SEO management company software is a crucial part of any SEO plan. Whether you’re an SEO management company or you’re managing SEO for your own website, the SEO software listed below can help you get the best results. Most SEO software can be used for Local SEO, E-Commerce SEO or Content SEO services. SEO software is available for a number of use cases including SEO tools to help on a macro level, as well as specialized, premium and free SEO tools that focus on targeted SEO strategies and methods.
Choosing the right SEO software for your particular needs will depend on what your marketing budget is and what you’re looking to accomplish with it. Below, we’re going to break down a list of the best SEO software used by SEO management companies, including information on what each SEO tool is and what it can be used for.
Whether you’re an SEO beginner, an SEO company, SEO consultant or SEO expert, the software mentioned below is for you. If you’re managing SEO for your own website or you’re a SEO agency offering SEO services to your clients, the SEO software mentioned below can make your SEO projects that much easier. The goal with each of these SEO tools mentioned is to ultimately help you reach potential customers.
Here is a list of free & paid SEO tools to help with your SE ranking project:
Keyword Research & Rank Tracking SEO Software
Keyword research and rank tracker SEO tools are some of the most important part of any SEO projects. Whether working on local SEO for a small business or E-Commerce SEO for a large retailer, most SEO specialists use at least one of the SEO tools mentioned below to ensure their SEO campaign yields the best results.
SEMRUSH
What is Semrush? Semrush is an SEO platform built with digital marketing in mind. Semrush offers a robust set of tools that not only help with organic SEO but also help with other digital marketing efforts like Google Ad creation/optimization and social media marketing. Semrush’s main competitors are Ahrefs and Moz Pro. Semrush also has their own proprietary site ranking score called ‘Authority Score’. This gives you an idea of the quality of a domain based on factors like ranking and backlink profile.
Price: $119.95-$449.95/month
Free Trial Offered? Yes. Free trial offered for 7 days.
Semrush is arguably the top SEO platform available to SEO professionals. Their robust set of tools allow you to complete nearly any SEO task in 1 platform. The main SEO tools offered by Semrush offers are as follows.
Competitive Research
Competitive Research which includes Domain Overview, Traffic Analytics, Organic Research, Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap. Here is where you’ll find a website’s authority score, organic traffic estimates, keywords a site is ranking for, paid search insights and which SERP features a site is ranking for. They also display a helpful breakdown of branded vs. non-branded keywords.
Keyword Research
Semrush also offers Keyword Research which includes Keyword Overview, the proprietary Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Manager, Position Tracking and Organic Traffic Insights. In this section, you’ll be able to pull data on keywords including information like volume, difficulty, related keywords, related questions, keyword difficulty and competitive density. You can also save and track keywords and track your positions for selected keywords.
Link Building & Backlink Analytics
For Link Building, Semrush offers Backlink Analytics, Backlink Audit, a Link Building Tool and Bulk Analysis. Here is where you can run the backlink analyzer to see what the authority is for any website. It also gives you a crucial breakdown of where backlinks are coming from, where they are pointing to and what the authority score is for that website. It also shows the type of backlink, whether it’s follow or nofollow, which countries the site is located in and a lot more. As a bonus, you can run a backlink audit which shows the health of your backlink profile. If you’re looking for a tool to help with link building, this is one of the top options.
On-Page & Technical SEO
For On-Page and Technical SEO, Semrush offers Site Audit, Listing Management, SEO Content Template, On Page SEO Checker and Log File Analyzer. This will allow you to run a full website SEO audit with 130+ data points with a focus on important SE ranking factors like Core Web Vitals, site security, site performance, internal linking and crawlability.
Local SEO
Semrush also offers Local SEO tools which include Listing Management, Positions Tracking, Site Audit and On-Page SEO Checker. Here, the site audit tool and listing management tools are the same as the ones listed in other areas of the SEO platform. Listing Management is great for checking if your local business is listed in directories and brand review information.
Projects
Additionally, Semrush offers the ability to set up projects for specific websites that allow you can track keywords, positions, backlinks, traffic and domain analytics. Projects will remain active as long as you let them so you can track this data for years.
Semrush Plans & Pricing
In total, Semrush offers 55+ different tools. A lot of these tools are only available to the higher cost plans. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect with each plan:
Pro Plan
SEO, social, and PPC tools
Competitor analysis, keyword research, website audit, advertising and social media tools, and more.
Price: $119.95 monthly
Guru Plan
All Pro features plus:
Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, GDS integration & more.
Price: $229.95 monthly
Business Plan
All Guru features plus:
Share of Voice, extended limits, API access, PLA analytics, free migration from third-party tools & more.
Price: $449.95 monthly
Additional users will cost $40-$100 per month based on which plan you have.
Semrush .Trends will cost an additional $200 per user per month.
The Agency Growth Kit will cost an additional $150 per month.
ImpactHero will cost an additional $200 per month.
As an SEO platform offering an SEO service that is tough to beat, SEMrush is definitely one of the best SEO software platforms available.
SEO management company software is a crucial part of any SEO plan. Whether you’re an SEO management company or you’re managing SEO for your own website, the SEO software listed below can help you get the best results. Most SEO software can be used for Local SEO, E-Commerce SEO or Content SEO services. SEO software is available for a number of use cases including SEO tools to help on a macro level, as well as specialized, premium and free SEO tools that focus on targeted SEO strategies and methods.
Choosing the right SEO software for your particular needs will depend on what your marketing budget is and what you’re looking to accomplish with it. Below, we’re going to break down a list of the best SEO software used by SEO management companies, including information on what each SEO tool is and what it can be used for.
