BrightLocal Products Archives - BrightLocal https://www.brightlocal.com/tag/brightlocal-products/ Local Marketing Made Simple Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:46:06 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 Be a Business Review Superhero: Power Your Replies with Templates and AI! https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/be-a-business-review-superhero-power-your-replies-with-templates-and-ai/ Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:46:06 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=120452 Delivering such a great customer experience that you’re drowning in reviews? Talk about a double-edged sword!

You might be thinking: “Why respond? They’re happy customers!”

Think again…

Recent research from BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey shows that:

  • 88% of consumers are “likely” to use a business that responds to all reviews, positive and negative.
  • 59% of consumers expect to see a response to their review within two days of the review being left.

So… how can you respond to all reviews, leaving happy customers satisfied and addressing the concerns of less-than-happy ones, all within the time period they prefer, and still have time to crack on with the work that gets you these customers in the first place?

Simple. Become a superhero. 🦸

Our new Review Reply Templates feature in Monitor Reviews (with added AI!) will revolutionize how you respond to Google reviews and Facebook recommendations with BrightLocal and turn you into a Review Response Superhero. By setting your own response templates to common responses, you’ll leave every satisfied customer even more satisfied when you respond.

How does it work?

Create a Template

Review Reply Templates couldn’t be easier to get started with. Just create a template that fits your tone of voice and select which review ratings you want to apply it to. Agency customers can even link templates to clients, allowing them to manage all review responses in one place.

Screenshot 2024 03 18 At 09.30.43  

Select Your Template

Then, when you’re sipping your morning coffee and reviewing the plaudits and praise (and the rest), just select the template that works best for the review, adjust if needed, and hit ‘Use’.

Screenshot 2024 03 18 At 09.31.27

What’s this about AI?

Want to make your responses even more tailored and less “templatey”? With the magic of our ‘Generate AI Response’ button, a response is created that speaks specifically to what the customer review mentions, and you barely have to lift a finger.

Screenshot 2024 03 18 At 09.32.13

Didn’t love the first iteration? Easy, just click ‘Generate AI Response’ again. You can generate up to three responses per review.

Where do I start?

Reputation Manager users and ‘Grow’ plan customers can get started right away! Just head into BrightLocal and get ready to work some review response magic. Need a helping hand? Head over to our dedicated Help Center guide on this awesome new feature. 

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New Academy Course: Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/new-academy-course-google-analytics-4-essentials-for-local-seo/ Wed, 14 Feb 2024 08:41:06 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=118908 Love it or loathe it, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has become the new reality in the analytics world. Embracing this change, BrightLocal is thrilled to present a gift to all marketers struggling to navigate GA4. 

Our latest course, “ Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ,” led by the expert Dana DiTomaso, is tailored for in-house marketers and SEOs at agencies, helping them unravel the intricacies of GA4 through a local SEO lens.

Across the span of 22 informative lesson videos, you will:

  • Adopt the analytics mindset, learn to understand GA4 data capture, and familiarize yourself with terminology and the user interface for a strong starting point.
  • Explore GA4’s event-based data model, covering property and data stream creation, built-in (enhanced) events, adding custom events, and viewing event parameters.
  • Evaluate marketing success in GA4 by adding conversions (goals), exploring default channel groups, and tracking Google Business Profile (GBP) and offline advertising traffic using Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) for effective tracking.
  • Master GA4’s reports, customize your tool by modifying or creating reports and enhance the Reports Menu for detailed Google Business Profile and offline advertising traffic insights.

Here’s Dana with an overview of the course: 

Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate.

Who is this course for?

This course is tailored for in-house marketers who need to use GA4 regularly, even if GA4 was set up for them. Additionally, SEOs at agencies without in-house analytics support will find valuable insights to enhance their GA4 proficiency.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

Learning Resources - BrightLocal Academy

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘ Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?    

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?    

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

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Supercharging Your Google Business Profile with BrightLocal https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/supercharging-google-business-profile-with-brightlocal/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:15 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=118691 In today’s digital landscape, a Google Business Profile (GBP) is vital for attracting and engaging with local customers. To ensure that GBP is not just a placeholder but a powerful tool, you can turn to BrightLocal to help you supercharge your online presence.

The Power of Google Business Profile

First, it’s important to emphasize why GBP matters. It’s often the first point of contact for potential customers, providing essential information about a local business, including location, hours, reviews, and photos. A well-optimized GBP can significantly impact local search visibility and customer trust.

A study found it’s the top factor for ranking in the local pack on Google. Our research in 2020 also showed that 82% of local marketing experts agree that tweaking a GBP is a super effective way to improve your local search rankings. 

So, how can BrightLocal help you supercharge your or your client’s GBP? Let’s dive into the strategies and tools available:

1. Auditing for Optimization

As well as being aware of what a critical tool Google Business Profile is, you’re probably also aware that Google doesn’t give away any competitor insights. 

For example, let’s imagine that you’ve just started work on local SEO for a dental practice in New York. You want to know why a specific competitor ranks above them in local search and what they need to do to outrank them. You head over to Google and search, but this is all you see:

Google search

Without an intelligent tool, figuring out how to beat the competition and get into the top local results is challenging. That’s why we made our Google Business Profile Audit tool and Local Search Grid. They do all the checking and analysis you need.

Once you’ve set up a Google Business Profile Audit report, you can ensure the accuracy of your listing and understand your performance. 

Ensuring Accuracy and Health of Your Listing

Once set up, the ‘Summary’ page of a Google Business Profile Audit serves as your primary dashboard for evaluating the overall health and accuracy of your GBP listing.

Here, you can identify and eliminate any duplicate GBP listings associated with your business, scrutinize the consistency of Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) information, and identify and address essential local ranking factors. 

Google Business Profile Audit tool

Embarking on these steps within the GBP Audit report not only ensures the accuracy of your listing but also lays the foundation for a robust and trustworthy online representation of your business.

Understand Your GBP Performance

You can thoroughly understand your GBP performance by incorporating Insights into the GBP Audit’s report. 

Unlike Google Business Profile Insights, which only offers six months of data, GBP Audit extends its horizon to 18 months, providing a comprehensive and extended view of your listing’s performance.

You can:

  • Analyze the discovery points on Google through search or Google Maps to strategically optimize your online presence.

  • Extract valuable data on customer actions, unraveling users’ common behaviors on your GBP, from visiting your website to requesting directions or making calls.

  • Delve into phone call trends, pinpointing peak days and times and aiding in meticulous staff availability planning.

