Are you trying to keep one eye on client acquisition, another on relationship management with existing clients, another on managing SEO projects and teams, and yet another on taking your agency to the next level in future?
Running an effective SEO agency is no simple task. There are more SERP features, search engines, client expectations, and algorithm updates to accommodate than ever before.
The sheer volume of work can be overwhelming and distract even the most seasoned SEO pros from what really matters. On top of that, you can’t do it all manually, no matter the size of your team.
That’s why you need the best SEO agency software in your tech stack. So let’s explore the best tools for SEO agencies to help you make informed decisions and take your agency to new heights. 🚀
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Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is SEO Agency Software?
SEO agency software is a term used to describe SEO tools that can help you run your agency like a well-oiled machine, gather search engine intel, foster effective collaboration among teams, and manage SEO projects for your clients. It’s critical to growing a highly-effective agency business. 👌
Running an SEO agency is not just about SEO skills or expertise. Like running any other company, you also need to organize your team, collaborate in real-time or asynchronously, and track progress.
In fact, it’s fairly usual for SEO agency leaders and managers to put on many hats daily. 🧢
They audit, strategize, research, write, optimize, and communicate cross-functionally within their organization as well as external teams and clients.
So the ability to automate work as often as they can and still make time to deliver a humanized experience to clients is crucial.
This is where SEO agency software fills the gap.
These platforms simplify and automate the internal and external efforts of SEO agencies.
In other words, they let you:
✅ Build efficient workflows to manage SEO campaigns
✅ Manage content calendars
✅ Keep track of multiple campaigns
✅ Move clients through the sales funnels
✅ Control project scopes
✅ Improve team collaboration
…and more.
Summarize this article for me please10 Best SEO Agency Software in 2024
From keyword research and optimization to reporting and project management, let’s review the software that can help you run your SEO agency like a pro. 🧑💻⚡️
1. ClickUp
Best for SEO project management
When your SEO firm begins to expand, so will your team. And the best way to manage a growing SEO team and client base is effective project management.
You may already have some legacy and expensive SEO tools in place that you adopted in your early days, but that may not be best suited for a rapidly growing SEO agency. You need a project management tool to keep track of all your marketing initiatives, streamline your workflow, and allow your teams to collaborate together, even when working remotely.
This is what ClickUp is for.
ClickUp is an all-in-one project management and collaboration tool packed with advanced and flexible features to give you what you need to run a successful SEO agency.
So why is this tool useful to SEO agencies? Here are a few reasons why:
1️⃣ Project management: It offers a suite of project management features like ClickUp Docs for wikis, SOPs, content briefs, and other documentation needs. Use collaborative Whiteboards for brainstorming and strategy planning such as link building and SEO strategy, and choose from over 15 custom views to visualize your projects, including List view for managing tasks for keyword research, blog, content optimization, and more.
2️⃣ SEO content management: It lets your team gather in one place to plan, manage, and track SEO content, visualize your editorial calendar in ClickUp’s Calendar view, and more.
3️⃣ Fully customizable platform: The entire platform is customizable, letting you custom-build ClickUp to fit your unique needs and keep you organized—especially when managing and tracking multiple campaigns, projects, and clients simultaneously.
This flexibility is precisely what you need as your business grows, making ClickUp a top choice for digital marketing agencies looking to scale their efforts. 📈
4️⃣ Library of templates: If you need help getting started or are interested in upgrading your process, ClickUp offers a variety of project management templates for every use case to establish a smooth workflow and enhance your agency operations.
For instance, the SEO Research and Management Template by ClickUp lets you assign deadlines, set ETAs, and track SERP rankings from a single view, while the SEO Project Management Template by ClickUp can help you manage SEO projects from start to finish.
And to ensure no crucial SEO tasks slip through the crack, you can use the SEO Checklist Template by ClickUp to keep you on top of your to-do list, from ensuring the title tags are set up correctly to checking for broken links, and more.
