Top 9 SEO Software in 2023 You Cannot Miss
The main purpose of SEO is to help you attract more organic traffic to your website and rank higher on SERP (search engine result page). All in order to make your website more visible. It’s as simple as that.
But we all know how Google (the most used search engine with 85% search market share) is an ever-changing creature that breathes out different algorithms every now and then, and makes it hard to retain your rank. Which is why setting up your SEO is not a one-time thing, it changes, evolves, and you need to stay on top of these trends and shifts in order to remain relevant in Google’s eyes.
So you will definitely need help with that.
And this help can come in the form of SEO software you can and should use when creating and maintaining content for your website. But let’s first see what we mean by SEO software and what it can help you achieve, more precisely.
Contents
What is SEO software?
SEO software is an SEO tool that can help you define SEO strategy, monitor its progress and analyze data. Usually, these tools are capable of detecting some issues you might have on your website that are affecting your ranking, but also point to opportunities you might use to change the outcome. But bear in mind not all tools are covering all SEO aspects – most are focused on some SEO features.
How to choose the best SEO tool?
The simplest answer is – to aim for the one that can help you achieve your goals. Do you want to:
- improve your visibility and brand awareness by conducting a comparison with your competition
- improve your ranking with stronger keywords
- dedicate time to fixing all your on-page issues
- work on your local SEO
- boost your site’s domain authority through backlinks
- or simply dive into content analysis and remove duplicates and excessive keywords that could sink your rankings
Whichever the reason for looking to invest in SEO software, you are covered.
Why is it important for publishers to use SEO tools?
Everyone made Google their first stop when looking for something, so you need to make sure you are on it, higher as possible. You need to maximize your visibility, and SEO is the way to do it. Search engine optimization will help you gain more traffic, which will affect your revenue and overall your website’s performance. So as you can see, everything is connected.
Top SEO software we recommend using
Here is the list of carefully selected SEO tools you can rely on. We made sure to cover all the SEO bases with these tools, so your way to higher ranking can be smooth and without major bumps.
Ahrefs: Best all-in-one tool
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| On limited platform only | $89 – $899 a month | In-depth SEO | Advanced |
We placed Ahrefs at the very beginning of this list given it’s one of the most powerful and best SEO tools you can find. It’s basically an all-in-one software that can do simple things like help you find the right keywords for your content – ones your audience is searching for the most regarding the specific topic, while showcasing keyword volume and difficulty.
You will also be presented with keyword rankings in SERP, along with links to the articles containing top keywords, which is very convenient. You can simply click on a link and go through the structure of the best-ranking texts to see if yours is missing something. Ranking with links is not something all tools have.
But there are more advanced features as well, like backlink monitoring where you can see what are the sites that are linked to yours, you can see your website audit, which provides a complete overlook of your website visibility, and track your ranking progress.
Ahrefs can be a bit challenging to master, especially for beginners, but its simple and easy-to-navigate dashboard will help you understand all its features and how beneficial this tool can be.
Now, what we especially love about Ahrefs is their so-called Academy, where you can find many free tutorials and courses on how to use this very tool and how to improve your digital marketing skills – how to conduct keyword research, how to structure your content, how to keep your website in “good health” with technical SEO, etc.
Ahrefs offers a free trial, but only through the Ahrefs Webmaster Tools account, which can offer sort of an insight into what this software can do, but not entirely. It’s pretty limited. For regular Ahrefs access you will have to pay from $89 to $899, depending on the package.
SemRush: Biggest keyword database
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-day | $129 – $499 a month | Upleveling SEO strategy | Intermediate to advanced |
With more than 20 billion keywords and around 800 million domains in its database, SemRush is one of the most purchased and most popular SEO tools nowadays. It is a multi-feature SEO software that can help digital marketers easily conduct a keyword search, perform in-depth audits, and enter competitor analysis.
It’s also a great SEO ranking tool and more than suitable software for Off-page SEO backlink testing purposes. However, On-page SEO Checker is one of the most popular features SemRush has to offer, given it can allow you to monitor your rankings, while suggesting how to improve your performance.
On top of all that, SemRush has many add-ons that can give you an insight into the website’s search data and traffic, provide information about the domain’s URL organic position on SERP, or examine your content through customer journey analysis and suggest better copy.
The thing is – there are so many resources and features one can discover and use within SemRush, but for some of them, certain training must be arranged. If you haven’t had any previous experience with SemRush, the courses, lessons, getting started guide and ‘how to’ articles you can find on their Knowledge base will be of great help.
