Learn More About Local SEO Software
What is Local SEO Software?
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on improving a business’ visibility and rankings in local search results through organic or unpaid efforts. Local search results are differentiated from regular search results by local search intent. A search with local intent typically includes a geographic location or the term “near me," such as “best pizza in Chicago" or “fitness centers near me," indicating the user is searching for a product or service in a specific area. To give users the best results possible, search engines gather data from a variety of sources, including website content, social media, business listings, and online reviews. Local SEO software helps businesses manage and optimize these signals, resulting in higher rankings for local searches.
While standard SEO practices such as keyword research and link building contribute to improvements in search rankings, local SEO products offer several unique features specifically designed to help businesses promote their products or services to local customers. These features may include updating local citations or listings, managing a profile using the Google My Business (GMB) tool, online reputation management software, and local rank tracking. Some all-in-one SEO platforms provide a selection of local search marketing tools as part of their bundled offerings. However, most of the products in the local SEO space are either local marketing platforms, which offer a variety of local marketing features, or point solutions, which concentrate on one area of local SEO.
What Does Local SEO Stand For?
Local SEO stands for local search engine optimization. This type of SEO focuses on helping brick-and-mortar businesses rank higher on local search engine results pages (SERPs).
What are the Common Features of Local SEO Software?
Similar to SEO software, local SEO products offer a diverse range of features. Before purchasing, marketers should consider which aspects of local search engine optimization will be most beneficial for their business.
Rank tracking: Rank tracking is essential for businesses to understand how their locations are performing on search engines. In local SEO software, rank trackers enable businesses to monitor their website’s rankings for specific keywords with local intent. Once a business has this information, they can devise strategies to improve rankings for under-performing locations. Additionally, historical reports help businesses analyze how their rankings have changed over time. Looking at historical data can be especially useful because changes in search ranking generally occur over several months.
Listings management: Many local SEO products provide local listing management tools. When consumers search for a product or service near them, they may find a business’ information in the search engine itself or on a customer-facing platform other than the company’s website. These listings, or citations, include a business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP). Even if a business does not claim their listing, search engines will scrape the web and populate the data on their own. Sometimes this data can be scraped incorrectly, edited by people not associated with the business, or it may simply need to be updated after a business changes their information. When an organization has many locations, it can be difficult to maintain dozens or even hundreds of listings.
To assist with listings management, local SEO products offer a citation finder for businesses to discover all the listings for their business across multiple search engines, social networks, review sites, and local directories. Much of this information is collected through the seller’s partnerships with local data aggregators. Once the business has claimed their listings through the citation finder, local SEO platforms make it easy for the business to manage, update, and create new citations through one central hub.
Google My Business (GMB) optimization: One of the best ways for a business to improve their local search rankings is to optimize their GMB profile. GMB is a platform for companies of all sizes to manage their online presence across all Google products, including Google Search and Google Maps. In local SEO products, GMB optimization features can help businesses schedule Google posts from the same platform they use to manage their social media accounts and business listings.
Reputation management: Maintaining a positive online reputation is key to improving a business’ search rankings. While local SEO products won’t guarantee a business hundreds of five-star reviews, reputation builder features can help them respond authentically to customer reviews as well as solicit new reviews from their customers. Local SEO products help businesses with review management across many different channels and websites, including search engines, social media, and review sites.
Social media: Since social media has become such an important channel for customer engagement, search engines consider a business’ social activity when calculating the best results to display for a local search. Some local SEO products integrate with social media networks to allow businesses to manage their social accounts, schedule content, and respond to customers directly within the platform.
Dashboards and reporting: To help businesses measure the success of their local SEO efforts, these products can provide users with reports and data visualizations for a variety of different metrics. Insights may include local citation score, online reputation, social activity, and ranking history.
What are the Benefits of Local SEO Software?
Depending on the product’s specific feature set, local SEO software offers numerous benefits for managing and optimizing a business’ digital presence.
Online visibility: Due to the sheer volume of people who use websites like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to find local information, local SEO has become a necessity for brick-and-mortar businesses if they want to be competitive. There are many ways for potential customers to discover a business, but when consumers perform a local search, they are typically close to making a purchase. By increasing their online visibility, brick-and-mortar businesses can increase foot traffic, website traffic, and sales.
When it comes to local business results, search engine algorithms take into account a few different factors. The most significant of these factors is the relevance to the user’s search term, distance from the user, and prominence. While not much can be done about changing the distance of the user from the business, local SEO can impact a business’ relevance and prominence. With local SEO tools, companies can ensure their content and business listings are as complete and accurate as possible for their targeted locations. In addition, online reputation management features can help businesses generate more reviews, increasing their prominence in search results.
Listing optimization: At a minimum, an online citation should include basic business information like NAP. However, listings can and should be enriched with further information depending on the business. For example, restaurants or service-based businesses like salons may find it beneficial to add menus, pricing, photos, and videos to their listing. Not only does this information improve the customer experience, but it improves the listing’s reliability in the eyes of search engine algorithms.
Customer experience: When consumers search for nearby products or services, they expect the information they find to be accurate. If a business listing has the incorrect phone number, address, or business hours, customers become frustrated. As a result, they might stop purchasing the company’s products or services or even leave negative reviews. Local SEO software can improve the customer experience by enabling businesses to maintain accurate listings across websites, directories, and applications.
Who Uses Local SEO Software?
In general, users of local SEO software work in marketing and advertising roles. Digital marketing agencies may also leverage local SEO tools on behalf of their clients.
Small business owners: Local SEO is one of the best ways for small businesses to market their products or services. Consumers use online search to find local information every day, and if a business isn’t optimized to appear in those searches, they are losing out on potential customers. Local SEO software helps small businesses optimize for search without breaking the budget. Some products are tailored specifically for small business owners while others provide less expensive plans for businesses with a single location.
