SEO Agency of the Year Winner Harry Sanders started StudioHawk erstwhile helium was conscionable 17 years aged and homeless.

Fast-forward, StudioHawk grew its gross from 3.4 cardinal successful 2021 to 5.6 cardinal successful 2023.

Their no. 1 SEO bundle of choice?

Semrush.

Semrush volition screen astir of your SEO needs. But to standard your agency, you’ll payment from specialized bundle crossed antithetic areas of your business.

This station shares 9 SEO tools verified by agencies, turning implicit astatine slightest a cardinal dollars a year.

Let’s get started.

What’s The Best SEO Software For Agencies?

1. Semrush – Best for doing each SEO enactment end-to-end
2. Google Search Console – Best for monitoring tract show successful Google Search
3. Screaming Frog – Best for method SEO and crawling
4. BrightLocal – Best for section SEO
5. Google Analytics – Best for tracking website traffic
6. Respona – Best for link-building campaigns
7. Agency Analytics – Best for lawsuit reports
8. Frase – Best for on-page optimizations
9. Notion – Best for procedures and documentation

1. Semrush

Best all-in-one SEO bundle for agencies of immoderate size

Price: Starts astatine $129.95/month with a 7-day trial

You’ll beryllium hard-pressed to find an nonfiction that doesn’t urge Semrush arsenic the apical instrumentality for your bureau tech stack.

And for bully reason. It’s not conscionable SEO software. It’s an online visibility level with PPC, societal media, and integer PR tools—perfect for selling agencies.

Let’s look astatine immoderate features.

Competitive Research

Whether you’re prospecting caller clients oregon doing rival research, analyzing website show is 1 of an agency’s astir adjuvant functions.

And Semrush’s “Domain Overview” is marvelous astatine this.

Say your lawsuit sells integrated bedding and bath products online. They notation that Coyuchi is their apical competitor.

At a glance, you tin spot Coyuchi’s authorization score, estimated hunt traffic, and full backlinks.

It gets better.

Go to “Organic Research” successful the sidebar, past click “Pages”.

You tin spot Coyuchi’s astir trafficked pages, the keywords those pages fertile for, and the fig of backlinks pointing to those pages. You tin drill down connected the leafage for much data.

This accusation is everything you request to impressment a prospective lawsuit and physique an effectual campaign.

Keyword Research

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool volition prevention your squad hours each period doing keyword research.

For example, participate a effect keyword similar “organic blankets.”

Within seconds, you tin spot astir 1,500 keyword variations, with a combined hunt measurement of 12,660 and an mean keyword trouble of 13%. That’s beauteous magical.

You tin filter and benignant the information astatine will. You tin besides spot questions related to your topic, filter by nonstop lucifer phrases, oregon find related hunt queries.

Topic Clusters

Grouping keywords for your clients tin beryllium daunting. It requires intimate cognition of the niche and meticulous readying to thrust a affirmative instrumentality connected investment.

Semrush’s Keyword Manager makes it casual to make clump ideas and spot however topics relate.

This time, your lawsuit is an physics signature tool, and you’re helping them make statement template pages. Enter “agreement template,” and here’s what Semrush outputs:

Semrush identified 660 keywords grouped into 25 clusters. You tin drill down connected each clump to recognize the difficulty, postulation potential, and intent.

For a much ocular experience, you tin presumption the clump successful a mindmap—perfect for presenting to clients.

Link-Building Prospecting Lists

Earning links for clients is simply a halfway work for SEO agencies. The archetypal measurement to a link-building campaign is creating a prime prospecting list.

Semrush’s Referring Domains dashboard makes it casual to filter retired rubbish links.

For example, 8,213 domains nexus to coyruchi.com.

But galore of these links are inactive, debased quality, oregon irrelevant. Vetting this database successful its existent signifier would instrumentality excessively overmuch time.

You tin adhd a filter to people websites with progressive links and an authorization people of 21 to 100. You tin besides acceptable the nexus attributes to “follow.”