Whether you’re an SEO beginner, an SEO company, SEO consultant or SEO expert, the software mentioned below is for you. If you’re managing SEO for your own website or you’re a SEO agency offering SEO services to your clients, the SEO software mentioned below can make your SEO projects that much easier. The goal with each of these SEO tools mentioned is to ultimately help you reach potential customers.
Here is a list of free & paid SEO tools to help with your SE ranking project:
Keyword Research & Rank Tracking SEO Software
Keyword research and rank tracker SEO tools are some of the most important part of any SEO projects. Whether working on local SEO for a small business or E-Commerce SEO for a large retailer, most SEO specialists use at least one of the SEO tools mentioned below to ensure their SEO campaign yields the best results.
Semrush
What is Semrush? Semrush is an SEO platform built with digital marketing in mind. Semrush offers a robust set of tools that not only help with organic SEO but also help with other digital marketing efforts like Google Ad creation/optimization and social media marketing. Semrush’s main competitors are Ahrefs and Moz Pro. Semrush also has their own proprietary site ranking score called ‘Authority Score’. This gives you an idea of the quality of a domain based on factors like ranking and backlink profile.
Price: $119.95-$449.95/month
Free Trial Offered? Yes. Free trial offered for 7 days.
Semrush is arguably the top SEO platform available to SEO professionals. Their robust set of tools allow you to complete nearly any SEO task in 1 platform. The main SEO tools offered by Semrush offers are as follows.
Competitive Research
Competitive Research which includes Domain Overview, Traffic Analytics, Organic Research, Keyword Gap and Backlink Gap. Here is where you’ll find a website’s authority score, organic traffic estimates, keywords a site is ranking for, paid search insights and which SERP features a site is ranking for. They also display a helpful breakdown of branded vs. non-branded keywords.
Keyword Research
Semrush also offers Keyword Research which includes Keyword Overview, the proprietary Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Manager, Position Tracking and Organic Traffic Insights. In this section, you’ll be able to pull data on keywords including information like volume, difficulty, related keywords, related questions, keyword difficulty and competitive density. You can also save and track keywords and track your positions for selected keywords.
Link Building & Backlink Analytics
For Link Building, Semrush offers Backlink Analytics, Backlink Audit, a Link Building Tool and Bulk Analysis. Here is where you can run the backlink analyzer to see what the authority is for any website. It also gives you a crucial breakdown of where backlinks are coming from, where they are pointing to and what the authority score is for that website. It also shows the type of backlink, whether it’s follow or nofollow, which countries the site is located in and a lot more. As a bonus, you can run a backlink audit which shows the health of your backlink profile. If you’re looking for a tool to help with link building, this is one of the top options.
On-Page & Technical SEO
For On-Page and Technical SEO, Semrush offers Site Audit, Listing Management, SEO Content Template, On Page SEO Checker and Log File Analyzer. This will allow you to run a full website SEO audit with 130+ data points with a focus on important SE ranking factors like Core Web Vitals, site security, site performance, internal linking and crawlability.
Local SEO
Semrush also offers Local SEO tools which include Listing Management, Positions Tracking, Site Audit and On-Page SEO Checker. Here, the site audit tool and listing management tools are the same as the ones listed in other areas of the SEO platform. Listing Management is great for checking if your local business is listed in directories and brand review information.
Projects
Additionally, Semrush offers the ability to set up projects for specific websites that allow you can track keywords, positions, backlinks, traffic and domain analytics. Projects will remain active as long as you let them so you can track this data for years.
Semrush Plans & Pricing
In total, Semrush offers 55+ different tools. A lot of these tools are only available to the higher cost plans. Here is a breakdown of what you can expect with each plan:
Pro Plan
SEO, social, and PPC tools
Competitor analysis, keyword research, website audit, advertising and social media tools, and more.
Price: $119.95 monthly
Guru Plan
All Pro features plus:
Content Marketing Toolkit, historical data, multi-location and device tracking, GDS integration & more.
Price: $229.95 monthly
Business Plan
All Guru features plus:
Share of Voice, extended limits, API access, PLA analytics, free migration from third-party tools & more.
Price: $449.95 monthly
Additional users will cost $40-$100 per month based on which plan you have.
Semrush .Trends will cost an additional $200 per user per month.
The Agency Growth Kit will cost an additional $150 per month.
ImpactHero will cost an additional $200 per month.
As an SEO platform offering an SEO service that is tough to beat, SEMrush is definitely one of the best SEO software platforms available.
Ahrefs
What is Ahrefs? Ahrefs is a suite of SEO software that offers tools like a rank tracker, competitive analysis, keyword research, link building, website SEO audits & more. Ahrefs main competitors are Semrush and Moz Pro. Ahrefs uses their own proprietary website ranking score called Domain Rating (DR). The DR of a website correlates with the “authority” of a specific website.
Price: $99-$999/Month. Annual plans from $83-$833 per month.
Free Trial Offered? Limited. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free with limited access to Site Explorer & Site Audit.
Ahrefs is one of the most popular set of SEO tools currently available to SEO professionals. Like Semrush or Moz, Ahrefs is considered to be on of the all-in-one SEO software suites with a wide offering of SEO tools for a variety of use cases. Aside from general reporting, Ahrefs offers Site Audit for website audits, Site Explorer for pertinent data on specific websites, Keywords Explorer for keyword research, Content Explorer to find content that ranks and Rank Tracker to track how well your website is ranking in search engines.
