The best SEO tools for agencies

At the top of the list is Semrush, an all-in-one digital marketing tool suite for individuals, professionals, and agencies. It specializes in search engine optimization, content marketing, social media campaigns, advertising, and digital market research. This is the platform for tracking multi-channel projects from a centralized dashboard.

The dashboard is exhaustive on the SEO front, with tools for keyword research, rank tracking, competitive intelligence, site audit, backlink analysis, and content optimization.

But that’s not all. What sets Semrush apart from other all-in-one SEO platforms is the comprehensive analytics provided by its built-in tools.

For instance, you can draw in-depth insights from seed terms, key phrases, and URLs when conducting keyword research. The resulting reports provide:

• Traffic analytics for each keyword
• Keyword difficulty scores
• Links to the best ranking pages for each keyword
• Alternative keyword suggestions

These analytics work in tandem with Semrush’s rank tracker, allowing you to monitor how your clients’ sites perform across various search keywords.

Link builders will appreciate the domain profile analytics provided by Semrush’s backlink analytics tool. Meanwhile, site auditors can use it to identify issues such as slow-loading pages, missing headers, SSL problems, and duplicate content.

Key features

• Site auditing 
• Rank tracking
• Organic traffic insights
• Organic keyword research 
• On-page SEO analysis
• Log file analyzer
• Link building analytics
• Domain overview
• Bulk analysis
• Backlink analytics
• SEO content writing assistant
• Readability checker
• PPC keyword analysis
• Client portal

Pricing

Some argue that Semrush is one of the best free SEO tools since it can support a single project at no cost. However, marketing agencies must pay for a premium package based on the number of projects they intend to run simultaneously.

If you opt for monthly billing, Semrush’s Pro option allows up to 5 projects for $119.95 per month, Guru allows up to 15 projects for $229.95 per month, and Business requires payment of $449.95 per month.

Pros and cons

Ahrefs started as a backlink index, but it has since grown to become one of the best SEO tool suites available. It is even competing with Semrush for the title of the ultimate all-in-one platform.

Ahrefs’ success lies in its structured system as a multifaceted SEO platform. It includes automated tools for researching content ideas, tracking search rankings, auditing websites, exploring keyword ideas, and analyzing backlinks – everything you need to grow.

The tools on Ahrefs load quickly, providing an excellent user experience with a well-designed interface that never feels overwhelming. Additionally, each tool is feature-rich and has unique elements not seen in competing solutions. For instance, their site auditor has features such as the structure explorer, segmentation, and internal link opportunities report, all of which are unique and excellently crafted. You almost forget it is part of an all-in-one tool.

However, Ahrefs’ suite of tools is less comprehensive than that of Semrush. Upon logging into its dashboard, you’ll notice that Ahrefs provides fewer SEO tools. For instance, Semrush offers content briefing, writing assistants, post tracking, social inboxes, and local SEO tools, none of which Ahrefs does.

For experienced digital marketers and full-service agencies, the range of tools Semrush offers may be a better investment if the above tools are helpful.

Ahrefs is incredibly powerful, which makes it easy to justify the compromise of a smaller selection of tools. A third-party study found Ahrefsbot to be the second most active bot after Googlebot.

Ahrefs stands out from other SEO tools by offering keyword research data from various search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Daum, Yandex, YouTube, Amazon, Seznam, and Naver. In contrast, Semrush is limited to Google.

Agencies that prioritize data over a wide range of tools will find Ahrefs to be an ideal SEO tool. Ahrefs provides valuable insights from its massive database, which includes over 19 billion keywords, 10 billion content posts, 509 million search queries, 384 billion web pages, 3.4 trillion backlinks, and 26.5 trillion internal links.

One of Ahrefs’ most attractive features is its massive data, which is showcased on its big data page.

Key features

• Rank tracker
• Content explorer
• Keywords explorer
• Competitor intelligence
• Site audit
• Backlink checker
• Broken link checker 
• Batch analysis
• Organic traffic analysis
• Content gap analysis

Pricing

While Ahrefs offers a brilliant free tier, agencies may feel restricted by its limitations. Upgrading to one of its premium plans is recommended to unlock more features. For instance, the Lite package is available for $99 a month, while the Standard package, which includes bulk analysis, is priced at $199 a month. The Advanced plan, priced at $399 monthly, offers even more advanced features. However, the Enterprise plan comes at a higher cost of $999 a month.

Pros and cons

Once you have boosted your clients’ sites with the help of Semrush and Ahrefs, consider using ContentKing to monitor any new developments that might negatively affect their status quo.