Now, this database is down to a much manageable 824 links.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Semrush has 4 pricing plans:

• Free: The escaped relationship is an fantabulous mode to get a consciousness for the merchandise earlier committing. It allows for 1 task and the tracking of 10 keywords.
• Pro: $129.95/month (500 tracked keywords), champion for one-person agencies with a fistful of clients. It offers extended limits for tracked terms, precocious features, and much broad reporting. Additional users tin beryllium added for $45/month.
• Guru: $249/month (1,500 tracked keywords), suitable if you request extensive-tracked word quotas, much precocious features, and broad reporting. Additional users tin beryllium added for $80/month.
• Business: $499/month (5,000 tracked keywords), champion for mean to large-sized agencies. Additional users tin beryllium added for $100/month.

Optional add-ons:

• Semrush Local: This diagnostic enhances section visibility and lawsuit choice. It includes listing absorption and reappraisal absorption for an further $20/month oregon $40/month for the premium plan.
• Agency Growth Kit: This kit offers inbound and outbound selling leads, task absorption capabilities, collaboration, and reporting tools. There are 3 levels available: Start ($69/month), Scale ($149/month), and Advanced ($249/month).

Semrush Alternative: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is different fantabulous prime for an all-in-one SEO instrumentality for your agency. It offers galore of the aforesaid features, including keyword research, rival analysis, and tract audits.

The idiosyncratic interface is slick, enabling you to rapidly process immense amounts of data. Ahrefs’s backlink database is 1 of the astir broad retired there.

With that said, Semrush offers much features for a comparable price. As an agency, you tin negociate societal media, PPC, and adjacent email outreach campaigns without utilizing different platform.

2. Google Search Console

Best for monitoring tract show successful Google Search

Price: Free

Every bureau should usage Google Search Console (GSC), a escaped SEO software.

Once you adhd your clients’ website, you’ll get the astir close postulation information for Google Search performance.

Here are the apical features.

Index Coverage Report

GCS’s Index Coverage Report tells you which pages Google has indexed. This is 1 of the archetypal things you privation to cheque for a caller lawsuit project.

You privation to guarantee nary issues are preventing their astir indispensable pages from being seen by Google.

For a step-by-step usher connected however to hole scale errors, cheque retired Backlinko’s guide connected Google Search Console.

Performance Report

The show study lets you spot however galore clicks and impressions your website gets from Google. You tin besides presumption the mean CTR and position.

Check show metrics for pages oregon idiosyncratic queries.

With this data, you tin counsel clients connected however to amended show either done updating existing contented oregon publishing caller pages.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Google Search Console is free.

3. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Best method SEO Software

Price: Free for up to 500 URLs, past starts astatine $259/year

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is simply a desktop exertion that tin beryllium installed connected Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. It allows you to crawl websites and analyse them for SEO issues.

Even John Mueller, Google Search Evangelist, endorses Screaming Frog.

Screaming Frog is simply a long-time SEO bureau from the UK. The squad built the crawler bundle to assistance clients with method SEO.

Here are the apical features.

Quickly Check The Indexability of Pages

One of the archetypal things connected a technical SEO to-do database is to guarantee the pages you privation to look successful Google are being indexed.

In Screaming Frog, it’s arsenic elemental arsenic sorting your array of URLs by indexability.

At a glance, you tin cheque the presumption of your non-indexed pages and find if you request to instrumentality action.

Review Page Titles

Each tab has its ain filter, including uncovering issues. In the “Page Titles” area, you tin cheque which URLs person missing titles, duplicates, implicit 60 characters, and more.

This presumption is besides adjuvant to spot if the heading 1 tag is the aforesaid arsenic the rubric tag.

Priority Setting

Technical SEO audits tin beryllium overwhelming.

Where bash you start?

Screaming Frog organizes issues by precedence truthful you tin absorption connected getting speedy and impactful wins for your clients.

It besides groups issues by “Type.” So, a informing benignant means it could beryllium an issue, not that it’s guaranteed.

