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The martech landscape has grown astronomically in the last decade, and so has the need for SEO software. The benefit to this is that marketers have more choices than ever when it comes to choosing the best SEO software for their business.
On the other hand, with so many choices, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. That’s why we put together this list of the best SEO software for 2021 according to users, reviews sites, and other professional search engine optimizers.
What is SEO software?
SEO software refers to tools that help you with some aspect of SEO. This might be a backlink checker or a keyword research tool. Marketers use SEO software to optimize their content and their websites for search engines so that their content has a better chance of ranking highly on a search engine results page (SERP).
Here are 40+ of the best SEO software on the market in 2021.
Best overall SEO tools
There are many SEO tools on the market. Some are targeted tools (tools that only help with a specific aspect of SEO) while others provide an all-in-one solution for most SEO needs. The following are the best of both worlds, which you’ll find in the marketing stack of many successful businesses practicing SEO today.
Moz Pro
Moz Pro is SEO software created by SEO professional Rand Fishkin that has a wide variety of tools, including a keyword research tool, a rankings tracker, a site audit tool, a page optimization tool, a rank tracker, and more.
Pricing is reasonable and starts at $99/month. It’s used by some of the biggest brands in the world, including Zillow and Trivago. It gets rave reviews and is rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by PCMag. One reviewer said, “Moz Pro is a great tool and definitely one of the essentials. You’re going to find a lot of usage with Moz and you will also find the help and services to go with it.”
Purchase Moz Pro here.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another all-in-one SEO platform. Features include rank tracking, a site analysis tool, a backlink analysis tool, a keyword research tool, and even a social media tracker. Pricing is reasonable, starting at $99/month.
Ahrefs is used by some of the largest brands in the world, including Facebook, LinkedIn, eBay, and Uber.
While Ahrefs is reviewed as high as 4.8 out of 5 stars by some reviewers, PCMag only gives it 3.5 stars.
“I find the Ahrefs site audit tool to be one of the best out there. And even on par with tools that specialize in site audits,” said one reviewer.
Get a 7-day trial of Ahrefs here.
Semrush
Semrush is an all-in-one SEO toolset that helps with other aspects of digital marketing outside of SEO. It helps with content marketing, PPC and CPC research, social media marketing, and is designed to help increase organic traffic.
Pricing is a bit more expensive than Moz Pro and Ahrefs at $119/month but is still reasonable as far as SEO software goes. Semrush is used by some major brands, like IBM and Walmart.
Semrush gets reviews in the high 4-out-of-5-star range, though PCMag ranks it at 4 out of 5 stars. One reviewer said, “Overall, Semrush is a really solid search engine optimization and search engine marketing tool that gives you all the key data you’ll need for a successful SEO strategy.”
Get Semrush here.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that can be connected to Google Analytics and shows you which keywords you’re ranking for, what your average rank is for each keyword, how your keywords have changed over time, search volume for those keywords, and more.
Google Search Console is ranked highly. TechRadar gives it 5 stars. One reviewer said, “No special training required to use Google Search Console for online business. Overall, it’s great software.”
It’s also a must-have for anyone starting out with SEO. Google Search Console is used to manage your web pages’ presence in the Google search engine.
Get it here.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free tool that has a little more functionality than Google Search Console but has similar features. It lets you analyze your backlink profile, see what keywords you’re ranking for, scan your website to see how crawlers view your website, and more.
It’s not ranked quite as high as Google Search Console but still manages to get 7.3 out of 10 stars on TrustRadius.
“Bing Webmaster Tools is well-designed and easy to navigate, even for beginners,” said one reviewer.
Get it here.
Mangools
Mangools is an all-in-one SEO solution that helps with SEO strategy while remaining extremely affordable. Features include a keyword research tool, a search engine results page watcher and checker for seeing how your website ranks for specific keywords, and a backlink tool for auditing your backlinks. Pricing is among the lowest on this list at $29/month.
Mangools is used by big brands like Airbnb and Adidas. Mangools consistently gets good reviews because of its ease of use and affordability, often ranking in the 5-star range.
“Great for keyword tracking,” said one reviewer. “Overall: Great SEO tool—highly recommend it.”
Get Mangools here.
