What are BrightLocal users saying about the software?

Palaciobox using BrightLocal

Long Time User & Fan

To some degree or other we've used all the different toolsets, and every single local business we've worked with has been entered into the system. For some we've used limited items, like citation building and tracking, and for others we've used the whole suite. The improvements over the years have been impressive, with white label dashboard a few years ago, right up to the recent local rankings grid reports.

Pros

The ease of setup when entering a new client is probably my favorite feature, the way you can literally utilize every tool in the shed during a clean click through process.

Cons

The fact that their "Citation Checker" shows an ever growing number, and displays a chart giving a false impression of growth when the old citations may no longer exist. When a citation no longer exists, it should come off the report just like a lost link would. The Google Analytics integration is also very basic, and it would be nice to have more data options, but for a basic customer dashboard it's okay. It's going to need an update soon, since new businesses are defaulting to GA4 and I dont think this integrates

Indespensible

The experience has been a five star experience. It's a great resource that's easy to use, with excellent support, and very competitively priced.

Pros

The software has nearly everything needed to review, analyze and build Local SEO and digital marketing strategies. This is the first time I've used a tool that covers +90% of our needs. It's easy to setup and use, especially with the extensive and well formed support and training videos and articles provided. Top that off with quick and personal support through calls and chat, and this is a real winner for our organization and customers.

Cons

BrightLocal is a multifaceted set of tools, and initially it was challenging understanding what features are included in the plan vs what were paid add-on tools. Add to the complexity a credit system for reporting and other features and understanding the costs can seems nearly impossible until you begin to use the tools. More keyword research tools would be helpful. Adding more niche review sources would also be helpful.

80% data inaccuracy. 0% customer service.

abismal

Pros

N/A none at all terrible do not consider you have been warned

Cons

This is a reporting tool who's data is 80%+ inaccurate. After working through many automated emails from them, my team and I finally got a meeting with our Brightlocal rep. They literally told us to go in and fix it manually for each and every client. Clearly we have no use for a reporting tool who's reporting is so aggressively wrong so we attempted to cancel our annual subscription. Here was the reply: Our rep: "As per our Terms and Conditions: Section 6.5) 'If you subscribe to a Subscription Service then you may cancel such Subscription Service at any time. Termination will take effect from the end of the current Subscription Service Period. Subscription Fees will not be refunded for early cancellation or any other reason'." Basically, if you own the annual account for a day, you can't get refunded for the year, even if the product is faulty in nearly every way from a reporting perspective, contrary to what was advertised. I'm sure a representative will comment on this rating and claim that they "taught us how to correct this issue and how to identify reporting mistakes" so here is my preemptive rebuttal: A. - Going in regularly to correct reporting issues completely eliminates the purpose of having a reporting tool. We were not made aware of the potential for reporting inaccuracies until after we were annual customers. B. - With client facing white label reporting, I might be able to identify and ignore faulty information but my client certainly won't.

BrightLocal for Quality and Price

Overall experience is satisfactory.

Pros

Citation Management, Rankings, GBP, Reputation Management - affordable and accurate all in one place SEO management software

Cons

No backlink monitoring system yet available for managing / getting backlinks

BrightLocal is my favorite Local Search tool.

BrightLocal is my favorite local search tool. It compiles most of the important data I'm looking for when it comes to search in one location and is relatively inexpensive when it comes to local search tools.

Pros

BrightLocal search ranking features are clean and easy to use. Really makes it easy to show clients how they are doing.

Cons

You can't have more than one search location attached to a report, you have to create a separate "Location" and run another report. Can get taxing on search credits after a while.

The best Local SEO software available

It's been an easy transition from Moz. The team at BrightLocal have been remarkably helpful every step of the way.

Pros

I've tested a lot of SEO tools and have never been as thrilled about a feature set as when we started using BrightLocal. Today, we couldn't operate our agency without it. And the pricing is unbelievable.

