Factors to be Borne in Mind while Selecting an SEO Tool

Getting a website on the first page of Google isn’t an easy task. It involves a strong SEO strategy and a careful selection of SEO Tools to help your website get all the attention and visitors. SEO tools help your website throughout its journey from attracting quality traffic, retaining it, getting business from it and making decisions based on the behavior of visitors on your website.Earlier Internet marketers used Blackhat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaking, spamdexing and purchasing backlinks to rank higher in Google but since Google has started penalizing such malpractices, certain effective tools and specialized personnel in internet marketing field are needed so as to get your site on the first page of Google’s SERPs using Search engine optimization services. However, there is a certain list of factors you must consider before selecting the tools that suit your business requirements. These are Getting a website on the first page of Google isn’t an easy task. It involves a strong SEO strategy and a careful selection of SEO Tools to help your website get all the attention and visitors. SEO tools help your website throughout its journey from attracting quality traffic, retaining it, getting business from it and making decisions based on the behavior of visitors on your website.

Earlier Internet marketers used Blackhat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaking, spamdexing and purchasing backlinks to rank higher in Google but since Google has started penalizing such malpractices, certain effective tools and specialized personnel in internet marketing field are needed so as to get your site on the first page of Google’s SERPs using Search engine optimization services. However, there is a certain list of factors you must consider before selecting the tools that suit your business requirements. These are:

1. Budget and requirement

The first thing you must keep in mind while selecting an SEO tool is your budget and business requirements. There are numerous SEO tools present in the market but you need not have an access to all of them. A mix of both free and paid tools is always an efficient way to get among the top ranking websites. Find out your requirements and then plan out which tools will maximize your profits at minimal costs. For example, you might need SEO Tools for- SEO, Keyword Research, Marketing Automation, Checking Page speed, Indexing your site, Link Analysis, Analysing Competition, Analyzing your Traffic, SEO Audit report, Rank Tracking, Trending Topics etc. After listing out the key needs of your business, select the Optimization Tools that you find profitable for your business and suits your budget.

For Example

Let’s say you have to perform SEO Audit for your Website and your budget is moderate. The two best options you are considering are MOZ and SEMrush. Both provide quality SEO Audit but Moz charges a bit higher to fit your budget whereas SEMrush is charging moderately for the same service. In that case, You should go for SEMrush as it fulfills your requirement and at the same time is available at a lower cost.

2. Streamlined Features

Next, Seo tasks are many and one can easily get confused, so one should opt such an SEO tool that is able to perform various tasks in one place. An SEO tool must be able to streamline the processes into one toolkit. Tasks like posting on social media, generating XML sitemap, tracking the traffic on search engines, performing website audit, all these features can be streamlined into one toolkit for a better understanding of various aspects of optimization in a simpler way at one place.

For example

All in One SEO Pack tool is used for complete SEO check-up of your website. It has all the features of SEO Yoast plus some additional unique and basic features like- generating description tags automatically, creating and submitting XML sitemaps to search engines, blocking bad bots, adding social media data to the website. Such Streamlined toolkits make it easy for you to do your SEO work effectively.

3. Platforms and Tools Compatibility

One must also understand how important it is to check the compatibility of SEO tools with the platforms they are using, for managing their websites. Sometimes tools might not work well as expected because of the compatibility issues. One must be well aware which tools work best on what platforms.

For example

GenerateWP, Duplicator, WordPress Site Manager are a few tools that are designed to work well on WordPress platform to give the WordPress users a better experience.

4. User-Friendly Interface

The simplicity of tools helps to get the work done efficiently in the minimum amount of time. It is utterly important to purchase user-friendly Tools. You don’t want to be wasting time training your employees to understand the complex SEO Tools that they might not even be able to get hold of properly. In such a case your business might suffer severely. There is a vast array of SEO tools available but go for the ones that are easy to use and understand.

For example

Botify is a website auditing tool which represents the complex information in simple terms and is very easy to understand. It provides you with all the details about the HTML errors, how much content the visitor read on your site and the loading speed of your website in a user-friendly format.

5. Data accuracy

Reliability of any Tool is as effective as the source from which it got the data on which all the further processes will be carried out. If the source of information isn’t reliable then how can you rely on the effectiveness of that tool. Data inaccuracy is an issue with various SEO tools with non-reliable sources of information. An important factor to consider is how the SEO tools gather their data for further operations, so invest in tools have trustworthy data sources.

For example

Raven tools collect the data from various reliable sources like- Google Analytics, Google Search console, Google Adwords, SEMoz in order to carry out further processing for SEO purposes like managing online campaigns, Social Media Management, Content Management, Competitor Analysis, Link Analysis. Decisions made based on precise data always hit the marketing goal without fail.

