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| Best for… | |
| Overall SEO |  |
| Keyword Tracking | |
| Backlink Tracking |  |
If you’re familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you know how ever-changing and evolving the industry is. While anyone in this field needs to stay up on the latest industry trends, the most important part of the job is tracking and strategizing your SEO plan. Trying to do this without an SEO tool is a fool’s errand.
This comparison looks at the leading SEO software options and distinguishes what sets them apart from one another. You’ll notice that these solutions have free trials, but after that, there is a monthly fee involved. While there are free SEO tools out there, any experienced online marketer knows that to find a quality solution, you’re going to have to pay for it.
Article Overview
- What To Consider
- Best SEO Tools By Category
- Other SEO Tool Reviews
- An Overview Of SEO Tools (Video)
- What About Keyword Research And Trends?
What To Consider
It’s important to keep in mind what you’re looking for in your SEO marketing before choosing a tool. Are you the webmaster for one website? Are you an SEO service provider with dozens of clients? Do you just need a keyword tracker or extensive competitor analysis?
How about an easier way to do keyword research? Or maybe you have a great keyword strategy and just need to focus on backlinks. There are different tools for different goals and some tools that try to combine every possible SEO strategy.
Best SEO Tools
We’ve chosen three SEO tools that set themselves apart from the competition based on what they’re best for.
Best SEO Tool Overall: SEMrush Review
It’s always a concern when it seems like one product is trying to do too many things at once. This was my hesitation when I first learned about SEMRush years ago. But after a few years of daily use, I’m comfortable saying that SEMrush does a little bit of everything, and does it all well.
The backbone of SEMrush is the Analytics Reports. From this tool, you can research search data, traffic and competitors for a domain or a keyword. If you are into paid advertising, you can get a deep look into what keywords your competitors are bidding on and how much traffic they are generating from their efforts.
Piggybacking on all of this research is SEMrush’s backlink analysis. We are customers of SEMrush and use most features of the service in our SEO marketing.
SEMrush is constantly adding new features. Some of its latest additions include:
- Traffic Jet — an AI-powered tool that fully automates traffic acquisition and gives you instant access to hundreds of premium traffic sources including Google Search & Display, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Quora, Reddit and hundreds of other advertising platforms
- Social Media Ads Tool — allows you to create, launch, manage and optimize ads on Facebook and Instagram
- Improved level of accuracy in Traffic Analytics
- In-depth Custom Market Analysis reports
Pros | Cons |
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Here is an overview of SEMrush’s interface:
Pricing
SEMrush offers a 7-day money back guarantee on all plans. The following prices are monthly. You get discounts if you pay annually.
| Pro | Guru | Business | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $99.95 | $199.95 | $399.95 | Must Contact |
| Reports Per Day | 3,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | Must Contact |
| Projects | 5 | 50 | 200 | Must Contact |
| Keywords | 500 | 1,500 | 5,000 | Must Contact |
| Scheduled PDF Reports | 5 | 20 | 50 | Must Contact |
SEMrush also provides custom plans if there isn’t a stock product that works perfectly for you. For example, if you just want to add another session (simultaneous login) or user, you can pay for this a la carte.
Coupon
Read Our In-Depth SEMrush Review
Best Keyword Tracker: AuthorityLabs Review
AuthorityLabs is your go-to tool for daily search engine ranking tracking. The local tracking feature (you can filter by country, city or zip code), is a great tool for those targeting local areas. Other features include competitor tracking and mobile rankings.
Another unique feature is the “Now Provided” report. By linking your account with Google Analytics, you’ll be able to easily see what terms you are ranking for and can implement those terms into AuthorityLabs with one click. If you have multiple domains covering the same topic, you can save time with domain groups — a unique feature in our findings. We have used AuthorityLabs in the past to track keywords by monetary value.
