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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BrightLocal

    Score7.1 out of 10
    N/ABrightLocal is a search engine optimization tool that tracks search rankings, builds citations, and monitors online reviews and stresses local search performance.

    $39

    per month

    Google Trends

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AGoogle Trends is a search engine optimization software solution offered by .N/A
    Pricing
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Editions & Modules
    Track Plan
    $39
    per month
    Manage Plan
    $49
    per month
    Grow Plan
    $59
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsBrightLocal offers custom enterprise plans for businesses with more than 50 locations.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Considered Both Products
    BrightLocal
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    Features
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of BrightLocal and Google Trends
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    6.7
    12 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Google Trends
    6.0
    35 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Keyword analysis7.08 Ratings8.533 Ratings
    Backlink management4.05 Ratings5.08 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking7.711 Ratings5.013 Ratings
    Page grader7.52 Ratings5.09 Ratings
    Competitive analysis7.611 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics9.98 Ratings5.08 Ratings
    Site recommendations6.64 Ratings5.09 Ratings
    Task management3.56 Ratings6.24 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of BrightLocal and Google Trends
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    8.6
    13 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Google Trends
    6.3
    24 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Local SEO8.613 Ratings6.021 Ratings
    Social SEO7.96 Ratings6.015 Ratings
    Mobile SEO10.04 Ratings6.016 Ratings
    Global SEO7.72 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of BrightLocal and Google Trends
    Feature
    BrightLocal
    9.2
    11 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Google Trends
    6.0
    11 Ratings
    33% below category average
    Multi-domain support8.59 Ratings6.05 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools9.910 Ratings6.011 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Small Businesses
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Yoast
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Yoast
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Google Search Console
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (14 ratings)
    8.5
    (35 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    6.4
    (6 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BrightLocalGoogle Trends
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BrightLocal
    If you are a local business owner or marketing agency catering to local businesses, BrightLocal is a must have software. It has everything you need to track your local marketing efforts and to identify opportunities to make improvements, all at a very reasonable price point. You can also create nice looking reports to send to clients which are simple to create.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Trends is great for research and planning, to analyse keyword demand and associated costs. It really does help plan to capture consumer demand. It can be a little tricky to use, as the UX design isn't brilliant, so you'll need to learn how to navigate the website.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    BrightLocal
    • When we use BrightLocal's citation building service, I know that we're getting quality citations done right. Their staff will email you with any questions and always double check the information before creating inaccurate citations.
    • I love that BrightLocal is very quick about making changes when requested. For example, if we can't find a city on the drop-down list, you can chat them and they'll add it. Or if a report is pulling incorrectly, they'll re-run it within a reasonable timeframe.
    • BrightLocal has a lot of different reports that are easy to send to your clients. You can even add them to a web-viewable dashboard so that your client can simply bookmark a link and view their reports when they please.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • I love how Google Trends presents the popularity of a specific query by location. For example, my product may be more popular or more "searched" in a specific state or city. This helps a lot for direct mail campaigns or any sort of in-person marketing efforts like events or pop-ups. You could use the information from Google Trends to decide what locations will be more receptive of your product/industry or you could see where people have little to no interest and build a brand awareness campaign focusing on those areas.
    • Another great feature within Google Trends is that it shows "Related Queries", which are basically suggestions of better keywords or phrases to incorporate into your content. If you search for data on a keyword you're using that's too broad (your content won't stand out among other web pages) or too narrow (not many potential customers are searching that keyword or phrase), Google Trends will suggest a related keyword or phrase that is more appropriate or trending at the moment. You could go back and incorporate these phrases into your content so that it's more likely to be found on search engines.
