Types of SEO and SEM Software

Due to the changing SEO and SEM landscape, vendors use different avenues to distinguish themselves based on their whitehat SEO solutions, drawing a user base roughly proportional to the strength of their product offerings.

• Keyword research: Products focused on keyword research often allow you to track keyword rankings, know what keywords your competitors are targeting and identify the most relevant keywords for your business.
• Backlink Tracking: Backlink tracking often helps you identify the links driving maximum traffic to your website. Most products send automated email notifications whenever backlinks are created or removed. You can also compare your link growth over a period of time with that of your competitors. More advanced products make link management easier by keeping your link data, including tags, expiration dates and disavow links status, in one place.
• Competitor analysis: SEO software allows you to analyze your competitors’ search engine strategy with a view to reverse engineer their efforts.
• Content exploration: Explore content that currently ranks well on the search engine and the keywords it ranks for.
• Paid advertising: Within the SEM space, you might use software to improve and optimize your paid search campaigns.

How to choose SEO or SEM software for your business

Choosing SEO and SEM software will largely depend on the features you plan to make use of. If you’re looking to improve your paid advertising, then an SEM software solution will be right for you. If you’re not interested in paid advertising, but want to improve your organic search results, an SEO software solution will be a good choice.

Small businesses usually look for a combo package which has a mix of different solutions. For instance, a startup without a dedicated SEO team may look for a smart combination of self-service tools, including a keyword research tool, a rank checking tool, and a website crawler.

Large enterprises generally look for an end-to-end solution that combines the best features of every solution. For instance, you may need a single product for checking daily rankings, creating customized reports, monitoring competitors and doing domain analysis, among other things.

Key features that all users should consider when deciding on a solution are as follows:

• Workflow – Does the software offer customized reporting, bulk uploads of data, or automation and alerts
• Optimization and reporting options – Consider whether your business needs basic or advanced reporting and optimization features. You may want to check if the software solution offers, for example, conversion tracking, data insights, or attribution.
• Integrations – Advanced SEO and SEM software products will allow users to integrate with other tools, allowing them to conduct a variety of duties such as influencer outreach or even lead management. When choosing an SEO or SEM software solution, consider whether the platform supports cross-channel opportunities and real-time integration.

Benefits of SEO and SEM Software

SEO Software

Improve your organic search engine visibility. When you use SEO software, you will be able to understand which keywords are easy best to rank for within your specific niche. You will be able to tailor your content towards those keywords and acquire backlinks from sites with high domain authority to increase your overall organic search visibility.

Gain greater insight into yours and your competitor’s current SEO efforts. SEO software will provide you with the intelligence needed to analyze both your own and your competitors entire SEO strategy. You can then use this intelligence to improve and refine your own efforts to rank higher than the competitors in your industry for the keywords of your choice.

SEM Software

Reduce overall paid advertising spend. SEM software solutions that help you optimize and refine your ads when used with SEO leads to a decrease in cost per click (CPC) and an increase in click-through rate.

Raises brand awareness. When used properly, SEM will get your ads in front of your target audience with content that is highly relevant to them, all for free until they click on your ad. The higher you rank in the search engines, the higher the number of people who visit your website.

Common Features of SEO & SEM Software