ClickZ SEO Tools Buyers Guide

In partnership with Platforms evaluated
Buyers Guide
Enterprise SEO Tools
Helping you choose the right
technology partners

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Contents page
1About this guide
2The state of organic
search today
6Company profiles Ahrefs
BrightEdge
Conductor
Moz Pro
Searchmetrics
SEMrush
20
22
24
26
28
30
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3The role of an
enterprise SEO tool
7The ClickZ & Search Engine
Watch customer survey
Introduction
Keyword analysis and tracking
Technical SEO
Content marketing
Backlinks and social media
Customer experience
Analytics and reporting
Final scores and summary
33
35
38
41
44
47
50
53
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01
..................................................... 02
..................................................... 11
4Picking the right
technology for you
..................................................... 14
5Scope and
methodology
..................................................... 18

1
About this guide
The pace of change in today’s world is phenomenal.
The average Fortune 500 company1
took 20 years to reach a market capitalization of $1 billion. Today, we have
seen Uber, Slack, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest & Square get there in under three.
Computing power continues to accelerate each year (largely following Moore’s Law) and the democratization of
technology driven by its plummeting cost, increased access to funds and a rising entrepreneurial culture means
that start-ups are upending even the most established businesses.
As marketers, we have been on the sharp end of technological disruption as we look to track, target, monitor
and engage with our customers. You have to remember that Google was only born in 1998 and that in 2011
there were only 150 tracked marketing technologies.
Fast forward to the present day and the average attention span is only 8 seconds, 80% of the US population3
own a smartphone, and there are over 5,000 marketing technologies2
.
The power of technology is revealed all around us (look at Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb, for example), so it is no
surprise that it has become the single biggest factor enabling businesses to gain an advantage over their
competitors. This is reflected by the fact we now spend 33% of our marketing budget on technology, which has
just surpassed the 32% spent on advertising4
.
If you combine all of this together, and add in the huge costs associated with adopting a new technology, the
crowded landscape, integrations with legacy technology, management of stakeholders and the long onboarding
periods - choosing the right technology can be equated to being dropped into the middle of a minefield and
your job is to lead your team to safety.
But don’t worry! At ClickZ, we are here to help.
As one of the largest digital marketing communities in the world, we have access to knowledgeable and
insightful experts in all digital marketing disciplines.
Our new series of buyer’s guides will avail of this expertise by canvassing opinions on a range of market-
leading technologies, in the hope of facilitating more successful decisions for other members of the community.
We provide no explicit recommendations on which platforms are superior, as their effectiveness will be
determined by a company’s circumstances. We do, however, aim to create a clear view on the areas in which
each of the main technologies excel, and the types of company that typically benefit from their services.
Each guide will be accompanied by an event in London and New York and we welcome your feedback on how to
improve this document.
Sam Lawson
Head of ClickZ
The average enterprise has over 1,200 cloud-based technologies.
1
World Economic Forum White Paper, Digital Transformation of Industries: Digital Enterprise
2
Chiefmartech.com
3
Statista
4
Gartner - CMO Spend Survey 2016-2017

2
The state of organic search
today
The reports of SEO’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
If anything, SEO has truly entered the mainstream over the past decade rather than receding into the
background.
Where once it was seen as a murky practice based on link buying and keyword stuffing, there is now a common
consensus that SEO is a sophisticated, long-term marketing channel.
Undoubtedly, organic search has changed in a number of significant ways over the last decade, often in
response to Google algorithm updates.
However, in some important ways, SEO has also remained the same essential practice it always was.
People want information and they search for it; the most reputable, authoritative resources will be served in
response to their queries.
Search engines have become much more effective in bridging this gap between searchers and content. Brands
must work harder than ever to ensure that they gain valuable market share, but the rewards for a successful
SEO campaign are great.
The numbers substantiate this claim.
SEO remains a very significant source of online traffic, driving an average of 51% of clicks to any website5
.
Moreover, 2017 saw search (both organic and paid) overtake social media as the largest source of referral traffic
across the Web.
5
Brightedge
Organic search remains the core tenet of this significant traffic referral source.
New research shows that the SEO share of search clicks is remaining relatively constant, with 66%
of desktop queries resulting in an organic search click.
Search vs. Social: Share of Visits
60%
40%
20%
0%
Social SearchBased on activitx aggregated from 250,000 sites
and 400+ millions unuique monthly visitors
Aug, 13
VisitShare
Apr 12 May 16Dec 14 Sep 17

3
Mobile is the key growth area, of course, and it is here that we are met with a more complex set of
circumstances. Yet, it is clear that SEO still takes up a much larger proportion of the total number of search
clicks than its paid counterpart.
More and more of the traditional SERP is now owned by Google, both through their content and their ads. This
explains the gap in the charts above, where a large number of searches go unaccounted for.
A resultant phenomenon is the ‘no-click search’, where Google satisfies the user’s intent without having to send
them to a third-party site.
We see this in quick answers and voice search responses, but these trends have not yet taken over
commercial queries.
Deskop Organic vs. Paid CTR, Google US
(Nov. 2015 - Feb. 2018
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
3.4%
71.6%
Desktop Organic CTR Desktop Paid CTR
Data via Jumpshot, compiled by Rand Fishkin
Nov, 2015
2.6%
66%
May, 2016
3.4%
65.3%
Nov, 2016
3%
64.3%
May, 2017
3%
65.8%
Oct, 2017
3.8%
65.8%
Feb, 2018
Mobile Organic vs. Paid CTR, Google US
(Nov. 2015 - Feb. 2018
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2.5%
66.6%
Mobile Organic CTR Mobile Paid CTR
Nov, 2015
1.8%
59.6%
May, 2016
2%
42.7%
Nov, 2016
2%
42.9%
May, 2017
2.7%
41%
Oct, 2017
3.1%
39%
Feb, 2018
https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-data-how-googles-organic-paid-ctrs-have-changed-2015-2018/

4
The growth of the no-click search is particularly marked on mobile and, with the mobile-first index finally
launched, we should look to the trends on these devices to see where the industry is headed.
In essence, SEO has evolved into something entirely new over the last five years, but yet retains its recognizable
core as a blend of technical and creative skills. Its rewards are not easily reaped, but they are there for those
willing and able to invest the resources.
As a result, it is unsurprising that brands are projected to spend $79.27 billion annually on organic search
services and technologies by 2020.
No-Click Searches, Desktop vs. Mobile, google US
(Nov. 2015 - Feb. 2018)
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Desktop No-Click Searches Mobile No-Click Searches
Nov, 2015 May, 2016 Nov, 2016 May, 2017 Oct, 2017 Feb, 2018
33.4%
28.4%
40.4%
34%
57.3%
34.7%
57.1%
35.7%
58.9%
34.2%
61.3%
34.3%
Total U.S Spending for SEO (2008-2020 in $ Billions)
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Source: Borrell Associates’ Trends in Digital Marketing Services 2016
$11.44
$15.97
$22.10
$34.27
$42.35
$48.28
$55.11
$60.73
$65.26
$68.89
$72.02
$75.23
$79.27