New additions to AuthorityLabs include:
- Data API is newly redesigned for user-friendliness
- Ability to collect custom data points about specific SERP features
- Can track product rankings on Amazon, Walmart, Targets and more
Pros | Cons |
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Here’s a look at the AuthorityLabs Interface:
Pricing
AuthorityLabs offers a 30-day free trial.
| Plus | Pro | Pro Plus | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $49 | $99 | $225 | $450 (Starting) |
| Keywords | 250 | 1,000 | 2,500 | 5,000+ |
| Domains | 50 | 100 | 300 | Unlimited |
Read Our In-Depth AuthorityLabs Review
Best Backlink Tracker: Ahrefs Review
Ahrefs offers among the best backlink analysis available among all SEO tools. Not only is its backlink database massive compared to other tools, but Ahrefs’ competitor analysis is also among the best.
Another top feature is its Content Explorer, which searches the web for the most popular content for any keyword or topic. Other key features include SERP overview and position history, related keyword ideas and the difficulty level. Ahrefs takes some time to learn, but its results are worth the learning curve.
New additions to Ahrefs include:
- Easy tracking for ‘rel=UGC’ and ‘rel=sponsored’ links
- Total monthly organic traffic in API
- Improved user-friendly dashboard
- Combined projects manager for their Dashboard, Rank Tracker and Site Audit tools
- See the paid search history for any keyword
- 3 new ways to group search results in Content Explorer: by authors, websites and languages
- Access the Organic keywords report for massive sites like YouTube or Amazon
Pros | Cons |
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Here is a look at Ahref’s interface:
Pricing
Ahrefs offers a 7-day trial for $7 for its Lite and Standard plans. You can save 20% off the following prices if you pay annually.
| Lite | Standard | Advanced | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $99 | $179 | $399 | $999 |
| Number of Users | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Campaigns | 5 | 10 | 25 | 100 |
| Tracked Keywords | 300 | 1,000 | 4,000 | 10,000 |
Other SEO Tool Reviews
While these services didn’t crack our “best of” awards, they are all worthy of a look if you are serious about search engine optimization.
Long Tail Pro | Majestic | Mangools | Moz | Raven | SpyFu | Ubersuggest
Still not finding the company you’re looking for? Check out our overflow review page, where we’ve got even more services covered.
Long Tail Pro Review
Long Tail Pro’s core areas are keyword research, competitor analysis and rank checking, but its main strength is as a keyword ranking tool. Long Tail Pro pulls keywords from Google’s Keyword Planner and uses a unique Keyword Competitiveness algorithm to calculate each keyword’s ranking potential (on a 1-100 scale).
This tool can save you a ton of time by quickly analyzing the top 10 results in Google for each of your keywords. It also checks SERP data points in your meta tags, domain and page authority and much more. Its new Rank Value tool gives you an estimated monetary value, including income from AdWords and Amazon Affiliates, of ranking in the #1 spot for any given keyword.
Pros | Cons |
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Here is a screenshot of Long Tail Pro:
Pricing
Long Tail Pro offers a 7-day free trial , a 10-day money back guarantee and 30% off if you pay annually.
| Starter | Pro | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $37 | $67 | $147 |
| Simultaneous Users | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Daily Keyword Lookups | 800 | 2,500 | 6,000 |
| Tracked Keywords | 30 | 200 | 1,000 |
Majestic Review
Majestic (formally MajesticSEO) is laser-focused as a leading backlink history checker. As you probably expect, with this tool you can track referring domains and backlinks to any URL. Where does Majestic start to differentiate itself? The detailed reporting of new and lost backlinks and anchor text reports. We are customers of Majestic and use it as our primary backlink tracker.
The feature we are most impressed by is Majestic’s custom Trust Flow and Citation Flow scores. Trust flow is a method of looking at a site’s link profile and comparing that profile to other websites with a similar profile. If those sites are quality, the Trust Flow is higher. If those sites are not quality, the Trust Flow is lower. Citation flow looks at the number of links and the quality of them and assigns a score.
In 2019, Majestic launched Link Context, a new tool that gives you insights into what content surrounds every backlink you check, including text, other internal and external links, images, whether the main link is an editorial or directory link and much more.
