Imagine owning a delicious pizza shop and wanting customers to order from your shop daily. What would you do to get noticed?  

Share a buy-one-get-one-free coupon in the local newspaper? Register yourself on Ubereats? Set up a Google Business Profile? Or spend thousands of dollars on social media ads?  

All of these strategies are great. But what’s the long-term strategy for attracting new clientele? At some point, your pockets will run dry, and your sales will take a hit after the ads stop rolling. 

And did you know that 60% of online sessions start with a simple online search?¹ And 98% of people learn about local businesses online?²

 So how do you ensure customers see your eatery’s name up in lights when they go on the search engine and type “restaurants near me”?

 The answer is simple — you use local SEO tools to get noticed. 

 How effective is this strategy, you ask? 

 Well, I dabble with SEO daily — I own an SEO agency, do SEO consulting, and have written many SEO guides. 

Or maybe you’ve seen my LinkedIn posts or Twitter threads. If you find me anywhere online, odds are I’m talking about SEO. 

Why? Because SEO works. It’s a proven methodology that moves the needles and drives results. So, instead of throwing money at paid ads, reroute that investment into SEO, and you won’t regret it.  

And if a client comes to me tomorrow with the requirement of getting noticed in front of local customers in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, then local SEO is exactly what I recommend. 

If you wish to know my go-to local SEO tools (across all budgets), read on. 

What is local SEO, and how can it help you?

Google’s algorithm for local SEO differs greatly from regular SEO. 

Regular SEO focuses on keywords and technical aspects to show users the top results. However, local SEO focuses on different factors to determine what appears on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Some factors include the following: 

• Keywords, location, ratings, and reviews on Google My Business. 
• Location of the user. 
• Mentions on social media and data aggregator sites. 

Local SEO has the same advantages as traditional SEO. It can help you gain a competitive edge and attract new clientele, and it’s a comparatively cheaper way to get noticed. 

However, local SEO is better than traditional SEO because it converts more prospects (42% of all local searches result in foot traffic). After the Covid-19 pandemic, people are looking forward to supporting local businesses, so local SEO also shows users relevant results.

You can further segregate your local SEO results into categories — local pack results and organic search results. 

Top-rated local SEO tools to boost your visibility

1. Semrush – moderate budget

Image Source

If you’ve been researching local SEO tools, Semrush is a name I’m sure you’ve come across once or twice. To help businesses go local, the solution provides four key features:

• Semrush listing management
• Social media toolkit
• On-page SEO checker
• Position tracker and local ranking analysis

The most important feature is the listing management feature. It allows users to add their business’s name, address, and phone (NAP) citations to global directories, data aggregators, Google Maps, and search engines.

Once you provide the necessary information, the tool will ensure that resources like Google, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, and Alexa have access to it. And never underestimate the power of your business listing on a Google map. It’s like a Google search on crack.

You can also edit your information and track your listing at all times (including managing star ratings, reviews, and progress reports).

The other features will help you track keyword rankings, estimated traffic, visibility, distribution on SERP, featured snippets, and landing pages.

You can also create customized reports, discover competition, check if you’re repeating any keywords on your site, and do advanced targeting —  e.g., you can find out your location or device-based ranking.

Semrush also presents users with industry trends, competitor analysis, and ideas to improve SEO rankings.

Reviews and pricing: The product has a rating of 4.1/5 on Trustpilot. If you wish to purchase it, there are three pricing options available — Pro (priced at $119.5/month), Guru (priced at $229.95/month), and Business (priced at $449.95/month).

2. Moz Local – conservative budget

Image Source

Trusted by 500,000+ users, Moz is one of the biggest names in the SEO game. While the company offers different products, such as Moz Pro, Moz Local, STAT, and Moz API, to help its users, in this section, I’ll only cover the tools associated with Moz Local. 

With Moz Local, you can manage and monitor business listings, keep an eye on reviews, get insights, create customized reports, and update offers. 

Like Semrush, this tool will update your business listing across all data aggregators, directories, social media channels, and search engines. It’ll also ensure that your profile remains optimized and never duplicated. 

You can set up alerts to know when a new client reviews your product across any channel and can also monitor the keywords, sentiments, and feedback mentioned in most reviews. 

And if you wish to create reports on the same or get insights on traffic, clicks, and impressions, that’s also possible with Moz Local.

The product integrates with Google and Facebook, so you can quickly publish all new offers on your Facebook or Google My Business pages. 

Oh, and Moz is also a great resource for understanding the ins and outs of local SEO. You can use the website to learn more about local SEO.

Reviews and pricing: Moz Local received a rating of 4.3/5 on G2, and its pricing is between a reasonable $14/per month and $33/per month. 

