The number of SEO tools has really grown in the last few years to the point where even agency owners find it hard to pick the best software for their business. To answer that question, we reached out to well-respected SEO agencies to find out what tools they use to run their businesses and compiled their responses in this blog for you.
No matter whether you’re looking for a tool for an agency or for your business, this article collects some of the best software on the market.
Interestingly, not all the tools are directly related to SEO. Read on to find out these hidden gems as well as the core SEO tools that power these agencies.
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To help you make the best of this resource, here are the tools most commonly mentioned by the SEO experts below:
- Google Analytics: Allows you to track and monitor online traffic to your website. This tool has insights such as referrals (where did viewers come from?), number of visits, bounce rate and more.
- Google Search Console: Previously called Google Webmaster Tools, this is a collection of tools to help monitor website performance in the Google search index.
- MOZ
Offers inbound marketing analytics and high-quality data to assist with marketing efforts. They created tools for SEO marketing, local search marketing, content marketing and Followerwonk for Twitter. - SEMRush
Provides tools for finding ideal SEO keywords, and sells analytics reports such as organic research, keyword research and more. - Screaming Frog
A locally installed tool that allows you to crawl, analyze and audit a website. - Majestic
This Link Intelligence database tool shows how all websites link to each other, with detailed information about how different sites interact and compare.
The tools above were mentioned most often throughout the article, but are by no means a full representation of all the useful tools these SEO experts discussed. Be sure to read the full article to learn more about the important tools that run their agencies.
Looking to improve agency operations? Here’s another great tool.
Download our free agency proposal template.
John E Lincoln, Co-Founder and CEO of Ignite Visibility
Ignite Visibility was named the top Internet marketing company in California and has a talented team of SEO professionals. In addition to SEO, they are also experts in social media, pay-per-click (PPC), conversion rate optimization, web design and development, and online reputation management. They’ve been featured on Forbes, Search Engine Round Table, Marketing Land and the Search Engine Journal.
“We rely heavily on a few core pieces of software, it is true. But really, the most important asset we have is people. Our team and their knowledge of how to use these SEO management tools makes all the difference. That being said, the core tools we use are Basecamp, SEM Rush, Screaming Frog, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Woobox and Google Search Console.
“Now, we use over 100 tools here, so these are just the most frequently used. But each is critical to our success. Basecamp for staying organized, SEM Rush for competitive analysis and rank tracking, Google Analytics for custom dashboards (and much more), Hootsuite for social, Woobox for running contests and Google Search Console for diagnosing website SEO issues. These tools all have a major impact on our client success.”
Brad Shorr, Director of B2B Marketing at Straight North
Straight North is an Internet marketing firm that focuses on making every click count and they manage everything from PPC to email campaigns to SEO. They’ve been featured on Forbes, NBC News, Smashing Magazine, Moz and Salesforce, and have generated more than 200,000 validated leads since 2014.
“The most important software tools we use are for project management and phone call tracking. Our SEO, PPC, and display ad campaigns are very complex, as are our Web design projects. Without solid project management, we’d be duplicating effort, missing steps, and generally operating inefficiently. The PM software allows us to give clients the best results for their marketing investment and helps our bottom line. Phone tracking is crucial because, without it, we would not be able to capture all the lead generation data from our campaigns. Phone leads can be the best leads of all, and would be invisible if we relied only on Google Analytics for campaign data.”
Robert Fisher, President of drumBEAT Marketing
drumBEAT Marketing offers web design, video production and more with all of their services coming together for productive SEO and innovative web design. With a team in the UK and Texas, this Internet marketing firm serves a wide audience as a small, personal team.
“In terms of software tools, we use quite a few:
- SEMrush.com
- Majestic.com
- Moz.com
- Moz Local
- BrightLocal
- ahrefs.com
- Slickplan
- UXpin
- ActiveCampaign
- Megalytic
- Screaming Frog
“I am sure I missed at least 5 or 6 others.
