The most widely used local SEO platform, with hyper-local position tracking down to city level and a project-based campaign structure built for SMBs. Community consensus consistently names it the go-to starting point for local SEO work.
The platform's renovated Position Tracking tool includes smart filters that allow you to check which of your target keywords trigger different SERP features... you can set up multi-targeting campaigns that track several locations or devices at once, drilled down by city, within a single project.
My personal recommendation is SEMrush, been using it for the last 2 years. If you only have 1 website and you don't need ongoing tracking, but rather a one off keyword research and backlink gap analysis to export into your own spreadsheet and to run a quick health check, just activate the free trial on SEMrush.
I view Ahrefs and SEMrush as essentially interchangeable. They provide very similar metrics. Most people seem to generally prefer (or are at least more familiar with) SEMrush.
Ahrefs has the largest backlink index on the web and best-in-class site crawling, making it the preferred tool for serious local SEO practitioners who want raw data depth. Community users consistently rate its interface above Semrush.
Moz Pro's Domain Authority metric is the industry standard used by every other SEO tool, and its end-to-end suite covers crawling, keyword management, and local rank tracking in one place. It's the benchmark all other tools are measured against.
SpyFu delivers unlimited keyword and domain searches at $33/month, no per-query caps, making it the best value for local businesses doing heavy competitor research on a budget. Its PPC and paid advertising intelligence is unmatched at this price.
AWR Cloud offers best-in-class automated rank tracking with localized results, no caps on users or tracked sites, and Google Analytics/Search Console integration, all starting at $49/month. It's the cleanest, most beginner-friendly interface in the category.