BrightLocal Review: How it Improves Online Visibility for a Business in 2023

BrightLocal Review: In-Depth

BrightLocal is a tool that enhances business connections through localized marketing. The platform uses integrated SEO and citation building, among other aspects, to increase the virtual presence of an enterprise. Under one dashboard, brands can manage their internet reputation and monitor reviews to attract more local clients.

This tool consists of four subscription plans in addition to citation building services. In 2023 it is most suitable for marketing agencies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and freelancers. The product consumers should be 18 years and above.

Key Features

• Local Search Rank Checker
• Citation Tracker
• Citation Building
• Local Search Audit
• Google My Business Audit
• Reputation Manager
• Agency Lead Generator
• White-Labeling

BrightLocal Review: Background Information

The company dates back to 2009, with Myles Anderson and Ed Eliot as its founders. It originally started in the UK. Now, the platform supports eighteen countries, including the US, Australia, and Canada. 

The company’s headquarters is in Brighton, England. It consists of 150 employees, with Myles Anderson as the current CEO and Ed Eliot as the CTO. 

The company comprises of the following employees working in four countries:

• Customer Success Department
• Business Development Team
• Product Team
• Engineers
• Operations Team
• Marketing Department
• Citation Building Team

Informational Heading

BrightLocal generates an estimated 6.5M yearly revenue. Over 90,000 agencies, marketers, and SMBs use this software.

Features and Technical Details

This software comes with tools that help companies to grow their online visibility to regional consumers. It offers SEO reporting, aggregator submissions that are cost-effective as well as excellent citation building.

SEO

BrightLocal seeks to simplify local marketing by using a single utility that consolidates local SEO efforts. The use of its search engine optimization tools allows users to dominate community lookup.

Here is a review of the SEO feature enhancement tools:

• Enabling the analysis of competitors
• A dashboard that is easy to navigate
• Comprehensive auditing
• Tracking of keyword ranking
• Localization of commerce marketing
• Tools to enhance keyword research
• Mobile keywords integrate mobile search
• Google Analytics Integration

Features in Detail

As an all-in-one platform, BrightLocal is a feature-rich internet service. This multi-purpose software provides local marketing solutions under four powerful products. Find out more in the features review.

Local Search Rank Checking  

The site gives the platform for enterprises to benchmark their rankings against competitor firms on search engines. The program enables firms to monitor these rankings in mobile, maps, local pack, or organic rankings. It is also easy to identify the keywords that generate a high lookup volume using this feature.

Tracking of Enterprise Citation

Citations form an integral part of Local SEO strategy as they are the virtual references for a regional company. A citation consists of the brand name, address, and an accessible phone number (NAP).

Companies can choose sites that will cause their listings to make an impact. After obtaining the citations, enterprises need to ensure constant tracking, and this is where this feature comes in.

Here are some citations tracking methods:

• Spotting NAP issues
• Identifying top sites to display citations
• Identifying and deleting duplicated listings
• “Spying” on the competition
• Easy management of campaigns 

Building a New Business Citation

The platform supplies the tool to generate a catchy internet reference through citation building. 

This involves the following:

• Ensuring consistent NAP through manual cleanup work
• Establishing citations that are new and accurate on sites where they aren’t established
• NAP data distribution through local aggregators
• Removing any duplicate citations
• Creating regional listings on Google My Business and Bing.

Audit Report on Local Search

This utility provides a full regional search engine optimization check within a short time and issues an overall score in optimization effort areas. 

These are:

• Off-site SEO
• On-site SEO
• Citations
• Google + local
• Search rankings
• Social media

These sections generate a score that enables users to prioritize their strategies on Local SEO. This feature is suitable for marketing agencies as these firms end up branding the audit reports, which are then presented to the client.

Generation of Google My Business Audit

GMB scrutiny delivers a central viewpoint for customers to check their ranking signals. 