Best features
- Custom views: 15+ custom views to visualize your work your way, including Embed view
- Embed view: Get a clear bird’s eye view by bringing different data sources together. With the Embed view, for example, you can fetch Google Sheets, Miro whiteboards, or Google Data Studio insights right into ClickUp. This helps your team see the big picture and discover new opportunities.
- ClickUp Goals: Stay on track to hit your goals with clear timelines, measurable targets, and automatic progress tracking
- Custom automation: Create custom automation or use pre-built recipes in ClickUp to put manual and repetitive tasks on autopilot
- Custom Fields: Add Custom Fields to keep important information visible at all times
- Recurring tasks: Save time that’s otherwise spent on many routine daily tasks. With the recurring features in ClickUp, for example, you can have a daily task set to monitor Feedly for SEO updates. Or a weekly task to audit SEO rankings for a website
- Task dependencies: With task dependencies, you can ensure that certain tasks are carried out in a particular order. For example, if a page is not live yet, you can prevent team members from linking to it from the other pages they are working on
- Custom Dashboards with real-time reporting: Build your ideal dashboard to get a high-level overview of your tasks, progress, and more
- Mobile app: Access ClickUp from anywhere at any time
- Integration capabilities: Connect ClickUp to over 1,000 other work tools to bring all your work to one place and streamline your worklow
- ClickUp AI: Use AI as an SEO tool for keyword research, content optimization, and more
Limitations
- It can take some time to get accustomed to the wide range of features
- Dashboards can’t be exported
- Some views are not available on the mobile app
Pricing
- Free Forever: Feature-rich free plan
- Unlimited: $5 per month/user
- Business: $12 per month/user
- Business Plus: $19 per month/user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7 out of 5 (5,680+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 (3,540+ reviews)
2. Ahrefs
Best for SEO analysis
Ahrefs is an all-in-one search engine optimization software that provides a comprehensive range of features such as competitor audits, keyword research, link building, and rank tracking.
It continuously crawls the web to monitor and gather a large amount of data on new and existing websites.
Best features
- Site Explorer: This tool integrates three SEO reports to display website performance in a single view, including backlink analysis, traffic from paid promotions, and organic visits
- Keywords Explorer: This keyword tool is excellent for identifying keywords as it allows you to explore keyword suggestions, assess their ranking difficulty, and estimate the traffic they can bring
- Site Audit: The Site Audit feature allows you to examine the on-page SEO of a website to catch problems that might be preventing it from ranking higher in the SERPs
- Visualization: This feature allows you to view a website’s SERP performance in a visual format. You can view metrics like average rank, number of visits, and ranking distribution
- Competitor Research: Compare your client websites’ SEO progress to its opponents over a period of time
Limitations
- Recent pricing changes have made Ahrefs SEO software costlier than before
- Some essential tools, such as local SEO, are missing
- Keyword research and suggestions could be better and more comprehensive than competitors
- Keyword rankings and search volumes are not updated on a daily basis
Pricing
- Lite: $83 per month
- Standard: $166 per month
- Advanced: $333 per month
- Agency: $833 per month
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 (450+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 (480+ reviews)
3. Google Search Console
Best for technical SEO
One of the first steps for any SEO project is to ensure that search engines can find and index your client’s website. This comes under basic technical SEO and includes factors such as internal linking, meta tags, and sitemaps.
And chances are you already know the best place to start: Google Search Console. Using this free SEO software from Google, you can understand whether your client’s website is getting crawled or facing any issues.
Best features
- Performance analytics: This feature offers valuable data regarding how your site is doing in Google searches, including traffic breakdown by countries, queries, and pages
- Website submission: Submit sitemaps and URLs. Plus, check the index coverage to ensure that Google has the most up-to-date overview of your client’s website
- Email notifications: Get alerts when Google identifies issues on your client’s website, so you can fix them promptly
- URL inspection tool: Get comprehensive crawling and indexing-related insights about your client’s pages, including structured data, AMP, and video
- Mobile usability analysis: With this report, you can evaluate and enhance your website’s mobile responsiveness with tailored analytics data
Limitations
- The interface can be confusing for beginners as it’s filled with a wide range of functions and SEO jargon
- It does not provide real-time information making users stand by for a minimum of one day to obtain website status reports
- Data is limited to 1000 rows. You’ll need paid plugins to extract more information
Pricing
- Free
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7 out of 5 (150+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8 out of 5 (140+ reviews)
4. Screaming Frog
Best for SEO audits
Screaming Frog is among the top-notch SEO agency software available in the market. It lets you scan website pages and audit technical and on-page SEO.
