Building an SEO agency was the best decision I ever made for myself. But, it’s such a crowded and competitive space that you need grit, determination, and lots of time to learn, develop, and keep up with all the latest news and trends within the space.
When I started, I figured that the bulk of my workload would be researching keywords and writing killer content. However, when the business started taking off, I found that my workload was somewhat different.
Instead of focusing on SEO, I spun numerous plates as I tried to secure new clients, manage my existing roster, write reports, and deal with content creators.
When you’re the boss, you’re responsible for everything that happens in your business. But staying late at the office night after night can make you feel like you’re on your own. Thankfully, you’re not.
These days, there are so many great tools to help you manage and grow your agency. So, if you’re frustrated at your attempts to win clients, unsure how to get page ranking, or tired of fragmented client communication, you’ve come to the right place.
What is SEO agency software?
SEO agency software is an umbrella term for a diverse set of tools needed to run a modern SEO agency. Depending on your business and the services you offer, this can include tools for keyword research, traffic analysis, content creation, workflow automation, client portals, payment processors, and so much more.
The best way to think about it is to split things into two categories:
- General tools that help you manage, market, and grow your agency, like client portals, collaboration platforms, content distribution, workflow automation, and so on.
- Specialist tools that help you increase page rankings, like keyword research, backlink analysis, competitor monitor tools, and so on.
What should you look for in software to manage your SEO agency?
Evaluating SEO agency software is a bit like SEO itself. Any decisions you make need to be thought out and geared toward producing tangible results.
Interoperability
Any SEO agency software you choose should serve the client journey. Whether that’s ensuring a great onboarding experience, creating an environment to share strategy and results, or software that provides accurate data.
Your software stack should consist of tools that support your workflow. Every app should have a function that is indexed towards providing value for your clients, be that by saving you time or money or giving access to information that informs your SEO strategy.
You’ll also want to consider how each tool integrates with each other. SEO is a data business, so ensure that information can flow reliably between applications without too much messing around.
Client-focused
Agencies are service businesses, and SEO can take as long as six months to deliver results for clients. What’s more, it’s a very competitive vertical. Considering these facts, a big part of growing your agency is by competing on service. So, it’s not just the results in your reports that are important; it’s also about how and where you deliver them.
Make sure any tool you use brings tangible benefits to your clients, such as improving their overall client experience or helping them rank higher in the SERP.
User-friendliness
Running an SEO agency isn’t just about optimizing pages, it’s also about optimizing your time. Make sure that the tools that make up your software stack make your life easy through intuitive interfaces, automation, or functionalities that help you complete your work quickly.
Value
Before committing to any new application, ask yourself if it brings value. Remember, the cheapest option can be the most expensive if it causes you to under-deliver. Similarly, just because a tool is costly doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best. So think about what benefits you get for your money when choosing between SEO agency tools.
Scalability
If you want to grow your agency, you need tools that will grow with you, but without adding extra headcount. Good SEO agency software should enable you to handle an influx of clients or add additional capacity without enormous corresponding costs.
33+ best SEO agency software to grow your agency
OK, so now that you know what to look for, it’s time to share the best SEO agency software on the market today.
Here are our top picks for the best SEO agency software:
- Ahrefs (best for competitor analysis)
- Clearscope (best for content optimization)
- Copilot (best for client management)
- Clay (best for outbound client acquisition)
- Nightwatch (best for keyword tracking)
- Looker Studio (best for reporting dashboards)
- Google Search Console (best for accurate SEO data)
- Surfer SEO (best for SEO content writing)
- LowFruits (best for finding low-competition keywords)
- Keywords Everywhere (best for keyword analysis)
- Webflow (best for building websites)
- Zapier (best for workflow automation)
- Miro (best for team brainstorming)
- Grammarly (best for writing assistance)
- Keysearch (best for affordable keyword research)
- Originality AI (best for checking content integrity)
- Pitch (best for pitches and presentations)
- Content at Scale (best for AI content creation)
- SEOmonitor (best for SEO traffic forecasting)
- Notion (best for knowledge base creation)
- AgencyAnalytics (best for reporting and analytics)
- Screaming Frog (best for technical SEO analysis)
- Yoast (best for WordPress website SEO optimization)
- Rank Math (best for WordPress technical SEO)
- Letterdrop (best for SEO content distribution)
- Proposify (best for sending proposals)
- Similarweb (best for competitor analysis)
- Majestic.com (best for backlink analysis)
- Ubersuggest (best for budget-friendly keyword research)
- StoryChief (best for content syndication)
- Perplexity AI (best for learning)
- ChatGPT (best for ideation)
- AnswerThePublic (best for understanding search intent)
Alright, let’s take a look at each tool.
