This isn’t just another SEO course—it’s your gateway to mastering the art of boosting visibility for multi-location brands on search engines like Google and Bing. Whether you’re an aspiring SEO professional or a seasoned marketer looking to refine your skills, this course will equip you with the knowledge and tools to excel in the competitive SEO landscape.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, Steve will take you through essential areas of local SEO, focusing on improving visibility on major search engines like Google and Bing. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• Understand Local SEO Strategies: Gain a working knowledge of all aspects of a local SEO strategy tailored for multi-location brands.
• Set and Track KPIs: Learn how to establish key performance indicators for an MLSEO campaign.
• Identify SEO Opportunities: Confidently identify SEO opportunities related to location and speciality pages, data management, syndication needs, and reputation management challenges.

Here’s Steve with an overview of the course:

Each module is packed with interactive activities and quizzes to enhance your learning. At the end of the course, you can take an exam to earn a certificate, which you can proudly share on social media to showcase your newfound expertise.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for individuals with a moderate skill level in SEO. We recommend participants have a basic understanding of digital marketing, website traffic analytics, and basic software skills (Google Sheets, Excel, Google Docs, or Word). While no coding skills are required, we do suggest learning basic HTML and JavaScript to become a well-rounded SEO professional. For those new to SEO, BrightLocal Academy offers A Beginner’s Guide to Local SEO to help you build a solid foundation before diving into this course.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the Academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘ Mastering Franchise and Multi-location SEO: From Strategy to Execution ’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer , you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?     

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?     

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

Our latest course, Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies, led by expert Claire Carlile Rees, is tailored exclusively for agencies and designed to equip you with the tools and strategies needed for success. This course has everything from seamless client onboarding strategies to practical monitoring techniques!

Throughout the course, you’ll gain access to four useful spreadsheet templates, ensuring you stay organized and ahead of the competition. Plus:

1. Efficient Client Onboarding Processes: Learn the secrets to seamless client onboarding that will impress your clients and set the stage for long-term success. 
2. Effective UTM Tagging Strategies: Unlock the power of UTM tagging. Discover how to generate and implement effective tags that will deepen your understanding of marketing attribution.
3. How to Harness Google Business Profile Services and Products: Dive deep into the world of Google Business Profile and discover how to leverage its Services and Products features to maximize your clients’ visibility. From optimizing profiles to utilizing advanced features, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to dominate local search.
4. How to Monitor Google Business Profiles Like a Pro: Stay ahead of the curve with practical monitoring techniques that ensure you’re always in the know. From tracking performance metrics to identifying areas for improvement, you’ll learn how to keep your finger on the pulse of your clients’ Google Business Profiles.

Here’s Claire with an overview of the course:

Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate.

Who is this course for?

This course suits anyone working in or on local SEO – whether you’re in-house or on the agency side, working in a multi-location or single location. Pick and choose from the lesson units depending on the types of services that you’re offering and to whom.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘Essential Google Business Profile Tasks for Agencies’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?    

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?    

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

Our latest course, “ Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ,” led by the expert Dana DiTomaso, is tailored for in-house marketers and SEOs at agencies, helping them unravel the intricacies of GA4 through a local SEO lens.

Across the span of 22 informative lesson videos, you will:

• Adopt the analytics mindset, learn to understand GA4 data capture, and familiarize yourself with terminology and the user interface for a strong starting point.
• Explore GA4’s event-based data model, covering property and data stream creation, built-in (enhanced) events, adding custom events, and viewing event parameters.
• Evaluate marketing success in GA4 by adding conversions (goals), exploring default channel groups, and tracking Google Business Profile (GBP) and offline advertising traffic using Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) for effective tracking.
• Master GA4’s reports, customize your tool by modifying or creating reports and enhance the Reports Menu for detailed Google Business Profile and offline advertising traffic insights.

Here’s Dana with an overview of the course: 

Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate.

Who is this course for?

This course is tailored for in-house marketers who need to use GA4 regularly, even if GA4 was set up for them. Additionally, SEOs at agencies without in-house analytics support will find valuable insights to enhance their GA4 proficiency.

How can I join?

Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘ Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?    

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take?    

