Top 10 Best SEO Tools Every Marketer Should Be Using

Top 10 Best SEO Tools Every Marketer Should Be Using

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial for driving organic traffic, leads, and sales to any website. With so many SEO tools on the market, it can be overwhelming to determine which ones are the best for optimising your site. After extensive research and real-world testing, I've compiled this definitive list of the ten best SEO tools that no marketer should be without.

What Makes a Great SEO Tool?

Before diving into the tools, let's first establish what criteria make for a genuinely helpful SEO tool:

• Provides insightful metrics and data for optimising pages and sites
• Easy to use with an intuitive user interface
• Integrates seamlessly with popular web platforms and content management systems
• Offers robust features without complexity or information overload
• Delivers rapid results through automation and prioritisation
• It is updated frequently to adapt to Google's algorithm changes
• Has a proven track record for boosting organic rankings
• Offers solid customer support and helpful documentation
• Is priced affordably for companies and individuals

By keeping those standards in mind, the following picks represent the best all-in-one SEO software platforms available today.

1. Ahrefs

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Organic keyword research

✔ Competitor tracking

✔ Site audits and crawl visualisation

✔ Rank tracking and SEO performance

Since making its debut in 2011, Ahrefs has quickly become an essential SEO toolkit relied upon by over 500,000 users worldwide.

I rank Ahrefs as the best SEO software available due to its unparalleled features for researching keywords, analysing the competition, discovering link-building opportunities, and tracking website rankings.

While Ahrefs is costly, it's a worthwhile investment for serious SEO professionals and digital marketing agencies who manage multiple websites. Experienced users can easily justify Ahrefs' pricing based on the robust data it provides for outperforming rivals in Google.

I especially appreciate Ahrefs for delivering insightful metrics like URL Rating and Domain Rating to benchmark site quality and identify optimisation priorities. The customisable dashboard makes monitoring multiple sites and clients using shared accounts easy.

Key Benefits

✔ Identify untapped keyword opportunities with 95%+ accuracy

✔ Uncover why competitors rank higher

✔ Discover thousands of fresh link-building prospects

✔ Prioritise on-page optimisation needs

✔ Track organic positions across countries

✔ Estimate lost traffic and revenue from dropped rankings

✔ Unlimited use without throttling or caps

Pricing

Ahrefs offers personal plans starting at $99 per month, including:

• Basic: $99/month for 100k keywords
• Lite: $174/month for 500k keywords
• Standard: $228/month for 1 million keywords

It also provides custom enterprise pricing, multi-user discounts, and a 7-day $7 trial.

2. SEMrush

✔ Keyword research

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Site audits

✔ Rank tracking

✔ PPC research

✔ Local SEO

✔ International SEO

With over 150 tools included, SEMrush rightfully earns its place among the top SEO software platforms.

I especially like SEMrush's detailed keyword research capabilities and automated suggestions for improving site visibility. It also goes beyond technical SEO by providing valuable input for paid search and localised ranking optimisation.

While the extensive amount of data can seem overwhelming initially, SEMrush makes it easy to customise reports and focus only on the metrics most relevant to your sites. And if you still have any questions, its live customer support and online community are beneficial.

Key Benefits

✔ Analyse ranking factors for a site and its competitors

✔ Discover low-competition keyword opportunities

✔ Identify issues lowering site visibility

✔ Improve local SEO rankings with location-based recommendations

✔ Measure conversions driven by organic and paid search

✔ Track keyword rankings locally and globally

✔ Research PPC keywords and spy on competitors' ads

✔ No limits on exports or APIs

Pricing

SEMrush offers these plans to meet different needs and budgets:

• Pro: $99/month for 100k keywords
• Guru: $199/month for 500k keywords
• Business: $399/month for 1.5 million keywords
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also provides free 7-day trials and discounted annual plans.

3. Moz Pro

✔ Site audit grading

✔ Rank tracking

✔ Keyword research

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Local search management

✔ Ranking factor analysis

Moz Pro has been the trusted standard for SEO software for over 15 years, and for good reason. It offers an ideal balance of robust tools, actionable data, and ease of use to enhance search visibility.

I appreciate how Moz Pro presents SEO recommendations based on extensive correlation data. This makes it simple to diagnose issues negatively impacting performance and identify high-priority optimisation needs.