GBP Insights

By utilizing the Google Business Profile Audit tool, you ensure the accuracy of your listing and gain in-depth insights into your GBP’s performance, enabling informed decisions for optimization and growth.

Competitor Insights 

Local Search Grid provides essential data from Google Local Finder, offering insights into your competitors’ performance. 

For example, once you’ve set up a Local Search Grid report , you can see what primary and secondary categories your competitors are using. This allows you to ensure that you select categories that align with high-performing keywords and match those used by successful competitors.

Top Ranking Competitors Table

2. Taking Action

Customer reviews and GBP posts are crucial elements that significantly contribute to the credibility and utility of your GBP. Two BrightLocal tools can help you with these. 

Manage Your Reviews

Reputation Manager enables you to monitor reviews, gather feedback, and address negative comments promptly. Helping you to cultivate a positive online reputation and attract more customers.

Once you’ve created a Reputation Manager report, you’ll be able to keep tabs on all reviews from essential review sites, allowing you to observe the growth of reviews over time.

Reputation Manager tool

If you also link your business’s Google Business Profile and Facebook accounts to the report, BrightLocal will automatically check for new reviews daily and notify you of any arrivals. With your report connected to your GBP and Facebook, you can conveniently respond to reviews directly from this report, streamlining the process and helping you stay on top of your reputation more efficiently.

Reputation Manager

Managing your reviews is just the start. If you need help getting them in the first place, a tool like BrightLocal’s Get Reviews is key. It will help you grow your reviews and increase your star ratings.

Schedule Google Posts

GBP Post Scheduler makes managing your GBP much easier and simpler. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation. 

Effortless Scheduling

You can set the perfect time for each post and decide when it should expire, ensuring a steady flow of content for potential customers. You can also monitor everything from one dashboard to keep an eye on what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired.

GBP Post Scheduler

Multi-location Distribution

When dealing with a multi-location brand, there might be times when you want to share the latest national promotions with all locations at once. Instead of doing it individually, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you hours of effort. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure consistent content across your entire network of locations.

Craft Posts with AI-Powered Content Generation

Input a brief description of the message you want to convey, and within seconds, our AI writing assistant will provide you with creative content ideas to work with and enhance.

GBP Post Scheduler

Our Help Center has more information on how our GBP AI works.

3. Active Sync

Active Sync helps you care for your GBP and other vital listings like Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing, ensuring they’re accurate and up-to-date. 

Once you’ve connected your GBP to your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data, such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. 

Active Sync

Once you’ve set Active Sync up, it will send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if Google publishes a suggested edit, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in.

You can accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, which allows you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy.

Alert Inbox

Your Google Business Profile is a powerful tool for local business success, and when combined with the comprehensive suite of BrightLocal tools, it becomes an unstoppable force. By conducting regular audits, managing your reputation, and optimizing your online presence, you can stand out in local searches, attract more customers, and drive business growth.

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Local SEO Wrapped: 2023 https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/2023-wrapped/ Thu, 21 Dec 2023 14:34:33 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=118252 It’s been quite a year. It feels like every time I’ve opened my laptop or looked at Twitter (wait, sorry, X… that happened this year too), Google has put out another algorithm update. Add to that multiple product launches, a bunch of conferences, and everything else, it’s hard to see how anyone gets anything productive done.

But, you did, and here at BrightLocal we certainly all did. As we’re winding down for the end-of-year festivities, we’ve found it’s a good time to reflect on 2023 as a whole… maybe even take the time to wrap it all up neatly, into a box with a bow.

So that’s what we’re going to do. It’s time to grab some paper, scissors, tape, and ribbon and see what comes out on top in BrightLocal’s 2023 Wrapped.

The Biggest Google Updates for Local

Did you blink? Because Google probably rolled out another update. For a few months, it felt like when everyone was just calming down from one, they’d announce another. Oh, and then another.

It appears that Google execs were booby-trapping their house, making sure it got harder and harder for people to game their system, which you have to respect… to an extent. We can almost see them rolling another update out and saying, (in the words of Kevin McCallister): “Do you guys give up? Or are you thirsty for more?”

While the dust is still settling on these, it feels like some of the biggest changes for local were:

1. A new ranking factor… well, maybe. Opening hours or, in Google’s words ‘openness’.

Since the news broke, the situation has evolved. It’s been confirmed by Google that openness has been a factor for a while, but that the strength of the signal has dialed up considerably recently. However, they also say that may change.

We’ve done a study to see how it’s currently affecting rankings. You can find that here.

Study: Business Opening Hours and Local Rankings

Using Local Search Grid to conduct a measured study and analyze the relationship between "openness" and local rankings for 50 business locations.

Read more

2. They’re introducing an updated reinstatement process for suspended profiles.

There’s a whole new process! Both for getting suspended and being reinstated. This has been a long time coming—and you can hear all about it in our webinar with Ben Fisher and Sherry Bonelli.

3. GA4 finally arrived, and it made everything really, really hard for everyone.

It’s been a difficult year for many a marketer, with the switch from universal analytics echoing the famous plot of It’s a Wonderful Life; imagine if the dependable person you knew, just never existed at all.

Fortunately, we have a guardian angel here to help you get your GA4 sorted.

4. SGE was teased and, for some people, rolled out.

Generative AI was the buzzphrase of the year. Google, ever the trend leader, launched its search generative experience (SGE) and released it for testing in the USA. They’ve been running various tests and, honestly, the situation keeps changing… there goes Google keeping us on our toes again.

Currently, there’s no confirmed date for it rolling out for everyone, but when it does, it could shake up search (including local search) forever.

5. They (finally) added social media link management to GBP! It pretty much made our own social media manager’s year…
Jenny GBP Socials News

It may not feel huge, but it’s been a pain for years and is a real game-changer for GBP managers.

Bloopers from our Local Search Expert, Claire Carlile

Our hostess-with-the-mostest, Claire Carlile, is nothing but professional… that being said, she does spend quite a few hours in front of a camera, and that leads to some absolute gold.

So here are our favorite Claire Carlile bloopers of 2023:

1. The time Claire got so distracted by Biscuit’s cuteness “behind the scenes” of a webinar that she had to apologize to the viewers when she went live.

I mean… can you blame her? 

Biscuit
Biscuit!

2. The time when Claire’s daughter Betsi bought about her professional downfall live on air.

3. The time Claire’s internet completely dropped out immediately before she was supposed to host Local SEO for Good. Which caused just a little bit of panic.

4. The time Claire and Crystal Carter had so much fun during a podcast recording that their laughs messed with the sound levels and made it nearly impossible to edit.