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.

The Power of Google Business Profile

First, it’s important to emphasize why GBP matters. It’s often the first point of contact for potential customers, providing essential information about a local business, including location, hours, reviews, and photos. A well-optimized GBP can significantly impact local search visibility and customer trust.

The Importance of Google Business Profile

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A study found it’s the top factor for ranking in the local pack on Google. Our research in 2020 also showed that 82% of local marketing experts agree that tweaking a GBP is a super effective way to improve your local search rankings. 

So, how can BrightLocal help you supercharge your or your client’s GBP? Let’s dive into the strategies and tools available:

1. Auditing for Optimization

As well as being aware of what a critical tool Google Business Profile is, you’re probably also aware that Google doesn’t give away any competitor insights. 

For example, let’s imagine that you’ve just started work on local SEO for a dental practice in New York. You want to know why a specific competitor ranks above them in local search and what they need to do to outrank them. You head over to Google and search, but this is all you see:

Without an intelligent tool, figuring out how to beat the competition and get into the top local results is challenging. That’s why we made our Google Business Profile Audit tool and Local Search Grid. They do all the checking and analysis you need.

Once you’ve set up a Google Business Profile Audit report, you can ensure the accuracy of your listing and understand your performance. 

Ensuring Accuracy and Health of Your Listing

Once set up, the ‘Summary’ page of a Google Business Profile Audit serves as your primary dashboard for evaluating the overall health and accuracy of your GBP listing.

Here, you can identify and eliminate any duplicate GBP listings associated with your business, scrutinize the consistency of Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) information, and identify and address essential local ranking factors. 

Embarking on these steps within the GBP Audit report not only ensures the accuracy of your listing but also lays the foundation for a robust and trustworthy online representation of your business.

Understand Your GBP Performance

You can thoroughly understand your GBP performance by incorporating Insights into the GBP Audit’s report. 

Unlike Google Business Profile Insights, which only offers six months of data, GBP Audit extends its horizon to 18 months, providing a comprehensive and extended view of your listing’s performance.

You can:

• Analyze the discovery points on Google through search or Google Maps to strategically optimize your online presence.

• Extract valuable data on customer actions, unraveling users’ common behaviors on your GBP, from visiting your website to requesting directions or making calls.

• Delve into phone call trends, pinpointing peak days and times and aiding in meticulous staff availability planning.

By utilizing the Google Business Profile Audit tool, you ensure the accuracy of your listing and gain in-depth insights into your GBP’s performance, enabling informed decisions for optimization and growth.

4 Ways GBP Audit Can Help You Optimize Your Listing and Outrank the Competition

Learn More

Competitor Insights 

Local Search Grid provides essential data from Google Local Finder, offering insights into your competitors’ performance. 

For example, once you’ve set up a Local Search Grid report , you can see what primary and secondary categories your competitors are using. This allows you to ensure that you select categories that align with high-performing keywords and match those used by successful competitors.

2. Taking Action

Customer reviews and GBP posts are crucial elements that significantly contribute to the credibility and utility of your GBP. Two BrightLocal tools can help you with these. 

Manage Your Reviews

Reputation Manager enables you to monitor reviews, gather feedback, and address negative comments promptly. Helping you to cultivate a positive online reputation and attract more customers.

Once you’ve created a Reputation Manager report, you’ll be able to keep tabs on all reviews from essential review sites, allowing you to observe the growth of reviews over time.

If you also link your business’s Google Business Profile and Facebook accounts to the report, BrightLocal will automatically check for new reviews daily and notify you of any arrivals. With your report connected to your GBP and Facebook, you can conveniently respond to reviews directly from this report, streamlining the process and helping you stay on top of your reputation more efficiently.

Managing your reviews is just the start. If you need help getting them in the first place, a tool like BrightLocal’s Get Reviews is key. It will help you grow your reviews and increase your star ratings.

Schedule Google Posts

GBP Post Scheduler makes managing your GBP much easier and simpler. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation. 

Effortless Scheduling

You can set the perfect time for each post and decide when it should expire, ensuring a steady flow of content for potential customers. You can also monitor everything from one dashboard to keep an eye on what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired.