ContentKing runs continuously in the background, unlike regular site audit tools that run on a schedule. Its alert system can message you via Slack or email, making it easy to recognize its benefits.

You’ll get insights on technical on-page issues that could compromise your project site’s rankings. These include missing headings, meta description changes, incorrect canonical links, non-indexable pages, and broken links, among others.

In addition, ContentKing has a log file integration that confirms the last time Google crawled each of your client’s websites.

Key features

• Real-time dashboards
• Segmentation
• Log file analysis
• Custom extraction
• SEO change tracking
• Website change tracking
• SEO error flagging
• Technical SEO audits
• Easy to use API
• Data studio integration

Pricing

Pricing here varies according to your selected user plan and the number of web pages you intend to monitor. 

Basic, Standard, Pro, and Enterprise are the four plans on offer, and they all allow you to define your web page quota. You may end up paying anything from $33 to over $550 monthly. 

Pros and cons

Keyword Insights is ranked fourth on our list of the best SEO tools for agencies. This platform takes keyword research to a new level with the help of AI.

The AI analyzes search data to generate multiple keyword ideas and then groups them based on similarity. This helps you prioritize your SEO strategy.

You can discover the best keywords for your target niche, cluster them on your website, and structure your content appropriately.

For example, if you have a particular keyword in mind, you can start with the Keyword Discovery section. Keyword Insights will review your seed term and expand it into thousands of related terms.

If your agency has already developed a list of keywords, you can use the Keyword Clustering feature to separate them into groups of terms that go well together. This allows you to determine which keywords should be targeted on the same page and which need a dedicated page to rank.

Key features

• AI-driven keyword clustering
• Data-backed content briefs
• Search intent prediction
• Keyword cannibalization avoidance
• Generation of related keywords

Pricing

The Keyword Insights platform is available in pay-as-go and subscription-based packages. 

The pay-as-go option allows users to define their keyword cluster limits, starting at $0.80 for 50 credits. 

Most agencies, however, would probably be more interested in the long-term subscription plans – which start at $49 per month for 6,000 credits. 

Pros and cons

Botify is a digital marketing tool that excels at auditing large, dynamic websites at an enterprise scale with high accuracy. This makes it an ideal SEO audit tool for agencies; however, if you’re not an agency or large company, it’s highly likely Botify won’t be suitable (mostly due to price).

Botify’s SEO audit tool suite includes a super-fast cloud-based site crawler that can crawl up to 250 URLs per second. However, it’s important to check with your server infrastructure team first.

Botify can also render JavaScript, making it suitable for single-page applications (SPAs). Additionally, it provides log files that show how search engine crawlers view your sites.

By crawling your website, Botify provides comprehensive data on over 1,000 metrics to help you audit your site. This data can help you identify all possible issues across each stage of the organic search funnel, from indexing to conversion.

However, running these audits can be costly for high-volume agencies, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars monthly.

Key features

• Log analyzer
• Site crawler
• Engagement analytics
• Recommendations for fixing SEO problems
• 1,000+ metrics from every phase of search – crawl, render, index, rank, and convert
• SERP rank tracking
• Keyword research
• Content analytics
• Custom reports

Pros and cons

Just as Botify is painstakingly thorough with SEO auditing, so is AccuRanker regarding rank tracking. 

AccuRanker is a powerful tool leading digital marketing agencies use to analyze their keyword rankings, ranking history, and competitors’ rankings. You can use it to track SERPs on both Google Search and Bing. It provides the keyword rankings by location, language, and device.

The tool also shows the top competitors for each keyword and the corresponding competitor landscape changes. It further utilizes its proprietary AI model to estimate the CTR of SERP placements. This helps calculate the amount of organic traffic the clients’ sites can attract.

AccuRanker also calculates the value of organic traffic in dollars, tracks competitor landscape changes through data cubing and facilitates dynamic filtering of ranking keywords. It uses the Share of Voice (SoV) indicator as an aggregate KPI of the overall SERP performance.

Key features

• Pixel tracking
• Daily and on-demand keyword rankings update
• Dynamic tagging
• Organic traffic value analytics 
• Share of Voice (SoV) indicator
• SERP CTR prediction
• Tracking of both desktop and mobile search rankings
• Historical SERP insights
• Competitor index intelligence
• Segmentation and data cubing
• Google Grump

Pricing

Accuranker will cost anything from $116 to over $2,700 per month – based on the number of keywords you’ll be tracking.