1. Ahrefs
- Best for: Competitor analysis
- Pricing: Starts at $99 per month
Ahrefs is an industry-leading SEO toolkit that excels at keyword research, backlink tracking, and competitor analysis. The Content Explorer tool is particularly relevant to SEO agencies because it helps you uncover what content is trending in each niche and what strategies are proving effective for rivals.
Ahrefs covers everything you need for SEO. However, its reporting functions could be better.
2. Clearscope
- Best for: Content optimization
- Pricing: Starts at $199 per month
Clearscope is an AI-driven content optimization platform. It works by looking at what content is performing well for a particular keyword and suggests keywords, phrases, themes, readability scores, word counts, and more so that you can write content to break through the rankings. It integrates well with Google Docs and offers Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) so you can target related keywords with your content.
3. Copilot
- Best for: Client management
- Pricing: Starts at $29 per month
As we mentioned above, SEO is just part of what clients expect from an SEO agency. What they also need is an agency that is transparent, reachable, and open to collaboration.
Copilot helps you consolidate your software stack and streamline your workflows. Some of the features that will appeal to agencies that want to grow include contract provision, automated onboarding, centralized messaging and communication from within a white-labeled and highly customizable client portal, and secure billing management tools with subscription options.
Additionally, Copilot integrates well with your SEO tools, allowing you to build elegant, polished SEO reporting dashboards that will delight your clients.
4. Clay
- Best for: Outbound client acquisition
- Pricing: Starts from $149 per month
Clay is a novel and innovative tool for outbound client acquisition. You can’t grow your SEO agency without winning new clients, and Clay’s USP is that it generates and builds leads, enriches your lists with relevant data, and, thanks to its powerful AI-writing features, even helps you reach out to customers. If you want to scale outreach, Clay is the tool for the job.
5. Nightwatch
- Best for: Keyword tracking
- Pricing: Starts from $32 per month
Nightwatch is a powerful SEO tool that tracks keywords, analyzes backlinks, and helps perform site audits. However, what really makes Nightwatch a unique tool is its superb ability to track keywords all the way down to zip codes! For teams that focus on Local SEO, these abilities are priceless.
6. Looker Studio
- Best for: Gorgeous data visualization
- Pricing: Free
Looker Studio is a free dashboard and reporting tool that integrates with GA4, Search Console, and other SEO data sources. It’s excellent for teams that need data that can adapt to their workflows. However, without doubt, its greatest power lies in its ability to produce outstanding charts and graphs to present to stakeholders. It’s pretty straightforward to implement, too.
7. Google Search Console
- Best for: Accurate SEO data
- Pricing: Free
Google Search Console (GSC) is another free tool from the search engine giant. It helps you collect SEO data straight from the source with no adulterations. GSC is the best option for accurate data on Google searches and gives visibility into any index coverage or technical issues that might be harming your SEO performance.
8. Surfer SEO
- Best for: SEO content writing
- Pricing: Starts at $89 per month
Surfer SEO is a popular on-page SEO tool. It allows teams to audit their websites, analyze SERPs for keywords, and suggest topics and clusters to inform your content strategy. What’s more, the Content Editor provides a structure that tells you the keywords, word counts, headings, images, and more that you need to climb up the SERP.
9. LowFruits
- Best for: Finding low-competition keywords
- Pricing: Starts from $25 per month
As the name suggests, LowFruits is an SEO keyword analysis tool built to find low-difficulty keywords that can help you rank. There is so much competition for obvious keywords that making an impact takes a long time. However, LowFruits excels at quickly identifying search terms that are going under the radar, which can help you capture underserved markets and drive business growth.
