Ensuring your business appears in local search results requires using a varied toolset — there's no one-size-fits all local SEO tool.
From tracking your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) to analyzing your website and identifying areas for improvement, using the right combination of tools will help you address all areas of your local SEO performance.
But with so many local SEO tools out there it can be hard to identify the best ones for all your different needs, so we've put together a short list of some of the most effective tools you might want to consider adding to your local search engine optimization toolbox.
Five of the Best Local SEO Tools for Everything from Rank Tracking to Website Optimization
1. Local Falcon (Best for Local Rank Tracking)
Local Falcon is the best local rank tracker for gaining real-time local SEO insights and AI-powered optimization recommendations.
Local Falcon allows you to track your rankings on Google Maps and Apple Maps, the two most-used map apps and listing platforms for local search, and gives you a birds-eye view of how your business stacks up against the competition in your commercial or service area.
With its Flexible Grid Points, Local Falcon enables hyper-local ranking insights and helps you optimize your local rank tracking budget by getting exactly the right data in your reports, of which there are six different types.
Local Falcon's built-in AI tool, Falcon AI, can even identify vulnerable competitors and suggest immediately actionable ways to optimize your listings and try to outrank them.
Local Falcon also offers a range of useful features for enterprise and multi-location businesses or agencies and SEO professionals who do local SEO for multiple businesses, including Campaigns, Auto Scans, and Bulk Scans.
2. Google Business Profile (Best for Online Business Listing)
If you want to get found in local searches, you absolutely must start by claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing.
Despite platforms like Apple Maps gaining more traction in the local search market, Google still accounts for more than 90% of all online searches, meaning Google Business Profile should still be your top priority when it comes to listing your business online.
The top results on Google when someone searches for a local business are always going to be three Google Business Profile listings, known as Google's 3-Pack, and appearing in these top local pack results is a sort of "Holy Grail" in the world of local SEO. Needless to say, you must have a Google Business Profile to even have a chance of appearing here.
In addition to boosting your chances of appearing in the top search results on Google, using Google Business Profile offers many other benefits, including building credibility and trustworthiness with potential customers and much more.
3. Yext (Best for Managing Business Info Across Directories)
Many local businesses can benefit from being on a wide variety of smaller online business listing directories and navigation platforms (in addition to the big ones like Google Maps and Apple Maps), but managing business info across tons of directories and apps can get messy — this is where Yext proves to be very handy.
Yext is a local SEO tool that offers local listing management tools for around 200 different publishers, from GPS apps to local directories, making it easy to maintain local citation accuracy and NAP consistency across a large number of smaller platforms.
Yext lets you quickly update key business information, like business hours and contact info, across these different platforms all at once, so you can reap the local SEO benefits and avoid getting penalized by search engines for inconsistencies in your business information.
4. Synup (Best for Cross-Directory Reputation Management)
Synup is another local SEO tool that's useful for managing business listings across platforms, particularly when it comes to reputation management.
Synup helps you build your business's online reputation by facilitating engagement with customers within its network of 60+ listing and review platforms, allowing you to read and respond to reviews from a single unified hub.
The platform also aggregates information from reviews, providing insights into what customers like and don't like about your business, as well as provides tools for getting more reviews from satisfied customers.
5. Crazy Egg (Best for Website Experience Analytics)
While primarily a tool for analyzing website user behavior, Crazy Egg can be valuable for local SEO by helping you understand how users interact with your site and identifying areas for improvement.
Crazy Egg can help you find errors to fix and make other improvements to the overall user experience for visitors to your site, which we know search engines take into account when they determine local rankings.
Not only that, but Crazy Egg even lets you do A/B testing, so you can try out things like different headlines, sales copy, and CTAs to see what drives the most engagement and conversions. That way, once you start seeing more traffic from your local SEO efforts, you can be sure your site is converting as many leads as possible!
Wrapping Up
The above list is by no means a comprehensive list of the most effective local SEO tools, but it has a little bit of everything to help you get started with different aspects of your local search engine optimization strategy.
It's important to remember that the effectiveness of these tools may vary depending on your specific needs and the nature of your business — there's no single, magic tool that will help you instantly boost your local ranking.
Whatever tools you do decide to use, make sure to regularly monitor and adjust your local SEO strategy based on the insights you gain from your local rank tracker to consistently improve your local search visibility.
If you're just getting started in the world of local SEO, you can't go wrong by starting with the first two tools on the list: Google Business Profile and Local Falcon! Once you've set up your Google Business Profile listing, try Local Falcon to track your ranking and identify optimization opportunities.