For $129 a month, you will have access to a Pro account, while a Business one is $499. If you are not sure what package you will need or if SemRush is an ideal tool for you, there is a 7-days free trial period you can rely on. But bear in mind extra tools, like ImpactHero, will be an additional expense.
Moz Pro: Great for competitive analysis
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-day | $99 – $599 a month | SEO monitoring | Intermediate to advanced |
We picked Moz Pro as another all-in-one SEO reporting software, an alternative option to Ahrefs that’s more affordable but equally good. With Moz Pro you will have all the same options – rank tracking, keyword research, content audit, link building, competition analysis, you name it.
But there’s one thing in which Moz Pro is even better than Ahrefs – it has a much larger data pool for backlinks. According to Forbes Advisor, there are more than 40 trillion links in the Moz Pro system, and around 700 million domains.
There are four pricing packages you can choose from, where the Medium one ($179 a month) will probably satisfy all your needs regarding search engine optimization. But given the fact the price might still be a bit high for some publishers, there is a 30-day free trial that could show you whether or not this tool is worth it.
Rank Tracker and Link Explorer are two of the most used features within this SEO software, but Moz Pro Campaign is also another interesting tool you can use by allowing the system to go through your website and detect issues that could affect your ranking by harming the user experience.
Moz Pro is a great option for both small and large publishers. It will take some time for you to grasp all its options, tools and possibilities, but the learning section you can find on the site will make it a much faster and much easier process than if you are about to explore it on your own.
Google Search Console: Best overview of site performance
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Free | Measuring search visibility | Beginners |
When it comes to measuring search traffic and performance, Google Search Console is probably the best tool you could hope for. And there is some logic in that, given you are trying, after all, to understand Google and rank higher on its SERP. So who better to ask for help than Google’s own tool.
Google Console is a free SEO software that’s super simple to use. It’s basically a tool that crawls your website, detecting errors, but also analyzes your position on Google, as well as your clicks and impressions.
It allows publishers to grasp how Google sees their pages and how it ranks them, which can be very useful when building an SEO campaign and improving site’s outcome. However, Google Search Console is limited to your sites only, which means you won’t be able to do a competitive analysis with this tool, you will need a separate one for that purpose.
But for search visibility this is a very best option, especially for publishers who are on a budget and still want to remain relevant in Google’s eyes. To make this possible you will have to verify your website by adding a code, or submit your sitemap on Google Analytics, for indexing.
As a bonus, Search Google Console is offering everyone a chance to learn how to optimize search appearance on Google, and how to increase organic traffic through almost 30 YouTube videos on the subject.
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-day | $119 – $999 a month | Social media SEO | All levels |
Now here is something way different – an SEO ranking tool that specializes in social media marketing. It’s not a classical keyword finder or ranking tracker, but more of an exemplary software that will lead your way through social media like no other tool.
BuzzSumo contains an archive of 8 billion articles and 300 trillion social engagements that will help you generate ideas, through Content Discovery, and create highly engaging content after conducting Content Research.
There’s even a feature on BuzzSumo that makes it possible for its users to find Influencers – authors and content creators who have engaged audiences and great authority, which can be a good learning opportunity in terms of creating a content strategy. But on top of all that, you will also be able to monitor and track your social media channel’s performance and compare results.
As for pricing – an essential BuzzSumo package for one user will cost you $119 a month, while the most expensive Enterprise package, for up to 30 users, is $999. The good news is that a free trial is an option, and it lasts 30 days, which will be more than enough time for you to figure out this tool and its value.
Basically, with BuzzSumo you will remain relevant in Google’s eyes by staying up to date with social media trends, knowing what people are talking about and what works as a trigger for their attention, and then creating content based on those insights.
Screaming Frog: Best SEO crawler tool
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| No, only free version | $239 a year | On-site optimization | Intermediate to advanced |
Based on SEO software reviews, Screaming Frog is the best software to turn to when looking to debug your site and establish what are the issues preventing it from ranking higher. The idea of this tool is a bit similar to Google Search Console, but it runs deeper diagnostics.
To help your site this way you will need to download and install SEO Spider which will then crawl through it and point if there’s a missing page title or meta description, broken link, unmatching between elements, etc. With all these issues being fixed, your On-site SEO will be much improved, so your ranking should go up as well.
