Whether you are just getting started with SEO for your agency, or you’re trying to polish an existing SEO strategy, several software services are available to help you reach your goals in a timely fashion.
Follow along to learn more about what SEO software is, which software is going to best suit your agency’s needs, and get some tips on free tools that you can start using today.
What Is SEO Software for Agencies?
SEO software for agencies is either a software as a service (SaaS) or another tool that helps an agency boost its online presence via both organic and paid search optimization methods.
These tools make life easier for those working inside busy agencies that may not have the financial resources to outsource some of the more tedious elements of SEO.
But, not all SEO software is created equally. Let’s talk about the best SEO software for agencies and what you might get out of these tools and platforms.
Best SEO Software for Digital Agencies
Below, you’ll find a list of SEO software services grouped by the different elements of SEO work. We have also included some free tools you can start using right off the bat.
Free tools
The best tools in life are free. Here are a few that can help you jumpstart your agency’s strategy right away.
1. Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a fantastic, free Chrome extension that allows you to get a high-level glimpse at how a keyword is performing. You’ll see search volume metrics and cost-per-click (CPC) price of the keywords you search for right in the Google search engine results pages (SERPs).
Main features:
- Data on search volume
- CPC
- Keyword Suggestions
- Related terms
- Visibility metrics
- On page data
- Ability to create keyword collections for later reference
- Export .csv files
How this tool can help your agency: This tool allows you to stay on the Google SERPs, which is great for busy agency marketers. Keyword Surfer makes it easy to conduct fast keyword searches before a client pitch, generate a lot of new content ideas quickly, and get a sense of how much the paid advertising will cost.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free Google feature that offers data on the globe’s (or a selected region’s) search habits and trends. Look up single keywords, or compare several keywords against one another.
Main features:
- Interpret aggregated, raw data on the latest search trends from across the globe
- Get search term comparisons
- Discover rising trends
How this tool can help your agency: Agencies need to generate a lot of marketing ideas, and this tool can help you see where to focus. Narrow or widen your search depending on whether you are servicing U.S.-based or international customers. Track trends and be the first to discover new, highly relevant topics.
3. Semrush (Free Account)
A free Semrush account offers at least a dozen features that make the day-to-day tasks associated with running SEO for your agency that much easier. While there are limits to the functionality of a free account, you can complete keyword research, schedule posts, generate new content ideas, and more.
Main features: see a full list of features/limitations to the free account here.
How this tool can help your agency: A free Semrush account grants you access to keyword research, content optimization, technical SEO assistance, and performance tracking. If you don’t have the time to switch back and forth between a dozen SEO software platforms, this is an excellent all-in-one tool.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO software will help you with tasks like site auditing, building website architecture, improving user and mobile experience, and more.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a must-have for agencies that monitor and report on clients’ site health. This tool tells you when issues arise with indexing and crawling, and you can easily generate reports on your findings.
Main features:
- Find and fix indexing and crawling errors
- Submit updated content to Google’s index
- See core web vitals
- Get mobile usability testing
- Discover data on website clicks, impressions, and other info categorized by country, device, and date
- Do URL inspection
How this tool can help your agency: With Google Search Console you will have a granular, rich pool of data about your clients’ websites. The reporting feature also makes it easy to share your insights during kick-off calls and quarterly meetings.
Price: free
2. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is web crawler software that determines if and where site issues are arising from a technical SEO perspective—an essential component of a holistic SEO site audit. This desktop application helps find sneaky errors that might otherwise slip through the cracks.
Main features:
- Find faulty URLs, response codes, and canonicals
- Identify missing meta keywords and descriptions
- Flag large images
- Diagnose pagination errors
- Get a granular look at a site’s architecture
How this tool can help your agency: Performing a holistic site audit is very time-consuming. Multiply that by dozens of client sites, audits become a huge lift for most agencies. This makes the technical lift of checking crawlability much faster and easier.
Price: Screaming Frog has both free and paid versions of its software. You can get info on the limitations of the free version here. The cost for the paid version is $209 U.S. dollars per year.
3. Google Analytics
If there is one tool that is non-negotiable for agencies to have and know how to use, it’s Google Analytics. Google Analytics (GA) connects with your (or a client’s) website to give you the most accurate information about how your site is performing in search (both paid and organic). Without GA, you’ll have to rely solely on third-party analytics to get the information you are looking for, and often that doesn’t give you the complete picture.