Multi-location Distribution

When dealing with a multi-location brand, there might be times when you want to share the latest national promotions with all locations at once. Instead of doing it individually, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you hours of effort. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure consistent content across your entire network of locations.

Craft Posts with AI-Powered Content Generation

Input a brief description of the message you want to convey, and within seconds, our AI writing assistant will provide you with creative content ideas to work with and enhance.

Our Help Center has more information on how our GBP AI works.

3. Active Sync

Active Sync helps you care for your GBP and other vital listings like Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing, ensuring they’re accurate and up-to-date. 

Once you’ve connected your GBP to your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data, such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. 

Once you’ve set Active Sync up, it will send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if Google publishes a suggested edit, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in.

You can accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, which allows you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy.

Your Google Business Profile is a powerful tool for local business success, and when combined with the comprehensive suite of BrightLocal tools, it becomes an unstoppable force. By conducting regular audits, managing your reputation, and optimizing your online presence, you can stand out in local searches, attract more customers, and drive business growth.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how multi-location businesses can effectively leverage BrightLocal to understand location performance, deliver on rankings and key performance indicators (KPIs), and showcase their value to stakeholders.

Understanding Location Performance

To ensure that each location is thriving, it’s vital to start with a top-level overview and identify weak spots. BrightLocal’s Horizon is an excellent starting point. Horizon is the only rank-tracking solution that’s purpose-built for multi-location SEO. It enables you to consolidate and visualize ranking performance across hundreds or thousands of locations into a single, intuitive dashboard.

Here’s how you can make the most of it.

Identify Weak Spots

Utilize Horizon to pinpoint locations that may not be performing as well as others. The visual representation helps you identify areas that require attention.

Anything marked in green is in a good position. Anything marked in red needs some attention. For instance, the business in the image below is ranking well in Idaho—3.3. But not so well in Massachusetts—10.1.

To get a better idea of what’s holding these states back, we can click on the square—let’s click on Massachusettes—and we can see which specific locations in that state are struggling to rank well. 

In order to dig deeper, we can simply click the locations on the map and we’ll be taken to their individual Local Search Grid reports. Here we can find out what we might be able to do to outrank them. 

Identify Top Competitors

Identifying who your main search competitors are becomes complex for businesses with multiple locations. Fortunately, Horizon streamlines this process by pinpointing top competitors for each of your locations, as well as the top one in each state. This allows you to gain insights into your competition nationwide, analyze their strengths, and strategically plan to outperform them, ensuring you stay at the forefront of the game.

What to Do With Local Search Grid Data

Read more

Drill Down for Details

Once you’ve identified locations that need improvement, use the single location tools within BrightLocal to dig deeper. Analyze the specific factors affecting performance and make necessary adjustments.

For example, you could check out their individual Local Search Grid report as mentioned above or run a Local Search Audit report to quickly see what’s holding a location back. With this information, you can work out the best course of action.

You can see here that the Location in the image above needs to work on their local listings. Their next steps could be to run a Citation Tracker report in BrightLocal to help them find and fix current listings and uncover new citation opportunities. 

Delivering on Rankings and KPIs

If you’re going to deliver on rankings and KPIs, as a multi-location business, you need to use a combination of strategies, tools, and techniques to enhance your online visibility, attract more local customers, and ultimately drive revenue. This often includes optimizing websites, managing online listings, maintaining an active and positive online reputation, and implementing effective marketing campaigns.

BrightLocal offers a range of tools and features to assist you in this area.

Review Generation and Responses

Review Inbox allows you to streamline your multi-location reputation management. You can view, sort, and filter every customer review by status or rating, for every location you manage in BrightLocal, via a single feed. If you have integrated your GBP or Facebook Pages to your reports, you’ll also be able to respond to reviews from these sources directly from Review Inbox.

Learn how to set up and understand Review Inbox here. 

Listing Management

Active Sync is a tool that helps you to keep your most important listings accurate and push out updates when you need to. 

Listings have changed over the last decade. Searchers used to use hundreds of different sites to discover local businesses. However, now just a few key listings dominate: Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Facebook, Apple Maps and Bing. 

