Moz Local vs a managed local SEO service.
We sell the managed side, so read this knowing which half we are on. A listings tool and a managed service solve different parts of the same problem, and for plenty of businesses the tool is the right first purchase. Moz publishes their own plans and feature list, and their pages are the only accurate source for what you would be buying today.
When each option actually makes sense.
No 'it depends.' Here's specifically when each path is the right one.
A managed service
A managed service makes sense when (1) the profile itself is the problem rather than the directory data, (2) you need somebody to file a verification or write an appeal, (3) nobody on your team will own the work week to week, (4) you want reviews asked for as well as monitored, or (5) you want someone accountable for the ranking rather than for the data being pushed out.
Moz Local
Software makes sense when (1) your listings really are the problem and you have a lot of locations to keep identical, (2) somebody in-house will actually log in and use it, (3) you want to start today without talking to anyone, (4) you would rather pay a predictable per-location fee than a monthly fee for work, or (5) you already have an agency and only need the distribution layer.
Every dimension that matters, compared honestly.
We're an agency. We sell a managed service. We're still going to tell you where moz local wins, because that's how you actually make a decision.
| Dimension | A managed service | Moz Local |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | A team doing the work, with a named person to ask when something breaks | A subscription to software you log into. Moz's product page lists what the current plans include |
| Keeping one set of details identical everywhere | Done for you and audited monthly, as part of the retainer | This is what listings software is built for, and across a lot of locations it is the cheaper way to do it |
| Choosing the primary category | Researched against the businesses already ranking for your terms, and changed when the map pack changes | No tool picks this for you. It is a judgement call about which searches you want to be eligible for |
| Verification | We file it and handle the follow-up with Google | Not something software does. You deal with Google directly |
| A suspended profile | We write the appeal and put the evidence together | Out of scope for a listings product. The appeal is yours to write |
| Reviews | We run the asking as well as the replying, by SMS, email and QR code after the job | A tool can put reviews in one place and let you reply from it. Somebody still has to ask the customer |
| Time to start | A call, then a couple of weeks of setup before anything ships | You can sign up and start this afternoon |
| Cost shape | A monthly fee for the work, whatever that month turns out to involve | A software subscription, which is predictable and does not move with how messy your month was |
| Franchise and multi-location networks | Per-market reporting, corporate standards and franchisee permissions | Bulk listing updates across a lot of locations is the strongest case there is for the tool |
| When you stop paying | Everything we built stays in your accounts. Cancel with 30 days notice | Check what happens to synced listing data when a subscription lapses before you commit. Moz's own documentation is the place to confirm it |
What we can price here, and what we will not
One side of this comparison is ours to publish and one side is not, so the table says which is which rather than guessing at a number.
| Line item | A managed service | Moz Local |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing work | Retainers start at $499 a month. All three tiers are published on the pricing page. | A subscription. Moz publishes the current plans and what each one covers, and that page is the number to use. |
| One-time fixes | Verification $299 a location, suspended-listing recovery $499, listing cleanup from $799. Covered while you are on a retainer. | Not sold as fixes. These are jobs a person does, whichever software you run. |
| Your own time | Roughly an hour a month for the call and approvals. | Whatever it takes your team to keep the records current and act on what the dashboard flags. |
Our figures are the ones published on this site. We have deliberately left Moz's column without prices: we do not resell Moz, their plans change, and a stale number here would be worse than a link to the source.
What a listings tool covers, and what it leaves to a person
Listings software exists because business information rots. You move, the phone number changes, a supplier lists you under the old trading name, and within a year the web disagrees with itself about who you are and where. A tool fixes that by holding one record and pushing it out to the places that matter.
That is a real job and it is worth paying for, though it covers only one part of local SEO. Nothing in a listings product decides which primary category you should hold, writes the appeal when Google takes the profile down, asks your customers for reviews, or explains why the map pack moved last month. Those are decisions and work, and they stay with a person, whether that person is you, an employee or us.
The useful question is which half of the problem you are trying to solve. If your business details are wrong in fifty places, a listings tool will clear that up faster than anyone working through the directories by hand. If the profile itself is what holds you back, a subscription will leave that part of it untouched.
Why this page does not quote Moz's prices or feature list
We do not resell Moz and we have no current copy of their plans. Software pricing and plan contents change, and a comparison page that quotes a stale number does more harm than a link to the source. Moz publishes both on their own site, and the two links above go straight there.
What we can tell you honestly is our own side. The retainers are on the pricing page and the one-time fixes are priced on their own pages, so you can put our published number next to whatever Moz's page says today and compare like for like.
Franchise and multi-location networks
This comparison comes up often with franchise systems, because a network has the listings problem in its clearest form. A network can have fifty locations under one brand, with fifty sets of details drifting apart at different speeds. Bulk listing management is the right tool for that part of the job.
The work that sits on top of the listings layer is harder to standardize across a network. Categories differ by market. One unit gets suspended and corporate hears about it from the franchisee a week later. Reviews at the weakest location drag the brand average down in the one metro where it matters. Reporting has to roll up for a CMO and break down for a regional manager, and a listings dashboard is rarely built to do both.
Our franchise program assumes you may already run a listings tool. We work alongside it rather than replacing it, which is usually cheaper than moving fifty locations onto something new.
The honest recommendation.
If what is broken is your data, buy software and have it done this week. If what is broken is the profile, the categories, the reviews or the rankings, software will not fix it, and you should hire someone, us or anyone else who will show you the work. Networks with a lot of locations often end up paying for both, and that is a reasonable outcome, because the two cover different jobs. The expensive version of getting this wrong is a single-location business paying for listings software, filling in every field correctly, and still finding that nothing has moved in the map pack, because the directory data was never the problem.
Common questions, answered..
Do I still need a listings tool if I hire you?
For one location, usually not. Citation building and monthly listing monitoring are already inside the retainers and inside the one-time cleanup, so the two overlap. Networks are a different case, because updating a lot of locations at once is quicker through a tool even when someone else is managing the work. We will tell you which case you are in before you buy either.
Can software get a suspended profile back?
No. A reinstatement is an appeal to Google with evidence attached, and a person writes it. If that is the problem you have, start there rather than with a subscription.
Is a listings tool enough for a single location?
It can be, if the only thing wrong is that your details are inconsistent in a lot of places and the profile itself needs no attention. That combination is less common than it sounds, because a profile that has been left alone usually needs work too. Our listing check-up is free, so run that first and you will know which of the two cases you are in.
What about Yext, BrightLocal or Whitespark?
The answer has the same shape. They are tools with different feature sets and different prices, and the line between what software does and what a person does sits in the same place for all of them. We have not written separate pages for those comparisons yet.
Why compare yourself against a tool you do not sell?
Because people make this decision before they ever call an agency, and the wrong choice can hold the work up for months. We would rather you buy the right thing first and come to us later than pay us for work a subscription would have covered.
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