5
Moreover, 21% of respondents to our community survey are C-Level employees at their company. This further
highlights the elevation of SEO and its close alignment with modern business strategy.
We can also see that the vast majority (93%) of brand marketers proactively engage in organic search - a higher
proportion than for any other channel.
These statistics paint a picture of a burgeoning industry and at a broad level that is an accurate portrayal.
The SEO landscape is constantly changing, however.
As such, these impressive but rather nebulous numbers only tell us so much.
After all, organic search has evolved into a sophisticated, multi-device conversation between brands and
consumers.
Moreover, 21% of respondents to our community survey
are C-Level employees at their company.This further
highlights the elevation of SEO and its close alignment
with modern business strategy.
Digital marketing activities used bx marketers and agencies
Source: SEMPO’s 2016 State of Search report
SEO
Paid Searc
Social media marketing
Social media advertising
Digital display marketing
Email marketing
95%
93%
89%
85%
72%
84%
77%
69%
71%
68%
51%
78%
Agencies/consultants Marketers

6
Just some of the trends shaping the industry today include:
AMP everywhere RankBrain,
Machine Learning,
and AI
Progressive Web
Apps
Hyperlocal
search
Mobile-first index
Voice search Visual search More, better
data
The increased
presence of paid
listings
The convergence
of SEO and
content
The prioritization of these various strands will change depending on the industry, but there is no denying their
ongoing significance.
Retailers, for example, will want to align SEO with their Shopping strategy and local search will be of vital
importance.
Financial services companies, meanwhile, will focus heavily on their content marketing strategy, from Quick
Answers through to supporting content for their transactional pages.
In essence, strategies will respond to consumer journeys and preferences, which vary greatly from industry to
industry.
Just ‘doing SEO’ isn’t doing enough any more.
So, where exactly is all of this money being spent? Which SEO services and technologies deliver the best
returns on so much investment?
The first port of call is to know where people are searching.
At a macro level, it is clear from a recently released Jumpshot study that the SEO landscape is now at a mature
level if we consider the major search engines in the US:
Just ‘doing SEO’ isn’t doing enough any more.

7
The Google ecosystem remains dominant, even if its form has adapted greatly over the years. Looking at a
snapshot of total web searches for February 2018, we can see that Amazon’s share of the total remains small, at
2.3%.
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Where Web Users Search
(Nov. 2015 - Feb. 2018)
Google Web Search
Google Image Search
Google Maps
Bing
YouTube
Yahoo!
Other
62.6%
Google
22.6%
Google Images
4.3%
YouTube
2.4%
Yahoo
2.3%
Amazon
2.2%
Bing
1.4%
Facebook
1.3%
Google Maps
0.5%
Pinterest
0.4%
Twitter

8
For commercial queries, there is reason to believe that this will grow - driven by mass adoption of Amazon’s
smart home devices - but Google retains a stranglehold on the broader search market in Western countries.
Voice-first devices will continue to grow in popularity and this will change how consumers search, but the core
engines that underpin this will be Google-based, while Amazon will become more important as a result of the
company’s aggressive growth strategy.
On the whole, however, the trends are well-established and we know where we need to achieve visibility if we
are to grow our organic search traffic.
We may know that Google dominates in the West, but that doesn’t necessarily inform a strategy.
The next area to investigate is how marketers aim to gain a competitive advantage through SEO.
A growing area for the last few years has been content marketing, for very clear and logical reasons. Search
engines need trustworthy ways to evaluate the quality of a page and it is hard to achieve this without analyzing
the page’s content.
Backlinks remain essential markers of a high-quality page, but people tend to link to pages with good content.
All roads lead to content, which has seen this discipline rise to become the foremost priority for digital
marketers:
42%
39%
30%
30%
29%
26%
26%
15%
7%
Content Marketing
Search Marketing
Social Media
Retargeting/personalisation
Cross channel campaigns
Attribution
Mobile optimisation
Programmatic advertising
Social commerce (e.g Facebook Marketplace)
AI (Voice search, digital assistants, chatbots)
Virtual realitx / Augmented reality
Ad blocking
Smart hubs (e.g Amazon Echo, Google Home)
Visual search (e.g Pinterest, CamFind)
Other
5%
5%
4%
4%
11%
2%
Voice-First Device Footprint
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2014 2015
VoiceLabs Analysis combined with research from CIRP, KPCB and InfoScout
MillionsofDevices
2016 2017
Which of the following areas do you believe are the top priorities for you business in 2017?

9
‘Content’ is such a wide-ranging field that it covers everything from text to images and videos, plus a lot of
different assets in between.
Google wants to provide the most accurate results possible, which means interpreting and serving the full array
of content formats a user may want to see.
This has a very visual impact on the search landscape, which typically takes the following format on a desktop
device:
The pervasiveness of paid listings is hard to ignore and the space is condensed further when we shift to a
mobile device.
The number of organic search listings on page one is showing some interesting variation too:
The advent of infinite scrolling mobile results6
means that this view on the SERP landscape may soon be
redundant. Ten blue links are gone for good.
6
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-switches-
infinite-scrolling-mobile-search-results/248599/
Organic Results by Count
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(Moz research - Dr Pete Meyers)
150
584
1,212
686
2,433
4,909
241001

10
Both the aesthetics of the SERPs, and the mechanisms that drive them, have changed fundamentally.
Amidst so much flux, people are still clicking on SEO results en masse. 51% of online traffic comes from organic
search and competition for attention is fiercer than ever.
SEO may still depend on technical skills, creative nous, and industry experience, but it has also developed into a
mature discipline with a seat at the table in many board meetings.
In short, it has never been more important to choose our battles wisely. Device usage is shifting towards
mobile-first, paid listings are more prominent than ever, while both voice search and visual search are bringing
new ways for consumers to discover content.
Beneath the shiny surface of these relatively nascent trends, the core components of SEO are just as important
as they ever were. Technical SEO is actually increasing in significance, while the link building industry continues
to develop in sophistication over time.
Therefore, a blend of technical, creative, and interpersonal skills is required to devise and implement a
successful strategy.
Organic search budgets are increasing, but simply spending the most money offers no guarantee of success.
That has always been the innate attraction of SEO; the traffic may be ‘free’, but it takes a lot of time, effort, and
expertise just to be in a position to compete.
Of course, picking the right technology partners can go a long way towards gaining a competitive advantage.
Even the best SEO team in the world is only as good as the tools at their disposal.
Summary
Creative InterpersonalTechnical
Clark Boyd
Author of the Buyers Guide to Enterprise SEO Tools

