, and GMB optimization. Their citation tool is also a great way to find link opportunities on niche/industry-specific websites. We’re able to use this to put together a list of actionable items our team can execute that directly impact local search rankings.

We use Ahrefs for evaluating competitors’ link profile and content footprint. Their link intersect and content map tools allow us to identify low-hanging fruit on the links side of things and we’re able to quickly put together a content plan with the gap analysis.

Ryan Scollon

My favorite Local SEO tool is the BrightLocal Search Results Checker.

It allows you to view the search results for a term searched in any other location. This used to be possible within Google but then removed that feature. So if you are working with a client in a different city or country, this tool allows you to search as if you are local to that area and see what the search results look like.

John Morabito

Mobile Moxie is great for viewing SERPs from different locations on mobile, so it’s great for local SEO.

Google My Business itself is a powerful tool a lot of people don’t take full advantage of. Lately, I have been advising clients to use posts, answer questions, and embrace just about any new feature GMB rolls out.

The new Moz Local Market Analytics tool has proved to be handy on at least one occasion allowing you to track a set of keywords across a wide number of markets, and display that data in a cool map.

Lastly, love them or hate them, I use Yext for most of my local search clients. Are their cheaper ways to create one-off listings. Sure, but Yext gets the job done fast, and saves us a ton of time. There are some other great features too beyond time savings.

Newaz Chowdhury

AccuRanker – The quickest ranking tracking tool on the market. If you’re trying to figure out keyword rankings and don’t have much time, this tool will show you within minutes and not hours.

Serpstat- Full stack SEO tool that shows your on page SEO, your local rankings and what you’re ranking for. Provides keyword research and suggestions.

Morning score – full stack SEO tool that shows rankings, backlinks, on page SEO, and keyword research.These tools have helped me tremendously in driving results for our clients. It allow us to find good keywords to target and spy on our competition.

These tools provided information such as, are we doing our SEO right? how are our clients doing? Is there any traffic generation?

Paul Lovell

Bright Local I love to use for Citations no one likes creating them or updating them.

Screaming Frog
I use it on all my project local right up to large scale international sites.

Google Tag Manager
I use this not just for analytics but also for Structured data this is a great way of updating that information to the search engines as there is no need to factor in dev time.

GTMetrix
I use this for all of my clients it is great for monitoring not just page speed but also if there have been any changes without you knowing as you will typically see a change in speed or number of requests being made to the web page.

SEMrush I use this for all my clients it covers everything from site audits and backlink management to keywords research and competitor analysis

Now we get to a fairly new tool I have been using a bit lately that I like Local falcon it is great for understanding where your GMB listings are showing up in your local area.

Michael Pesavento

I use Ahrefs for local keyword and competitor research. Using the Keywords Explorer tool I can get a quick idea of which keywords are most valuable to target. The clickstream data that they leverage provides insight into which keywords are most likely to result in higher organic click through rates.

I’ll also use Ahrefs to analyse competitor backlinks, anchor text and link relevance.

For on-page optimization I use a combination of the SEOQuake Chrome extension and PageOptimizer Pro. These tools are great for assessing page content and HTML. I use these tools to help reverse-engineer Google’s results and understand why Google is listing the current pages at the top which then feeds into my own optimizations.

For reporting, I love the combination of Search Console and Data Studio. Search Console is an incredible, free source of information provided by Google. Connecting it to Data Studio allows me to segment and visualize the data in creative ways which helps me spot opportunities and trends and send easy-to-understand reports to clients.

Brett Downes

My eyes – honestly with all the changes, especially the new featured snippet debacle, the best tool you can use is to look at the SERPs yourself, for where you or your client would like to appear. For what keywords that will bring you traffic, money, brand awareness of a combo of all free.

Randy Soderman

One of our go-to’s is Surfer SEO. This simple tool saves our team huge amounts of time when we first onboard a local client. It uses a data-driven model that takes on-page SEO to another level.

Bryan Phelps

BrightLocal – Our team uses Brightlocal regularly to create new citations but also track citations to make sure the information is accurate. Even after you’ve claimed and fixed a citation, it can revert back so you need to keep an eye on them!

Erik Huberman

At Hawke Media, we use Brightedge as our main SEO tool. It is an all-in-one, enterprise-level SEO tool that enables us to track organic ranking, competitive analysis, keyword research, and SEO audit. We also automate our reporting process by utilizing Brightedge dashboards.

Besides Brightedge, we also complement our SEO analysis with Ahrefs and SEMrush.

Stephen Galgocy

I love BrightLocal for local SEO client reporting as it covers relevant metrics like: Reputation Management, Rankings (including accurate local pack rankings), Analytics Overview, Local Citations, and Google My Business metrics. You can also build citations with this tool.

Brett Farmiloe

Measuring results is critical to know if Local SEO is working. Google’s Campaign URL Builder allows a marketer to append a url with tracking information to distinguish the organic traffic coming from Google.

By including an appended URL on local profiles like Google My Business, you are able to determine how many users are actually clicking through to your website from a profile – as opposed to discovering your site through an organic search result.

Mariano Rodriguez

We use WhiteSpark as a starting point to build out citations for our clients. This helps us lay the groundwork that we need when starting a local SEO campaign.

Ahrefs – We firmly believe that building a high-quality backlink profile dramatically improves local SEO. That’s why we spend a lot of time deconstructing the best ranking sites. We start by building a list of the all the high-quality links they have acquired. We then set out to build those links for our clients and add more.

Bonus tip: We research the local chamber of commerce sites. Every market has at least 2 – 3 different chambers (and large cities have 20+ different chamber opportunities). This is an expensive tactic. But if your client has the resources, we believe that getting our client listed in the local chambers helps to improve their local SEO efforts.

Aalap Shah

SEMrush to track the organic search rankings across agency clients. Ahrefs to monitor links and estimated organic traffic activity. Google Search Console and Google Analytics for monitoring traffic and site data.

I love Google Data Studio and Supermetrics for better visualization of our success.

For example, we often connect our clients CRM (or Shopify if it’s e-commerce), Google Analytics, and SEMrush to help our clients plot revenue against average position data (gathered via SEMrush). These create engaging conversations about client re: content and outreach activities and help everyone on both teams understand the impact on revenue.

Daniel Klein

Jacky Chou