Article by Abhijit Mandavkar

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and its tools and tactics have always been the primary weapon of choice for digital marketers. The real strength of SEO, if utilised to its true potential, is proven in the long term, with excellent results for businesses in the search engines. And then there’s this thing known as the Local SEO, which helps to drive more prospects to your business, concentrated to your local area.

Throwback to old times, when SEO was fresh, there was not an abundance of paid or free tools. But now, just a search through the internet and you will find tons of tools that can assist you in your Local SEO. While some are absolutely free to use, some of the tools are free to apply for a specific period, after which you will have to buy it to use it. To simplify things, here’s a list of all free tools which you can utilise to make your local SEO runs at its maximum best:

For Research Purposes:

1) US Census Bureau Apparatus Set:

With US Census Bureau, you will have acquisitions to 20+ assets including citizenry statistics, bread and butter data, geocoding widgets and mapping, accent information and assets, and a lot more. With this tool, you can look at the bigger picture.

2) Client Onboarding Question and Answer:

Cut down on repeated questioning by asking the right questions the first time around. You can do this by preparing a thorough questionnaire regarding your client and also developing a script for a phone call to extract all the vital information. When you ask the right questions, you get valuable answers with which you can create strategies that can optimise a business’ local SEO.

3) Location and Competition Spreadsheet:

By maintaining spreadsheets for businesses with multiple locations make it easy to keep track of all the vital information. Also, with spreadsheets, you can analyse what your business’ competition is up to and keep track of it, so that you have the answers ready when the client asks what their competitors are up to.

4) MozBar:

Mastering traditional SEO is a must for local businesses, and the free MozBar provides a beautiful introduction to the metrics. This tool lets you look at analysing the organic strengths & weaknesses of clients and competitors. On-page elements, markup, HTTP status, link metrics,  optimisation opportunities — you get the data you need at a glance.

5) Search Operators for Google:

Not exactly a tool, but the advanced Google search operators help you redefine our search. These operators can refine your search for content and title, plagiarism check, technical SEO audit, etc. All you need to know is the format the searches in a smart way.

SEO Tools for Content:

1) Answer the Public:

This tool is one of the most loved research tools in the digital marketing world. Answer the public lets you enter a keyword phrase, and it generates a large number of questions related to your search. It also enables you to download these questions in a .csv format.

2) Buzzsumo:

This tool is great for generating content inspiration. All you have to do is, enter a keyword on Buzzsumo, and it will show you which content pieces are receiving the most social shares. You can also sort these content by their types – articles, images, videos, etc. Buzzsumo helps you generate a popular topic.

3) Zip-code Lookup:

You often will have to enter zip codes of a particular area of a business to optimise the local SEO. For this purpose, there are various zip-code lookup tools available on the internet that lets you search your business’ zip code of a particular city.

For Citations:

1) Moz Check Listing:

There’s no better tool than Moz’s check listing that gives you a complete overview of the health of a local business. All you need to do is put in the business’ name and zip code, and voila, you are presented with all the required information. At a glance, you are provided with details such as inconsistencies and duplicate listings of a business. You can also use this tool for competitive analysis.

2) Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder:

The free version of this tool lets you discover beyond the primary places where you might want to get listed. You can also analyse your competitors’ citations’ here.

For Reviews:

1) The Hoth’s Online Business Review Checker Tool:

This tool gives you an overview report of a local business’ reviews on a variety of platforms. You can gauge your incoming clients’ reputation with this tool, and check for its strengths and weaknesses.

2) Free Review Monitoring:

You can get email alerts whenever a new review comes in on a significant site. With these alerts, you can respond instantly! This way, you can resolve a customer’s complaint quickly and maintain your company’s reputation.

3) Review Handout Generator:

You can generate a printable handout of your reviews to your salespeople when they face the customers. This tool helps to convert your digital reviews into a physical asset that can be offered to customers to get more reviews rolling in.

For Social:

1) Notify:

Notify sends you an alert, whenever your business gets mentioned on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit, and a variety of other platforms. By being aware of meaningful conversations taking place about your brand, & participating in them, your business will be known for its excellent status of responsiveness. Social media has become an active part of the customer service, so a tool like this is handy.

2) Character Count Online:

This essential tool is used for three specific tasks. You can count the number of characters and limit your text accordingly, so it’s as per the platforms’ limits.

Conclusion:

There are a ton of Local SEO tools available on the internet, and these are just a handful of them. All you need is excellent research skills and some smart searching criteria, and you will be ready to optimise your business’ Local SEO like a master. So, the next time you need some optimisations in your local SEO, you know where to look!

Authors Bio:

Abhijit Mandavkar is a Digital Marketing Manager. He plans and coordinates marketing activities of ValueHits, a full-service Digital Marketing Agency based in Mumbai, India. With his experience and expert knowledge in the field, he identifies potential customers and develops marketing campaigns. Also, he is efficient enough to meet the client’s requirements and well-organized in handling multiple tasks.

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