If you’re interested in learning more about GA’s latest version, G4, enroll in this free course with SEO expert Jeff Sauer.
Main features:
- Get data on users, sessions, time on page, pages per session, bounce rate, page views, and more
- Track when your visitors complete certain goals you set
- Segment your conversions
- Implement APIs for data collection
- Integrate with other Google products
- Generate detailed reports on a number of different technical SEO elements
How this tool can help your agency: Google Analytics is vital for agencies. Without this data stream, you won’t be able to monitor or report on how your clients’ sites are performing. Plus, GA allows for API integration and connects with other Google products.
Price: free
On-Page optimization
On-page optimization refers to SEO tactics that impact your owned web assets—in other words, your website and the pages on it. By optimizing these, which are easier to control, you improve your user experience. This helps the overall ranking of your content in Google’s search results.
1. On-Page SEO Checker from Semrush
The On-Page SEO Checker provides a structured list of things you could do to improve the ranks of pages on your website. With this tool you can access on-page SEO ideas, semantically related words to include on your pages, and target content length and readability.
Main features:
- Enjoy a user-friendly interface and workflow for beginners
- Find low-hanging fruit when importing data from other sources (Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Organic Research, Position Tracking, Excel file)
- Determine clear prioritization of your to-do list based on how to make the most impact in the shortest amount of time
- Benchmark against your rivals in the top-10 results
- Generate ideas to target SERP features
- Create an Idea Tasks report to follow your trend of recommendations over time
How this tool can help your agency: With On Page Checker you can perform a number of content-related tasks in one place. It’s easy to use, so even junior marketers on the job can use it to complete client work.
Pricing: For a full list of pricing and subscription options, click here.
2. Unbounce Landing Page Builder
Unbounce is a software that creates landing pages for you. Instead of directing traffic to just a general home page, you can help keep the end user focused by generating aesthetic, functional landing pages for individual products or services.
Main functions:
- Select from multiple builders depending on skill level
- Get data insights on the performance of your work
- Optimize your pages based on real numbers and data
- Create functional pages without coding
- Use the classic builder’s dynamic text replacement feature to automatically change copy to match the ad your visitor just clicked
How this tool can help your agency: Unbounce makes the work of generating website collateral much faster and easier for agencies. If you’re producing a lot of web assets for clients throughout the month, Unbounce claims it can cut your build time in half.
Price: Unbounce has several levels of subscription services ranging from $90 USD a month to $575 USD a month. They also offer a free trial.
3. SEO Writing Assistant from Semrush
With SEO Writing Assistant, drop a copy into the tool, and in turn, it generates a matrix score of your work based on four factors. You will also get tips and ideas on how to improve the SEO quality of your content.
Main features:
- Establish and maintain the brand tone of voice
- Polish your article before publication
- Make your article more user-friendly and easier to read
- Assess your article’s overall SEO quality
How this tool can help your agency: If you’re struggling to get your clients’ content to rank in the SERPs, use the SEO Writing Assistant to create new content, or optimize existing content to better align with your end user’s intent. It’s a fast and easy way to gain some momentum in the SERPs for your clients.
Price: Click here for Semrush’s price plans.
Off-Page Optimization
Off-page optimization refers to managing external assets that are not owned by your clients. Off-page can involve things like link building, PR opportunities, responding to reviews on sites like Yelp, and more.
1. Backlink Analytics from Semrush
The Backlink Analytics tool offers an in-depth look at your clients’ backlink profiles. With this tool, monitor and segment backlinks that might be negatively impacting a site’s SEO, and find opportunities to gain a follow link on existing no-follow links.
Main features:
- Get reports on competitors that share backlinks most similar to yours
- Leverage the quick comparison feature to make competitor research simple
- Monitor referring domains, IPs, and anchor texts
- Find a competitor’s top-performing pages in terms of acquiring backlinks
How this tool can help your agency: Backlink building and monitoring is a task-heavy part of maintaining client sites. This tool gives your agency a 36,000-foot view of what is happening with the websites you help maintain.
Price: See the full list of Semrush plans and pricing here.
2. SEOquake
SEOquake is a browser plugin that allows you, with one click, to get dozens of SEO data points on sites you are browsing.
