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How Much Does SEO Cost? 2019

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SEO Cost

How much does SEO cost? We know business owners are hoping for a straight answer here. You want a simple figure that will fit neatly into your monthly or annual budget. The reality is that the cost of SEO can differ dramatically depending on the SEO services you need or want.

Marketers should not be able to provide an SEO quote without gaining key information about their clients. Important factors include:

  • The current state of their marketing
  • Average revenue per sale
  • Close rate of leads to sales
  • Campaign goals
  • How quickly they want to see results
  • How is the current marketing budget allocated (ie. % of gross sales?)

Then, and only then should a price begin to emerge for SEO services. This partly explains why SEO pricing points can differ to such a great extent.

According to some polls, it’s possible to pay anything from $25 per hour for your service or up to $20,000 each month. The first fact we advise you remember when exploring the cost of SEO is that it will be a constant service or solution you need, instead of a one-off option.

Aside from goals and aspirations you have for your business, SEO pricing is also impacted by the type of service you want. It’s impossible to consider this aspect without exploring the issue of quality.

A lower price can mean low quality of service. For instance, you should be wary of a company offering their services for anything similar to $150 a month. Particularly when you consider that the average salary of pro SEO specialists is upwards of $60,000 per year. For such a low cost, a company is either relying on dangerous methods such as link schemes or will provide very little in terms of results.

It’s no surprise that spending so little would be low in terms of average spending for SEO. According to one survey:

  • 22% of businesses spend between $1000 and $2,500 per month
  • Only 7% are spending less than $500 per month
  • 21% are spending between $5,000 and $10,000

Again, there are significant variations here. It’s important to realize that businesses spending less than $500 are probably also focusing on local marketing.

SEO pricing can also be impacted by the type of professional you choose. If you want a pro with more than 2 years of experience, expect to pay nearly 40% more per hour and over double per month. Unsurprisingly SEO companies will on average charge close to double compared with freelancers and consultants.

Do be aware that most SEO professionals also charge a monthly retainer. According to an article from Business 2 Community, About ¾ of all search engine optimization professionals charge some sort of monthly retainer. The most popular retainer is between $2500 and $5000 dollars in the U.S..

It’s worth pointing out that most SEO tactics do require monthly attention, including link building and content marketing. Content and links must be constantly upgraded and improved on your site. This is why most business owners will be more than willing to pay a monthly retainer for a quality SEO service.

How Much Does Local SEO Cost?

You might be marketing to a local target audience. If that’s the case, we imagine you are asking the question: how much does local SEO cost? Good news, local SEO is comparatively cheaper than global SEO services. The best SEO professionals charge, on average, roughly 23% less for local services.

Similar to global SEO, the amount you pay will depend on the pricing models you are interested in and the search engine optimization package you need. Generally speaking, local SEO can be divided into three categories:

  • Automated Local SEO
  • Small-Scale Local SEO
  • Comprehensive Local SEO

Inbound Marketing Does Not - Capitola CA

Automated local SEO is the cheapest option and will ensure that business information is provided to directories. However, this will not boost your rating alone and to see real, beneficial results, you may need small-scale SEO. While not providing all the features, this can be enough to boost your ranking if you only operate in one location.

Comprehensive local SEO offers more in-depth options including: paid search management, content management, reporting, Google My Business management, social media, external linking, citation optimization, management of online reviews and much more. Services like this are also more transparent providing you information on exactly where your marketing money is being spent.

Reporting services provided with these more thorough local SEO services should focus on call tracking and conversions to help you clearly measure your ROI.

Other key performance metrics should include: rankings, backlinks, analytics, paid search, competition, website health, Google My Business, reviews, citations, email campaigns, and social media.

While automated local SEO can be obtained for as little as $300 per month, comprehensive services can be as much as $4000. However, these more intensive, detailed marketing campaigns can offer far greater value.

Beyond the typical differentiations between different company rates, local SEO pricing can be impacted by various factors including:

  • Industry – Some industries are more likely to market online and thus are more competitive. Lawyers, finance companies, locksmiths and car mechanics all fall into this category. We know this is largely based on how many monthly searches a specific industry has. For instance, a company seeing thousands of searches for their services a month will spend more on local SEO.
  • Geographic Location – Everything from the population of a city or what part of an area you are targeting will impact price. Even individual factors can have an impact. For instance, snow tire services would obviously be more competitive in Alaska compared with New Jersey.
  • Type of Service You Need – The fixed price will also often be determined by whether you want to optimize your site for search engines, gain traction on social media or build up content. While some companies will handle all areas, many will focus on individual needs.

