Share your favorite free Local SEO tools

[ChloeButterfill]

Hello everyone,

At BrightLocal, we're building a resource for the best free Local SEO tools and would like to put the question to you: Which ones would you recommend?

Let us know your favorites below.

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions!

Thank you

 

[Cherie Dickey]

I like SEOQuake browser extension a lot, though that's more for Organic competitive research. I also use Keywords Everywhere as well. Local Falcon has a free version that's very useful for local search audits, and Moz's Link Explorer allows 10 free searches per month as well - not really suitable for folks like us, but really great for business owners trying to stay on top of their own stuff. Moz also has a page devoted to categories that allows you to locate the correct category for your business, and you can filter those by directory.

 

[JoyHawkins]

KeywordsEverywhere and SEO Minion - both are Chrome extensions.

 

[ChloeButterfill]

Brilliant, thank you for sharing @Cherie Dickey!

 

[CarrieHill]

LocalU Google Brand Score Tool
AnswerthePeople.com
Valentin.app
Zipsprout Local Sponsorship Finder - Beta (free to a certain point)
Google Lighthouse
Google Structured Data Testing Tool
BatchSpeed.com
Google Search Console
Google Rich Results Test
Siteliner.com

Updated**
Gatherup Review Link Generator Chrome Extension

I'll add more - I just can't think of them right now.

 

[ChloeButterfill]

LocalU Google Brand Score Tool
AnswerthePeople.com
Valentin.app
Zipsprout Local Sponsorship Finder - Beta (free to a certain point)
Google Lighthouse
Google Structured Data Testing Tool
BatchSpeed.com
Google Search Console
Google Rich Results Test
Siteliner.com

Updated**
Gatherup Review Link Generator Chrome Extension

I'll add more - I just can't think of them right now.

Thank you Carrie, awesome and varied list there.

Much appreciated, keep them coming!

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Sure, @ChloeButterfill!

Ooh! I forgot answerthepublic!

 

[AndySimpson]

LocalFalcon both free and paid was my favorite Local SEO tool of 2018. However, the past few weeks has seen it battling the Big G, meaning the free version is on hold at the moment.

I am also a huge fan of Local U's Google Brand Score (GBS), there's no better way of finding out how your brand (and that of your competitors) appears online than going through the simple scoring system provided by LocalU. Perfect for both large and small businesses alike, your GBS is a great metric to monitor as you work on your company brand. Run the test for both desktop and mobile brand results as there is a difference and it's these little differences that can make sure you keep ahead of your competitors. Checking your GBS score on mobile is particularly important if you receive more mobile traffic than desktop, this is easily checked by looking at your organic GA mobile traffic (Audience - Mobile - Overview).

Brand Score

Checking your brand score also gives you a checklist of things you should be working on, from things like having Q&As on your GMB, to making sure you have review stars appearing in the serps.

If you don't know your Google Brand Score then you don't know how well your brand is appearing to your potential customers! Your GBS should be as important to you as your sites DA!

 

[SaijoGeorge]

• This tool will help you generate a quick link for your Google review Google Business Review Direct Link Generator ~ Supple
• When you are in situations where you want to deploy JSON-LD code through tag manager JSON-LD Google Tag Manager Fix Generator
• Generate schema code Schema Markup Generator (JSON-LD) | TechnicalSEO.com

 

[Dan Foland]

I know Bright Local already has a tool to check local search results from any location, but I also like to use isearchfrom.com as an alternate.

Additionally, and this may be too obvious, but The Local Search Forum (which we're currently on) is one of the best tools for any local SEO. The level of experience and experts that share their knowledge on here is bar-none. I should also loop in the GMB Help Forum as it's the only place to find all of the GMB Product Experts which in my opinion is one of the best free resource available.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@ChloeButterfill, a few good'uns:

• Moz Local's "check listing. (I also use the paid service for certain clients.)
• The AdWords Ad Preview & Diagnosis Tool.
• Whitespark's Google Review Link Generator

Most-used paid tool? Ahrefs.

As I've written, all third-party tools are a distant second to having a bunch of internal resources you've cultivated over time. At least for me.

 

[ChloeButterfill]

@Phil Rozek, @Dan Foland, and @SaijoGeorge:

Thank you all for sending over such detailed responses! By the looks of things, we're going to have a top-notch resource.

I really appreciate everyone's input, and hope you enjoy the read once it's ready.

Thanks,

Chloe.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Most of the tools I use have been named by others but I'll add a couple:

- To spoof my location and see SERPs from anywhere gs location changer for Chrome
- To really, really compress images on websites: TinyJPG – Compress JPEG images intelligently

 

[Justin Mosebach]

• On-Site SEO:
  • Screaming Frog (paid version, but there is a free version)
  • Schema testing: Google's Structured Data Testing Tool
  • WordPress:
    • Yoast SEO
    • Redirects: "Redirection" plugin for WordPress
  • Image compression: Squoosh.app (by Google, not a plugin)
  • Page/Site Speed:
    • Google PageSpeed Insights
    • Pingdom
• Chrome Extensions:
  • Link Redirect Trace: shows noindex, canonical URLs, redirect chain, 404
  • Portent's SEO Page Review: Meta info, headings, images w/out alt tags, links on page
  • Search the current site: Quick way to do a "site:" Google search for the site you're on
  • Linkclump: Select/copy multiple links on a page (drag and select)
  • Multiple Tabs Search: 2 things: opens multiple URLs in new tabs and can open multiple tabs of Google SERPs for a list of keywords
  • Copy All Urls: copies URLs from all open tabs
  • Wayback Machine: Quickly save/backup a page before making changes; view old version of the page you're on
  • Wordtracker Scout: Analyzes page and pulls list of popular words/phrases and the # of times used on the page (helpful for analyzing competitor sites for LSI - or whatever you want to call them - terms)

 

[Steven12]

Wow, This page just became my favorite resource. lol You guys are strong. Here is one that I haven't seen mentioned; Map Radius Tool - EZlocal Local Search Tools This tool really is a great time saver when you want to get extremely local.

 

[wedolocal]

For Google Review Links Generating, I like Pleper. Check out other tools on this site as well. I think you'll like them @Phil Rozek

And, the tool I tend to use the most while working on the computer is one that allows me to use my computer as my texting device. You need to be an Android User to use this. It's SUCH a time saver for all kinds of communication.
MightyText

Lastly, I tend to have a lot of tabs and/or windows open when I'm working. This tool helps keep it reasonable.
Tabs Outliner It's a Chrome Extention

 

[BisnarChase]

SeoMinion, Ahrefs chrome add on, checkmylinks chrome ad on, redirectpath add on, LSIgraph.com, contentking, dareboost, zipsprout, AskaReporter (for local links), deepcrawl. And literally 100 more.

 

[shively]

Chloe et al, thanks for sharing such great resources.

Feeling like a real poser about now.

 

[Ann Schmitter]

This is an amazing thread. Thank you everyone!!!

 

[osman]

Great share guys

There are few tools i want to share, or often use.
Localviking.com ( Paid ) Its a google my business management system for those who have multiple gmb listing. You can post on all your listing at one.

Expired Domains Finder ( Chrome Extension )

SerpTrends SEO ( Chrome Extension )

I'll share more later on. Keep this post updating.