Pros | Cons |
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Here’s a look at Majestic’s interface:
Pricing
All plans include a 7-day money-back guarantee.
| Lite | Pro | API | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $49.99 | $99.99 | $399.99 |
| Annual Price | $499.99 | $999.99 | $3,999.99 |
| Number of Users | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Detailed Reports | 60 | 300 | 950 |
| Analyzable Links | 1 Million | 20 Million | 100 Million |
Mangools Review
Mangools is one of the most affordable, high-quality suites of SEO tools you can find, making it ideal for bloggers and small businesses. You also get all of its features with every plan, unlike some other premium tools. Its 5-tool suite includes KWFinder, LinkMiner, SiteProfiler, SERPChecker and SERPWatcher.
Its strongest tool is the KWFinder, which helps you find your ideal long tail keywords with low SEO difficulty and high search volume. For every keyword, you get details about trends, SERP results, search volume, difficulty and cost per click. You can also enter any competitor’s domain or URL to see the best keywords they rank for. Their database is 1.6 billion strong and growing by 20 million every month.
Mangools SERPChecker is also a powerhouse tool. You can select from metrics by Mangools, Moz or Majestic to determine the website authority of your competitors and discover ways to outrank them. SERPWatcher lets you track your rankings daily in any location and on any device.
Pros | Cons |
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Here’s a look at Mangools’ interface:
Price
Mangools has a 10-day free trial and a 48-hour money-back guarantee on all plans. They also offer a 40% discount on the following pricing if you pay annually.
| Basic | Premium | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $49 | $69 | $129 |
| Simultaneous Users | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Keyword Suggestions | 200 | 700 | 700 |
| Tracked Keywords | 200 | 700 | 1,500 |
| Site Lookups | 20 | 70 | 150 |
| SERP Lookups | 100 | 500 | 1,200 |
Moz Review
Moz is a known leader in the SEO world. Its blog is consistently one of the best resources for online marketers. There are a handful of Moz products available, but we’re focusing on its most popular product, Moz Pro.
The core competency of Moz Pro is tracking keyword rankings, but you also get access to Moz’s Link Explorer — a powerful link profile analysis. Another fantastic feature is a site crawl that identifies possible SEO issues, similar to SEMrush’s Site Audit.
Pros | Cons |
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Here is a look at Moz Pro’s keyword tracking interface:
Pricing
Moz Pro offers a 30-day free trial. You can also save 20% off the following monthly prices if you pay annually.
| Standard | Medium | Large | Premium | |
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| Price Per Month | $99 | $179 | $249 | $599 |
| Tracked Sites | 5 | 10 | 25 | 50 |
| Tracked Keywords | 300 | 900 | 1,900 | 4,500 |
Raven Tools Review
Raven Tools’ main focus is on custom reporting, so if you are an agency that represents a lot of clients, this could be a good fit. Raven started as an agency more than 10 years ago and couldn’t find an online marketing solution that had everything it needed, so it created its own.
Its drag-and-drop reporting allows you to provide an all-encompassing report for whatever your client desires. Raven Tools has a site auditor, keyword ranking reporting and a link checker. You can create white-label reports with performance metrics from Google Analytics, Search Console, AdWords, Facebook, Bing Ads and more.
Pros | Cons |
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Here’s a look at Raven’s site auditor:
Pricing
Raven Tools offer a 14-day free trial. You can save up to 30% if you pay annually. All plans offer unlimited branded reports.
| Start | Grow | Thrive | Lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price Per Month | $109 | $199 | $299 | $479 |
| Domains/Campaigns | 20 | 80 | 160 | Unlimited |
| Users | 4 | 8 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Monthly Page Crawls | 400,000 | 2 million | 5 million | 7 million |
SpyFu Review
SpyFu’s focus is competitive research for SEO and PPC. You can find out what your competitors are doing by seeing which keywords they buy, which ads they run and which organic keywords they rank for. What stands out? Not only do you see this competitive information now, but there’s a 12-year history provided. SpyFu also offers keyword tracking on Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Pros | Cons |
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Here is a look at SpyFu’s research tool:
Pricing
All SpyFu plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
| Basic | Professional | Team | |
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| Price Per Month | $39 | $78 (1st month is $39) | $299 |
| Annual Price | $396 | $696 | $2,388 |
| Weekly Tracked Keyword Rankings | 5,000 | 15,000 | 40,000 |
| Sales Leads & Domain Contacts | 250 | 500 | 2,000 |
| Historical Data | 6 months | 10+ years | 10+ years |
| API Access |  | | |
| Custom Brand Reports | | |
Ubersuggest Review
Ubersuggest is a free keyword suggestion tool led by internet guru Neil Patel. It’s an easy-to-use way to find keywords you won’t get from Google’s Keyword Planner.