You might be wondering whether ‘How much does local SEO cost’ is the right question. Perhaps a better alternative would be ‘How much should you be paying? When you look at different SEO consultants we think you should be exploring what you need to do to outrun your competition. Some business owners think it’s impossible to tell how well the competition is performing locally.

The truth is it’s quite simple. First, we need to complete some keyword research, exploring the top ten performers for keywords you are targeting. Exploring key stats and data like Domain Authority can also provide a clear picture of how your competitors are performing and what you’ll need to do to outrank them. Or, more importantly, how much you’ll need to spend.

Remember, according to Forbes: “If a business can’t be discovered on the web, via multiple channels, then it’s losing its competitive advantage.”

How Much Does SEO Cost for Small Business?

Testimonials

You would be right to assume that an SEO campaign for small business owners can be comparatively cheaper compared to a large company or corporation. SEO agencies always work to make SEO tactics scalable so that hourly rates and fixed pricing is affordable for a diverse range of clients. Indeed, according to one survey, more than 40% of SEO agencies offer multiple pricing models.

Multiple pricing models allow business owners to choose the solution that fits their needs. For instance, you can pay hourly and expect anything between $125-$150. Alternatively, fixed priced services can be anything between $500 up to $7,500. Or, you can choose a project based package and expect to pay anything from $1000 regardless of which services you need.

Again, for small business owners, there is no fixed cost to fall back on when asking: “How much does SEO cost for small business needs?” Instead, we recommend that you aim to spend at least $500 per month on SEO to see results and improvements that you can take to the bank. It’s best to consider SEO a long-term investment which provides fantastic value to you and your business. Just think about the power of a fantastic piece of content.

According to WordStream, “Compared to traditional marketing programs, content marketing costs 62% less and generates approximately three times the volume of leads.”

So, as well as providing results, high-quality SEO services for small businesses can also be cost-effective and provide fantastic ROI.

While $500 is the bare minimum you can pay, small business owners should be fitting between $1000 and $5000 into their monthly budget for SEO. Remember, that more experienced SEO professionals will be able to provide a scalable service without missing any of the crucial elements including:

  • Quality Content
  • Link Building
  • Optimization of Conversions
  • Accessibility and Usability of your Website
  • Social Media Management

Dominate Local SEO

Paying upwards of $10,000 per month will provide a fully managed SEO marketing campaign for your small business. Ultimately, this will allow you to forget about promotion complete and leave it all to an experienced SEO team. You might be surprised to learn companies can spend up to $100K per month on SEO depending on the keywords targeted and level of competition.

We hope this provides you with an insiders account and allow you to understand the cost of SEO as well as the factors that can impact how much you’ll pay.

At Foxxr we provide professional SEO services and solutions that are completely scalable to suit your business budget. With our expertise, you can outrank your competition without breaking the bank. Get in touch today or fill out a form and we’ll put together the perfect SEO package for you.

The Local Search Ranking Factors for Dummies

The Local Search Ranking Factors for Dummies

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The Local Search Ranking Factors for Dummies

Local SEO is changing. That’s why experts are constantly pinpointing the factors that affect local SEO. To make things easier, Moz started a survey wherein they ask a group of experts on what they think affects local search ranking factors. We are talking about the organic local search results, and the local stack/snack pack results.

Before we get to the details, we first need to understand how local SEO in cities like St. Petersburg works. Google loves its users, and it wants to make sure that they get what they want every time they do a search. That’s why Google provides not only the best match but also the nearest one when you do a search.

For example, if you typed in “surf lessons in St. Petersburg” on Google this will give you a bunch of links to businesses that best match the keywords you placed that are nearest to you. The idea is to provide you with a list of the best and nearest surf schools in St. Petersburg. Think about it, providing you a business that is on another state may not really help you out when you are looking for geo-specific results right away.

While this may seem like a cool idea for the general public, this is great news for businesses. You can easily reach your target as long as you appear on top of the list. But the question is, how can you become number one?

Moz and the Local SEO Gods

That is the very question the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors try to answer. Moz surveys local SEO experts try to give business owners a good idea on what they should and should not do to appear at the top of the list in local search results.

