The good news, though, is that Google Business Profile will play a key role in what comes next.

As he put it:

“Google Business Profile is the digital storefront. It’s the point of truth across Google Search and Maps.”

From Keywords to Conversations

According to Riaz, search has moved far beyond “pizza near me.” Today’s customers type, or speak, more nuanced queries: “find me a gluten-free deep-dish pizza with vegan cheese that I can enjoy on a dog-friendly patio.” These conversational searches carry more context and more commercial intent.

“We’ve gone from people typing ‘pool cleaning’ to asking ‘why is my pool green and how do I fix it?’ Search is becoming more conversational and contextual.”

For businesses, this means two things:

1. Your visibility depends on how complete and accurate your information is.
2. Customers are closer to taking action when they find you.

Search Without the Search Box

Riaz pointed to Google Lens, Circle to Search, and AI Overviews as proof that discovery is expanding. One in five Lens searches already has purchase intent.

“One in every five Lens searches has commercial intent. That’s a huge opportunity for businesses.”

Add to that AI summaries at the top of results, and even AI Mode, which reasons through complex questions, and you have customers discovering businesses in entirely new ways. 

Local businesses can no longer rely solely on text-based search. Visibility now requires being present in images, summaries, and AI-driven conversations.

Google Business Profile: The Digital Storefront

Despite the buzz around new AI features, Omar stressed the central role of the Google Business Profile. He described it as the “point of truth” across Maps and Search, and now, increasingly, across AI-driven results.

“Businesses with complete profiles see up to seven times more clicks than those without.”

Complete profiles, with categories, attributes, hours, and rich visuals, are far more likely to surface in conversational queries. In other words, GBP is no longer just a listing; it’s the storefront through which AI introduces your business to customers.

For practical steps, see our guides on Google Business Profile optimization.

SEO Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving

Riaz was clear: don’t throw away your SEO playbook. The fundamentals still matter — crawlability, technical health, and unique content remain the foundation.

“The fundamentals of SEO are even more important now than before. The goal is still to help people find outstanding original content that adds unique value.”

But in an AI-first world, the yardstick is shifting. Success is measured less in raw clicks and more in engagement, conversions, and loyalty. For marketers, that means rethinking what performance looks like — focusing on outcomes, not just traffic volume.

Our Local SEO Checklist can help make sure you’ve got the essentials in place.

2025 Priorities for Local Businesses

Looking ahead, Google is steering businesses toward four key content priorities:

• Messaging and chat: adding WhatsApp and SMS directly into GBP.
• Social integration: linking Instagram, YouTube, and X to build authenticity.
• Google Posts: using posts as part of an active social strategy.
• Structured menus and ordering: especially for restaurants and cafés, where customers expect to browse and book without friction. For more, check out our restaurant SEO guide.

“We’re advising businesses to treat Google Posts as part of their social strategy — updating at least once a week improves visibility.”

The thread running through all of these? Freshness, completeness, and authenticity. Google wants GBP to be an active channel, not a static listing.

The Data Gap and What Comes Next

One audience concern resonated: visibility into AI traffic. Right now, tracking is limited. While Omar acknowledged this frustration, he noted that these are very new products, and analytics will evolve.

“AI Mode has only just launched in over 180 markets. Tracking and analytics will evolve, but right now it’s still very new.”

For now, his advice was to double down on what’s within your control: strong content, complete business profiles, and consistent engagement.

Google Doubling Down

Omar Riaz’s session underscored an important truth: Google isn’t moving away from local business visibility, it’s doubling down on it. By weaving AI into search, by expanding the role of Google Business Profile, and by emphasizing fresh, authentic content, Google is signaling that the businesses that adapt now will be best positioned tomorrow.

As Riaz made clear;

“Those who invest in completeness, authenticity, and adaptability will be the ones who thrive in Google’s AI-first future.”

Google has removed the ability to view 100 search results per page. This was done by adding the parameter “&num=100” to the URL. 

It’s not confirmed whether this is a bug or a new feature right now, but you do need to be aware of the implications.

As you can see from this query for ‘coffee near me’, where filter is set to num=100, you don’t get 100 results.

What does this actually mean?

For Google users, this simply allowed you to view 100 results per page, which, while useful, isn’t necessarily an issue.

For businesses that rely on Google Search Console, you’ll likely notice a drastic drop in impressions.

Source: Brodie Clark

For rank tracking tools, this presents a problem, too.

• Any rank tracking tool that reports on data above the top 10 results will have been affected.
• You may have seen a jump in average rank due to this.
• This means that to get 100 results for a rank tracker, they’d need to make 10 requests rather than 1.

There is a chance that this has happened due to LLMs scraping search results, but Google hasn’t confirmed anything as of right now.

How does that affect you?

While things are being ironed out, your reports may look a little different. This is the case whether you use Search Console or any number of local rank trackers.

In reality, though:

• Actual rankings are unaffected.
• Some tools are pivoting on the number of results they are reporting on.
• Top 10 rankings will still be returned by most tools, and these are the most valuable to report on, regardless.
• The top 20 are still available for most tracking tools. These are where your opportunities often are.
• Anything outside the top 20 often drives minimal clicks or impressions and sees significant flux. Not being able to track keywords that rank here is not the end of the world.
• Local Pack rank tracking will not have been affected.

What is BrightLocal doing?

At BrightLocal, we offer two local rank tracking solutions. Only one of these has been affected.

• Local Search Grid: Our geo-grid rank tracker has not been affected by this change.
• Local Rank Tracker: Our local rank tracker provides the top 50 results, which means it has been affected by the change.

What is the plan for Local Rank Tracker?

To get 50 results for Local Rank Tracker, we now need to run 5 requests instead of one.

We have rolled out a temporary fix to make sure we will continue to provide you with the data we previously offered.

We will monitor the situation and, if anything changes, inform you of any effect this could have on our API and Local Rank tracker.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your account manager or contact customer support.

If you’re no longer the best person to handle the ongoing maintenance and upkeep required, you can transfer Google Business Profile ownership to a designated replacement. Read on to find out how to start this process and what you’ll need to consider along the way. 

Can I transfer Google Business Profile ownership?

Whether you’ve run out of time, changed jobs, or sold your business, there could well come a time when you wish to transfer ownership of your Google Business Profile to someone else. While Google has numerous policies around listings management, it does allow primary owners to merge Google Business profiles and to transfer ownership of a listing to someone else. 

