Best Local SEO Services for Small Businesses

Local SEO Services for Small Business Reviews

We’ve curated a list of five first-rate local SEO services for small businesses for you to explore. These handpicked vendors offer comprehensive SEO solutions tailored to your needs, regardless of your industry. Carefully chosen from an initial roster of 31 prominent companies, these selections stand out for their exceptional features, competitive pricing, reliable customer support, and positive customer reviews. Review our methodology section to see the meticulous process we used to select these five professional SEO services.

1SEO – Best for Flexible Plans

1SEO is a digital marketing agency that combines an experienced team of SEO professionals and a strategic, data-driven approach. They optimize your website, improve your content, and utilize keyword rankings. As a result, you will attract more local business, improve your search rankings, increase organic traffic to your website, and grow your company.

1SEO offers tailored solutions to meet your unique needs. Regarding search engine optimization (SEO), 1SEO provides keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, site organization, local SEO, and analytics. Other features include paid advertising, creative services, optimizations for mobile app users, and integrations with popular tools and platforms.

Flexible plans and pricing can be scaled and tailored to your company’s needs. Using a focused, current, and ever-evolving approach to the digital landscape, 1SEO has a proven record of online success, making it a trusted partner that will empower your business to thrive online.

1SEO features

• Available marketing add-ons
• Flexible contracts
• SEO services offered
• Reporting dashboard
• Current strategies

What markets does 1SEO serve?

If you aren’t quite sure what you need, or you know you need a unique plan, 1SEO is a great service for you. While pricing is not disclosed, it is because their approach is designed to be flexible and accessible. Working with a sales representative, you can design a plan that fits your budget and needs and ensures the best ROI.

BrightLocal – Best for Low Budget

BrightLocal operates slightly differently from its competitors. Instead of doing the work for you, it provides you with the SEO audit, tools, and monitoring you need to implement Local SEO yourself. What does that mean for you? A much more affordable local SEO strategy and education on what you are doing and why.

BrightLocal empowers small businesses, making it easy to learn SEO with support and gain the skills needed to optimize your online presence. Knowledgeable customer service reps stand by 23 hours daily to help you apply any BrightLocal tool and maximize your results. You can get all the help you need to successfully do it yourself for less than what you would pay for an all-in-one company.

In addition to SEO, BrightLocal provides reputation management and local marketing solutions. A mobile app is available to help you monitor your online presence while the program integrates with Google My Business, social media, and more. With BrightLocal, you can be sure your business builds citations, ranks higher, and increases its online visibility.

BrightLocal features

• Available marketing add-ons
• Flexible contracts
• SEO services offered
• Reporting dashboard
• Current strategies

What markets does BrightLocal serve?

Offering a different approach to local SEO services, BrightLocal is the best choice if you’re on a tight budget. It is the cheapest local SEO service we reviewed because rather than doing the work for you, it empowers you with knowledge, extremely accurate analytics, and tools to run your local SEO for yourself—providing helpful customer service along the way.

SearchBloom – Best for Technical SEO

Searchbloom specializes in enhancing the digital presence and search engine rankings of small businesses through a comprehensive suite of online marketing services. These services include national SEO tools, e-commerce SEO, local SEO, PPC management, SEO marketing consulting, and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

At the core of Searchbloom’s approach is its proprietary program: Authority Relevancy Technology (ART). ART continuously monitors and assesses crucial metrics like conversion rates, lead generation, and website traffic, providing immediate insights into the success of your digital marketing strategy. Using this data, you can make informed, data-driven decisions to positively impact your online visibility.

In addition to ART, Searchbloom offers a variety of free and premium tools, spanning PPC, web design, schema markup generation, webpage word count checking, keyword research mixing, and SEO strategy development. These tools, along with seamless integrations, empower you to foster growth, enhance visibility, and secure prominent spots on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), leading to heightened exposure among your target audience.

SearchBloom features

• Available marketing add-ons
• Flexible contracts
• SEO services offered
• Reporting dashboard
• Current strategies

What markets does SearchBloom serve?

Searchbloom strongly emphasizes the technical aspects of local SEO for a better user experience. It leverages its ART system to deliver real-time, data-driven results and highlights mobile optimization. This approach enables businesses to craft and implement advanced technical strategies that work with their current tech deck. If you prioritize technical solutions, Searchbloom stands out as the top choice for optimizing online presence and achieving sustained growth.

SEO Discovery – Best for All-In-One Local SEO

SEO Discovery provides a comprehensive approach to local SEO, encompassing a wide range of services, from backlinking and general SEO to various digital marketing options. Specific local SEO campaign features include conducting local SEO audits and developing strategies, managing local business listings, optimizing Google My Business (GMB), enhancing Google, Apple, and Bing Map presence, managing citations, handling reviews, conducting competitor analysis, performing website analysis, selecting keywords, and more.