Helpful Explanations

Another symptom of method SEO is figuring retired what issues mean—especially for caller squad members.

Screaming Frog describes issues simply truthful you tin recognize however to hole them.

Here’s however it explains brushed 404 page:

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Screaming Frog has 2 plans:

• Free: You tin instal the exertion and crawl up to 500 URLs for free.
• Paid: $259/year, nary bounds connected URLs. You tin entree the configuration settings and tin integrate with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. You tin besides prevention and comparison your crawls.

The paid licence is lone for 1 user.

Screaming Frog Alternative: Sitebulb

Sitebulb is simply a one-stop website audit bundle disposable connected desktop and cloud. Like Screaming Frog, you tin customize your crawls successful detail. And Sitebulb volition supply a precedence database of tasks to amended oregon hole your SEO.

Sitebulb offers amended reporting options than Screaming Frog. For example, you tin make white-label PDF reports for your clients. Being successful the cloud, Sitbulb is easier to instrumentality successful your agency.

With that said, determination are restrictions connected Sitebulb’s crawl limits depending connected the plan. On Screaming Frog’s paid license, you get unlimited crawls. Screaming Frog besides provides much earthy data, truthful you tin manipulate what you privation with much precision.

4. BrightLocal

Best section SEO software

Price: Starts astatine $39/month with a 14-day escaped trial

BrightLocal is the go-to bundle for managing section SEO projects.

Helping local businesses get traffic and leads done hunt is 1 of the astir communal SEO services for agencies.

But, manually managing Google Business Profiles (GBPs) and citations is tedious. Especially if you person a decent lawsuit roster size. BrightLocal takes attraction of this.

My Social Practice, a selling bureau for dentists with an estimated yearly turnover of $7 million, uses BrightLocal to make lawsuit leads.

Let’s look astatine the apical features successful much detail.

A Single Source of Truth

You nary longer request to hunt for your clients’ GBP connected Google to marque updates. You tin marque each the changes successful BrightLocal and automatically notify your clients via email.

Citation Searches

After importing a Google Business Profile, BrightLocal volition find citations applicable to your listing.

The citation tracker gives you a database of citations and links to the websites to adhd them.

BrightLocal besides provides a citation people to spot if determination are immoderate errors to action.

Don’t privation to adhd citations manually? BrightLocal has a paid, done-for-you citation work you tin petition from your account.

Review Management

BrightLocal has estimation management. This means you tin spot and respond to reviews successful BrightLocal without going to the websites wherever the reviews were published.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

BrightLocal has 3 pricing options:

• Track: $39/month, includes tracking section rankings, auditing citations, monitoring GBP, and rival insights.
• Manage: $49/month, includes everything successful Track, positive enhanced listings absorption crossed aggregate platforms similar Google, Bing, Facebook, and Apple, and besides includes the capableness to suppress outer edits and docket GBP posts.
• Grow: $59/month, has precocious reappraisal absorption capabilities similar monitoring and responding to reviews, moving reappraisal procreation campaigns, and creating website reappraisal widgets.

Annual plans supply a 25% discount. Pricing volition spell up depending connected however galore listings you manage.

BrightLocal Alternative: Semrush Local

Semrush Local is an fantabulous alternate to BrightLocal. You tin negociate GBP listings and reviews from 1 dashboard.

On the Premium Plan, you tin usage AI-generated replies to respond to lawsuit reviews astatine volume. And the Map Rank Tracker lets you spot your section rankings successful an area.

Semrush Local plans are add-ons to a Semrush subscription. So, if you already usage Semrush, BrightLocal’s prices are competitive. And you get the payment of an all-in-one tool.

But if you conscionable request a section SEO instrumentality without Semrush’s main features, past BrightLocal is cheaper and offers much features.

5. Google Analytics

Best for tracking website traffic

Price: Free

Google Analytics is indispensable bundle for tracking website postulation and conversations for your clients. Like GSC, Google Analytics is free—so there’s nary crushed not to usage it.

Traffic Sources

One of the astir utilized GA4 reports is the “Traffic Acquisition Report.”

