Search engine optimisation requires the right knowledge, the right skills, as well as the best SEO tools.
To be able to work efficiently and know everything about a given website and its competitors, you will need to have the right Search Engine Optimisation solutions at your disposal, in the form of software or sites. So, here’s a little list that could come in handy if you need to analyse a website or perform an SEO audit.
The various types of tools introduced below:
- Position Tracking Tools
- Backlinks Analysis Tools
- Web Crawlers
- Keyword Generators
- Performance Analysis Tools
- Statistics and Metrics Tools
- Log Analysis Tools
- Semantic Analysis Tools
Position Tracking Tools
Have you always wanted to know your website’s or your competitor’s rank with just a few clicks? Then, what you need are SEO tools designed specifically for rank tracking. These allow you to assess your position without having to spend days on Google doing it by hand.
Online browser tools, software to install on your computer, free or paid services, restricted or unlimited… There are many solutions available on the market. Let’s get acquainted with them.
MONITORANK
This is a brand-new French rank tracking tool which comes with many functionalities. Not only does this SEO tool track your positions for a simple keyword, but it also allows you to monitor all your competitors and to see the main differences among the first 100 positions. This is a great way to see whether other websites are implementing SEO strategies.
PRICE
This solution is one of the cheapest on the market and comes in at 5 cents per keyword, tops. This means you’ll be able to get a 100-keyword package for only €4.90 (degressive rates over twelve months), or 10,000 keywords for €400.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Daily data update
- Many settings: mobile, geolocation, video, image, etc.
- A really cost-effective SEO tool and a free offer to give it a try
- Ranking history charts
- Configurable email notification system
- SERP forecast
- Muli-account feature
- Allows you to see how other actors rank on one or several searches, as well as their ups and downs
- You can track your competitors
- Gives you site ranking data, including Majestic SEO
- Allows you to monitor searches for which a URL or domain stands out
- It just got API
DOWNSIDES
- The interface can sometimes be a bit too complicated
- Quite a learning curve at the beginning
- Exports are not always very convenient
WHAT WE THINK
The Monitorank SEO tool is a true powerhouse when it comes to rank tracking. However, it can be a little complicated to wrap your mind around. Once you’ve got the hang of it, though, it becomes really interesting! Well worth a try.
Reference: https://www.monitorank.com/en/
SEO HERO NINJA
The Hero Ninja SEO tool is very convenient if you’re looking to find the actual position of a website for a given keyword quickly. It saves you the trouble of having to use Incognito Mode just to avoid getting custom results.
PRICE
Completely free and, above all, unlimited. That’s the main benefit of this SEO tool.
HIGHLIGHTS
- You can set geolocation by country and language to personalise the results
- Gives you a quick and reliable overview of the website’s rank on several data centres
- Overview of the results for the whole SERP in every data centre
- Free SEO tool
- Quick to use
- Unlimited use
DOWNSIDES
- Rather classic interface
WHAT WE THINK
Convenient, quick, and free, the Hero SEO tool is perfect for a quick check of how you are ranking on a given keyword. Being able to view all the results for a SERP is also very useful if you need a more detailed analysis. It is a sound replacement for SERPROBOT, which sometimes has big data centre issues.
Reference: https://seo-hero.ninja/
MYPOSEO
As an online (Saas) SEO tool, Myposeo is mostly useful for daily tracking of the keywords you have selected. It makes it possible to monitor these various searches on Google, of course, as well as on Bing or Yahoo. Fast and reliable, it’s a great way to keep an eye on a website’s position.
PRICE
This is a relatively affordable SEO rank checker tool, starting at €9 per month, which lets you analyse 75 keywords. Offers then jump to €29, €39, €49, and €79, and include different functionalities.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Daily data update
- A convenient, streamlined interface (landing pages, search volume, chart, etc.)
- Ranking history
- Notification system
- Choice of search engines (geolocation available)
DOWNSIDES
- The price/quantity ratio is not optimal for keywords (75 keywords, tops for €9)
- Expensive service
WHAT WE THINK
Convenient as it can be accessed from anywhere (Saas), MyPoseo has the added benefit of offering additional functionalities (SEO Audit tool, SEA, SEA Monitoring, SEM Analysis). We really love the interface which prominently shows all the info the SEO tool provides, or the ability to receive positioning notifications if the ranking on certain keywords plummets.
Reference: https://en.myposeo.com/
RANKS.FR
An online (Saas) SEO tool rather similar to Myposer, Ranks gives you the ability to track your ranking for certain keywords, and to perform other actions, such as keyword audits.