These listings have become the key sites that consumers actually use to discover, evaluate and engage with a brand. They also supply your information to other sites and voice-control devices such as:

• Google Business Profile – Google Maps, Waze, Google Home
• Facebook – Instagram
• Bing – Amazon Alexa

Consumers rarely use other listings sites, but they can help businesses to build authority with search engines. Which is where our Citation Builder service comes in. You may be using expensive listing management solutions that hold your data hostage for minimal output; Citation Builder is a managed service where we build out listings for your brand at scale and give you true ownership of your data moving forwards. 

Active Sync helps you to take care of those important listings—Google Business Profile, Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing—all in one place, making sure they are accurate and up-to-date. 

Once you have connected to the listings from your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. 

What are Google Business Profile Attributes?

Read more

Once you’ve set Active Sync up it will then send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if a suggested edit is published by Google, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in.

You can either accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, allowing you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy.

Bulk Google Business Profile Posts

GBP Post Scheduler is a true game-changer when it comes to scaling up your Google Posts. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation.

As a multi-location business, there could be instances where you need to push the latest national promotions to every location at once. Rather than have to do this one location at a time, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you potentially hours of tedium. This ensures consistent content across your entire network of locations (or just a select few) in just a few clicks. 

You can schedule posts to go out at the exact right time and set the relevant expiry dates to ensure a consistent stream of content for potential customers to engage with. You’ll get full visibility of what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired from a single dashboard. It’s as easy as setting it and forgetting it! But if you need to make changes, then it’s just a case of editing anything that’s already scheduled or deleting anything that’s live.

You can also say goodbye to writer’s block with our AI-powered content generation. Our integration with ChatGPT ensures that you always have engaging and captivating content at your fingertips. Simply add a description of the message you want to put out, and in seconds, our AI writing assistant will give you content ideas to run with and optimize. 

Learn how to bulk post with GBP Post Scheduler here. 

Showcasing Value to Stakeholders

Demonstrating the value of your efforts to stakeholders is crucial. BrightLocal offers a range of reporting and auditing tools to help you showcase progress and results.

Rank Tracker Rollup Reports

Keep stakeholders informed about your MLB’s local search rankings with Rank Tracker Rollup Reports. The Rollup Reports feature allows you to present comprehensive ranking data in an easily digestible format.

They can be accessed by clicking the ‘Rank Tracker Rollup Reports’ tab on the Rank Tracker overview page.

Google Business Profile Audit Insights

Let’s imagine you had a location that was being held back by their Google Business Profile. You picked up on this issue using the BrightLocal GBP Audit tool and made the necessary changes which have improved the number of calls and clicks the location is getting via their GBP. Now, you can demonstrate this by sharing the Insights tab in the GBP Audit report.

For example, the business below optimized their GBP at the end of October and you can see that this has increased the number of website clicks and views on mobile and maps they’ve got since then. 

BrightLocal Horizon

Continue to utilize BrightLocal Horizon to visualize progress across your MLB. This tool helps you monitor overall performance and determine where additional focus may be needed.

BrightLocal for Multi-location Businesses

BrightLocal can equip your multi-location business with the tools you need to thrive in the competitive world of local search optimization. By understanding location performance, delivering on rankings and KPIs, and showcasing value to stakeholders, you can your own local SEO efforts to the next level. 

To get started and see how BrightLocal can benefit your business, we invite you to speak to our sales team. Start using BrightLocal’s tools and features strategically, and watch as your multi-location business reaps the rewards of enhanced visibility and success.

1. Adjust Your Google Business Profile Categories

Adapting your Google Business Profile category can significantly impact your local search visibility and rankings. If your business category isn’t performing well in Local Search Grid it’s worth taking a look at the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table and seeing what your competitors have selected as their category. If your category is different then changing it could help to improve your rankings.

If the category you have selected is the most appropriate for your business and you don’t want to change it, then you can use the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table to check what secondary categories you and your competitors have selected and make changes there.

2. Increase Your Reviews and Star Ratings

If you notice that your reviews or star ratings are lower than competitors within the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table, it’s time to take action. Try implementing a review generation campaign to encourage more positive reviews. Positive reviews can boost your online reputation and attract more customers.

