Compare the Best SEO Software and Web-Tool Suites
There’s no search engine optimization software program or web-tool suite that’s going to be able to perform miracles. Even, if it may seem like they do at time. Nothing substitutes getting your hands dirty with testing and hard work. However, SEO software can sure make your life a lot easier, save you some serious man-hours, and probably teach a few things you didn’t know. That’s what it has done for me! If you’re serious about SEO, then I suggest you invest a little bit of money into some solid software or subscribe online to use some professional web-tools.
These reviews should help you compare them and decide which is the best solution for you.
Comparison Table of the Top Web-Tools and Desktop Suites
| Optimization Advice | Site Auditing | Backlink Analysis | Keyword Research | Rank Tracking | Starting Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop Suites | ||||||
| Market Samurai | n/a | n/a | Fair | Great | Good | $97 |
| SEO PowerSuite | Good | Great | Good | Fair | Great | $249 |
| Web CEO | Good | Great | Good | Fair | Great | $499 |
| Web-based Tools | ||||||
| Web CEO | Great | Good | Fair | Good | Good | $49 /mo |
| SEOmoz | Great | Great | Great | Good | Good | $99 /mo |
| Raven | Fair | Fair | Good | Great | Great | $99 /mo |
One important thing to remember is that not all subscription levels or software versions support all features. It is recommended that your review each tool individually and sign-up for the free trials whenever possible to ensure they are capable of fulfilling your specific needs.
SEO Software: Pros and Cons
| Suite | Pros / Strengths | Cons / Weaknesses |
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| Market Samurai (desktop) | ||
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| Market Samurai is a great tool especially for people with a limited budget. It does a great job helping you identify keyword opportunities and comparing key aspects of your top SERP competitors. And although those are the two primary tools I use regularly, it does provide several other helpful modules. The two key components it doesn’t offer is a website optimization module or website auditor. And, the backlink analyzer doesn’t include insight into which links or nofollow. Also, there is no scheduler so you can’t schedule things like checking your search rankings on a weekly. You’ll have to run search engine ranking checks manually. However, at this price this an awesome tool for anyone looking to get their feet wet and even for experienced SEOs. I recommend this tool for individual site owners, in-house SEOs, small businesses, bloggers, freelance writers, authors and similar. Updates are always free and you can buy it for a mere $97 if you purchase it within the trial period. Read the full Market Samurai review, check for the latest Market Samurai promo code, or get started with your 12 day free trial | ||
| SEO PowerSuite (desktop) | ||
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| This is a good overall tool that’s great for tracking your progress, managing your client projects and optimizing several website. To get full access to the software you will only have to pay a one-time fee; however, after 6 months you will have to pay a small fee to get the latest knowledge base updates via their Live! Plan. Give it a try by downloading the free trial version. | ||
| Web CEO (desktop) | ||
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| WebCEO is one of the oldest desktop SEO software programs available today. It is a very well-rounded program that provides management tools for doing just about anything related to search engine optimization. My only gripes are the backlink analysis and website auditors. The backlink analysis tool doesn’t provide nofollow information and is limited to Yahoo! Site Explorers 1000 backlinks. And the site auditor as well as some other tools can sometimes take way too long to run. However, this is a good overall tool and great for tracking your progress, managing client projects and optimizing as many websites as you need. Although you will have full access to the software after paying the initial fee, after 3 months you will have to pay a small fee to get their latest knowledge base updates. Check for the latest Web CEO promo code or get started with your 15 day free trial. | ||
| Web CEO (online) | ||
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| Currently Web CEO Online covers the basics of just about every aspect of SEO. Not nearly as comprehensive or detailed as the desktop version, but it still does a good job of covering the basics. What makes them stand out from other services is their to-do checklists which walks you through optimizing and promoting your web projects step-by-step. This makes them attractive to beginners. Although they’ve integrated Google’s keyword research to tool it isn’t very helpful beyond that in helping you identify keyword opportunities. Also, there isn’t much in the way of backlink analysis. The silver plan starts at $49/mo, and you can get started for free with a $50 Web CEO coupon. | ||
| SEOmoz (online) | ||
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| SEOmoz’s tools are great because they are for SEOs by experienced SEOs. Their tools (as a suite) are by far the best at reporting important on-page optimization advice, relevant site-audit information and backlinks details, of all the tools I’m familiar with. They also recently released and advanced SERP analysis tool and unlock a ton of other great features on their free search engine optimization toolbar for paid subscribers. The only area I felt they slightly lacked was not allowing very much control over some of the automated tasks such as when reports are run. And starting at $100/mo it can run on the expensive side for novices, small companies or individuals who only run one or two websites. However, they do offer a great community resources and training material for people looking to learn SEO, which can help offset the cost for those companies. Plus, newbies can easily learn what’s really important for ranking by using their tools, rather than trying to cheap elsewhere and possibly getting bad advice. You can read the SEOmoz PRO review or start your 30 day free trial. | ||
| Raven (online) | ||
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| Raven offers a great set of web tools by taking some of the best niche tools available and providing access to them through their independent interface. I like the navigational layout of their sites and number of unique tools available. However, the two major areas they are definitely lacking is site auditing, and search engine optimization and analysis tips. Because of that, this tool won’t be very helpful for someone who isn’t very familiar with SEO already. But, I imagine its just a matter of time before they improve in these areas because they’ve got the basics started. A slightly enhanced Raven will make them a force to be reckoned with because they’ve got just about everything covered including key social media monitoring tools. Plans start a $99/mo, and you can also get a 30 day free trial. | ||
Although I did my best to give you a well thought-out review of each of these products, there are truly only a couple of them I need to use regularly. And, I have my own ingnorances and biases, so if you disagree with me or know of a tool that has improved recently, please don’t hesitate to drop me a message so I can check it out.
Also, there are several other notable SEO software programs and web suites that I am not as familiar with or haven’t used in a long time, so I didn’t feel it was appropriate to compare them to the rest just yet. I do plan on reviewing these other well-known search engine optimization and marketing suites in the near future: AdvancedWebRanking (AWR), DIYSEO, SEOElite, iBusinessPromoter (IBP), SheerSEO, HubSpot, Searchmetrics Suite, SEObook and Traffic Travis.
If you know of another desktop software program or web suite that you think should make it on this list, please don’t hesitate to tell me about it.
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