How much SEO software is too much?

[ThomasHgenhaven]

Obviously, all of us here use SEOmoz for our SEO effort. But what else do you guy use?

Ideally I'd only use one package. But there is no such thing as perfect software (I think..). So we all need to supplement the SEOmoz tools - but too many tools leave little time to getting things done..

I really like the Majestic backlink history tool, and I am very curious about Baxter's keyword research tool. And I use Xenu every now and then for crawling.

[gfiorelli1]

Ciao!

My first answer to your question is:

you are using too much SEO software when you start noticing that you spend more time on those softwares than really making SEO.

Said that, I too need to personally integrate the SEOmoz tools and webapp with others.

The SEOGadget keyword tool is a fundamental tool, IMO, and it complements very well the Difficulty Keyword Tool of SEOmoz, so much that I hope one day Rand and Richard will agree and see how to really complement one with other. More over, I use it also to create a real historical ranking chart, as it presents you the ranking of your site of any keyword detected. On a middle/long term this can be useful especially to understand how your site is performing, for instance, for seasonal range of searches.

The same thing for the Majestic backling history tool, at least since when the webapp will have the same feature.

Finally, I use also the Raven Tools, as they have some functionalities that the webapp still doesn't have. I suggest you to give them a try and, if can afford the cost, to sign to them.

Finally, but not using them right now because of the prize, I found very useful the Ontolo tools for link building.

[petrakraft]

For link building purpose I strongly suggest the Link Research Tools http://www.linkresearchtools.com/

[ninjamarketer]

As Gianluca pointed out, tools can sometimes be obesssion and can be huge time suckers. I am a victim of this and sometimes find myself spending more time on tools :). Having said that I think they are a necessary evil because you can as well save huge amount.

I started out with Traffic Travis (SEO tool for internet marketers) and then moved on to Web CEO as I was learning more about SEO. Both of these tools provide basic on page optimization reports. Then I got a free Raven tools account with some software purchase. I still continue to use Raven tools and along with SEOmoz. For enterprise SEO management, I have used enterprise class tools ranging from Covarios search insight to Conductors search light but was not too impressed by either. Although, I would lean more towards Conductors search light since it is more robust than the former.

I sometimes use GoogleRankings.com and SEOBook tool bar for rank check and some other SEO metrics. Xenu link sleuth and Gsitecrawler are my favorites for checking technical issues.

Another great web app that I used for redirection check is http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers-batch.

[goodnewscowboy]

Hey Thomas:

When I first started learning SEO, I had dozens of tools bookmarked. But like others have said below, too much time spent in tools, removes the benefit of the time savings of tools.

My top4 tools:

1. the SEOmoz web app (wish they'd come up with a better name than that!)

2. Raven Tools

3. Wordtracker (I think it's a more English based tool though)

4. Richards keyword tool

I also echo Gianluca's desire to have historical backlink data in the web app sooner than later.

[alfredopalconit]

i think you can use any seo software as long you see a measurable improvement in revenue after using them. i used to have a lot of paid seo tools before, now i only keep those that provided different statistics and helps reach and improve our goals.

[magicrob]

I like the diversity of tools and competition between companies. SEO Tools are good and getting better and there's a range of tools for most aspects of SEO.

Nobody's really mentioned Browser Toolbars so I'm going to. The SEOMoz Toolbar is great for a quick check of On-Page, Domain authority, Page authority and has a good SERP overlay as well as some other bits. The SEO Book Toolbar is worth trying, as is Carter Cole's SEO Site Tools for Chrome. SEO for Firefox is useful, so is the Google Toolbar for viewing TBPR (or SearchStatus if you want a little more space).

[DigitalLeaf]

I agree with Link Research Tools - there's a wealth of data that can be used to help in Link Building Efforts.

Watch all the videos first otherwise you are going to be drowning in link data.

The Competitor Analysis Tools (compare upto 25) is amazing, and a lot better then SEOmoz competitor Tools.

Check out the Link Alerts tool as well. The service will automatically crawl upto 16 different backlink sources (including GA Referral data) and let you know when you have a new link.

I also use this tool for website audits - very handy.

Not a substitute for any other tool, but very complimentary.