Cons

I only have one complaint. The review acquisition feature, Get Reviews, requires our clients to login to a dashboard when entering their customer information. Other tools have a "magic link" we can just send to our clients to enter customer data into a web form, which makes it much easier. That being said, those other tools are about 5x as expensive!

Great tool for local SEO

I offer a free detailed audit. The detailed audit report is pretty impressive. Later on, in the meeting I elaborate on various parts of the report which helps build up the customer's confidence level and most of the times they sign up for our services.

Pros

The local search grid is my most favourite.

Cons

Sometimes it does not pick up the existing citations correctly. Need improved AI.

Easy to use, Great help with time-consuming tasks

Pros

Great software to help with citation building for local SEO. Bright Local provide an easy starter package to buy 25 citations to try out the service and before having to commit to yet another monthly fee. The great thing about the citations (in comparison to other products) is that they remain in place - even without a monthly fee. This was the main decider for me.

Cons

It would be great to be able to build up a monthly package by adding or removing individual services and build a package suited to my needs. That's not a complaint, just a suggestion :)

BrightLocal is all I need

I'm thrilled to have found a single inexpensive solution for everything I need to do. And the customer support is outstanding: fast, personal, and very useful.

Pros

BrightLocal provides a complete set of tools for managing my own local SEO, but also for running my local SEO agency, from lead gen to managing clients.

Cons

It takes a little time to figure out the paid credit system, but eventually I did.

The Best Citation Builder!

Pros

The NAP citation building by BrightLocal is by far the best of any company I used. It quickly became apparent that I made the right decision of canceling my Yext subscription and switching over to BrightLocal. I am a repeat customer and a delighted one at that. They are affordable and worth it!

Cons

The interface could use a little bit of a cosmetic upgrade.

Bright Local for Agencies

So far so good, we are a new user switching over from SEMrush and have had an initial onboarding discussion with a soon follow up call. We had inadvertently used up all of our credits by not setting things up properly and they credited those to us so that we could start over. Will know more in a month or so after the data accumulates.

Pros

Easy to set up multiple clients and the reports seem to be good so far.

Cons

Limitations on reputation piece and extra cost to use the keyword grid

Easy Onboarding and Navigating

From the multiple initial calls, where [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] took the extra time to answer all of my questions during my free trial, to the success call I had with Ian, I have been thoroughly impressed with the professionalism, attention to detail, and focus on my success using their product. I'm thrilled with the experience so far, and excited to see how this product will elevate our business.

Pros

I can provide my clients with a simple dashboard to view their digital presence in one easy location. For that feature alone it was worth it for me. I also loved the pitch deck that was provided. As a Marketing agency, having a starting point when talking about these incredible features and their benefits to our customers, a pitch deck was crucial to the success of quickly launching these services.

Cons

The backend is a little clunky. For instance, it would be great on the Clients and Locations dashboard to be able to easily view the agency dashboard and the white-label dashboard without all of the extra clicks. It's still a great product, so I don't mind the extra clicks, but streamlining some of the views would be a great bonus.

Most honest company I have done business with in a long time

I was absolutely amazed at the knowledge and help the staff gave me. I did tons of research and found this to be the MOST honest and affordable company offering these services. They have several free tools which brought me to their site and then they EVEN offer a free trial. Now you KNOW this business is honest and legit if they can offer a free trial and not worry if you will stick around. That is confidence knowing they have what you want at a GREAT price.

Pros

The absolute best thing about the software is the staff that walks you through it honestly. When just looking at the surface it doesn't look like much, but when you really dive into it. It offers SO MUCH for the price I am just amazed.

Cons

I am mad at myself I didn't talk to support sooner and really dive in when I first came across this business. Oh my goodness the time and money that could have been saved or reinvested. But I am happy I know now.

Great Platform! Excellent Customer Service

Overall I like BrightLocal and as of right now, I don't think anyone out there can beat the price and/or options available in the platform. It's a very useful service and their customer service is top notch. You can't go wrong with them at all!