Things to Consider Before Transferring Google Business Profile Ownership

While the process of transferring ownership of your listing is straightforward, there are still a few things that you’ll need to consider. 

Roles

There are two main roles within the Google Business ecosystem: owners and managers. Owners are further categorized as primary owners and owners.

Your profile can have multiple owners and managers, but only one primary owner. The primary owner is the only one who can transfer ownership of the listing to another user. A primary owner can only remove themselves from a listing when another user is appointed as the primary owner to take their place.

There’s a Holding Period

Transferring ownership is a quick process, but once the primary owner role is assigned to another user, a seven-day holding period will commence. During this handover phase, the new primary owner will have limited capability to enact changes. They won’t be able to remove other owners or managers, for example, nor can they recover a deleted profile or delete a listing.

Listing Accuracy

When transferring ownership to another user, the listing information, including reviews, will be maintained. However, it’s still a good idea to check the listing for accuracy and ensure all contact information, opening hours, and location information are up to date.

Communicating the Change

While you won’t need to tell anyone outside of your organization that you have successfully transferred Google Business Profile ownership to someone else, there may be people within the business that you’ll need to notify. 

How to Transfer Ownership of a Google Business Profile

There are several steps involved in the ownership transfer process:

Step 1: Log in to your listing

Go to business.google.com to access your listing control panel and admin tools.

Step 2: Choose your listing

Click the listing you wish to transfer and then navigate to ‘Settings.’ You can find this by clicking on the three dots icon to the right of your screen.

Step 3: Navigate to ‘People and access’

When the Business Profile settings menu loads, select the ‘People and access’ option. This is where you add and remove other managers and owners and assign roles.

Step 4: Add the new owner (option A)

When the ‘People and access’ menu loads, you’ll see that you have the option to add a person to the listing.

If the person you wish to transfer ownership to isn’t already a manager for the listing, you’ll need to add them. Enter their email address and select ‘Owner’ from the two role options given. Then click ‘Invite’.

Step 4: Change role to owner (option B)

If the person you’re transferring ownership to is already a manager, you can change their role to ‘Owner’ rather than add them to the listing.

Simply click on their name and then select ‘Primary owner.’

Step 5: Await invitation acceptance

If you’ve invited a new user to own the listing, you’ll need to wait for that person to accept the invitation before you can proceed. They can do this by opening the email sent by Google and clicking on the link provided.

Step 6: Remove the previous owner

When the new owner accepts their invitation, you’ll need to log back into your Google Business Profile, navigate to the ‘People and access’ menu, and remove the old owner. This process will complete the transfer of ownership. 

Why might I need to transfer Google Business Profile ownership?

There are multiple reasons why you may need to transfer ownership of your Google Business listing. Often, these reasons relate to a notable change within the business, such as the arrival of new owners or the appointment of a new marketing team. During that transition period, your profile must remain helpful, trustworthy, and up-to-date, and for that to happen, you need to ensure the right person has ownership.  

A Change in Business Ownership

If you’ve sold your business, the new owners will need full access to the Google Business listing to manage their presence on Google Search and Maps. They’ll only have complete control of their profile when they become the primary owner.

The Departure of a Key Employee

The primary owner of your Google listing may be an employee or contractor rather than the physical owner of the local business. Often, this is because that person originally set up the listing or was given responsibility for managing the Google Business Profile as part of their role.

If that employee leaves or the contract reaches an endpoint, someone within the business will need to be appointed as the primary owner so they can manage the profile and assign roles in the future.

Changes to Agency Relationships

If your business has worked with a marketing or local SEO agency, that agency may have initially claimed the business listing. It’s always advisable to request the transfer of ownership to yourself or someone within your business when this happens so that you don’t lose control if you cease work with that agency.

To Create a Central Management Team

Are you opening a new location? Or perhaps you already have multiple locations? Businesses with more than one storefront or service area will have multiple listings to manage. Often, it’s more efficient to consolidate that management into a centralized hub, with one designated owner responsible for updating and maintaining those multiple listings. 

Conclusion

Your Google Business Profile listing is a central pillar of your local search presence. It can be an invaluable tool, but it’s only an asset to your business when it is accurate, provides up-to-date contact information, and is proactively maintained. Our Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023 found that 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online.

If your circumstances change, whether due to a business sale, a transition into a new role, or the arrival of a different marketing team, transferring the ownership of your Google Business profile can ensure it continues to perform at an optimal level.

The process of appointing a new listing owner is straightforward, but as we have seen, there are a few steps to follow and several things you’ll need to consider. Use the above information as your guide, and you should find the process quick and easy. 

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter eight of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’.

Running an agency is difficult. Growing your agency is even harder.

For many, that growth comes organically with some big client wins. For others, it requires years of grinding. Regardless of how you’ve achieved your growth, there’s a good chance it’s going to come with difficulties that need to be navigated.

“The bigger you get as an agency, the easier it is to slip away from the things that made you successful to begin with”

– Laura Salter, Director of Operations, Kick Point

Maybe it’s the right hire, but at the wrong time. Or, suddenly, you find yourself floundering without the right processes in place, leading to a lack of consistency. Maybe important clients suddenly leave. It could be that you’ve not been able to scale headcount fast enough.

“This taught me a crucial lesson: scaling an agency isn’t just about adding headcount.”

– Vera Shafiq, Fractional CMO and Consultant

Whatever it is, you’re probably not the first agency to have those issues. Our 2024 Local Marketing Industry Survey found that 66% of agencies were planning to hire new staff in 2025.

So to help you navigate these chaotic times, we’ve talked to a number of agency founders and leaders to find out what problems they had as they grew, and how they overcame them.

"Let Go and Keep Learning"

Blake Denman, President & Founder at RicketyRoo

The biggest challenge I have faced while growing RicketyRoo has been letting go.

I founded the agency on February 1, 2009, and have been actively involved for the vast majority of its life. However, as we’ve continued to grow, the things that I had been in charge of have been taken over by someone else on the team.

Operations was the last thing I truly let go of, and for a period of time, I felt more or less like the Pulp Fiction meme of John Travolta standing there with his coat, pointing one way, then pointing the other way, not sure which way to go.

Up until that point, I knew what I needed to get done within the agency to keep moving forward. I’ve learned that the only way to keep growing is to let go and remain teachable in all aspects of not only agency life, but life in general.

"Never Lose Focus on Your Culture"

Laura Salter, Director of Operations at Kick Point

The bigger you get as an agency, the easier it is to slip away from the things that made you successful to begin with. You’ll likely find yourself questioning whether a few tight months mean you should sacrifice the things that made your culture attractive and retain those talented, engaged people on your team.