5. Finally, this last one is a curveball. Our wonderful Sammy, the expert behind our fantastic research (and mother to the aforementioned Biscuit), managed to get herself locked in her bedroom while the team was busy putting the finishing touches on this piece.

Sammy Trapped Announcment
So, we’re awarding her an honorary place in this list. From eyewitness reports, the door just closed behind her and the handle refused to turn, leaving her stuck with none other than Biscuit himself. 

Sammy Broken Door Knob
The door handle.
Biscuit, trapped
Biscuit, trapped.

Worry not, she managed to escape through a window and get someone to come over with a spare pair of keys for her front door.

Sammy Freed

BrightLocal Product Releases and Updates

BrightLocal Horizon

We’ve had quite the year here at BrightLocal, and we’re incredibly proud of the advances we’ve made to our local SEO tools and services. Not only have we gone beyond the Horizon with the launch of our new multi-location command center, but we’ve also created our own GBP post scheduler and changed the listings game with Active Sync.

1. BrightLocal Horizon
Just this month we launched our brand new multi-location command center. This powerful tool uses Local Search Grid to give you a country-wide view of the rankings for all your locations. 

2. Active Sync
We changed the listings game with Active Sync, an API solution for listings management, offered at a fraction of the cost of other services.

3. GBP Post Scheduler
With this useful tool, you can now you can publish to all your Google Business Profiles from one convenient location.

4. Local Rank Tracker 2.0
We upgraded our already fantastic Local Rank Tracker to add a host of new features and insights.

5. Local Search Grid Flexible Grid Points

Now, you can place your Local Search Grid grid points where you want, making our tracking even more accurate.

And that’s just scratching the surface of what we’ve managed to achieve at BrightLocal this year. We’ve also added all kinds of sites to our local citation builder service’s network, grown the team behind the product across the globe, and so much more!

Read More: Product Updates

The Content We Loved, by You

There’s a lot of content on local SEO published every single day. With AI flooding an already cluttered space, we wanted to highlight the hard work of people across the internet who are creating excellent content on SEO and local marketing—no AI-Grinch stealing everyone’s hard work on our watch.

1. Miriam Ellis, Moz: The Local Business Content Marketing Guide

It’s a wondrous collection of guides, and just another example of Miriam’s excellent work. We’re always a fan of Miriam’s content here, like this guide on GBP photos and this piece for Wix on being COVID-conscious.

Miriam Local Business Cm Guide

2. Greg Sterling, Near Media: Google SGE: Meet the New Pack

Near Media’s content is always excellent and their newsletter is essential for anyone working in local. Go subscribe. Seriously.

3. Kick Point Playbook: Grow Your Agency with Google Analytics Training & Templates

The whole Playbook is well worth your time to help you with your analytics—plus it comes with a ringing endorsement from Claire Carlile (and Biscuit!).

4. Marie Haynes, Marie Haynes Consulting: Search News You Can Use Newsletter

A wonderful resource for anyone looking for SEO news or insights, with a real focus on AI… all in one helpful feed.

5. Ann Smarty, Smarty Marketing: The State of the Link Building Industry 2023

Ann surveyed 300 SEO professionals from across the industry (all with years of experience) to find out what they’re doing to build links in 2023, and whether it’s working. It’s an incredibly thorough study and worth checking if you’re planning on doing link-building in 2024.

Our Favourite Insights

At BrightLocal, our mission is to help every business be successful at local SEO—whether that’s through our tools or our content. We’ve performed insightful research, given people a platform to talk about the industry, and helped thousands navigate local SEO with BrightLocal Academy. Plus, we re-launched our podcast, and our webinars have gone up a level too.

Here are a few that we’re particularly proud of:

1. Local business discovery and trust report

Our research speaks for itself, from the Generative AI Study to the first-ever Big Brand Review Showdown, but we’re particularly proud of this year’s trust report, which highlights the discovery platforms local consumers trust the most and least.

5 Biz Discovery And Trust Photos

2. How to Do Insightful Competitor Analysis for Local SEO on BrightLocal Academy

A question we get asked all the time! Well now you can do an excellent course in BrightLocal Academy… and it’s completely free! Plus, it’s with Greg Gifford, so you know it’ll be a blast.

3. Adventures in Local Marketing with Crystal Carter: Powerful Applications of Schema Markup

Our podcast came back with a bang this year, and Claire’s chat with Crystal on schema is well worth your time.

4. Live GBP Audit with Colan Nielson

In the first of our new live audits, Colan looked at auditing and optimizing the GBP for a dental practice. It’s not to be missed.

5. George Nguyen, Wix: Diversifying Your Publication

We launched BrightLocal Spotlight this year, a column where industry professionals were given a platform to talk about issues important to them. George’s encapsulated everything Spotlight stands for and is an important, insightful read.

Join 55,000 Marketers: Subscribe to the BrightLocal Newsletter

The Most Essential Guides

We’ve published some absolutely essential guides this year, continuing our mission to help educate local marketers, whatever level they may be. A lot of our guides come directly from questions we get asked in The Local Pack or our webinars, so never hesitate to ask!

How to Rank Beyond Your Area - Blog Header

1. Abigail Leow, BrightLocal: How to Rank Outside Your Area.

A question we seem to get asked more than any other. Abigail busts myths and collates all the advice you may need on the subject of ranking beyond your physical location.

2. Andy Simpson, Digital Law Marketing: How to Choose the Next Location for Your Business Using Local SEO

Local SEO may not be the first thing you consider when deciding where to open your next branch, but Andy Simpson makes a very convincing argument on why you should.

3. Emily Brady, Podium: How to Craft Unique and Helpful Location Pages

Location pages are a key part of local SEO for multi-location brands, and this guide goes into everything you need to know.

4. Dani Owens, Pigzilla: Local SEO Schema: Types and Templates

Schema doesn’t need to be as mystifying as it appears. Dani’s templates are simple to understand and easy to implement.

5. Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync: Local SEO for Lawyers

Gyi does a deep dive into everything a law marketer could ever need to know about local SEO. 

The Times Barry Schwartz Told People it’s “Not New”!

It happens to the best of us. It feels like not a day goes by without an expert being absolutely certain they’ve spotted something new and game-changing in the SERPs. They tweet it to Barry Schwartz, only for the one-man-search-encyclopdia to reply with two withering words; “not new”.

Here are some of our favorites from just the last 12 months.

