You’ve heard everyone, from marketing experts to nearly every business article, recommend optimizing SEO for your company website. It can drive new organic traffic to your website and build increased sales. But what if you don’t know where to start? 

The foundation of search engine optimization or SEO is useful, unique content. Beyond that, SEO software can help you identify keywords and other optimization opportunities. If you want to build a website that can rank higher on search engines, read on for the best SEO software for small businesses.

10 Best SEO Software for Small Businesses

As an entrepreneur, you’ve already overcome enormous hurdles in building your business. Whether you start a business with no money or with $50k, building the momentum and generating the revenue to hire employees and expand your offerings takes creativity, persistence, and a great team. Part of that team can be software that automates systems or simplifies complex tasks.

If you’ve built a website and found the best web hosting for small businesses, the next step is to optimize for search engines (SEO). The best SEO software for small businesses blends high-end features to build organic traffic with an affordable price tag. The software discussed below can help you compete with major companies   

Google Analytics 

Google Analytics is a free software integration from Google that allows you to track the customer journey easily, measure the success of advertising campaigns, gauge high conversion pages, and more. Google Analytics helps you discover how people find your website, what they do on the site, and who is visiting the site, which can also give you valuable insight into the customer journey. 

At least 84% of all websites use Google Analytics, making it a leader in website analytics. And the best part? It’s free, although premium plan pricing is by quote only. 

Pros of Google Analytics 

• Easy to set up
• See who visits your website
• Understand which webpages are the most popular
• Get insight into the customer journey within your page
• Paid plans available

Cons of Google Analytics 

• Unclear pricing for premium plans-quote only
• You’ll need to take some tutorials to use it effectively

Moz Pro

If you’re considering a premium SEO software, Moz is one of the best out there. It has similar features to Ahrefs. You can use Moz for competitor analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, link building, and more. Moz is also one of the largest SEO software options, with more than 700 million domains. 

Prices start at $99 a month and go up to $599 for a premium plan or $497 when billed annually. 

Pros of Moz Pro

• Free 30-day trial
• Affordable compared to competitors like Ahrefs
• Comprehensive link data

Cons of Moz Pro

• You’ll need to study to use all the tools
• Google-only data

Screaming Frog

If you’re looking for an SEO software that can help you debug and resolve website issues, Screaming Frog is an excellent tool. It crawls your website and searches for all pertinent blunders to help fix broken links, add missing page titles and meta descriptions, and locate tags and titles that don’t match, among others. 

If SEO beyond keyword searches is overwhelming to you, Screaming Frog is an excellent resource. There’s a basic free version, and premium licenses start at $259 per year. 

Pros of Screaming Frog

• Free version available
• XML sitemap creation 
• Crawls your site to locate bugs and other SEO issues
• Grammar checks on paid plans
• Compatible with Windows and iOS

Cons of Screaming Frog

• You can only integrate with Google Analytics on the paid plan
• Requires a download to a computer

Google Search Console

As a starting point for any SEO research, consider Google Search Console as the major search engine. It’s free to use. You can see helpful information about your site, including link data, page speed and errors, and more. While link data or keywords your site is ranking for might not be complete, but it’s a good starting point. On the minus side, you can’t use Google Search Console for competitor site research.

Pros of Google Search Console

• Free
• Simple to use
• Google owns the data

Cons of Google Search Console

• Search only your own site
• Not complete data
• No other features

Semrush

Arguably the leader in SEO software for businesses of all sizes, Semrush is a powerful and feature-rich SEO tool that can take your website to the next level. The custom features have a steep learning curve and you’ll need to pay for add-ons. This all-in-one tool has everything you need to optimize your website. Whether you’re an SEO beginner or an experienced user, Semrush’s large database can help you get more from the software, faster. 

Prices start at $129.95 a month for a pro plan and go up to $499.95 monthly for a business plan. 

Pros of Semrush

• Excellent help center
• SEO leader
• Intuitive dashboard design
• Get SEO alerts
• Best-in-class advanced features
• Customizable reports

Cons of Semrush

• You won’t get historical data on the lowest-priced plan
• Steeper learning curve than other options
• Expensive than other options

BrightLocal

If you’re looking for a local SEO solution, BrightLocal has it all. Start with a free 14-day trial to make sure it’s a good fit. BrightLocal can help you find and track keywords, perform local SEO audits, track competitors, and monitor your online business reputation. You can integrate BrightLocal with Google Analytics, Facebook, Google Business Profile Insights, and Twitter for robust reporting.

Pros of BrightLocal

• Create local SEO audit reports
• Low cost
• Unique reputation monitor
• Google Business Profile audits
• Free 14-day trial

Cons of BrightLocal

• Only the SEO Pro plan offers competitor tracking
• No backlink monitoring available
• There’s a learning curve

Ahrefs

Semrush and Moz Pro have one real competitor: Ahrefs. Arguably, it’s the most powerful SEO tool available today. This all-in-one SEO solution helps find keywords your customers are searching for. It evaluates keyword volume and difficulty, tracks keyword rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), monitors website backlinks, and audits your site to optimize for web searches.