Pros and cons

Research shows that marketing agencies typically use multiple data-driven tools for their client’s projects. This can be overwhelming to manage.

Fortunately, Supermetrics provides an automated solution. Its API aggregates data from over 100 platforms and channels it to external analytics, reporting, and data visualization tools

Connect Supermetrics to the top SEO tools in your agency and configure it to import and combine their marketing data. Supermetircs will send this combined data to your chosen third-party reporting and analytics tools.

Marketing agencies use Supermetrics to send their centralized SEO data to spreadsheets like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, data integration platforms like Snowflake and Google BigQuery, and business intelligence tools like Power BI and Tableau.

Key features

• Connect your data sources in minutes
• Integrates data from 100+ platforms
• Templates and charts
• Channel your marketing data into multiple destinations
• Custom reports and automations

Pricing

What you end up paying here depends on the type of destinations in your agency’s data workflow. 

If, for instance, you intend to aggregate data to Google Sheets, the pricing starts at €99 per month.   

Pros and cons

Marketing Miner is a powerful tool for managing large volumes of data. Unlike Supermetrics, it has made it to the list of the best agency SEO tools due to its bulk analysis capabilities. It is an all-inclusive SEO suite with over 40 cloud-based tools, capable of simultaneously analyzing up to 100,000 keywords, URLs, and domains.

The SERP analysis tool of Marketing Miner allows you to paste a list of up to 100,000 keywords. The system then provides organic search insights, such as the top 10 sites ranking for each keyword, their meta descriptions, page titles, and structured data.

Marketing Miner’s bulk analysis can benefit SEO Agencies while reviewing SERPs ads, backlinks, rankings, keyword difficulty, broken links, indexing status, search volume, landing pages, and loading speeds. There is even more to explore!

Marketing Miner is a great addition to your agency’s toolbelt. It allows you to access and analyze bulk data in a spreadsheet, allowing you to create something unique.

Screenshots

Key features

• Easy to use REST API
• Simultaneous analysis of up to 100,000 keywords, domains, or URLs
• Indexing status checker
• SERP position tracker
• Over 10 endpoints for extracting data
• Monthly search volume analysis
• Keyword research
• Discover link building opportunities
• Projects API
• Page speed analysis

Pricing

Marketing Miner offers a free package with up to 1,000 credits per month. However, this option is only suitable for individuals, not marketing firms. Agencies often need premium packages.

Miner is the cheapest package, costing $29 monthly for 100k credits. Digger costs $59 a month for 1 million credits. Machine charges $99 for 2 million credits. The custom plan can provide up to 10 million credits for $233 a month.

Pros and cons

Clients appreciate receiving reports, but they can be time-consuming for agencies to create. As your agency grows and serves more clients, this challenge can increase. An effective reporting solution should inform clients about their website’s progress, the return on investment from each campaign, and what to anticipate in the future. The chosen tool should also use automation as much as possible to minimize time wastage.

Agency Analytics has developed an automated cloud-based reporting solution that streamlines the reporting process for both parties. The solution offers customizable report dashboards that integrate your agency’s SEO tools and import the combined analytics.

Clients can log into the tool and view real-time reports of their projects from the account dashboard.

Features

• White-labeled reporting
• Customizable dashboards and reports
• Drag-and-drop report builder
• Dashboard widgets
• Over 70 marketing integrations and growing
• Fully automated data handling
• Client-facing portals
• Track staff workflows
• Data visualization

Pricing

Freelancers can get the cheapest pricing plan for $12 a month per client campaign, with a minimum of 5 campaigns per account.

SEO agencies should consider the recommended package, which costs $18 a month per client campaign, with a minimum of 10 campaigns per account.

Pros and cons

Sistrix is an ideal tool for SEO agencies. It offers a comprehensive suite of features, data-driven insights, and ease of use.

It provides a robust keyword analysis tool that helps SEO professionals identify high-potential keywords, track rankings over time, and understand the competitive landscape. This information is vital for creating targeted content strategies and improving organic search performance.

The Visibility Index is a standout feature of Sistrix. It measures a website’s search performance across a large database of keywords, some refreshed daily, others weekly. You can annotate the visibility index chart with your own custom events, which is useful for noting noteworthy updates to a site. The visibility index lets agencies monitor the effectiveness of their efforts, compare their clients’ progress against competitors, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Features

• Keyword analysis
• Visibility Index
• Backlink analysis
• On-page SEO audit
• Mobile SEO
• International SEO
• Social signals
• Competitor analysis
• Rank tracking
• API access