Choosing the right SEO Software for your business can be a challenging task. Aside from the features that you have to consider before pushing through with a subscription, you also have to make sure that the software is compatible with your business process.
Why do you need SEO software?
The challenges for SEO agencies or digital marketing companies offering SEO services range from finding qualified SEO leads, keeping tabs on them, engaging them to partner with your agency, all the way to monitoring their campaigns.
Now, the best SEO software provides you with solutions to these pain points along with making your SEO workflow more efficient. Also, if you’re planning to start an SEO business then SEO software will jumpstart your SEO campaign. More than a tool, it’s a part of your team that executes repetitive tasks and makes your day-to-day life more productive. Having the right SEO software should accelerate your agency’s growth. Here are the points that you need to consider in choosing your SEO Software.
Let’s get to it.
1. Define your Pain Points
What is an SEO software for? Why does your SEO agency need it?
Before you jump into any SEO software subscription services, you have to determine the problems that you need to solve. Whether it’s a process you need to automate or information that you need to organize and manage, it’s important to know what you’ll be using the software for.
If you’re running an SEO business then you have encountered some of these challenges on a daily basis, and if you’re planning to start an SEO business, then it’s important to prepare for these issues early:
- Doing website audits for multiple SEO clients
- Finding the right SEO client to pitch your SEO services to
- Organizing contact information
- Segmenting and monitoring SEO contacts
- Setting up email campaign sequences for different niches
- The tedious task of creating and editing proposals
- Creating quotations for SEO and web design services where you need to provide mock-ups
- Monitoring campaigns
- Keyword tracking
- No real-time overview of stats
- Allocating more hours in reputation management
These are just some of the issues your agency is facing every day. Imagine the increase in your productivity level if only you can cut the time you spend on these in half. Now that you have a list of the challenges, go ahead and think of the possible solutions.
2. Map out your SEO agency’s workflow
Part of finding the solution to a particular pain point is to map out your business process. Jot down your team’s daily work routine and list down all the activities involved.
For SEO Agencies, activities range from lead generation, cold calling, following up leads, sending proposals, closing clients, monitoring campaigns, on-page and off-page SEO, and more.
Here’s a quick guide to help you map out all your SEO activities:
- List down your daily activities
- What information do you collect and how do you store them?
- How do you know if an SEO client is cold, warm, or ready to close?
- How do you send your emails?
- How do you conduct an SEO audit?
- How do you create proposals?
- How do you facilitate all your SEO work?
- How do you set up and monitor an SEO campaign?
- How do you monitor data and analytics?
After mapping out your SEO agency’s workflow, analyze where you need help and which tasks do you think people should spend less time on.
3. Look For An SEO SoftwareThat Will Help Solve Your Pain Points
An SEO software designed by SEO providers is built around an SEO process. This way the software can answer the major problems that need to be solved and can smoothly be integrated into the business workflow as well.
On this note, find out which aspects of your SEO business need an SEO software. List down the problems as well as the solution you think is required to resolve them. You can get an idea from looking at SEO software as well as SEO tools available in the market. Check the features offered and see if it addresses your problems. This will also give you an insight into what other issues you might have missed.
4. What Should Your SEO Software Look Like?
Nothing is set in stone, but at the base of it all, your SEO software should include the important SEO tools that will help your agency maximize productivity and results.
- Lead Generation Tool. This feature should help you find qualified SEO leads for your agency. An added point if every member of your team finds it easy to use and allows you to look for
- SEO Audit Tool. Performing a website audit is part of the daily task of any business offering SEO services. Doing it for multiple leads and clients eats up so much of your time, it’s the same when you use a separate tool for it. Having it integrated with your SEO software can be a lifesaver. Being able to conduct an SEO audit with just a click of a button will save you weeks of work. Another important feature of a website audit tool is that it should present detailed information about how the site is performing in terms of SEO, SEM, social media activities, online security, reputation, and more.