Wherever you can, find creative places to trim that are not essential to who you are as an organization. If you don’t know what those essential things are, ask your team. And listen.

"Putting Processes in Place to Save Quality"

Nick Meagher, Owner at icepick

The biggest challenge for me was scaling without sacrificing quality.

What made the difference was creating clear SOPs and processes, then hiring talented people who could execute them well. That foundation allowed us to grow quickly while maintaining high standards.

"Talent Getting Bogged Down with Admin"

Vera Shafiq, Marketing Strategy Consultant at Vera Shafiq

The biggest challenge I have faced during rapid growth periods at agencies is watching talented media buyers and strategists get bogged down in administrative tasks while client demands intensify.

Despite hiring great people, our team’s strategic output would suffer because they were spending too much time on reporting, manual data entry, and repetitive processes instead of the innovative thinking that drives real results.

This taught me a crucial lesson: scaling an agency isn’t just about adding headcount.

It’s about ruthlessly automating the mundane work first. By prioritizing process streamlining and removing administrative friction, we could free our team to focus on what they do best: developing breakthrough strategies and delivering measurable growth for clients. By doing this, not only does work quality improve, but team morale soars when people can actually practice their craft.

Grow Your Own Way

Each of these agency leaders has gone through distinctly different issues. But the key message is one of adapting without losing sight of what you started in the first place.

While processes are important, for instance, you shouldn’t be against changing them. But doing so in a way that could affect your culture is one you should avoid.

If you need more help growing your agency, the Agency Growth Handbook offers insights from local SEO and digital agencies to help you grow your own without facing the same pitfalls they did. 

We’d love to hear what’s happened on your growth journey so far. Drop us a comment on Linkedin, X (formerly Twitter) or Bluesky with your own.

At Google I/O 2025, we learned more about Google’s vision for AI search, and just before then, we found out about some new Google Business Profile (GBP) functionality. The direction is clear. Google is doubling down on AI and trying to improve the user experience of searchers.

So, what’s at the heart of this strategy? A renewed focus on personalization using AI, local discovery, smart spending, and seamless, enjoyable experiences, especially when it comes to food, events, and things to do.

AI Mode and the Future of Search

As part of the keynote on day one of Google I/O, Google announced a brand new AI Mode, along with a number of upgrades to Google Gemini.

While these aren’t local specific, there’s a good chance they’ll affect how users search for and discover businesses moving forward.

AI Mode is a fully AI search experience. Google created it early in 2025 in Search Labs and is now rolling it out to the whole of the US.

In their own words:

“AI Mode is our most powerful AI search, with more advanced reasoning and multimodality, and the ability to go deeper through follow-up questions and helpful links to the web. Over the coming weeks, you’ll see a new tab for AI Mode appear in Search and in the search bar in the Google app.”

– Elizabeth Reid, VP, Head of Search, Google

Right now AI Mode is opt-in; you have to navigate to it as it sits in its own tab at the top of the screen. But realistically, and hammered home by Liz Reid, Google’s Head of Search, this is the future of search. A truly personalized experience.

So what does that mean for you? How can you future-proof yourself?

It means that traditional search is not necessarily long for this world. AI Mode is designed to learn from you. It’ll look at your emails, your search history and try to tailor your searches based on that.

“Today the search experience for someone looking something up varies from postal code to postal code, but with this type of feature it’s going to vary from individual to individual.”

– Ross Simmonds, CEO, Foundation & Distribution.ai via LinkedIn

If it knows you’ve booked a hotel in downtown Miami, for instance, it can start giving you a tailored itinerary, and local restaurant suggestions.

If you’ve told it about allergies, it can omit any recipes it suggests in a search that includes those ingredients. That doesn’t sound too much of an issue for a local business, right? You’re not giving someone a recipe. But think about what that sort of learning and personalization actually means.

• When a user asks for a list of places to buy products in their local area, Google will already know their shopping preferences from their emails (and other sources). It could exclude certain shops from their list, while including them more regularly for others.
• If Google knows about an allergy, it can give tailored suggestions for places to eat based on the menus in Google Business Profiles.
• It can tailor recommendations based on the vibe it knows a user has. If it knows all about their interests, the brands they interact with, the papers they read, the inspirational content they interact with, the bands they listen to, or anything else, it can give them a recommendation that matches it.

This truly tailored searching is likely to be what Google wants all search experiences to be like in the future. So, while AI Mode may be in its own tab, for now, there’s a good chance it will inform how search works in the future. Therefore, it will affect how people find your business.

It’s currently available across the US.

For marketers or local businesses, AI Mode will bring some new truths:

• Clicks will likely go down.
  This is already the case for a lot of sites based purely on AI Overviews. But AI Mode may decrease them even more, even when it does provide links.
• Ranking for general terms may become less important.
  Depending on the personalization, the same term could show completely different results.
• Your brand and reputation is more important than ever.
  Making sure AI understands your brand, and that your brand is both familiar and respected locally will be crucial for getting it found. It goes without saying, but continue to work at getting more reviews.
• Diversifying your channels is going to be important.
  Look beyond simply optimizing for Google. Where else is your brand visible? TikTok, YouTube, Yelp?
• Your Google Business Profile remains important.
  In the examples Google uses in its presentation, the AI continues to surface the full profile for the local businesses it recommends.
• You can’t track traffic from AI Overviews or AI Mode.
  As it stands, Google is not offering the opportunity to track traffic from its AI search functions. 

“Right now, ranking #1 for a broad key phrase means you get a lot of clicks, but many people will drop out when the price is wrong, the brand isn’t a good fit for them, or doesn’t fit some kind of personal requirement.

The personalisation we’ll see within AI-type systems will mean a “broad” term with 50,000 searches a month may generate 1,000 different sets of results/recommendations based on the user profile. Fewer clicks, but much higher qualification is likely the future—so as Myriam Jessier has been publishing, making sure AI systems understand what your brand is, will be paramount.”

– Mark Williams-Cook, SEO Direct, Candour via LinkedIn

On top of AI Mode, Google announced a number of upgrades to Google Gemini and a rollout of AI Overviews to new countries. If you hadn’t realised by now, Google is all in on AI.