Here is a detailed breakdown of each of the major Ahrefs tools:
Site Audit
While there are many options for auditing your website, Ahrefs site audit tool allows you to run SEO audits on your or your clients’ websites from the same dashboard as your keyword research or content planning tools. Similar to Semrush site audit, the Ahrefs audit tool focuses on over 100 key data points.
The results of your website audit will include more general information like overall health score, type of internal links crawled as well as a list of specific errors on your website. These can be anything from 404 errors, 300 redirects, missing meta tags or alt text, broken redirects or external links, slow page performance and more. For each issue that is mentioned, Ahrefs offers information on how to fix them.
Under Site Audit, Ahrefs also offers a robust set of filters that allow you to drill down on very specific areas. This is extremely helpful if, for example, you want to focus specifically on errors affecting pages that are missing a meta description or social tags.
Site Explorer
In the Site Explorer tool, you’ll be able to find information on any website including organic rankings, backlink profile, how many keywords the site is ranking for, website growth, outgoing links, paid search efforts and more. This works well to see how your site is ranking but is also helpful when running a competitive analysis in your nice.
You can also view which are the top pages any particular site is ranking for along with all of the websites that are currently linking to those pages along with UR and DR ratings. The last feature worth mentioning here is the keyword data on a per page basis including what SERP features that page is ranking for.
Keywords Explorer
The Keywords Explorer is one of the more powerful tools available in Ahrefs. It boasts a keyword database of over 475 million keywords and provides data on specific keywords, related keywords and related topics.
Once you enter your keyword, it will first display general information about that specific keyword. You’ll see keyword difficulty which estimates how hard it is to rank for that keyword. You’ll also see search volume and search volume trends along with organic vs paid search activity.
One of the more helpful areas of this tool for SEO is using the parent topic option. It will give you ideas on topics that can help you target related keywords and potentially get more impressions and traffic.
Lastly, you can use the phrase match option to help find and filter through related keywords to your target keyword. It will display all of the data you’ll need to select which keywords and topics to target including volume, keyword difficulty and more.
Content Explorer
Content Explorer is an Ahrefs SEO tool where you can analyze current pages ranking for specific topics. It gives you the ability to see who is currently ranking, what the topics that are currently ranking are about, how many backlinks are pointing to the pages and other data.
The best part of this tool for SEO is the ability to filter to find low competition related topics that are ranking without any backlinks. This is similar to SEO content tools like BuzzSumo but this is included in total suite.
You can also use this tool to find broken link backlink opportunities.
Rank Tracker
In Ahrefs Rank Tracker tool, you can track how well a website is ranking over time. It gives you a trend graph, visibility estimate, average position traffic trends, SERP features, positions and which keywords are currently ranking.
For each of the keywords that are currently ranking, you’ll find information on the position of the keyword, how much volume it has, estimated traffic from that keywords, keyword difficulty and SERP features like snippets.
This is also where you can measure your performance vs your competitors’ performance.
Lastly, if you’re managing an SEO campaign for clients, this is where you can set up monthly SEO reporting for them.
Ahrefs Plans & Pricing
Ahrefs currently offers four plans which are available for a monthly fee or an annual fee.
Lite
Essential data for small businesses and hobby projects.
SEO Dashboard
Site Explorer
Keywords Explorer
Site Audit
Rank Tracker
Alerts
Price: $99 monthly
Standard
Perfect for SEO professionals and in-house marketers.
All in Lite
6 months of history
Position history chart
SERP updates
Site Explorer
Content Explorer
Alerts
Domain Comparison
Batch Analysis
Reports sharing
Price: $199 monthly
Advanced
Indispensable tools and more data allowance as your business scales.
All in Standard
2 years of history
Site Explorer
Site Structure
HTML source
Google Data Studio
Dashboard folders
Ahrefs Search
Price: $399 monthly
Enterprise
Ideal for big agencies and enterprises.
All in Advanced
Unlimited history
Access management
Pay by invoice
Directory listing
API
Audit log
SSO
Price: $999 monthly
If you pay annually, all of these plans are marked down which totals a savings of 2 months. So, you pay for 10 months and get 2 months free.
If you go with one of the cheaper plans that doesn’t include all of the tools, each of the main tools is available on a per tool basis. You can add each one as needed and prices vary depending if you choose to pay monthly or annually.
Ubersuggest
What is Ubersuggest? Ubersuggest is an SEO software company heavily focused on keyword data and rank tracking. When compared to other SEO software suites, Ubersuggest is one of the newest robust SEO keyword research & SE ranking tools on the market.
Price: $29-$99/Month. Lifetime plans for $290-$990.
Free Trial Offered? Yes. Free trial offered for 7 days.
While it’s not yet as robust as some of it’s competitors, it is great for keyword research, as a rank tracker, backlink information and content ideas.
You can also use Ubersuggest to run an SEO audit for your website or for your client’s website.
Ubersuggest is also working on integrating a few new SEO tools like a keyword visualization tool (powered by AnswerThePublic), a keyword generator tool and an AI writing tool.
Tip: If you’re a Google Chrome user, you can download the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension for free. It doesn’t have as many SEO features as the website application but it does offer keyword volume, related keywords and competitor insights for those ranking already. You’ll be able to see domain authority estimated visits and social shares (signals) for the pages that are already ranking on Google.
Ubersuggest Plans & Pricing
Like other SEO tools, Ubersuggest offers three plans. Each plan is priced based on your requirements with the higher-tiered plans offering substantially higher allowable feature use and users. They also offer lifetime plans which are priced at the level of 10 monthly payments.
