How do you select the right SEO tool for everyday use?

The market is full of SEO solutions, each of which can be great for either broad or highly specific tasks. Some tools are great for doing market analyses, some are great for researching keywords, some are better suited than others for finding and working with quality backlinks, etc. So start by figuring out which tasks you need to complete before choosing the tool that’s right for you.

WHAT ARE SEO PLATFORMS?

An SEO tool is usually software that carries out a function within a specific remit of SEO e.g keyword research tool, or a website crawler tool.

An SEO platform on the other hand is software that helps you manage most if not all of your SEO marketing strategy in Google search and other search engines and online channels from one place. An SEO platform is made up of loads of different SEO tools, providing a convenient solution for most of your SEO needs. They’re used by individuals with wide-ranging SEO needs and SEO agencies.

Selecting the Right SEO Platform?

The right SEO tools or platform for everyday use depends on what you’re going to use it for!

If you’re really working hard on your SEO, you’re going to spend a lot of quality time with your SEO tools – as an SEO manager, it’s my daily companion. So choosing the right one can seem like a big deal. There are also loads of tools out there now, all with different features and prices, so it can be a bit confusing.

These days, SEO platforms can do almost everything you need them to do when it comes to your SEO strategy – Content SEO, website audits and flagging technical issues, keyword research, report building, backlinks checking and on and on and on and on. Some people will never even use all of the shiny features at their disposal, but they’re nice to have.

Without further ado here are some of the things you should consider when choosing an SEO tool for everyday use.

What kind of SEO are you going to be doing?

What kind of SEO will you be focusing on? If you’re just getting into SEO, this might be a scary question – what, I thought SEO was SEO and an SEO tool was going to help me with that! – you might squeal in terror. Well do not be afraid! Because actually, some tools can do it all – it’s just that some might be more specialised than others.

Keyword Research

Virtually any SEO (unless you are only doing technical work) is going to need a keyword research tool and a keyword tracking tool. Your keywords are going to be the foundation of your content and probably link-building strategies so you’ll want your analysis to be as accurate as possible – you don’t want to miss an opportunity or waste time on pointless keywords.

There are some free tools out there like Google search console and Google Keyword Planner, but really if you’re serious about SEO you’ll need a specific tool.

Additionally, free tools won’t let you track your rankings so you won’t know how your SEO is doing and you won’t be able to make data-driven decisions. Every SEO platform will have a keyword research tool and really it’s down to personal preference on which you prefer.

Technical SEO

If you’re going to be mainly doing technical SEO, you’ll need to be able to do full website crawls to find and fix technical issues. It would also be helpful if you’re not an expert yet if your tool provided you with nice reports on you which issues are the most pressing. Going a step further, if you don’t understand the issues fully then it would be good if it provided you with a neat and concise description of these technical issues in case you need to explain them to a client.

Link-Building

If you’re a link builder or you specialise in backlinks, then you’ll need a backlink analysis tool, which will let you check the backlink profiles of your own site and competitors’ URLs. That way you’ll be able to find spammy links to your own site, or work out new strategies for increasing your reputation through link building.

SEO Copywriting

SEO copywriters who don’t have an internalised checklist of how to optimise a blog for SEO yet might need a tool for discovering on-page opportunities (and missed opportunities). Lots of SEO platforms now offer a content marketing or on-page analysis tool which will help you to do just that. Often you’ll get a checklist of SEO steps required, or you’ll get a report with a list of issues to work through. You’re then free to fix them at your leisure.

Local SEO

If you’re going to be doing a lot of local SEO then you’ll need something that lets you track the positions of keywords in local search engines. Google Business Profile insights let you do this to some extent, but it’s better to be able to see them alongside your other keyword rankings by choosing to see when a keyword is appearing in the top 3 local pack.

Having it all in one place is less chaotic

Honestly, since SEO has so many moving parts, you’re probably going to want most things to be in one place. It’s less chaotic and would talk a LOT of spreadsheets to be able to replicate what you get with a platform, and although there are also several free tools that are also essential for daily use, like Google search console and Google analytics, there are some tools that you’ll likely have to bite the bullet and pay for!

One day it might all change – Search Engine Journal thinks that Google Search Console will soon be so advanced that it will be like an ‘operating system for the web’ – but we’re not quite there yet.

What’s your budget?

SEO platforms can cost an absolute bomb if you go for the top package. Think about whether you can use free or cheaper tools for some of those tasks and whether you really need all of those features. At the time of writing, top subscription plans can cost upwards of £500 a month with all the bells and whistles. These are pointless for many businesses and even agencies.

Even if you’re hellbent on taking your website to the coveted number 1 spot, you won’t use some of the features and likely wouldn’t need them to get to the top anyway if you were smart about it. You may be better off going for a lower-priced package at first even if you really think you might use everything.

Are you prepared to stick with it for a while?

It takes time to get used to a platform, input all of your data, get used to the interface and learn how to use its features. If you’re tracking keyword positions, creating audits and getting to know the ins and outs of an SEO platform, there ends up being a certain amount of friction when you decide to switch over. It’s better to pick a tool and stick with it than to jump between platforms after a few months.

Alternatively, if you have commitment issues, get a couple of free trials, test them out but don’t get too invested, then pick your favourite and stick with it.

That said, if you do eventually want to switch to something else down the line, or your requirements change (or your budget – it’s a tough economy!) then there is a good amount of cross-over between platforms and several ways to transfer your projects over. SE Ranking, for example, allows you to import your keyword data and rankings history from SEMrush and other tools, and even has instructional blogs to help you out with that.

What do we use?

We use SE Ranking as our SEO platform of choice at atomic. It lets us do keyword research, backlink analysis, and technical audits with some more, helpful additions like white-labelling reporting. Although we do use other tools now and again to fill in the gaps. The other benefit of using an SEO platform is that new tools are added all the time to keep you on the platform as much as possible. I’m especially liking the new content marketing tool from SEranking which doubles as a keyword research helper – input your seed keywords and you’ll get back loads of topics and ideas for related keywords that you might not have come up with otherwise. Again this isn’t really something that you’d get without an SEO platform but you do sometimes have to pay extra – this is where knowing what you’ll use your platform for will save you £££ on features that you’ll never use.

Conclusion

So now you have a better idea of what you need to consider when selecting an SEO platform for everyday use, and which tools you’ll need in your SEO toolkit depending on the kind of work you’ll be doing. The main thing is that you’re comfortable with your SEO platform and can get great results for your business or your clients using it!

The market is full of SEO solutions, each of which can be great for either broad or highly specific tasks. Some tools are great for doing market analyses, some are great for researching keywords, some are better suited than others for finding and working with quality backlinks, etc. So start by figuring out which tasks you need to complete before choosing the tool that’s right for you.