Pros

Once you get used to all the things you can do with BrightLocal and how everything works, it's super easy to set up an account and run every report you can think of. This truly is what I'd call an "all-in-one" platform because you can do so much with it. Keep in mind, I used to be a Yext partner and quickly realized the outcome of each account would be riddled with mistakes. For example, despite the info I would create for a client, the Yext system would change stuff: if an address was 1234 Anywhere Street, Yext might output it on some directories as 1234 Anywhere St. so there was no consistency. I also realized that Yext is simply an overlay - if you cancel your Yext account, you lose your citations. With BrightLocal, all the citations created are yours - or your clients'. It's permanent.

Cons

I feel there is a LOT of info to deal with. So many reports you can run with so much data. One thing I struggle with is knowing HOW to explain the data to a client. I don't 100% know what all the things on a report mean so how can I advise my clients?

Simple yet robust. An excellent investment for any digital agency supporting local SEO.

When we first started with Brightlocal we worked directly with [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]. I always appreciated his genuine character and hard work in supporting his clients. Today, they have a good support team, people like [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] (customer success team) who are always timely and detailed in responding to our support requests.

Pros

While there are many pros, overall - for me, the Whitelabel features equip an agency like ours to utilize the tools/reporting to the benefit of the clients we serve. We have used many tools since our inception, and we are confident BrightLocal remains at the top. They are always working hard at improving their toolset, and I get excited every time they launch a new feature, like a kid going into the candy store.

Cons

No cons, per say. Requesting more white-label tools to increase lead gen, over and about the site audit would be great. They are growing quickly, and in that come some issues here and there, but that is to be expected. I know they have the best interest of their clients in mind, so we roll through the issues together.

Good option for start-up Agencies or Freelancers

Whilst it may not be perfect, for those of us starting out on our own this is a very inexpensive way of collating and tracking all the data we need to report to clients on a monthly basis.

Pros

BrightLocal is inexpensive for the features it provides, which allows you to track a lot of SEO metrics in once place. This makes it really handy for tracking and reporting purposes. Their local citations also allow quick link building options when required. White-label reporting options also gives you quick access to download user friendly and well displayed ranking and brand data to send to your clients, branded with your own logo. This is a real time-saver if you cannot afford some of the more expensive SEO products.

Cons

The reporting options could do with some additional customisation. Whilst you can white-label and add your own branding, the actual data that is presented is fairly linear. For example, you can only compare rankings to one point in time, and can't compare both starting rankings and month-on-month in the same report. If you opt to use their lead-generator audit tool be aware it uses a credits system. This runs out fast depending on how you set it up, so I don't personally believe it's a viable source of generating leads.

Excellent Product for SEO

It's been very pleasant. Their team is very receptive. They are in the UK so timing has been a challenge, but not too bad!

Pros

It's a one stop shop for our agency's SEO needs. We can track the local listings and technical on-site SEO.

Cons

Setting up an account as an agency has been a bit convoluted and difficult to navigate. It's been months and we're still working through set up.

Monitor your SEO efforts for your clients, and report progress

We love the reporting, the ease of adding or revising reports for clients, and the benefits to the client's SEO rankings.

Pros

We get a generous quota of reports each month, white labeled, and automatically sent to our clients showing how their websites are performing compared to their competitors. This is all in addition to getting our clients' listings higher in SEO rankings and into Google's "map pack"

Cons

We have sometimes seen audits pick up the wrong business in a comparative audit, but BrightLocal has always fixed these promptly when we reported it.

Bright Local gives me the tools I need to succeed as a digital marketing agency

Their systems are good. Their pricing is good. They provide a lot of information on using their system and building your business—10 out of 10 on that one. A SAAS company these days needs to provide strong and quick support. I use other SAAS providers, and they have an awesome phone and screen-sharing support. Recently Bright Local has really improved their phone support. Keep it up.