You can use our Reputation Manager tool to dig deeper and learn which platforms you need to gather more reviews on and easily create a review generation campaign. Find out how, here.

3. Boost Your Links

Links are a critical factor in SEO. If you notice in the Overall Top Ranking Competitors table that your website has fewer links than your competitors, invest in link-generation strategies to improve your online presence. Quality backlinks can help increase your authority and search rankings.

4. Address Location-Based Filtering

If your business isn’t ranking at its actual location on the geogrid (indicated by a blue pin), it may be subject to filtering by Google. This could be due to various reasons, including issues with your Google Business Profile.

Sterling Sky has written a great article about how to tell if your Google Business Profile is being filtered and what to do about it.

5. Address Google Business Profile Conflicts

Suppose you notice that your business isn’t ranking at its address because other entities within your organization, like individual practitioners or service providers, are ranking higher. In that case, this could be due to sharing the same Google Business Profile category.

To resolve this, optimize the individual practitioners’ Google Business Profiles for different keywords or specialties. This can help reduce conflicts and improve your overall visibility.

6. Report Keyword Stuffing

Lastly, keep an eye out for keyword stuffing. If you notice any suspicious businesses using unfair tactics, utilize the ‘Flag’ button which takes you straight to Google’s Redressal Form to report them. This will help maintain fair competition and ensure that search results are more accurate and reliable.

BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid is a valuable tool if you’re looking to enhance your local SEO efforts. By analyzing the data and taking these actions, you can improve your online visibility, reputation, and overall search rankings, ultimately driving more success for your business in the local market.

The previous process was relatively simple. You received an email and filled out a form, which was reviewed by a support technician. Suspensions were typically due to suspicious activity or guideline violations, and denials often provided vague reasons.

Under the old system, you had multiple chances to appeal, allowing for multiple responses, requests for another review, and engagement with the community for additional input.

Source: Sherry Bonelli

The New Process

The new process offers greater transparency by specifying which policy was violated, such as a content violation. However, it doesn’t provide additional information beyond guidance on the violation itself. You now have a single opportunity to apply for reinstatement, which simplifies the process but doesn’t allow for multiple chances to appeal. When you initiate the reinstatement process, you have 60 minutes to provide necessary business proof. 

Here’s how the new process works:

1. You’ll receive an email notifying you of the suspension, along with a hint about which guideline was violated and a link to the relevant section of the guidelines.

2. To begin the process, log in to the profile in question. Make sure you’re using the account that has access to the profile. Agency accounts may take longer to load.

3. Once you select your profile, you’ll move to a crucial screen where you must act swiftly. You have 60 minutes to gather your business proof and upload it. If you miss this window, your proof will not be considered.

Source: Sherry Bonelli

Things to remember:

• You have only one chance to apply for reinstatement, so don’t miss the opportunity.
• There is no timer during the 60-minute window. 
• You can use a zip file to submit multiple proofs.
• You should receive an email notification if your reinstatement is successful.

If your reinstatement is unsuccessful or you don’t receive a response, you can seek assistance from a product expert in the Google Business Profile community. Unfortunately, there is no formal appeal process via support. 

In summary, the new reinstatement process will roll out in the European Union first, with a global rollout expected in the future. It offers improved transparency, it comes with a strict one-time application window and a limited timeframe for assembling necessary evidence. It’s crucial to be prepared and act swiftly if your Google Business Profile faces suspension. 

In this blog, we will explore how to create effective client reports with BrightLocal, ensuring that you provide your clients with the information they need to make informed decisions and see the impact of your work.

Step 1: Choose Your Metrics Wisely

Before diving into report creation, it’s essential to determine which metrics are most relevant to your client’s goals and the services you provide. BrightLocal offers a wide range of metrics, including local search rankings, online visibility, citation tracking, and more. Select metrics that align with your client’s objectives and KPIs to keep the report focused and actionable.

BrightLocal provides a feature called Location Summary, which offers a consolidated view of essential local search data specific to a particular business location. This summary can be easily customized and shared with clients. You have the flexibility to remove any unnecessary data from the Location Summary page or even exclude the Location Summary page entirely from the white label dashboard.

