When planning to optimize your business website for search engines, the first step is to have a strategy based on data. The algorithms of search engines like Google keep evolving, requiring businesses to take advantage of updated SEO software features.
If your website does not use the best SEO tools, it may face issues such as slow page loading time, broken links, and even errors that may go unnoticed. These issues would hinder the user experience as well as indexing.
Similarly, if your research for keyword and competitor analysis is substandard, it will affect the integrity of the content, which will result in less organic traffic.
The right SEO software will offer insights and analysis making it easier for you to decide the right digital marketing strategy for your business. But, how do you find the right one?
Get Started with Software Reviews
The first thing to do when selecting the right SEO software for your website is to read the user reviews of the software.
Remember, not all software solutions are the same. Some have an unlimited number of projects, others restrict you to 3-5. Similarly, some can perform site audits, while others lack this feature. It’s, therefore, important to compare the top 10 SEO software side-by-side to get a quick view of what’s included in premium plans.
Also, reading SEO software reviews sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of the software, which can help you make decisions based on your needs.
It’s possible to find detailed reviews about the features of the software, highlighting the elements that can help fulfill your SEO objectives. These reviews often also mention the missing features of the software, and you can make an informed decision based on a clear picture. Mainly, the reviews cover cost vs benefit analysis based on user experience.
Know What Your Business Needs
First and foremost, a clear understanding of what your business needs are is important to implement SEO strategies. Understanding the business operations and workflow, desired outcomes, and performance indicators you have in mind are all factors that need to be taken into consideration when buying SEO software.
Understanding your audience is very important, what makes them interact online and pushes them to make purchases and which platforms they prefer. Google Search Console and Google Analytics are tools that can help you determine how your website is currently performing in terms of SEO.
How much traffic your website has, how many people visit but leave without interacting, etc., are factors these tools highlight. Based on this information, you can buy software that addresses these issues with business SEO solutions like on-page optimization.
At the end of the day, the SEO for business software you opt for should also take into consideration the knowledge and expertise of your team. If your business has a dedicated team to manage the SEO, more advanced professional software would be ideal. User-friendly tools that are easy to navigate and use are also available for businesses without dedicated teams or in-depth knowledge of SEO.
Learn about Your SEO Goals
Setting the goals and objectives from the get-go is essential for business development. And it also helps determine the right SEO strategy and software for your business. As with other business goals, even objectives for SEO need to follow the SMART rule: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Let’s take a look at some general SEO objectives businesses may have:
Boost Organic Traffic
Example Business Objective: Increase Organic Traffic to the site by 30% in 6 months.
The most fundamental goal of SEO is to generate maximum organic traffic from Google searches to your website. And it requires a proper content marketing strategy. For this, the content of the website needs to be relevant, interactive, and informative and backlinks need to be optimized in order for organic (non-paid) users to visit your website.
Improve Rankings
Example Objective: Get on the 1st page using the top 10 primary keywords for your business in 10 months.
Whether you use Google or another search engine, the likelihood of you going past the first page is extremely low.
Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to get your business listed on the first page. The software you choose should help find relevant keywords and make it easy to optimize your pages.
Increase Conversions and ROI
Example Objective: Generate 60 leads and $30,000 in monthly revenue from organic reach within the next 4 months.
The end goal of generating organic traffic is to ensure conversions and sales. SEO has a good ROI, and the best way to achieve this is to optimize the content of your page so that users can relate to and interact with your pages.
Optimize User Engagement Performance Indicators
Example Business Objective: Reduce website bounce rate to 50% in the next 4 months.
Bounce rates, time spent on the site, and number of pages per session are engagement indicators that search engines look for when indexing sites. These parameters need to be monitored using the right software so you can improve them and offer a better user experience.
Raise Brand Awareness and Credibility
Business Objective Example: Earn 20 new links and improve domain authority up to 50 in the next 12 months.
Your business can also achieve brand awareness through SEO when other authentic sites mention your site or backlink to your site. When your site is ranked higher people will trust your website as an authentic source.
Budget Constraint Considerations
Budgeting is vital when looking for a new SEO platform. Value for money and cost-benefit need to be assessed when looking for SEO software, especially small business SEO tools.
The premium SEO software tools offering A-Z solutions are pricey, ranging from $100 to $400 per month, which may not be suitable for startups and small businesses.
Investing in SEO tools results in conversions and sales; therefore, small businesses can opt for more cost-effective options out there. Some tools start from $30 and offer keyword research, which may be the only thing your business needs at the moment.
Many SEO software comes in packages, with basic packages priced lower with fewer features available and the most expensive, offering every tool available. You can make an SEO tools comparison and look at the features each package offers, and based on the cost and features, choose the right one for you.
Websites that don’t need to track ranking on a regular basis or are satisfied with the basic plan don’t need to spend too much money. However, for larger companies or agencies offering digital services to multiple clients, it is essential to buy premium software. Therefore, SEO software analysis needs to be done based on features, cost, and user experiences.
Key Features to Consider in the Best SEO Software
No matter how aggressively you run your SEO campaigns, you will always require the right software to keep track of your performance. Here are some of the features to check in any SEO software.
Keyword Research/Rank Analysis
Knowing what people put in search engines to get to your site is important, and so is the list of keywords your pages rank for in Google.
Irrespective of the software you pick, you will always get a keyword research tool to uncover keywords your target audience uses to search the internet. But remember that every software sources this data in a different way.
For instance, some license data from ISPs or point solutions, such as Google, restricts the usage of scraped data. But, other vendors may develop their own proprietary database of keywords. Consider how the software you’re going to use sources keyword data.
Similarly, keeping an eye on how your pages rank for various queries is important. However, not every tool would work because Google now focuses more on dynamic and visual SERPs. Pick a tool that tells you how your pages rank for a query – whether displayed in a knowledge panel, in a carousel, or with site links.
Content Marketing
Relevant, up-to-date content has never been as important as now, especially after Google raised the bar by incorporating AI in its regular algorithm updates.
You need to ensure that the SEO software you choose has upgraded content marketing and optimization capabilities. It’s good to get features like page management tools, reports on traffic trends/content performance, and real-time content recommendations.
Technical SEO Help
The right tool will always offer something to help identify technical issues, as they can keep your site from ranking.
Ensure that your SEO platform helps you identify issues related to slow page load, schema markup, crawling issues, crawl budget, and duplicate URLs.
Custom Site Audits
The right SEO software will help perform a thorough site audit.
Some platforms may provide you with timely optimization recommendations for page structures, keywords, and crawlability. Others may work better by providing daily site crawls and sharing real-time technical data.
Ensure that the software you pick helps you crawl the entire site and isn’t limited to random pages. But again, you should also consider the size of your website, as it’s always tricky to crawl large enterprise sites.
Backlinks Assistance
The best SEO software helps you analyze your backlink profile to ensure you don’t have any spammy links pointing back to your site.
It should also be able to give information about new and lost links, toxic links, anchor text distribution, etc. A good idea is to go with a platform offering link intersect tools, as they help you find domains that point back to your competitors but not you.
Reporting and Analytics
Finally, pay attention to the reporting capabilities of the SEO software you choose. It should come with customizable dashboards, show historical data, and provide you with actionable insights.
The availability of drag-and-drop custom report builders that integrate with Search Console, Google Analytics, etc., is also a good idea. You should also be able to get alerts for significant ranking/traffic changes to tweak your strategy.
Conclusion
The best SEO software always excels in competitor analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, and content optimization. But you should also look for other additional features and compare them with the price they charge. Also, determining your business needs is vital, as it will help you decide whether a particular SEO software is the right choice for you or not.
