SEO Management
The 5 Kinds of SEO Software Tools You Need in Your Arsenal
If you were searching for coins on a sandy beach, you wouldn’t just wander around and dig with your hands. You’d want tools — a metal detector, a shovel — to make the job easier.
Likewise, your SEO strategy for your site shouldn’t include randomly picking areas to tweak, revise or optimize. You’d want to utilize some of the many tools available to help you build a strong foundation for your website and execute effective online marketing campaigns. So to help those of you who are looking to add extra ammo to your SEO campaigns, here are some effective SEO software tools to help you boost traffic to your site.
1. Keyword Research
Keyword searches are one of the primary ways people will discover your site, and thus an essential component of every SEO strategy should be to optimize that opportunity. Some keywords generate high amounts of traffic while others don’t. The most sought-after keywords are the ones that aren’t popular to sellers but generate high amounts of user traffic.
One solution for helping you gain traffic is a Keyword Research tool. These tools help you discover valuable terms that people use in searches, track the effectiveness of your keywords and calculate the competitiveness of the words in search engines.
Long Tail Pro…for Keyword Research
Long Tail Pro can help you generate fast results for specific keywords and phrases. In addition, the software automatically finds domains, checks rankings of search engine sites and imports lists of keywords for you to use. With effective keyword placement, your website has a better chance of being seen at the top of search pages, giving you an advantage over your competitors.
2. Backlink Analysis
Backlinks have become such an important factor in SEO that they are considered a staple in any SEO strategy. Basically, backlinks are links on external domains that direct users to your website. What’s important to note is that the number and quality of your backlinks can affect your domain and page rankings, effectively determining your value to users. In order to generate quality backlinks, you need software that can analyze backlinks, suggest opportunities for quality links and give you feedback on what to change.
Ahrefs…for Backlink Analysis
Ahrefs offers a large index of live backlinks that you can test on your site. In addition, the software checks your backlinks, domains and URLs to provide reports on all the link metrics relating to SEO. Lastly, this software comes with a tool that analyzes your meta title, description and keywords to find and fix inaccuracies.
3. Rank Tracking & Page Analytics
Tracking your website’s rank on search results is a must if you want your site performance to improve. The higher your website ranks with each related search, the more traffic is direct to your site. A way to see this executed well is to shadow top companies and competitors to see how they reach the top of the search page. Their high rank can originate anywhere from the meta title to the keywords in the meta description. A rank tracking tool provides all the ranks for websites, search results and keywords.
In addition to rank tracking, page analytic tools are essential for overseeing your site’s performance. Just like regular servicing can uncover hidden car troubles before they arise, a performance monitoring tool will find errors in where you place your keywords and the way you structure your web pages.
Moz…for Rank Tracking & Page Analytics
Moz tracks your rank on search sites and keywords, analyzing not only your competitors but your entire site in comparison to others. In addition to researching competitors, Moz discovers new topics relating to the industry to provide you with relevant information and keep you ahead of the game.
4. On-Site SEO Management
Keeping your SEO projects up to date might seem like a hassle for some. In the expanding world of marketing strategies, it can be a little overwhelming to implement new projects while keeping the website SEO friendly. This is where an on-site SEO tool comes into play. These platforms can do it all, from managing your marketing campaigns to finding every potential error that could be causing your site to lose traffic.
Raven Tools…for On-Site SEO Management
The Raven Tools suite comes in handy when you need to monitor your site’s performance, audit the site for errors and keep all of your marketing campaigns organized. This software offers a large variety of tools that include link managing, keyword ranking, website research and even integration with Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
5. Social Media Management
In order to reach out to your customers effectively, you need to have a strong online presence across all of your social media channels. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, your customers want to know that their voice can be heard and that your company will respond to their feedback and questions.
Managing all of these social accounts at once can be tedious. However, there are tools to help you easily manage all of your channels, giving you the convenience of responding to any user at any time.
Hootsuite…for Social Media Management
Hootsuite manages all of your social media channels from one dashboard. It also lets you communicate to customers, collaborate with clients and provides metrics on your social outreach, which you can create reports on for further analysis.
The Bottom Line
With the right set of SEO software tools, you can run your online marketing campaigns with ease while also being prepared for the unexpected. Just like using tools to find coins under the sand, you can use these SEO applications to mold your business for success.
If you’d like to check out all of the top campaign tools and marketing suites, be sure to download one of our free comparison reports on leading marketing software. From paid search marketing tools to landing page optimization software and email marketing platforms, we’ve got all of your marketing software needs covered.
[Photo courtesy of Nathan Rupert.]