Google Business Profile Releases: Event Posts and ‘What’s Happening’

Just before Google IO, Google rolled out a brand-new Event Post display for restaurants and bars. This significant update makes GBP Posts more visible than ever in mobile search.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Displays prominently for branded searches on mobile
• Pulls content from your GBP event posts or connected social accounts
• Highlights timely updates like ‘Live Band Tonight’ or ‘Happy Hour Today’
• Prioritizes recency—outdated content disappears quickly
• Not available on Maps or desktop (yet)
• Live in English-speaking markets: US, UK, CA, AU, NZ
• Available only for single-location listings

And there’s more! Google has also introduced the new ‘What’s Happening’ section for restaurants and bars. This is a dedicated space at the top of a GBP profile to spotlight events, deals, and specials.

“This is the first time in a while that Google has made Posts more visible in search. The intent is clear: Google wants to surface what’s happening right now at your business.”

– Claudia Tomina, Google Product Expert and CEO, Reputation ARM via LinkedIn

This space is designed to drive immediate engagement, putting updates like ‘Today’s Special’ or ‘Live Music Saturday’ front and center. To be eligible to appear in this new space:

• Post directly to your GBP using Google Posts, or
• Connect your Facebook, Instagram, and X profiles for automatic syncing.

It’s a small change with a big impact, especially for businesses that rely on footfall and timely promotions.

What These New Features Mean for Local Businesses

These recent GBP changes are all about enhancing the discoverability and appeal of local businesses. From event-led footfall to deal-driven dining decisions, Google is reinforcing the power of local relevance and giving businesses more tools to stay visible and competitive.

At BrightLocal, we’ll be tracking these developments closely and helping businesses make the most of every new feature as it rolls out.

If Google detects multiple listings for the same business, that profile won’t be eligible for inclusion in Google’s Local Pack and Google Maps, meaning duplicate Google listings could be actively harming your search visibility.

Having various profiles is something of a minefield for local business owners, as there are multiple reasons why an extra listing or two might have popped up:

• It could be that a Google Business Profile was created by a previous employee or local SEO agency, and you didn’t have permission to manage that listing, so you created another one
• Perhaps you moved to a new location, and rather than update the existing listing, you created a new profile
• Your service business may have created multiple listings to represent each unique service, rather than including them on a single profile
• You might even have created a duplicate listing by mistake

Whatever the reason, you’ll need to resolve the conflict to be eligible for Search and Maps.

At this point, you’re probably wondering how to merge two Google Business listings. You’re in the right place! We’re here to walk you through it, but first, a word of warning: proceed with caution because this process can be more problematic than it first appears.

Is it possible to merge Google Business Profiles together?

The short answer is yes; you can merge two or more Google Business Profiles to create a single listing. 

The longer answer is that it isn’t just a case of selecting a few duplicate listings and then combining them into one page. As you’ve probably guessed, Google will only allow multiple listings to be merged in certain circumstances.

The main requirement is that you can only merge listings for the same business. The addresses must be the same, and the information for each listing must be broadly very similar.

Additionally, you’ll only be able to merge multiple listings if you are the verified owner of each listing and can see each profile within your Google Business dashboard.

These requirements do rule out some instances where you may want to merge several different listings. If you were to acquire a new business in a totally different location, for example, you couldn’t merge that firm’s listing with your own existing Google Business Profile. Ditto if you find a dupe that you’d like to fold into your main listing but don’t own or manage that additional profile.

How to Merge Two Google Business Listings

The good news is that only a few steps are required to combine additional listings into one main profile for your business.

Step 1: Confirm you meet Google’s requirements

First things first, you’ll need to double-check that you meet each of these requirements:

• Duplicate listings do exist
• Each listing gives the same business name
• The address stated on each listing is the same
•  The listing information is virtually identical across each profile
• You own or manage each listing via your Google Business Profile account 

With those requirements met, here’s what you’ll need to do next.

Step 2: Locate each profile’s ID

Each Google listing has a unique ID that identifies it specifically. To merge multiple pages, you’ll need to note down the ID of each listing to be merged.

1. To find the ID number, log into your Google Business Account and find the first listing to be merged.
2. Once the listing is open, locate the menu in the top right corner.

   
   

3. Select ‘Business Profile settings’ and then from the following menu click ‘Advanced settings’.
   
   
4. Your ID will be at the top of the next screen. Copy that ID and repeat each step until you have the ID for each listing you wish to combine.

Step 3: Submit a request

1. Open the Google Business Help Centre and select the profile you wish to merge from the drop-down box. In the ‘Tell us what we can help with’ box, enter ‘Merge duplicate profiles’ and then click ‘Next’.

2. Select your issue from the options given and click Next.

3. Provide the IDs and request a merger.

Pros and Cons of Merging Google Business Profiles

Local search visibility is a powerful tool for your business, so you’ll want to do all you can to present the clearest and most accurate version of your business in Maps and Search. Cleaning up duplicate profiles and consolidating your presence is one way to do that, but merging two or more listings isn’t always smooth sailing.  

Advantages of Merging Google Business Profiles

Now you know how to merge two Google Business listings, let’s explore the advantages of going through this process.

• Eligibility for Search and Maps: When Google detects multiple listings for the same business name and address, those listings will no longer be visible in Search and Maps. Merging or deleting duplicate listings so you have just one Google Business Profile for your business restores your eligibility.
• Improved local search rankings: Information spread across multiple listings can hamper your ability to rank well for your core Google Business listing. Consolidating your business information and activity, such as images, review responses, and Posts, into a single, unified profile can boost your local rankings.
• A stronger review profile: Multiple listings could mean your reviews are spread across numerous profiles. Most consumers won’t click through to each listing to read your reviews, so the majority will only ever see a snapshot of your feedback. Given that more than half (53%) of consumers want to read positive experiences of local businesses, it makes sense that you’ll gain more benefits from your positive reputation if those reviews are gathered in one profile. This is also important for your local search rankings.
• An improved consumer experience: Multiple listings can be confusing for local search users and could sow a seed of distrust. Eliminating that confusion by having just one accurate and up-to-date listing ensures a more streamlined, more positive customer experience.
• More efficient profile management: Managing multiple listings is inefficient and unnecessary. Merging those unnecessary listings into a single profile frees up your time and efforts so you can focus on making your primary Google Business Profile the best it can be.

Disadvantages of Merging Google Business Profiles

While it’s always advisable to comply with Google’s policies and stick with a single Google Business listing, there are some disadvantages to merging two or more profiles.

