5 Tools to use for SEO Analysis and Automation

By Jason Hawkins on December 14, 2015

Are you needing to get a better handling on your SEO marketing efforts? Not sure how to do it? Well, I’ve compiled a list of 5 commonly used SEO analysis and Automation tools for you to read through and see if they are a fit for what you’re looking to accomplish.

  1. SEM RUSH

sem rush - seo analysis tool   SEM Rush is by far one of the most commonly used SEO and PPC analysis tools for those in the Digital marketing field. Now, while I know that most        agencies and consultants use this tool, it can still be leveraged as an awesome in-house tool.

WHAT IT DOES:

SEM Rush is a tool that can help you do an analysis of SEO rankings, Backlinks to a website, help you perform and SEO audit of a page or site, and also     give you insights into the keywords that competitor is paying for in PPC. SEM rush will even give you an idea of how much a competitor or site is spending in their PPC efforts.

Drawbacks:

One of the major drawbacks that I see is in some of the PPC analysis. I often find that while the tool can help me with directional insight into whether a site is spending good money on PPC, it doesn’t really give accurate numbers. How do I know? Well, I’ve input some of the sites I’m trying to analyze and improve the SEO for, only to see that the PPC estimator is off by as much as 90% or inflates the spend by as much as 5-6 times!

Lastly, it is a monthly subscription. So, for some people, that may be a killer, especially at $99/mo.

 

Take Away:

While SEM Rush is a solid tool and can help with a myriad of SEO tasks, it is not a stand alone tool, BUT is definitely one you want to have in your tool belt.

  1. RankTracker by Link-Assistant

seo ranking tool - RankTracker Logo

RankTracker by Link-Assistant has been my Keyword Ranking tool of choice since 2011.

WHAT IT DOES:

Well, it’s pretty simple: It tracks the rankings/placements of keywords for a given site, in not only Google, Bing, and Yahoo, but other search engines as well.

You can track the rankings of your site for 325 various international search engines. Some other commonly tracked Search Engines could be: AOL, Ask.com, Yandex,    Baidu, as well as Google, Yahoo, and Bing in various country extensions.

DRAWBACKS:

There are a few drawbacks to this tool, even though I speak highly of it, and use it regularly.

  1. If you’re performing a Rank Report and search for 100’s or even 50+ keywords, you’re IP can be blocked and you’ll end up only returning 20-30 keywords with results before the Major Search Engines temporarily block your IP Address.
  2. You have to have the Paid Version to save projects and create reports. So, while not really a “drawback”, you definitely have to pay to be able to use it for clients.

Takeaway:

RankTracker, while SEM RUSH may have tracking capabilities, I still prefer to use this to keep track of rankings and provide me with nice, templated PDF reports that I can send out.

 

  1. SEOMoz

mozSEOmoz is another “all-in-one” tool like SEM Rush. It has really evolved over the years.

WHAT IT DOES:

SEO moz will check rankings, provide a score/analysis of on-page SEO, track keyword rankings, check and analyze backlinks, and also look into Social media interaction.

I believe SEOmoz does the on-page SEO and grader way better than SEM rush and does a better job of the backlink analysis.

The benefit for rank tracking that Moz has over RankTracker, is that it is cloud based and automatically runs and checks rankings sporadically so that it doesn’t get blocked.

The coolest thing that I liked about SEOmoz was that each URL had its own grade for keyword.

DRAWBACKS:

The coolest thing that I liked about Moz is also one of its biggest drawbacks. It’s really nice that the tool does an analysis/grades a page for optimization, BUT, and this is a big one, it does the analysis for the keyword that it sees the URL ranking for in Google.

I know that doesn’t read well and make a lot of sense so let me give you an example.

Let’s say I have a page about “blue widgets” and it is optimized for “blue widgets”. Naturally, the term ranks well and is #1 in Google for “blue widgets” and thus, gets an “A” grade in SEOmoz. Well, if I’m also tracking for “blue wedges”, and the “blue widgets” page is the first page Moz sees in the rankings, it’ll grade that page with an F.

See the issue? The grading system can be extremely misleading and if this is the bar set for a client, can be really tough and frustrating to measure for and against.

Furthermore, like SEMrush, this tool is costly monthly subscription, STARTING at $99/mo.

TAKEAWAY:

SEOmoz has some great tools, but like the other tools above is just part of the tools within the package of tools for SEO.

While Moz has some great benefits, the question is can you get some of the same benefits from some desktop based tools that don’t require a monthly membership.

  1. Ahrefs

seo analysis tool - ahrefsAHREFS is by far the premier tool for backlink analysis.

WHAT IT DOES:

Ahrefs does a deep analysis of the backlink profile of a site. It gives the IP diversity, the domains, the anchor text density of links, and can even track keyword rankings.

These insights can help you define and come out with a better content marketing and outreach program for your site.

It is also a great way to see the diversity of the anchor text used so that you can keep your backlink profile to your site, clean.

DRAWBACKS:

It has a keyword research tool, but is pretty basic.

As with all but one tool on this list, it is also a monthly subscription, starting at $79/mo.

  1. Convert.com

seo analysis - a/b testing convert.com logo

 

 

Ok, ok, ok. I know this isn’t exactly an “SEO” tool. HOWEVER, stay with me . Since Usability and overall user experience has become such a hot topic AND since metrics like Bounce rate, time on site, do impact SEO, you must be using an A/B testing tool!

Convert.com is a fantastic A/B testing tool. The ease to setup some of your basic design changes like button color, button placement, swapping out hero images, etc is nice.

The customer support and QA center is extremely solid and helpful in setting up any test.

I found that Convert.com to be a little easier and user friendly compared to Optimizely (which I used for a while) and VisualWebsiteOptimizer (which I had used as well).

DRAWBACKS:

The only real drawback, is the length of the setups for certain types of tests. For instance, doing Category and Product page tests with eCommerce can be a little time consuming to make sure you have the codes placed on the pages that will be running the test.

And, like all the other tools, it has monthly subscription starting at $139/mo.

 

So, there it is a solid selection of necessary tools for your SEO toolbelt.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback about how to use any of these tools!

I’d be more than help to help!

 



About The Author

Jason Hawkins
Jason Hawkins / http://www.themiamiseocompany.com

Jason Hawkins is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Miami SEO Company. He has over ten years of experience in search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and lead generation. His core responsibilities include identifying ways to increase value of services rendered, training staff on advanced SEO topics, and A/B testing internal processes to consistently improve client return on investment.