1. The time he trademarked it.

2. Google charging for phone support.

3. Places of interest.

4. Special SERPs for cities.

5. The time he got not newed himself, by Mike Blumenthal.

The Best Conference Talks of 2023

2023 was another huge year for the conference circuit. While we helped make brightonSEO special with our Pin It to Win It game, we also enjoyed a number of talks here and elsewhere. Plus, we hosted a virtual conference of our own to raise money for charity.

Here are our favorite talks from around the SEO world:

1. Claire Carlile, BrightLocal at brightonSEO: Google’s Local Knowledge Panel—The CMS You Never Knew You Had

2. Harmony Huskinson, Victorious at Local SEO for Good: Developing Your E-E-A-T Strategy for Local SEO

3. SyphaĂŻwong Bay, Assonance Agency at Women in Tech SEO: Creating Meaningful Content

4. Dana DiTomaso, Kick Point at LocalU: Customizing GA4 for Local Business Reporting

5. Amanda Jordan, RicketyRoo at MozCon: Build Better Backlinks for Local Brands

BrightLocal Moments of the Year

Oh wow, it’s been a big year for every part of the business. Whether that’s the Philippines team’s annual basketball tournament, the hackathons with our Ukraine and Poland teams, or the big refresh of our brand, there’s something for each team to celebrate.

A few big moments from across the year include:

1. BrightLocal at brightonSEO

Not once, but twice our stand stole the show, surprising and delighting visitors with the absolute best swag and the most engaging game: Pin It To Win It. We hope you enjoyed coming to see us, and we can’t wait to see you next year.

2. The Phillippines Christmas Party

It was hard to pick just one moment from this team, who consistently show up the rest of the business when it comes to having fun! Their Christmas party really stood out this year, though.

3. Local SEO for Good

We put on a two-day virtual conference of our very own and raised $78,401.47 for a host of charities, all while connecting marketers with experts to help them learn something new.

4. The Big Rebrand

You may have noticed, but the website looks just a little different than it did at the start of the year. Our design team did an amazing job completely revamping the site and our illustrative style.

5. Our Hackathon in Poland

Poland Hackathon

Our product and development teams got together to come up with a host of new ideas. In fact, this is where BrightLocal Horizon was cooked up. It was a great few days of fun and, evidently, awesome ideas.

This just scratches the surface! There was so much going on at BrightLocal this year that it was hard to really narrow it down.

See You in 2024

We can’t wait for what 2024 will hold for BrightLocal and local search marketing. We’re sure there’ll be a whole host of surprises from Google, at the very least. In the meantime, happy holidays from the entire BrightLocal team, and we’ll see you in January.

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Introducing BrightLocal Horizon: A New Dawn for Multi-location SEO https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/introducing-brightlocal-horizon/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:33:53 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=117588 Navigating local SEO for sprawling multi-location brands presents a unique set of challenges.

The biggest e-commerce companies typically deal with just a single website. Sure, there are potentially thousands of pages to track, but it’s all essentially the same entity they are trying to rank.

Meanwhile, multi-location brands must treat each of their locations as separate entities.

Every location needs to be managed, optimized, and reported on. This means marketers in large multi-location brands, like you, manage SEO for hundreds or even thousands of “websites.”

Marketers working within e-commerce are equipped with specialized tools to help them manage SEO at scale. However, the same cannot be said for their multi-location counterparts. Until now, marketers at multi-location businesses have had to rely on two less-than-ideal solutions:

  1. General SEO Tools: Powerful for general SEO but lacking in local specificity. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush are excellent for website SEO but they’re not primarily focused on locations. This means they lack crucial local-level insights necessary to help you make informed decisions and enhance performance in local search.
  2. Traditional Local SEO Tools: Fine for a single location but overwhelmed by scale. Multi-location marketers are left with hundreds or thousands of reports to wade through and no way to see the big picture.

You’ve lacked the right tools for the job. This has put multi-location marketers, like you, into a cycle you can’t escape.

You struggle to navigate measuring performance and uncovering insights to boost results. Engaging stakeholders to show how local SEO contributes to business growth is difficult. The result? Your teams are underpowered, overstretched, and underappreciated.

Thankfully, we’re breaking that cycle and rewriting the rules with the launch of BrightLocal Horizon: A Search Command Center for Multi-location Brands.

BrightLocal Horizon isn’t just another rank-tracking tool; it’s the only rank-tracking solution that’s purpose-built for multi-location SEO.

Horizon Hero

Let’s get to the good stuff.

A new Horizon for multi-location SEO

Horizon is more than just a report or dashboard. It’s a command center for tracking and understanding your performance. It’s the springboard for deeper analysis and prioritization. And, it’s a powerful communication tool for sharing insights and impact with stakeholders.

BrightLocal Horizon overview

Blog Header 2

  • Track rankings for 1000s of locations in a single dashboard
  • Measure local search visibility at a national and state-level
  • Identify problem locations and top competitors more easily
  • Make smarter decisions with best-in-class local ranking insights

Measure real-world search visibility at scale

BrightLocal Horizon simplifies local rank tracking for multi-location brands. It consolidates rankings across hundreds and even thousands of locations into a single, intuitive dashboard. Instantly gain insights into your brand’s nationwide and regional search presence. And, measure performance over time with top-level ranking metrics.

Focus on what matters

Forget the days of sifting through endless ranking reports. BrightLocal Horizon turns noise into a signal by highlighting underperforming regions. Making it easy to home in on the locations that need action.

Horizon Tool Table

Our simple interface helps you navigate from a broad national overview to specific local issues in a few clicks.

Attention-grabbing reporting

Let’s face it, ranking tables don’t turn heads in the boardroom. Our visual reports are easily understood by stakeholders so that the value of local SEO is recognized across your organization.

You’re not just sharing numbers—you’re telling a story that everyone can get behind.

Attention Grabbing Reporting

Identify your top search competitors

When competing across hundreds of different local markets, you’re likely to face off against thousands of distinct competitors in search.

Unlike traditional SEO, where major players can dominate search results, local search offers a more level playing field. It allows small businesses to compete directly with big brands in search results.

This situation makes it tough for businesses with many locations to figure out who their main search competitors are. It’s hard to know where to start when there are so many.

Luckily, Horizon finds the top competitor in search for each of your locations, as well as the top one in each state. This way, you can quickly see who you’re up against the most all over the country. Then, you can check out what they’re doing well, plan your strategies to do better, and stay ahead in the game.

Steer your strategy with the right data

We know that marketers don’t have the time to analyze each location on a regular basis. Which is why Horizon gives you a bird’s-eye view of performance.