• Loss of optimization: Chances are, the two listings you wish to consolidate have different levels of optimization. There is a risk that some of that could be lost if a stronger profile merges with a weaker one. This could result in a loss of local search visibility.
• Loss of review responses: Merging listings will also merge reviews, but it’s been widely reported that review responses often aren’t included in this process. This can be particularly problematic if you’ve had to address negative feedback recently.  
• Negative reviews: If one listing has been plagued by negative reviews, you might not want those to be pulled into your main listing without any means of response. You could consider deleting the duplicate profile instead.
• Inaccurate content: If one of the listings contains inaccurate or outdated information and images, you run the risk of that showing up on your consolidated profile. Rather than merging with an inaccurate profile, a better option would be to delete the incorrect listing.

When is it a good idea to merge Google Business Profiles?

If you’re committed to maintaining a strong local search presence, you can’t afford to drop the ball when it comes to managing your Google Business Profile. Regularly checking for duplicate listings and taking appropriate action to clean up your presence is key to staying in control (and on the right side of Google’s Business Profile policies).

It’s a good idea to consider merging duplicate listings as soon as you become aware that the issue exists. The longer you have multiple listings active, the greater the chances your Search and Maps visibility will be impacted. 

Keep in mind that merging may not always be the best option. Merging inaccurate, malicious, or very outdated listings with your main profile could do more harm than good. Consider deleting those listings (or reporting malicious listings to Google) rather than merging. 

Can I merge more than two Google Business Profiles?

In some circumstances, there may be more than two Google Business Profiles for your business. If the listings are for the same business, at the same address, and contain broadly the same information, you can merge more than two profiles to create a single consolidated profile. 

Conclusion

Having more than one Google Business Profile isn’t just against Google’s policies. It can also confuse search users, increase the risk of inaccurate information being made public, and weaken your review profile.

Merging is one way to regain control and return your search presence to a single optimized listing. While this is straightforward, you should always consider whether merging is the right course of action. Reporting malicious listings or deleting very old listings might be a better choice.

For years, we’ve offered best-in-class white-label local SEO tools to help you track, audit, and deliver incredible results for yourself or your clients. Alongside these tools, we’ve provided industry-leading Citation Building Services.

And that got us thinking.

What more could we be doing to help you win at local search?

Introducing Local SEO Services from BrightLocal. Where we do the work, and you see the results.

Yose Dhansay

Head of Client Services at BrightLocal

“I’m very excited to formally launch our Local SEO Services — a streamlined, high-impact offering to help businesses build visibility, trust, and momentum in their local markets. Clients wanted a smarter, more practical way to grow with a partner they trust.

This is our answer: simple, effective, and built to deliver more traffic and customers. We help businesses optimise for local so they can own their niche. And it’s all backed by a friendly, professional and knowledgeable team.”

Who is it for?

Ok, that sounds great. But who are these services for? We’ve broken it down below to help you see if you’re a good fit.

We make a bespoke local SEO strategy for each business we work with, regardless of whether it’s your own business, or your client’s.

Existing BrightLocal Customers

If you already use BrightLocal, you may be eligible for our Local SEO Services. You’ll just need to book a call with one of our sales team to find out how we can help your business or agency grow.

Ready to improve your rankings? Talk to us about our Local SEO Services

Book an Introduction

Our Six Pillars of Local SEO

We focus on six core pillars to help you, or your clients, rank higher in local searches.

1. Google Business Profile (GBP) optimization and management
   • Boost visibility and interactions by ranking higher in local search.
2. Website and content optimization
   • Get more leads by ranking higher for more search terms in Google. 
3. Citation building and listings management
   • Get your business listed accurately everywhere your customers are looking.
4. Review management
   • Build trust with customers by managing your reviews and reputation.
5. High-quality link building
   • Increase your authority with Google and boost your rankings
6. Monitoring and reporting
   • We track the impact of our work, delivering continuous improvements.

How much does it cost?

Our pricing, like your local SEO strategy, is tailored to your business. Each customer is completely unique. To calculate the overall cost we assess your industry, location and your local competition.

We use all of this to calculate your price. All prices are calculated on a location basis.

Prices range from $799 to $1,299 per location per month.

Agencies and consultants receive a 25% discount.

Are you ready to unlock your local SEO potential?

If you’re interested in finding out more about our Local SEO Services, all you need to do is book a call.

If you need more information, you can check out our Local SEO Services page, which will cover more in-depth questions you may have.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter five of ‘Part 3: Retention & Growth’. 

What’s that? Google has put out another algorithm update. It’s OK, you’ve not been doing anything dodgy with any of your clients. You know the local search algorithm inside out. Nothing bad will have ha… wait, what’s that? Your best-performing client’s visibility has suddenly tanked? That can’t be right. Why is your phone ringing incessantly? Why is that email in all caps? What are you going to do?

Ok, that may be a bit of an extreme example, as things like this shouldn’t come as a surprise. But the truth is there’s no guarantee that an algorithm update won’t affect one of your clients. On some occasions, they may have done absolutely nothing wrong, but Google has decided that someone else has done something better, and this update has surfaced their content in place of yours.

Another example is when they add something to the algorithm, like changing how opening hours affect local rankings.

So having a process in place to respond to one of these situations is important. We’ve talked to a number of experts from across the local search industry to find out how they react when one of their clients has potentially been affected by an algorithm update.

Algorithm Response Plans from the Experts

We asked each local search expert “Google has launched (yet another) algorithm update. Your client’s been affected. What do you do?”. You’ll find their answers below.

"It should not be a surprise, but the first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business."

Tim Capper, Owner at Online Ownership

First off, this shouldn’t be a surprise. You should have seen the signs if you’re doing local SEO properly. Algorithm shifts rarely come out of nowhere, and clients should already have been prepped for possible turbulence.

Now, let me drop an old-school truth bomb: overreliance on automated “pretty” reporting instead of manual reporting here is what’s happening. And what I see happening probably landed you here in the first place. That’s why I prioritise manual, insight and “gut” driven reporting, focusing on what matters and what’s next rather than just painting a rosy (or panic-inducing) picture.

If you’re paying attention, you should already have seen early indicators, small but telling fluctuations in site performance, sections behaving oddly, or ranking inconsistencies. These “niggles” may not have a clear cause at the time, but they’re worth flagging. That’s why reporting should be proactive, not reactive. 

But now, here we are: algorithm update, impact, damage assessment.

The first step is understanding what’s been hit and how it affects the business. Sometimes, when you step back from the numbers and analyse the business’s core strengths and market positioning, the reality isn’t as dire as it first seems. Is it just this client’s business or all businesses within the same vertical mirroring this impact? 