Furthermore, SEO Discovery’s arsenal includes various tools like social media marketing, PPC advertising, content marketing, numerous integrations, mobile optimization, responsive design solutions, and content management systems. Leveraging extensive experience and cutting-edge tools, SEO Discovery empowers you to create customized strategies that incorporate continuous improvement methods. These methods ultimately boost your local visibility, organic traffic, and overall online presence.

SEO Discovery features

• Available marketing add-ons
• Flexible contracts
• SEO services offered
• Current strategies

What markets does SEO Discovery serve?

SEO Discovery provides many features and tools, extending beyond local SEO to encompass the broader spectrum of digital marketing. It seamlessly operates as an all-in-one solution, offering the ability to create a comprehensive package that eliminates the need to assemble components from various platforms. SEO Discovery brings an adaptable, customized approach that aligns with your budget and addresses all your specific requirements, helping you achieve online success.

Thrive Internet Marketing Agency – Best for Consistent Results

Thrive Internet Marketing distinguishes itself as a company that rejects the one-size-fits-all approach. As your dedicated digital marketing partner, Thrive commits to delivering personalized support and strategic guidance. The team of experts collaborates with you to craft tailor-made plans specifically addressing unique local SEO needs, guiding you through the intricacies of digital marketing to ensure you reach your goals. Emphasizing customization, the pricing model ensures you only pay for services essential to your business.

Thrive’s comprehensive services encompass a wide range, including local SEO, digital marketing, website design, social media marketing, reputation management, a mobile app, and seamless integrations with popular marketing tools and analytic platforms. Noteworthy offerings include specialized services in Amazon marketing and E-commerce SEO.

Backed by an outstanding reputation, Thrive has a proven history of delivering tangible results, instilling the confidence you need to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape. Equipping you with the necessary tools, Thrive empowers you to maximize online visibility and achieve sustainable growth while seizing every opportunity to engage with your target audience.

Thrive Internet Marketing Agency features

• Available marketing add-ons
• Flexible contracts
• SEO services offered
• Reporting dashboard
• Current strategies

What markets does Thrive Internet Marketing Agency serve?

Thrive adopts a tailored, data-driven approach designed for companies seeking reliable and steady outcomes. By employing a customized strategy, Thrive continuously enhances your online visibility and rankings. Numerous reviewers attest to the consistency of successful results achieved through this approach, and you, too, can experience the same.

Compare the best local SEO services for small business side-by-side

What is local SEO and why is it important?

Local search engine optimization aims to optimize a business’s online presence in order to attract more local customers. The goal of local SEO is to improve a business’s visibility in local search results on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This is most important for businesses serving a specific geographic area, like local shops, restaurants, service providers, and other brick-and-mortar establishments.

How can a small business benefit from local SEO services?

Local SEO services provide several benefits to small businesses looking to establish and strengthen their online presence within a specific geographic area. For starters, simply having an optimized Google Business Profile (part of local SEO) helps tremendously.

“When you do a search and see the map populate with three businesses highlighted underneath it, this is called the Google Local 3-Pack. A completed profile enables Google Search to consider highlighting your business in this section. As these appear at the top of the search results, they are much more likely to be clicked than results further down the search engine results pages (SERPs),” says AJ Silberman-Moffitt, Senior Editor of the SEO department and the Buzz Ambassador at Tandem.Buzz, a full-service digital marketing agency.

Here are some other key ways in which small businesses can benefit from local SEO services:

• Better brand awareness
• Cost-effective marketing strategy
• Customer acquisition
• Customer engagement
• Enhanced online presence
• Higher competitive edge
• Higher ranking
• Improved online reputation
• Improved visibility in local search results
• Increased business
• Local market business growth

In addition, “Per Google, those businesses with completed profiles have a 70% better chance of getting website visitors,” says Silberman-Moffitt. “On top of that, these businesses also have a 50% greater chance of visitors making a purchase from them. Even more beneficial is how customers will think a business is considered reputable—2.7 times more likely—than what they think of businesses without completed profiles.”

What’s typically included in local SEO services?