11
The role of an enterprise SEO
tool
There is an evolutionary development that takes an SEO technology from ‘specialist’
to ‘enterprise’ level.
Although different companies take different routes to this end goal, it is a common ambition for any technology
that carves out a position in the SEO landscape.
Some aim to perfect their data set in one area before branching out, while others aim to grab the fertile
enterprise land and improve their offering from there.
Whether a vendor starts as a backlink specialist, a keyword tracker, or a content marketing platform, it adds to
its armory over time and often aims to bring this suite of tools together in one ‘enterprise’ package.
So, what is it that defines an enterprise tool?
There are numerous facets to this answer and its application will depend on the context of each business, of
course. However, we can still identify some clear patterns.
There is an understandable desire among marketers of all levels to regain some control over their SEO data.
Enterprise SEO tools aim to achieve exactly this.
They perform a number of vital functions and bring these together into one, comprehensive dashboard. When
they perform their function well, they unify disparate data sets and automatically generate insights.
A real challenge within the organic search industry is that we often have to question the data we see, even
when it comes directly from Google. Search Console is highly valuable (especially in its latest iteration), but
enterprise marketers need more insight than this one dataset can provide.
For brands that manage international SEO efforts, the complexity increases further still. Large companies need
reliable data from multiple sources that can be turned into actionable insight.
As a result, these vendors are also battling to build their own proprietary datasets, whether for keyword
research, backlinks, or site crawling. This provides customers with a competitive edge; put simply, those with
the best data and the most advanced tools will be in a great position to develop their strategy.
There is an understandable desire among marketers of
all levels to regain some control over their SEO data.
Enterprise SEO tools aim to achieve exactly this.

12
The customer experience is also a significant differentiator in the transition from specialist tool to enterprise
platform.
Enterprise technologies will contain a wide range of features and will couple this with a sophisticated
approach to client relations. Many of the vendors we interviewed are focused on acting as strategic advisors to
their clients, rather than just providers of data and technology.
For the largest brands, this will be a vital consideration - especially if they do not have a large in-house SEO
team. While no replacement for an SEO specialist, an enterprise SEO tool - and the expertise these vendors
bring - can certainly augment the capabilities of a smaller team.
For smaller brands, the list of requirements may be more specific. The added cost that comes with a dedicated
account manager may not be worth the investment, relative to the potential rewards. In some instances, a self-
serve platform will be a more fitting solution, especially if a brand avails of a strong team of SEO specialists.
As such, our analysis aims to cover these differing needs.All of these tools are valid options for enterprise SEO,
and they all perform at least the majority of the following functions:
Site crawling Backlink
tracking
Content
marketing
Workflow tools SEO
performance
reports
Keyword
research and
tracking
It is worth noting SEO is so varied and complex that marketers do not expect one platform to do everything
exceptionally well. Many of our readers noted this in their feedback to our survey.
They do, however, need to know the areas in which certain platforms are strong and weak, in order to
complement them with specialist tools if needed.
An SEO software suite may do an excellent job of keyword tracking, technical SEO recommendations, and
performance reporting, but it may not provide access to accurate backlink tracking. In such an instance, brands
will often seek out a specialist backlink tool like MajesticSEO.
Equally, a platform may excel at content insights and keyword tracking, but not go into the gritty detail that is
required for technical SEO. In such a situation, a marketer may opt to invest in a tool like Botify to ensure full
coverage in such an essential area.
This picture is reflected in our survey dataset. 76% of respondents use their enterprise SEO tool for keyword
research, while 65% use it for rank tracking and 59% regularly use this technology to analyze their competitors.
Percent
Keyword Research 76%
Rank tracking 65.1%
Technical SEO 52.5%
International SEO 20.7%
Backlink tracking 49.2%
Competitor Analysis 58.6%
SEO project management 34%
Value

13
Furthermore, 44% of respondents invest in just one SEO technology, which means that this can be a business
critical decision.
The challenge is that it can be difficult to get an honest opinion on which tool is the most suitable for you,
when so many have a vested interest in promoting one tool over another.
Typically, the only way to find out for sure is to sign up for a licence and learn from experience.
That is why we have developed this guide.
We want to pool the experiences of industry leaders and practitioners worldwide to provide clear, trustworthy
opinions on the strengths of each technology so that our readers can make more effective decisions.

14
Picking the right technology
for you
All of the vendors covered in this guide provide sophisticated solutions in the 6 core
areas of assessment. What we want to bring to light are the subtle differences that
can help advertisers make the right decision for their business.
To understand which vendor is the right partner for you, it is advisable to go through the following process.
Define your
decision criteria
Research Decision &
implementation
Product
Demos
Draw up the
business case
These criteria will typically include:
Step 1: Define your decision criteria
Digital strategy Business
objectives
SEO budget Technology
budget
Proposed start
date
Legacy
technology
One output from these discussions should be an evaluation scorecard, containing the features that you feel
are essential for your business when selecting a vendor. These criteria should also be weighted based on their
relative importance.
For some brands, it will be essential to have a platform that manages international search engine rankings,
generates content marketing ideas, and identifies toxic backlinks at scale.
For others, having a technology partner that incorporates the latest machine learning technology
will be important, as this can lead to profitable insights from analytics data that may otherwise
go unnoticed.

15
These are only two out of thousands of potential scenarios, but this starts to highlight the significance of
deciding up-front exactly what you value most from an enterprise SEO tool.
Furthermore, as one respondent in our survey put it:
Don’t expect an SEO platform to do the work for you -
you will still need your own SEO strategy.
Have a clear idea of what you want a platform to
provide and keep that as first priority.
Don’t get distracted by other features or trendy
functionality that you might not really need.
Partnering with a vendor or switching to a new platform will entail some level of investment from any business.
Before engaging with vendors, it is essential to get buy-in from your company and prove why this investment
will bring significant returns.
According to a recent study, 69% of marketers7
feel that budget is the main restricting factor when it comes to
their business investing in new marketing technology, while 35% state that difficulty of implementation is an
obstacle.
Step 2: Draw up the business case
7
Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016
What’s holding your company back from
implementing new marketing technology?
Budget
Difficulty of implementation/integration
Internal resistance to change
Lack of executive buy-in
Lack of information
Lack of interest
Nothing meets our needs
We don’t need newmarketing technology
Other
69%
35%
33%
22%
10%
10%
7%
20%
3%
Walker Sands State of Marketing Technology 2016