Next, look at the type of update and what the SEO community is uncovering. Is there a clear recovery path? Can we adjust and bounce back, or is a fundamental rethink needed? 

And finally—be honest. If you don’t know exactly why the algorithm hit a particular site, don’t bluff. Say it straight: “This is new; I need to dig deeper, form a theory, test small, refine, and either roll back or roll out.” That’s how SEO should be done—not knee-jerk reactions, but thoughtful, calculated responses.

Algorithm updates will keep coming. The difference is whether you’re waiting to react or already anticipating the shift.

"As soon as you have that early context, the key is communication."

Rachel Ellen, Local Search Strategist at Croud

Firstly, don’t panic! Before rushing to react, calmly assess the situation by gathering insight from Google Search Console, Google Business Profile (GBP) insights, or other analytics. Data should give you a better idea of the scope of the problem if it’s affecting your client, and if so, how severely. Consider and observe how competitors and the wider industry have been impacted, too, as this helps paint the bigger picture. Look to the wider SEO community. Usually, there’s lots of early chatter that gives an idea of how big an update it’s been and who the early winners and losers might be.

As soon as you have that early context, the key is early communication. In an ideal world, you’ll get to your clients before they come to you. If they open up their email to find early comms or a call invite offering an update, this shows proactivity and instant reassurance that whatever has happened, they are in good hands. If they do come to you first, acknowledge their concerns, but reassure them that volatility is completely normal and that updates can take time to settle. Explain that you’re on the case and will come back promptly with clarity and a plan of action if needed.

From here, it’s good practice to spend some time validating the accuracy and optimization status of your client’s GBPs (including your reviews), their on-site EEAT signals, and their technical health, such as indexing or site-speed issues.

As said, updates can often take a good few weeks to settle, so it’s wise to closely track rankings and traffic patterns during this time. It may well be that things recover quickly, in which case—hurrah! You can update your client accordingly, and concentrate on reinforcing what’s working.  If it’s not so good news, prioritize time for deeper investigation, focusing on identifying content gaps, technical issues, or shifts in user intent.

In a nutshell, when an algo update hits, establishing context is key. Keep clients informed, stick to best practices, and avoid any reactionary moves. If you’ve prioritized quality and trust, you are far more likely to stay ahead.

"Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own."

Steve Wiideman, Owner at Wiideman Consulting Group

Too often, agencies and clients alike immediately jump to the conclusion that an algorithm update was the cause of any sudden drop in organic traffic or visibility. I think it’s important in any SEO effort that we start by following the same action plan as we would had there not been an algorithm update, but seen a drop in organic traffic. 

Before we dive in, we always want to reassure our clients that in general search engines are very forgiving if we break and need to restore content or attributes that have supported growth. We also want to remind our clients that user signals, and being the final destination users prefer to go to, are more important than content and links alone. Therefore, if fresh search results yield lower click-through rates, our listings will naturally rise back to the top over a few weeks as the search engine figures out that these new results weren’t very helpful. 

Our initial plan includes:

1. Running a full crawl of the website using whatever industry tools are at your disposal. We prefer Ryte due to its robust feature set and detailed insights. However, Screaming Frog, SEMRush, or SiteBulb would be a good runner-up. We’re looking for crawling and indexing issues. You wouldn’t believe how often we see development servers deploy to production with a Disallow: / in the robots.txt file.

2. Look for content changes at the site level, such as the replacement of heading tags with span tags, and the removal or programmatic replacement of titles, descriptions, and other metadata. Modifications of structured markup, XML sitemaps, and internal links. All of these can raise an eyebrow with Google and other search engines, which when made during an algorithm update have been known to emulate the “shaking of the Etch A Sketch,” almost like starting over with page-scoring. Best not to make updates during algorithm updates.

3. Navigate to Google Search Console and run a before and after comparison from the date of the drop-off, sorting by Click Difference first, then by Impression Difference. What types of pages lost clicks and impressions? Transactional, commercial, or perhaps both?

4. Lastly, we’ll look at spam and negative SEO, starting with new incoming links available in AHREFS and other link analysis tools. I’ll analyze the anchor text of recent links to see if competitors decided to fool Google into thinking our client was attempting to manipulate search results. If I don’t see a pattern, I’ll filter redirecting links to see if a competitor is attempting to force Google into thinking our pages are temporary using a 302 redirect, which often sends our listings into the dreaded Omitted Results. If I see a high spike in Google Search Console, despite conversion and traffic being down, it’s possible that a competitor is attempting to fool Google into thinking our client is manipulating search behaviors.

Once we have the all-clear from these four areas, only THEN do we look at the change in traffic being potentially caused by an algorithm update.

Our strategy to troubleshoot rankings post-algorithm update begins with a simple look at the current search results and weighing the top-ranking pages against our own. Here is a breakdown of these steps:

1. Based on the most affected pages, choose the top 3 to start with.
2. Run a search for the keywords for which the pages lost the most clicks and isolate the top 3 competitors.
3. Using a Google Sheet (or other workbook software), create a row for each SEO focal point to compare and columns for our client’s site and the top three competitors.
4. Fields might include File Name (pizza.html), Title, Meta Description, H1, Incoming Links, Internal Links, AI score, web vitals scores, image names and alt attributes, use of video, maps, reviews, etc.
5. Run a survey and ask participants which of two pages (your client’s vs one competitor at a time) is the most helpful and why.

Once completed, it’s a great idea to pow-wow with the team and break down the differences in your client’s page versus the competition. Sometimes, we learn right away what likely caused the drop in rankings. For example, after the “Medic Update,” we noticed Healthline’s survival and found a small Fact-Checked badge our client didn’t offer. Less than a month after testing and adding the badge ourselves, we saw nearly instant recovery.

If this becomes the case, no further testing should be required. However, if the team is still scratching their heads, run the other two competitors through this sequence until the problem becomes obvious. 

Reverse-engineering new search results after an update is by far the easiest and fastest way to identify what we believe Google suddenly cares about, and often enough, what they don’t. If, after all the testing and reverse-engineering, the problem still isn’t resolved, return to this page and find an expert (or experts) you would like to reach out to for their personal opinion or, if necessary, an audit. In most cases, traffic and visibility returns on it’s own within a few weeks, so if it’s possible, get buy-in to hold off on any immediate changes until the dust settles.

" I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update."

Elizabeth Rule, SEO Analyst + Account Manager at Sterling Sky

First and foremost, I assess whether our clients are actually affected by the update, which can take several weeks, sometimes even a month or two, to determine.