This strategic overview is essential, but we also recognize the need for in-depth analysis in certain scenarios.

Each location tracked in Horizon is powered by its own Local Search Grid report. Local Search Grid is our geo-map rank tracker that gives marketers the ability to measure the real-world search visibility of a location.

Group 1658

Each report can be customized to ensure it reflects the customer catchment area and can track up to 30 keywords. With each keyword, you get benchmarking data on the top-ranking competitors against key local ranking factors.

Horizon equips you with the insights needed for impactful decisions. Whether that’s tweaking a Google Business Profile category or addressing a shortfall in reviews and ratings.

Because Horizon is powered by the most accurate and comprehensive ranking data and the best local-level insights, you can have complete confidence in where you point your strategy.

Local search is still an untapped opportunity

While the surge in online shopping is undeniable, it represents only a fraction—about one-fifth—of total retail revenue. The current trends, particularly in the post-pandemic era, show a big shift back towards in-person shopping, with a remarkable 81% of retail revenue still coming from physical store visits.

This raises a crucial question: Why is local SEO still eclipsed by traditional SEO strategies?

2021 08 Retailsales Chart3

As brands intensify their focus on e-commerce, many are missing a huge opportunity. They’re bolstering their SEO and PPC to capture online revenue and overlooking local consumers. These consumers are predominantly shopping in physical stores. But, they are increasingly relying on online searches to discover and research brands ahead of purchasing.

Google itself revealed that 83% of U.S. shoppers perform an online search before visiting a store.

This oversight is costly: potentially billions of dollars in sales are being lost because brands aren’t visible during these crucial local searches.

BrightLocal Horizon is here to address this gap, equipping multi-location brands with the ability to turn overlooked opportunities into tangible business growth.

Ready to expand your Horizon?

BrightLocal Horizon is now available for brands with over 100 locations, as well as agencies working with them, in the US and UK. Fit the bill? Request a demo today and we’ll show you what’s possible.

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How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/brightlocal-for-mlbs/ Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:35:34 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=117666 For multi-location businesses (MLBs), navigating the complex world of local search optimization can be a daunting task. With the goal of improving visibility, rankings, and overall performance for numerous locations, it’s crucial to have a robust toolset at your disposal. 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how multi-location businesses can effectively leverage BrightLocal to understand location performance, deliver on rankings and key performance indicators (KPIs), and showcase their value to stakeholders.

Understanding Location Performance

To ensure that each location is thriving, it’s vital to start with a top-level overview and identify weak spots. BrightLocal’s Horizon is an excellent starting point. Horizon is the only rank-tracking solution that’s purpose-built for multi-location SEO. It enables you to consolidate and visualize ranking performance across hundreds or thousands of locations into a single, intuitive dashboard.

Here’s how you can make the most of it.

Identify Weak Spots

Utilize Horizon to pinpoint locations that may not be performing as well as others. The visual representation helps you identify areas that require attention.

Anything marked in green is in a good position. Anything marked in red needs some attention. For instance, the business in the image below is ranking well in Idaho—3.3. But not so well in Massachusetts—10.1.

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Identifying Weak Spots with BrightLocal Horizon

To get a better idea of what’s holding these states back, we can click on the square—let’s click on Massachusettes—and we can see which specific locations in that state are struggling to rank well. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - BrightLocal Horizon Performance by Location

In order to dig deeper, we can simply click the locations on the map and we’ll be taken to their individual Local Search Grid reports. Here we can find out what we might be able to do to outrank them. 

Identify Top Competitors

Identifying who your main search competitors are becomes complex for businesses with multiple locations. Fortunately, Horizon streamlines this process by pinpointing top competitors for each of your locations, as well as the top one in each state. This allows you to gain insights into your competition nationwide, analyze their strengths, and strategically plan to outperform them, ensuring you stay at the forefront of the game.

Drill Down for Details

Once you’ve identified locations that need improvement, use the single location tools within BrightLocal to dig deeper. Analyze the specific factors affecting performance and make necessary adjustments.

For example, you could check out their individual Local Search Grid report as mentioned above or run a Local Search Audit report to quickly see what’s holding a location back. With this information, you can work out the best course of action.

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Local Search Audit

You can see here that the Location in the image above needs to work on their local listings. Their next steps could be to run a Citation Tracker report in BrightLocal to help them find and fix current listings and uncover new citation opportunities. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Citation Tracker

Delivering on Rankings and KPIs

If you’re going to deliver on rankings and KPIs, as a multi-location business, you need to use a combination of strategies, tools, and techniques to enhance your online visibility, attract more local customers, and ultimately drive revenue. This often includes optimizing websites, managing online listings, maintaining an active and positive online reputation, and implementing effective marketing campaigns.

BrightLocal offers a range of tools and features to assist you in this area.

Review Generation and Responses

Review Inbox allows you to streamline your multi-location reputation management. You can view, sort, and filter every customer review by status or rating, for every location you manage in BrightLocal, via a single feed. If you have integrated your GBP or Facebook Pages to your reports, you’ll also be able to respond to reviews from these sources directly from Review Inbox.

Learn how to set up and understand Review Inbox here. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Review Inbox

Listing Management

Active Sync is a tool that helps you to keep your most important listings accurate and push out updates when you need to. 

Help Center: Active Sync Overview

Listings have changed over the last decade. Searchers used to use hundreds of different sites to discover local businesses. However, now just a few key listings dominate: Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Facebook, Apple Maps and Bing. 

These listings have become the key sites that consumers actually use to discover, evaluate and engage with a brand. They also supply your information to other sites and voice-control devices such as:

  • Google Business Profile – Google Maps, Waze, Google Home
  • Facebook – Instagram
  • Bing – Amazon Alexa

Consumers rarely use other listings sites, but they can help businesses to build authority with search engines. Which is where our Citation Builder service comes in. You may be using expensive listing management solutions that hold your data hostage for minimal output; Citation Builder is a managed service where we build out listings for your brand at scale and give you true ownership of your data moving forwards. 

Active Sync helps you to take care of those important listings—Google Business Profile, Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing—all in one place, making sure they are accurate and up-to-date. 

Once you have connected to the listings from your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. 

Once you’ve set Active Sync up it will then send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if a suggested edit is published by Google, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in.

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Alert Inbox

You can either accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, allowing you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy.

Bulk Google Business Profile Posts

GBP Post Scheduler is a true game-changer when it comes to scaling up your Google Posts. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation.