16
Figure out which of these factors may constrain you, before putting together a business case that helps
overcome them.
The benefits included within this business case may be:
Increased ROI from search
Increased productivity through task automation and better insights from data
Transparency for all stakeholders in reporting dashboards
More efficient spending of ad budgets
Access to new innovations and features
For each stakeholder you would like to convince, there will likely be a different weighting attached to each
criterion. For example, the CMO may prioritize the ROI the platform will bring, while a specialist may be more
focused on the insights the technology will provide. Make sure to tailor your proposal to cater for these criteria
within your audience.
Always look at the decision-making process
with organizational buy-in in mind.
How will this platform also help other
departments understand the importance of SEO?
The next stage is to conduct some research on the vendors that best suit your needs. Guides like this one serve
as helpful resources, and peer recommendations remain hugely influential.
Online reviews and case studies also provide useful context, but always consider the source of this content. If
the person or business has different requirements of the technology than you do, their opinions on its efficacy
are not always that impactful.
This discovery phase is essenial, so it is worth drawing up a longlist of vendors to evaluate against your
selection criteria. A mixture of peer recommendations, analyst reports, testimonials, and a review of the vendors’
respective websites will provide some color and allow you to whittle the list down to a small selection of
potential technology partners.
It is at this stage that most advertisers will engage with vendors to set up some meetings.
Step 3: Research
53% of marketers8
report that product demos are a significant determining factor when choosing a marketing
technology partner - a higher percentage than was reported for any other factor.
Step 4: Product demos
8
Walker Sands 2016

17
This is to be expected, as demos often provide the first live interaction with a platform. However, enterprise
SEO technologies contain a huge array of sophisticated features and it is entirely possible to miss out on some
key capabilities in a product demonstration.
Keep in mind the features that matter most for your business and ask questions that keep the conversation on
track.
Some example questions to ask during a demo:
Can we migrate our historical rankings data to this platform?
Is it possible to manage our Google My Business listings through this software?
Do you have proprietary data sets, or do you use an API to pull in data from other companies?
Does the platform integrate with our existing analytics software?
Does it cost more to track keywords by device and by location?
Are there additional fees to use advanced or custom features?
How frequently are keyword rankings updated?
Of course, this list of questions could extend much further and will depend on each company’s requirements. It
is recommended to draw up a standardized list of questions to answer for all vendors, as this will give everyone
a chance to respond on an equal footing and remove some bias from the decision process.
If at all possible, have a trial period. Ask as many questions as possible in the evaluation process about every
single area of SEO and go as in-depth as possible. Try and tie your goals / metrics to their costing.
If at all possible, have a trial period.Ask as many questions as possible in
the evaluation process about every single area of SEO and go as in-depth
as possible.Try and tie your goals / metrics to their costing.
More than half of marketers (57%) say three to five people are typically involved in martech purchasing
decisions at their companies.
If you have prepared and used a scorecard throughout the process, this should help when it comes to arriving
at a joint decision among the relevant stakeholders. Given the importance of an enterprise SEO platform,
decision-makers will usually include senior marketers, from VP to Director and CMO. Understand what matters
for each party and use this knowledge to frame your proposal.
When you are ready to proceed with a particular vendor, it is time to negotiate a contract, define the length of
the agreement, and agree on commercial terms. It is also a good idea to ask for references from the vendor, as
current clients will be able to provide a lot of insight into the experience of using the platform over a longer
period of time.
The onboarding process is a vital part of the new partnership, so make sure you have set aside enough time
to engage with this fully. Many brands dedicate one person to this process, which ensures that someone
in the business can be a champion for the technology and help others maximize its potential.
Step 5: Decision and implementation

18
Scope and methodology
The core purpose of this guide is to help people who are in the market for new
enterprise SEO tools to make more informed decisions.
Our belief is that current customers of these vendors will have important, informed opinions to share and we
have provided them with this platform in our survey.
To draw up the survey, we had to draw some boundaries around exactly what constitutes an enterprise SEO
tool. As discussed, this is a varied discipline and there are a lot of vendors who are worthy of consideration.
Nonetheless, it seems clear that a comprehensive SEO suite will cover at least a few of the core SEO
components. For example, keyword tracking, technical SEO reports, and performance dashboards.
To narrow the field of vendors, we started by assessing the quantity of responses received in our customer
survey for each company.
This provided some initial shape to the list, which was then refined through consultation with our advisory
board.
The aim here has been to provide an accurate representation of the market, based on their popularity but also
on their effectiveness. Moreover, we have wanted to provide a range of price points to cater for marketers with
different budget levels.
The scores seen in the final section of this guide have been weighted to incorporate the following elements:
The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch customer survey (60% of total score):
This quantitative research is comprised majoritively of closed questions, across all 36 of our sub-categories for
assessment. Responses to the open questions at the end of the survey provide color to the scores, but have not
been used to calculate them.
Vendor interviews (20%):
The guide’s author and at least one member of the advisory board were present on a 90 minute call with each
vendor in this document. All vendors were provided with the same brief and given the same amount of time
to present to the panel. Scores were collated on a standardized sheet and shared with the rest of the panel
afterwards.
Industry expert advisory board (20%):
Our advisory board has been chosen for their deep expertise across the full spectrum of SEO specialisms.
Each member has scored the platforms for each of our 6 performance criteria areas and the scores have been
averaged.

19
The output of this process is a score out of 5 (1 being low, 5 being high) across the following areas:
Technical SEO Content
marketing
Backlinks and
social media
Customer
experience
Analytics and
reporting
Keyword analysis
and tracking
Within each category, there are 6 sub-categories. The final section of this guide provides full detail on the
scores received by each vendor for all categories and sub-categories in scope.
This provides some breadth to the scope of our analysis, spanning everything from technical SEO and content
marketing, through to other important aspects like usability and pricing.
ClickZ provides no explicit recommendations on which vendor to partner with and offers no endorsement of
any particular company.
The ClickZ expert advisory board
Nick Wilsdon
Global SEO Lead,
Vodafone
Paul Shapiro
Director of Strategy,
GroupM
Luis Navarrete Gomez
Global Head of Search,
LEGO
Ali Haris
SEO & Growth Manager,
Macy’s

20
Company profile
Dmitry Gerasimenko
CEO
ClickZ overview
Ahrefs has quickly become a staple of
many SEO toolkits, based on the depth of
its backlink data and the comprehensive
nature of its site audit capabilities.
This came through in our survey, with 80%
of Ahrefs users stating that they use the
tool for backlink tracking. Its approach
to this field is sophisticated, taking into
account the traffic that backlinks refer to a
domain rather than focusing purely on the
acquisition of a link in itself.
The new technical SEO audit tool is a
significant improvement to the platform
Igor Pikovets
CTO
Tim Soulo
CMO
and helps to position Ahrefs as a real contender in this space. With a range of further innovations in the
pipeline, the company’s ambition now is to provide a comprehensive SEO solution to compete with the
established enterprise tools.
Built on a robust dataset and an increasingly lengthy list of useful performance tools, Ahrefs is in a good
position to challenge in the enterprise space, but there is still room for improvement in its reporting and
content marketing capabilities.
Founded HQ
Key People
2010 Singapore
Backlinks Site Audits Keyword Research
Platform strengths
(taken from the ClickZ survey)