For example, the Diversity Update that began rolling out in August 2024 didn’t show its full impact on our clients’ organic traffic until November and December. Because of this delay, we didn’t communicate any major findings to clients until we had concrete data, which was about two months post-update.

Once we’ve confirmed whether a client has been affected, and to what extent, we move into action planning. This includes developing strategies to recover lost rankings or traffic if necessary, or identifying opportunities if performance has improved (since not all updates are negative).

Communication is tailored based on the client’s level of SEO awareness and involvement. For clients who are highly engaged in SEO and likely to follow industry news, I’ll often reach out proactively when an update is announced, knowing they’ll want to discuss it. For others who are less SEO-savvy or are busy running their business day-to-day, we typically wait until we have meaningful insights and a clear plan before reaching out.

When a client raises concerns directly, we’re always transparent. We share where we are in the analysis process, what early signals we’re seeing, and what actions (if any) we’re taking on their website or Google Business Profile (GBP).

"Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client."

Myriam Jessier, Fractional SEO + Trainer at PRAGM

When a client’s local SEO performance takes a hit after a Google algorithm update, here’s my actionable framework for agencies to effectively manage the situation:

Immediate Response Plan

1. Assess, Don’t Panic

Don’t rush into making changes during the update rollout. Algorithm updates take time to settle, and what looks like a disaster on day two might stabilize by week three. Document the current rankings and performance metrics to establish a clear baseline for comparison.

2. Research the Specific Update

Each algorithm update targets different aspects. Identify what this particular update focuses on—whether it’s content quality, local engagement metrics, review management, or technical factors. Cross-reference the timing of ranking drops with the update rollout to confirm causation.

Sometimes, it’s not algorithmic but a problem client or agency side that caused the issue and you waste time searching for a needle in a Google update haystack. 

3. Strategic Client Communication

Contact the client proactively before they come to you in panic mode. Be transparent but reassuring – explain that fluctuations are normal, you’re monitoring the situation, and have a structured process for assessment and action.

Detailed Analysis Phase

1. Targeted Performance Audit

Use geo-grid rank tracking to identify precisely where and how rankings have shifted across neighborhoods or service areas.

• Are the ranking variations within the same city as expected?
• This helps you review things such as content, listings, etc. for specific neighborhoods—for example, Le Plateau in Montreal is famous for having many recent French immigrants, so keywords and content can’t be the same as for the rest of the town. 
• Find areas where your client has low visibility but could expand. 
• When an algorithm update hits, geo-grid tracking helps agencies to see if the effects are uniform across the entire service area, or if they’re localized to specific regions. This makes things more actionable for you as an agency. 

Analyze competitor movements to understand if this is an industry-wide shift or specific to your client. Check Google Trends to see if whatever you are ranking for is no longer trending.

Some industries like plumbing may have seasonal peaks, while others may simply be evolving (such as fitness coaches specialized in specific training programs). 

2. Identify Pattern-Based Impacts

Look for patterns in affected keywords, content types, or business categories. This helps pinpoint which aspects of the algorithm update are most relevant to your client’s situation. If you can’t find the red thread, chances are, it’s a bigger problem than a local SEO issue.

3. Local Listing Integrity Check

Verify all local listings for accuracy, consistency, and compliance with Google’s latest guidelines. Listing quality and verification standards have become increasingly stringent and your client may not be aware of that.

Recovery Strategy Implementation

1. Prioritize Google Business Profile Optimization

Update categories, attributes, and service offerings to align with current search intent patterns.

2. Enhance Local Content Relevance

Create or optimize hyperlocal content that demonstrates genuine community engagement. 

3. Review Management Recalibration

Implement a systematic approach to review generation and management if you haven’t already. Focus on genuine customer engagement rather than volume. If possible, try to establish a review scheme that matches other ones in the area.

4. Technical Local SEO Refinements

Review that structured data to make sure you avoid nightmares like this one. 

Client Retention Best Practices

1. Education Over Reassurance

Position your agency as a strategic partner by educating clients about the nature of algorithm updates. You could have a short newsletter that goes out or a phone call to help them understand that updates are here for a reason: to reward businesses that do things right… but sometimes, they do temporarily miss the mark and correct the course later. 

2. Implement Regular Algorithm Resilience Checks

Don’t wait for the next update. Establish quarterly reviews of local SEO fundamentals to ensure ongoing compliance with Google’s evolution.

3. Set Realistic Recovery Timelines

Be honest about recovery expectations. Major shifts can take two to three months to fully stabilize, if not more. Outline specific milestones to track progress and keep clients engaged in the process.

Successful local SEO agencies don’t just react to algorithm updates–they anticipate them by consistently aligning with Google’s fundamental goal: connecting users with the most relevant local businesses that genuinely meet their needs.

Communicate, don’t panic, and do your research

So there we have it. A thorough run down of how you can respond when the chips are down. The key to retaining your clients is through strong communication. This communication starts before the problem arises. A strong relationship that’s based on trust and education can do a lot to help when things get trickier.

Then, don’t panic. Remember that algorithm updates often take weeks to actually finish rolling out. Do some proper research of your own. Check whether traffic is actually down alongside rankings. See what the industry is saying. Work out whether the client has even been affected by an algorithm update. It could be something seasonal.

Then, once you’ve done all that research you can get a plan together. All the while, communicating what you’re doing to your client.

Is it just you? What about your local competitors? What about your industry?! Welcome to hours of digging through forums and ranking tools to get the answers you need for your bosses and clients.

Wish you had a way to quickly determine which ranking changes are being felt throughout your industry?

Introducing Local RankFlux, the world’s only ‘weather report’ for Google’s local ranking algorithm.

The wider SEO industry has been lucky to have multiple tools dedicated to tracking seismic changes in organic SERPs for years. Local SEO? Not so much!

That ends today, with the (re)launch of Local RankFlux: a completely free tracking tool and early-warning system from BrightLocal, designed to give local marketers the edge in understanding what’s happening with Google’s local algorithm.

How Does It Work?

BrightLocal’s local rank tracking software has been monitoring the local SERPs of our customers for years. With Local RankFlux, we apply the same technology to a set group of:

28 keywords x 26 industries x 20 cities = 14,560 keywords (560 per industry)

This means we’re tracking nearly 15k SERPs every day to determine a statistical point of variation (the Local RankFlux score) and to understand if similarities are seen in specific industries.