PRICE
Ranks is a relatively affordable SEO rank checker tool, starting at €20 (excl. tax) per year for only 10 keywords. To have access to 100 keywords, you’ll need to pay €100, and even €1,000, which is the most expensive version, if you want 1,000 keywords.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Daily ranking update
- Ranking history
- Notification system
- Your choice of search engines between Google, Yahoo, or Bing
DOWNSIDES
- Price/quantity ratio for the keywords is not optimal
- Ranks.fr is rather expensive, yet more affordable than Myposeo
- Outdated design
WHAT WE THINK
Convenient and accessible to most in its basic version, Ranks is also a pretty fast SEO tool. However, it is quite expensive on a per-keyword basis, which means it’s not very cost-effective when compared to other options.
Reference: https://www.ranks.fr/en/
SERPROBOT
This SEO tool is quite different from the previous three, in that it is entirely free and only allows you to find a website’s position for one keyword at a time. With that said, it’s quite convenient for those who would rather not spend several dozen euros per month on a position tracking software.
PRICE
SERPROBOT is completely free.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The service is entirely free of charge
- Gives you access to ranking on several servers
DOWNSIDES
- One query at a time
- Basic functionality
- The site is slow
WHAT WE THINK
Even though this isn’t the most effective, or indeed the fastest rank tracking tool, SERPROBOT is quite useful to check the true position of a website for a search. Another small benefit is that the site also offers a duplicate content detector.
Reference: https://www.serprobot.com/serp-check
YOODA SEEURANK
Originally, Yooda SeeUrank is an SEO software you install on your computer, which allows you to track your keywords’ position, as well as to analyse your competitors, audit the website (on-site and technical), analyse backlinks, etc. However, it is the performance analysis we are mainly interested in, as it is the most powerful.
PRICE
As is often the case with Search Engine Optimisation tools, several versions are available:
- 15-day trial version, which is free
- E-commerce: €39 excl. tax/month to monitor 1 website
- Agency: €69 excl. tax/month to monitor several websites
- Serenity: €89 excl. tax/month which allows you to monitor several websites with unique IP addresses, geolocation available
- Cloud: €199 excl. tax/month with an unlimited number of keywords and websites for custom tracking
HIGHLIGHTS
- Multiple functionalities: rank tracking, SEO audit, linking, etc.
- Convenient, streamlined interface (landing page, search volume, chart, etc.)
- Ranking history
- Comparison with competitors
- Unlimited number of keywords (except on Cloud)
- Connects with Google Search Console and Analytics
- Responsive, efficient customer service
DOWNSIDES
- May give you custom results (except on the Cloud or Serenity versions), as the software crawls from your own IP address
- Some of the versions are expensive
- Certain functionalities are not especially useful or effective (audit, or backlink analysis)
WHAT WE THINK
A very extensive and well-functioning software, SeeUrank is especially useful if you need an SEO tool that can track many keywords at once.
Reference: https://seeurank.yooda.com/
Backlinks Analysis Tools
SEO involves both on-site and offsite work. The latter requires you to analyse the website’s link profile. How does one do that? Simply by using the right backlinks analysis tool, which conveniently allows you to analyse external links, or can help you perform a whole audit.
MAJESTIC
The first backlinks analysis SEO tool we would like to introduce is Majestic, which allows you to find out how many links or referring domains your website (and your competitors) receives. More importantly, it informs you of their quality.
PRICE
Majestic comes in several versions, starting at €40 for the cheapest version, and up to €300 for the most expensive one. There are also a €55 version, and a €130 version.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A relevant SEO tool
- Various indicators and marks, such as the Trust Flow and Citation Flow, as well as the comparison of the two
- Topical Trust Flow, which allows you to identify the topics of the sites that link to yours
- Available in many languages, including English
DOWNSIDES
- The interface is a bit outdated, and the charts and tables not particularly streamlined
- The price is rather high
WHAT WE THINK
This must be one of the best link profile and backlink analysis tools on the market, as it includes many functionalities. It’s a very powerful SEO tool, which allows you to analyse the strength and topics of referring domains. The biggest complaint has to do with the website’s ergonomics and the usability of its interface, which definitely could stand to be upgraded.
Reference: https://majestic.com/
AHREFS
This is the second-biggest SEO tool to analyse a website’s backlinks. Ahrefs boasts an impressive database and allows you to do much more than a simple link analysis.
