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Realizing the value of SEO, many businesses already rely on it. Yet, not all of them already use specialized tools to take care of their site’s optimization. If that sounds like you, now might be the time to rethink your approach and find the perfect SEO software that will boost your results. Read on, and we will tell you how!
Understanding Your Needs
To choose a tool that helps you achieve your goals, start by assessing your website’s size, current SEO efforts, and goals. Additionally, you should reflect on the size of your business and its digital maturity.
Large enterprises might be looking for more automation to help them handle a large number of optimization tasks with less human intervention for the sake of scalability. Small businesses, on the contrary, might lack the digital maturity and technical expertise needed to adopt advanced software. Hence, they should look for the tool’s availability and comfortability. Agencies have completely different needs. They should be looking for large sets of features and automation, too. They also need more advanced reporting capabilities.
One way or another, acknowledging your needs and goals is the key to success. So analyze your business first and only then dive into the features we’re going to tell you about.
Core Features of SEO Software
After you tap into your needs and get clear on what type of tool you need, you can start searching. And that’s where you must understand different features.
Here’s what to look for when choosing SEO software:
1. Keyword Research
Keywords play a massive role in your online visibility and rankings. The more meticulously you select them, the higher your chances to boost your SEO. Hence, keyword research is one of the first features you should be looking for in your software.
There are many different insights that keyword research tools can give you, including keyword difficulty (KD), cost per click (CPC), intent, etc. Depending on your specific goals and technical expertise, you may make good use of all these insights. Google Keyword Planner can be the tool to start working with keyword research.
2. On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization deals with many different aspects of your site, including:
- Content and its quality;
- Visuals;
- Title tags and meta descriptions;
- Headers;
- Internal linking.
It affects your site’s crawlability and rankings, as well as user experience and satisfaction. Hence, it’s crucial to get it right.
Look for tools that will let you perform a detailed on-page audit to analyze your site’s quality score and detect existing gaps. Additionally, look for such features as content analysis, like offered by Clearscope software, title tag optimization, and meta description creation.
3. Backlink Analysis
There are different types of backlinks that can help you get more traffic and establish credibility, which will positively affect not only your ranking but also earn the trust of your target audience.
When picking your software, always pay special attention to backlink-related functionality. The top must-have features include backlink profile tracking and analysis, identification of link-building opportunities, and competitor backlink monitoring. Advanced software like SE Ranking also allows you to check broken links, which can be a less obvious method for building links.
4. Technical SEO
When selecting the perfect SEO software for you, focus on the top three aspects of technical optimization:
- Site speed. Your site’s loading speed directly affects its position in search results. According to Google’s manuals, the right speed should be 2.5 seconds or less. Look for software that will let you analyze your site’s speed and optimize it without a hassle.
- Structured data markup. Structured data helps search engines find and understand your site and subsequently rank it more rationally. Look for tools that offer assistance with structured data markup to handle this aspect of optimization more easily.
- Mobile-friendliness. If you want to capture mobile prospects, you need a tool to analyze your site’s mobile-friendliness and suggest actionable ways to improve it.
You can start with Google Search Console, and then opt for more specific tools like Screaming Frog to find issues with duplicate content, redirects, JS, etc.
5. Reporting and Analytics
Finally, the last core feature is reporting and analytics. In terms of search engine optimization, analytics is crucial for keeping an eye on the results you get from your efforts, detecting weak spots, and finding areas for improvement.
This characteristic is especially important for agencies. Clear and detailed reports will help you showcase the value you bring to your clients, simplify results communication, and enhance trust. SE Ranking’s reporting tools are an example of such software.
Pricing and Value
There are solutions that match different budgets and payment preferences. For example, there are free tools, though with limited functionality. Also, there are solutions with subscriptions that you can pay for on a monthly or annual basis. There are also pay-as-you-go tools, the cost of which depends on the specific number of users, features, or credits you need.
In order to pick the best option, assess the pricing and payment method of different options, compare them, and decide which opportunity works best for you. Be sure to select a solution that fits into your budget. Yet, don’t choose based solely on the price. Instead, look for the best value for money.
Conclusion
The right software can help you take your search engine optimization efforts to the next level and scale the outcomes. All you need to do is define what exactly you need and find a solution that perfectly aligns with your objectives.
After reading this guide, you should know exactly how to choose the best SEO software. So don’t wait and use these insights to find a superb tool that will help you rank high!
