If you want to go for a hike, you start by packing a backpack. You carefully choose the essentials: water, food, sunscreen, an extra layer, and a rain jacket. Your goal is to pack your backpack with the essentials and leave behind the unnecessary items that will weigh you down.
Creating a toolset to start and grow your agency’s SEO offering is similar to packing for a hike. Because of the abundance of SEO tools available to digital agencies like yours, choosing an SEO toolset for your journey requires the same thoughtful and intentional preparation.
Carefully curate your agency's SEO toolset to ensure you have what you need without data overload and unnecessary expense. This guide is designed to help you do that.
Best Free SEO Software
Good news — the best SEO tools for your digital agency are free, and you likely already use them! Of the many available to you, these are the three must-use tools every SEO professional relies on:
- Google Analytics — Use this free, enterprise-level web analytics software to measure website performance. Simply set up an account and add the tracking code to any client's website. There's also a good chance new clients will already have an Analytics account and can add your agency as an admin.
You can collect and analyze data about that website’s performance with admin access. Google Analytics tracks which traffic sources are driving visitors to your client websites — search engines, social media, referral websites, etc. With this data, you glean insight into which pages perform well, which require some love, and much more.
- Google Search Console — Set up a communication channel with Google via Google Search Console. You won’t talk to an actual Google team member, but you will gain insight into which keywords and pages are bringing organic traffic to your client websites. Further, you’ll get feedback about how the search engine crawlers navigate and index web pages on those websites. It also helps monitor and address various technical SEO issues like mobile usability and user experience.
- Google Places for Business — You can manage your client’s Google Maps listings in Google Places for Business. Local search levels the playing field for businesses with a physical location or target service area. Verify your relationship with the business, and update the listing to ensure it’s accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date.
It should be no surprise that all of these are from Google. But now you need a general-purpose SEO tool to help accomplish tasks like keyword research, rank tracking, and reporting.
SEO Software for Digital Agencies
When selecting the right SEO software for your agency, it's important to consider your customer. Are you doing SEO for small to medium-sized businesses? Or are you operating in the enterprise space? There are dozens of these types of SEO software to choose from.
For small to medium-sized businesses, simplicity is best. We don't need a complex tool with hundreds of reports and features to do SEO effectively for a 10-100 page website. The complexity can be detrimental as it leads to overwhelm.
Alternatively, if you are doing SEO in the enterprise space for large websites, you likely will want more advanced SEO software to monitor your campaigns.
SEO Software for Agencies who Serve Small to Medium-Sized Businesses
Pathfinder SEO was born out of the need to support freelancers and digital agencies that offer SEO services to small and medium-sized businesses. Our approach is called “guided SEO."
Our unique software combines integrated SEO tools such as keyword research, rank tracking, monthly reporting, and a proven and easy-to-follow SEO process.
This process includes process documentation on how to deliver an SEO Assessment, SEO Set-Up, and Monthly SEO services. The documentation breaks delivering SEO services into easy-to-follow, digestible steps.
Once you know how to do SEO for your clients, guided SEO also provides useful resources to help you scale your SEO offering from a business standpoint. For example, it teaches you how to package, price, and sell the SEO services you are offering.
And, if you ever have questions about doing SEO for a client or growing the SEO element of your business, all Pathfinder SEO plans include group training. With daily office hours, workshops, and group coaching, you’ll be part of an engaging and welcoming community of like-minded digital agency owners.
SEO Software for Agencies who Serve Enterprise Level Businesses
If your agency services enterprise-level businesses with large websites, you’ll likely want to utilize enterprise-level SEO software with lots of data. Our three favorites include:
- SEMRush — SEMRush is an online visibility tool set. It includes basic SEO tools with more advanced features designed to integrate with paid advertising, social media, content marketing, and more. Get this Guide to SEMRush to learn more.
- aHrefs —This all-in-one SEO software was born out of backlink research and competitive analysis. It features keyword research, content research, rank tracking, and search performance monitoring tools. If you are interested in learning more, check out this detailed review of aHrefs.
