How to Choose the Best SEO Software for Small Business
Google is an endless ocean of information. To stand out, it’s no longer enough to offer high-quality content. With so many competitors fighting to rank better on Google, it became mandatory to carefully plan and execute SEO strategy. By implementing best SEO tips you will be able not only to improve your Google position but also to grow sales. From creating SEO ready blog articles, setting meta descriptions, and choosing the right headline to link building strategies – search engine optimization covers many tasks that should be executed properly.
If you’re not an expert who has a whole world of SEO at his fingertips, you would use some help. Luckily, there are many practical SEO software tools made particularly for small business owners. Use them to easily improve the SEO aspect of your marketing and business strategy. To help you find the perfect match, we asked Bruce Hogan, Co-founder & CEO of SoftwarePundit, to share his thoughts on the best SEO software for small business you don’t want to miss.
You’ve reviewed a variety of SEO tools. What criteria did you use to evaluate them?
At SoftwarePundit, we evaluate tools based upon their features, ease of use, price, and overall company strength. We review a set of comparable tools simultaneously, which helps us identify the different features they offer, and the nuanced differences between the tools. For SEO tools in particular, you have a group of all-in-one solutions like Ahrefs and SEMrush that offer a broad range of features, and others like AccuRanker and Deepcrawl that go deep on a specific use case.
In each case, we identify the category of the software and compare it to its closest alternatives. Overall, we think about the attractiveness of the solution from the perspective of the end user in terms of the value they receive for the price they pay.
In your opinion, what do small businesses need to pay attention to when choosing premium SEO software?
First, it’s important to understand that SEO software can do many things – this includes:
- Keyword Research
- Competitive Research
- Keyword Rank Tracking
- Backlink Analysis
- SEO Site Audits
- Content Research
- Traffic Analytics
- Business Listing Management
- Social Media Management
The biggest consideration when choosing premium SEO software is whether the small business wants an all-in-one tool to support their overall search efforts, or a point solution that does one thing very well. The best all-in-one tools are Ahrefs and SEMrush. There are numerous high-quality tools that address specific SEO needs.
After that, it’s best for the small business to figure out what they need the SEO tool to do really well. For example, if the small business really needs a tool that’s outstanding at keyword position tracking, then they’re better off with SEMrush (make sure you choose the best SEMRUsh pricing option for your business) in the all-in-one category or AccuRanker in the point-solution category. If they need a tool to support their backlink efforts, then they’re better off with Ahrefs in the all-in-one category, or Majestic in the point-solution category. This analysis has our most thorough breakdown of the overall SEO software market.
Finally, I think it’s important for small businesses to understand that investing in SEO software alone will not improve their search performance or grow their businesses. SEO software is built to support a company’s search efforts.
If the company is actively investing in creating new content, optimizing its website, or launching paid search ads, then SEO software is a worthwhile investment. If the company isn’t that active with organic or paid search, it’s not going to move the needle.
In your opinion, what are the best free SEO tools for small businesses?
The best free SEO tools are from Google. Google Search Console has tons of free data shared directly by Google that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s the best source for keyword data that your existing pages rank well for, and related keywords that you can use to create new content. Google Analytics is an incredible tool for understanding the portion of your funnel between your landing pages and your conversions.
Spending time in Google Analytics will help you understand how you can get the most value from the SEO clicks that you already receive. Finally, Google Keyword Planner is a rich source of information on keywords that you can use to prioritize your new content pipeline.
We shared our other favorite free SEO tools. Tools like Answer the Public and Keyword Sheeter are valuable for keyword research, and the Moz toolbar is really useful for understanding the pages that rank well for specific search terms.
Based on the reviews on your blog, which premium SEO software is the best for small businesses that just started growing their marketing team?
If a small business is just getting started with online search, It’s better to purchase a single tool that supports a range of use cases, rather than a tool that goes deep on one use case. We recommend either Ahrefs or SEMrush. In our opinion, they are by far the best tools that offer a broad range of solutions. You can use either to research new keywords, monitor your keyword rankings on Google, discover new content ideas, audit your website, learn about your competitors, and much more.
The key difference between these tools is their strengths – Ahrefs is better for backlink analysis and site auditing, while SEMrush is better for keyword research and competitive analysis. If you’re on a tighter budget, then Serpstat is worth exploring. It allows you to monitor the ranking of a huge volume of keywords for less than Ahrefs and SEMrush, but isn’t quite as robust overall.
What is the best SEO plugin for WordPress?
Yoast is the best SEO plugin that I’ve used personally. Even the free version comes with several valuable features. You can use the free plug-in to optimize your page for specific keywords, check your post length, manage canonical tags, add schema.org markup and preview how your page will look in Google search results.
Which SEO tool do you use the most and why?
We use Ahrefs and SEMrush daily. We use Ahrefs to monitor our backlinks and learn about other website’s top performing pages. We use SEMrush to monitor our keyword rankings, for keyword research, and to understand what our competitors are doing in online search. We use both for regular site audits.
Google Search Console is another tool that we use each day. It’s the best way to monitor how our website is performing on Google Search, and to dig into the performance of our most valuable pages and queries. It’s also important to check Google Search Console for indexing issues and other notifications from Google.
What criteria do you use for determining what kind of software is the best for each type of business (small, mid-size, enterprise?
SoftwarePundit’s methodology includes first-hand software testing, customer interviews, competitive analysis, and evaluation of each software company’s overall business. Our overall ratings are based on a combination of features, ease of use, value, customer support, and business momentum.
What is the biggest value your company gives to your clients?
Software has become an integral part of operating businesses. However, most business owners and leaders are not trained in technology, and there’s a lack of high-quality, unbiased information about the top software tools. As a result, researching and purchasing software is often frustrating and time-consuming for small and medium businesses.
Our biggest value-add is making that software purchase process simpler and more transparent. The information we share – vendor pricing, images of the software interfaces, and the pros and cons of each software solution – empowers SMBs to get to the right answer more consistently and faster.
What is the biggest value your company gives to your target audience?
We spend some days in the office and some days working remotely. Since we’re an Internet business, we have the flexibility to do both without disrupting our work processes. We typically start the workday between 9 and 10am and wrap up before dinner. After dinner, I usually spend an hour or two catching up on emails or finishing the day’s tasks. If there’s time, I try to sneak in a few errands, a lunch meeting, or a visit to the gym.
What do you do for fun?
We’re based in New York City. When I have time away from work, I like to spend time with my family and friends, and explore restaurants and events in the city. And when the weather permits, I love spending some time on the golf course.
Let’s Wrap It Up
If you’re searching for the best SEO software for small business, you should pay attention to everything from its core features to its ease of use. Firstly, define your business needs so you can easily compare different tools and their set of options. Secondly, do detailed research on each SEO product that attracted your attention. In a case, you don’t know much about these sorts of plugins you can always use professional tools such as SoftwarePundit that evaluates products based upon their features, ease of use, price, and overall company reputation.
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