“Some of the software is used for monitoring and for assessing websites, web pages, etc. An example would be ahrefs might be used to check links on a new or prospective client. Majestic might be used to monitor rankings on specific clients. Moz is used for both of these and for other metrics. Screaming Frog is great for crawling a site to learn issues or plan for changes, etc. We use Slickplan for developing sitemaps over time on new development projects.
“Most of the software for SEO/SEM today has the ability to pull in the data from Google Analytics and that is a big help in getting quality data.
“Software like Megalytic is great for preparing detailed reports without having to reinvent the wheel. Of all the reporting software we have used, Megalytic is the best SEO reporting software due to the tremendous versatility it allows for.
“Other software is used for design, project management, payroll, processing, accounting, and CRM, etc. As a marketing firm, life would be much more difficult without the SaaS I have listed here.”
Bhanu Ahluwalia, Co-founder of Rank Math
Rank Math is a WordPress plugin for SEO that helps brands optimize content and rank better. It gives customers complete control over their website’s on-page SEO.
“Here at Rank Math, we use a range of software that ensures our efficiency, productivity, and accuracy. One such example – in addition to our very own suite of tools for WordPress SEO – is Ahrefs. Their intuitive interface matched with their accurate data and fast servers are what allow us to keep track of performance in search as well as our competitors. And when it comes to technical SEO, in case you haven’t heard, we’re obsessed with developing software that helps us, as well as more than 70,000 others, stay ahead of their competitors. Obviously, we use our own WordPress SEO plugin, Rank Math, on all of our websites and this is what helps us personally as well as our writers ensure each post is optimized and is properly configured with the structured data it needs, as required.”
Melissa Popp, Operations Manager at Altitude
Altitude SEO has a transparent SEO process that follows Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and other search engine guidelines such as Bing and Yahoo! This makes it easy to be found no matter what search engine your potential customers are using. Altitude SEO provides site tuneups, assistance with Google penalties, HTML optimization, web design, speed optimization and more.
“We use several different tools to help run our agency, including Basecamp, Hubstaff, and Slack. We use Basecamp to manage our client accounts to include what we’re working on, progress on projects, and to handle issues our clients have. We use Hubstaff to manage our own time and productivity, along with billing our clients on an hourly basis where needed. Slack is used to manage internal communication; it’s easy to use and follow throughout the day so everyone in our agency is on the same page.”
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Ajaz Mirza, Group Project Manager of SEOValley
SEOValley specializes in search engine optimization, local SEO, web development, social media marketing, conversion optimization, analytics and SEO tracking, and online SEO management. With operational teams located in Bhopal, Bangalore, Glasgow & Sydney, SEOValley operates on a global scale since their launch 14 years ago.
“We use several tools, the ones used most frequently are Google Analytics, Google Search Console (Previously, Google Webmaster Tools), Majestic (Previously, Majestic SEO), Screaming Frog SEO Spider, SEMRush.com. We constantly test new technologies/tools but throughout these years we’ve found the above-listed tools to be absolutely indispensable for an SEO agency, like us. While these are the most popular ones out there, below listed are few less popular but highly valuable:
- Down For Everyone or Just Me: See if the site is down, quickly.
- GA Checker: Verify if any of the site pages are missing Google Analytics code.
- Bulk HTTP Header Response Checker & Comparison Tool: Bulk Server Header Checker
- Moz Keyword Difficulty Research Tool: Helps in assessing keyword competition.”
Rebecca Stickler, Content Marketer at WebpageFX
WebpageFX is a full-service marketing agency that offers SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media marketing, and website design and development. With 270% growth in a 3 year period and more than 30 new employees hired, WebpageFX was honored with inclusion in the 2015 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America.
“At WebpageFX, our entire team uses Basecamp. From client work to new hire training to company improvements, everything we do is organized into individual projects. This makes it easy for everyone to keep track of their daily tasks as well as their ongoing responsibilities and long-term goals.
It’s also great for collaboration, which is essential for communicating between teams. As a full-service Internet marketing agency, we have teams for Internet marketing, design, development, outreach, and copywriting. In many cases, we’ll have someone from each of those teams working together on a single client project. With Basecamp, we can be sure that everyone – including the client – is always on the same page.”
