SEo companies that work

Getting SEO Software? Get ready to learn SEO a-to-z!

If you have already made up your mind about doing SEO yourself with SEO tools, then get ready to learn SEO the way that you’d never have to if you hired an SEO consultant. Note that I am not pitching for consultants here – unless you have a solid referral for an SEO service provider – stay away from them as the risk of being misled (and ripped off) is so much greater than with any SEO tools, even most expensive ones.

Think of it this way: now I am an SEO consultant, now it’s ME who is in charge of my site’s SEO and I need some tools to help me with that. I also need to learn about SEO principles to take full advantage of these tools and make some sort of site promotion strategy (as SEO tools are merely tools, they don’t decide for me – I do).

Getting SEO software? – Make sure you set your expectations right!

Next, if you are already shopping around for SEO software, you will notice that nearly all providers tell you that it will be easy to do SEO with their products and that you will have top rankings very soon.

When you read such stuff, please understand that it is no more than marketing speak. Of course software providers won’t go out and tell you “pal, our tools take time to get used to and you have to spend quite some time learning about SEO”. But that’s the reality – any SEO program that has lots of features demands lots of mental effort on the user’s part – otherwise you end up spending money on a program, miss out on more than half of its features simply because you don’t know how to put them to use. Soon enough you become disillusioned with the program because you aren’t seeing your site ranking #1 for your target search term as the marketing copy promised.

Getting SEO software? – Get ready to invest!

And my last word of advice: good SEO tools are not cheap – get ready to spend if you want results. The key thing to understand is that SEO software is tied to search engine algo’s. And search engines are one of the most complex mechanisms ever created.

The more search engines the tools support, the harder it is to maintain them. Why? Because it’s been tested and documented that search engines change their algorithms approximately 400 times per year. On average, that’s more than one search algo change per day. Multiply by all the search engines that the software supports – and software providers have quite a bit of work to do to keep the software working, and working accurately at that.

So yes, accuracy is the key when it comes to SEO tools, and accurate tools that support various search engines cost quite a bit. Now, they are cheaper than consultant fees but they are far from free.

Also, as you will learn, there are online and desktop SEO programs. There are pros and cons to using either of these but while all online tools have monthly online subscription fees, many desktop tools have them too. Why? Because both cloud and desktop based tools still have to interact with search engines and the upkeep costs to keep this interaction (and accuracy) going are still high hence the monthly fees.

Which brings me to your point on “negative views” – quite a few customers fail to understand that no matter if the tools are online or desktop based, search engine updates are vital for the tools’ accuracy and you have to PAY for this accuracy, each and every month. Owners of of desktop tools seem to get especially irate about such monthly costs and “rebel” when learning they have to pay for them.

So if you are saying that cost is not really a factor, and if you understand the reasoning behind monthly fees, now you are ready to shop. I am almost evangelical when I recommend SEO PowerSuite tools (all desktop based). I honestly think they are great at what they do (keyword research, rank checks, onpage seo and link building): free version to try for as long as you want, paid versions with extensive features and clockwork accuracy (and paid monthly updates), and other bells and whistles. They go above and beyond IBP in many respects: interface/usability, performance speed, features, accuracy, search engine support. Download both and see what I mean.

Also, the “Whats in your SEO toolbox” article listed in the sources has some great software recommendations and brief reviews of each program.