PRICE
Ahrefs is an expensive software, as the cheapest version is available for $79, while the standard version, which offers additional functionalities, is priced at $179, and the most expensive one at $399.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A very well-designed interface with a convenient dashboard and numerous charts
- Suitable for high volumes of data
- An SEO tool with various functionalities (link, content, and ranking analysis)
- Easy data exports
DOWNSIDES
- Data is not always up to date
- Expensive SEO tool
- Some data may be slightly unreliable
- No thematic rank
WHAT WE THINK
This is a less accurate SEO tool than Majestic, and its thematic and marking system is not as precise. However, it offers many interesting functionalities, and well as convenient ergonomics.
Reference: https://ahrefs.com
SEOBSERVER
For our last backlink analysis tool, we would like to introduce you to a little French tool created by SEO consultant Kevin Richard. Highly effective and particularly innovative, it’s great for those who want to implement more thorough link building strategies.
PRICE
SEObserver is an SEO tool that is naturally expensive, quite expensive, actually, as the basic version starts at €99, and the packages then go up to €199, €499, and €999. These various formulas give you access to the same functionalities, but with more options to monitor additional keywords, to track a website, or for simultaneous access…
HIGHLIGHTS
- A very well-designed, ergonomic interface with tables and charts
- Many functionalities: tracking of your competitors’ backlinks to find out about their ideas, monitoring of your competitors’ positioning on certain keywords, SERP monitoring on a regular basis, keyword ranking and keyword analysis
- Combines several Google SEO tools in one (Majestic and SEMrush, for example)
- Easy data exports
DOWNSIDES
- The various offers for this SEO solution are all quite expensive
WHAT WE THINK
This SEO tool is a true revolution in the world of link building. It combines several solutions into one. SEObserver allows you to keep track of specific keywords and to monitor your websites’ positions. If some of them show any improvement, you will be able to analyse their linking profiles and to determine which backlinks were responsible.
Reference: http://www.seobserver.com/
LINKODY
When you work on your link building, you can sometimes realise after several weeks that a backlink has been changed, or that one has simply disappeared after you put it up! There may be multiple reasons for this (your partner may have deleted it, the backlink may have become a nofollow, a technical error, the website may have disappeared, etc.), yet it’s always the same result: you have wasted your time!
Sure, tools such as Ahrefs or Majestic allow you to track lost links, but they are far from reliable and not always very responsive. Which is where Linkody comes in, a tracking tool that keeps an eye on your links.
PRICE
Linkody offers several packages which range from €7.90 per month to track 2 domains and 500 backlinks, to €89.90 per month to monitor 100 domains and 50,000 backlinks. This makes the SEO tool relatively affordable.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Allows you to check whether a backlink is still active quickly and effectively
- Discovers new links that point to your website
- Allows you to track your competitors’ links
- Relatively easy to use
DOWNSIDES
- It is not possible to deactivate the automatic addition of links
- Doesn’t give you any real suggestions for improvement
WHAT WE THINK
Linkody is a very convenient software if you create a lot of backlinks for many different websites. It will let you know if any links got deleted, which means you will be able to react quickly by contacting the website to have them put it back up.
Reference: https://www.linkody.com/
Web Crawlers
What’s a web crawler? What is it for? This SEO tool is essential when it comes to analysing websites with several hundred pages or more. A web crawler is a small piece of SEO software which goes over a website’s pages, just as Google would, to analyse various elements such as http coding, title tags, meta descriptions, H1 tags, etc.
ONCRAWL
Oncrawl is the latest addition to the SEO web crawler offering. Exhaustive, convenient, and relatively accessible, it is quite interesting and particularly useful. Oncrawl also offers additional functionalities.
PRICE
The main benefit of this web crawling tool is that it comes in several versions and at every price point: from €14.90 to crawl 10k URLs per months, all the way to €249 per month, for 2 million URLs. If you pay for the whole year in one go, the prices are even more affordable, equivalent to €9.90 per month for the cheapest, and up to €199 per month. A 1-month free trial is also available if you wish to give the tool a try.
HIGHLIGHTS
- SAAS tool, which means it can be accessed anywhere
- No internal limitations (connection and power) in terms of the number of requests
- Easily exportable data
- User-friendly, well designed, and practical
- Oncrawl allows you to analyse http code, tags (H1, title, meta description, etc.), depth level, duplicate content (near duplicate, structured data, social tags, etc.)
- Can connect with Google Analytics
- Can crawl subdomains and URLs with certain settings
- Can connect with a log analyser
DOWNSIDES
- Limited number of URLs to crawl each month
- A rather expensive solution, even though it is more affordable than Botify
WHAT WE THINK
Oncrawl is very convenient and user-friendly. It allows you to crawl a whole website in just a few minutes and to gather valuable information from an on-site SEO standpoint. The only issue is the price compared to the number of URLs you can crawl. One of OnCrawl’s little perks, however, is it log analyser, which combines its own values with the web crawler.