The Snack Pack

Let’s start with the factors that affect your visibility/inclusion in the local stack / snack pack. The snack pack is prime property that every local business should aim to own in search engine results. The local stack or snack pack is usually the first thing that comes up whenever a user makes a localized search. A local stack contains the name of the business, reviews, address, phone number, and availability. It is also worth noting that this local pack also comes with a snapshot of Google Maps showing the locations of each business relative to the location of the searcher.

local search ranking factors

Imagine how easy it will be for people to give you a call when your business is first on that list. Now, let’s see what factors will help you own some snack pack property. According to the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors 2015 report, the top 10 local stack/snack pack factors are the following:

  1. Physical Address in City of Search
  2. Consistency of Structured Citations
  3. Proper GMB Category Associations
  4. Proximity of Address to the Point of Search
  5. Quality/Authority of Structured Citations
  6. Domain Authority of Website
  7. Product / Service Keyword in GMB Business Title
  8. City, State in GMB Landing Page Title
  9. HTML NAP Matching GMB Location NAP
  10. Click-Through Rate from Search Results

Here’s a quick view of the Local Pack Ranking Factors.

Local Pack / Finder Ranking Factors

Notice that unlike the factors affecting organic search results, the local stack is heavily influenced by geo-targeted design and content. One thing that stands out is the proper GMB (or Google My Business) category associations. This is one of the main reasons why some businesses don’t appear on the snack packs no matter how much they optimize their websites. If you use the wrong category on GMB, your effort will be put to waste.

Local Organic Search Results

Let’s now take a look at the organic factors that can boost you to the top. Organic local listings, or natural listings, take up the bulk of the search engine results page and have the best long-term residual ROI. To get an organic listing in the top spot requires a slightly different set of tactics.

organic listing result

According to the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors 2015 report, the top 10 Localized Organic Factors are the following in exact order:

  1. Domain authority
  2. Quality of inbound links
  3. City, state in GMB landing page title
  4. Click-through rate from search results
  5. Topical Keyword relevance of domain content
  6. Diversity of inbound links
  7. Physical address in city of search
  8. Geographic keyword relevance in Domain Content
  9. Quality of structured citations
  10. City or state of website title tags

See below the Localized Organic Ranking Factors.

Localized Organic Ranking Factors

What we need to look at here is that although the localized organic search results are affected by basic SEO factors such as the domain authority and link number/quality, we also see that putting the city/state or general address can make you appear higher in local organic searches. You might want to talk to your web designer to update your website as needed and to your content manager to ensure that they geo-target your articles with mentions of the city or state on your content.

The Negative Ranking Factors

Now that we have seen the factors that will help you make the list, let’s try to find out what is detrimental to local SEO. The Moz Local Search Ranking Factors 2015 reports considered these 10 items as the top 10 negative ranking factors:

  1. Incorrect business category
  2. Listing detected at false business address
  3. Mis-match NAP / Tracking Phone Numbers Across Data Ecosystem
  4. Presence of malware on site
  5. Reports of Violations of your GMB location
  6. Mis-match NAP / Tracking Phone Number on GMB Landing Page
  7. Mis-match Address on GMB Landing Page
  8. Presence of Multiple GMB locations with Same Phone Number
  9. Absence of Crawlable NAP on Website
  10. Address includes suite number similar to UPS Mail Store or other false addresses

It is worth noting that one of the main reasons businesses fail in local SEO is because of very small (but sometimes overlooked) errors such as an incorrect business category, a miss-match in the NAP (name, address, phone number) or absence of the NAP in your own website. Having a partner to take care of your local internet marketing needs can help you ensure that your listings are correct and that your website is up-to-date.

Learn the Basics, Then Hire a Pro

Local SEO might be a bit of a puzzle for the ordinary business owner, but checking out the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors is a good way to know what needs to be done to dominate in the game. A local internet marketing partner like Foxxr in St. Petersburg (we like to toot our horn) can help you in creating a solid local SEO strategy. One that can land you spots in the local stack and the top spot in local organic search results.

Foxxr to host a series of get your business online with google workshops 300 - Capitola CA

Foxxr to Host Google Workshops – Get Your Business Online

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Foxxr to host a series of get your business online with google workshops 01 - Capitola CA

Foxxr Digital Marketing is helping small businesses grow their presence online with Get Your Business Online workshops, which will feature lessons for local businesses to Get Found on Google Search and Maps.