It’s basically an SEO software for data extraction that crawls and catalogs a complete site, including its text, meta descriptions, visuals, alt-texts, and all other things important for SEO.
It also organizes the information in a tabular format, making it presentable for your prospects and clients.
Best features
- Identify broken links: Dead links can impact your SEO by influencing the website dwell time, bounce rates, and domain authority. Screaming Frog scans your site quickly and detects server errors and dead links (404s)
- Examine headings and meta tags: Evaluate the headings and meta descriptions while scanning, and detect instances where they are lengthy, lacking in detail, absent, or repeatedly used throughout your website
- Check redirects: Detect both permanent and short-lived redirects, pinpoint redirect loops and chains, or transfer a catalog of links to check during a website transition
- Produce sitemap.xml files: Generate sitemaps and image sitemaps in XML format. You can include parameters such as priority, change frequency, and last updated date for each URL
- Find repetitive text: Find the precise permalinks with duplicate content or partly repetitive components such as headings, meta tags, or titles and discover webpages with insufficient information
- Integrations: You can connect with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights. Screaming Frog can then extract visitor and traffic insights for all your pages in a scan for a better understanding of website performance
Limitations
- When the database is large to scrape, it often consumes a lot of time, crashes, or freezes
- UI is old-fashioned and not beginner-friendly. It can overwhelm new users
- Requires extensive storage to function, scan and store information. Cloud-based alternatives not available
Pricing
- Free version: Good for crawling up to 500 URLs
- Paid version: $259 per year/license
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7 out of 5 (85+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.9 out of 5 (100+ reviews)
5. Clearscope
Best for preparing SEO content briefs
As you know, great SEO needs great content. But developing such content is not easy, especially when it comes to analyzing the top 10 search results to see why they are ranking so high or identifying what you could do better.
Fortunately, there are tools like Clearscope. It’s an AI-based SEO agency software that lets you optimize each piece of content you create.
From keyword research and word count to outlining and finalizing your draft, it helps you view how your content compares with the top 10 Google search results.
And it also makes recommendations about what words or phrases you should include in your piece.
Best features
- Keyword report: Enter a keyword and get a full analysis of the top 10 and the next 20 search results for the keyword in Google
- Text editor: Use an intuitive text editor that grades your content with respect to SEO, readability, word count, and more
- Briefing and outlining: Create SEO-focused briefs and outlines to start on the right foot and share clear expectations with writers and other people involved
- Integrations: You can fit Clearscope easily into your current workflow with features such as a Google Docs add-on, shared reports, and a WordPress plugin
- Search intent analysis: Discover new keywords and their search results to understand the intent of each keyword and modify your content plan accordingly
Limitations
- High-priced plans. Even the lowest-cost plan is not affordable for small businesses
- The UI can often lead you to accidentally generate a report when you actually just want to check a keyword
Pricing
- Essentials: $170 per month for one user
- Business: Custom pricing for five users
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.9 out of 5 (80+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.9 out of 5 (55+ reviews)
6. BuzzSumo
Best for content intelligence
Among the best ways to rank high in search engines is to identify topics and angles that are likely to gain the most backlinks and social signals. That’s where BuzzSumo comes in.
This tool is valuable for link building since it lets you easily find ideas already generating buzz in the client’s niche.
Plus, you get insights into the existing content of your client or its competitors, like which titles are getting the most social media engagement.
