Local SEO is an essential strategy for small and medium-sized businesses looking to level the playing field with competitors and attract more local customers online, particularly through widely popular search and navigation platforms like Google Search and Google Maps.
However, in order to implement an effective local search engine optimization strategy and start outranking competitors in local search, SMBs need the right tools.
Using a local rank tracker, like Local Falcon, to monitor rankings in local search engine results pages (SERPs) offers several key benefits for small and medium-sized businesses that can help them excel in the field of local SEO.
Benefits of Local Rank Tracking for SMBs
Outsized Local SEO Results
One of the biggest challenges SMBs face when it comes to local SEO (and marketing in general) is finding ways to compete with larger competitors, who often have higher marketing budgets and more resources overall.
By using a local rank tracker to see their position in SERPs, analyze performance, and identify ways to improve rankings at a hyper-local level, small and medium-sized businesses can achieve results that are far greater than the sum of their parts.
This is because local rank tracking takes a lot of the manual work out of local SEO performance tracking and analysis, meaning less time (and money) spent. This automation enables SMBs to cost-effectively improve their positions in local search and stay competitive in the local market.
More Time to Focus on the Business
Speaking of saving time, this is one of the biggest benefits of using a local rank tracker like Local Falcon for SMBs, who are often stretched thin when it comes to time.
Since Local Falcon automates local SEO performance tracking and analysis, business owners and other employees are able to focus more of their time on the other important aspects of their businesses.
Local rank tracking lets you check in on your local search performance at regular intervals (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), make optimizations according to the new data, and wait to receive reports about results at the next scheduled interval.
Find Out Who the Top Competitors Really Are
Competitor analysis is one of the most important parts of implementing local SEO for businesses of all sizes.
It's normal for small and medium-sized businesses to already have some idea of who their competition is, but the SERPs don't always align with those ideas, so having data-backed insights into competitors is key.
By providing real-time, highly accurate data from local search results, local rank tracking enables businesses to find out who their true competitors are.
In short, using a local rank tracker like Local Falcon to perform competitive analysis helps SMBs close the gap between who they think the competition is and who the competition really is, ultimately making it easier to identify actionable opportunities to outrank top competitors in local search results.
Centralized Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis involves monitoring and evaluating online reviews to understand how customers feel about a business (and why they feel that way).
Not only is this an important part of providing customers with better products and services to help drive business, it also plays a big role in local SEO, since reviews on Google and other platforms can have a major influence on local rankings.
Using a local rank tracker that allows you to track rankings for Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, and other business listing platforms makes it easier to analyze online reviews and sentiment in one place, even allowing you to compare your sentiment side-by-side with competitors.
This can provide valuable insights that you can funnel into improving your business, ultimately earning it more positive reviews that can boost its position in local SERPs and attract a larger segment of the local market.
Intuitive Out-of-the-Box Reports
Whether you're taking care of your SMB's local SEO strategy yourself, employing an in-house marketing team or listing manager, or working with an external marketing agency, you want to receive easy-to-understand reports regarding local search optimizations that can effectively guide your strategy.
Local rank tracking reports, specifically those available in Local Falcon, are available in a variety of formats, from single and multi-location ranking reports to keyword, trend, and competitor reports.
These options provide you and your team with different ways to visualize and interpret the data, offering insights into your local SEO strategy from different angles to help guide you towards success.
Keyword and Category Discovery
Conducting keyword research is another essential piece of the local SEO puzzle. It allows you to identify keywords to compete for, channel your resources towards the most effective optimizations, and even potentially find new categories to add to your business listings.
For example, Local Falcon's Suggested Keywords feature automatically generates a list of keywords you might want to track based on your business's listing categories and other search terms that people are using to find products and services like those you offer.
Based on these suggestions, you can run several rank tracking scans for different keywords. You can then evaluate the competition for these keywords and decide which ones to focus your optimizations around, ensuring the optimal use of your local SEO time and budget.
Boost Your SMB in Local Search with Local Falcon
Local Falcon is the ultimate local rank tracker for small and medium-sized businesses. Its flexible grid-based tracking system, credit system, and multiple subscription tiers ensure that businesses of all sizes, with budgets of any size, can implement local rank tracking in the way that works best for them.
But what truly sets Local Falcon apart from other local rank trackers, especially for SMBs with limited local SEO resources, is its AI-powered technology and features.
The integrated Falcon AI takes care of Scan Report analysis for you, providing instant optimization recommendations and even identifying vulnerable competitors.
There's also Falcon Assist, the first chat-based AI built exclusively for local SEO, which can answer all your questions about Local Falcon, local search, competitors, reports, and more — it's like having an extra local search specialist on your SMB's team!
If you're ready to start receiving all of the benefits local rank tracking has to offer, give Local Falcon a try today!