The workshop series will be hosted on Wednesdays twice per month beginning August 9th through December 20th in Capitola, CA at 706 Capitola Ave. Suite G from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm.

Get Your Business Online with Google brings community members, business owners, and civic leaders together to help small businesses succeed on the web.

“As a Google Partner, we are proud to be part of this program to help our local businesses grow online”, says Brian Childers, Founder and CEO of Foxxr.

“4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find local information nearby, yet only 37% of businesses have claimed their listing on a search engine,” says Emily Harris, Manager of Google’s Get Your Business Online program. “Small businesses are the engine of local economies and when they flourish, their communities do as well.”

Get Your Business Online is a program that empowers communities to support their local businesses and encourage them to get on the map. Local businesses keep our communities strong; when we help them succeed on the web, they make our communities even stronger. The Get Your Business Online workshop is a Google presentation hosted by Foxxr Inc. Visit www.gybo.com to learn more about the program and get involved.

Please RSVP here

About Foxxr Digital Marketing

Foxxr is a Digital Marketing Agency and Google Partner that represent your brand and conveys your message in the strongest ways possible. We have spent several years perfecting strategies and methods to get businesses’ top online rankings and more sales. We work with our clients to provide a custom plan of action to help them rise above the competition, drive online traffic and attract new business.

About Get Your Business Online

Get Your Business Online is a program designed to empower communities to support their local businesses by helping them get on Google Search and Maps for free. Businesses that are online grow 40% faster than those that aren’t. Let’s help every local business get their information online. Explore our site to learn how you can join in, support businesses in your community, and put your city on the map.

How Local SEO Services Work

How Local SEO Services Work

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Local SEO Service - St. Petersburg

Marketers across the country are finding that the use of SEO in their business is becoming more significant every year. It’s no secret that traditional print advertising budgets for small business are taking a back door to online marketing through search engines and social media.

This study from MarketingDive.com showed that 81% of marketers saw their SEO bring more effectiveness to their marketing goals and business generation efforts. SEO is a great way to capture local attention in your marketplace. It is also a considerable way to build your business and brand. Good solid content that has been optimized can stay around for years, bringing your business online traffic with long-term residual value.

While producing SEO may seem quite laborious in the beginning, the prospective results are worth it. Building up a blog or website that answers client questions and provides useful information will have staying power that will work for you without having to spend millions of dollars.

Why Local SEO Matters?

Local SEO Package - St. Petersburg CA

If SEO is important to your business, Local SEO is paramount to building a solid local online presence. A new study on Think with Google, reported that 30% of mobile searches are related to location and 76% of people that do a local search on a mobile device visit that store or business within 1 day. Additionally, 28% of those searches result in a purchase.  This shows that ranking high in a local search should be an important factor for your business!

local seo is important

It is also noteworthy to remember that contribution helps to gain trust and people will appreciate the information you share with them. So it makes sense to produce local content, content that is valuable to those living within your community and surrounding areas.

The challenge to producing local SEO content is relevancy. Google is the largest and most popular search engine and it wants to give those searching for information the best match possible, as quickly as possible. It uses an ever-changing algorithm to help determine what the searcher is looking for. Simply put, you should generate content that answers questions to help users reach a more informed decision to do business with your company.

Hiring a Local SEO Company

I often tell my clients that it’s a full-time job to stay on top of SEO and another full-time job to implement it. If you want your business to be a leader in local online search and other digital marketing channels, you may want to hire a Local SEO company. Having someone do the work for you will allow you to work on other parts of your business. Make sure you are hiring the right company. There are a lot of agencies out there that promise unbelievable results for hundreds or thousands of dollars without delivering results. They should have proof that they have what it takes to drive more online traffic and sales for your business.

Key Things to Consider When Hiring a Local Seo Company:

  • How Will They Increase Your Rankings?– A good local SEO company should be able to tell you exactly what they are going to do to increase your rankings. You want to hire a company that has a solid and proven plan to increase traffic using whitehat techniques. A Google penalty can harm your business for months or even years.
  • Can They Show You Results? – If an agency is stating that they have many customers ranking at the top of search engines, get proof. Ask for the business names and contacts and call those contacts to make sure they are current clients of company you are considering. Perform a Google search yourself and see if these companies do really come up as a top search on Google.
  • How will they measure their Effectiveness? – The local SEO company you hire should have plans in place as to how they will measure what is working and what they are doing to get you the results you want. These may include increased rankings for certain terms, increased traffic to the site, increased contact and lead form completion and an overall increase in business.
  • Will You Retain Full Access to Your Account? – Many SEO companies will make changes that leave their clients without access to their own accounts. It is important that you keep this access in case you need to make changes. You don’t want to leave the current SEO company only to lose access to all the work you have paid for.