Although the specific features included may vary based on the needs of the business and the local SEO agency, local SEO services often include various features designed to enhance your company’s visibility in local search results to attract nearby customers. Here are some standard components of local SEO services:

• Local Keyword Research and Optimization: Conducts keyword research to identify relevant local search terms and incorporates those search terms into your website content.
• Local Link Building: Builds high-quality, locally relevant backlinks to your website and secures mentions and links from local news sources, community websites, and industry-related publications.
• Mobile Device Optimization: Ensures your website is accessible to those using smartphones and tablets.
• Local Content Marketing: Creates and optimizes content relevant to your local audience, such as blog posts, articles, or other informative materials with a local focus.
• Social Media Management: Establishes and maintains a presence on relevant social media platforms through posts, updates, and promotions that engage with the local community.
• Local SEO Analytics and Reporting: Utilizes analytic tools to track the performance of local SEO efforts and provides regular reports on the effectiveness of strategies.
• Community Engagement: Participation in local events, sponsorships, or partnerships to build connections with the local community.
• Review Management: Encourages customers to leave online reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and other review sites and monitors this activity so you can respond to customer reviews, both positive and negative.
• Google Maps Optimization: Optimizes the business’s presence on Google Maps for accurate location information and enhanced visibility to potential customers.

How much do local SEO services cost?

It’s hard to pin down pricing for local SEO services. Many factors, services, and features come into play, and many vendors that we reviewed offered custom pricing for this very reason. That said, two vendors on our list did divulge pricing:

While those two are a big range, experts say prices can soar even higher. Guy Sheetrit, Founder of Over the Top SEO, estimates the monthly cost to be between $500 and $5,000, depending on your needs. If you can’t afford these prices, he recommends consulting Google and other free resources and implementing a strategy yourself.

But if you can swing the price tag, it’s well worth it, Silberman-Moffitt says. “Think about how long it would take to learn and utilize SEO best practices, and then think about how that time could be better spent focusing on other aspects of your company. When all is said and done, regardless of how much the services cost, you’ll realize it was money well spent,” she explains.

Local SEO Services FAQ

Why is SEO important for small businesses?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is fundamental for small businesses. It shapes a robust digital presence and ensures long-term success in the dynamic online landscape. By optimizing your business website, SEO enhances consumers’ ability to find you organically, attracting potential customers and establishing your business as credible. This targeted approach efficiently allocates resources, drives qualified leads, and expands your customer base.

But good SEO isn’t just about rankings; it improves user experience, fostering customer satisfaction and loyalty. This gives you a competitive edge and the information you need to make informed decisions and adapt to changing consumer behavior.

How do I optimize my website for local SEO?

A crucial part of local SEO is website optimization to enhance visibility in local searches. Regularly monitor your local SEO performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. You will attract more customers from your local community by consistently implementing some or all of the following:

• Make your NAP (name, address, and phone number) consistent on all pages.
• Use a dedicated “Contact Us” or “Locations” page so customers can find you.
• Provide search engines with structured business data through schema markup.
• Collect and promptly respond to customer reviews.
• Include testimonials on your website.
• Optimize your Google Business Profile listing.
• Ensure your business is listed in local directories.
• Mobile optimization to make it easier for your customers on the go.
• Utilize keywords and local content.
• Link building with local organizations and their websites.

What are local SEO ranking factors?

“Thousands of customers are looking for local businesses every day, and this requires digital connections,” says Sheetrit, who has generated over a million leads and over 16 million dollars in revenue for local brands. “Without an established local SEO presence, your brand is missing out on leads, sales, and traffic opportunities.”

So, how do you establish that? You use local SEO ranking factors. These elements influence how well a business ranks in local search results. Here are key local SEO ranking factors:

• Citations
• Click-through rates
• Consistent NAP (name, address, phone number)
• Google My Business (GMB) or a Google Business Profile
• Online reviews
• On-page SEO

It’s important to note that these factors may evolve as search engines refine their algorithms. Staying informed about updates and adapting your local SEO strategy accordingly is key to maintaining and improving your local search rankings. Regular analytics monitoring and ongoing optimization efforts are essential for sustained success in local search results.

How we chose the best local SEO services for small businesses

To deliver optimal recommendations for local SEO services, our in-house team collaborated closely with small business owners and SEO experts to craft the following guide. Our suggestions in this guide stem from thoroughly analyzing collected and reviewed data, utilizing our proprietary rating system, and assessing vendor features.

We’ve singled out five from a pool of 31 notable small business SEO services for your consideration. These chosen vendors distinguish themselves through diverse SEO offerings, robust performance dashboards, flexible short-term contracts, available add-ons, and cutting-edge strategies.

Our data gathering involved interviews with experts, video analysis, live demos, and scrutinizing vendor and parent company websites. Upon selection, we applied our proprietary rating system, evaluating features, pricing transparency, onboarding and support, and brand reputation to assign each vendor a comprehensive rating.

Rest assured, the information presented in this buying guide has undergone meticulous verification and validation by field experts. You can trust its accuracy and find it invaluable in your quest for professional SEO services for your small business.