Spyfu
SpyFu bills itself as a competitor analysis toolkit that helps you understand how competitor’s web pages are ranking so that you can adjust yours to compete. It also includes a keyword research tool, a keyword tracking tool, and a PPC competitor research tool.
A basic subscription starts at $33/month. It’s ranked 4.5 out of 5 stars by PCMag and was ranked PCMag’s Editors’ Choice.
One reviewer said, “SpyFu is very user-friendly and easy to use. I love that I can search by a website or by a keyword.”
Grab it here.
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an all-in-one SEO software package designed to help you track and improve all critical SEO metrics. It’s used by marketing agencies like Sixth City Marketing and charly.education. Features include a keyword tracker, website auditor, an on-page SEO checker, a backlink monitor, and many more.
“The interface of SE Ranking is very easy to use and intuitive. It has a powerful keyword research tool with an interesting keyword suggestions area,” said one reviewer.
Pricing is reasonable at $31/month, and the reviews are in the high 4-out-of-5-star range.
Grab it here.
SEOptimer
SEOptimer is a cost-effective SEO software that runs $19/month to start and includes a keyword tool, an SEO crawler, API support, and branded white-label PDF reports. It was a finalist for the SaaS awards in 2020, is used by big brands like Deloitte and Shopify, and is rated 9 out of 10 on TrustRadius.
“It’s the perfect tool to perform quick and easy SEO audits. It’s something we can turn around quickly and set an expectation for a potential client,” said one reviewer.
Grab it here.
Clearscope.io
Clearscope is an “AI-powered platform” that helps writers optimize written content for search, leading to a higher likelihood of ranking and bringing in more organic traffic. It’s used by big brands like Adobe and YouTube and runs at $170/month to start.
One reviewer said, “I have zero complaints about the tool’s functionality. It’s been the best optimization software I’ve used to date.”
It gets high reviews in the 4.9 out of 5 range.
Grab it here.
KeywordTool.io
KeywordTool.io is a keyword generation tool that has both a free version and a pro version. It allows you to find keywords on a wide variety of search engines, finding keywords specific to each search engine’s algorithms. Those search engines include Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon. One reviewer called it, “A simple, useful research tool for SEO.”
The pro version starts at $79/month and is used by big brands like eBay and Disney.
Grab it here.
Keyword Finder
Keyword Finder is a free keyword research tool created by Keywords Everywhere that gives you tons of keyword suggestions that the company claims are incredibly accurate when it comes to search volume on Google. It also gives data on PPC. You have to sign up for an API key (which is free), in order to use the tool. You use it straight through Google.
Get it here.
Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a chrome extension that shows you keyword data, including search volume and competitiveness, when you search a keyword on Google. To use it, you need to get an API key and purchase credits. Credits start at $10 for 100,000 credits. Each credit is equal to a single keyword’s data.
It has almost a perfect 5-star rating on Chrome Web Store and has more than 1,000,000 users. One reviewer said, “This is a must-have for any digital marketer, and it has been absolutely priceless in my SEO journey.”
Get the extension here.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is SEO software that includes a keyword research tool, competitor SEO analysis reports, content ideas, backlink analysis, and more. It’s affordable, starting at $29/month, but it also has a free keyword research tool that gives you accurate organic search data and PPC data alongside hundreds of relevant keywords.
It’s used by big brands like Microsoft and CNN, and TrustRadius has it reviewed at 9.4 out of 10. One reviewer says, “It’s affordable for business owners and anyone interested in a good step-up to boost their website performance.”
Grab it here.
Answer The Public
Answer the Public is a keyword research tool with both a free and a paid option. The paid option starts at $99/month and claims to give more obscure searches than you might find with other keyword research tools. It’s used by brands like MarketingProfs and Bottle and is reviewed at a 4.8 out of 5 on G2.
One reviewer says, “This is an essential tool for my SEO-PR training workshops & consultancy.”
Woorank
Woorank is all-in-one SEO software that provides everything from keyword research and tracking to technical SEO audits, website reviews, and more. At $59.99/month, it’s reasonably priced, and you can try the pro version for free.