21
Customer feedback
Ahrefs crawls our site daily, and you can quickly see changes that have an impact on rankings. Love Ahrefs’
capabilities in this regard!
Ahrefs has outstanding people working behind the scenes, and they do a great job of supporting the platform.
Ahrefs vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
5
4
3
2
1
Ahrefs
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
“
”

22
Company profile
Jim Yu
CEO & Founder
ClickZ overview
BrightEdge is an established leader in
the enterprise SEO space, with over 50%
of Fortune 100 companies using the
technology today.
The platform was initially built on its
keyword research and rank tracking
functionalities, which remain popular
today. In fact, 83% of BrightEdge users in
our survey conduct their keyword research
using this technology, while 85% also use it
for rank tracking.
The BrightEdge platform has developed
significantly of late, evident through the
Lemuel Park
CTO & Founder
Albert Gouyet
VP of Operations
introduction of functionalities that address other needs of SEO practitioners. In 2014, the company launched
Data Cube, which provides performance insights at a keyword, URL, or domain level. The Data Cube was the
most commonly-cited highlight of the platform by current customers, followed by the strategic insights the
technology unveils. In 2015 the successful launch of its content performance marketing methodology helped
shift the ways marketers approached the convergence of SEO and Content Marketing.
The following year, they introduced DataMind, a deep learning technology that powers the prescriptive page
optimization recommendations, technical SEO audit and automated new content topic insights.
Recently, the company has taken an AI-first approach that is driven by products like Data Cube and DataMind
(deep learning technology that is natively integrated into the platform) and launched an SEO automation
application called BrightEdge Insights. This brings together data driven insights into an intuitive interface and
presents just a few well vetted actionable recommendations each week. The company provides dedicated
customer success manager for every customer.
BrightEdge covers almost all the bases in this report and covers them very well. Customers also stated that
while the features are excellent, costs can rise quickly for larger, more complex websites with a lot of ranking
requirements.
Overall, BrightEdge is the most comprehensive solution in our review for enterprise-level SEO.
Founded HQ
Key People
2007 Foster City,
San Mateo, CA
Kevin Bobowski
SVP Marketing

23
Innovation Data Strategic Insights
Platform strengths
Customer feedback
The DataCube is by far one of the biggest benefits to using this platform over others.
Quality and consistency at scale. A lot of other platforms get really messy with enterprise sites or large
portfolios, but Brightedge is hard to beat for all-purpose, Enterprise SEO.
5
4
3
2
1
BrightEdge
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
BrightEdge vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
“
”

24
Company profile
Seth Besmertnik
CEO & Co-Founder
ClickZ overview
Conductor is one of the established players
in the enterprise SEO market and it will
be fascinating to see how the company’s
recent acquisition by WeWork will fuel
new innovation. Plans are already afoot to
build a team of over 100 engineers, which
will undoubtedly accelerate the pace of
development.
Strategically, Conductor has selected to
partner with specialist platforms to provide
customers with access to the best tools
on the market. Technical SEO analysis
comes via DeepCrawl, SEMrush is used for
backlink data, and Dragon Metrics provides
Baruch Toledano
Chief Product Officer
Marc Chabot
VP of Sales
data for Asian markets.
Many brands will view this as a strength, as it shows Conductor’s willingness to work with another provider to
ensure its customers get access to the best possible features. Others may see it as a drawback, if they already
have licences with these other companies and want an enterprise solution that is driven by proprietary data.
Conductor really excels in how it uses this data to identify insights and use these to shape working practices.
The workflow tools in the platform are among the best we reviewed and allow simple delegation of tasks to
different teams.
57% of survey respondents use the software daily, a significant lift on the average across our dataset of 46%.
This further highlights how deeply entrenched the technology can become in a company’s way of working.
Conductor is a sophisticated enterprise tool that combines external data sets with proprietary data and
technology to help marketers get better results from content and SEO.
Founded HQ
Key People
2010 New York, NY,

25
Audience Data Content Marketing Keyword Discovery
Platform strengths
Customer feedback
Conductor is great for a multi-stakeholder content team with advanced knowledge of SEO
Integration with other third party vendors means customers benefit from a range of innovations
5
4
3
2
1
Conductor
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
Conductor vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
“
”

26
Company profile
ClickZ overview
It would be hard to argue that any
organization (other than Google) has had
a bigger impact on the SEO industry than
Moz.
Moz’s founder, Rand Fishkin, has recently
left to work on another venture, but his
efforts with the team at the company he
started really put SEO on the map with
mainstream marketers.
The Moz Pro tool suite follows the
company’s original mission to make SEO
accessible and successful for any business.
Open Site Explorer, powered by the Linkscape index, remains an endlessly useful tool for backlink analysis - a
real area of strength for Moz Pro.
New tools like the Keyword Explorer provide an insightful look into the contemporary SEO landscape, taking
into account factors such as the no-click rate for each keyword. There are 500,000,000 keywords in this
database too, so it has value for organizations of any size.
The software contains metrics such Domain Authority and Page Authority, both of which are industry standards
and are used by marketing teams beyond SEO to assess organic search efforts.
Moz Pro is backed up by the Moz community, comprised of 280,000 active members. Plans are in the offing to
add a managed service element to the software, which should see Moz Pro step more fully into the arena of
‘enterprise SEO’.
As it stands, Moz Pro is instinctively a more attractive package for smaller businesses as a one-stop shop for
SEO, as it does lack some of the features larger sites require, such as content marketing workflow tools.
Just 27% of Moz Pro users in our survey said it was the only SEO technology they invest in, which does further
enhance the picture of this platform as a very effective collection of tools rather than a comprehensive
enterprise-level suite.
With a new link index due to launch imminently, Moz Pro is in a period of transition and looks set to come
through this as a much-improved and still highly valuable software suite with an approachable price point.
Sarah Bird
CEO
Adam Feldstein
Chief Product Officer
Neil Crist
VP Product & Engineering
Founded HQ
Key People
2004 Seattle, WA

27
Link Index Keyword Explorer Price
Platform strengths
Customer feedback
The greatest strength of Moz Pro is that everything is in one place. Link reports, ranking reports, errors are
all in one software platform. Other platforms require 2-3 different tools to get this same data.
MozPro is very easy to get working with. The customer support and ease of which you can train new
employees on using it is phenomenal.
5
4
3
2
1
Moz Pro
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
Moz Pro vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
“
”