Individual
Entrepreneurs & small businesses.
Managing 1 website.
100 searches / day
3 domains
100 tracked keywords / domain
3 competitors / domain
1,000 page scans / domain
1 user
Price: $29 monthly
Business
Entrepreneurs & small businesses.
Managing 2-5 websites.
400 searches / day
7 domains
150 tracked keywords / domain
5 competitors / domain
5,000 page scans / domain
2 users
Price: $49 monthly
Enterprise
Entrepreneurs & small businesses.
Managing 6-10 websites.
800 searches / day
15 domains
200 tracked keywords / domain
5 competitors / domain
10,000 page scans / domain
5 users
Price: $99 monthly
While Ubersuggest doesn’t offer quite as many digital marketing features compared to some of the larger SEO applications, the pricing is on par with what you could expect for this level of data.
Moz Pro
What is Moz Pro? Moz Pro is a comprehensive SEO software suite offering tools like keyword research, a rank tracker, SEO audit, on-site page optimization, backlink analysis and more. Moz Pro’s main competitors are Semrush and Ahrefs. Moz is considered to be one of the best SEO software suites in the industry. Moz has a proprietary website scoring system called DA (Domain Authority) which provides insight on search engine ranking potential.
Price: $99-$599/Month. Annual plans for $79-$479 per month.
Moz Pro is an all-in-one set of SEO tools like Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, Site Crawl, On-Page Optimization Link Research and Custom Reporting. Moz Pro’s main competitors are Semrush and Ahrefs. Here is how Moz Pro helps with SEO:
Keyword Research
The Moz Pro Keyword Research tool is a powerful keyword insight tool which helps when building out your SEO content plan. When using the Keyword Research tool, you’ll see information like monthly volume estimates, keyword difficulty, organic vs paid clickthrough rate, related keyword and topic suggestions and who is currently ranking for that keyword.
The related topic & questions is a powerful tool that can really help you structure your content. This is especially helpful if you’re using SEO Silo strategy.
Where Moz Pro’s keyword tool stands out against it’s competitors is in the prioritizing & planning of keywords. This allows you to build your keyword strategy and content plan within the dashboard.
Rank Tracking
Moz Pro’s Rank Tracking tool allows you to track your websites’ search engine ranking by page & search query. It includes data on a specific keyword’s performance including where it has moved up or down since your began tracking as well as data on competitors.
This is important when running an SEO campaign because it allows you to see what progress you’ve made and where you might be falling short.
Site Crawl
The Site Crawl feature offered by Moz Pro allows you to run a technical website audit. You can find on-site issues like whether your website has security issues, if you’re missing meta tags & descriptions, if you have 404s or broken internal links or redirects and more.
This is an often overlooked part of SEO strategies but is helpful in determining your overall site health and where you can improve the overall quality of your website.
While the Site Crawl too isn’t quite as powerful as a standalone technical SEO tool like Screaming Frog, it does cover all of the technical SEO basics.
On-Page Optimization
The Page Optimization tool in the Moz Pro suite of SEO tools allows you to optimize your website content. It offers suggestions on what changes can be made, which issues have been solved and which topics you may want to include in your content in order to rank higher.
All you have to do is enter a keyword and URL and the tool gets to work putting together optimization instructions. This tool is similar to standalone tools like Surfer SEO or MarketMuse.
Link Research
The Link Research tool offered in Moz Pro is a link building tool that helps you see where you’re currently receiving backlinks from, where you might benefit from receiving backlinks and which current backlinks might be hurting your ranking potential.
The tool runs a complete report and displays your link profile and offers insight into your website’s authority.
It also displays your most valuable pages as well as how healthy your backlink profile is when compared to your site’s competitors.
Custom Reports
Under Custom Reports, Moz Pro gives you the ability to create custom reports for your or your clients’ websites. This is especially helpful if you are an SEO agency that may have monthly update meetings with clients.
It offers pertinent SEO data that allows your client to see how well the SEO campaign is working and it also gives you the ability to add graphs and charts which help as a visual aid.
Moz Pro Plans & Pricing
Moz Pro offers four pricing tiers that are available on a monthly payment plan or on a yearly plan. Monthly plans range from $99-$599. If you elect to go with the yearly plan, the cost is reduced by 20%. Yearly plans range from $79-$479 per month and are billed yearly.
STANDARD
If you’re new to SEO or just need the basics, this plan is a great way to get started.
Price: $99 monthly
MEDIUM
Ample limits plus full access to keyword research tools. Most folks start here.
Price: $179 monthly
LARGE
The ideal plan (and best value) for businesses and agencies that are serious about search.
Price: $299 monthly
PREMIUM
Most popular for large SEO-focused agencies and in-house marketing teams.
Price: $599 monthly
The pricing for the Moz Pro plans vary based on which features are needed. For example, with the Standard plan, the Keyword Rankings feature displays 1,200 total search results while the Premium plan displays 18,000 search results.
The same would be for other features like keyword queries, competitive research queries or how many user accounts are set up.
Google Ads
What is Google Ads? Google ads is an online advertising platform that allows brands to promote their products via PPC or PPM on sites like Google.com, Youtube.com and 3rd-party partners. While Google Ads is a paid ads tool, the keyword planner works for SEO and is great for keyword research and content structure planning.
While Google Ads is mainly for paid search and not for SEO, the Google Keyword Planner is a hidden gem for keyword research. It gives you data on related keywords along with estimated monthly volume.
