Our Top SEO Tools & Software Recommendations

Some might argue that a carpenter is only as good as his tools. While I might not plan on repairing a roof anytime soon, I’ve explored my fair share of search engine optimization tools.

The digital marketing landscape is littered with countless keyword research, competitive analysis, and keyword tracking tools. We’ve done the work for you and outlined some of our top SEO tools.

1. seoClarity
2. Moz
3. SEMrush
4. Screaming Frog
5. Google Search Console

1) seoClarity

seoClarity is an SEO and content performance platform that includes tracking capabilities, web crawling, and research and insight tools.

Pros:

• A subscription with seoClarity includes use of their web-based crawler. This means that users can rely on the tool to crawl pages for crawl errors, meta data problems, duplication, tagging issues, and more.
• seoClarity has one of the most robust keyword segmentation capabilities.
• seoClarity allows the user to create custom dashboards centered around performance pain points. If used correctly, these can powerfully resonate with clients.

Cons:

• This tool can cost a pretty penny, especially given costs associated with individual domains and keyword rank checking credits.
• Arriving at a place where seoClarity is fully functioning and appropriately set up for a client can take countless hours. We estimate 5-10 hours plus per domain.

2) Moz Tool Set

Moz is a software company based in Seattle that provides valuable tools for digital marketers. Their most well-known tool is Moz Pro, however, they also have a backlink tool and a tool for local SEO.

Pros:

• Moz has recently rolled out a keyword research tool that provides insane insight on keyword competitiveness and related searches.
• Open Site Explorer, a tool that provides backlink analysis, also reports on “Unlinked Mentions,” or when your brand has been mentioned, but no link was included.
• Moz Pro entails a campaign-based tracker, meaning that it is exceptionally easy to segment keyword groups.

Cons:

• Perfect Search has found that Moz’s Open Site Explorer backlink capabilities are not as robust or comprehensive as competitors such as Ahrefs or Majestic SEO.
• Moz touts its Site Audit capabilities, however, Perfect Search has found that manual analysis of site data is much more useful, as many of the findings are canned.

3) SEMrush

SEMrush is another search engine optimization tool option for keyword tracking, keyword research, and competitive analysis.

Pros:

• SEMrush offers highly varied options for pricing, meaning that it is a tool that is attainable for all.
• This tool could very well be all that an SEO analyst needs to complete their job function; it includes traffic estimators, competitive analysis capabilities, keyword tracking, and backlink assessment.

Cons:

Perfect Search has detected artificial keyword growth reported by SEMrush. Increased numbers are often shown month over month, however, this is not actually an increase in keyword ranks. Instead, it's SEMrush merely adding additional keywords to their rank tracking.

4) Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a web crawler software that emulates a Google or Bing crawl bot and provides tagging and HTML insights for web pages.

Pros:

• Screaming Frog provides valuable technical information, such as noindex tags, crawl error reports, and even page depth, which can in turn be used to do technical optimizations to a website.
• A free version of Screaming Frog exists, which is perfect for users looking to optimize a website that is less than 500 URLs.

Cons:

• This tool is downloaded to your computer and while it is running, data is compiled on your computer. This means that depending on the memory that your computer holds, Screaming Frog may run out of memory space at 10,000+ URLs and you will be unable to receive a comprehensive crawl.
• The tool can be rather overwhelming for new users, as there is a large amount of information that is available for exporting and analysis.

5) Google Search Console

Google Search Console, once known as Google Webmaster Tools, is offered by Google as an SEO tool to improve website visibility.

Pros:

• This tool is 100% free and can be easily used or set up for your website.
• Because this data is being reported directly from Google based on how individuals engage with the SERP, it is considered some of the most accurate site analytics data.
• GSC is invaluable for SEO analysts who are optimizing for technical SEO.

Cons:

• Search Analytics only databases data 3 months back and only for the top 1,000 URLs.
• Some crawl errors data will need to be manually checked for validity.

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Did we leave any of your favorite tools out? Tweet us at @Perfect_Search!

Plus, don’t forget to check out Eric’s favorite SEM tools.