You can generate reports for internal purposes without including them in the white-label dashboard. Some local SEO experts suggest keeping rank tracking internal while still running those reports for your own monitoring. 

In certain reports, specific data can be hidden from the white-label versions as well. For example, the Local Rank Tracker report allows you to hide certain elements.

The Local Search Audit report permits the omission of any sections you deem unnecessary. Simply go to ‘Edit Report Settings’ and use the checkboxes in Report Sections to choose what you don’t want to be included.

Step 2: Set Clear Goals and Benchmarks

Establish clear goals and benchmarks with your clients from the outset. What are they hoping to achieve with your local SEO services? Are they looking to increase website traffic, boost online visibility, or improve their local search rankings? By setting specific goals, you can tailor your reports to showcase progress and success in a meaningful way.

Step 3: Customize Your Report Templates

BrightLocal provides customizable report templates that allow you to tailor the report’s appearance and content to your client’s brand and preferences. You can add your agency’s logo, choose color schemes for all BrightLocal reports, and arrange the report sections to highlight the most critical information first. Customization helps create a professional and branded report that leaves a lasting impression.

Step 4: Include Actionable Insights

Don’t just present data; provide actionable insights and recommendations. Use the metrics and data from BrightLocal to explain what the numbers mean for your client’s business. For example, if local search rankings have improved, explain how this translates into increased visibility and potentially more leads. Offering actionable insights demonstrates your expertise and value as a digital marketing partner.

The Notes Module in Brightlocal is a useful way to leave notes for your clients in their report dashboard or Location Summary page. They allow you to provide further value beyond statistical reporting by adding your expert insights, explanations, and suggestions alongside the charts and graphs. You can also use the Notes Module to leave internal notes for yourself or your team and hide these from your clients.

Here’s how you can add, delete, edit, and hide a Notes Module on a Location’s summary page.

Step 5: Visualize Data Effectively

Utilize charts, graphs, and visual representations of data to make the report more engaging and easy to understand. BrightLocal allows you to create visual reports that provide a quick overview of key metrics. Visualizations can help clients grasp trends and improvements at a glance.

Bonus Tip: Utilizing BrightLocal Data with Looker Studio

For agencies and marketers seeking advanced reporting capabilities and data visualization, BrightLocal’s flexibility extends beyond its native reporting features. You can leverage BrightLocal’s data by downloading and incorporating it into powerful reporting tools like Looker Studio. Doing so can unlock even more extensive data analysis, create interactive dashboards, and tailor reports to specific client needs. This empowers you to take your client reporting to the next level, providing in-depth insights and data-driven storytelling. 

Step 6: Provide Historical Data

Comparing current data with historical data can illustrate progress over time. Use BrightLocal’s historical data tracking to show how key metrics have evolved. This not only highlights improvements but also reinforces the long-term value of your services.

Step 7: Schedule Automated Reports

Save time and streamline your reporting process by scheduling automated reports through BrightLocal. You can set the frequency and recipients, ensuring that clients receive updated reports regularly. Automation helps you stay organized and ensures that clients are consistently informed about their progress.

Step 8: Review and Discuss the Report with Clients

Don’t just send reports and leave it at that. Schedule regular review meetings with your clients to discuss the report’s findings, answer questions, and align strategies. These meetings provide an opportunity to strengthen your client-agency relationship and adjust strategies based on client feedback and changing goals.

Summary

Creating effective client reports with BrightLocal goes beyond data presentation; it’s about delivering value, fostering transparency, and building trust. By choosing the right metrics, customizing reports, providing actionable insights, and maintaining open communication, you can ensure that your client reports serve as valuable tools that demonstrate the impact of your local SEO efforts. BrightLocal’s features and automation capabilities make the process efficient, allowing you to focus on delivering exceptional results and client satisfaction.

In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of practitioner listings, offering insights into how they can enhance your online presence. Plus, we’ll delve into effective management strategies and show you how BrightLocal’s tools, such as Citation Tracker, can simplify the process. Whether you’re a medical practitioner, legal expert, wellness coach, or beauty professional, this guide will help you harness the power of practitioner listings to reach your target audience more effectively.