Another advantage is that Moz Pro integrates all essential SEO tasks like keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and site audits under one platform. This unified approach saves considerable time compared to using separate tools.

Moz Pro is also reasonably priced, making it accessible for businesses and SEOs managing multiple sites. Moz enables transparency by displaying exactly how many keywords and domains you have left under your monthly subscription plan.

Key Benefits

✔ Get a prioritised list of steps to improve organic rankings

✔ Track keyword rankings accurately with Ranking Factors

✔ Discover new link-building and content opportunities

✔ Monitor ranking progress month-over-month

✔ Identify harmful backlinks impacting visibility

✔ Analyse multiple sites quickly with multi-domain access

✔ Stay on budget by tracking usage and limits

Pricing

Moz Pro offers these transparent subscription plans:

• Standard: $99/month for 10k keywords
• Medium: $149/month for 25k keywords
• Large: $249/month for 50k keywords
• Premium: Custom pricing

It also provides a free 30-day trial to experience the benefits firsthand.

4. SEMrush Sensor

✔ Backlink tracking

✔ Referring domains monitoring

✔ Organic keyword ranking positions

✔ Local pack rankings

✔ Google Analytics integration

✔ Unlimited tracking profiles

Previously known as Serpstat, SEMrush Sensor makes it effortlessly easy to monitor website analytics to improve SEO rankings.

I rate SEMrush Sensor as one of the top SEO software choices mainly for its set-it-and-forget-it approach to tracking important optimisation metrics. Instead of logging in to manually check reports, it proactively monitors everything for you.

It then sends immediate alerts via email or SMS whenever any notable activity, like a competitor overtaking your rankings or new backlinks, is detected. This real-time monitoring ensures you remain informed of changes impacting organic visibility.

Another advantage of SEMrush Sensor is that it integrates directly with Google Analytics for a consolidated view of website and SEO data in one centralised dashboard.

Key Benefits

✔ Receive mobile alerts about rank fluctuations

✔ Get notified automatically of new backlinks pointing to your site

✔ Monitor keywords ranking globally and locally

✔ Keep tabs on competitors' search visibility

✔ Avoid repetitive manual rank checks

✔ View organic and paid search data together

✔ Unlimited tracking without throttling

Pricing

SEMrush Sensor starts at an affordable $99 per month, including:

• Pro: $99/month for one profile
• Business: $199/month for five profiles
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also offers a free 7-day trial to test drive the automated tracking capabilities.

5. SE Ranking

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Organic rank tracking

✔ Keyword rankings

✔ Site audits

✔ API integrations

✔ Custom reporting

In business since 1999, SE Ranking has proven itself to be a competitively-priced all-in-one SEO platform trusted by over 500,000 users.

While SE Ranking offers a somewhat primary interface, it is among the best SEO tools, given its robust core feature set. It provides in-depth rank tracking, backlink audits, site metrics, and keyword research at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.

Another advantage of SE Ranking is its flexible custom reporting that allows the selection of only the most relevant SEO data. This simplicity helps avoid the “paralysis by analysis” from information overload.

Additionally, SE Ranking makes integrating existing marketing workflows easy using its APIs and Zapier integration. You can connect it seamlessly with analytics, CRM, email marketing, and other platforms already in your stack.

Key Benefits

✔ Affordable pricing compared to competitors

✔ Identify new link-building opportunities

✔ Track keyword rankings globally

✔ Monitor backlinks and referral traffic

✔ Customise reporting to focus on critical metrics

✔ Avoid subscription “limits”

✔ Access real-time search visibility data

✔ Integrate via API with your existing tools

Pricing

SE Ranking keeps its pricing simple and budget-friendly at $19 per month for the Pro plan, including:

• Pro: $19/month for one domain
• Agency: $79/month for five domains
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also provides a free 7-day trial to experience the platform.

6. Link Explorer

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Metrics comparison

✔ Link opportunity discovery

✔ Custom reporting

✔ Real-time tracking

✔ Historical visibility

In addition to being a robust enterprise-level SEO platform, Link Explorer offers the best pure backlink analysis tool.

I highly recommend Link Explorer for unlocking powerful link-building insights that elevate expert-level search optimisation. Specifically, it reveals link acquisition opportunities based on analysing the profiles of sites currently ranking for your target keywords.