Now, there is a free version of SEO Spider, but the tool does not contain all the features the paid version does. If you want to have access to all options you can purchase a 1-year license for $239 (licenses are per user).
If you are just getting started with one website, the free version will be more than enough though. But bear in mind you will be limited to 500 URLs or page crawls.
You will find User Guide and Tutorials on how to use the SEO Spider tool on the Screaming Frog website, as well as some frequently asked questions, so it will be hard for you to have any uncertainties after you go through all these sections.
Mangools: Great for day-to-day SEO
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-day + free account version | $19 – $89 | Keyword search | Beginner |
Among the best free SEO tools there’s definitely Mangools – software launched in 2014, and suitable for bloggers and freelancers mostly, but also all other small and medium businesses eager to step a bit higher on the SERP ladder.
To be more precise, the tool is not completely free, the free account is limited, but more than enough for newbies who are just starting to discover the world of content and digital marketing. For more access, you will have to pay from $19 to $89 a month. But if you subscribe and you don’t like the tool, there’s a 48-hour money-back guarantee.
This tool allows you to use keyword finder, with suggestions to aim for low difficulty and high search volume, to go through SERP for any location, to track your rankings and create interactive reports, find backlinks with time-saving filters, and to check competitors’ website authority.
So pretty much there’s everything you need to start optimizing your website properly. You will here find 45+ SEO metrics that will help you find ideas for your content and strong keywords, and develop a decent SEO strategy.
Also, Mangools offers a lot of free learning materials. There’s a complete SEO guide for beginners, an On-page SEO guide, an explanation of how to use keyword finder, and many more lessons you will find to be super valuable.
WooRank: Most user-friendly tool
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-day | $89 – $199 | SEO monitoring | Intermediate to advanced |
WooRank is one of those SEO software tools you are going to love. It’s super simple to use, it has some interesting features, and the results it provides are very reliable. Its interface is designed with newbies in mind, and according to reviews, it’s the most user-friendly of all SEO tools.
As soon as you enter the tool you will be offered to place your domain and check your website’s current score. The result will show you a graph with percentages on the amount of your content that’s well optimized, needs improvement, or is done completely wrong.
After that, you can approach all the essential SEO features, like keyword finder with tracking tools, competitor analysis, an insight into SERP rankings, backlink management, and On-site crawler, as well as Off-page performance monitoring. So it’s pretty much another all-in-one SEO tool.
We especially love the graphs of keyword ranking so you can track your results over time, as well as the ability to organize your campaigns through tags, so you can understand for which countries your site needs to improve in order to rank better.
When it comes to pricing, you can test drive WooRank for 3 days only, after which you will have to pay for it – the Pro account is $89 a month, Premium is $199, and there’s also a custom-priced Enterprise account available.
As with most others, WooRank is also offering SEO guides with many lessons listed, some of which are adequate for young publishers with no experience, but some are quite advanced and suitable for the more experienced among you.
BrightLocal: Best for local SEO
| Free trial | Price | Best for | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-day | $35 – $90 | Local SEO | Beginner to intermediate |
We will finish the list with the best local SEO software you can use to make sure your website stands out among other similar ones in the narrow area. You can use this tool for all standard SEO adjustments, just on a local basis – keyword tracking, local rankings, local SEO audit, SEO monitoring, and competitor analysis.
Additionally, there’s Reputation management that allows you to generate, manage, and showcase your online reviews, all for the purpose of protecting your website’s reputation. It is a feature publishers really love and appreciate.
There is a free trial period of 14 days for you to check how the tool works, and during that period of time, you will have unlimited access and all features at your disposal. After that, you can choose between three packages – for small businesses, mid-size businesses and agencies. The price goes from $35 to $90 a month.
The BrightLocal dashboard might be a bit challenging for newbies, but with a bit of time invested in understanding it you would be able to figure it out for sure. In case you need some help, you can go to the Learn section → Academy, and view courses the website provides, or explore Learning Hubs and Webinars they are constantly updating.
Final Thoughts
We hope we were able to help you clarify why reaching for SEO software is a must nowadays, what benefits you can count on when you do so, and which one of these tools would be a match for your business.
But it is important to underline that SEO is not just keyword optimization and backlinking overload. Be aware that how Google sees you depends on the quality of your content as well, of your website design, deep audience research, UX optimization, and having an SEO strategy in mind when making any changes to your website.
Investing in SEO software is just the first step. Make it count and continue learning about this ever-changing process.
