Bright Local
BrightLocal is a pretty straightforward tool that’s designed to make local marketing and SEO easier. The platform works by integrating SEO, reputation management, and citation building into one neat package. So, SEOs and business owners have just about everything they need to build local visibility to attract more attention locally.
The company (BrightLocal) has been around for around 13 years and was originally for the UK but has since then rolled out support for Australia, the US, and Canada, amongst fifteen other countries. Today, the software/platform is used by over 90,000 SMEs, agencies, and marketers.
In addition to a list of local SEO tools, there is also an aggregator submission and citation building capabilities that can help businesses or clients transform from otherwise relatively unknown businesses to a thriving branded business. That’s one reason why BrightLocal boldly claims that they offer everything a business will need to dominate local search.
A Quick Look at the Features:
- Dashboard
- Search Rankings
- Keyword Research Tools
- Rank Tracking
- Localization
- Competitor Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Keyword Tracking
- White-label service for SEO agencies & resellers
- Google Analytics Integration
- Automated online ordering – no clunky CSV or email
- On-Site SEO
- Off-Site SEO
- Content Management
- Google Analytics Integration
- Mobile Keywords
How to Start Using BrightLocal?
You can start using BrightLocal, for free with no credit card. The 14-day trial is enough for most people to check out the software, and all you need to provide is an email, name, and set a password for the account.
Once logged in, you can start configuring the account. The cool thing about BrightLocal is if you have an existing GMB (Google My Business) listing, you can pull it into the system, which means you don’t have to locate your business and then enter all that data manually.
After walking through the initial steps and linking it to the Google Analytics account, amongst others, you are greeted by a dashboard. The dashboard shows you a snapshot of your SEO health, Citations, and Google Rankings. However, you’ll also notice other tabs, which include rank tracking, and a social manager, in addition to various tools that can help polish the local listing.
In our experience, BrightLocal is highly intuitive, especially for those who manage SEO campaigns. Though there, it is still easy enough for SMEs and newbies alike to start using the tool with a high degree of effectiveness.
BrightLocal Features
Now, in case you already didn’t notice, BrightLocal is packed with numerous features. In addition to local citation management and SEO, you can also connect Twitter and Facebook, track rankings, and more. Below we’ll go over some of the most prominent features.
Citation Building
This feature is one reason why many businesses use BrightLocal in the first place compared to any other standard SEO Tool. Citations are essential for any business because they contain the name, phone number, and address in addition to a couple of other relevant details about the business making them essential for brick and mortar businesses.
BrightLocal makes it easier for users to increase the number of these citations by:
- Checking the listing for accuracy
- Building citations where they may not exist
- Remove duplicate citations, which are often harmful
- Create Google My Business as well as Bing Local Listings
- Distribute your business’s information to mainly local aggregators
While BrightLocal handles all of this, you also have the choice of whether or not you are listed. Your listings in InfoUSA, Acxiom, and Factual, amongst others, are vital to improving DA as well as your electronic presence.
Listings are also optimised for local search, which is where BirghtLocal tends to excel over the competition.
Citation Tracker
Now, this is one of the most useful tools to check inconsistencies with your citation’s address, name, and phone number. Inconsistencies can hurt your local rankings, so fixing them can do a great deal of good.
The tool also helps you find duplicate listings, which can also be used to spy on the competition by seeing their local listings. You also can add notes and manage campaigns.
Reputation Manager
A single bad review can do a great deal of reputation damage. Fortunately, the reputation manager has you covered, and it will help you track reviews from a myriad of sources, including Booking.com, Google, Zillow, etc. Regardless of your niche, BrightLocal may have a relevant platform for it.
The reputation manager helps you respond to reviews, monitor them, and showcase the best ones. Now, this is very important mainly because if you receive a low score review, the tool makes it possible to find and respond to it instantly. The sooner you respond to the review, the more likely the reviewer may change their response when you address their problem.
Lead Generation
It is an excellent tool for marketers. The LeadGen widget helps convert visitors into paying clients. You have the capability of creating personalized branded search audits for contact forms, websites, popups, and panels.
You also can manage all the leads from within the dashboard, which then helps you focus on the best possible prospects.
Rank Tracking
The rank tracker tool is unlike any other in the sense that it helps you determine how and where you rank for the keywords you’re targeting. In addition, it allows you to track competitors, create keyword groups, etc.
You can also run a Local Search Audit, which gives you a complete picture of what the competition’s strategy looks like so that it can be emulated.
BrightLocal Pricing
After the 14-day trial ends, you have a few choices to make. You can continue by paying $29 a month or upgrade to a higher tier. The major difference across each plan is the number of businesses that you can manage.
Managing a single business (The Single Business Plan) will cost just $29 a month, which allows you to manage three locations and gives you access to white-label reports in addition to the company’s LeadGen Widget.
The next upgrade is to the Multi Business plan for $49 a month, which features support for up to six locations in addition to API access.
The SEO Pro gives you the ability to manage up to 100 locations for just $79 a month. Plus, the company throws in competitor analysis since the assumption is that agencies will mainly use this plan.
Conclusion
BrightLocal is worth it, especially since it handles a lot of the heavy lifting associated with local SEO. At around $45 a month on average, it offers more than enough tools to justify the cost as opposed to if each tool was purchased individually.
Furthermore, BrightLocal is user-friendly, with an excellent UI, and is proven to deliver results. The Citation Builder helps you chart all wins, making it possible for an agency to show clients what they have achieved and plan future milestones.