While Link Explorer focuses mainly on backlinks versus being an all-in-one SEO tool, it excels at this critical function for enterprise SEOs in hyper-competitive niches. It pairs seamlessly with rank-tracking tools to provide the full context for monitoring results.

Key Benefits

✔ Discover link prospects' websites will link to

✔ Filter opportunities by domain authority, traffic, and other filters

✔ Compare own backlink metrics versus competitors

✔ Get email alerts when competitors acquire new links

✔ Monitor ranking fluctuations in real-time

✔ Custom reporting to share with clients and stakeholders

Pricing

Link Explorer offers enterprise-focused pricing, including:

• Starter: $999/month for five domains
• Professional: $1,999/month for 15 domains
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also provides product demos and custom quotes by request.

7. Advanced Web Ranking

✔ Rank tracking

✔ Site audits

✔ Backlink analysis

✔ Keyword research

✔ Competitive intelligence

✔ Local SEO rankings

Advanced Web Ranking is a cost-effective SEO platform for small marketing teams with multiple websites.

This solution suits agencies supporting SMBs that want to provide SEO visibility reporting to clients. It makes light work of tracking rankings, auditing technical issues, monitoring backlinks, and identifying optimisation needs across unlimited domains.

While Advanced Web Ranking lacks some of the robust capabilities of enterprise-focused tools, it provides tremendous value for managing high-volume SEO clients on a budget. The team offers excellent onboarding and ongoing support.

Key Benefits

✔ Affordable client reporting and management

✔ Track ranking fluctuations for keywords

✔ Identify high-priority on-page optimisation needs

✔ Discover new link-building opportunities

✔ Monitor website analytics metrics

✔ Easy customisation for client reports

✔ Support multiple sites under one tool

Pricing

Advanced Web Rankings provides these transparent plans:

• Basic: $49/month for five domains
• Plus: $69/month for 15 domains
• Premium: $169/month for 50 domains
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also offers a free trial to experience the platform.

8. Rank Tracker

✔ Accurate rank tracking

✔ Ranking comparison

✔ Local pack monitoring

✔ Rank distribution analysis

✔ Email/desktop alerts

✔ Unlimited tracking

As the name implies, Rank Tracker provides a powerful yet user-friendly solution for monitoring website positions across search engines.

While it focuses mainly on rank tracking versus being a full-fledged SEO toolkit, Rank Tracker delivers best-in-class capabilities for that singular function. The level of detail it captures surpasses any other tool regarding rank data accuracy and customisation.

It also helps identify higher-converting search result placements like local packs that may drive more traffic than the top-ranked listing. Beyond just tracking rankings, it offers actionable insights for improving visibility month-over-month.

Key Benefits

✔ Precisely track mobile, desktop, and local packs

✔ Filter by location and keyword difficulty

✔ Discover rank fluctuations opportunities

✔ Optimise based on click-through rates data

✔ Receive desktop or email rank change alerts

✔ Avoid tracking limits or overages

✔ Affordable single-focus solution

Pricing

Rank Tracker makes accurate tracking affordable with these plans:

• Basic: $19/month for one domain
• Standard: $39/month for five domains
• Premium: $79/month for 15 domains
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

It also provides a 7-day free trial.

9. Botify

✔ Google Search Console integration

✔ Crawl analysis

✔ Performance dashboard

✔ Accessibility scans

✔ Link opportunity discovery

✔ Custom reporting

Recognised as a Google Search Console Technology Partner, Botify excels at helping enterprise websites identify and fix complex technical SEO issues.

I highly recommend Botify for large-scale sites struggling with long-standing visibility declines across vast domains and pages. It provides unprecedented crawl transparency to expose why Google may fail to index or rank certain areas of a site.

The critical advantage of Botify is how it overlays site analytics, user behaviour flow, and search crawler activity. This exposes optimisation conflicts, like discovering that the most popular site content receives the fewest clicks from Google.

It functions like having a search engineer comprehensively analyse your site's technical infrastructure with the insights to correct deficiencies.