What are practitioner listings?

A practitioner listing is an individual Google Business Profile entry designed for public-facing professionals who belong to a larger business but offer independent services, such as lawyers, doctors, and hair stylists. It offers them the opportunity to establish a distinct online presence apart from the main business entity.

Practitioner listings offer a tailored approach to online business directories, enabling individual professionals to highlight their expertise and connect with potential clients seeking specialized services. 

Consider a scenario where your local dentist employs four dental practitioners, each with their own area of expertise. One dentist specializes in teeth whitening, while another excels in Invisalign braces. This is precisely what a practitioner listing is meant for—enabling each dentist to create a personalized listing that highlights their unique expertise and offerings.

What types of businesses are eligible for practitioner listings?

• Medical and Healthcare Professionals: Doctors, dentists, chiropractors, and other healthcare practitioners.
• Therapists and Mental Health Practitioners: Psychologists, counselors, therapists, and mental health professionals.
• Legal Experts: Lawyers, attorneys, and legal consultants.
• Wellness and Fitness Specialists: Yoga instructors, personal trainers, nutritionists, and wellness coaches.
• Beauty and Aesthetic Professionals: Hair stylists, makeup artists, tattoo artists, skincare specialists, and other beauty experts.
• Educational Tutors and Coaches: Academic tutors, life coaches, career advisors, and mentors.

What are the pros and cons of practitioner listings?

Practitioner listings can offer several advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

• Increased Visibility: Practitioner listings can boost the online visibility of individual professionals within a larger business entity.
• Personal Branding: Practitioner listings allow professionals to build and promote their personal brand, which can be essential for establishing trust and credibility among clients. Professionals can also keep this listing in the event that they move businesses/practices, allowing them to maintain their brand independent of their current business. 
• Customization: Each practitioner can customize their listing with unique information, such as hours of operation, services offered, and customer reviews, showcasing their specific expertise and services.
• Local SEO Benefits: Having separate practitioner listings can improve the local SEO for the business, increasing the likelihood of appearing in local search results.

Cons

• Management Complexity: Maintaining multiple practitioner listings can be time-consuming and complex, especially for larger businesses with numerous professionals. Ensuring consistency in information across all listings can be challenging.
• Potential for Confusion: Customers might get confused if there are multiple listings for a single business, each representing a different practitioner. This confusion can lead to misunderstandings or miscommunications.
• Risk of Negative Reviews: Practitioner listings can receive negative reviews, which may impact the overall reputation of the business. Managing and responding to these reviews becomes important.
• Dependency on Individual Practitioners: If a practitioner leaves the business or relocates, their listing may need to be updated or removed, which can be a hassle.

Effective management can help mitigate some of the drawbacks associated with practitioner listings. Let’s look at how some of BrightLocal’s tools can be utilized to efficiently oversee practitioner listings and address certain challenges linked to them.

How to Use BrightLocal to Help Manage Practitioner Listings

Citation Tracker

Citation Tracker can help you by automating the process of finding and auditing your citations, enabling you to quickly see where a business is listed, what data is displayed about the business, and where competitors are listed but your business is not. This is going to help you eliminate the challenge of ensuring consistency in information across all listings.

Start by creating a Citation Tracker report for the business. Once the report is set up, go to the Live Citations tab, and using the Site Type column, filter the Found Citations table to get a list of the niche directories. 

The aim here is to make sure that the most important existing niche listings for the business are correct and up-to-date. You can do this by clicking on the blue arrow in the Actions column which will take you to the citation where you can check that it has the correct information and make any changes. 

Next, go to the Competitors Citations tab and using the Site Type column, filter the table to get a list of the niche directories. 

If you notice that there are citations that your competitors have but you don’t, then it’s a good idea to go after them and level up the playing field. You can do this by clicking on the plus sign button in the Actions column which will take you to the site where you can then claim your listing. 

If you have a lot of citations that need claiming/building you can save yourself some time by ordering a Citation Builder campaign and we’ll do the hard work for you. 