It’s used by big brands like Search Engine Journal, Forbes, and Salesforce. One user said, “With a quick and efficient process, Woorank is already one of the most reliable tools in our toolbox.”
It ranks highly online, generally getting around 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Get it here.
Majestic
Majestic is an SEO toolset that includes a site explorer, a backlink checker, and link context, a tool to give you context around your backlinks—what type they are, the content surrounding it, and even its page position.
It’s affordable at 49.99/month and has won multiple awards from the likes of Deloitte and Princess Royal Training.
One reviewer said, “My one contact with Majestic’s support team impressed the pants off of me.” It generally ranks in the 4.5-out-of-5 star range.
Get it here.
Siteliner
Siteliner is a free/paid SEO tool that provides a surprising amount of functionality. It helps you look over your website for everything from duplicate content to broken links and more. The premium service requires you to purchase credits at the price of 1¢ each. Each credit lets you scan one page on your website.
One reviewer said, “Despite that technical issues can be a little hard to handle, this platform makes it easy and understandable for any level of user.”
Check it out here.
Alexa
Alexa is an SEO marketing toolset that includes a content research tool, a competitive website analysis tool, a target audience analysis tool, and more. Plans start at $149/month. It’s used by brands like Omega Builders and Reverb.
One reviewer said, “I did a trial of about 30 SEO tools and I think that Alexa has the lowest barrier to entry of them all. It’s easy to use. And the data visualizations make digesting the information quick and easy.”
Get it here.
Yoast WordPress Plugin
Yoast is the top WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It has both a free and a premium version. It helps you to optimize content for keywords in each post you write in WordPress, and it has a number of tools that help you with the technical aspects of SEO for your website.
At $89/year, it’s quite affordable. One reviewer said, “Yoast has helped me by making it incredibly easy to optimize all my on-page elements on my WordPress site, to get me from 0 to a consistent 3,000 monthly page views.”
Check it out here.
Serpstat
Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform with both free and paid tools, including a keyword research tool, a rank tracking tool, a backlink analysis tool, and more. It’s used by big brands like Samsung and Phillips and starts at $69/month.
One reviewer said, “Serpstat has multiple SEO tools that help me with my day-to-day SEO work. Very good tool for competitor research, keyword research, and rank tracking.” It consistently ranks in the high 4.5-out-of-5 star range.
Check it out here.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is an SEO tool that crawls your website to help you find SEO issues, like broken links or redirect chains. There’s both a free and a paid version, with the paid version starting at £149/year, making it pretty affordable.
It’s used by brands like Shazam and Nuffield Health and consistently gets high ratings—9 out of 10 stars. One reviewer said, “The team at Screaming Frog has been part of my extended marketing team, both at moo.com and now DogBuddy. They’re my go-to SEO experts.”
Get it here.
BrightEdge
BrightEdge boasts the ability to provide “real-time research, recommendations, and rankings,” and bills itself as a unified marketing platform. Pricing is not available—you have to schedule a demo to find out how much it costs. As it’s designed for enterprises, its cost is going to be prohibitive for many small businesses.
BrightEdge is used by brands like Adobe, and it tends to review well in the 4-star range. One reviewer from Adobe said, “BrightEdge helps Adobe drive SEO globally.”
Get it here.
AgencyAnalytics
AgencyAnalytics is an all-in-one reporting platform designed for marketing agencies. It helps not just with SEO and PPC, but also with social media tracking and email marketing tracking.
It’s used by some big marketing agencies, like bonafide and Clearwater, and it’s recommended by some big names in the SEO community, including Brian Dean of Backlinko, who says it’s “The best reporting tool out there… by a mile.”
At $49/month, it’s in the midrange in terms of pricing, and they offer a 14-day risk-free trial, making it reasonable to get started.
Get it here.
Nightwatch
Nightwatch is a powerful SEO tracking platform that includes a site auditor, rank tracking, and backlink reporting tools. Starting at $24/month, it’s one of the most affordable SEO tools on this list. It’s trusted by big companies like Shopify.
One reviewer said, “It has a slick and stylish dashboard with tons of information presented in a visually appealing interface. Its innovative features and advanced filtering options allow marketers and SEO experts to dig deep into their websites’ search visibility metrics and other performance data.”