6. Regularly updated tools

SEO tools you opt must be the ones which are updated regularly so as to be inline with the latest technological advancements. An obsolete Tool is hardly of any value once new technologies come in place and it isn’t compatible anymore. Choose only those tools which are regularly updated to keep up with the pace of new software developments.

For example

SEO Yoast keeps updating itself so as to be able to incorporate new features and be compatible with other software. The newest version has been updated so as to enhance it’s compatibility with WooCommerce 3.0. Other than that regular bug fixes, improved language strings and continuously striving to make it easier to understand is taken care of in the updates.

7. Easy Reporting and documentation

The basic requirement of tools used for optimizing the website is that they must be able to interpret the data into meaningful results which helps in reporting and documentation of the data gathered. Marketing strategy planners constantly have to monitor the performance of their online campaigns by checking the reports generated by such tools to plan further improvements in SEO tactics. The tools are of no use if they fail to convert the information into meaningful results which can’t be analyzed.

For example

Google Analytics is the best example of reporting and documenting complex data to derive conclusions. This tool is used to track and report website traffic. Businesses can find out which internet marketing campaigns are bringing most of the traffic and conversions, where website visitors are located, what people are searching on their site only because the reports it provides are very easy to grasp.

8. Online Marketing Metrics

You need analytical tools to monitor the performance of your online marketing activities and on social media as well. You have to keep the tabs on whether the traffic is being converted into customers or not. Various tools are available for keeping an eye on your website and social networking performance. Measurement of the performance precisely is also a major factor which must be taken into consideration while choosing SEO checker tools.

For example

Buffer is used for tracking the performance of your social media content. It saves a lot of time social media managers as it streamlines the process of analyzing user engagements on various social media platforms. This tool is used for optimal social media management by business all over the world.

9. Technical support:

Before choosing an SEO tool check whether the software provider will also give you proper technical support after the purchase of their product. Will they provide you all the help you need to set up the tools the way you want to. In future the software might crash or create some problem, in that case, are you certain that the SEO Toolkit providers will troubleshoot your problem without question.

For example

Moz is well known not only for providing an array of SEO tools like Moz analytics, Open site explorer but it also provides any technical assistance needed after the purchase of their products. Moz provides great technical assistance to their customers long after purchasing their product.

In a nutshell, the ultimate goal of a company is to make money. Purchasing lots of SEO tools won’t help it getting profitable business, but wisely estimating which tools best suit the business goals will. Without proper guidance from Professional SEO Services providers, one can’t figure out which tools to use for their business. Choosing Search engine optimization Services can help them select tools according to their business requirements.

1. Keyword Research

Keywordtool.io: Type in a keyword and this tool will give you many long-tail keywords associated with that term. Long-tail keywords generally provide you the right kind of traffic which is on verge of conversion.

2. Marketing Automation

Hubspot: A great inbound marketing tool to convert your leads into customers. It helps in managing all your Marketing, Sales and Customer relations management related tasks at one place.

3. Checking Page speed

Page speed insights: Don’t let usage of rich content slow down the loading speed of your website on mobile or desktop. Use this tool to know which aspect of your webpage is slowing down the loading speed and make necessary changes to optimize it.

4. Indexing your site

Google search Console: To index your website use this tool. It will submit your website to Google for crawling and indexing purpose. You can also check your site’s performance, crawl errors, subscriber stats, links to your website and much more. Link Google webmaster tool with Google Analytics for additional features.

5. Link Analysis

Open Site Explorer: This awesome tool identifies the Link building opportunities for your website. You can also research backlinks and find potentially damaging links with this tool. This tool is used all over the world by webmasters for exploring new link building opportunities.

6. Analysing Competition

SEMrush: It is the best tool for examining your Competitors. You can check the Backlinks of your Competitor, the traffic on their page, their bounce rate and much more. You can also monitor their source of traffic using this tool.

7. Rank Tracking/ Backlink Analysis

Bright Local– This Tool does an audit of your website and provides you with the information regarding the backlink analysis and rank tracking. It gives a summary of your Off-site SEO score, On-site Local SEO score, Local listings score and much more.

8. Google Ranking Metrics

SERPmetrics: Use this tool to find out how frequently ranking of websites is changing on Google. It is a very helpful tool for measuring your own rank shift in Google Search Engine Result Page.

9. Link Building

HARO: Journalists and the business who wants links can connect via this tool. If you can get a journalist to like content and service he will mention your link in blog articles of most reputable news sites read around the world.

Guest Post tracker:  this tool consists of numerous websites which accept guest posts. Moreover, the site which accepted your guest post is trackable. You will know which site want to publish your post.

10. Trending Topics

Google Trends: You can find out what is trending right now and plan your content accordingly. Topics trending are the ones most searched on Google. If you can create quality content around such trending topics, the possibility of getting clicks on your website proliferates.