10. Keywords Everywhere
- Best for: Efficient keyword analysis
- Pricing: Starts from $1.75 per month
Keywords Everywhere is a cool browser extension that helps you quickly and efficiently find keyword data. As you browse the Internet, the extension analyzes pages and gives you the downlow on keyword difficulties, volumes, trends, and more.
11. Webflow
- Best for: Website building
- Pricing: Starts from $13 per month
Webflow is a robust website-building tool that allows you to create visually striking yet lightweight websites. Technical SEO is an influential ranking factor, and Webflow can help you ensure your client's websites have the speed and performance they need to shoot up the SERP.
12. Zapier
- Best for: Workflow automation
- Pricing: Starts from $29.99 per month
Zapier is one of the best-loved automation platforms in the game. It helps you seamlessly connect your apps together to build creative workflows. For example, you can set up ZAPs that automate data collection and aggregation and then feed them to your reporting tools so you and your clients know what’s happening in real-time.
13. Miro
- Best for: Team brainstorming
- Pricing: Starts from $8 a month
Miro is a virtual whiteboard tool that was built to foster team collaboration. It’s excellent for things like visualizations, brainstorming, process mapping, and client presentations. If you have an SEO agency with employees, you’ll understand the value here right away.
14. Grammarly
- Best for: Writing assistance
- Pricing: Starts from $25 per month
Grammarly uses AI to help writers stay on top of their spelling, grammar, punctuation, and overall writing clarity. It’s one of the best SEO agency tools because it works inside your browser and keeps your client communication and content on-point and super professional.
15. Keysearch
- Best for: Affordable keyword research
- Pricing: Starts from $17 per month
Keysearch is a streamlined and affordable keyword research and analysis tool. It is very user-friendly and intuitive and helps you track search volumes and competitors to unearth the keywords you need to rank. Lightweight yet effective.
16. Originality AI
- Best for: Checking content integrity
- Pricing: Starts from $14.95 per month
The rise of Generative AI tools has created an issue for SEO agencies who want authentic content that people want to read. Originality AI helps you determine if a text is plagiarized or written by an AI, protecting you against content that can hurt rankings.
17. Pitch
- Best for: Pitches and presentations
- Pricing: Starts at $20 per month
Pitch is one of the best SEO agency tools because it helps you present pitches, research, and results to your clients. It offers great templates and AI assistance to help you build next-level presentations to win and retain clients.
18. Content at Scale
- Best for: AI content creation
- Pricing: Starts at $15 per month
Content at Scale is an AI-powered content generation tool with a focus on delivering SEO-optimized long-form content. It also has some cool content-generation features that allow you to generate content from URLs, videos, and podcasts.
19. SEOmonitor
- Best for: SEO traffic forecasting
- Pricing: Starts at $99 per month
SEOmonitor is an all-in-one tool for rank tracking, keyword research, competitor tracking, and detailed reporting. However, SEOmonitor’s sophisticated SEO forecasting tools are what make it stand out from its rivals.
20. Notion
- Best for: Knowledge base creation
- Pricing: Starts at $7 per month
Notion is a popular workspace platform that helps you centralize your workflows. It’s highly customizable and perfect for building collaborative spaces for both employees and clients. The Knowledge Base creation tool is particularly useful for building repositories of data, such as best SEO practices, troubleshooting guides, onboarding and training materials, and so on.
21. AgencyAnalytics
- Best for: Reporting and analytics
- Pricing: Starts from $12 per month
AgencyAnalytics is a robust analytics and reporting tool that integrates well with SEO data sources. It helps teams track rankings from local to international levels, automates reporting, and even highlights technical SEO issues.
22. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
- Best for: Technical SEO analysis
- Pricing: Free with $259 per year paid version
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a website crawling tool with a particular focus on diagnosing Technical SEO issues. It helps you identify issues with redirects, broken links, server issues, and anything else that hurts the technical side of SEO ranking.
