SEO Playground is a free, open-source, self-hosted dashboard for SEO and local SEO. It runs on your own computer or server and uses the DataForSEO API for its data. Every search is saved locally, so you can revisit results and history without paying for the same query twice.
It is one of the tools we implement to help local businesses measure and grow their search presence alongside Pointless POS.
What you can do with it
- Track rankings – monitor keyword positions over time, nationally or for a specific location, with scheduled daily checks.
- Research keywords – volume, CPC, difficulty, search intent, related keywords and keyword ideas from a seed term.
- Analyze competitors – see who you compete with in the search results, what they rank for, and the keywords you are missing.
- Review backlinks – backlink profile, referring domains, anchors, link gaps against competitors, and broken backlinks worth redirecting.
- Audit your site – crawl your pages for duplicate tags, non-indexable pages and content quality.
- Measure local visibility – Geo-grid heatmaps show where a business ranks block by block, and Review Velocity compares how fast your Google reviews grow against local competitors.
- See your AI visibility – check whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity mention your brand or domain.
- Report to clients – branded white-label PDF and Excel reports.
Local and national SEO
Local tools (Geo-grid, Local Finder, Google Reviews, Review Velocity) are only part of the dashboard. Rank tracking, keyword research, competitor analysis, backlinks and site audits work just as well for national and online-only websites.
What it costs
The software itself is free and open source (MIT license). You pay DataForSEO only for the queries you run, so costs scale with how much you use it. A built-in Spending page shows what each tool and each day has cost. A modest monthly budget covers regular reporting for most small businesses.
A sensible way to start
- Set up: add your DataForSEO credentials, then create a project for your site with its default domain, location and language.
- Baseline: run a site audit, look at the keywords you already rank for, review your backlinks and identify your real search competitors.
- Opportunities: compare against competitors to find keyword and link gaps, then use keyword research to choose what to target.
- Monitor: schedule rank tracking, add Geo-grid and review monitoring for local businesses, and track AI mentions of your brand.
- Report monthly: re-run the audit, compare progress and export a branded report.
Good to know
- It is self-hosted: your data stays on your own machine in a local database, and scheduled checks run while the app is running.
- Projects keep each site or client separate, with their own history and defaults. The install has one login and one DataForSEO account.
- Optional password login protects the dashboard when it is reachable over a network.
Resources
- SEO Playground on GitHub – source code and install instructions
- DataForSEO – the data provider
- SEO, SEM, Social Media and Agentic AI Marketing with Pointless POS