Brightlocal? Places Scout? Other?

[Weve Got Your Customers]

Fellow Local Pros,

Heading into 2nd qtr 2015, and knowing how quickly things change online, I'm looking for up to date opinions on tracking tools, etc...

In 2012 or 2013, I started using Places Scout mainly to track monthly client rankings. The point has been reached, however, where Hosting, Local and Online Backup Systems, Hardware, Software, pretty much Everything else has been upgraded to suit client demands and make best use of my time. I'm a HUGE believer in leveraging time through Systems!

One thing that needs a better system in place is my monthly tracking.

There are several options (one of which is no longer for myself or my assistant to handle):

1. Keep Places Scout (wait for their online version to come out - if it comes out on time) Mark has been great at answering any support tickets in a timely manner! Would need to automate this process and I'm not too keen about getting proxies etc involved.

2. Outsource - I could have grown the business a lot faster had I taken shortcuts here and There Are some things that can be outsourced - however, I'm looking for a system that will automatically run the monthly tracking reports.

So here are the questions:

1. Bright Local, Places Scout and similar system users, what do you currently like and not like about the system you have chosen?

2. What are the Top 3-5 features you use the System for?

3. On a scale of 1-10, how dedicated are you to the system you are currently using? (What would it take to get you to a 10? What would get you to switch tomorrow if a competitor offered a certain feature?)

Thanks in Advance and if you would otherwise not post publicly, feel free to shoot over a PM.

- Scott

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Scott for posting publicly so others can benefit from the discussion.

Not many are online here over the weekend. So I'll try to remember to bump this on Monday when more are around. I'll also try to remember to share it at the G+ Pros Community as well.

Thanks again, Linda

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Scott, I love Bright Local. All the features are great but I most often use the Ranking Tracker, Google+ Local Wizard, and the SEO Checkup. You can white label everything and produce reports for clients and prospects in minutes. Plus you can automate all the reports to run as often as you like. Dedication is a 10.

 

[bczubiak]

I use Brightlocal and Moz. I haven't used Moz all that much because I don't feel like paying the $249 per month to support my clients, which if I get any more clients, I would have to go to the $599 plan. I gave up on Places Scout early on. Brightlocal has been great and I can't remember any serious downtime even though many of these type of services have growing pains. I do like the white label reports and their support.

 

[Linda Buquet]

FYI We have a new tools discussion going at the Pro Community too.

 

[hollypowell]

Brightlocal - we use rankchecker everyday
I like that I can white label the reports because I do have several agencies who contract me for my local services.

I can't comment on placescout - I've never used it.

There is also no substitution for periodically manually checking client rankings the good old fashioned way.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I have both.

BrightLocal is decent for reporting to clients. It's pretty easy to understand for clients, can be white labeled, etc.

However, for deep dives in your ranking, nothing beats Places Scout. It's the Local SEO's rank tracker in my opinion. Gives you tons of data, lets see you see who else is ranking with you in the SERP's easily, shows you which pages are ranking for your keyword, etc.

PS is just a lot more robust. I also use it to report to clients but I could see how others would prefer BL for reporting. It's a little simpler for clients.

However, if I had to give up one, there's no way I'm giving up PS.

P.S. I don't use the rest of the features of either program, just the rank tracker, so I can't give you any insight on that.

 

[Dustybones]

Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google. So we have the ultimate search engine that would understand everything on the Web. It would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing. That?s obviously artificial intelligence, to be able to answer any question, basically, because almost everything is on the Web, right? We?re nowhere near doing that now. However, we can get incrementally closer to that, and that is basically what we work on. And that?s tremendously interesting from an intellectual standpoint.

Larry Page (October 28, 2000)

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OOps....had a couple windows open wrong thread...Sorry to interrupt...