Best features
- Content Discovery: With this feature, SEO agencies can find the topics and trends that resonate the most with their client’s audience
- Content Research: Get valuable insights about the top-performing content, such as social media shares, traffic, and backlinks
- Find Influencers: Discover the top influencers and journalists in a niche who are most likely to link to your content or share it on social media
- Brand Monitoring: Track when your client, a competitor, or an important event gets mentioned around the web. So you can capitalize on opportunities to engage their audience or handle a crisis before it spreads further
- Competitor Intelligence: Monitor what’s working for your client’s competitors and steal their content creation or distribution strategy or improve on what they are doing
Limitations
- Based on your requirements, it can get costly
- The interface can be difficult to use and overwhelming for novices
- The data is often not as relevant as expected and requires a lot of filtering
Pricing
- Basic: $95 per month for one user
- Content Creation: $199 per month for five users
- PR & Comms: $199 per month for five users
- Suite: $319 per month for 10 users
- Enterprise: $999 per month for 30 users
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5 out of 5 (90+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 (135+ reviews)
7. Mailshake
Best for link building outreach
There’s no point in creating epic content if no one gets to see it. And to expose it to a wide audience, you need an email outreach and link building tool. That’s what Mailshake is — a cold email platform to promote your SEO content.
With Mailshake, you can run personalized mail merge campaigns with automatic follow-up emails. Besides that, you can also dial phone calls and engage your client’s audience on social media.
Best features
- Personalized email delivery: Apart from email addresses, you can upload personal details of your contacts, such as name, website, and so on, to give your emails a human touch
- Automatic follow-ups: Create and schedule follow-up messages for your campaign only once, and Mailshake will keep sending them on your behalf until you get a response
- Data analytics: You can view metrics like open and reply rates to see and compare how all of your email campaigns are performing
- Live campaign management: This means that you can tweak the settings of your campaign while it’s running to fix any mistakes or apply improvements promptly
- Pre-written templates: Mailshake has an extensive library of proven messages for various use cases that you can use out of the box
Limitations
- The existing version only supports G Suite and Gmail inboxes
- It’s a bit pricier than other similar software
Pricing
- Email Outreach plan: $58 per month/user
- Sales Engagement plan: $83 per month/user
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7 out of 5 (200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 (99+ reviews)
8. BrightLocal
Best for local SEO
For businesses with brick-and-mortar stores, local SEO is a highly effective way to promote them on the web. BrightLocal is an all-in-one local citation and SEO software that delivers valuable data for the client’s company.
With BrightLocal, you can gain a comprehensive overview of rankings in a particular area, identify SEO problems, and leverage personalized, brandable reports and customer access portals.
Best features
- Reputation Manager: This solution enables you to cultivate, track, and address buyer reviews on multiple sites. It also lets you convert favorable feedback into compelling social proof
- Audit local SEO: With this tool, you can analyze your client’s local presence and identify SEO problems that require attention and recommendations for improvement
- Citation Builder: This program quickly and precisely submits and tracks your client’s listing on local citations and data aggregator platforms
- Local Rank Tracker: You can obtain a comprehensive overview of local web rankings and identify the most effective ways to improve them
- White-label everything: Make an impression as a local SEO specialist with brandable SEO documents. Each document can be completely personalized to display the most important performance indicators
- Social media integration: With its third-party connections to Facebook and Twitter, you can track client sites’ progress on the web. For example, you can monitor an increase in the number of views, followers, and likes. This helps your clients boost engagement and strengthen social signals
Limitations
- The platform and its analytics system can be sluggish and glitchy at times.
- Wide range of integrations make the interface a bit daunting
- You cannot incorporate several regions and their keywords in one ranking report
Pricing
- Single Business: $24.17 per month
- Multi Business: $40.83 per month
- SEO Pro: $65.83 per month
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 (190+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8 out of 5 (230+ reviews)
9. Zoom
Best for team and client communication
Depending on the competition, a successful SEO strategy can take months to years for the results to show. This makes it crucial for SEO companies to maintain constant contact with their partners.
