In our previous article, we introduced marketing tools not only for expansion. In this article, we will take a closer look at the best SEO and SEM tools and techniques that we use at Expandeco and which will help you to get higher search engine positions.
However, what does SEO and SEM mean? Many people and marketers are wrong about these two concepts.
SEO
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization and it is a technique, process, and strategy that you can get higher in unpaid, organic search results for keywords that are relevant to your website, increasing both traffic and conversions.
SEM
SEM, short for Search Engine Marketing, is a form of internet marketing, a complex of activities for obtaining traffic from search engines, including seo optimization. It is therefore more like a whole activity than just SEO. This also includes the purchase of paid links, inclusion in catalogs, PPC advertising, and other activities, which lead to the visibility of your website in search engines.
An important advantage of SEM over some other forms of marketing is the ability to identify the exact number of incoming visitors of it. If we know the conversion rate of our site, the return on investment (ROI) can be calculated very accurately in SEM.
Tools
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming frog is considered to be one of the best online tools for web analytics from both a technical and a content point of view (for on-page SEO). It virtually duplicates the search engine indexing robots and draws attention to errors or offers options to improve your website.
This tool is very complex and if you learn to work with it, it will save you a lot of time and money invested in other forms of advertising. So if you have a bigger online store with a large number and frequent change of products, it is worth to invest in a paid version. The free version only scans 500 URLs, the paid version is unlimited and costs £ 149 a year.
The main features of Screaming frog are:
Http Page Status Codes - You can quickly identify error pages on your store, whether the pages from the backlink still exist, display all 404s, and allow you to edit the pages, such as redirecting through 301, 302, or fixing the URLs themselves
URL Structure - Allows you to find too long links, possible duplications, and quickly identify links that don't have relevant descriptions
Images - the golden rule is to hold images below 100kb, greatly increasing webpage loading times, as well as showing you images that don't contain alt text
Response time - this is also related to the response time of each page, ideally identifying all pages where this time is greater than 2 seconds
Titles - should contain relevant keywords, remove duplicates, ideal 50-65 characters
Meta Tag Analysis - Use high-quality meta tags to increase search engine clicks, meta description should be around 160 characters
H1 Analysis - You are able to analyze which pages are missing H1, whether they are relevant and optimized for both keywords and lengths that should be between 20-70 characters
Preview and Test SERP snippets - shows you the current view of what the site looks like, test it through the tool itself, easily export and deploy it to your page
Crawl Depth - the higher the number in crawl depth is, the lower the traffic and the harder it will be for the crawler to crawl and index the page
MOZ
The big advantage is that MOZ has always been and is up to date and adapts quickly to all changes to the Google algorithm. Whether you're looking for keyword recommendations or site crawling, MOZ is the right tool for your needs.
You can get a great overview of how your website works, but also how to improve it. You can also find it in the paid version of Moz Pro (99 - 999 dollars a month), it is possible to try it for 30 days for free, but Moz also offers free tools, especially MozBar, which allows you to view your store metrics while browsing any page.
Main MOZ features:
Keyword difficulty tool - Helps you narrow a list of potential keywords using metrics such as Page Authority and Domain Authority
On-page Optimization - Checks how well is your site optimized and provides tips on how to improve content and factors
Moz Open Site Explorer - helps you view backlinks by authority, find opportunities on link building and remove the bad ones. It will also help you find your competitors' back links
Moz Content - Entering a specific keyword will show you the best ideas for new content, sort by reach, number of links, number of shares, also gives you the opportunity to review your own existing content, find out what worked best in the past
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is very similar to MOZ, but it uses other methods, it gives a slightly different data and contains many other functions. It contains a number of tools to help you with both on-page and off-page optimization, has great customer support and sophisticated tutorials to help you understand all the features quickly.
Ahrefs also offers its services, but for 7 dollars for 7 days, then starts from 99 to 999 dollars per month.
Main Ahrefs features are:
Ahrefs Positions Explorer - Allows you to check the domain, subdomain, or exact URL in which positions are located in Google, showing the list of keywords you are showing for, including your competitors
Ahref’s Keywords Explorer - while Moz’s Keyword Difficulty tool is great at showing you the keywords you can place on, the Ahrefs tool will give you new suggestions, synonyms, and related terms
Ahrefs Site Explorer - A useful feature of ASE is the ability to display only your most prominent content, you'll be able to see which pages are giving you the most active backlinks, and better plan your content strategy
Ahrefs' Positions Explorer - Allows you to view your top 10 competitors and each keyword in which they appear
Ahrefs Content Explorer - Unlike MOZ, this tool is already part of Ahrefs, so there is no need to pay extra for it. In addition, it will show you all the details, simply export the data
Majestic
Majestic contains one of the most comprehensive tools for SEO and SEM, but some SEO experts question the methodology for obtaining links (Majestic generally gives much more URLs to the query than other tools - they boasts of the largest database - many are either duplicate, or not relevant).
The tool is quite simple and intuitive, so you can handle it even if you are a beginner, but the data will need to be thoroughly filtered.
However, Majestic has many great advantages over others. Among other things, their index is updated several times a day, so the data you receive is the latest and most recent.
Main Majestic features are:
Fresh vs. Historic Index - Fresh Index gives you 30 days fresh information while the historical index gives you all the historical data
Site Explorer - analyzes your URL and returns tons of information: short summary, best backlinks, referring domains and top sites
Bulk Backlink Checker - lets you analyze backlinks for up to 400 URLs using copy / paste and up to 1,000,000 URLs from uploaded file
Compare sites - compare key factors across 10 different domains to easily find ideas to improve your site and be better than your competition
SEMRush
SEMrush is a complete set of tools for managing online marketing. Provides professional insight into your traffic from multiple channels and gains insight into the effectiveness of your marketing strategies.
SEMrush also enables marketing professionals to gain an advantage over their competitors by giving them a valuable insight into what their consumers are interested in. Once you identify these topics, you can use them to create more interesting content, increase conversions.
Main features of SEMrush are:
Keywords - Delivers ideas for new relevant keywords to focus on
Ad Analysis - You can identify competitors' PPC ads by seeing their ads, spending, clicks, and highest performing keywords.
SEMrush Site Audit - Analyzes websites, alerts to issues, and assigns overall scores. You will be notified of broken links, duplicate content and more
Not provided - Using SEMrush, you can easily discover what is behind this term in GA
In conclusion, many of these marketing tools are overlapping in their functions, so we tried to bring you the most important or different features in each of them. For choosing the right one, it is a good idea to review their sites carefully and consider your marketing strategy.