As a multi-location business, there could be instances where you need to push the latest national promotions to every location at once. Rather than have to do this one location at a time, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you potentially hours of tedium. This ensures consistent content across your entire network of locations (or just a select few) in just a few clicks. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - GBP Post Scheduler

You can schedule posts to go out at the exact right time and set the relevant expiry dates to ensure a consistent stream of content for potential customers to engage with. You’ll get full visibility of what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired from a single dashboard. It’s as easy as setting it and forgetting it! But if you need to make changes, then it’s just a case of editing anything that’s already scheduled or deleting anything that’s live.

You can also say goodbye to writer’s block with our AI-powered content generation. Our integration with ChatGPT ensures that you always have engaging and captivating content at your fingertips. Simply add a description of the message you want to put out, and in seconds, our AI writing assistant will give you content ideas to run with and optimize. 

Learn how to bulk post with GBP Post Scheduler here. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - GBP Post Scheduler Create New Post

Showcasing Value to Stakeholders

Demonstrating the value of your efforts to stakeholders is crucial. BrightLocal offers a range of reporting and auditing tools to help you showcase progress and results.

Rank Tracker Rollup Reports

Keep stakeholders informed about your MLB’s local search rankings with Rank Tracker Rollup Reports. The Rollup Reports feature allows you to present comprehensive ranking data in an easily digestible format.

They can be accessed by clicking the ‘Rank Tracker Rollup Reports’ tab on the Rank Tracker overview page.

 How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Rank Tracker Rollup Report

Google Business Profile Audit Insights

Let’s imagine you had a location that was being held back by their Google Business Profile. You picked up on this issue using the BrightLocal GBP Audit tool and made the necessary changes which have improved the number of calls and clicks the location is getting via their GBP. Now, you can demonstrate this by sharing the Insights tab in the GBP Audit report.

For example, the business below optimized their GBP at the end of October and you can see that this has increased the number of website clicks and views on mobile and maps they’ve got since then. 

How to Use BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses - Google Business Profile Audit Insights

BrightLocal Horizon

Continue to utilize BrightLocal Horizon to visualize progress across your MLB. This tool helps you monitor overall performance and determine where additional focus may be needed.

BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses

BrightLocal can equip your multi-location business with the tools you need to thrive in the competitive world of local search optimization. By understanding location performance, delivering on rankings and KPIs, and showcasing value to stakeholders, you can your own local SEO efforts to the next level. 

To get started and see how BrightLocal can benefit your business, we invite you to speak to our sales team. Start using BrightLocal’s tools and features strategically, and watch as your multi-location business reaps the rewards of enhanced visibility and success.

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What to Do With Local Search Grid Data https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/what-to-do-with-local-search-grid-data/ Thu, 09 Nov 2023 09:00:04 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=116957 BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid tool takes valuable data from Google Local Finder to provide insights that can be used to enhance your online presence. Here are some essential actions that you can take based on the data you find in your Local Search Grid reports.

1. Adjust Your Google Business Profile Categories

Adapting your Google Business Profile category can significantly impact your local search visibility and rankings. If your business category isn’t performing well in Local Search Grid it’s worth taking a look at the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table and seeing what your competitors have selected as their category. If your category is different then changing it could help to improve your rankings.

Primary category Local Search Grid

If the category you have selected is the most appropriate for your business and you don’t want to change it, then you can use the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table to check what secondary categories you and your competitors have selected and make changes there.

Additional categories Local Search Grid

2. Increase Your Reviews and Star Ratings

If you notice that your reviews or star ratings are lower than competitors within the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table, it’s time to take action. Try implementing a review generation campaign to encourage more positive reviews. Positive reviews can boost your online reputation and attract more customers.

Reviews and rating Local Search Grid

You can use our Reputation Manager tool to dig deeper and learn which platforms you need to gather more reviews on and easily create a review generation campaign. Find out how, here.

3. Boost Your Links

Links are a critical factor in SEO. If you notice in the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table that your website has fewer links than your competitors, invest in link-generation strategies to improve your online presence. Quality backlinks can help increase your authority and search rankings.

No of links Local Search Grid

Learn all about how to master local link building with Greg Gifford’s free course in BrightLocal Academy.

4. Address Location-Based Filtering

If your business isn’t ranking at its actual location on the geogrid (indicated by a blue pin), it may be subject to filtering by Google. This could be due to various reasons, including issues with your Google Business Profile.

Sterling Sky has written a great article about how to tell if your Google Business Profile is being filtered and what to do about it.

Local Search Grid Grid

5. Address Google Business Profile Conflicts

Suppose you notice that your business isn’t ranking at its address because other entities within your organization, like individual practitioners or service providers, are ranking higher. In that case, this could be due to sharing the same Google Business Profile category.

To resolve this, optimize the individual practitioners’ Google Business Profiles for different keywords or specialties. This can help reduce conflicts and improve your overall visibility.

 

6. Report Keyword Stuffing

Lastly, keep an eye out for keyword stuffing. If you notice any suspicious businesses using unfair tactics, utilize the ‘Flag’ button which takes you straight to Google’s Redressal Form to report them. This will help maintain fair competition and ensure that search results are more accurate and reliable.

Flag name spam

BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid is a valuable tool if you’re looking to enhance your local SEO efforts. By analyzing the data and taking these actions, you can improve your online visibility, reputation, and overall search rankings, ultimately driving more success for your business in the local market.

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How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/effective-client-reports-with-brightlocal/ Thu, 19 Oct 2023 08:00:21 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=115962 Client reports are a crucial aspect of any digital marketing agency’s workflow. They not only demonstrate the value of your services but also help in building trust and transparency with clients. 

In this blog, we will explore how to create effective client reports with BrightLocal, ensuring that you provide your clients with the information they need to make informed decisions and see the impact of your work.

Step 1: Choose Your Metrics Wisely

Before diving into report creation, it’s essential to determine which metrics are most relevant to your client’s goals and the services you provide. BrightLocal offers a wide range of metrics, including local search rankings, online visibility, citation tracking, and more. Select metrics that align with your client’s objectives and KPIs to keep the report focused and actionable.

BrightLocal provides a feature called Location Summary, which offers a consolidated view of essential local search data specific to a particular business location. This summary can be easily customized and shared with clients. You have the flexibility to remove any unnecessary data from the Location Summary page or even exclude the Location Summary page entirely from the white label dashboard.

You can generate reports for internal purposes without including them in the white-label dashboard. Some local SEO experts suggest keeping rank tracking internal while still running those reports for your own monitoring. 

