I’ve been looking at so many SEO tools lately that I’m beginning to wonder if a really effective tool actually exists out there.
Sure some come close, such as WebCEO, but there aren’t too many web based SEO tools out there that are worth the hype they generate.
That is until now. Recently a new SEO tool entered the market – one that will likely generate a lot of buzz in years to come. That is, if they continue to innovate.
SoloSEO is a great collection of web based SEO tools. And while there are a few shortcomings (I’ll get to those later) there are also a lot of great features. So, let’s start there.
First, they offer a 2 week free trial. This is great as it allows everyone – novices or experts – to try out the product to see if it’s worth the introductory $29/month fee.
It also offers the ability to set your skill level. If you are new to SEO, then you can select the beginner option or, if you are more experienced, you can select the expert option.
Whether you select beginner or expert you are presented with an initial screen which walks you through the steps required to SEO your website.
The first thing you see is a list of active tasks which include “Install Web Site Analytics,” “Find your top keywords,” “Import Pages from your Site” and more.
The layout of this list of tasks is ideal in that it is listed in the order you would normally complete SEO tasks. Analytics is the most important because it not only allows you to set a baseline for your SEO efforts, but it helps you track your improvements via increased traffic. When you’ve completed a task, simply mark it completed and move on to the next one.
One thing I liked about this tool was the ability to use Google Adwords, WordTracker and Overture to select keyphrases. No more having to switch between the 3 most popular tools to determine keywords. The tool even allows you to sort your terms into baskets, or Topics. Simply enter a term you feel describes your site (2-3 words is recommended) and select the keyword tool you’d like (you can select only one of the above, or have the tool run all 3 at once. Keep in mind that chosing keywords using all 3 is a little more time consuming).
Once you’ve chosen keywords, the tool will allow you to add and track those terms, and allow you to add more terms as needed. It can even scan your site (or the sites of your competitors) in an attempt to pull phrases of the site.
This keyword harvesting, while useful, I found lacking somewhat. While it does a decent job of harvesting terms from web pages, I felt it could have done a better job. However, since there doesn’t appear to be other tools out there which can do this, I’ll give it a marginal pass.
The tool also helps you build an HTML and/or XML sitemap for your site, and will even import your sites pages so that you can keep an accurate record of your site. You can then submit the sitemap to the major engines.
One of the biggest disappointments for me was the “Links” section of the site. However, since I have yet to find what I consider an adequate all-in-one link building tool I can’t really fault this tool over others on the market.
While it does do a decent job of finding links for you, it doesn’t yet seem to have the ability to help you determine which are the links you should go after. It merely harvests them and lists them based on PageRank.
While I am somewhat impressed with its ability to harvest links based on sites competing for phrases I did find that it had a problem importing links from a large number of sites. I found that it would stall on me if there were large numbers of sites to import.
Another disappointment was the whole “competitors” area. The site doesn’t seem to have the ability to help you analyze why these sites are ranking highly. Granted it does show you Alexa traffic and PageRank for the sites, but those are just indicators of worth. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of analysis ability built into it.
And I guess that’s my largest complaint about this tool. It doesn’t allow you a way to analyze much beyond keywords. While it does a great job of helping you chose keywords, it doesn’t offer the same analysis on links or competitors.
But who knows, perhaps some form of analysis will come in future versions. After all, this is essentially a version 1 product, so we can’t expect the moon and stars from it, can we?
Aside from those weaknesses, though, I have to say I am impressed with the product on the whole. It is a great way to manage your efforts by centralizing everything into one location. At least that is one thing this product has that no one else has done yet – allowing you to quickly move from keywords to links to competitors with little effort. Also the presentation of the various aspects also works very well. It allows you to see where your efforts are at a glance.
So is it worth $29/month? Well, if you are new to SEO then definitely. It can provide you with an easy-to-use dashboard to help you manage your efforts.
Even if you are somewhat experienced, this tool can help you save money because you may not have to hire an SEO firm, or even pay a consultant to review your progress with you.
But if you are in the expert realm, then I’d suggest sticking with what you are already comfortable with unless you need a centralized place to store and manage your efforts. This is because right now that’s about all an expert would use this for – organizing and storing competitors, links and keywords. Because in the end you can do everything this does with an assortment of other freely available tools.
So, to recap. If you are new or relatively inexperienced with SEO then I’d recommend shelling out $29 per month, at least until you feel comfortable enough to be able to handle your SEO efforts without the aid of a centralized tool. And if you are experienced, it still could be worth the investment if you think you need help organizing things. But if you are looking for the be-all end-all of SEO tools, this isn’t it.
