How To Use Moz Local as an Agency for Local Clients

[Travis Van Slooten]

I have a couple clients where I believe Moz Local might be beneficial. Is there a way I can use Moz Local "behind the scenes" for these clients under my own account, or would it be best to have these clients create their own accounts with Moz Local?

I'd prefer to do the former because these are clients that are going to be paying me a monthly amount to manage their SEO and they really want me to handle everything. It would be nice if I can somehow just set up an account under my agency and just add businesses as I see fit. I'm sure this option exists but I can't figure out how it works browsing through the Moz Local site.

Travis

 

[lissaduty]

Travis, I am not sure if Moz white labels their solution or not (I looked on their website and could not quickly find that they do), but that is what you need. That way your client isn't aware you are utilizing another platform to manage their location data.

There are a few options out there that offer white label, such as the company I work for, Advice Local. I would research if Moz or whichever company use choose, offers that as an option. Hope this is helpful to you.

I have a couple clients where I believe Moz Local might be beneficial. Is there a way I can use Moz Local "behind the scenes" for these clients under my own account, or would it be best to have these clients create their own accounts with Moz Local?

I'd prefer to do the former because these are clients that are going to be paying me a monthly amount to manage their SEO and they really want me to handle everything. It would be nice if I can somehow just set up an account under my agency and just add businesses as I see fit. I'm sure this option exists but I can't figure out how it works browsing through the Moz Local site.

Travis

 

[James Watt]

It's pretty simple, once you've got an account made with one client already on it, you just log into the dashboard and click 'add listings'. The new listing doesn't need to be related to any currently in the dashboard.

Normally I keep everything separate for each client (and you could do that on Moz if you wanted to easily enough, it's easy to make a new account and it's not like the client needs to verify or like it needs to connect to their email or anything) but due to the nature of the service, a Moz Local account in my view is a little bit of an optional one to hand over to the client if they ever decided to leave, since it's not a true citation owned by the client in and of itself. You honestly don't even need to tell them you're using Moz at all, you can just describe the benefits as something you're going to do for them. I usually just fold the cost of Moz into the fees anyway and sign up using our business bank card.

I personally still like keeping things separate though just for clean bookkeeping if for no other reason, and I like having the ability to hand off an account without worrying about logistics of separating a business out of the bunch.

 

[lissaduty]

James, we were both replying at the same time. Small world!

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

@Lisa:

Thanks! I sent you a PM about your company.

@James:

So you're saying what you do is create a separate account at Moz Local for each client you bring on board. You don't have them under one main account (your account). If so, that makes the most sense to me because if the client leaves, then you could easily hand the keys over to them so to speak. Whereas if they are under my account I can't do that, correct?

Travis

 

[James Watt]

@Lissa, You're right! Nice that we both had totally different things worth saying so I don't have to delete mine, haha.

@Travis - Correct, though it might be possible to transfer a paid client into a separate account of their own if you emailed Moz support. I've never ran into a situation where a client wanted it and I had theirs in a bucket with others before, so I haven't had to figure it out.

As far as I know, there's no big downside to having all your clients on one Moz Local account (as opposed to having all your GMB profiles on one account) but I still like having the freedom to hand off a client's login info if I'd like without being stuck from a past decision. Plus, I do a fair bit of manual citation building for clients in addition to Moz Local anyway, so it's not like I don't already have a system for managing a few dozen logins and passwords for each client. What's one more? That's just my own business preference though.

 

[JustinB]

My client's cannot be bothered with what tools I am using to track, create, and maintain their accounts with, so no need to hand anything over. All citations are manually done so there isn't a risk of getting them deleted when I stop using tools for their specific account.
Usually SBO's are too buys to understand my craft, it's why they hired me in the first place, they just want to understand the framework of the process so they understand what I am doing for them and not how I am doing it for them.
Good discussion!

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

@Justin:

I agree 100%. I've never used Moz Local before so I'm trying to understand how it works and what's the best way to use them for client work.

Travis

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes, I'm not so sure this is the type of account you are obligated to hand over to the client in the end.

Like Justin said they hired you to do a job. You use a variety of tools to get the job done. The harsh reality is if they cancel on you, then it's up to them to find out what they need to do to keep their listing optimized and their data clean.

Flip it and think of it this way. Realistically if you had an accountant you'd been working with they would be using tricks of the trade and certain technology to help them do their job. If you cancel on them I don't think they're going to explain what tools they use and hand over the account to a paid service they were using to do the job for you - so you could more easily do it yourself. You'd pretty much be on your own to either find a new accountant or learn how to DIY.

The nicer answer and a value add, especially if you part on good terms... Just say since I'm not handling everything for you anymore I'll give you a tip and let you know that one of the ways you could keep your data up to date is to sign up with Moz Local (or Advice Local) or whoever you want to recommend. That's just one small part of what I was doing for you, but I thought it would be helpful for you to know. (Or I had set up an account for you to help manage your citations. The contract I paid for is up in June, so you might want to set up a new account.)

 

[JoyHawkins]

We use Moz Local for hundreds of clients and have them all in the same account. If the client cancels they can still go to Moz themselves if they really wanted to (us cancelling doesn't really "undo" anything for them). I would find this easier than keeping track of a dozen logins.

 

[Travis Van Slooten]

Thanks Linda and Joy...and everyone else for your input! Now at least I know what my options are when I start using Moz Local.

Travis

 

[Greg Schueler]

Correct, though it might be possible to transfer a paid client into a separate account of their own if you emailed Moz support. I've never ran into a situation where a client wanted it and I had theirs in a bucket with others before, so I haven't had to figure it out.

I just spoke to Moz about this a week ago. They can not transfer a listing from one account to another. They suggested if the new company wanted it in their own account, to just use the new account and pay for a new listing. The original one would just expire at the end of their year.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I second Joy (we work together for anyone that didn't know). Out of all the sites that MozLocal pushes data to, only one or two of them revert back to their original state. Plus, as Joy said, the client can easily setup their own account.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Travis!
I just wanted to take a minute to respond (some folks here know I work for Moz) with confirmation of what has been said here:

1) If you prefer to manage all client listings via a single account, the main benefit of that is ease of management for your agency. The main drawback is that you likely would not be giving clients access to that dashboard.

2) If you prefer to create a unique account for each client, the main benefit is giving them direct access to their dashboard, and, as has been mentioned here, should your relationship with the client end, they could still have direct access to their own dashboard with no hassle to you. The main drawback would be less ease of management for your agency.

3) At this time, that's correct, Moz Local cannot facilitate listing transfers between accounts. If your relationship with the client ends, you can either cancel the listing immediately to let them re-purchase it under a new account of their own, or, advise them to wait out the year of service and cancel just prior to renewal of the listing, so that they do not have to pay twice for the same year of service.

Excited you are considering giving Moz Local a try! I hope everyone here is having a great weekend!