Local RankFlux simply looks at all these SERPs, calculates how much the rankings for these keywords have changed since yesterday, and gives the level of variation a score, from 0 (no change at all) to 10 (complete upheaval, volcanoes erupting, cities falling into the sea).

• 0 – 3 indicates ‘low’, expected fluctuation (i.e. nothing significant has happened)
• 3.1 – 6 indicates ‘medium’ fluctuation (i.e. something minor has happened)
• 6.1 – 10 indicates ‘high’ fluctuation (i.e. something major has happened – likely a local algorithm update)

That’s the simple version, though! I’d encourage you to take a look at our detailed methodology so you can better understand how the Local RankFlux Score is calculated… The more you know!

How Do I Use It?

Easy! Just bookmark the URL www.brightlocal.com/local-rankflux today, and when you think there’s been a rumble in your rankings, head there, check the score, and filter the data to your own industry to see if there’s anything more to learn.

Want to be ahead of the game? Sign up for one or more of our email alerts:

Daily: Simple. Get a daily email telling you today’s Local RankFlux score.
Weekly: Sign up, and every seven days you’ll get an email with the previous week’s Local RankFlux scores.
Urgent: Sign up to ‘Urgent’ to only receive an email when the score is above 4, which we determine to mean that a Google local algorithm update is likely.

Happy Rankings!

We hope you find Local RankFlux useful and can get a bit more sleep next time you feel that ol’ tremble in the rankings.

Want to know more about Local RankFlux, or need to report a bug? Get in touch with us at content@brightlocal.com.

This article is from our Agency Growth Handbook—a collection of guides created to help local SEO agencies grow and succeed. It is chapter five of ‘Part Two: Processes and Workflows’.

A busy agency can thrive or merely survive on its choice of project management tools. Old-fashioned spreadsheets and clunky time-tracking apps can seriously hinder your team’s creativity. Too many tools can lead to duplication of effort, cause confusion, and potentially lead to completely inaccurate billing.

Keeping your projects organized and accurately tracking your billable hours is key to working effectively and efficiently. Having the right tools in place also means you can confidently manage your resources and consistently deliver client work on time.

There are two distinct categories of tools you want to look out for: project management tools (to help you keep track of your overall project and enable effective communications) and time-tracking software. Many project management tools include time-tracking, but for many, you’ll need something extra.

So which marketing project management software tools will make your life easier and help you scale your agency business? With so many tools on the market, identifying the best fit is easier said than done.

Why do you need marketing project management tools?

Juggling multiple client projects, incoming briefs, various deadlines, and a team can be a recipe for disaster. Unless that is, you have logical processes for everything from content creation to client reports and actually useful tools in place to do some of the heavy lifting for you.

Project management and time-tracking tools aren’t just nice to have. They can make a noticeable difference to how seamlessly your agency operates:

Organize client briefs

Different clients have different priorities, service agreements, and briefs. A dedicated project management tool makes it easy to keep track of each specific client and their associated briefs, no matter how many projects you currently have on the go. This is especially useful if you often receive ad-hoc or last-minute requests and need a better way to stay on top of them.

Streamline resource planning

A good tool will give you a clear view of each project and its upcoming deadlines so you can allocate resources accordingly. This isn’t just a way to make managing your team easier. It can also go a long way toward controlling costs and optimizing how your agency business operates.

Efficient task management

Assigning specific tasks to individual team members is another way to manage your team’s productivity. It also encourages accountability by making it easier for each person to manage their workload and maintain a clear view of what they need to deliver.

If your chosen tool has status tracking, you can quickly see who’s on track and who’s in the weeds. From there you can intervene, if needed, or assign additional resources to keep client deliverables flowing.

Enhanced communication

The right project management software will enhance collaboration and communication. This isn’t restricted to internal comms, either. Many tools will allow you to control permissions at an individual user level, so you can also grant limited access to your clients. That access could speed up project approval or open up productive new lines of communication between your agency and your clients.

Features to Look Out For in a Project Management Tool

The specific features your agency business needs will depend on the size of your team, the nature of your client projects, and your style of working. That said, some features are pretty much essential:

• Automations: Automations make it easier to scale workflows and quickly complete recurring tasks by pre-populating certain fields.
• Calendar: An essential for managing upcoming to-dos, a built-in calendar can help you stay on top of annual leave and client meetings for easier diary management.
• Task management: The ability to set up a task, schedule a start and end date, and assign someone from your team to complete that task is non-negotiable.
• Document management: You should also be able to upload documents like keyword research reports and client briefs to support your team.
• Status tracking: Is a task in progress? Ready for review? Or, with the client for approval? Status tracking allows you to answer those questions and keep your project momentum moving in the right direction at a glance.
• Messaging: Whether internally or with your client, messaging improves collaboration and speeds up the delivery and approval process.
• Client view: Having a dedicated client view means you can grant controlled access to your clients. This view provides them with direct access to their account team while ensuring internal communications remain private.
• Time tracking: Accurate time tracking is essential for client billing. It can also be helpful if you routinely work with subcontractors and need to keep track of their working hours for payment purposes.
• Integrations: Plugging in other apps can be a serious time saver and add additional functionality that makes it easier to get the most out of your team.
• Customizable dashboard: A customizable dashboard gives you complete control over what you see, so you can create an optimal view based on how you (and your team) work.

Top Project Management Tools

Time Tracking Software for Marketing Teams

Time tracking is one of those agency staples that’s easy to take for granted. But it’s also easy to get wrong. Real-time tracking and reporting can seriously bolster your transparency credentials with clients. If you’re managing a team, intuitive tracking also helps you to stay on budget and easily handle contractor payments.

So, what should you look for when shortlisting time-tracking tools for your agency?

• Real-time tracking: Tracking billable hours in real-time can nurture client confidence in your agency and help with retention. It’s also invaluable when it comes to getting the most out of your team and pinpointing productivity drains.
• Reporting: Any decent time-tracking tool will have extensive reporting capability. You need this feature to manage client invoices and see how your team is spending its time.
• Integrations: Integrations just make life easier. Look for tools that can connect with other platforms you use daily to manage your agency workflows. 

Top Time Tracking Tools

Choose Wisely and Choose Early

Embedding this sort of tool into a growing business can be easier said than done, especially if you’re trying to do it retrospectively. Adding a project management tool and defining clear processes early can be really beneficial and save a lot of time down the road.

As with any tool, whether that’s a local SEO tool or a project management tool, the key is to find the one that works best for your agency’s needs. Make sure it benefits your work rather than adding more steps for the sake of it.