28
Company profile
Marcus Tober
CEO & Founder
ClickZ overview
Led by industry influencer Marcus Tober,
Berlin-based Searchmetrics contains an
impressive array of organic search tools.
The company’s core focus is on bringing
transparency to what is an at-times opaque
industry through analytics and machine
learning. This has recently manifested itself
in some new data visualizations that really
help marketers maximize the value of the
huge amounts of data at their disposal.
Searchmetrics does a fantastic job of
grounding content marketing efforts in
performance data, helping marketers to
Volker Smid
CEO
Dirk Wolf
CFO
prioritize their efforts. For example, it will recommend content that could be updated to gain a rankings boost,
rather than suggesting an entirely new page.
The search visibility charts are also a favorite, as they display the expected traffic a site receives from SEO and
this can be compared to competitors for a quick performance snapshot.
Searchmetrics contains data for paid search alongside SEO and, while this resource is far from complete, it can
still be used for some indication of a site’s visibility across both search channels.
As an enterprise SEO package, Searchmetrics is comprehensive and provides an ongoing stream of useful
insights in its news feed interface.
Founded HQ
Key People
2005 Berlin,
Germany
Content Marketing Competitor Insights Keyword Analysis
Platform strengths

29
Customer feedback
Searchmetrics is excellent for keeping track of what is working for our competitors, so that we can strategize
a solid plan going forward.
The content marketing insights in this tool really make it stand out - we can use these directly to plan our
content calendar.
5
4
3
2
1
Searchmetrics
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
Searchmetrics vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
“
”

30
Company profile
Oleg Shchegolev
CEO & Co-Founder
ClickZ overview
SEMrush started out as a tool developed
by an agency to make their lives easier but,
such was its popularity, it soon attracted a
mass audience in the marketing community.
Its appeal saw it grow into a standalone
tool and since then, it has continued to
evolve into a sophisticated suite of search
analysis technologies. The success of the
tool is built on the reliability of its data
and the intuitive functionalities that allow
marketers to derive insights quickly.
One SEMrush customer described the
platform as “really a collection of great
Dmitri Melnikov
Co-Founder & Chief
Operational Officer
Eugene Levin
Chief Strategy Officer
tools pulled together” and that is an apt summation of the software as it stands today. SEMrush provides access
to a lot of tools (over 30) for a low price, with plans starting at $99 per month.
89% of survey respondents that use SEMrush use it for keyword analysis, but the company’s ambitions extend
far beyond this and content marketing is an ongoing areas of focus. Having just secured $40 million in funding,
we should expect to see a host of new features over the next 12-24 months.
SEMrush also analyzes data for paid search, social media, and display advertising, which means this tool has
something of a unique market position within this competitor set.
The core audience for SEMrush as it stands is the SME market, but with the upcoming improvements to the
software package it could emerge as a real enterprise SEO contender soon.
Founded HQ
Key People
2008 Trevose, PA

31
Customer feedback
The platform is really a number of separate tools pulled together. Semrush have made sure that the
workflows enable the tools to work together, giving a fairly seamless experience.
SEMrush is a comprehensive SEM/SEO/Social solution and it is outstanding for competitive intel.
5
4
3
2
1
SEMrush
Comp. Average
Keyword
analysis and
tracking
Assessment Category
Technical
SEO
Content
Marketing
Backlinks &
Social
Customer
Experience
Analytics
and
reporting
SEMrush vs. Competitor Set
Performance Summary
Cross-Channel Insights Link Index Keyword Database
Platform strengths
“
”

32
Feature Comparison
Keyword research
database
Rank tracking
Mobile/Desktop
rank tracking
International
rankings
GMB
management
Site crawl
Link index
Toxic link
indentification
Social signals
tracked
Automated
insights
Content ideation
Outreach
management
Client success
representative
Analytics
integrations
SERP
analysis
5.7B Keywords
All content types
160 countries
70+ trillion links
Twitter, Facebook
Pinterest
907M pages in content index
24/7 customer support
Billions of data points
All content types
175 countries
100’s M of pages
Integrations with all
major web analytics
providers
Proprietary index +
SEMrush index
All content types
500+ international cities,
47 languages.
Exclusive partnership
with DeepCrawl
major web analytics
providers
Exclusive partnership
LinkResearchTools
Via LinkResearch
tools
Google Plus,
YouTube, Twitter
Via LinkResearch
tools
All content types
25 Trillion Links
1+ Billion
keywords
All content types
130+ countries
Up to 2
million URLs
major web analytics
providers
Google Plus,
YouTube, Twitter
4.5+ Billion
keywords
160+ countried
major web analytics
providers
6,100,000,000 URLs
crawled per day
5 social
networks

33
Our survey base of over 1,000 marketers is comprised of a wide range of job roles, split slightly in favor of
client side advertisers:
The ClickZ & Search Engine
Watch customer survey
As explained in the Scope and Methodology section, the ClickZ and Search
Engine Watch customer survey contributes 60% of the total scores given to each
vendor in the sections below.
The majority of respondents hold a senior-level position within their organization, with 56% reporting that
they are C-Level, VP, Head of department, or Director.
The other 44% are either at Manager or Strategist level, which gives a balanced perspective on the needs of
each company when it comes to selecting a technology partner.
57% Client Side 43% Agency
30.6%
Manager
5.3%
VP
What is your level of seniority?
20.9%
C-Level
15.3%
Director
13.2%
Strategist
11.4%
Dept. Head
5.3%
SVP

34
Almost half (46%) use this technology daily, with a further 36% making weekly use of their SEO platform:
This further highlights the importance of these platforms, as they are typically the go-to technology for
strategic insights and performance updates.
The most popular uses of an enterprise SEO tool are keyword research, rank tracking, and competitor analysis.
This is to be expected, as these are foundational elements of any SEO strategy.
A very sizeable proportion of respondents also use their technology for technical SEO, backlink monitoring, and
project management.
There are notable trends within these usage patterns across our full data set, but certainly no uniformity in
how such a varied audience uses these technologies.
If we segment the audience by seniority, we find that heads of department are the group that uses an
enterprise tool for project management most frequently. C-Level staff are most interested in the competitor
insights they can glean from the platform, while almost 90% of Managers use their tool for rank tracking.
We can also see that across the board, an organization wants support across our six key assessment
areas, discussed in detail in the next section of this guide.
How often do you
use this technology?
36%
Weekly
45.9%
Daily
10%
Monthly
8.1%
Quarterly
Which areas of SEO do you use this platform for?
80
60
40
20
0
Keyword
research
79.9%
Rank
tracking
76.5%
Technical
SEO
61.8%
International
SEO
22.6%
Backlink
tracking
54.4%
Competitor
analysis
68.1%
SEO project
management
37.8%

35
Keyword analysis & tracking
These queries are grouped together into keyword categories that can inform everything from site structure to
content and link building.
Marketers need to know how their audience searches, both in terms of their language and their behaviors.
The ClickZ and Search Engine Watch community, along with our panel of expert advisors, gave scores across the
following 6 sub-categories for keyword analysis and tracking:
Whether typed, tapped, or spoken, most searches start with a query.
Keyword research:
Does this technology help users to identify new keyword targets?
Keyword suggestions:
Does this platform suggest additional keywords that are relevant to a brand?
Keyword tracking:
How accurate is the rank tracking in this technology?
International research:
Is it possible to research keywords in international markets?
Local SEO:
Can users track and manage their local SEO efforts within this software package?
Visibility checks:
Does this platform allow for quick visibility checks against competitors?
Unsurprisingly, all vendors scored well across this section, as it is a core functionality for any enterprise SEO tool.
There were some noteworthy variations within the sub-categories, however.