These include:

• Citations
• Categories
• Review count
• Domain Authority
• Links
• Star rating
• Local phone usage
• Address usage

Users acquire a report providing a detailed comparison between the competitor and themselves. This then calls for improvements in slacking areas to ensure a company stands out in a domestic search.

Online Reputation Management

The platform enables positive reputation building and monitoring. 

Here’s how this is possible:

• Earning positive reviews on the site
• Replying to customer reviews on the app
• Feedback funnel that helps users monitor reviews

Lead Generation for Agencies

This tool provides a LeadGen widget to enable these agencies to turn the website visitors into their clients. 

This widget is available in these formats:

• Sidebar
• Panel
• Pop-up

Informational Heading

The site also supplies agencies with the platform to manage the leads hence setting priorities on hot prospects.

Report and Emails White-labeling

This service helps organizations to generate reports to customize their brand or logo to share with customers. This process is useful to firms and agencies using the utility to ease their report generation workload while improving their branding effort.  

BrightLocal Plans & Pricing

This software consists of four price packages. Each package gets billed on a monthly or annual basis. The yearly billing provides two months of a free trial. BrightLocal does not support a free version but issues a 14-days trial.

Single Business Plan

This package is suitable for small firms. It limits these companies to manage a maximum of three locations. This means that reports generated will consist of up to three areas. The Single Business package consists of a monthly billing of $29. Purchasing of the annual plan provides these companies with a two-month free use. It comes with a limited report number.

Pros

• Suitable for small organizations and first-time consumers
• Affordable monthly cost
• Exposes enterprises to 3 locations
• Consists of essential factors to increase web visibility
• Third-party integrations access

Cons

• Limited features
• Prone to exhaustion
• Not ideal for larger businesses

Multi Business Plan

This package contains additional benefits as compared to the Single Business plan. It is most suitable for medium-sized entrepreneurs and agencies. The Multi Business package allows the buyer to manage six locations. 

It starts at $49 a month and also comes with a two-month free trial for annual payments. This plan has additional reports and comes with white-label options.

Pros

• More aspects than a cheaper plan
• Additional keywords use
• Suitable for medium-sized enterprises and upcoming agencies
• Additional location management
• Access to white label options

Cons

• Unsuitable for small businesses or new buyers
• It is expensive

SEO Pro Plan

This is the final package in terms of location management. It is most suitable for enterprises and agencies that are already established and looking to increase their customer base. This complete plan provides a wider range of options as compared to the previous two. SEO Pro enables these firms to manage up to 100 locations. 

Pros

• Considered the best value package
• Has a wide range of tools and options
• Provides a more significant marketing area (100 locations)
• Suitable for established businesses and agencies
• Access to Google mobile for easier tracking
• A bigger scope on review monitoring

Cons

• Expensive
• Not suitable for growing businesses

Just Reviews Plan

As the name suggests, this package solely focuses on a business’s online reputation. It provides a dedicated plan that enables the monitoring, generation, and showcasing of reviews. It is suitable for all businesses and marketing agencies and freelancers. Just Reviews costs $8 every month.

• Focuses on virtual reputation management
• Allows consumers to monitor their reviews
• Affordable
• Suitable for all businesses and freelancers
• Enhances internet reputation thus visibility

Cons

• Consists of reputation management options only
• Has no third-party integrations

Price & Key Features Comparisons Table

Terms & Conditions

This program consists of terms and conditions that govern their service providence. The terms comprise two sections. Section A consists of general conditions that apply to the service buyers. Section B consists of terms laid out for agency business customers.

In order to use this product, one should agree to them. Here are a couple of things worth noting.

• Users must be at least 18 years of age and can legally enter into binding contracts
• Each user can only have one account, and the creation of multiple accounts can lead to the termination of all of them.
• The company has the right to make changes to these terms whenever and notify its members over these changes.
• The contract entered by an agency and BrightLocal provides a relationship of independent contractors.
• Any breach of terms will lead to the termination of the contract. 

Privacy Policy

The company seeks to protect its consumers’ personal information. They do not sell any of this data to third-party sites. However, the platform may consist of links to third-party applications, websites, and plug-ins. These may collect or share a user’s personal data when clicked on.