In certain reports, specific data can be hidden from the white-label versions as well. For example, the Local Rank Tracker report allows you to hide certain elements.

How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal - Local Rank Tracker

The Local Search Audit report permits the omission of any sections you deem unnecessary. Simply go to ‘Edit Report Settings’ and use the checkboxes in Report Sections to choose what you don’t want to be included.

How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal - Local Search Audit

How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal - Report Sections

Step 2: Set Clear Goals and Benchmarks

Establish clear goals and benchmarks with your clients from the outset. What are they hoping to achieve with your local SEO services? Are they looking to increase website traffic, boost online visibility, or improve their local search rankings? By setting specific goals, you can tailor your reports to showcase progress and success in a meaningful way.

Step 3: Customize Your Report Templates

BrightLocal provides customizable report templates that allow you to tailor the report’s appearance and content to your client’s brand and preferences. You can add your agency’s logo, choose color schemes for all BrightLocal reports, and arrange the report sections to highlight the most critical information first. Customization helps create a professional and branded report that leaves a lasting impression.

How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal - Customize Your Report Templates

Step 4: Include Actionable Insights

Don’t just present data; provide actionable insights and recommendations. Use the metrics and data from BrightLocal to explain what the numbers mean for your client’s business. For example, if local search rankings have improved, explain how this translates into increased visibility and potentially more leads. Offering actionable insights demonstrates your expertise and value as a digital marketing partner.

The Notes Module in Brightlocal is a useful way to leave notes for your clients in their report dashboard or Location Summary page. They allow you to provide further value beyond statistical reporting by adding your expert insights, explanations, and suggestions alongside the charts and graphs. You can also use the Notes Module to leave internal notes for yourself or your team and hide these from your clients.

Here’s how you can add, delete, edit, and hide a Notes Module on a Location’s summary page.

Step 5: Visualize Data Effectively

Utilize charts, graphs, and visual representations of data to make the report more engaging and easy to understand. BrightLocal allows you to create visual reports that provide a quick overview of key metrics. Visualizations can help clients grasp trends and improvements at a glance.

Bonus Tip: Utilizing BrightLocal Data with Looker Studio

For agencies and marketers seeking advanced reporting capabilities and data visualization, BrightLocal’s flexibility extends beyond its native reporting features. You can leverage BrightLocal’s data by downloading and incorporating it into powerful reporting tools like Looker Studio. Doing so can unlock even more extensive data analysis, create interactive dashboards, and tailor reports to specific client needs. This empowers you to take your client reporting to the next level, providing in-depth insights and data-driven storytelling. 

Step 6: Provide Historical Data

Comparing current data with historical data can illustrate progress over time. Use BrightLocal’s historical data tracking to show how key metrics have evolved. This not only highlights improvements but also reinforces the long-term value of your services.

How to Create Effective Client Reports with BrightLocal - Historical Data

Step 7: Schedule Automated Reports

Save time and streamline your reporting process by scheduling automated reports through BrightLocal. You can set the frequency and recipients, ensuring that clients receive updated reports regularly. Automation helps you stay organized and ensures that clients are consistently informed about their progress.

Step 8: Review and Discuss the Report with Clients

Don’t just send reports and leave it at that. Schedule regular review meetings with your clients to discuss the report’s findings, answer questions, and align strategies. These meetings provide an opportunity to strengthen your client-agency relationship and adjust strategies based on client feedback and changing goals.

Summary

Creating effective client reports with BrightLocal goes beyond data presentation; it’s about delivering value, fostering transparency, and building trust. By choosing the right metrics, customizing reports, providing actionable insights, and maintaining open communication, you can ensure that your client reports serve as valuable tools that demonstrate the impact of your local SEO efforts. BrightLocal’s features and automation capabilities make the process efficient, allowing you to focus on delivering exceptional results and client satisfaction.

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How to Effectively Manage Practitioner Listings with BrightLocal https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/how-to-effectively-manage-practitioner-listings-with-brightlocal/ Wed, 27 Sep 2023 08:25:27 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=115722 Are you curious about practitioner listings and how they can benefit various professionals, from lawyers to fitness trainers? Practitioner listings offer a tailored approach to online business directories, allowing individual experts to showcase their skills and connect with potential clients seeking specialized services. 

In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of practitioner listings, offering insights into how they can enhance your online presence. Plus, we’ll delve into effective management strategies and show you how BrightLocal’s tools, such as Citation Tracker, can simplify the process. Whether you’re a medical practitioner, legal expert, wellness coach, or beauty professional, this guide will help you harness the power of practitioner listings to reach your target audience more effectively.

What are practitioner listings?

A practitioner listing is an individual Google Business Profile entry designed for public-facing professionals who belong to a larger business but offer independent services, such as lawyers, doctors, and hair stylists. It offers them the opportunity to establish a distinct online presence apart from the main business entity.

Practitioner listings offer a tailored approach to online business directories, enabling individual professionals to highlight their expertise and connect with potential clients seeking specialized services. 

Consider a scenario where your local dentist employs four dental practitioners, each with their own area of expertise. One dentist specializes in teeth whitening, while another excels in Invisalign braces. This is precisely what a practitioner listing is meant for—enabling each dentist to create a personalized listing that highlights their unique expertise and offerings.

What types of businesses are eligible for practitioner listings?

  • Medical and Healthcare Professionals: Doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and other healthcare practitioners.
  • Therapists and Mental Health Practitioners: Psychologists, counselors, therapists, and mental health professionals.
  • Legal Experts: Lawyers, attorneys, and legal consultants.
  • Wellness and Fitness Specialists: Yoga instructors, personal trainers, nutritionists, and wellness coaches.
  • Beauty and Aesthetic Professionals: Hair stylists, makeup artists, tattoo artists, skincare specialists, and other beauty experts.
  • Educational Tutors and Coaches: Academic tutors, life coaches, career advisors, and mentors.

What are the pros and cons of practitioner listings?

Practitioner listings can offer several advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

  • Increased Visibility: Practitioner listings can boost the online visibility of individual professionals within a larger business entity.
  • Personal Branding: Practitioner listings allow professionals to build and promote their personal brand, which can be essential for establishing trust and credibility among clients. Professionals can also keep this listing in the event that they move businesses/practices, allowing them to maintain their brand independent of their current business. 
  • Customization: Each practitioner can customize their listing with unique information, such as hours of operation, services offered, and customer reviews, showcasing their specific expertise and services.
  • Local SEO Benefits: Having separate practitioner listings can improve the local SEO for the business, increasing the likelihood of appearing in local search results.

