Local search and search engine optimization (SEO) are complex and can sometimes be frustrating; however, extremely necessary. Without proper optimization, a business’s site doesn’t stand a chance of beating the competition and ranking well in major search engines.
Fortunately, you’re not alone and many companies have created local search and SEO tools to make your work easier. Below is a list of five companies, with links to their tools you’ll definitely want to test today, if you haven’t already.
Local Search and SEO Tools to Make Your Life Easier
1. Authority Labs
Authority Labs has created several free tools you can use. One in particular shows how well a certain keyword is working for a business’s site.
It allows you to easily generate a nice graph that shows how various keywords are currently performing and have performed in the past. This enables businesses to make smart decisions about the continued use of certain keywords and how they might alter additional keywords to better fit their needs.
You can even view how the same keywords are performing on other sites (i.e. those belonging to competitors) so that businesses can determine whether the problem is with the actual keyword or with the way it is being marketed or used.
2. Local Site Submit
Local Site Submit has a set of free tools which enable agencies, digital marketers and small business owners to manage their online visibility. These tools take time consuming tasks and put them into simple, one-click solutions. These tools include:
- An Online Visibility Report – not sure what a business’s online visibility looks like? This tool can help you see it in one easy-to-read report.
- Google Duplicate Listings Checker – Duplicate listings can have a major effect on Google ranking, so instead of going to each site to check individually, this tool will do the work for you and find duplicate Google My Business listings.
- Mobile Website Testing Tool – If you aren’t sure if a business’s website is mobile optimized, this tool can tell you with the click of a button.
(Disclosure: Local Site Submit’s tools are created and made available as part of the technology suite offered though my company.)
3. GTmetrix
Unlike a lot of other SEO tools, GTmetrix’s doesn’t deal specifically in keywords. However, it does deal with another important part of SEO: how quickly a website page and its elements load.
If a site is slow to load or has other problems, it could frustrate users and cause a high bounce rate. Fortunately, this helpful tool quickly provides information about the current site speed and, even better, how it can be improved.
Another feature of this tool allows you to compare two websites, which is great for seeing how your website or a client’s website compares to the competition.
4. SpyFu
SpyFu is one to check out for search marketing research and other important data that can improve SEO and paid efforts.
This tool basically scans and analyzes an entire website. It then shows you how much a business is spending on pay-per-click, what the highest ranking organic keywords are, traffic, sources, ad history and more.
While SpyFu is a great tool for finding issues with a business’s SEO and in their marketing strategy, it’s really just for alerting you to problems and not for fixing them. As such, SpyFu should not be used alone, but as a great starting point that can help determine what types of other tools a business needs to consider.
5. Moz
While included toward the bottom of the list, definitely don’t consider Moz’s free tools as least important. Much like Authority Labs and Local Site Submit, Moz has a variety of free and paid tools available to make your work easier.
One, the MozBar, is a browser extension you install to view data and rankings of any page you visit on the Internet. Moz Content is a recently released tool which makes it easier to see what content is engaging your website or others’ websites visitors.
This is just a short list of local search and SEO tools that you should definitely check out. Many of these can even be used free of charge or have a free trial period!
The important thing about using tools is to find what works for you and then start using it consistently. Want to read more articles about local search? Click here.
Speaking of what works for you, I’d love to hear what other SEO tools you can’t get enough of. Share below.