Invest  in Paid Search, Local Pack and Organic

Paid Search vs Local SEO

A complete campaign involves all areas of search results. The more real estate you own on the search result page, the more likely you will get the click through. Perform a search for any popular local service like plumber, dentist or chiropractor. If you find a search result for a business that occupies all three sections, chances are they are engaged in a Local SEO Campaign.

Search result layouts changes often because Google is always experimenting with their search engine result pages (SERP) to deliver the best user experience. You’ll notice lately that Google’s ads occupy more real estate, and the local maps section is limited to only three listings! Below that 3-pack, you’ll find organic results which still get a significant percentage of the clicks.

Here is a Quick Summary on Each Component:

  • Paid Search – This can help you get faster results. You can target specific keywords and phrases, demographics, locations, retarget to existing visitors on your website and email lists, create display ads on specific websites within the Google Display Network and use many other creative ways to reach your audience. Ongoing analysis and optimization are critical for any paid search campaign. Otherwise, you may quickly find that you are overpaying and getting poor results.
  • Local SEO – This is the process by which a local business strategizes to get found in search results based on geography. It’s the highest converting of the three due to the user intent when searching locally. There are many working components to getting ranked locally that involve: directory management, reputation management, on page optimization, link building, and other local optimization techniques.
  • Organic SEO – Most local businesses will rank organically in addition to the local pack. If you operate a service business outside of your city, you may have to create geo targeted pages that are relevant to those locations without being spammy or creating doorway pages that will get you in trouble with Google. A practice for many businesses is to produce pertinent content (written, video, audio, etc) that will help your business be recognized as an authority and expert in your field. There are hundreds of factors that will help your business rank and get traffic. Think of it as a popularity contest for your website and social channels. Just be sure to obtain that popularity naturally or “organically”.

Average Cost and Pricing Structures of Local SEO

The cost of local SEO services will vary depending on the amount of service you are getting and the level of expertise you receive. You will find that many companies provide different packages so that you can choose the right package for your needs. These companies may also charge a one-time setup fee.

Local SEO pricing can be charged in many different ways. You may pay an hourly fee, monthly fee, single project fee, performance-based fee or a la carte. A la carte is where you pick exactly what you want. Here is a quick look at the advantages and disadvantages of each type of package.

A recent study by Bright Local reveals that the average local business customer pays $1358 per month and the median cost is between $500 to $1000 per month. This study also found that there are still a number of small businesses only willing to pay $500 or less. What is disturbing about this is the limited resources a typical agency can apply to such a project at the going rate of $100 per hour. Our finding at Foxxr is that executing our arsenal of strategies to be successful would require a minimum of 10 hours per month.

 

Average Cost of Local SEO Services

  • Monthly Fee – the most common pricing model for most companies and is a great way to set it and forget it with a trusted company.
  • Hourly – Using a provider that charges an hourly fee means that nothing is connected to results and you may end up paying more for very little results.
  • Single Project Fees – great if you are looking to pay one lump sum. You may end up paying too much for services you don’t need and there is no flexibility to change things as you go.
  • Performance Based Projects – this means that you pay for results and nothing else. This can push the provider to use competitive search terms that will end up costing you a lot of money. It can also
  • A La Carte – allows you to pick what you need at the price you need. Many companies offer this in a monthly package style, allowing you to choose the right package for your needs. The disadvantage to this can be that you may not choose the right package and may never learn about the different SEO tactics that can explode your business.

Company Size and Local SEO Pricing

The size of your company will influence how much you pay for Local SEO. It also makes a different as to how much you can afford to put into SEO to help grow your business. Here are some guidelines as to what you can expect to pay.

  • Small Business – Many small businesses pay from $500 – $1500 a month on their Local SEO marketing costs. You will want to find a company that can provide you with the highest quality work and options to provide extra services, which benefit your business. Small businesses often do best when using Local SEO as they are trying to grow a local following.
  • Medium Sized Business – Medium sized businesses will pay between $1000 – $5000 a month. Local SEO can help medium-sized businesses build on their already established presence in a town or city. These are usually multi-location brands in highly competitive markets.
  • Large Business – Large businesses can find themselves paying at least $5000 a month for Local SEO. These may be large national or international companies that are looking to gain trust in new markets and keep their brands in front of people.

Like any good service, price does matter. As a business owner, you need to stay within a budget. However, choosing the cheapest provider isn’t always the best option. You may go for the cheapest provider and end up wasting money because they are not providing the service your business needs. They may not have the right skill level to help you build your business.

When you think about how much you pay on other sources of marketing and what they add to your business, SEO can be a very smart investment. The U.S Small Business Administration suggests using 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue on marketing. Using your marketing budget on Local SEO Services could see your business grow quickly in your local space.

Services Included with Local SEO

When you pay for Local SEO services they should at the least include some basics, look for the following when choosing a package:

You should expect to see much similar services included in the Local SEO pricing packages when choosing an agency. Be sure to compare packages to make the best choice for your company and your budget.

Local SEO and Your Business

Cost of Local SEO

Local SEO offers a significant advantage when it comes to building your brand and company. It provides a way for you to build trust through reputation management and favor throughout your community.

Getting Local SEO right is important. If you don’t know what you are doing, you may spend wasted time writing blogs and updating your website just to find you are not getting the traffic you expected. If you are looking forward to building a local presence with your prospective and future clients, hiring a Local SEO company is a smart move.

The team at Foxxr specializes in Local SEO that will build your brand and your business. We offer a range of packages to fit your company’s needs. Ask us our results for small businesses in the St. Petersburg area and start seeing the same results in your business.

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Easy and Painless Local Directory Management

Local Business Listings Optimization Made Easy

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Easy and Painless Local Directory Management

We live in a world where everything is faster, people want their information quick, factual, and fresh. This is the very reason why local business listings optimization is important even to this day. But with the number of available local business directories online, how can you possibly claim, create, or update each one?

Easy and Painless Local Business Listing Management

For many local business owners and Internet marketing agencies, managing citations is a top priority. A wrong listing will only mean that people may not be able to contact your website. Additionally, Google may penalize your online presence due to misinformation with your local business listings.

In order to remove any possible problems with regards to business directories, certain groups have devised an “automatic” way of managing your business listings. This automated management system allows you to have a consistent and factual listing across all the directories online.

Which Directory Listing Services Are the Best?

Here at Foxxr, we recommend three of the best Local Directory Management tools and services. They are Moz Local, Yext Powerlistings, and Bright Local. Aside from being the forefront names in the world of directory listings management, all three offer a reliable and user-friendly approach to local directory listings management.

Qualities of Our Top Three Local Listing Services

Moz Local

Moz Local helps you manage and send your NAP (name, address, phone number) and your listing to all major data aggregators. These data aggregators then send the information they got from Moz Local into smaller directories. The best part about Moz Local is that the tool allows you to view and audit existing citations online to see if you have duplicates or if the information is complete.

Moz Local has three plans to choose from: Essential ($9/month or $99 / year), Professional $15 / month or $179 / year) and Premium ($21 / month or $249 / year). View the comparison chart to determine which plan is best for your company or agency. Moz Local currently supports U.S., U.K., and Canadian business listings only. Click Here to purchase Moz Local.

Moz Local Listing Service

 

Yext

Yext brands themselves as the “1-stop solution” for all your citation problems. With over 60 different directories in their network including: Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Yelp, Yahoo and most recently Google+, you can rest assured knowing your citations are present in all of these directories. Yext also offers a very powerful dashboard which gives you the capability to manage and take control of each of the listings. Unlike Moz Local which sends information to data aggregators, Yext directly submits the data to 60+ different local directories within their network. Additionally, Yext gives their users a way to quickly update their data on each directory and the capability to promote special offers.

Yext Power Listings

With the recent launch of its Google My Business(GMB) API, Google introduced the biggest change to location search since Yext launched PowerListings® in 2011. The new API creates a completely new way for businesses and platforms to get information about their locations into Google Search, Google Maps, and ads.

