In 2014, SEO is not what it seems. By this I mean the ways in which strategies are created to build organic traffic have changed. The new ideology for SEO services has become basic SEO optimization, with content creation and social media services. With this in mind, I feel the reconsideration of SEO tools needs to be addressed. Rather than tell you what SEO tools to choose, I will propose questions you should ask yourself when selecting the right tools.
Initial Questions:
Can the tool you use give you instant page scans website’s for SEO data?
Can your tool provide accurate keyword rank tracking across different search engines?
Can your SEO tool assist you in measuring keyword ranking growth?
SEO Tools for Site Scans
Some things will never change with SEO tool needs. That need is the ability to scan your website at will to check the basic optimized variables (Meta tags, headers, etc.). While most SEO tools offer a crawl that checks your website, these scans can sometimes take 24 hours or only happen on a weekly basis. I really could propose ideas around this tool but won't because there really is only one tool that holds up for this task and that's Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool. SEO Spider is by far the best tool for those daily/weekly site scans. I find these site scans to be quick, simple and fast on a stand-alone pc or VPS.
SEO Tools That Tracks Keyword Rankings You Want and Were Not Looking For
While the wisest SEOs today will say that building brand presence is more vital than focusing specifically on keyword rankings, we all know that rankings pay the bills or at least this is how most businesses feel. Selecting a ranking tool should come with a few background check offs. The first question is does the tool provide accurate and effective SERP reporting for your targeted Search Engines? The second question is can the tool identify keywords that your website ranks for and tells a story of how much estimated traffic your website is receiving based standard click-through rates? Lastly, does the tool analysis the page that you’re currently ranking for and provide accurate recommendations on optimizing SEO factors for targeted keywords? Let’s face it, if your SEO tool does not give basic recommendations, what’s the point in spending hundreds a month for it.
SEO Tools to Report and Identify Website Growth
Determining website growth is viewed differently by everyone. Some view SEO growth by rankings, some by ROI and others view growth by traffic or revenue. I like to view SEO growth by page growth via ranking keywords, traffic, revenue and quarterly ROI. Finding a tool that helps to tell this story is important. A few questions about your tool would be, does the tool analyze value by page? Can the SEO tool identify what keywords the page is ranking for and display accurate rankings? Can the tool incorporate Analytics data to determine traffic and revenue growth? Lastly, can the tool compare your website to competing websites to identify who your biggest search competitors are and how much of the market share do they control when looking at your target keywords?
If your SEO Tool cannot provide give you instant page scans, provide accurate keyword rank tracking across different search engines or assist you in measuring keyword ranking growth, I say reconsider your options. If you can’t find any, you can always demo Brightedge, Conductor or Linkdex.
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