Once you set up your account, click on the ‘Tools & Settings’ dropdown and select ‘Keyword Planner’ from the dropdown. Here, you will see three options. Click on ‘Discover New Keywords’ and enter the target keyword or topic in the search bar and click on ‘Get Results’. Google Ads will then display results for the target term and additional related ideas. These will include average monthly search volume, 3 month change, YoY change and more information. Some of the data may only be important for paid search but most of it is helpful for keyword research.
Lastly, you can also select the dropdown at the top right called ‘Keyword View’. This will group the related keywords together and display a cleaner, more organized set of keywords.
Google.com
What is Google.com?
What is Google.com? You may not consider Google to be a commonly-used SEO management software but, when it comes to search engine optimization, a quick Google search can help with keyword research, help form your content strategy and help your overall SEO strategy.
The way an SEO specialist uses Google is by reviewing who is ranking for a specific search term & reviewing their content + backlink profile. This is a good indicator of who the competition is, what content currently ranks and how much work might need to go in to building backlinks for a specific piece of content.
Google can also be used to find related search terms and for finding ‘People Also Ask’ questions that can be included in your keyword strategy. Related search terms are useful to be able to find related topics and to include variations of your target keyword in your content. People Also Ask questions help to find what the user intent is for a specific search term and it can help with content structure and related topics.
Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools
Google and Bing/Yahoo both offer platforms for you to submit your website and track your SE rankings. While they are not quite as robust as some of the premium SEO software platforms, they are still very valuable for rank tracking, keyword research and backlink tracking.
Google Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
What is Google Search Console? Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free SEO tool offered directly by Google to help give you insight on how your search engine rankings are doing. This is where you would submit your website for indexing and track you SE rankings.
In addition to being able to submit URLs for indexing, you can find helpful data like your current position in search results, what keywords you’re ranking for and which websites are linking back to you.
From a technical SEO standpoint, GSC also offers a URL inspection tool which lets you know if your page is indexed, if it’s mobile-friendly and if it’s eligible for enhancements like breadcrumbs, FAQs or Sitelinks searchbox.
If you’re looking to manage search engine optimization for your own website, this is where you would start.
Bing Webmaster Tools
What is Bing Webmaster Tools?
What is Bing Webmaster Tools? Bing Webmaster Tools is a similar SEO tool to Google Search Console in that it provides nearly the same options but with a focus on Bing & Yahoo search results. This of it as your SEO hub where you’re able to submit your website and see how you’re ranking in Bing and Yahoo.
You can see your search engine performance including a breakdown of keyword ranking position, clicks, CTR and total impressions for each keyword. It can also use it to inspect your URL to scan your pages for indexing errors. You can submit your sitemap, check for backlinks, scan your site for errors and check for any penalties your website might have received.
The one cool feature available in Bing that Google Search Console doesn’t offer is the option to do keyword research. You can enter a keyword and Bing Webmaster Tools will tell you valuable information like related keywords + impressions & trend, which countries the keyword is searched in + impression count and you can also see related questions.
Tip: If you’re setting up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, we recommend that you set up Google first because Bing allows you to import your GSC data.
Content Writing & Optimization SEO Software
Every content writer, content editor or SEO agency should be using a content optimization tool for their content marketing strategy. Whether you’re using these tools to write content or optimize old content, the smart SEO tools below ensure your content has the best chance of ranking.
While some of the tools mentioned in other sections may offer a content writing/optimization option, the SEO tools mentioned below strictly focus on this aspect of your content strategy. And they’re darn good at it!
MarketMuse
What is Marketmuse? Marketmuse is an AI-based smart content writing and optimization platform that allows users to create and optimize content based on various factors including which keywords & phrases to include, how many times it is recommended to include each keyword and what the overall rank is for that piece of content when comparing to competitors.
MarketMuse is a powerful SEO content writing & optimization tool that’s based on data. The software reviews current pieces of content that are already ranking for a specific keyword and they recommend which keywords & phrases to use, how many times each keyword should be used, what the length of your content should be and what your overall score is.
The MarketMuse SEO tool also allows you to do keyword and content research, it offers the Compete application which gives you insight on a topic including how competitive it is, current distribution, related topics and overall content score.
One of the most useful tools is the Questions application. This gives you a list of related questions based on the topic you entered. It can be useful when planning the content structure including related topics for content silos or hub pages. These questions are also a great source of potential blog posts for your website.
For the money, MarketMuse is one of the best content SEO tools on the market in terms of content quality. The fact that they let you try it it for free is just an added bonus.
Fun fact: This article was written using the help of MarketMuse.
Here’s a preview of the content optimization tool:
MarketMuse Plans & Pricing
MarketMuse Offers a tiered pricing plan that ranges from a free option to a $12,000+ per year plan for premium. If you’re looking to try MarketMuse, the free tier does offer a fair amount of options. Here is a breakdown of the MarketMuse plans along with pricing for each:
Free
Start generating better revenue with your content for no cost.
Customer Success platform and workflow training for teams
Platform onboarding
Add-on options: Managed Content Briefs, Final Drafts, strategy services
Price: From $12,000+ per year
While MarketMuse is on the higher end when it comes to cost for an SEO content optimization tool, the results are worth the price. MarketMuse has won numerous mentions and awards by some of the most trustworthy SEO & technology organizations around.
SurferSEO
What is SurferSEO? Surfer SEO is an AI-based smart content tool that allows users to write and optimize their content based on over 500 on-page optimization signals. Similar to MarketMuse, it allows for real-time keyword recommendations and updates in their proprietary content editor.
Price: $59-$239/Month. Annual plans from $49-$199 per month.
Free Trial Offered? No. 7-day money back guarantee.