Reference: http://fr.oncrawl.com/
BOTIFY ANALYTICS
This SAAS web crawler may be accessed right from a website. It’s also quite convenient, aesthetically pleasing, and powerful. Perfect if you need information on the content or the technical side of a website, it gives you all this without even having to turn your computer on.
PRICE
A pity that the Botify Analytics web crawler is relatively expensive, as you’ll have to spend anywhere between €39 and €899 per month to take advantage of it. This SEO tool still comes with a 30-day free trial and allows you to save up to 20% if you pay for a whole year in one go.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Data accessible anywhere and online
- No installation required
- No internal limitations (Internet connection or computer specs) or maximum number of queries
- Easy data exports
- A convenient, user-friendly SEO tool
- Allows you to analyse http code, tags (H1, title, meta description, etc.), depth level, etc.
- Connects with Google Analytics
DOWNSIDES
- Rather expensive for a limited number of URLs crawled
- Lacks certain functionalities when compared to a web crawler such as Screaming Frog
- Only comes in English, which is dumb for an SEO tool developed by a French company!
WHAT WE THINK
Botify is very convenient and user-friendly. It allows you to crawl an entire website in just a few minutes and to get some very useful information to help with your on-site optimisation. The only issue is the price compared to the number of URLs you may crawl.
Reference: https://app.botify.com/
SCREAMING FROG
Unlike most other web crawlers, Screaming Frog requires an installation and is not an SAAS SEO tool. It also happens to be one of the most comprehensive ones on the market and comes with a very powerful web crawler, which gathers a lot of information from the pages it visits.
PRICE
The main advantage of this web crawling tool is that it is quite inexpensive compared to its competitors. The free version of Screaming Frog will allow you to perform a mini crawl of 500 URLs. Then, you’ll need to pay $99 per year for one licence. And, for 4 licences and up, each licence comes up to $89. With this web crawler, there is no maximum limit as to how many URLs you can crawl!
HIGHLIGHTS
- Affordable price
- No limit as to how many URLs you can crawl
- Exportable data
- Richness of the data to be analysed: tagging (duplication, missing elements, errors, etc.), http coding (errors), depth level, image (presence of Alt tags), etc.
- Can connect with Goggle Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools
- Allows you to block the crawl for certain parts of a website
DOWNSIDES
- Requires a powerful computer, otherwise you won’t be able to analyse larger websites
- The design is not very pleasant to use
- Data not always reliable
WHAT WE THINK
Screaming Frog has to be the king of web crawlers. So, it may look a little outdated and not be super sleek or convenient to use, but it’s very powerful, extensive, and, above all, accessible to anyone.
Reference: http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
Keyword Generators
A good content strategy is paramount when it comes to optimising a website. But how does one know how to create relevant texts? You need to know which keywords your pages should target. This is where such SEO tools as keyword generators come in, as they help you research which keywords to use to get the right queries, and give you further indications, such as monthly search volumes on the search engines, or information about your competitors.
GOOGLE ADWORDS KEYWORD GENERATOR
Keyword Planner, or the Google Adwords keyword generator, is by far the SEO tool specialists rely on the most when looking for keywords and similar search terms. However, one must not forget that this solution was originally developed for Adwords campaigns rather than for SEO.
PRICE
This SEO tool is free, which is, of course, its main benefit. On the other hand, you can no longer access it if you have never generated a campaign on your account.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Free
- Reliability of Google data
- Possible to set language or region
- Gives you the search volume (with monthly tendencies) and competitors on Adwords
- Easily exportable data
DOWNSIDES
- No more than 1000 keywords at a time to get search volumes
- Keyword ideas are not always extremely relevant
- Indicates SEA competition, rather than SEO
WHAT WE THINK
This is by far the easiest SEO tool to use, as well as the most accessible, the fastest, and the most reliable. Few downsides, other than the fact that it was not made for SEO, and therefore lacks a few specific functionalities.
Reference: https://ads.google.com/intl/en/home/
SECOCKPIT
SeCockpit is an SEO tool developed by the SwissMadeMarketing company. It uses and aggregates data from different services to allow you to quickly find the most interesting keywords to base your SEO on depending on search volume, SEO competitiveness (calculated by analysing every SERP page), etc.
