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What a lot can transform in just a couple of years! When I wrote the original version of the post in January 2014, the local SEO industry didn't have quite the wealth of paid tools that now exists, and many of the freebies on my previous list have already been sunsetted. Definitely time for a complete refresh of the most useful free tools, widgets, and resources I understand of to make marketing local businesses easier and better.

While all of the tools below are free, note that some will require one to sign up for access. Others are limited, no-cost, or trial versions that let you get a common sense of what they provide, enabling you to consider whether it may be worth it to buy into paid access. A very important factor you may notice: my new set of local SEO tools offers increased support for organic SEO tasks, reflective of our industry's growing knowledge of how closely linked organic and local SEO have grown to be.

Now, let's open this toolkit and obtain 2018 off to a great start!

For Research
US Census Bureau Tool Set

Seeking to better understand a target community for marketing purposes? You will discover 20+ useful resources from the US Census Bureau, including population statistics, economic data, mapping and geocoding widgets, income and language information, plus much more.

Client Onboarding Questionnaire & Phone Script

Onboarding a fresh client? Reduce repetitious follow-ups by asking all of the right questions the first time around with this particular thorough questionnaire and easy-to-follow phone call script from Moz. Includes helpful tips for why you're asking each question. As local SEO veterans will tell you, a missed question can lead to unhappy (and costly) surprises down the marketing road. Be sure you have the total picture of an incoming client in clear view before starting strategizing.

Location Information Spreadsheet

Vital when marketing multi-location businesses, this free Moz spreadsheet will ensure that you've got all the info at your fingertips about each locale of an organization.

*Pro tip: Whenever using large enterprises, be certain that the info you're inputting in this spreadsheet has been approved by all relevant departments. get more info is no fun to discover six months into a advertising campaign that there's internal disagreement about company NAP or other features.

Local Competitive Audit Spreadsheet

Now we're really getting right down to brass tacks. If you want to find answers to the perennial client question, "Why is that guy outranking me?", this free Moz spreadsheet will assist you to document key competitive data. The outcome of filling out the sheet will be two columns of stats it is possible to compare and contrast in your quest to discover competitors' ranking strengths and weaknesses. Need more guidance? Read my blog post where I put this audit spreadsheet into action for just two San Francisco Bay Area Chinese restaurants.

Manual GeoLocation Chrome Extension

Watch Darren Shaw demo by using this tool to show what sort of local pack changes when a user virtually crosses a street and you will quickly know how useful this Chrome extension will undoubtedly be in approximating the impacts of user-to-business proximity. Works well on desktop devices.

Our industry still hasn't fully recovered from Google removing the Local Search filter from its engine in 2015, and I still reside in hope that they will take it back one day, however in the meantime, this extension gives us an excellent sense of how searcher location affects search results. In fact, it may even be considered a superior solution.

The MozBar SEO Toolbar

Local businesses in competitive markets must master traditional SEO, and the free MozBar provides a wonderful introduction to the metrics you have to look at in analyzing the organic strengths and weaknesses of clients and competitors. On-page elements, link metrics, markup, HTTP status, optimization opportunities - get the data you need instantly with the MozBar.

Google Advanced Search Operators

Not a tool, per se, but the best tutorial I've ever seen on using Google advanced search operators to deepen your research. Dr. Pete breaks this into 67 steps that will allow you to use these search refinements for content and title research, checking for plagiarism, technical SEO audits, and competitive intelligence. Be totally wizardly and impress your clients and teammates, simply by knowing how to format searches in smart ways.

Google Search Console

Apologies if it already seems like a no-brainer to you that you need to be enrolled in Google's console that provides you analytics, alerts one to serious errors, and so a lot more, but local SEO is merely now crossing the threshold of focusing on how deeply connected it is to organic search. When playing in Google's backyard, GSC is really a must-have for businesses of every type.

BrightLocal's Search Results Checker

This popular tool does an excellent job of replicating local search results at a city or zip code level. Sometimes, it's best to search by city (for example, when there are multiple towns covered by a single zip code), but other times, it's better search by zip code (as in the case of a big city with multiple zip codes). The tool doesn't have the ability to recreate user-level results, so remember that the proximity of a given user to a small business may create quite different results than what you'll see searching at a city or zip code level. I consider this an excellent tool to suss out the lay of the land in a community, identifying top competitors.

Offline Conversion Tracker Form

Give this handy Whitespark form to anyone who answers your phone in order to document the solution to the important question, "How did you hear about us?" Submitted information is saved to Whitespark's database and tracked in Google Analytics for your future reference and analysis. For local businesses, understanding of offline factors could be priceless. This form offers a simple point of entry into amassing real-world data.

For Content
Answer the Public

One of the best-loved key word research tools in the digital marketing world, Answer the Public lets you enter a keyword phrase and generate numerous questions/topics linked to your search. One of the awesome areas of this tool is that it has a.CSV download feature - ideal for instantly generating large lists of keywords you can input into something like Moz Keyword Explorer to begin with the sorting process that arises the most powerful keywords for the content dev and on-page optimization.

Buzzsumo

Another great content inspiration tool, Buzzsumo teaches you enables you to enter a keyword, topic or domain name, and shows you which pieces are receiving the most social shares. For instance, a search for wholefoodsmarket.com shows that a highly shared piece of content during my search is approximately an asparagus and broccoli soup. You may also sort by content type (articles, videos, infographics, etc.). Use of Buzzsumo will let you generate topics that might be popular if covered on your own website.

OSHA Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) System Search

Another interesting resource for brainstorming a broad pool of potential keywords for content dev consideration, OSHA's SIC search returns big, comprehensive lists. Just look up your industry's SIC code, and then enter it along with a keyword/category to really get your list.

USPS RESEARCH a ZIP Code Widget

Dealing with service area businesses (SABs)? Note the second tab in the menu of the widget: Cities by zip code. Once you know the zip code of a small business you're marketing it is possible to enter it into this simple tool to get a list of every city for the reason that zip. Now, let's not have a wrong step here: don't publish large blocks of zips or city names on any website, but do utilize this widget to be sure you know of all the communities for which an SAB might strategize content, link constructing, brand building, real-world relationship building, social media marketing, and PPC.