SurferSEO is a content creation & SEO optimization tool. It allows you to write content within the editor and optimize it in real-time to ensure you have the highest quality SEO content available.
You can also audit your current content, plan your next batch of content with the Content Planner, analyze current search engine rankings for specific pieces of content and research keywords in your content planning stage.
SurferSEO also integrates with other SEO you might use like Google Search Console, WordPress, Semrush and AI content writing tools like JasperAI. SurferSEO is an alternative to the MarketMuse content writing tool.
Fiverr
What is Fiverr? Fiverr is a freelance marketplace that connects buyers of a digital service to sellers of that service. It is commonly used for services like logo design, content writing, web design, social media copy, marketing video production, voice overs and more. For SEO, Fiverr is a great place to find writers that are familiar with writing SEO-friendly content.
Fiverr can be used for multiple SEO services including off-page, on-page, technical SEO, keyword research, competitive analysis and more.
While it is not recommended to used Fiverr for backlinks, Fiverr is a great source for other SEO services.
SEO Content
Fiverr is a very good source for quality writers who have experience writing SEO-friendly content. The way to find a quality writer is to filter by US-only, based in the US, English-speaking and then sort the results by “best selling”. This will provide you with great options. Before placing an order for content, check the reviews from previous customers and send a message to the seller to ensure they are able to complete your order.
Keyword & Topic Research
If you’re in need of assistance for keyword or content topic research, Fiverr is a good option. There are a number of US-based sellers that offer everything from finding good long-tail keywords to generating a list of quality, SEO-friendly blog topics. For this service, be sure to select a US-based seller who states that they have a good understanding of SEO. They’ll typically also mention which SEO tools they’re using.
Video SEO Content
Over the last few years, including video content has been proven to help with your search engine rankings. If you’re looking to produce a video about a specific topic, Fiverr is a great option. For this service, it is recommended to use a seller with good reviews and preferably a seller based in the United States.
Logo Creation & Web Design
If you’re looking to create a logo for your brand or you need help making changes to your website, there are great sellers on Fiverr for this. Whether you need logo design or web design work completed, it should be ok to use sellers outside the United States but be sure to check the reviews and message the seller before placing an order.
Upwork
What is Upwork? Upwork is a marketplace where freelancer professionals are connected to customers looking for skilled labor. It is similar to Fiverr in that they both offer multiple content writers, editors and web designers but the main difference is that Upwork is typically based on an hourly or per project rate where Fiverr is typically based on a per project basis.
Price: Varies. Pricing is per hour or per project.
Upwork is a solid SEO resource for three specific tasks; content writers & editors, web design and graphic design. While Upwork offers a very large variety of services, these are the top SEO-related services that can help with your campaign.
Content Writing & Editing
Upwork for content creation and optimization is where you can gain the most for your SEO campaign. While writers may cost a bit more than they will on other SEO content platforms, the quality of the content is generally higher as well.
When looking for an SEO writer or editor, it’s important to not only check the freelancers’ rating and reviews but to also ensure that they’re from the US. It is also helpful if they’re familiar with the topic you’re looking to write about. Most writers have samples of their previous work and they’re more than happy to share it if you ask them.
Web Design
Web design services through Upwork are helpful for your SEO strategy if you need something like pagespeed upgrades, schema markup or any other UX updates you might want to make. Remember, the happier your website visitors are and the longer they stay on and interact with your website, the better.
Like all other services on Upwork, be sure that you check the developers’ rating and check that their skills match what you’re looking for. Location isn’t as important here as long as communication is acceptable and the freelancer understand what the task is.
Graphic Design
The graphic design services are especially useful in SEO if you’re looking for branding assistance or infographic design. Logo creation & image editing can be helpful for your overall SEO brand while infographic design can be used to enhance the content you’re looking to rank higher in search engines.
For this service, it’s important to review a freelancer’s previous work and ensure they have a solid over rating. Using freelancers outside of the US to save money is generally acceptable but be sure to message the freelancer first to ensure communication won’t be an issue.
BuzzSumo
What is BuzzSumo? Buzzsumo is a database of online content that allows you to research and find the best performing content based on specific keywords or domains. This SEO tool provides data on keywords, ‘People Also Ask’, success of various pieces of content, Stories and more. BuzzSumo is one of the key tools used in content marketing.
Price: $0-$299/Month. Annual plans for $0-$239 per month.
Free Trial Offered? Free limited access account or 30 day free trial.
BuzzSumo is a great SEO content marketing tool because it allows you to find performing content based on how many social shares it has. This helps with the social signals part of ranking a site.
The BuzzSumo SEO tool offers multiple sections including Discovery, Content, Influencers, Monitoring and Projects. Each section is helpful for finding new content to where you can find backlinks once your content is live. Here is a breakdown of each of the tools BuzzSumo offers:
Discovery
Under Discovery, you’ll find 3 sections; trending, topics and questions.
The trending section shows you current content that’s being shared right now. This is helpful if you’re looking to put out a piece of content that relevant in today’s search results. This is especially helpful if you publish articles in Google, Bing, Yahoo or MSN news.
The topics section gives you relevant topics related to a specific search phrase or keyword. It also provides related questions that can be used as FAQs related to a topic or as a standalone post.
The questions section shows you what questions people are asking. This is similar to the ‘People Also Ask’ section on Google but it also displays questions from Quora, Reddit, Amazon and other UGC forums.
Content
In the Content section of BuzzSumo, you’ll find Web, Facebook and Backlinks as subsections. This is where you can research which articles have previously done well and is based on a search of a specific topic, domain or keyword.