This lets you spot your postulation sources, including integrated search.

Pages and Screens

Another fashionable study is the Pages and Screens Report, which lets you spot postulation to idiosyncratic pages.

If you person conversions configured, you tin spot however galore income are linked to pages connected your website.

Purchase Journey

If your lawsuit has an online store, you tin visualize the conversion funnel from league to purchase.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Google Analytics is free.

Google Analytics Alternative: Clicky Analytics

Clicky Analytics is privacy-friendly website analytics bundle with a elemental yet effectual interface. On the homepage, you get a snapshot of visitors, conversions, incoming links, and the astir trafficked pages. Clicky besides offers real-time analytics; you tin spot however galore actions each visitant has taken connected your website.

But Clicky’s conversion tracking is constricted compared to Google Analytics. It has acold less integrations. Also, you request to spell connected a paid program if you’re managing much than 1 website.

6. Respona

Best outreach instrumentality for link-building

Price: Starts astatine $79/month with a 14-day escaped trial

Respona is besides a almighty instrumentality to assistance you standard link-building campaigns for your clients.

uSERP, a link-building agency, scaled from 0 to $1 cardinal successful yearly recurring gross (ARR) successful conscionable 1 year. Using Respona, uSERP earns 300-350 prime links from high-authority websites monthly.

Here are immoderate apical features.

Campaign Templates

There are 15 (and counting) link-building run templates available. These are tried and tested strategies, including the skyscraper technique.

Link-Building Opportunities

Once you implicit your template, you tin root link-building opportunities successful Respona.

For example, you tin integrate with Semrush to make a prospecting database by analyzing hunt results and competing URLs.

Then tally automations to find contacts for websites.

Contact Vetting

Once Respona has finished the automations, you tin bulk-select your prospects oregon vett them individually.

Respona finds the champion contacts for each website, including verified emails and LinkedIn profiles.

So, nary much emailing support. Or utilizing different tools to scrape contacts.

Imagine however overmuch clip your squad volition save.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Respona offers 3 plans:

• Starter: $79/month includes 1 email relationship and 60,000 information credits. Best for a one-person agency.
• Pro: $399/month for 5 email accounts and 300,000 information credits. Suitable for a tiny agency.
• Custom: 600,000 information credits, champion for ample link-building agencies.

All plans are billed annually, which is emblematic for outreach bundle that provides a batch of interaction data.

Respona Alternative: Pitchbox

Pitchbox helps agencies, publishers, and brands physique relationships with influencers and bloggers. It has a cleanable idiosyncratic interface and is simply a almighty instrumentality endorsed by our founder, Brian Dean.

The champion diagnostic is however it leverages information from outer SEO tools similar Semrush and past provides vetting criteria for each contact—cutting down your probe time.

But.

It’s expensive.

The nonrecreational program starts astatine $495/month billed annually.

Responsa is amended worth with the automations and templates astatine a much affordable price.

7. Agency Analytics

Best lawsuit reporting bundle for agencies

Price: Starts astatine $12/month with a 14-day escaped trial

Agency Analytics is the champion instrumentality for pulling your selling analytics (including SEO) into a gorgeous dashboard your clients tin understand.

A deficiency of lawsuit reporting volition effect successful losing budget.

It’s that simple.

Native Rank, a selling bureau successful Denver, understands this. With a $38 cardinal ARR, Native Rank uses Agenceny Analytics to way and present exceptional results to implicit 500 progressive clients.

Here’s precisely however Agency Analytics tin help.

80+ Integrations

You tin propulsion information from each the large selling tools into your Agency Analytics dashboard. For SEO, this includes Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, and Google Business Profile.

Customizable Dashboard

The dashboard is arsenic elemental arsenic resistance and drop. You tin physique it from scratch oregon usage 1 of the Agency Analytics templates.

Automated Reports

Rather than scrambling astatine the extremity of each period to make reports for clients, you tin acceptable up an automated study that goes retired astatine the aforesaid clip each period based connected your integrations.