- Lead Nurturing and Closing Features
The goal for any SEO agency is to always close a lead. An SEO software that can close your lead for you will save you resources and weeks’ worth of effort.
The ideal workflow you want with your SEO software when it comes to lead generation is this: Find a lead, manage them with the CRM, start or activate a campaign, track their progress, send a proposal, make a deal, and close that deal. This process goes for every lead you find. As an entrepreneur, you can’t waste even a single second of your time and should aim to shorten this process as effectively as possible.
- Can Automate Workflows
Nothing can kill time and decrease productivity more than repetitive business tasks. Also, you might be very good at now, but mistakes can happen. Great thing is that many tasks, such as email lead nurturing (and email marketing) can be automated. This will give you more time and produce higher-value work.
- Proposal Builder. This is a unique feature for an SEO software yet a very valuable asset in closing leads. Sending a well-built proposal to your SEO prospect will persuade them that SEO services from your agency are indeed necessary to grow their business. Of course, a well-structured SEO proposal will enhance your credibility and will allow you to connect with your potential SEO client better.
- Customer Relationship Management Feature (CRM). This will make it easier for you to manage your agency’s relationships with all your clients and future clients. Having it integrated into the software will make it easier for you to access all your contacts at once. This makes sales life easier and more manageable.
- Data Analytics Feature. One of the most important parts of business growth is analytics, however, there are just days when checking them slips our minds, or we tend to fumble and open so many tabs just to see what’s going on. An SEO software that has the capability of showing you an overview of important data right when you log in will always keep you in-check and updated.
- Report Builder For Clients. This is another unique feature that many agencies didn’t know can be done quickly with the help of a tool, and now, an SEO software. Once you close a client and you become partners, weekly and monthly reports will be a part of your workflow. Having a report builder included in your SEO software is an added bonus. This will make the process of updating clients and delivering reports much more efficient and easier for you.
5. Usability: A Software that Your Team can Use
Usability measures how well a user can use software to effectively achieve a goal. Choose an SEO software that all your team members can learn how to use easily, and retain the features quickly. Your agency will not only save time but save on training costs as well.
Aside from clean and modern design, you can judge the usability of an SEO software through the following:
Ease-of-use. Anyone can learn how to use it easily and can accomplish tasks quickly.
How effective its features are. All promoted features perform as expected and results are accurate.
Efficiency. Promotes a quick and easy workflow through a process that doesn’t require effort from the user.
Engagement level. It’s engaging and pleasant to use for whatever task it’s supposed to deliver.
In a nutshell, when you first go into the software, you should be able to navigate your way around and it should be easy enough to achieve your goals or do your tasks without much help.
6. Consistency
Consistency is an important factor because you want an SEO software to be dependable enough to deliver all the time. You and your team will be using the tool daily, whether it’s for lead generation, or if you suddenly need to create a client proposal — you want these tasks delivered smoothly all the time. Consistently doing the right thing translates to progress, better workflow, and success.
7. Which SEO software should you choose?
Now that you have enumerated your company’s workflow, have identified issues you need to address, and have an idea of what features you want in an SEO software, it’s time to look around. Choose 2 to 5 SEO software that fit your needs, make sure that they are offering free trials so that you can test them out yourself before fully committing to a subscription.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Choosing the right SEO software for your SEO business isn’t easy, but the tips above will make your evaluation process much more effective. Your SEO software should fully integrate into your workflow and should be designed to meet your needs along with cutting your tasks in half.
Note the following:
- What are the challenges that you’re facing that you’ll need software to improve for you?
- What are the processes in your SEO workflow that you want to improve?
- Who in your SEO agency will be using the software?
A good SEO software is more than just a tool, it’s a hard-working member of your team. So find one that can do lead generation, develop customer relationships, and also do repetitive tasks for you.
It should do all the legwork for you because as the agency owner, you should be pouring your focus and energy on high-value work. In a way, an SEO software does the initial work faster which should give you more time to improve relationships with existing clients as well as analyze reports and improve your business strategy.