It has a practically perfect ranking at 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Get it here.
SerpWatch
SerpWatch is an SEO platform that focuses on rank tracking. It also includes keyword data, including search volume, competition, and CPC. It starts at just $1/month, though most people will want to get into the $25–$50 a month range on the sliding cost scale to make the tool more effective.
It’s used by brands like MarKind, who said, “The tool makes the complexity of SERPs easier to understand with an intuitive UI. The support is very responsive and treats new clients with kindness.”
It’s ranked highly, with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars.
Get it here.
Best free SEO software
Free SEO software is great for businesses that are just starting to invest in SEO and need to learn the basics before spending money on a tool that they may not fully understand.
The best free SEO software includes:
- Google Search Console—this gives you basic data on keyword rankings on your website. Good for tracking exactly what’s happening to your pages in Google search results.
- Screaming Frog— this crawls your website and gives you tips for improving your SEO. Great for small websites, but larger websites will need the paid version.
- Keyword.io—this tool gives you tons of keyword suggestions for free across a wide variety of search engines, including Amazon, eBay, and YouTube.
- Ubersuggest Chrome Toolbar—this gives you tons of data on search results on SERPs, allowing you to immediately see data like keyword volumes, social media shares, backlinks, and more.
Best all-in-one SEO tool
All-in-one SEO tools are perfect for businesses that want to make a big investment in SEO and are ready to do what it takes to rank. Rather than get a bunch of different small tools, an all-in-one tool allows you to track all your data in a single place so that you can more accurately and more effectively move the needle.
- SEO PowerSuite—used by the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Intel, this all-in-one SEO tool is purpose-built for large SEO campaigns while still being able to help small businesses reach their SEO goals.
- BrightLocal—this tool suite is used by global brands like Hilton and Ikea, and it’s great for many small businesses who want to focus their SEO efforts on their local area.
- Semrush—this tool suite has more than 20 tools that cover everything from broken links and competitive analysis to keyword research and content generation ideas.
Best SEO audit tool
Auditing your website is a critical component of SEO. Creating massive amounts of content always leaves room for potential on-page and off-page issues (not to mention technical issues). Site auditors help you catch problems and solve them so that your efforts don’t get derailed.
- Ahrefs—their site audit tool bills itself as one of the most exhaustive on the market that can handle websites large and small. Choose this tool no matter what size your business is or what your needs are.
- OnCrawl—this tool analyzes everything from which ranking factors are affecting your positions and impressions to a backlink analyzer and more.
- SE Ranking—this is a great site auditing tool because it offers real-time data that is more accurate and more up-to-date than similar tools.
Best SEO keyword software
Since all on-page SEO truly does boil down to search terms, a high-quality keyword research tool is part of the foundation of SEO content generation strategies.
- KWFinder—this tool is trusted by big brands like Adidas and Airbnb and tends to have a wider set of keywords than many other tools. It’s also simple to use, with an intuitive interface that nevertheless provides the data needed to make content decisions.
- Answer the Public—this tool makes the list because it works differently than many others, aggregating keyword phrases into categories like “who, what, when, how, which, why.” It’s stellar at helping you understand what people are searching for and finding topics that you might miss with other tools.
- Ubersuggest—free yet powerful, Ubersuggest makes the list because it’s probably one of the most robust free keyword research tools available.
- Keyword.io—this tool stands out because it allows you to research keywords for many different platforms, including Amazon, Youtube, eBay, and even Yandex.
Best SEO software for small businesses
Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you have to skimp on SEO software. Small businesses can compete with large, well-funded businesses with the right tools (and excellent content).
- Mangools—Mangools comes out on top because of its price. It’s hard to find anything else at this price point that’s as powerful (it starts at $29/month).
- INK_—INK_ is similar to Clearscope in that it’s AI software that helps you optimize content at a lower price ($16/month for the pro version). You want to use the power of AI to optimize your content but don’t have the budget to pay for Clearscope, INK_ is your next best option.
- BrightLocal—because so many small businesses focus on local SEO, BrightLocal is a must for a wide variety of brick-and-mortar small businesses.
Best local SEO software
Local SEO is important for many small businesses, especially brick-and-mortar businesses, but even big box stores invest in local SEO. Here are the tools you need to enhance your local SEO efforts.