Pros

The features I use the most are 1) Their review management system gives me a great tool to use with my clients 2) Their citations program is the best I have seen. (and I have reviewed them all) 3) I'm looking forward to working with their local marketing system. My clients are Canadian Real Estate Agents and they all work in their local market.

Cons

They have had some issues with their access to support. I used to take 7-14 days to book a 1 on1 call, now I can book them in 1-2 days. The support on these calls is very good. Their "live chat" feature is usually inaccessible as they turn it off during non-office hours and when their staff are busy. I recommended that they get more staff to monitor and serve their clients through chat. These days SAAS providers need to provide quick/instant service. As business owners, we are very busy and need answers and help quickly.

BrightLocal provides the best bang for our buck.

Pros

For our local, small business marketing focus, BrightLocal provides us with all the key tools and reports we require to monitor and grow our clients' businesses successfully. Love the white-label reporting option, the detail of the reports, and how easy it is for our clients to understand them with little tweaking required on our part. Straightforward, not overly complicated, it doesn't hurt that they look very professional also. BrightLocal pricing is reasonable and their support is second-to-none! They are always improving their products, and are very open to feedback, making us feel more like partners, not just another customer. So happy we found them!

Cons

The initial set of the software could be better, and once set up, there are a few glitches here and there. It's not as intuitive as we'd hoped, but at least they provide great support and are extremely helpful.

Best Local Search Platform

So far they have invested a ton of time in the success of my business and helped me get everything set up and optimized to how I wanted it. The employees I have been lucky enough to engage with are great and truly enjoyable to talk to. Definitely, people, I wouldn't mind getting a drink with. It is cool to see how much they put into you to make sure you know their platform and succeed with it.

Pros

Ease of use and the amount of stacked features they offer.

Cons

I haven't found anything I don't like. There are things they can add in the future I am sure but the service is awesome.

Great Value, Great Service

I have tried a couple other citation building companies and BrightLocal is by far superior. The customer service truly is great. If I need help finding more citations or if I have an issue with a campaign Bright Local support is always kind and helpful. Very kind to me indeed and never makes me feel stupid or such for not knowing something.

Pros

I like how the backend submission of a new client and campaign are made easy. All the fields are self explanatory and allow for filling in the information. Choosing citations is laid out great. You know what you are buying and what will be needed after you get the citation submission submitted. Some require phone follow up and Bright Local lets you know this. You also know the value of each submission before choosing.

Cons

Sometimes Bright Local has "lost" some of my campaigns and information. This was stressful when it happened, forcing me to fill in clients information again and check over things again and again. However, this has only happened once and once was enough.

It's My Cheapest Employee

These guys are fantastic! The customer support is on the ball, they reach out quickly to address concerns, and make sure that as a customer I feel valued. The platform itself is robust yet beautifully intuitive and simple and makes my clients happy. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Pros

My favorite aspect of BrightLocal is the auto-generated white-labeled reports. Not only do they provide instant credibility for a smaller agency like mine, but they auto-populate every month with the latest data which frees up my time and helps me focus on growth. Those reports, on top of affordable citation campaigns, make BrightLocal a great employee!

Cons

I like the ability to integrate the lead generator into my site, however I wish it offered a little. more customization so it would better fit my site's design, but it's a very minor issue.

Palaciobox using BrightLocal

Overall, BrightLocal really helped Palaciobox and helped us manage the SEO campaigns we ran for our clients. We are very happy with being part of BrightLocal and having them as a powerful too which helps us run our business.

Pros

What we liked best about BrightLocal was all the features that come with the software. There are many things you can do to analyze local SEO for different businesses. There are so many features set in place in order to help rank a business higher in Google.

Cons

What we liked least about BrightLocal was the set up and understanding how to use the website/software. They offered a demo on how to use the site, but there was still many questions at first that eventually we figured out. Still a great site to use for SEO.