Local rank tracking and local SEO in general is a large part of what I do for a living and I was going to write this product introduction in a way that would imply that I had just discovered BrightLocal and had been blown away by it.

My “intregity” however, quite rightly, got the better of me – the truth is I’ve long been a fan of BrightLocal and their superb toolkit for local rank tracking and Local SEO projects. I’ve only decided to write about it specifically, as opposed to a general BrightLocal review, which  I’ve already done, because local rank tracking is now a major issue due to Google’s recent shake up of the local search results page.

The image above shows the range of local rank tracking and other SEO tools which are available from the BrightLocal dashboard. This short BrightLocal review is focused on the local rank tracking capabilities of the platform and I have covered the other tools in different reviews. The reason I wanted to highlight local rank tracking is because I believe that it is an essential part of almost all local SEO campaigns and, in fact, a vital part of all local digital marketing campaigns.

Google really threw everything up into the air when they rearranged the search results page (SERP), layout for local searches. In comes the local map results and the “pack” results which, up until then, had not really been an issue for local businesses.

Now, they are!

Regardless of whether you choose to use a platform such as BrightLocal or not, every business that trades in their local community should, at the very least, make sure that their Google My Business listing is complete, up to date and, most important of all, verified. Doing that will pretty much make sure that your website and business details are shown when someone is looking for the products or services that you supply, in your area.

Once all of that is done, the issue of competitors comes into focus. OK so your business is appearing in local search results, but where – at the top, halfway down, on the second or subsequent pages? Why are other businesses doing better than you?

There are many reasons why this kind of thing might be happening but before you can really start to understand those reasons, you should try to get a clear picture of how you compare to the other businesses and how you rank for the keywords or phrases that are important to you. BrightLocal’s local rank tracking tools will help you with that.

BrightLocal have a local rank tracking tool which has been specifically designed from the outset to monitor your organic, mobile, and local search rankings from  a single dashboard. This means that you can quickly react to changes that might occur.

Once set up, (it’s really easy), you can track your business’ organic, mobile, and maps rankings on every relevant platform such as Google Search, Google Maps, Yahoo, Yahoo local, Bing, and Bing Local. One clever feature is that it enables you to see the SERP results from any location as if you were actually located there and monitor your progress against your competitors. If you are not doing well for a particular keyword, you can see who is, and then begin to understand why.

See how you rank for all the keywords that are important to you, on every local platform

Tools like this, and BrightLocal’s Citation and Google My Business audit tolls really do make local rank tracking and optimisation a realistic prospect, even for non-professsionals.

BrightLocal’s local rank tracking and other local SEO tools are included in a very reasonable monthly subscription which starts at $29/month for a single business subscription. There’s a free 14 day trial which I strongly suggest that you take and see for yourself just how useful these tools can be.