Digital marketers: Digital marketers and SEO specialists at businesses with multiple locations use local SEO software to manage their business’ brand data across many online channels. For example, restaurant chains, hotels, health care facilities, and banks can operate hundreds of locations, often requiring marketers to monitor and manage listing information, online reviews, and social media for each location. Local SEO streamlines this process, allowing marketers to update information, respond to customers, and schedule social posts for many locations, all from one central hub.
What are the Alternatives to Local SEO Software?
Alternatives to local SEO software can replace this type of software, either partially or completely:
SEO software: Whereas local SEO software focuses on improving a website’s ranking in local search results, SEO software helps businesses track and improve their search ranking overall. These solutions can perform a variety of different functions, such as keyword research, content optimization, and SEO audits. Many SEO software products provide features for monitoring localized search rankings as well.
Local listing management software: Often provided as a feature of local SEO products, local listing management software enables brick-and-mortar businesses to maintain their location information across many different listing sites and online directories. Businesses with multiple locations such as franchises and health clinics use local listing management software to ensure their business name, addresses, and phone numbers are accurate and updated across all customer-facing platforms.
SEO services providers: Some companies, especially small businesses, may not have enough time, money, or technical knowledge to dedicate to in-house SEO. In this case, they may choose to outsource their efforts to SEO agencies. Digital marketing agencies that focus on local SEO can help businesses optimize their website, manage local listings, and execute paid local search campaigns.
Software Related to Local SEO Software
Related solutions that can be used together with local SEO software include:
Store locator software: Store locators enable businesses to create interactive maps of their locations. These maps can be displayed on the company’s website to help customers find the location closest to them. Many local SEO products also offer store locators, as well as the ability to create local pages.
Online reputation management software: Reputation building and review management are important components of a local SEO strategy. Not all local SEO products offer robust reputation management tools, so businesses seeking advanced features for collecting reviews or monitoring online review ratings should search for products that are also in this category.
Location-based marketing software: Companies that engage in local marketing may use location-based marketing software in addition to local SEO. Location-based marketing software helps marketers send targeted messages to prospects or customers in a particular geographic location. Brick-and-mortar businesses, especially those in retail and hospitality, use these solutions to message customers, deliver proximity notifications to prospective customers’ mobile phones, and increase foot traffic.
Search advertising software: Search advertising software helps organizations bid on keywords and serve ads on search engines. Local businesses may wish to supplement their organic search marketing efforts with paid search marketing, or pay-per-click (PPC), campaigns.
Social media management software: While local SEO software will improve a business’ search ranking for local keywords, there are many other digital marketing strategies that can help grow a brick-and-mortar business. Consumers rely on search engines as well as social media to find information about businesses in their area. With social media management software, companies can publish content and engage with their customers on popular social networks.
Challenges with Local SEO Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Best practices: Like SEO, best practices for local SEO are always in flux. Search engines frequently introduce new features and update their search algorithms. While some of these changes may be beneficial, others may have a negative impact on a company’s rankings. For the most part, local SEO software can help businesses follow best practices. However, it’s still important to understand how search engines work and stay abreast of any changes or new features that may affect a business’ rankings. By doing so, marketers can adjust their strategies accordingly and ensure their company remains visible to potential customers.
Cancellations: Many local SEO solutions provide listing management services. Software providers can continually distribute citation information and updates through their partnerships with various data aggregators and online directories. If an organization cancels their subscription for listing management, their local SEO solution provider will stop distributing this information. As a result, the company’s listings will become subject to each directories’ standard data scraping and updating process, which means the business’ listing information may change over time.
Which Companies Should Buy Local SEO Software?
Unlike SEO, which can be leveraged by any company with a website, local SEO will not provide the same level of benefit to every type of business. Local search marketing is used by organizations of all sizes, from small shops to franchises with hundreds of locations.
Brick-and-mortar businesses: Companies that exclusively operate a digital storefront, such as e-commerce websites, generally do not need to market their products with local keywords. As such, local SEO is best suited for brick-and-mortar businesses that operate out of physical locations, such as an office or storefront, and provide face-to-face customer interactions. This type of software aims to help local brick-and-mortar businesses reach more customers, whether they are a service-based business or a retailer.
Small businesses: Local SEO is one of the most powerful tools in a small business’ digital marketing kit. Consumers everywhere are using online channels to find information about products and services near them, and local SEO software makes it easier for those consumers to find and invest in a small business. From auto shops to salons, any small business can benefit from local SEO software regardless of industry.
Multi-location businesses: On the other side of the spectrum, businesses with multiple locations or franchises can benefit from local SEO as well. These types of businesses may have multiple locations in a single state or country, or across the world. While local search optimization practices may look a little different for these businesses, the tools provided by local SEO software can be leveraged to manage, optimize, and measure location-specific content.
How to Buy Local SEO Software
Selection of Local SEO Software
When an organization is ready to begin evaluating different local SEO products to buy, there are a few important considerations that will make the process run more smoothly.
Features: Local SEO software providers can differ in their feature sets, so businesses should be sure to create a list of the features and tools they’re looking for in a product. An efficient way to do this is to determine exactly what the organization hopes to accomplish with this new product. Are reviews and reputation management an important factor? If yes, businesses must look for a product with robust review generation and response features. Does the business have multiple locations that each require optimized local pages and enriched listings? Then it’s important to seek out a solution with powerful listing management tools.
Number of locations: Companies should evaluate local SEO products based on the number of locations they need to manage. While some local SEO solutions may specialize in helping businesses of a certain size, most providers offer different pricing plans based on the number of physical locations.
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