Alternatively, you tin stock a nexus to the dashboard with your client.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Agency Analytics has 3 plans:

• Freelancer: $12/month/client run (five minimum) champion for one-person agencies with a tiny lawsuit roster.
• Agency: $18/month/client run (10 minimum) is champion for medium-sized agencies. It includes white-label reporting, customized branding, and interior study approvals.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (minimum 50 campaigns) is champion for ample agencies that request onboarding enactment and API access.

Agency Analytics Alternative: Looker Studio

Looker Studio is simply a escaped information visualization instrumentality from Google that galore SEO agencies curse by. It integrates seamlessly with GSC, Google Analytics, Google Ads, YouTube Ads, and Google Sheets. It pulls information from astir third-party tools adjacent if you’re not successful Google’s ecosystem.

That said, it takes overmuch clip to customize reports for your clients, eating into your wages. Looker Studio is an fantabulous prime if you privation to enactment adjacent to your reporting and tinker endlessly.

Agency Analytics is the amended enactment for a overmuch faster process—with the additions of keyword tracking and automated reporting.

8. Frase

Best contented instauration and optimization tool

Price: Starts astatine $14.99/month

From probe to outlining, writing, and optimizing, Frase is the champion instrumentality to velocity up your contented production.

Here are the champion features.

Automated Outlines

Analyzing the heading operation of the top-ranking pages for a query and past turning that into an outline is simply a communal SEO task.

It involves opening each leafage and reviewing it manually. This tin adhd up erstwhile dealing with hundreds, if not thousands, of SEO briefs successful an agency.

Frase does this for you, truthful you don’t person to permission the app to make an outline that perfectly matches the hunt intent.

All you person to bash is prime which headings from the apical pages you privation to adhd to your outline. Or you tin constitute your own.

Use Frase probe to update your outline with populated information from the SERP. This includes stats, questions, headings, news, and Wiki information. Again, without having to excavation astir the SERP.

Page Topic Scores

Frase provides a elemental taxable people to support way of your on-page optimizations.

This is adjuvant to recognize if your leafage has capable related keywords for the taxable without having to conjecture oregon manually track.

Frase besides has a heatmap to spot however often competing pages see keywords. At a glance, you tin spot wherever you person contented gaps.

Page Optimization Opportunities

Hands down, 1 of the champion features of Frase is the GSC integration. It pulls information from your GSC spot and tells you the postulation trends for your keywords and pages.

One of the hardest things successful SEO is staying connected apical of existing pages trending down—defined arsenic “decay”—where the query oregon leafage has mislaid much than 2 positions and clicks person decreased.

You tin drill down to the leafage to spot what keywords are dropping, past whip up a Frase doc from the data.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Frase has 3 pricing plans:

• Solo: $14.99/month. This includes 1 idiosyncratic spot and optimize 4 articles/month.
• Basic: $44.99/month. This includes 1 idiosyncratic spot and optimize 30 articles/month.
• Team: $114.99/month. This includes 3 idiosyncratic seats and optimize unlimited articles.

Discounts alteration with yearly subscriptions.

Frase Alternative: Clearscope

Clearscope works likewise to Frase successful that it generates briefs for your leafage based connected the top-ranking pages for your people keyword. But Clearscope grades your contented based connected semantic relevance.

Clearscope has much rival data, specified arsenic hunt volume, grades, and readability level. It besides has a Google Docs add-on. But Frase has much probe tools similar stats, questions and conception maps.

Frase besides has almighty AI penning tools and contented decay tracking. All for a overmuch much affordable price. Clearscope plans commencement astatine $199/month. Read our afloat Clearscope review.

For what it’s worth, we usage Frase to make briefs and optimize contented for Backlinko.

9. Notion

Best for procedures and documentation

Price: Starts astatine $10 per user/month.

Notion is simply a flexible instrumentality for managing your bureau operations. The main payment is you’re not constrained. You tin marque Notion what you request for your squad and clients.

Here’s a video tutorial showing you however to tally a selling bureau successful Notion.

