SEO Tools Every Local Business Should Be Using

‍93% of all web traffic comes through search engines. The question is, what are you doing to make sure your website pops up when users look up certain keywords?

Whether you’re a dentist, a dental assistant, or a dental hygienist, using the following SEO tools can bring your small contractor business to a whole new level. Contact us so we can create the perfect SEO camapaign for your business.

Read on!

1. Google Analytics; Web Analytics

Set up you Google Analytics here.

Starting off with the basics: anyone who wants to get into SEO needs to use Google Analytics. After all, 92% of the search engine market share worldwide belongs to Google.

With Google Analytics, you’ll have access to a series of metrics that will let you know how your website is going and what you can work on.

The search engine giant also has other tools that are worth checking, such as Google Trends, PageSpeed Insights, and Google Search Console.

Are you ready for GA4?

2. Ahrefs; Keyword Research

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One of my favorite tools that I have years of experiences working with and have gotten a lot of good information and work done with this tool. It's a multifaceted tool that will be money well spent and they deliver a great email newsletter that I would highly recommend subscribing to help with your knowledge of SEO.

A big part of having a successful small business is keeping an eye on your competition and Ahrefs allows you to do just that.

Ahrefs allows you to perform a Content-Gap Analysis to check out what other keywords your competitors are ranking for and generating traffic from. Remember to always consider these keywords and if they fit the SMART model of your content strategy and if it is a keyword worth targeting. Additionally, they also include a Link Intersect feature which is similar to the Content-Gap Analysis but will show you backlinks that your competitors are currently linking to that you do not have. One easy win to help you point quality backlinks to your website.

That is just the tip of the iceberg on what this tool is capable of doing for your SEO and other areas of your digital marketing.

3. Google Search Console; Web Analytics

Add your website here.

Google Search Console (GSC)is an ideal tool to check out what queries and pages are getting noticed and clicks. But, remember it's only showing data from Google so be sure you are also set up on other types of webmaster tools like Bing Webmaster Tools.

GSC offers an abundance of information regarding your website that your can talk to your web developer about and get issues resolved that you may go unnoticed. You can check out the Site Coverage report to understand which pages are indexed and what pages are not so you can be sure that all your important content is getting crawled and noticed by the search engine.

You can even check out which backlinks Google is looking at based on your SEO strategy. Unlink other tools, GSC will not show you the site metrics of these websites but only show you which pages are generating backlinks. Still a great tool to utilize when it comes to cross-referencing the information with other powerful SEO tools.

4. BrightLocal; Citations

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The swiss-army of SEO tools, this all-in-one local tool can help make sure you are checking all the boxes and your local profiles are optimized and will even get you ideas on how to keep your local efforts performing.

Creating good titles for your website’s pages isn’t always an easy task, especially if writing isn’t your forte.

Portent’s Title Generator can help you with that: all you need to do is submit a keyword and this free tool will generate title suggestions, making sure they’re both creative and optimized.

5. Local Falcon; Local Rank Tracker

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I don't know why I keep this tool so far down the list, it local rank tracker will show your rankings in the local pack for various keyword searches. The website guarantees that you will be able to see 100% local visibility and understand where your competition ranks.

You can schedule reports to run automatically so you can get consistent reports and see if your local efforts are working. It uses a grid system and allows you to see how much of the market share you actually own.

If you want your local SEO strategy to be successful, this is the tool to add to your arsenal.

6. Screaming Frog; Technical SEO

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Screaming Frog is a website crawler and, like many others, it is free to use.

Now, you might be wondering… what exactly is a website crawler?! In order for you to know what your SEO strategy should include, you need to know what needs to be improved and that’s exactly the type of information that Screaming Frog gives you.

From broken links to duplicated pages or missing metadata, you’ll know exactly what you need to work on.

7. Agency Analytics; Reporting

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Agency Analytics can integrate with most of the tools outlined above and even comes with a rank tracker. The rank tracking tool will help you measure your rankings based on your SEO strategy and show any declines or improvements.

I like to tie this information with Ahrefs and Google Search Console to get a clear picture of the efficacy of the campaign.

Using SEO Tools to Boost Your Contractor Business

Knowing which local SEO tools you should pick will give you access to a lot of relevant data, which you’ll be able to use in order to grow your small contractor business.

If you need some help with your SEO strategy (or digital marketing overall), we’d love to give you a hand.

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