Here are ways in which the application collects users’ personal information:

• Users directly give the information through account creation, providing feedback, and more
• Interaction with the software
• Publicly available sources

Refund Policy

BrightLocal does not provide a refund on all subscription payments. Customers can contact customer support if they have any payment issues. 

Customer Support

The platform provides diverse customer support to ensure users experience no issues with the product. This support system is always ready to take suggestions and improve the platform to use the aspects better.

Users can seek help from various contact channels listed below. 

Telephone

The enterprise does not provide a telephone contact for call support. However, customers can schedule a call with a product expert through various meeting types.

• Live Group Demo: It takes an hour and is most suitable for new customers.
• Agency Discovery Call: It’s a 45 minutes call ideal for agencies.
• Enterprise Discovery Call: Best for multi-location businesses, this call takes 30 minutes.
• Customer Success Call: This is a 30 minutes call that involves customers making inquiries about their account setup or seeking clarification on the platform’s elements.

Email

The company’s email address is [email protected]. Users can access this type of support on the website as well. This is achievable by:

• Click on the Support widget
• Click on Contact Us
• Choose the ‘Send us an Email’ option 

Online Chat

The site provides live chat contact support on the company’s website. The site has a Support Widget at the bottom right, which delivers real-time help. Online chat hours are Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm Eastern Time.

Support Center

BrightLocal website has a support center that provides solutions to FAQs. The team also has access to social media platforms used to engage with their product consumers. These include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Quality of Service

Based on customer reviews, this tool is an all-in-one platform that provides neighborhood marketing solutions. Users can update regional online directories while adding to new ones. It also enables better digital marketing through the SEO progress tracking tool. This allows the keeping of multiple marketing facets under one CRM.

However, the platform does not enable one ranking report to generate multiple geo-locations. Despite this, the software’s team seeks to update it and improve its better user experience in 2023.

Customer Types

In 2023, this internet service is essential for specific customers. It creates simple community merchandising, identifies improvement opportunities, enhances online visibility, and provides an excellent web reputation. This software also enables customers to rise against their competition and improve their workflow at a reasonable cost.

Therefore, here is a list of customers who commonly use and benefit from this application:

• SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises)
• Marketing Agencies
• SEO Agencies
• Freelancers

BrightLocal Alternatives

BrightLocal isn’t the only app that focuses on increasing an enterprise’s online visibility by regional merchandising. There are other alternatives to this online service. Here is a review of them.

Yext: Business Information Update

This is location management online service that automatically updates business data across search engines and major online directories. Yext also allows the creation of new listings for a company and the updating of existing citations. It has no free version, and its pricing package starts at $199 a year with a free training session.

Moz Local: Continuous Data Syncing

This application consists of a tool that allows continuous listing management. Location data is continuously synced to affect the visibility of a business on search engines positively. The annual Basic plan for Moz Local starts at $129 with a 30 days free trial.

Whitespark: Convenient Citation Building

This software provides community search engine optimization services, citation building, cleanup tools, and audits for domestic and multi-location businesses. The platform’s aggregator fees do not recur. Whitespark has a free starter package, and its basic plan (for small companies) starts at $20 a month.

Synup: Priority Local Listing Focus 

This app focuses on domestic listings and managing them as well as regional lookup reporting. Businesses can follow up on their internet rankings and reviews using Synup. The app has a basic pricing package of $30 per month under a 12-month agreement.

Alternatives’ Table of Comparison 

FAQ Section

Why Get This Tool?

BrightLocal is a useful app that provides a platform for local businesses to improve their online visibility in 2023. It is highly essential since it allows companies to advance their search engine optimization strategies while monitoring competitors. The interface comes with an easy to navigate and all-in-one dashboard.

Despite having outstanding elements to help promote a business, users must consider their company needs. This will enable one to acquire the most suitable price package or software utility for 2023that meets their every need.
Let us know about your experience using this tool.