    • Within the Google Trends "Related Topics" section, you can choose whether you want to see topics that are "Top" or "Rising". I like this feature because looking at a "Rising" topic can help you create content that's more likely to be seen - especially if you're a beginner. Most topics that are in the "Top" category can have thousands of web pages that you're competing against and you can feel like your content is drowning. But the topics in the "rising" category can be great for newer sites that haven't developed authority online yet. You can write on one of these topics and be one of the first sites to create content on that topic, which gives you a head start over other sites.
    • Google Trends "Categories" is also a great feature. If you don't have any content ideas for your website, you can easily find inspiration by selecting a category that's relevant to your industry. The top keywords or topics will come up and you can create content on those topics to increase your number of web visitors. For example, if you work in the fashion industry and you don't have content ideas, you can have Google Trends generate data for the "Beauty & Fitness" or "Shopping" categories to see what's trending. Google will tell you if a specific brand, person, or event is trending and you could write an article based on one of those trends. Since people are searching for that topic, your content will be seen. This is a great way to create timely content even if you're new to an industry or simply haven't kept up with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    BrightLocal
    • Up and down rankings were not always right on with the local search, but only off by one or two spots
    • It felt like it was only used for local SEO, and I know there are more features, just never got to them.
    • Didn't seem useful for every single client in the way Ahrefs or Spyfu did
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • It would be nice to have breadcrumbs available so that I can go backward in a particular search. One I click a topic and then click the related terms two or three times, I find that I'm so far down the rabbit hole that the "Back" button in my browser is a really inconvenient way to find my way back to a certain stage of my search. If there were breadcrumbs I could jump directly back to a particular stage and chase another rabbit from there.
    • It's easy to get lost searching in here for an extended period of time. I would be nice to be able to print a report of my whole session when I have finished.
    • It would be nice to have a Top Tends board of job searches or other information related to jobs that are currently popular Google searches.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    BrightLocal
    No answers on this topic
    Google
    Google Trends is very easy to use. you just search for a certain keyword or phrase, and it tells you how often that keyword or phrase is searched, where in the world it is searched, and over the last decade, how often it is per year.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    BrightLocal
    Although their customer support has always contacted me, they have not always been helpful. Many times I've had reports or information disappear with them telling me they had no record of it, even when I had reports that the information was in there. There are times when their system did have bugs and the support was able to help me there. Overall, the support staff is there but they cannot always do much and need to wait for their development team to get back to them which often takes a long time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    I haven't needed to use any support for Google Trends. However, I've used Google's support in general and it's a hit or miss. Usually, there's a long wait or they don't understand my problem. They are the only ones that can help, so sometimes I feel stuck. They prioritize paying customers for sure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    BrightLocal
    Thryv reached out to me about 3 weeks before signing up with BrightLocal. While all of their features were impressive, there were only about 3 features that I would have used. Thryv wanted $200 per month for their service, which I found to be way overpriced for what I was wanting to use it for. I selected BrightLocal because it had the features I wanted at a lower price and then add ons. After using BrightLocal for a week and speaking with Becki, a customer service executive, I have discovered more features that I would use on BrightLocal than on Thryv.
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Trends is a great place to start in the content curation, content research, blog post writing, and resource page creation process. It is not, however, a place to do serious SEO optimization. Tools like Moz, or Analytics SEO would be a better place to go after you do initial research on Google Trends to dial in your keywords, and optimize content for search engines.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    BrightLocal
    • BrightLocal's ranking reports have helped us better serve our clients' SEO needs, especially local SEO.
    • Reporting is nicely accomplished with their online client report dashboards.
    • Negative: some of their software defects are glaringly obvious take forever to fix, creating a number of awkward moments when we talk our clients through their reports.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Google Trends has shown me when a keyword is no longer working for my website so that I can adjust the content accordingly.
    • It shows me seasonal differences so I can adjust my PPC budgets to be on pace with the trends.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BrightLocal Screenshots

    Screenshot of Location SummaryScreenshot of Local Search Rank CheckerScreenshot of Local Search GridScreenshot of Local Search AuditScreenshot of Google My Business AuditScreenshot of Citation Tracker