PRICE
SeCockpit starts at €30 per month for the cheapest version (which is limited in terms of functionalities and number of keywords) and can go up to €90 for the most expensive. If you pay for the whole year in one go, you’ll get 30% off.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Gives you a fairly realistic view of your SEO competition
- Reliable search volume as it comes from Google
- Allows you to identify niches you can position yourself on
- Generates up to 800 keywords for each one you write into the optimisation software
DOWNSIDES
- Only allows you to put in 100 keywords at a time to see traffic and competition.
- Slower SEO tool than Google Adwords
- Niche is not always very reliable, particularly for big keywords
WHAT WE THINK
Very convenient and much more powerful than Google Keyword Planner, this SEO tool is ideal if you wish to develop a keyword strategy. It will allow you to find niches on which it will be easy to rank.
Reference: https://secockpit.com/
Performance Analysis Tools
Need to know if your website is fast enough? Then a performance analysis SEO tool can help you. Most of these give your website a mark and make improvement suggestions.
GOOGLE PAGE SPEED INSIGHT
As the search engine’s official solution, Google Page Speed Insight is really convenient. It will allow you to see your website’s speed (on desktop and mobile), as well as mobile compatibility. Plus, you’ll get to know exactly where the issue is coming from.
PRICE
Free.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Official Google tool
- Allows you to detect technical issues which slow down your site and provides a solution to help you solve them
- Fast and convenient
- Also useful for mobile compatibility
DOWNSIDES
- Analyses one URL at a time
- Not possible to export the various issues spotted
WHAT WE THINK
Google Page Speed Insight is one of the best SEO tools to analyse the technical performance (speed) of a website’s pages.
Reference: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
GTMETRIX
This SEO tool is essential if you want to analyse a website’s speed and responsiveness. In fact, GT Metric will analyse the page you submit both on Google’s solution (Page Speed) and on Yahoo’s.
PRICE
Free.
HIGHLIGHTS
- An SEO tool that brings together those offered by Google and Yahoo
- Allows you to detect technical issues that slow down the website
- Indicates the various issues and solutions for every URL
DOWNSIDES
- Only analyses one URL at a time
- Impossible to export the various issues identified in the form of an Excel file
- Only comes in English
WHAT WE THINK
GT Metrix is a good addition to Google Page Speed Insight. It could therefore be convenient to use both of these solutions when performing an audit on a website’s performance and speed.
Reference: https://gtmetrix.com/
Statistics and Metrics Tools
The last essential SEO tool to optimise your site targets the web audience or metrics. These solutions allow you to know a website’s traffic, the keywords on which you rank, as well as the most important landing pages in terms of SEO.
RANXPLORER
One of the latest newcomers in the world of Goole SEO tools, and more specifically in that of statistics and metrics tools for SEO and SEA, Ranxplorer sets itself aside from its competition thanks to its huge database (much larger than SEMrush’s or Ahrefs’), with a Top 50 for each! Very comprehensive, this tool will help you get a lot of interesting data about a website.
PRICE
Naturally, the Ranxplorer SEO tool is not free. In that, it is no different from the competition. There are several formulas to choose from:
- The first package (monthly starter) is priced at €19.90 (excl. Tax) per month and allows you to access 500 keywords per website, to perform 500 audits per month, and to do 50 exports per month.
- The second package (monthly premium) is available fir €69.90 and gives you access to 30,000 keywords per site, 5,000 audits, and 500 exports per month.
- You may also contact Ranxplorer for a custom package to fit your needs.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A huge database in France (100 million!) and on Google.com (50 million)
- Many features in terms of keyword monitoring (the most important URLs, competition, missing keywords, short- and medium-term gains), SEA (duplicate keywords, missing keywords, competition, etc.), universal search (image positioning, for instance). It also has an SEO keyword research tool (traditional, semantic, semantic cocoon, etc.).
- Data exports
- A very pleasant, user-friendly site to navigate
- Ranxplorer is much more affordable than SemRush
DOWNSIDES
- Limits of the €19.90 (excl. Tax) version, particularly as regards the number of keywords or auditing
WHAT WE THINK
This new player in the world of SEO statistics tools is very powerful and outperforms SEMRush, and even Yooda when it comes to their database. It is therefore very useful for anyone needing to audit many websites very quickly.
Reference: http://ranxplorer.com
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
This is by far the most well-known and widely used SEO tool to measure audiences. Very convenient, comprehensive, user-friendly, and offering multiple functionalities, Google Analytics is practically the ideal solution. However, the data is only available for your own websites or sites you were given access to.