3. BrightLocal – conservative budget

Image Source

BrightLocal is a local SEO software tool that helps businesses improve their online visibility in local search results. It provides a suite of tools and services, like: 

• Citation building
• Listings management in local directories
• Local search ranking tracking
• Reputation management
• Local business data insights
• Google Analytics and insights from Google Search Console

The platform helps local businesses optimize their online presence for local search engines. It also provides detailed reporting and analysis of your online visibility and performance in local search results. 

With the help of BrightLocal, you’ll find yourself at the top of the local pack in no time. It’s hands down one of the best local SEO tools.

I also highly recommend checking out BrightLocal for detailed research reports on local SEO. 

They’ve conducted dozens of in-depth surveys, and the results will blow your mind. But, seriously, you can learn everything you need to know about consumer trends and local businesses with the help of their guides. 

Are you a small business that needs a local SEO checklist? Then, BrightLocal is your new best friend. 

Image Source

Reviews and pricing: BrightLocal has stellar online reviews with 4.6/5 stars. They feature a three-tier pricing plan:

• Single business: $29/month
• Multi business: $49/month
• SEO pro: $79/month

4. Ahrefs – moderate budget

Image Source

Used by teams from Facebook, eBay, Shopify, LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey, Expedia, Adobe, and more, Ahrefs is a robust SEO solution that no marketer can ignore (and for good reason). 

So, what makes Ahrefs so special? The answer lies in the feature list.

The company offers tools for site auditing, keywords, content exploration, rank tracking, link building, and more. These are necessities for getting noticed by customers through SEO.

As impressive as these features are, you can do a lot more on Ahrefs to grab the eyeballs of local customers.

For example, you can optimize your local landing pages and Google My Business profile. You can also use the “link intersect” tool to find link-building opportunities, find dead links, fix site errors, access insights, create customized reports, and conduct keyword research. 

If you’re looking for inspiration, the Ahrefs blog, academy, and guide present a goldmine of information you can use to your advantage.

Reviews and pricing: The solution has four different plans — Lite (priced at $99/month), Standard (priced at $199/month), Advanced (priced at $399/month), and Enterprise (priced at $999/month). It also has a rating of 4.6/5 on G2.

5. GeoRanker – moderate budget

Image Source

GeoRanker is a solution most SEO marketers know and love. Presently, the company provides three key services: 

• High-volume API
• SEO tools 
• Data mining 

There are three important features GeoRanker customers can benefit from: 

• Local citation finder
• Local rank tracker
• Keyword density 

Combined, these features will help you understand your website’s real-time ranking based on your customers’ locations and search engine and device usage. 

You can also find the best citation sources based on industry or location and track your website’s page keyword density.

Reviews and pricing: G2 users rate the product 4.3/5. Three different pricing options are available, priced at $99, $249, and $490 per month. 

6. SE Ranking – conservative budget

Image Source

SE Ranking is a comprehensive solution for tracking your local SEO performance. Easily manage and improve your local business’s online presence from a single platform. No fuss, no muss. 

Some of the best features include:

• Track local search results for target queries across multiple locations
• Monitor local rankings in organic search and Google Local Pack
• Choose a city or input your postal code for precise local results
• Use our local rank checker to check online visibility locally
• Separate tracking available for desktop and mobile SERP
• Insights from the semantic core of customer reviews

Reviews and pricing: This local SEO tool has one of the best ratings, with 4.8/5 stars. Plus, it’s a budget-friendly option with a paid plan ‌starting at $44/per month.

7. GrowthBar – conservative budget

Image Source

GrowthBar markets itself for its content writing capabilities and has extensive SEO features. These features allow you to get all the benefits that competitors provide.

For example, you can track rankings, monitor keywords and content, conduct local keyword research, and inspect sites based on website traffic, keywords, monthly searches, backlinks, and domain authority. 

While the solution’s local SEO feature list isn’t as extensive as that of the other solutions mentioned on the list, I’m recommending it because GrowthBar is a more affordable option that gets essential tasks such as research and analysis of traffic, keywords, and content done right. 

The best part? You can write SEO-friendly content while using the solution, too. 

Reviews and pricing: At the time of writing this article, the product has three pricing options — $29, $79, and $129 for the Standard, Pro, and Agency plans. And it’s got a solid rating of 5/5 on G2.

Final thoughts 

Well, that wraps up my list of the best local SEO software! If you wish to access other resources, keep reading the uSERP blog or my SEO guides. I try to post as often as I can. 

Alternatively, if you’re on the hunt for SEO services or local SEO tips, feel free to book an introduction call — I’ve helped out names like ActiveCampaign, monday.com, Freshworks, and more, and I’ll be happy to support you, too.

SEO doesn’t have to be just for the big dogs. There are plenty of ways to win using local SEO methods. And quite frankly, competing with the best of the best is necessary to capture some of their market shares.

Plus, stealing traffic from the largest players in the game never felt so good. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to dive into your local SEO strategy, build your online presence, and watch your sales roll in.