23. Yoast
- Best for: WordPress website SEO optimization
- Pricing: Starts from $99 per year
Yoast is a great plugin for improving SEO on your WordPress site. It’s easy to use, offers practical guidance for Technical SEO, and even provides content readability and analysis to ensure your headlines, copy, keyword density, images, meta descriptions, and more are immaculate.
24. Rank Math
- Best for: WordPress Technical SEO
- Pricing: Starts from $29.99 per month
Rank Math is another plugin that is built to help your WordPress site rank. It has a user-friendly interface alongside solid content analysis and scoring features. However, where it beats rival tools is with its WordPress-centric technical SEO optimization for schema markups and XML sitemaps.
25. Letterdrop
- Best for: SEO content distribution
- Pricing: $995 per year
Letterdrop is a content marketing platform with a focus on content that makes an impact. It optimizes content for SEO, analyzes which articles lead to revenue growth, and provides AI-power writing assistance. However, perhaps most uniquely, it automates content publishing and gets your articles in front of people that matter.
26. Proposify
- Best for: Sending proposals
- Pricing: Starts at $49 per month
Proposify is an elegant solution for SEO agencies who want to win more clients. It boasts a suite of tools that help with acquisition, such as customizable proposal templates, contracts, and e-signature functionality. It also offers engagement analytics for your proposals which can help you fine-tune your approach.
27. Similarweb
- Best for: Competitor analysis
- Pricing: Starts at $149 per month
Similarweb is a popular marketing intelligence platform that tracks web analytics, traffic, and overall performance. It gives you deep insights into your keywords, competitors, and referral traffic. But perhaps its best feature are its audience insights which give you a better understanding of your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviors.
28. Majestic.com
- Best for: Backlink analysis
- Pricing: Starts at $49.99 per month
Majestic.com specializes in backlink analysis, which makes it a great choice for SEO agencies who are focusing on SEO via backlinks. Majestic helps you not only track backlinks but understand their quality and the context in which they appear. It also lets you track competitors' backlinks so you can understand or replicate successful strategies.
29. Ubersuggest
- Best for: Budget-friendly keyword research
- Pricing: Starts at $29 per month
Ubersuggest is marketing guru Neil Patel’s keyword research tool. It’s very user-friendly and affordable when compared to products like Semrush and Ahrefs, which is its major selling point. While it might lack the depth of other tools, it provides search volume, trends, and lots of great long-tail keyword suggestions. Superb for the price!
30. StoryChief
- Best for: Content syndication
- Pricing: Starts at $30 per month
StoryChief helps teams plan and optimize their content so they can improve search engine visibility. It also features strong collaboration workspace features and AI content generation. However, its standout feature lies in its distribution automation which helps you publish your content across a wide range of platforms, boosting your reach.
31. Perplexity AI
- Best for: Learning
- Pricing: Starts at $5 per month
Perplexity AI is a large language model (LLM) with a focus on answering questions with sources and citations. Unlike many popular Generative AI tools, perplexity backs up its text, making it a valuable research tool to help SEO agencies with content writing, research, and topic exploration.
32. ChatGPT
- Best for: Ideation
- Pricing: Starts from $20 per month
ChatGPT is the world’s most famous language model. It can help SEO agencies in a number of ways, from content generation to keyword research to exploring content ideation. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can develop content strategy plans based on niches and or keywords, helping SEO teams automate a time-consuming process.
33. AnswerThePublic
- Best for: Understanding search intent
- Pricing: Starts from $9 per month
AnswerThePublic tracks the real-world questions and search terms that users enter online. It’s a fantastic way to understand how your target audience thinks and talks about your niche and can provide excellent keyword and topic suggestions. AnswerThePublic’s visualizations are amazing, and the application is particularly useful for getting long-tail keywords.
Conclusion
The diversity of SEO agency software on our list shows just how many factors go into growing an SEO business. You need tools for keyword research, Technical SEO, website building, content writing, analytics, and reporting if you want to taste success.
However, a client portal is the best way to tie all these applications together and create a coherent and meaningful customer experience. Copilot allows you to build a brand client portal that automates onboarding, centralizes communication and collaboration, and provides robust and secure billing. Running an agency without it means wasting time that you need to grow your business and serve your clients.
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