The report should have also identified any existing practitioner listings (i.e. GBPs and niche listings), they will also be in the Live Citations tab. As mentioned earlier, customers might get confused if there are multiple listings for a single business, each representing a different practitioner. 

If there are practitioner listings in the report, now is a good time to see how they could be strengthened and any confusion minimized. 

For example, if the business has many practitioners that specialize in different aspects, then it could be a good idea to strengthen each individual listing, to help the company’s visibility for various search terms.

For example, a law firm might have someone specializing in criminal law and someone else who specializes in family law. Updating their practitioner listings to reflect these specialisms will not only minimize confusion but also help those listings rank for more specific searches. 

If there are several practitioners it might be worth running Citation Tracker reports for each one of them to get a deeper look at what niche citations exist and could be claimed to further enhance search visibility.

Google Business Profile Audit

Setting up a Google Business Profile Audit report for the business will help you to understand what primary categories competitors are using for your chosen search terms. 

You’ll see a tab for each of the search terms/keywords that you entered when setting up the report at the top of the table. The table in each keyword tab shows you the top 10 businesses that rank for each search term and where your business comes in that list. It also shows you the primary business category that each of your competitors is using in their Google Business Profile (GBP). 

If the majority of competitors are using the same category but you have something different and you want to rank for the search term, then you might want to consider updating the primary category on your GBP. 

This is also a good place to see if any individual practitioner GBPs show up in the top 10 local search results and if they might be improved by updating their GBP category as well. Just like you did before, now is a good time to see how they could be strengthened and any confusion minimized. 

For example, updating practitioner GBP categories to reflect their specialisms will not only minimize confusion but also help them rank better for more specific searches. 

Local Search Grid

To dig a little deeper and further enhance the business and practitioners’ GBPs, you can run a Local Search Grid report for each search term and see what secondary categories competitors are using. 

Similar to GBP Audit, look at which primary and secondary categories your competitors are using and see how your business and any practitioners match up. 

Conclusion

Practitioner listings offer a unique opportunity for professionals across various fields to showcase their expertise and connect with potential clients in a personalized way. While they come with both advantages and challenges, effective management can help harness their full potential.

Citation Tracker, Google Business Profile Audit, and Local Search Grid offer powerful solutions to streamline the management of practitioner listings, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and improved visibility in local search results.

By leveraging these tools, you can not only enhance your online presence but also provide a seamless experience for clients seeking specialized services. Practitioner listings are a valuable addition to any professional’s digital marketing strategy, and with the right management approach, they can be a game-changer in reaching a target audience effectively and building a strong online reputation.

But… do you have the necessary tools, support, and the know-how to dive in and build a successful business?

In this brand-new BrightLocal Academy Course–How to Build and Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency—aspiring agency owners will learn how to build and grow their agency from the ground up, and current owners will learn to scale their agencies to even greater heights than they’d ever imagined. 

Local SEO expert Greg Gifford, who has a long track record of turning small agencies to multi-million-dollar endeavors, teaches this course and shares the necessary technical knowledge and skills to help you create the agency that you’ve been dreaming about. 

Throughout the 11 lesson videos, Greg covers how to:

• Define your agency by identifying target markets and potential clients as well as your services and packages;
• Master the “adult stuff”—from legal entity formation to financial management;
• Build and maintain a robust, capable team through strong management and a fulfilling work environment;
• Develop a value-aligned pricing strategy and stay true to it with excellent sales strategies;
• Make sure it all stays running smoothly, with a consistent team and customer base

By the end of the course, you’ll come away ready to take your agency to new heights.

Here’s Greg with an overview of the course: 

Who is this course for?

The course is targeted toward freelancers who are contemplating the prospect of building their very own agency and agency owners who have a strong desire to propel their existing ventures to even greater heights. 

How can I join?

Whether you’re a BrightLocal customer or not, you can get access to this course. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how:

If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Simply log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu.

You’ll need to create a free BrightLocal Academy account before you can enroll in the ‘How to Build and Grow Your Digital Marketing Agency’ course.

If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the same steps above to enroll in the course.

Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy? 

Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: 

What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll?  

What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer and how long do they take?  

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills.