Tech Tools That Work Great For Local Online Marketing

Online marketing and traditional marketing have loads of technology choices to help make things easier, but getting as specific as local online marketing is a bit trickier. Marketing locally is one of the most effective ways for a company to gain a good ranking on a Google search engine results page (SERP), yet not many people have tapped into tools that specialize in just that. Many standard online marketing tools have different features and functions to cater to local search, but there are actually quite a few tools available that put a direct focus on your local search efforts. This then begs the questions: Where are these tools, how do they work, when can I get started, and why haven’t I heard of them?

The Where, When, Why and How of Local Search Tech Tools

There are quite a few different tools you can use specifically for local search and you can get started using them right away. Ranking locally will help people who can easily get involved with your business find your business, and these SERPs are far less competitive. A few of these tools include:

Local Search Rank Checker. This tool allows you to track up to 100 keywords and even schedule reports to come to you automatically. You will get four different types of reports include local search (other include organic and directory search). This is one of my favorite tools because it shows you previous numbers so you can easily compare and determine if your efforts are working.
Scheme Creator. This tool is a bit more advanced, but very successful nonetheless. Scheme creator will help you create markup which will then help you make sure that your content is crawled by Google as local.
Google Places Category Tool. This tool is one of the best because it allows you to see all Google Places categories in one place, which of course helps you choose the most relevant categories for your Google local listings. Google doesn’t always outright tell you which categories are best for your business, but this tool will help you pull out the categories that Google already has defined.
Local Search Toolkit. This is one tool that seems to make everyone’s top list. This tool allows you to type in keywords that you may want to target and will then pull all of the current top local results for that keyword. You can then look at all of the companies at the top and see lots of information about that company including their reviews, local citations, videos, etc. This often helps businesses set a standard of how much needs to be done to get to the top.
DIYSEO Local Report Card. This is one tool that doesn’t seem to get much publicity, but it’s one that’s useful and easy to understand. This is essentially a report that comes to you to help show you your current Google local ranking complete with emoticons for an easy, quick glace.

Do you know of any great local search tools that have helped your business? Let us know your ideas and tell us your story in the comments below.