Key Benefits

✔ Understand why some content gets indexed while other pages do not

✔ Identify accessibility flaws blocking search crawler accessibility

✔ Discover link acquisition opportunities from site-wide crawl data

✔ Optimise page-level issues negatively impacting rankings

✔ Improve overall site crawl efficiency for better indexing

✔ Prioritise fixes by impact on search visibility

Pricing

Botify offers customised enterprise pricing, including:

• Enterprise: Price varies based on needs
• Custom consulting and managed services

It also provides product demos for qualified prospects to showcase capabilities.

10. BrightEdge

✔ Page optimisation

✔ Content optimisation

✔ Ranking intelligence

✔ Competitive analysis

✔ Search personalisation

Supporting over 3,000 enterprise customers, BrightEdge stands as the most widely used enterprise-focused SEO platform.

It earns a place as a top SEO software solution, given BrightEdge's ability to handle organisational complexity spanning hundreds of business units and properties. This includes custom key performance indicators tailored individually across departments.

I also appreciate BrightEdge's macro-level insights revealing the projected traffic and revenue impact from SEO efforts. This analytics-based approach connects SEO directly to business outcomes like pipeline value rather than stopping at rankings alone.

Additionally, BrightEdge provides machine learning capabilities not found in most other tools for identifying personalised opportunities. This allows tailoring SEO strategies better towards micro-segments that competitors may overlook.

Key Benefits

✔ Measure SEO value based on sales pipeline impact

✔ Customised scoring models across business units

✔ Uncover individualised ranking opportunities

✔ Optimise Pages for voice search potential

✔ Analyze content types driving the most conversions

✔ Scales to support enterprise site complexity

Pricing

BrightEdge offers custom pricing and packages based on each customer's needs as an enterprise-exclusive solution.

It also provides guided demos showcasing use case applications to demonstrate value specific to your industry and requirements.

Choose the Best SEO Tools For Your Needs

While all solutions in this guide qualify as top-rated tools for enhancing search visibility, deciding on the right software depends mainly on your needs. Here are key considerations when evaluating SEO tools:

✔ Budget – Balance robust features with affordability when selecting tools supporting your resources

✔ Complexity – Assess whether an all-in-one SEO platform has too many features versus a specialised tool focusing more narrowly on what matters most for your current goals

✔ Scalability – Ensure the solution you choose can support your website portfolio as it grows over time without additional costs

✔ Support – Factor in the level of onboarding, troubleshooting, and optimisation consulting included with the SEO software

✔ Accuracy – When tracking keyword or backlink metrics, precision and transparency should be held to the highest standard

✔ Integration – Evaluate how seamlessly the tool connects API data with other platforms like analytics, marketing automation, rank trackers, etc. already used by your organisation

With those aspects above guiding your buying decision, any of the highest-rated SEO software solutions profiled in this guide will provide tremendous value for enhancing online visibility. Each option shines in capabilities essential for outperforming rivals in attractive search results placements.

FAQs About the Best SEO Software Platforms

Still evaluating solutions and have some lingering questions? Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions when researching top SEO tools:

The Future of SEO Software

SEO tools must keep innovating as search algorithms and ranking factors continuously evolve. Exciting developments on the horizon include:

✔ More personalised SEO recommendations based on machine learning insights

✔ Integration with broader marketing tech stacks using APIs and automation

✔ Detailed voice search and online video optimisation opportunities

✔ Local search management capabilities tailored better by industry

✔ Unified views of organic and paid search data for optimisation

Already, the top SEO software solutions drive tremendous organic success. With the innovations still to come as search itself advances, marketers can anticipate even more ways to connect their strategy directly to tangible business returns powered by SaaS.

The future of search visibility looks promising thanks to the sophisticated yet easy-to-use capabilities of today's robust SEO tools.

Summary

This guide profiles the top-rated SEO software platforms essential for executing effective and comprehensive search optimisation. Based on real-world testing and client success rates, Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, and Link Explorer lead the industry across core disciplines like rank tracking, site audits, backlink analysis, and keyword research.

At the same time, many other niche solutions highlighted excel at specific functions like rank monitoring or crawl analysis. Ultimately, the “best” SEO software depends on your budget, needs, and existing martech stack considerations.

By leveraging one or more of these excellent SaaS tools (with Ahrefs and SEMrush as well-rounded recommendations), brands can gain the high-quality dataset insights necessary for capturing untapped organic visibility opportunities ahead of the competition.