36
Ahrefs contains a host of useful features for keyword analysis and boasts a database of almost 6 billion
keywords. This was reflected in its scores for this category, which were high for both keyword research and
keyword suggestions. Like all its competitors, this vendor provides users with access to sophisticated SERP
analysis tools, which allows for in-depth analysis of performance by content type.
BrightEdge, powered by the Data Cube, also scored very well across this assessment category. In particular,
customers cited its ability to pinpoint queries to attack or defend as a highlight of this technology. This is
driven by BrightEdge’s visual parsing technology, which constantly monitors the SERP landscape and identifies
new keyword opportunities.
Rankings can also be pulled on a daily basis on request, which will appeal to marketers that require more than
a weekly update. With support for over 160 international markets, BrightEdge is a comprehensive package for
keyword analysis.
Conductor has servers in over 16,000 locations, which allows for keyword tracking at city, state, or country level.
This was a key contributing factor behind the platform receiving the second-highest score for keyword
tracking. Conductor also has a variety of new features to help customers avail of the rich snippets
opportunity, in line with the competition.
Ahrefs BrightEdge Conductor Moz Pro Searchmetrics SEMrush
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Keyword Research
International
Research
Local SEO Keyword
Tracking
Visibility
Checks
Keyword
Suggestions

37
Moz Pro performed well in this category, with the Keyword Explorer drawing particular praise. This tool
is excellent for strategic keyword analysis, as it combines Google and clickstream data to provide search
volume ranges that can be used to project traffic. It also does a great job of suggesting new keywords that are
semantically related to an existing keyword set.
Moz Pro is also the only vendor in this guide that provides Google My Business management within the
software suite, which will be a key consideration for many retail businesses.
Searchmetrics has developed some new technologies to improve its keyword analysis offering, including
automatically generated tags that categorize keywords. For some brands, for example a travel or airline
company, this will be a very welcome feature for dealing with large keyword sets. Searchmetrics also scored
very highly for its visibility checks, which are a favorite at agencies for new business purposes and help brands
spot-check their performance versus competitors.
SEMrush has a database of over 4.5 billion keywords and the new Keyword Magic tool allows marketers to get
the most out of this resource. SEMrush is also very useful for its historical data, which goes back to 2012 and
provides a panoramic view of a brand’s recent SEO performance. The SERP snapshots feature is also great for
taking a look at the different content features that rank for a particular query.
As with all other platforms in our assessment, SEMrush provides access to rankings across mobile, tablet, and
desktop devices.

38
Technical SEO
It is also a means of improving performance on an ongoing basis, however. Large-scale technical audits are a
staple of many SEO campaigns, but the technical work should continue throughout.
The most sophisticated technical SEO platforms will provide daily insight from log files on how, when, and where
search engines are making requests to your domain.
following 6 sub-categories for technical SEO:
Technical SEO is an essential foundation for any digital marketing strategy.
At a basic level, it ensure that search engines can access, crawl, and index
a site’s content.
Crawl capabilities:
Is this platform capable of crawling websites and reporting on technical errors?
New innovations:
Does this vendor release new technical SEO innovations that help a brand’s performance?
Technical recommendations:
Does this platform make recommendations to help a site’s SEO performance?
Meta data:
Is it possible to analyze and improve meta data in this platform?
Status code errors:
Are errors, such as soft 404s, highlighted automatically in this technology?
Technical audits:
Is there a technical audit functionality within this software package?
Technical SEO is a wide-ranging field that encompasses a variety of specialisms, which is reflected in the spread
of scores within this category.

39
Ahrefs drew praise for its updated site audit tool, which can crawl and report on JavaScript elements within
each page. Importantly, this feature integrates well with the other data sources available within Ahrefs, such as
the traffic and backlink metrics. As a result, Ahrefs does an excellent job not only of identifying technical errors,
but also of demonstrating the impact that rectifying these issues has on performance.
BrightEdge also contains a proprietary crawling technology that automatically alerts users when new issues
or opportunities are encountered. Customers praised the pace of innovation within this platform, but it did not
score quite so highly for the effectiveness of its technical SEO recommendations. This is perhaps a natural by-
product of automation, as users should be aware that SEO expertise is still required to assess and implement
the recommendations.
Conductor scored well across all sub-categories, including a 4.7 for its crawling capabilities. It should be
noted that Conductor partners with technical SEO platform DeepCrawl to provide many of these features,
but customers were generally very satisfied with their sophistication and effectiveness. These technical
recommendations can then be synthesized with performance data within the Conductor interface.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Meta Data
Status
Code Errors
Technical
Recommendations
Technical
Audits
New
Innovations
Crawl Capabilities

40
Moz Pro is an established player in the technical SEO arena and its site crawl functionality has recently been
revamped. This vendor received higher scores from smaller businesses with a smaller set of URLs to analyze
and the on-page grader was singled out as a handy tool for SEO checks on a URL-by-URL basis.
Searchmetrics contains an advanced crawler with a range of user-agent options that can identify ongoing
technical issues. It can also calculate the performance impact that fixing these issues could have using features
such as an ‘internal link juice calculator’. As a result, Searchmetrics performed well for the scope and accuracy of
its technical audits.
SEMrush is another vendor that has recently overhauled its site audit technology, further demonstrating the
essential nature of technical SEO for any organic search strategy. Although this was not the strongest area of
scoring for SEMrush, many customers commented that the platform’s technical SEO capabilities are improving
all the time and its scores for technical audits and crawl capabilities were very competitive.

41
Content Marketing
Content marketing is not strictly an SEO practice, as its application has an impact on all marketing channels.
That said, SEO tactics can inform successful content and ensure that it reaches the right audience. Equally,
content marketing can attract high-quality backlinks and improve user engagement rates, all of which can
increase SEO rankings.
As such, the two disciplines go hand in hand.
following 6 sub-categories for content marketing:
The convergence of SEO and content marketing has been of the foremost trends
shaping the industry for the last decade.
Content ideation:
Does this platform help users to generate new content ideas, based on search and
competitor data?
Competitor insights:
Is it possible to track and analyze competitors’ content marketing activities?
Content metrics:
Is the list of content marketing metrics comprehensive enough for a brand’s SEO
requirements?
Content and SEO integration:
Is content viewed as a contributing channel to SEO performance within this platform?
Audience insights:
Are insights generated from content data that can be used to inform other
marketing activities?
On-page SEO:
Can users analyze and improve their on-page content through this software
package?