Zoom is among the most well-known choices for picking a dependable video conferencing platform for your agency.
Zoom offers a variety of cloud-based video meeting features, such as high-definition video and voice features, a phone dialer, and Zoom Rooms. Zoom also provides limitless VOIP with toll-free calling in over 60 nations.
Best features
- Audio transcripts: If you prefer to maintain a written record of a meeting’s discussions, then Zoom’s Transcribe function can create a written record of your conference’s voices and save it as a .VTT file
- Virtual background: Select from a collection of built-in backdrops, or utilize your own background images to give a professional impression
- Screen sharing: You can engage in two-person or bigger team conferences and broadcast your screen. Also, if you are presenting, you have the option to show your entire screen or specific windows
- Recording: You can record meetings for later reference. And the recordings can be saved locally or on the cloud
- Single sign-on: With the Single-sign-on feature, signing in to conferences becomes a seamless and consistent process for all employees of your company
- Whiteboards: Zoom provides a shareable whiteboard that allows the admin and, with authorized access, attendees to annotate. This feature is perfect for group discussions and working together on projects
Limitations
- Mobile app is not as user-friendly as the web application
- Occasionally, there are delays and disruptions in the audio and video
- Somewhat outdated user interface
Pricing
- Basic: Free
- Pro: $149.90 per year/user
- Business: $199.90 per year/user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5 out of 5 (52,500+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6 out of 5 (13,400+ reviews)
10. Proposify
Best for creating SEO proposals
Making and sharing proposals is one of the most laborious parts of an SEO agency’s sales cycle. Proposify can come to your rescue. It lets sales professionals produce, deliver, monitor, and electronically sign contracts, agreements, and proposals.
With this SEO agency software, you can gain valuable data to optimize your workflow, conduct prompt interactions, make precise predictions, and provide a smooth sign-off experience for your clients.
As a result, your employees can save many hours otherwise spent on tedious activities and focus on their core strength: closing deals.
Best features
- Content Library: This platform offers a repository of readymade examples, pictures, and other content. Users can arrange product summaries, success stories, segments, and visuals by folders and filters to enable effortless access for everyone
- Design Editor: With this feature, you can give your agency’s distinct branding and design to your proposals. From font choices to photos and videos, your identity remains consistent and ready to make an impact
- Role Management: Grant permissions to only necessary information, allowing agents to prepare deals more quickly and significantly minimizing the risk of expensive mistakes.
- Metrics: Gain valuable data on potential customers’ engagement with your contracts and identify potential obstacles preventing a successful deal. Determine which segments of your proposal are receiving the most attention and which may require further improvement
- Notifications and reminders: Receive real-time notifications when your proposal gets more engagement, allowing you to determine the optimal time for your next step. You can get updates on payment processing, sign-offs, views, and so on
Limitations
- There are often problems with editing and saving documents. The interface may feel clunky and finicky at times
- Duplicating specific parts, such as copying and pasting tables, can be difficult
Pricing
- Team plan: $49 per user/month
- Business plan: Starts at $590 per month for 10 users
Customer ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6 out of 5 (900+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 (260+ reviews)
Summarize this article for me pleaseUse SEO Tools to Level Up Your Workflow and Marketing Efforts
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be extremely time-consuming and difficult to manage if you’re working with several clients at once.
But the good news is you can take your pick from the options above and use the SEO agency software that makes the most sense for your team.
By using these tools to streamline your workflow, track your progress, and stay on top of the latest industry best practices, you can deliver better client results and grow your agency.
And if you’re looking for a solution to manage all your client and internal projects in one place, ClickUp can help you do that and more.
It’s a powerful tool to help your teams easily manage projects from start to finish and improve overall productivity. It’s free to get started—give ClickUp a try and see the difference it can make for your SEO agency. 🧑💻⚡️
Guest Writer:
Hitesh Sahni is a marketing consultant, copywriter, and founder of Smemark, an award-winning content marketing, SEO, and PPC agency for brands in the B2B/SaaS space.
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