PRICE
This is a free SEO tool, except for the premium version, which offers a much more extensive service, but at a very high price (several thousand euros per year).
HIGHLIGHTS
- GA’s many functionalities (e-commerce monitoring, targets, filters, segments, etc.)
- Quite user-friendly, with an easy-to-use software
- Exportable data
- Reliable data
- Provides cross-referenced data
- Easy to install
DOWNSIDES
- Impossible to get the number of visits per keyword
WHAT WE THINK
Google Page Speed Insight is one of the most convenient tools to analyse the technical performance (speed) of a website’s pages. However, it cannot automatically analyse all the pages of a website.
Reference: https://www.google.com/analytics/
SEMRUSH
Originally, SEMRush used to be a solution to analyse a website’s performance (keywords and traffic evaluation). Nowadays, however, this SEO reporting tool offers numerous functionalities. In addition, it can perform automatic site audits, crawls, positioning, or monitor the performance of your SEA campaigns.
PRICE
There is a free version (which is very limited). Then packages range from $70 to $550. Deals are available if you opt to pay monthly.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A very extensive international database
- Includes numerous functionalities such as keyword monitoring (traffic evaluation, number of ranking keywords, competition on the keywords, etc.), SEO audit tool, web crawling, or position monitoring
- Exportable data
- User-friendliness and ability to create charts
DOWNSIDES
- Less data than Yooda Insight
- Very expensive SEO software
- Many bugs
WHAT WE THINK
SemRush is essential to perform SEO audits or simply to analyse websites. It also has the advantage of offering more functionalities than Yooda Insight.
Reference: https://www.semrush.com/
YOODA INSIGHT
Yooda Insight is the main performance analysis tool for French websites. This player indeed specialises in Google France data, which has allowed it to acquire the largest database in the country. It also provides keyword suggestions and ranks websites based on their topics.
PRICE
Yooda Insight is accessible for free with or without an account, but you’ll be limited in terms of the number of results. To get all of the data and be able to download it, you’ll need to pay €19 (excl. tax) per month.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Very extensive database
- Interesting functionalities, such as topic classification
- Exportable data
- Great value
DOWNSIDES
- Results are not always extremely reliable
- Database bumps up the number of keywords, which skews a website’s results
- Charts are not legible enough
- Only comes in French
WHAT WE THINK
Very convenient and fast, the Yooda Insight metric tool is useful for carrying out audits or simply to perform a quick analysis of a website’s performance.
Reference: https://insight.yooda.com/
Log Analysis Tools
Log analysis tools count amongst the most complex, yet most useful SEO tools. What are they, exactly ? And what are they for ? Logs are text files which record the queries made to a server. In search engine optimisation, we use these to see the paths that the search engines’ web crawlers take when visiting your website and to determine the depth level, http errors, page indexation, etc. of a website.
In order to read logs, however, one needs a software that can decipher them.
BOTIFY LOG ANALYZER
This is the main log analysis tool on the market, because it is very comprehensive, very powerful, and gives you a lot of information about a website. However, Botify has a few downsides, such as a price that is prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses on top of only being available in English, even though it has a French editor!
PRICE
The Botify log analysis tool will set you back at least €300 to €400 for reasonably small sites (a few tens of thousands of URLs). The more URLs you have, the more expensive it gets…
HIGHLIGHTS
- Sleek, convenient interface
- Lets you compare server logs through a Botify crawl
- Exportable data
- A solution which offers very interesting data
- A customer service that speaks your language!
DOWNSIDES
- A very expensive solution
- Website only available in English
WHAT WE THINK
The Botify log analysis tool is practically a mandatory one for larger websites with at least several thousand pages. Thanks to this software, you’ll be able to analyse the visit of Google’s bots on your website, identify technical issues, etc.
Reference: https://www.botify.com/log-analyzer/
Semantic Analysis Tools
Nowadays, search engine optimisation puts an emphasis on content. It is therefore necessary to improve one’s texts, to work on keywords, as well as on the semantic field, co-occurrences, metawords, synonyms, etc. Here’s a list of SEO tools and websites that offer semantic analysis tools to help you.
SEOQUANTUM
Improving one’s content, optimising a text for SEO, or building a semantic cocoon are only some of SEOQuantum’s abilities. This brand-new SEO semantic tool was developed by Anthony Techer and is extremely convenient when it comes to improving a website’s performance on Google, by monopolising the top positions, for instance.
PRICE
Several packages are available either as a monthly or as an annual subscription (with two months free).
- The most expensive versions are the ones that offer the most functionalities.