Lite plans start at just $99 per month with limited features, while an enterprise plan costs $999 per month. 

Pros of Ahrefs

• Best available keyword research software
• Backlink analysis
• Tracks ranking progress
• Useful for competitor analysis
• Get free basic webmaster tools 

Cons of Ahrefs

• One of the most expensive options available
• No phone support
• No free trial
• Steep learning curve

KWFinder

In contrast to Ahrefs, KWFinder is a low-cost SEO software solution that includes a few free tools, an SEO browser extension, a SERP volatility checker, and a SERP Simulator. With paid plans, you can get keyword research, keyword suggestions, find competitor keywords, SERP lookups, and track keywords. 

Pros of KWFinder

• Great for keyword research
• User-friendly
• Free keyword tool available
• Helpful for SERP analysis

Cons of KWFinder

• Limited daily keyword lookups
• There are better competitor research options
• Limited customer support 

WooRank

While nearly all SEO software options come with a caveat about a steep learning curve, WooRank is the exception. If you’re looking for the basics of SEO, this is a good solution. You’ll get keyword analysis, competitor analysis, backlink management, SERP rankings tracking, website page quality grading, and full website audits, as well as local, mobile, social, and global SEO tools.

Pros of WooRank

• Free 14-day trial
• User-friendly
• Website page grader 
• Site recommendation features

Cons of WooRank

• Slow website analysis features
• Customer support lacking
• Almost no competitor comparisons

AnswerThePublic

If you’re looking for creative new solutions for keyword research, AnswerThePublic is a good option. It provides information about keywords and search volume including questions users ask. You’ll be able to search by what, where, why, who, when, which, and how questions. Consider AnswerThePublic if you’re just starting your site’s content plan and need keyword research.

Individual plans start at just $5 a month, while expert plans cost $99 monthly. 

Pros of AnswerThePublic

• Easy-to-use keyword search tool
• Option for monthly and lifetime plans
• Seven-day free trial
• Free plan option

Cons of AnswerThePublic

• No added SEO features
• Low-tier plans don’t have customer support

What Is SEO Software?

SEO software allows you to perform keyword research, optimize website load times, improve backlinks, and more. These software solutions help you to improve the client experience on the website as well as its organic search ranking. 

Most SEO software solutions include online marketing software with tools to perform competitor research, manage ranking, creation, measuring, and managing content to optimize organic rankings.

Why Is SEO Software Important for Small Businesses?

SEO software for small businesses is essential to build organic traffic and expand business reach. They can help you to expand your online presence, rank higher in searches, and enhance customer acquisition. SEO can lead to faster indexing and in turn, higher website traffic. Ultimately, SEO can lead to increased revenue for small businesses. 

Features to Look for in SEO Software for Small Businesses

Features to look for in SEO software include basics like keyword research or page optimization. Here’s what you may want to look for. 

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research tells you what users are searching for. You can usually check keywords and phrases with information on search volume and estimated difficulty for ranking for those keywords to optimize your content effectively. 

On-Page Optimization Features

On-page optimization features include keywords, meta descriptions, page titles and tags, image text, and more. Many SEO software options will crawl your site to increase website load time and ensure there are no bugs in the page optimization. 

Backlink Analysis Capabilities

Backlink analysis is a premium feature that will allow you to track how many organic backlinks your site is building. Backlinks tell search engines that others are referring to your website, thus increasing your domain authority and search ranking. 

Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis tools can help you determine which keywords your competitors are targeting, and even which pages are leading to the highest conversions. This insight, in turn, can help you optimize your pages.  

Rank Tracking and Monitoring

Tracking your site’s ranking for certain keywords and monitoring performance can help ensure that you stay on top of SEO and can measure which modifications lead to the greatest changes in ranking. 

Site Audit and Optimization Suggestions

Site audit and optimization suggestions look at your current site and make suggestions for improvement in load time, fixes to bugs, or broken backlinks, and more. By fixing unseen site glitches, you can improve site ranking in organic searches. 

Reporting and Analytics Functionality

Reporting and analytics help you determine what is working and what is not, further increasing site optimization. These reports can help define new keyword targets, ranking possibilities, and more. Google Analytics is a leader in reporting and analytics which can help you effectively understand the customer journey. 

Local SEO Optimization Tools

Local SEO optimization tools help you target the keywords and search terms specific to local clientele, helping you bring more relevant traffic to your site. If you have a chiropractic business in Atlanta, for example, targeting clients in Portland won’t help grow your business. SEO software can help you find the terms that will reach your target audience. 

Take Your Business to the Next Level with doola

SEO is a powerful tool to build your business website’s organic ranking over time. In addition to SEO tools, consider other automation systems and software options to save valuable time to focus on your core business. For example, consider a best-in-class bookkeeping software designed for busy founders like you. Get doola books to help you with accounting and financial management so you can focus on company growth! 

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