Whether you like it or not, SEO is a major component of a successful content marketing campaign. Therefore, having a set of tools that support your SEO efforts can drastically improve how well your content performs.
SEO is complicated and ever-changing, but you can get tools that will change and improve alongside SEO adaptations. You can consider a SEO toolkit from SEMrush, for example, or you can build one yourself.
Here’s what you need to know so that you do it right:
What is an SEO Toolkit?
An SEO toolkit is a package or software suite that supports your SEO efforts. This toolkit can be sold as a standalone item, like the SEMrush SEO Toolkit, or you can make one yourself.
The toolkit will usually be devoted to software, technology, and methods that improve your website’s SEO. This can be an invaluable tool for content marketers, for example, and business blogs.
What’s in an SEO Toolkit?
Your business’ SEO toolkit should have tools that are specific to your marketing and SEO needs. For example, if you have a website, you have to follow on-page SEO basics. The strength of your SEO toolkit will then depend on how much you need to use the website. If the website is just to promote a personal brand and act as a CV, then you could get away with basic SEO information.
However, if your website is an eCommerce site, you’ll want a highly focused SEO campaign and blogging strategy that drives traffic to your site.
SEO tool kits might contain:
- Keyword competitive analysis
- Geo-based keyword research
- Link building strategies
- SERP tracking
- On-page SEO
- Optimized landing page copy
- Technical SEO
- SEO dashboard
- AI-powered software
- Performance analytics
- Competitive topical authority and optimization
- Web intelligence
- Hosting integrations
Pros and Cons of Building vs. Buying a Toolkit
Businesses can assemble their toolkit or buy one pre-made. When it comes to discerning between the two, it really boils down to what your company needs and how you prefer to do business.
Buying an SEO Toolkit
There are plenty of options for buying an SEO toolkit as a standalone product. In addition to SEMrush, you can buy toolkits from plesk, which provide features like:
- SEO advisor
- Site audit
- SEO toolkit
- Log file analyzer
Like other kits, it tests your website’s ranking and performance and compares it to past performance and competitors. It also provides opportunities for improvement through on-site optimization and competitive keywords.
Unlike amalgamated toolkits, standalone products usually give you one consolidated point to access your SEO data. You usually get a dashboard that is already connected to all the services that you need.
Building an SEO Toolkit
One of the downsides of buying an SEO toolkit is that you are left with what the provider has coded. You cannot customize your SEO dashboard that much and you don’t really have insight into where the analytics are coming from.
This is where building your SEO toolkit is a better option. If you’re familiar with code, you could even build a dashboard or a standing site with integrated connections.
One of the biggest advantages of an SEO toolkit is having the opportunity to build your own SEO powerhouse tool. You will then know exactly where the information is coming from so you have a deeper understanding of analytics and competitive gaps.
When you build your SEO toolkit, you can then begin to include items that are often sorely lacking from standalone products, like AI-powered tools and topical recommendations for content optimization.
Tools That Absolutely Should Be in Your SEO Toolkit
Whether you’re just learning about SEO or you’re more advanced and want to drastically improve your web page SEO, know that two simple tools can help:
Marketmuse for Content Optimization and Competitive Keyword Gaps
We highly recommend Marketmuse, an AI-powered content optimization and research tool that can elevate your content far easier than anything else on the market. This is a free tool that we enrol all our clients in to optimize topical authority.
Marketmuse comes with a few in-suite features and add-ons, like Marketmuse briefs, but you can start for free to see what the services are like. Use competitive analysis to get ahead using strategic keywords.
Marketmuse can also help boost product pages but it is seriously needed for businesses that blog. With its insight, you will be able to capitalize on AI to sift through countless data. Use Marketmuse to clearly capture long-tail and easy competition keywords to improve your page ranking.
SEMrush for Keyword Research, Page Performance and Occasional Site Audits
Most companies go with an SEO tool like AHrefs or SEMrush. We chose SEMrush due to its popularity and the range of add-ons that you can go with.
SEMrush gives companies insight into how well their page is performing globally compared to competitors. It also alerts you to keywords where your pages perform strongly and which of your pages are highest ranking.
SEMrush has loads of data, but always check the ranking of the pages you’re researching in your own location. Check page performance and perform keyword research so that you’re positioning your website for success. You can also use some of the occasional SEO tools like site audits and their link-building features, among others.
You Need SEO Tools for Your Content Marketing Efforts
Again, whether you agree with it or not, you will need some SEO tools on hand to improve your content marketing efforts. So whether you buy one or build one, you will have a “toolkit” of some sort.
If you’re new to SEO, a pre-built toolkit might be a good idea. It would most likely walk you through some of the basics of on-page and technical SEO, which can be more of an advanced skill, and perform things like a site audit when you need it.
Unfortunately, of course, SEO toolkits can be rather expensive, so you’ll have to be careful about the one you choose. It might be better to build a toolkit to start and pay for some advanced features when you need them, like a site audit right off the bat.
There are tons of free tools that you can use as well, such as SEMrush for free and Marketmuse for free. These free tools can actually give you a lot of insight into how well your website and content is currently performing and give direction to fill competitive keyword and topical gaps to get ahead of the competition.
Note that you should have at least some SEO tools that support your content marketing efforts, especially or two tools outside of your Yoast plugin on WordPress. This will then give you a better, more comprehensive understanding of how your content will perform vs. how it actually is performing.
Need help? Reach out today to talk about which SEO tools are right for you. And learn how blogging can improve your business’s online performance and web authority.