- You can find a “Discovery” package for content writers at €24, a “Silver” package for SEO consultants at €89, a “Gold” one at €239 for agencies, and a “Platinum” one at €599 for agencies and brands.
- The prices are given for monthly subscriptions.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A very comprehensive platform, with numerous functionalities
- Allows you to analyse a page or a text to identify keywords and add, remove, or keep the most relevant ones
- Allows you to identify the intentions of Internet users on a given keyword
- Keeps a history of every keyword researched
- Makes it easier for writers to write texts
- Makes it easier to build a semantic cocoon
- Offers questions related to the keyword you researched
- The tool uses artificial intelligence for SEO and relies on deep learning and machine learning
DOWNSIDES
- Low number of possible queries per month
- A slightly expensive tool
WHAT WE THINK
Created in 2016 by a former agency director who turned his attention towards development, this is one of the most comprehensive and powerful semantic analysis tools on the market. It is very convenient both for content writing and to create a semantic cocoon. The Internet user’s intent feature is also quite convenient and helps you choose the right angle to write your content.
Reference: https://www.seoquantum.com/
COCON.SE
If, to you, a website’s content strategy and architecture are one of the most crucial elements to improve its SEO, then you’ll need the right tool to help you. This is exactly what the excellent Cocon.se offers. Developed by Sylvain Deauré and Christian Lemoussel and partly based on Christian Méline’s ideas, Cocon.se allows you to create semantic cocoons and to define your metawords, making your content as attractive to Google as possible.
PRICE
Cocon.se offers several price points and is available as a subscription-based service or on demand:
- €20 to €400 (excl. Tax) subscription gives you access to between 5 and 1,000 crawls per month
- Pay for one or several crawls
- For metawords, you need to pay extra, the price being €2.4 (excl. tax) per metaword
HIGHLIGHTS
- Website’s beautiful display allows you to compare what you were looking for with the result
- Crawl allows you to detect internal linking network and to transfer internal page rank within the website
- Error identification
- Metaword functionality to improve your content and tags that seem to work well from a semantic perspective
DOWNSIDES
- Rather complicated to get the hang of at the beginning
- Quite expensive, especially for the metawords
- Only comes in French (but then again, it’s a French tool)
WHAT WE THINK
Cocon.se is really well designed and allows you to focus on the semantic details of your website’s semantic structure, to create a semantic cocoon in the best possible way, and to improve the pages’ content. Besides, having tested this SEO tool for a few days and played around with the metaword functionality, we have noted some improvement in terms of positioning made possible by optimising the text.
Reference: http://cocon.se/
SEO-HERO.TECH
SEO Hero is a semantic analysis tool which has been available as a free Beta version since November 2016. It allows you to identify any named entities and relevant expressions if you wish to rank for a particular keyword.
PRICE
SEO Hero is entirely free, and there is no credit to purchase in order to carry out a semantic analysis, or any subscription necessary to use the tool. All you need to do is type the keyword in the search bar and let SEO Hero do the work.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Works in real time, so the semantic analysis is always fresh
- The number of relevant terms identified is mind-blowing
- Works in English, Spanish, and Italian
DOWNSIDES
- Numerous functionalities, but no technical documents to go with them
- The writing instructions are not downloadable for the moment
- German is not available
WHAT WE THINK
We are very surprised to see such an SEO tool offered for free as, even as a Beta version, the results are incredibly relevant. It is very convenient for giving instructions to content writers and making sure nothing important (from a semantic point of view) gets forgotten. The main downside is that SEO Hero seriously lacks technical documentation.
Reference: http://www.seo-hero.tech
1.FR
1.fr is a brand-new player, which came out at the beginning of 2016. It allows you to perform a semantic analysis of your pages or texts to determine whether they are well optimised and if they contain interesting keywords.
PRICE
This is a paid service, even though it is possible to try it out for free by performing a few analyses. The prices themselves are reasonable:
- 50 credits (one per analysis) for €10
- 500 credits for €90
- 5000 credits for €800
HIGHLIGHTS
- Allows you to analyse a text or a whole page
- Suggests words and expressions to add to the page to optimise it
- Gives you an example of a well-optimised page
- API available
DOWNSIDES
- Data is a bit too raw
- No real data about the figures given by 1.fr
WHAT WE THINK
Even though the software is currently offered as a Beta version, it is convenient and provides very useful information to help you optimise the text on your pages through semantics and keyword co-occurrences. In addition, the tool is set to evolve into a more user-friendly version and will even offer an American version!