Main features:
- Get page info, traffic analytics, backlink data, and more
- Use audit information to assess a site’s health at-a-glance
- Easily click on one of several tabs to get more in-depth info on on-site diagnostics, density metrics, page info, and backlinks
How this tool can help your agency: This plugin is a great install-and-go tool that gives you at-a-glance information. Use this extension to track competitor sites and make discoveries about developments in a client’s given industry.
Price: free
3. Qwoted
Qwoted is a multifaceted public relations (PR) platform that offers everything from touch points with vetted industry experts and journalists to helping small businesses source publication opportunities.
Main features:
- Find media coverage that drives business to your site
- Increase your visibility with thought leadership opportunities
- Leverage data and insights that will help you shape your reputation management strategy
- Increase visibility with influencers and the media seeking industry insights
How this tool can help your agency: If you have a client operating in a saturated market, this tool can be especially helpful in sourcing media and PR opportunities without much manual searching on your agency’s part.
Price: Qwoted has several levels of service ranging from a free version to customized subscription services. See its pricing models here.
Keyword Research
As an agency, nothing is more fundamental and critical than keyword research. With the right software, you can help boost your clients’ content in the SERPs without dedicating too many resources to the task of sourcing keywords.
1. Keyword Magic Tool from Semrush
The Keyword Magic Tool is one of the most popular and powerful keyword research tools that Semrush offers. It gives you access to a huge database of over 20 billion keywords and a user-friendly interface for organizing research on the go. Enter one word or phrase into the search bar and you will get a responsive table with related search terms broken down into topic-specific subgroups.
Main features:
- Get a massive keyword database with global keyword research possibilities
- Use metrics like total volume and keyword difficulty to determine the likelihood of ranking for those search terms
- Easily find new opportunities by looking at the grouping of target keywords into subgroups by topic
- Use the questions-only filter to find keywords that ask questions
- Monitor which SERP features are present on each keyword’s results page
- Easily complete tasks with simple filtering, sorting, and difficulty analysis capabilities to facilitate the complete keyword research process
- Organize your lists of queries for different projects or websites you’re working on
How this tool can help your agency: Keyword research is non-negotiable in agency work. The Keyword Magic tool helps eliminate much of the guesswork in content strategy for your clients. You can easily source new keyword opportunities and dazzle your clients by offering fresh angles on content that their readers want to see.
Price: Here is a full breakdown of Semrush pricing.
2. AlsoAsked
AlsoAsked is an SEO software solution that gives you a matrix of search terms related to the one you want to target. The visualization helps you map out what your end user’s search journey might look like.
Main features:
- Conduct a related keyword search broken down by language, location, and depth of search
- Use your findings to craft better PPC ad copy
- Structure client content more effectively
- Get more targeted traffic from long-tail search terms
- Import a list of keywords from a CSV for large keyword research jobs
How this tool can help your agency: No more guessing what else end users might be searching—this tool tells you. Use the data to form impressive content strategies to share with clients.
Price: AlsoAsked has several tiers of service ranging from $15 USD a month to $59 USD a month.
3. Keyworddit
Keyworddit, as the name suggests, is a tool that allows you to mine keyword insights from Reddit.
Reddit has become a very important and popular piece of the SEO puzzle in recent years. Many users make search queries with the word “Reddit” attached to the end (e.g., “Best bikes Reddit” results in user-generated reviews of the best bikes on the market).
With Keyworddit, type in the name of a Subreddit that’s aligned with your client’s industry. The tool will then generate the most popular search terms used in that Subreddit.
Main features:
- Get the monthly U.S. search volume of terms on the Subreddits you choose
- See the context that the search results were used in to better understand what potential end users are looking for
- Export your data easily for presentations and content generation
- How this tool can help your agency: Reddit is a wildly popular aggregate site that many users trust to give them honest reviews of products and services. Agencies can leverage the search terms used in these subreddits to create and better align their clients’ content assets.
Price: free
Choosing the Right SEO Platform for Your Agency
Hopefully, by now you feel empowered to try out a few of these tools. Not only to help your own agency grow its customer base but also to help your clients get better SEO results from some of the best SEO software for agencies on the market.
If your agency is looking to grow and manage your client roster, the Agency Growth Kit was designed for your needs. Find out how you can attract new clientele, manage your portfolio of clients, easily produce white-label reports, and so much more by taking a look at our Agency Growth Kit breakdown, here.