What is my next step for SEO?

[bobbabuoy]

My SEOMoz trial is drawing to a close and I have spent the month doing a ton of cleanup on my sites to remove errors and warning and otherwise comply with the basics of what I need to do to help position them.  What I need to do now is take the next step and move them "up the ladder."

SEOMoz looks good and I don't want this to sound like an ultimatum but I am also getting better at Google Analytics and their Webmaster tools.  The question is, "Should I pay the money to SEOMoz or just work with google?"  I am a very small shop with a very limited budget.  Also, time is of the essence...I am prepared to continue my subscription if I can get an answer to the question:  "What do I do next and how can SEOMoz help me where just knowing Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools can not?"

Thanks a ton in advance!

[activitysuper]

First off it's a monthly fee of $99 so your not locked into a 12 month contract, if you decide in 2 months time it's not for you, you can just end the account.

But more to the point, do you feel using SEOmoz has earned your company $99 in the knowledge you have gained?

Personally if your into SEO or do it for a living then SEOmoz is a must, if you want to learn how to climb the rankings or have a problem then I cant think of a better place to get an accurate answer.

[BrianJGomez]

The question I would ask is how important is it for you to get your sites 'up that ladder' and what is your time worth? If the answer is very and more than $10/hr, then I would say keep SEOMoz. It sounds like you've spend quite a bit of time on on-site seo...where I would now focus some time on is using the competitive analysis within SEOmoz to fully understand why your competitors for each of your sites are further 'up the ladder' as you put it. Then work backwords from there....I've find that tool in particular to be a valuable time saver. Also the reports are very useful in tracking and sharing your progress. Just my .02.

[randfish]

I always want to be empathetic to the fact that for a small business, $99/month is a serious expense. Put in your shoes, I'd be thinking about your usage of the following:

• Use of http://opensiteexplorer.org for link evaluations, identify opportunities, analyzing the competition, etc.
• Use of http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty for SERPs analysis, choosing keywords, doing research, etc.
• Use of http://seomoz.org/seo-toolbar for on-the-fly analysis
• Use of http://pro.seomoz.org/ to keep track of KPIs over time, watch your six on error/warnings, track rankings, track social account growth, etc.
• Use of PRO Perks, Q+A, the PRO webinars, etc

If you're using 2+ of these regularly, it's likely worth staying and examining whether you're getting value and keep coming back. If not, then probably wise to drop the service (and hopefully we'll earn back your business as we keep growing our value/tools/data/info and your business scales, too).

Hope that helps!

[activitysuper]

One of the most valuable things for me is the 'seo toolbar', I use this ALL THE TIME for checking blogs to guest post on - I use myblogguest and usually receive between 5-10 offers, when 2 offers are very similar I use the tool bar to make my decision.

When I do this for guest blogging I see very good results, sometimes a blog may look visually better but could have a DA/PA 18-23 against a blog that looks rubbish but has DA/PA 50-60, I would have never known this without the tool bar.

I also use it to work out roughly how much more work is involved to jump rankings by comparing my stats against ones above me in the results.