Payton Clarke Smith grew his agency, Pait Digital, to $600,000 ARR successful 2022 utilizing Notion to tally his distant team. In fact, Payton uses the versatility of Notion to tally four businesses simultaneously.

Here are the apical Notion features.

Client Portals

A lawsuit portal is simply a dashboard for clients to spot each the SEO enactment completed and collaborate with you.

The main crushed for lawsuit churn is simply a deficiency of visibility, reporting, and results. All of this is mitigated with a lawsuit portal.

With Notion, you tin make lawsuit portal templates for method SEO, contented planning, outreach, reporting, benignant guides, personas, you sanction it.

You tin store each of your lawsuit keywords and contented projects.

Choose antithetic views from a calendar, table, timeline, oregon the fashionable Kanban style.

Streamline lawsuit and squad communications successful a azygous root of truth. And debar getting mislaid successful confusing email threads oregon undocumented telephone calls.

Once you’ve built a lawsuit portal you’re blessed with; it becomes a selling constituent successful your prospecting calls. You tin demo your portal to springiness clients a consciousness for your transparency and what moving unneurotic is like.

Standard Operating Procedures

Notion is an exceptional instrumentality for storing and sharing cognition with your team. You tin make a elaborate cognition basal of each the tasks you repeatedly bash successful your agency.

Whether it’s however to recognize hunt intent oregon however to log time, you tin make a assets for everything—significantly expanding productivity.

Customer Relation Management (CRM)

You tin physique a CRM successful Notion to way your pipeline and adjacent much deals.

Within each contact, your squad tin usage Notion comments arsenic an audit way for lawsuit enactment truthful everyone is connected the aforesaid page.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

Notion offers a escaped plan, with unlimited blocks for individuals. There is simply a constricted artifact proceedings for squad accounts.

There are 3 pricing plans:

• Plus: $10 per user/month. This includes unlimited blocks, 30 leafage history, and up to 100 guests.
• Business: $18 per user/month. This includes further features, including 90 time leafage past and up to 250 guests.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for precocious functionality.

Discounts alteration with yearly subscriptions.

Notion Alternative: ClickUp

ClickUp is simply a almighty task absorption tool. It has a robust hierarchy system, truthful each task is captured. Your squad tin way clip against lawsuit enactment and interior projects. Then, you tin make automated dashboards to get an overview of productivity and fund allocation. This is simply a important vantage implicit Notion, arsenic you tin get close presumption updates.

The situation with ClickUp (and Monday.com, Asana, Trello, etc.) is that you’re constricted to the operation of the software. It’s besides not the champion for creating cognition bases and SOPs.

Read: Notion vs. Monday Head to Head

So, choosing betwixt Notion and ClickUp depends connected your goals and however your squad likes to work.

Ready to Start? Here Are Our Top 2 Picks for SEO Software

You tin standard a 7-figure SEO agency with 2 tools: Semrush and Notion (or immoderate task absorption tool).

Software #1: Semrush

For 90% of your execution, Semrush volition beryllium much than enough.

It covers keyword research, tract audits, fertile tracking, rival analysis, and nexus vetting. You tin adjacent tally outreach campaigns and bash on-page optimizations nether 1 roof.

If you motion up for , you tin make white-label reports lawsuit portals, and tally your CRM for pb generation.

Software #2: Notion

Notion is the cognition basal and squad collaboration instrumentality that sits down Semrush. It’s a root of information for your interior squad to get accusation connected HR, projects, and institution procedures.

You tin besides make self-service lawsuit portals to way and study your SEO campaigns. This volition trim agelong email threads, undocumented telephone calls, and different ambiguities.

Your Next Step

Now that you person the tools for the job, your squad needs the cognition to crush lawsuit campaigns and support those monthly retainers rolling in.

Check retired our usher connected how to beryllium an SEO expert. This station is simply a instauration for gathering a cognition basal for your bureau resources.

The station 9 Powerful SEO Software Tools Used by 7-Figure Agencies appeared archetypal connected Backlinko.