Under the Backlinks section, you can find where a specific piece of content is receiving backlinks from. This is helpful if part of your outreach strategy is to mimic you competitors’ backlink profile.
Under Content, you’ll also find the Facebook section which displays content that has previously gone viral on Facebook’s platform.
Influencers
Under the Influencers section in BuzzSumo, you’ll be able to find social media profiles related to a specific topic. You can search for profiles that include target topics on Twitter, Facebook or authors for other websites. This is where you can find people to help promote your content on social media boosting your social signals.
Monitoring
Here is where you can track mentions of your brand, competitors, content and keywords. This is a powerful tool as you can promote noteworthy mentions to your own followers, fix any errors or respond to questions or comments about your brand.
Projects
Lastly, under the Projects section of BuzzSumo, you’ll be able to save any content you’ve found in one place. This is a great tool if you’re building out an SEO Silo and are looking to gather related content that already has proven success.
BuzzSumo Plans & Pricing
BuzzSumo offers 4 plans, each with their own set of permissions & tools. The BuzzSumo plans are available for a monthly fee or for an annual fee with a 20% discount.
Free
Limited access plan for testing BuzzSumo tools.
10 free monthly searches
1 year of data (max 1,000 results)
1 User
0 Alerts
0 Exports/month
1 Content Project, max 100 items
1 Custom Feed
Content Ideas Generator
Content Analysis
Domain Reports
Influencer Searches
Backlinks
Journalist Profiles
Price: $0 monthly
Pro
For small start-ups and freelancers on a limited budget.
Unlimited Monthly Searches
1 year of data
5 Users
5 Alerts
50 Exports/month
Unlimited Projects and items
10 Custom Feeds
Content Ideas Generator
Content Analysis Reports
Domain Reports
Influencer Searches
Backlinks
Journalist Profiles
Price: $99 monthly
Plus
For small agencies and growing businesses.
Unlimited Monthly Searches
1 year of data
10 Users
10 Alerts
150 Exports/month
Unlimited Projects and items
20 Custom Feeds
Content Ideas Generator
Content Analysis Reports
Domain Reports
Influencer Searches
Backlinks
Journalist Profiles
Question Analyzer
Price: $179 monthly
Large
For agencies and marketing teams.
Unlimited Monthly Searches
2 years of data
15 Users
30 Alerts
200 Exports/month
Unlimited Projects and items
50 Custom Feeds
Content Ideas Generator
Content Analysis Reports
Domain Reports
Influencer Searches
Backlinks
Journalist Profiles
Question Analyzer
YouTube Analyzer
Top Author Search
Facebook Page Analyzer
Facebook Pages
Price: $299 monthly
Local SEO Software
Local SEO management software are tools that help you manage SEO for your or a clients’ website where they’re target market is specific to a specific geographic region. While local SEO is somewhat similar to content SEO where more general SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or Moz Pro can be used, there are a few SEO tools that focus specifically on local SEO.
Here is a list of commonly used SEO tools available:
Internal Linking SEO Software
Internal linking is often a neglected yet important part in most SEO campaigns & strategies. It helps with SEO for a number of reasons including page views, the ‘expertise’ portion of E-A-T as well as clean website and content structure.
For those with a limited budget for backlinks, you can think of internal linking as giving yourself free backlinks while keeping search engine crawlers happy.
Here is a list of popular internal linking SEO software:
Outreach & Link Building SEO Software
As we mentioned before, if ‘content is king’, backlinks are queen. When considering the authority part of E-A-T, backlinks are one of the most important signals. Link juice is passed from one website to another which boosts the overall strength of the page & website receiving the link.
While there are a number of methods used by SEOs to gain backlinks, we wanted to focus on the tools that can help safely build your backlink profile.
Here is a list of the commonly used outreach and link building software & tools:
BuzzStream
What is BuzzStream? Buzzstream is one of the most popular DIY outreach platforms available. It allows you to find potential guest post partners and includes information on how to contact them, mass contact and follow up reminders. For those looking to grow their online presence with Link-Building without the cost of the popular ‘do it for you’ services, BuzzStream is a great option.
Price: $24-$999/Month.
Free Trial Offered? Yes. A free trial is available for 14 days.
We all know how important backlinks are for our SE rankings. While outreach and acquiring backlinks can be tedious work, it is a necessary evil. Outreach and link building are made easier with a tool like BuzzStream. It allows you to search and find potential backlink opportunities for your content, provides contact information and includes a semi-automated follow-up option.
BuzzStream Plans & Pricing
BuzzStream offers four unique plan tiers, each with their own features. Monthly plan pricing is between $24-$999+ while annual pricing is the same but you can get one free month if you pay for a year up front and email BuzzStream customer service.
Starter
Simple out of the box outreach for up to 2 users. Great for testing out the BuzzStream platform.
1,000 contacts
Contact info discovery
Open, click, & reply tracking
Email templates
Email scheduling & reminders
Automated follow-ups
Publisher and influencer metrics
Twitter conversation tracking
Chrome extension
Email performance reports
Link monitoring (1,000 links)
Prospecting searches (30)
Price: $24 monthly
Growth
A complete outreach platform, with team sharing, project reporting and more.
25,000 contacts
ALL STARTER FEATURES PLUS:
Bulk email send
Team template sharing
Project performance reporting
Link reporting
Customizable permissions
Phone and email support
Ahrefs integration
Link monitoring (25,000 links)
Prospecting searches (250)
Price: $124 monthly
Professional
Advanced analytics, extensive customizability, API access and personalized support.