- MozPro — MozPro is an all-in-one, SEO-specific software. It includes keyword research, rank tracking, reporting, off-site SEO analysis, and on-page graders. Check out this complete guide to MozPro to learn more.
These tools are feature-rich. That is to say that they lack a roadmap for how to deliver impactful SEO services to your clients. They are designed for advanced SEO professionals who already have their processes in place.
Additional Software for Local SEO
As mentioned above, Google Places for Business is a free service that allows you to manage your client’s Google Maps listings. But, the local search goes beyond Google Maps. There is a large ecosystem of local business data aggregators, online directories, and other important websites like Apple Maps and Bing Maps.
Managing your client’s listings across this ecosystem can be done manually or by leveraging software.
BrightLocal, MozLocal, and Yext are examples of software-based solutions that you can deploy to further your client’s local presence.
And if you want exceptionally granular ranking data by location, check out LocalFalcon.
Best SEO Plugins for WordPress Sites
WordPress is our favorite content management system for SEO. And many of your clients are likely to have WordPress websites. That's because 43%+ of all websites are currently built on WordPress.
You need a multi-function SEO plugin to execute your SEO strategy on WordPress. Here are our three favorites:
- Yoast SEO — Yoast SEO is a multifunction SEO plugin. Built by SEO professionals, this plugin is on the cutting edge of SEO. The free version includes everything you need to give a client a solid SEO foundation. The premium version layers in even more tools like the ability to redirect pages and more in-depth analysis of a site's content against your preferred set of keywords. With over 5,000,000 active installs, this plugin is by far the most popular in the WordPress space, and for good reason.
- RankMath — This plugin is an up-and-comer in the WordPress space. It has many of the same features that Yoast SEO does, but provides a better user interface and some free functionality that you would have to pay Yoast for. RankMath has over 1,000,000 active installations and is updated frequently to ensure it keeps up with the ever-evolving nature of SEO. The pro version of this plugin extends the functionality even further but isn't necessary for most small- to medium-sized businesses.
- All-in-One SEO — This plugin is feature-rich and easy to use. Build an XML sitemap, add page titles and meta descriptions to your posts, and much more. All in One SEO has over 2,000,000 installs and is updated frequently like both Yoast and RankMath. It recently received a complete overhaul from a user experience standpoint and is rapidly receiving new features.
Installing the plugin is just the first step regardless of which WordPress SEO plugin you select. The plugin then needs to be configured to help grow traffic. Pathfinder SEO subscribers can follow our step-by-step process to do so.
Don't worry if your prospect or client isn't on WordPress, you can still execute a solid SEO strategy and drive growth. Content management systems like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify have solid SEO infrastructure. Often, the SEO functionality you need will be built into the platform.
Choosing SEO Software for Your Digital Agency
Take your time when choosing your SEO software. Start with Google's free tools for your digital agency — Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Business Profile.
Then, add one general-purpose SEO tool based on your digital agency's current experience level:
If you’re either new to SEO or a digital agency doing SEO for small- to medium-sized businesses, then Pathfinder’s guided approach is a great fit. It is already the linchpin tool for dozens of digital agencies new to offering SEO services.
If you’re working on enterprise-level websites, consider SEMRush, aHrefs, or MozPro.
After that, know that you may need to purchase a subscription for a local SEO tool like BrightLocal, MozLocal, or Yext.
While these are the basic SEO tools you'll need to offer SEO services, special cases may require you to pull in one of the hundreds of other specialty SEO tools.
With that said, if you have mastery of your curated toolset that aligns with the recommendations in this guide, offering SEO services can be a highly profitable business center for your digital agency.
We’re Here to Help
Pathfinder SEO was built for freelancers and agency owners like you looking to integrate SEO services into their offering and scale the service.
Pathfinder SEO integrated SEO tools like keyword research, rank tracking, and monthly reports. And we have lessons on how to deliver SEO services.
Schedule a demo to learn more.