This site also gives you access to a free SEO analyzer report and a free A/B testing significance calculator. You can also schedule a consultation with Neil Patel. Sure, what you get from this site is basic compared to our other services reviewed here, but, hey, it’s entirely free.
Pros | Cons |
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Here’s a look at Ubersuggest in action:
Pricing
Not seeing the company you’re looking for in our review? Check out our overflow reviews to see if it’s covered there.
SEO Tools Overview Video
View this video for a quick visual recap of SEO tools and how they can help your business.
What About Keyword Research And Trends?
Now that you have SEO software to track your results, you first need to get your top terms up there. Learn about keyword research and trend analysis, to find out which of your terms may experience growth, which are merely seasonal, and which are expected to decline. Then take a look at our keyword tracker reviews so you can keep track of them all and set alerts.
After all, why optimize on a term that won’t be searched for in a few years? Conversely, optimize now on a low-competition term that’s barely searched for, with the insight that it’s going to blow up in the near future to get a nice leg up on your competition.
If you want to dive deeper, read our guides on the best tools for backlink checking and SEO audits.
What’s your go-to SEO tool?
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Both SEO tools have their own pros and cons. Ahrefs is best SEO tool to find quality backlinks, while Semrush is best for content ideas, keyword search of both competitor and own website.
Never tried majestic
Great comparison, seems like SEMRUSH and AHREFS are the two leaders, however at the end of the day, knowing data is only half the battle. Having a site strong enough like ours certainly helps…
I’ve used Spyfu and Ahrefs. Ahrefs is a much better solution but Spyfy should be noteworthy due to its price. It’s nearly half the cost (or less) than Ahrefs or SEMrush and the tools are similar. For a beginner, perhaps Spyfu would work best.
Power Suggest Pro is a highly acclaimed keyword and market research tool which has received numerous positive reviews from internet entrepreneurs and marketers who have found the software to be powerful yet extremely easy-to-use and more importantly, a valuable tool for their businesses.
Hi
Great content. Looks like the same people own all this SEO tools? I used Semrush, a great tool but in Ireland, it shows the wrong ranking. You will be working your arse off to reach the first position only to find that you are on the first position for 6 months. Travis is great as well. I am thinking to try Moz
Hi Alex, these companies are run independently and offer their own products. The tools we use most are SEMRush and Majestic, but every publisher or website owner has their own favorite mix, so we encourage you to try them all!
Interesting comparisons and a nice list of tools. Thank you.
SEM Rush and Moz are my go-to tools and resources when it comes to SEO. I couldn’t survive without them!
I have been using SEMRush for the past year or so and I find a new helpful tool every time I am in there. And, wow, the data it provides is invaluable in optimizing my website. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
I am a beginner in seo , through your post I got idea of tools in seo . Thanks for the info
We search a Seo Tool but from what i discovered here the price are to high. I don’t understand exactly why they are running this level of price.
I’m using SERPstat after I switched from LTP. SEMrush has long been my plan B, albeit it’s pricier. I’ve grown to learn that there’s no way I’m buying a keyword research tool without API.
Hey George, would you mind explaning why you wouldn’t want one without API access? Thanks.
I am very impressed by your detailed review. I’m looking for tools that can help me manage my company’s SEO and it seems while there are dozens of free products out there, you definitely pay for what you get. I’ve also found that some tools are really good at one particular thing but then you can’t afford to buy multiple services (yet alone keep up with them all). Based on your experience it seems like SEMRush is the way to go as far as a one stop shop. Will do the free trial and check it out, thanks!
A week ago I read another useful overview for most interesting SEO tools on Upmixed and as per it Semrush,ahrefs,Moz,SEO Powersuite and Cognitive SEO are the most advanced complex tools for an average user.
My personal choice is MoZ and I’m using it for about two years now.The only drawback is the pricing.