Reference: http://1.fr/
ALYZE.COM
Alyze is an SEO tool which provides a detailed analysis of the weight of the keywords and expressions on a page. It offers a density ratio and a structural analysis of the page.
PRICE
This SEO software is free.
HIGHLIGHTS
- A fast tool
- Convenient to get keyword density
- You can modify the weight indexes for the various elements of a page
DOWNSIDES
- Site is outdated
- Doesn’t always work with http pages
- Doesn’t provide any true suggestions for improvement
WHAT WE THINK
Alyze.info is not the SEO tool of the year, but it’s still very convenient and, above all, it’s free. On the other hand, if you wish to go further in your semantic analysis of a page or text, you will need to rely on other tools…
Reference: http://alyze.com/
VISIBLIS
Visiblis is one of the very first, if not the first true semantic analysis tool to have been offered in the world of search engine optimisation. Much more powerful than Alyze.com, the site offers several Google SEO tools which allow you to test the quality of your texts and titles, to see whether your semantic cocoon is well designed, to identify page clusters, etc.
PRICE
This is a paid service, though it is possible to test it out, but only on the domain connected to your email address. They offer 4 packages, namely €10 per month, €37, €49, and €96. The more you pay, the more new functionalities and analyses you have access to.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Allows you to perform a semantic analysis for a page, a text, or a title around a semantic corpus based on a keyword
- Offers co-occurrences to add to the text to improve the page’s semantic efficiency
- Lets you check the semantics and semantic structure of your website or a cocoon
- Ideal if you want to implement a semantic cocoon strategy
- API available, which gives you more possibilities for analyses
- Lets you create your own semantic corpus
- Comes in English
- Responsive customer service
DOWNSIDES
- Rather expensive
- Impossible to analyse a website whose language was not configured perfectly
- A rather slow SEO tool
WHAT WE THINK
Visiblis truly is the perfect tool if you are looking to produce high-quality content in the eye of Google, particularly if your SEO strategy relies strongly on content. It’s a very comprehensive solution which allows you to make quick semantic improvements to your text. We couldn’t recommend it more!
Reference: http://www.visiblis.fr/
TEXT FOCUS
Text Focus is a new semantic and on-site analysis tool. Thanks to this solution, a few clicks are all it takes to learn almost everything there is to know about a particular page. Quite comprehensive, convenient, and fast, this website provides a ton of information, as well as suggestions that will allow you to improve a web page’s search engine optimisation.
PRICE
Currently, this is a free tool which only requires you to have a (free) account to be able to analyse more pages.
HIGHLIGHTS
- It’s free
- Pleasant tool in terms of aesthetics (features charts and tables), making it very clear
- Offers a lot of data: lexical field, SEO and semantic content analysis, SEO score for each word, internal link analysis
DOWNSIDES
- No in-depth semantic analysis, which would indicate words or semantic fields to use in order to improve the page’s SEO
- A few technical bugs because the tool is still quite new
WHAT WE THINK
Text Focus is a recent tool, but it’s off to a great start and features interesting functionalities. In our opinion, it’s a convincing replacement to Alyze.com, which is beginning to show its age. For it to be perfect, it’s just lacking an option to expand the page’s semantic field.
All-in-one Tools
The last type of SEO tool we should discuss is all-in-one tools. These often combine the main SEO functionalities such as web crawling, position, or backlink analysis. Such tools as Ahrefs or SEMrush are now considered to be “all-in-one”.
SERPSTAT
Serpstat is an innovative platform which is proving quite popular in Eastern Europe as well as in the US. The platform offers:
- Website audit
- Position monitoring for your keywords and backlinks
- Position monitoring for your website / your competitors
- Combines keywords with tags and URLs
- Identification of search volumes
- Follow keyword positioning history
- Find out how your competitors’ traffic is distributed
- Monitor from your mobile or desktop
- Daily snippet monitoring
PRICE
Serpstat offers a range of prices that is practically ideal! There are 7 main prices: for individuals and for agencies, ranging from $69 per month to $299 per month. Besides, you can always use the unlimited free version.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Worldwide database (Google USA–2,4B keywords, Google FR–106M)
- Over 45 SEO and SEA functionalities
- Daily update
- API available
- Ranking monitoring on Google available on the desktop or mobile version
- Data exports
- You can create charts
DOWNSIDES
- The “text analysis” interface of the tool is not very intuitive
- Comes in English, but in few other languages
WHAT WE THINK
This is a true all-in-one SEO reporting tool, or SEO dashboard, which is very convenient if you don’t like working with too many SEO tools.
Reference: https://serpstat.com/
