Switching from BrightLocal
Two CSV downloads, one parallel month, and an honest word about why the numbers will not match exactly.
Do not cancel anything yet
The smart move is a parallel run. Put one client location on Nebula (your first location is $1 for 3 days, then $99 a month), keep BrightLocal running exactly as it is, and compare the two maps for a month. Cut over only when our numbers agree with what you are seeing on the ground. Nobody burns a bridge, and your client never has a gap in coverage.
Switching rank trackers changes nothing on your Google Business Profiles. The tracking happens on our side; your profiles never feel it.
And white-glove migration is a real offer: ask, and we walk your first migration with you, live.
Get your data out of BrightLocal
Two downloads cover a whole account. In the All Locations section, Download Location Data gives you one CSV with every location you manage. In Local Rank Tracker, open Settings and use Download Report Settings for one CSV holding every location’s tracked search terms; the keywords sit together in one column, separated by | characters.
Both are documented in their help center. BrightLocal is rolling out a new platform, so if a button is not where we describe, search their help for "Download Location Data" or "bulk update keywords" and the article will point you at the current spot.
Then hand the settings file to the importer: in your Nebula dashboard, open Businesses, then Import locations. It reads the names, addresses, and search terms, matches what it can to your connected Google account, and stages every location for review. Staging is free; a location only starts billing when you activate it.
The honest part: your rank history stays behind
No vendor can truly import a competitor’s rank history, whatever a sales page says. Rankings measured by a different tool, at different map points, with different settings are different numbers, and stitching them into one timeline would produce a chart that lies to your client.
The parallel month is the honest replacement. Your first Nebula audit becomes a clean day-zero baseline, and the month of overlap gives you continuity: BrightLocal’s chart carries the past, ours carries the future, and for one month you can hold them side by side. Download anything you want to keep from BrightLocal before you close the account.
Set up on Nebula
A location takes about a minute: search the business, connect Google, pick the searches you want to win. You can track up to 10 keywords per location, so pull the ones that matter from the Search terms column you exported.
If you run an agency, connect your own Google account, the one your clients added as a manager on their profiles. One connection covers every profile it manages; you never ask a client for a password.
Your first location is $1 for 3 days, then $99 a month per location, every feature included. No plan tiers, no feature gates.
Why the numbers may differ
Run Nebula next to BrightLocal and the averages will not match exactly. No scandal there, just geometry. Every tool samples its own set of map points, and two grids with different spacing over the same city produce different averages while nothing changes in the real world.
Zoom levels differ between tools, and zoom changes what Google returns. Scan timing matters too: the map moves with the hour, because being open when someone searches is a real ranking factor. And averages are conventions. How a tool counts a business that did not show up at all changes the math, so no two tools’ averages are directly comparable.
What you can hold us to: our method is public. Every audit fires 49 real Google Maps searches across a 7 by 7 grid around the business, the finer map you see is drawn from those measured points, and the checker rules page says all of this out loud. Watch the same grid, measured the same way, month over month, and the trend is real.
Quick questions
Can you import my BrightLocal rank history?
No, and nobody honestly can. Different tools measure different map points with different settings, so a merged timeline would be fiction. Run both for a month instead; the overlap is your continuity, and your first Nebula audit becomes a clean baseline your client can trust.
Do my Google Business Profiles change when I switch?
No. Moving rank trackers touches nothing on your profiles. When you also turn on Nebula’s management side, posts and review replies, everything runs through an approval queue unless you deliberately switch on trust mode, so nothing changes without you seeing it.
What does Nebula cost compared to what I pay now?
Flat $99 a month per location with every feature included, the same at location one and location one hundred. There are no plan tiers, and every feature ships on every account, so the comparison against a tiered bill is easy to run for your own book. Every location is backed by the 60-day rank guarantee (six criteria apply).
Switching from somewhere else?
Your first location is $1 for 3 days, then $99 a month. Keep your current stack, put one client beside it, and compare for a month. Backed by the 60-day rank guarantee (six criteria apply).