Cons

  • Management Complexity: Maintaining multiple practitioner listings can be time-consuming and complex, especially for larger businesses with numerous professionals. Ensuring consistency in information across all listings can be challenging.
  • Potential for Confusion: Customers might get confused if there are multiple listings for a single business, each representing a different practitioner. This confusion can lead to misunderstandings or miscommunications.
  • Risk of Negative Reviews: Practitioner listings can receive negative reviews, which may impact the overall reputation of the business. Managing and responding to these reviews becomes important.
  • Dependency on Individual Practitioners: If a practitioner leaves the business or relocates, their listing may need to be updated or removed, which can be a hassle.

Effective management can help mitigate some of the drawbacks associated with practitioner listings. Let’s look at how some of BrightLocal’s tools can be utilized to efficiently oversee practitioner listings and address certain challenges linked to them.

How to Use BrightLocal to Help Manage Practitioner Listings

Citation Tracker

Citation Tracker can help you by automating the process of finding and auditing your citations, enabling you to quickly see where a business is listed, what data is displayed about the business, and where competitors are listed but your business is not. This is going to help you eliminate the challenge of ensuring consistency in information across all listings.

Start by creating a Citation Tracker report for the business. Once the report is set up, go to the Live Citations tab, and using the Site Type column, filter the Found Citations table to get a list of the niche directories. 

Citation Tracker

The aim here is to make sure that the most important existing niche listings for the business are correct and up-to-date. You can do this by clicking on the blue arrow in the Actions column which will take you to the citation where you can check that it has the correct information and make any changes. 

Citation Tracker

Next, go to the Competitors Citations tab and using the Site Type column, filter the table to get a list of the niche directories. 

Citation Tracker

If you notice that there are citations that your competitors have but you don’t, then it’s a good idea to go after them and level up the playing field. You can do this by clicking on the plus sign button in the Actions column which will take you to the site where you can then claim your listing. 

If you have a lot of citations that need claiming/building you can save yourself some time by ordering a Citation Builder campaign and we’ll do the hard work for you. 

The report should have also identified any existing practitioner listings (i.e. GBPs and niche listings), they will also be in the Live Citations tab. As mentioned earlier, customers might get confused if there are multiple listings for a single business, each representing a different practitioner. 

If there are practitioner listings in the report, now is a good time to see how they could be strengthened and any confusion minimized. 

For example, if the business has many practitioners that specialize in different aspects, then it could be a good idea to strengthen each individual listing, to help the company’s visibility for various search terms.

For example, a law firm might have someone specializing in criminal law and someone else who specializes in family law. Updating their practitioner listings to reflect these specialisms will not only minimize confusion but also help those listings rank for more specific searches. 

If there are several practitioners it might be worth running Citation Tracker reports for each one of them to get a deeper look at what niche citations exist and could be claimed to further enhance search visibility.

Google Business Profile Audit

Setting up a Google Business Profile Audit report for the business will help you to understand what primary categories competitors are using for your chosen search terms. 

You’ll see a tab for each of the search terms/keywords that you entered when setting up the report at the top of the table. The table in each keyword tab shows you the top 10 businesses that rank for each search term and where your business comes in that list. It also shows you the primary business category that each of your competitors is using in their Google Business Profile (GBP). 

GBP Audit

If the majority of competitors are using the same category but you have something different and you want to rank for the search term, then you might want to consider updating the primary category on your GBP. 

This is also a good place to see if any individual practitioner GBPs show up in the top 10 local search results and if they might be improved by updating their GBP category as well. Just like you did before, now is a good time to see how they could be strengthened and any confusion minimized. 

For example, updating practitioner GBP categories to reflect their specialisms will not only minimize confusion but also help them rank better for more specific searches. 

Local Search Grid

To dig a little deeper and further enhance the business and practitioners’ GBPs, you can run a Local Search Grid report for each search term and see what secondary categories competitors are using. 

Similar to GBP Audit, look at which primary and secondary categories your competitors are using and see how your business and any practitioners match up. 

Additional categories

Conclusion

Practitioner listings offer a unique opportunity for professionals across various fields to showcase their expertise and connect with potential clients in a personalized way. While they come with both advantages and challenges, effective management can help harness their full potential.

Citation Tracker, Google Business Profile Audit, and Local Search Grid offer powerful solutions to streamline the management of practitioner listings, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and improved visibility in local search results.

By leveraging these tools, you can not only enhance your online presence but also provide a seamless experience for clients seeking specialized services. Practitioner listings are a valuable addition to any professional’s digital marketing strategy, and with the right management approach, they can be a game-changer in reaching a target audience effectively and building a strong online reputation.

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New Academy Course: How to Build and Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/new-academy-course-how-to-build-and-grow-your-digital-marketing-agency/ Wed, 23 Aug 2023 08:00:13 +0000 https://www.brightlocal.com/?p=114977 So, you’re ready to build one of the best agencies in your niche. You have the industry knowledge, a list of loyal customers, and the passion to power the endeavor. You’re off to an amazing start.

But… do you have the necessary tools, support, and the know-how to dive in and build a successful business?

In this brand-new BrightLocal Academy Course–How to Build and Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency—aspiring agency owners will learn how to build and grow their agency from the ground up, and current owners will learn to scale their agencies to even greater heights than they’d ever imagined. 

Local SEO expert Greg Gifford, who has a long track record of turning small agencies to multi-million-dollar endeavors, teaches this course and shares the necessary technical knowledge and skills to help you create the agency that you’ve been dreaming about. 

Throughout the 11 lesson videos, Greg covers how to:

  • Define your agency by identifying target markets and potential clients as well as your services and packages;
  • Master the “adult stuff”—from legal entity formation to financial management;
  • Build and maintain a robust, capable team through strong management and a fulfilling work environment;
  • Develop a value-aligned pricing strategy and stay true to it with excellent sales strategies;
  • Make sure it all stays running smoothly, with a consistent team and customer base

By the end of the course, you’ll come away ready to take your agency to new heights.

Here’s Greg with an overview of the course: 

Who is this course for?

The course is targeted toward freelancers who are contemplating the prospect of building their very own agency and agency owners who have a strong desire to propel their existing ventures to even greater heights. 

How can I join?

Whether you’re a BrightLocal customer or not, you can get access to this course. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Simply log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

Learning Resources - BrightLocal Academy

You’ll need to create a free BrightLocal Academy account before you can enroll in the ‘How to Build and Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the same steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?  

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer and how long do they take?  

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

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