100,000 contacts
ALL GROWTH FEATURES PLUS:
Team performance reporting
Unlimited report customization
Integration via web services API
Dedicated account manager
Link monitoring (100,000 links)
Prospecting searches (1,000)
Price: $299 monthly
Custom
A complete solution, customized to the unique needs of your organization, starting at: $999/month.
300,000+ contacts
Unlimited Monthly Searches
2 years of data
15 Users
30 Alerts
200 Exports/month
Unlimited Projects and items
50 Custom Feeds
Content Ideas Generator
Content Analysis Reports
Domain Reports
Influencer Searches
Backlinks
Journalist Profiles
Question Analyzer
YouTube Analyzer
Top Author Search
Facebook Page Analyzer
Facebook Pages
Price: $999+ monthly
Additional fees do apply if you’re looking to add additional users to your plan. Starter includes 1 user and costs $24 for each additional user. Growth includes 3 users and costs $40 more for each additional user. Professional includes 6 users and costs an additional $50 for each new user.
Adsy
What is Adsy? Adsy is a guest-posting platform that connects website owners with marketers looking for to publish guest posts with backlinks pointed to their website. It allows for filtering by niche, DR, DA, location, price and more.
Anyone in the SEO industry understands the power of a quality backlink. If “content is king”, backlinks are queen.
Adsy gives you the ability to self-manage your guest posting efforts instead of using an SEO outreach service. You can choose which websites your content is is published on, giving you the ability to control the quality of your backlink profile.
Here’s how Adsy works:
Once you set up an account and log in, you’ll be taken to the ‘search for publishers’ dashboard. Here is where you will be able to filters for websites using your criteria. There are currently 16 different filters you can use including price, DA, DR, CR, Spam Score, Service Type, Category (niche), Country, Language, inclusion in Google News and more. You can also search for websites by entering a specific keyword in the search bar.
Once you find your list of potential websites where you can publish your guest post with a backlink, you can then start your due diligence where you can remove low-quality websites and find the best sites to get backlinks from.
You can then choose to purchase a guest post placement or you can request that a post is written for you that includes your link and keyword. After your order is placed and accepted, you will be notified when it is published and ready for review.
Here are a few screenshots of what the Adsy dashboard looks like:
Technical SEO Software
Technical SEO is a huge part in how well a website ranks in search engine. Errors with website security, missing alt text, broken links, missing meta data duplicate content or crawl errors can be detrimental to your SEO efforts.
Through technical SEO audits, technical SEO software & tools help you analyze and identify issues with your or your clients’ website so they can be fixed.
Here is a list of common technical SEO software and tools:
Screaming Frog
What is Screaming Frog? Screaming Frog is a website crawler that scans websites for list of on-site errors. It is primarily used as a technical SEO audit tool that allows you to analyze your website’s health to see where improvements are needed.
Price: $0-$209 per year.
Free Trial Offered? Yes. Limited use license available.
Screaming Frog is a tool used for technical SEO website audits. It offers a vast amount of information on everything from a website’s internal & external links, website security, page titles, meta descriptions & keywords, H1s, H2s & content, images, canonicals, structured data, sitemaps, pagespeed and so much more. You will need to download the tool to your computer. You can used it to crawl up to 500 urls for free. After that, you will need to purchase a plan.
If you’re looking specifically to fix technical SEO issues on your website, Screaming Frog is the specialty SEO tool you need. Larger, more general SEO software like Semrush or Ahrefs do also offer some technical SEO audit features but the results don’t compare to the amount of data available in Screaming Frog. Here’s a peek at what the tool looks like.
On-Site Behavior SEO Software
Understanding how website visitors are interacting with your site is a crucial part of any SEO strategy. Below we’re listed some free and premium analytics platforms that are great as SEO tools.
Here is a list of common tools that can be used to track on-site behavior for SEO optimization:
Google Analytics
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a powerful analytics tool to help track on-site user behavior. It allows you to track and measure your user behavior and website performance for SEO and your other digital marketing efforts.
Google Analytics will allow you to see how many users are coming to your website, where they’re coming from, how long they stay, which pages they’re viewing, where they’re located and so much more.
GA allows you to track the website visitors’ entire journey on a page-by-page basis. You can also set up specific goals like clicks on a phone number or ‘buy now’ button. You can track E-Commerce transactions or set up set up event tracking via Google Tag Manager to see when someone completes a specified event. The options seem endless.
While you may not initially consider Google Analytics to be on a list of SEO software tools, the value of using GA on your website is in the data collected. It allows you to see where users are interacting with your website, you can change or optimize your content structure on your pages based on bounce rate and so much more. Think of Google Analytics as your data hub to see where updates are needed.
From a technical SEO standpoint, it allows you to dive deep into understanding how your page speed affects your user experience as well as whether or not you will need to update your web design.
SEO Software in Practice
Search engine optimization is not a quick source of traffic or leads and it has a lot of moving parts. As with any SEO campaign, you should factor in that using any of the tools mentioned above does not guarantee search engine ranking. What these software & tools help with is that they give you the best possible chance of ranking vs. websites that do not have a healthy SEO strategy.
Whether your run a digital marketing agency, you’re an SEO DIYer or you’re just looking to fix your public image through reputation management, the tools mentioned on this list can help.
If you have any questions about any of these tools or if you have a recommendation for a specific SEO software not mentioned in our list, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.
Lastly, if you’re looking to hire the best SEO company for your niche, get in touch with us so we can scope out your project and provide a quote free of charge.