- Google My Business—Google My Business is the top-ranking factor on Google for local SEO. Setting up and maintaining your Google My Business account should be the first priority of your local SEO efforts.
- Bing Places for Business—Though Bing is no Google, it still has enough of a market share to make it worth investing in. Setting up your Bing Places for Business (and connecting it to your Google My Business account) ensures you’ll show up on Bing for your customers.
- BrightLocal—as one of the few all-in-one SEO tools focused on local SEO, BrightLocal makes the cut. If local SEO is important to your business, you’ll want to consider investing in this tool to guide your efforts.
- Yext—Yext has mostly been known for its local listings management service, but there’s a lot more to the modern version of Yext, including reputation management tools and various forms of site search.
Best SEO software for agencies
Agencies have unique requirements when it comes to SEO. They may need to manage their own content efforts (which might be extensive) in addition to their client’s efforts. Even if they’re just a content creation agency, they’ll still want a tool powerful enough to provide high-quality SEO-focused content for their clients.
- Ahrefs—ranked #1 by 48 experts, Ahrefs is affordable software that is powerful enough for a large agency with multiple accounts yet intuitive enough for agencies new to SEO to use and understand.
- Semrush—Semrush makes the list because of its huge toolset. It’s used by Apple, IBM, and Walmart and helps with SEO, social media, content marketing, and more.
- Sitebulb—designed for agencies, Sitebulb is a great website auditing tool that can help you deliver website audits to your clients that they can understand and act on (or have you act on for them).
- SEO PowerSuite—SEO PowerSuite is as powerful as its name suggests. Its ease of use combined with the major tools any SEO needs (rankings trackers, backlink checkers, keyword research tools, and more) make it a clear choice for agencies.
- Moz Pro—Moz Pro includes content optimization software, a site crawler, a powerful keyword research tool, and rank tracking, making it another great all-in-one tool that agencies can use for themselves and their clients.
Best SEO link-building software
Because backlinks play such a critical role in SEO, any business investing in SEO needs to have tools that assist with link building. Off-page SEO efforts are going to be more successful with the right tools in place.
- Ahrefs—Ahrefs has the world’s largest backlink index. It also has a tool called “link intersect” that shows you websites that link to the competition but not your website.
- GroupHigh—for link-building campaigns based on guest blogging or social media collaboration opportunities, GroupHigh is an essential tool. It helps you quickly find contact info for bloggers and influencers so that you don’t spend hours online searching for the same info.
- BuzzStream—BuzzStream is a CRM that helps you organize your outreach efforts so that you can stay on top of the people you’ve emailed or contacted to try to build links.
- NinjaOutreach—similar to GroupHigh, NinjaOutreach stands out because of its larger database of influencers and its focus on Instagram/YouTube.
Best SEO project management software
Project management software helps any business stay on top of all the moving parts of any SEO campaign. Choosing the right project management software ensures critical efforts don’t get forgotten or fall behind schedule.
- Asana—simple enough for anyone to pick up quickly, powerful enough to allow teams large and small to manage dozens of projects, Asana is one of the most cost-effective project management tools on the market. It has free and paid versions, but the free version is so powerful that even many agencies can get by without paying.
- Trello—Trello makes the list because, just like Asana, it’s a simple piece of software that makes customizing SEO workflows simple. With none of the complexity of some other project management software on the market, lightweight Trello is great for agencies and bloggers alike.
- Teamwork—Teamwork bills itself as easy-to-use yet powerful enough for teams of any size. Its scalability makes it a good choice for small businesses who are ready to grow, and its power makes it a good choice for medium-to-enterprise who need software that can match their larger needs.
Get a complimentary SEO audit
Choosing the right SEO tool is critical to ensuring your SEO efforts move you toward your marketing goals. Whether you need free tools to get your SEO strategies started or serious all-in-one toolsets to manage massive campaigns, let your goals dictate the tools you choose. With so many great tools on the market, it’s hard to go wrong.
Want to see how you’re doing with SEO? Get an instant SEO audit below. Or, schedule a free consultation to see how intent SEO can boost search traffic revenue by 700%.