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If you’re an SEO analyst and/or if you work in the SEO industry, you already know the importance of the SEO tools to run a successful campaign. But there are a lot of SEO tools in the market and it’s not easy to choose between all of them.
We know the frustration of choosing the right SEO software among all of the different options because we have been there. Reading and viewing tons of online reviews and yet, we were not sure if we should invest or not. So we decided to try and we have spent a lot of time and a bit of money in order to use the most popular SEO softwares recommended by SEO experts.
In this article, we have tried to put together a list of 10 best SEO tools that we are now using in our agency to enhance our efforts. This list is subjective based on the work we are doing for our clients so if you think some must-use tools are missing feel free to comments to complete this top 10 must-have SEO tools for agencies. But before starting the list we would like to introduce the 2 big players that we over use at Ultimate Index.
SEMrush vs ahrefs
You probably already ask your self if you should use SEMrush or ahrefs or both?
Both SEMrush and ahrefs are, what we call in our agency, a 360-degree tool. A 360-degree tool covers the major SEO features that you need for your work. These features include but are not limited to Technical SEO, Keyword Tools, Backlink Analysis, Traffic Analytics, Competitor Analysis, etc. Please note that we won’t detail all the amazing things you can achieved with these 2 tools. We will just do a really quick overview of each tool because we also want to introduce other options since SEMrush and ahrefs can be a bit pricey depending on your needs.
We actually use the 2 tools in a different way. The two SEO tools have more or less the same major features but each of them have their own pro. Even though SEMrush seems to be more marketing oriented and ahrefs seems to more purely SEO oriented.
- With ahrefs we are mostly using keywords research, site explorer and bulk export of the site audit feature.
- With SEMrush we are mostly using site audit, keywords position tracking, Sensor (For the SERP Volatility), social media planner and Backlinks automation from their Link building section. The real plus in SEMrush is the report section, a time saver for us to send our reports to clients.
Let’s detail a bit more SEMrush and ahrefs and start our top 10 SEO Tools.
1. SEMrush SEO Toolkit (Freemium)
SEMrush is the most popular SEO tool used by our experts. You can get a sneak peek into the features of the SEMrush SEO tool by creating a free account, and that’s awesome.
This SEO tool is a combination of 25 different features that cover five major SEO services.
- Competitive Research
- Keyword Research
- Link Building
- Rank Trackings
- On-page and Technical SEO
We highly recommend SEMrush because we can guarantee its efficiency from our own experience. We have a full article explaining a bit more in depth what you can achieve for your SEO campaigns with SEMrush. Or you can simply visit their Online academy.
SEMrush is also great for your PPC campaigns. The software give a lot of useful information on your competitors PPC campaigns and give you good recommendations to enhance the performances.
Let’s move to the another great 360-degree SEO tool is Ahrefs SEO toolset. Like SEMrush, ahrefs offers similar SEO features.
2. ahrefs SEO toolset (Premium)
ahrefs is another 360-degree SEO tool for professionals. The interface of ahrefs is little bit more difficult to navigate compared to SEMrush. That’s why the user experience of ahrefs, according to us, is less intuitive than SEMrush but the data they provide seems to be a bit more accurate or at least updated more often (Especially on the backlinks profile, some).
So, if you are a very experienced SEO expert, then this SEO tool is also a good choice for your SEO agency. Two of are favorites features of ahrefs are their Site Explorer and Keywords Explorers tools which are a gold mine of information for your campaigns.
ahrefs has one of the biggest indexes of backlinks in the world. The rank tracker feature is also very good, you can compare between different domains and analyze their metrics and backlinks.
3. Screaming Frog for Technical SEO (Freemium)
Unlike most of the other tools in this list, Screaming Frog SEO Spider is not a cloud-based tool. You have to download and install the software from the website on your computer.
Screaming frog SEO spider is undoubtedly the best website crawler in the market. It is a must-have tool for technical SEO experts.
You can crawl hundreds of thousands of webpages within minutes and get a customized report on all of the webpages.
When you crawl a website with this tool, it will determine the broken internal and external links, webpages, pages that don’t have a matching title and heading, problems with meta description, etc. within a few minutes.
A premium version of this software is a must-have for all SEO professionals working on big websites. (To unlock the 500 urls that you can only check in the free version.)
Tips: If you are already using the premium version of ahrefs please do not spend money on Screaming Frog Premium. The bulk export of site audit in ahrefs give way more data and is not limited to 500urls.
4. Ubersuggest for Keyword Research (Freemium)
Keyword research is the most important part of On-page SEO. Nowadays, free keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner aren’t enough for SEO professionals.
Ubersuggest, rebranded by Neil Patel, is one of the best keyword research tool for many reasons. And the interface is very intuitive and user-friendly.
When you type a keyword into ubersuggest, it immediately gives you a list of all competitors that are ranking for this keyword. When you click on each website, you get important information and metrics on your competitor’s webpage.
You will also get keyword suggestions that are related to your keyword. You can sort and filter through the suggestions based on search volume, SEO difficulty, Paid difficulty, etc.
All of these metrics help you choose the most suitable keyword that is perfect for your website or brand.
5. Serprobot for Keyword Position Monitoring (Freemium)
Serprobot is a free seo tool to check your Google ranking. It is a very useful free tool to use if you just want to see how your website is ranking for the keywords you are focusing on.
You can also see region-based ranking which is pretty cool. You can get more features by signing up for a premium account which costs very little.
6. Majestic SEO for Backlink Analysis (Freemium)
Majestic’s SEO tool is not the best tool out there or free of problems. But you will get what you pay for. It’s a very cheap SEO tool when compared to SEMrush.
If you have a very tight SEO budget, then you can surely use this tool. The features you will get include- backlink analysis on competitors, domain analysis, rank tracker, etc.
You can get a sneak peek at the features of this tool by creating a free majestic account and if you need to know more about Majestic SEO, here is the 8 Tips to Make the Most Out of It, a great post from RANA TARAKJI.
7. Google Search Console for Organic Traffic Analysis (Free)
No matter what kind of an SEO professional you are, you will always need Google’s useful SEO and analytics tools. Google search console (GSC) is another very useful free tool you have to use.
It helps you monitor and maintain the performance of your website in Google’s search results. It also has a very intuitive user interface, so basically anyone can use this tool.
8. Google Analytics for Monitoring your Traffic (Free)
Google Analytics is the most popular traffic analyzing tool used by all kinds of professionals.
It is a very useful tool that helps you understand and analyze the traffic that is coming to your website. You can improve your business strategy by understanding your audience.
Google Analytics will help you understand your audience by providing you with a lot of demographic information about them. You can learn about information like age, gender, location, salary, interests of your target audience.
9. Site Liner to avoid Duplicate Content
Let us tell you the truth, Google doesn’t like duplicate content. And if Google finds duplicated content within your website, it will punish your search engine results.
Site Liner is a great tool that helps you determine duplicate content, broken links, etc. within your website. It will help you stay away from creating the same type of content over and over again.
This is a highly recommended tool for SEO professionals
10. GT Metrix for your Website Performance (Freemium)
GT Metrix is a useful tool that helps you regularly monitor the performance of your website.
It is very different from the other website performance tools because of its extra features. You can get a performance report on all of the webpages of your website within moments.
The performance report includes page speed reports across various types of devices. The premium subscription of the tool also gives you access to their developer toolkit which will give you more control over your website’s performance.
I hope this top 10 SEO tools will help you boost your SEO campaigns performances. But again if you think I missed some must-used SEO tools feel free to let me know in the comment.