There is a myth that if you cancel Yext, all of your listings revert back to the old data that used to be wrong. The truth is that Yext will just remove the lock that they placed on your listing which protected the Power Listing and the enhanced content such as: images, hours or operation, menus, biographies, featured messages, etc.. Removing this lock may cause the data to become disrupted due to the data gathering performed by data aggregators, publishers, and search engines. Additionally, any duplicate suppressions performed by Yext will no longer be suppressed, causing all of those duplicates to be exposed again. Think of Yext as a large cover with accurate data for your business that would be removed if your subscription is cancelled. Our recommendation is to stay on a Yext subscription.

Scan your business today for free with our Yext Power Listings Tool to get a complete report. 

BrightLocal

The only “manual” management service in the list, BrightLocal is still a solid contender. A few minutes after signing up, BrightLocal lets you use a feature they call the Citation Tracker. In a nutshell, it creates a report for the client that includes the vital information (who, what, where), currently listed citations online, and the best opportunities for new citations. This report gives each client a small snapshot of where they are and what is the next-best step. As soon as you check the Top 10 and Top 50 directories, BrightLocal gives you the website information or a link to get a citation. This means you have to manually create a citation per directory. Citation Tracker

Another BrightLocal feature to watch out for is their Citation Burst. Citation Burst is a paid service wherein you will let do BrightLocal do the submissions for you at 3$ per submission. The good thing about is that while BrightLocal does the listing for you, the citation will be “owned” by the customer so cancelling your account will have no detrimental effects to your listings. Citation Burst is perfect for directories that are hassle-prone and some industry specific directories.

BrightLocal now offers submissions to four of the top data aggregators, including: Factual, Neustar, Acxiom and Infogroup. The cost is $55 / year and may be a more affordable option than Moz Local.

The Quest for the Best Local Directory Listing Management Service

Managing your local directory listings shouldn’t be too troublesome with these tools in tow. But what like the old masters say, a simple tool can become a powerful weapon in a master’s hands. There’s using the tools and there’s maximizing each one. Each one of the tools mentioned above presents a learning curve. Aside from that, some of the more comprehensive tools might not get maximized in the hands of a regular business owner. This is where professionals come in. Local business directory management professionals specialize in using these tools to its potential. If you want to keep a solid listing management campaign, getting hold of any of these tools and a professional to use them should be an integral part.

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How Google Plus Changes Affect Your Local Business Listing

How Google Plus Changes Affect Your Local Business Listing

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We all know that Google+ is unofficially dead. This was when Google decided to scrap parts from the original social media platform into usable parts. Good thing they left Hangouts alone though. Recently, in what seems to be another move to rebrand Google+, Google decided to scavenge another feature of the original Google+ – Local Business Listings.

google plus vs google maps vs google my business

The New Google Plus

This new Google+ revamp is an attempt to create a user experience focused on the Google+ communities and collections according to sources. If you never visit Google+ and own or manage a local business, pay close attention and read on.

new-google-plus-format

Why Your Local Business Listing is Important

Google is still a giant and controls 63.9% of the search market share. Your local business listing details displayed on Google come from a variety of different sources and are meant to provide users with the most complete and up-to-date information possible. Many of the details come from the information you provide Google when creating and updating your local business page.

Before, people can just go to your Google+ business page to leave a review. But now, Google decided to separate the listing itself and the Google+ business page. They will be considered two different entities from now on. As a result of this change, users can no longer leave reviews on your new Google+ page. Instead there is a new Google Maps URL (which users can leave reviews) for your local business listing. The link to the maps listing can be found here at Google My Business Dashboard.
new-google-plus-my-business-dashboard

Google Plus Reviews is Still Important for Your Business

As an Internet Marketer, one thing is clear. Users searching for local businesses are increasingly relying on the feedback of others to make an informed decision about your business. Try a branded search for your business and you’ll see that your local business listing (if setup properly) appears in the search result. You’ll also see that reviews are front and center. Search for any local business on your mobile device and you’ll see the local business listing 3-pak with the number of reviews listed immediately after the company name. By the way, your listing information is managed in the Google My Business Dashboard. This is where you carefully select the categories, update operating hours, address info, etc.
new-google-plus-business-listings
The bottom line is that your Google Local Business Listing is now tied only to Google maps and search results. This is where people can read and leave reviews. Your Google+ page is more socially oriented and involves niche communities. Personally, I see this as a way for Google to separate and make the most out of the good parts of Google+ and leave the platform itself as a purely social-centric platform.