Shenna McNamara, Marketing Manager at Inflexion Interactive
Inflexion Interactive is a digital design and marketing agency that services mid-sized and Fortune 1000 businesses. They were recognized as an Official Honoree by the Webby Awards and was named one of New Jersey’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies.
“Mavenlink: Platform for client communications and campaign management. Enables multiple team members, internally, externally and clients, to collaborate on a campaign with each other. Includes detailed task and time management functionality for keeping campaigns on track.
Raven Tools: Platform for aggregating performance data from multiple sources for campaign analysis and reporting including search, advertising and social. It enables us to analyze campaign data effectively and efficiently produce dashboards for clients.
Other tools we use: Slack, Google Analytics, Google Drive, SEM Rush, Moz”
Michael Ramirez, CEO at SearchRPM
SearchRPM helps businesses of all sizes improve their site’s online visibility using SEO best practices. Based in Austin, TX and led by Founder and CEO Michael Ramirez, SearchRPM makes it easy for businesses to learn and apply SEO to their web properties.
“Running a search business requires a full suite of tools that allow SearchRPM to meet, collaborate and execute time sensitive deliverables. Some of these tools include Google Hangouts, Quickbooks, Basecamp, Google Apps for Work and Dropbox.”
Sean Si, CEO at SEO Hacker
Sean Si is the CEO and Founder of SEO Hacker. A start-up, data analysis and urgency junkie who spends his time inspiring young entrepreneurs through talks and seminars. SEO Hacker began in 2010 when Sean self-taught himself about the industry in his spare time after work. They have since founded the SEO Hacker School, which offers courses in search engine optimization, copywriting and more.
“I use a host of software which you can find in our SEO toolbox. They each have different purposes not least of which is rank tracking (Accuranker), time tracking (Hubstaff), customer feedback gathering (Qeryz), link outreach (Buzzstream) and prospecting (Inkybee), project management (Pivotal Tracker), site speed improvement (Maxcdn), backlink analysis (Cognitive SEO), user activity capture (Inspectlet), and so on.
These tools are what makes SEO Hacker well… SEO Hacker. It helps us deliver premium quality service to our clients. Of course, at the end of the day, they are just tools. It really depends on how you use them that makes the difference.”
Michael Cleary, CEO at Huemor
Huemor is a New York web design agency that creates memorable digital experiences. They’ve worked with NBC Sports and the BP Group and have earned top awards and recognition from The Webby Awards, CSS Design Awards, and Top Interactive Agencies.
“At Huemor, we use software that aids and improves our productivity and efficiency. Invisionapp is great for prototyping and iterating quickly as well as getting better client feedback. We also use Productiv.io to track our working times to give clients more accurate estimates and better manage ourselves. We also leverage Productiv’s board style task/ticketing feature to expedite our QA process and stay on top of our to-dos.”
Kelly Shelton, Marketing VP at Boostability
Boostability offers SEO services for small businesses, franchises, resellers and media outlets. Their management team has 40+ years of combined Internet marketing experience and they developed proprietary SEO software technology to drive high client value and large customer management. They also ranked number 1 of more than 1,000 SEO companies on Greatagencies.com.
“Linkresearchtools.com: We use this tool primarily when accounts are under performing. It helps us perform important link audits.
SEMRush: We use SEMRush to help us with keyword research and competitive analysis.
Google Search Console and Analytics: We use these to measure the performance of our customers accounts.
Launchpad: This is our own technology platform that we built to help us with the following: 1) It serves as an SEO Pricing Tool – This helps our partners and clients come up with the right price based on their goals, competition, and budget. 2) Customer Work Flow Management – This allows us to segment tasks, manage campaigns and monitor performance. 3) Customer Reporting — Customers and partners can see the work we are doing and how it is performing.”
What SEO agency software are you using?
If we missed any useful tools that you’d like to see on here, let us know in the comments below!
We hope this post provided some useful insight about SEO agency software, whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or an individual who wants to learn more about the industry.
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