42
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer tool, which uses data from backlinks and search traffic to analyze topics, was a core
reason for the platform’s high score for content ideation. The Buzzsumo-esque feature helps with long-tail
keyword research, as well as highlighting the topics that resonate with different audiences. As SEO continues to
converge with content marketing, this tool proves invaluable for Ahrefs customers.
BrightEdge has invested heavily in its content marketing offering, resulting in the launch of ContentIQ and
the deep learning engine, DataMind. This vendor scored highest for its integration of these content marketing
technologies with the core SEO features in the platform. This means that content is tied back to performance
metrics, which is aided by the scope of the company’s index of URLs.
BrightEdge did not score so highly for its content marketing workflow tools, but was highlighted as a very
strong performer when it comes to generating insights to create more effective content.
Conductor was another high scorer across this category, particularly for the usefulness of its content workflow
tools. This vendor also allows admin users to select which features their different teams and departments see
within the interface, helping to keep everyone’s focus on the right tasks.
Content calendars can also be created and tasks can be assigned to different team members within the
tool. These content ideas can be mapped to keyword categories and aligned to performance metrics.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Content Ideation
Content & SEO
Integration
Audience
Insights
Content Metrics
On-Page
SEO
Competitor
Insights

43
Moz Pro has refocused on its core suite of SEO tools recently, but does still provide useful tools to check the
effectiveness of content on a domain. The on-page optimization score is helpful for brands that want to isolate
a piece of content and assess how effective it is for SEO.
Moz aims to develop this area further in the near future to increase the scope of its content marketing offering,
but for now it is best used for content ideation and on-page content analysis.
Searchmetrics scored highest in this category and plays host to a range of impressive content marketing
features. At the heart of the platform is Content Experience, a technology that produces insights and content
ideas based on search, traffic, and backlink data. Some of this data is pulled from Google’s ‘related questions’
and also from Quora.
Like BrightEdge, Searchmetrics allows users to create content within the software and automatically suggest
tips for optimizations as the author writes.
SEMrush features the Content Analyzer tool, which audits the content across any domain to assess how
SEO-friendly it is. Combined with the ability to research topics by state or metropolitan area, this reflects an
increasingly sophisticated approach to content from SEMrush.
Another key tool in this platform is the marketing calendar, a Hootsuite-style interface that allows users to
create, schedule, and post directly to their social media channels. This vendor is also developing new workflow
tools, but this remains a work in progress.
Overall, each vendor has improved their content offering in line with the discipline’s importance for SEO.
Most have excellent individual tools, so the next step is to bring these together into a workflow management
interface that can be accessed by a range of users across the organization.

44
Backlinks & Social Media
Backlinks remain a fundamental part of this infrastructure and can make the difference between a successful
SEO campaign and a link penalty.
An enterprise SEO tool will identify link opportunities, highlight any potentially negative links, and many will
also monitor competitor activity over time.
following 6 sub-categories for backlinks and social media:
Search engines need reliable ways to evaluate the relevance and authority of the
trillions of pages in their index.
Link tracking:
Does this software track the quantity and quality of inbound links to a domain?
Proprietary index:
Does this vendor have its own link index or does it partner with a third-party?
Toxic link identification:
Is it possible to assess which links may need to be added to a disavow file within
this platform?
Opportunity identification:
Can users identify new link opportunities and manage outreach within this software?
Competitor analysis:
Can competitor link activity be tracked on an ongoing basis?
Social media tracking:
Which social media metrics are tracked, and are they aligned with SEO
performance metrics?

45
Ahrefs established itself on the SEO tools scene based on the strength of its backlink index. It has since evolved
into other areas, but this remains a particularly impressive area of the platform. This vendor scored well for
the reliability of its link tracking and competitor analysis features, but it should be noted that it does not
automatically detect and highlight toxic links.
Ahrefs also contains a proprietary metric to calculate the strength of a website based on the quality and
quantity of inbound links it receives. Known as Domain Rating,
BrightEdge has developed a robust backlink index that drew praise from customers for the competitive insights
it provides. Driven by integrations with MajesticSEO and Moz, BrightEdge’s index tracks link activity and ties this
back to keyword, traffic, and conversion performance.
In particular, customers from larger businesses gave high scores to BrightEdge in this category for its ability
to synthesize backlink data with other information sources within one interface. It is also possible to manage
backlinks by assigning them a status and delegating the activity to other users within the organization.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Link Tracking
Competitor
Analysis
Social Media
Tracking
Proprietary Index
Opportunity
Identification

46
Conductor partners with specialist LinkResearchTools (LRT) to provide backlink analysis, which gives customers
access to a host of additional features. This vendor scored well for its ability to identify backlink opportunities
and channel these into its workflow tools. As a result, users can start to approach potential outreach targets
and track their progress within Conductor.
Conductor’s partner LRT created the Link Detox feature, which automatically detects low quality links. As such,
Conductor scored very well in the toxic link identification sub-category.
While no platform scored exceptionally well for its social media tracking features, Conductor was the highest
scorer in our survey for this criterion.
Moz Pro boasts an updated, proprietary backlink index containing over 25 trillion URLs. The newly-launched
Link Explorer is a real highlight of this software and it brings additional value to existing features like the
ability to discover lost, gained, or toxic links. Overall, this revamped index is among the most complete
resources SEO practitioners can use.
Moz Pro also features the industry standard metric for measuring the strength of a website, Domain Authority.
Using the Moz Chrome extension (which has over 500,000 installs), users can view this metric in SERPs and on
landing pages.
Some survey respondents cited the ability to view only a few competitors at a time within Open Site Explorer as
a drawback of this platform. On the whole, Moz Pro contains an excellent repository of data and is building the
tools to help users derive maximum value.
SearchMetrics was one of the highest scorers across this category. It contains a wide variety of link analysis
and tracking features, including the capability to view new and lost links over time. Searchmetrics also shows
the industry of the linking domain, as do all competitors in this category. Where it goes further is in its analysis
of the traffic each link is sending to a website, a factor that is increasingly important as Google weighs the
significance of each link.
This vendor is also developing some new, engaging visualizations of its backlink data and it was this strength
that saw it score highly with customers for its competitive insights.
SEMrush was the highest scorer, on average, across this category. Its proprietary backlink index is a core
strength of the platform and SEMrush also contains some excellent workflow tools to help marketers manage
their outreach efforts. Similar to a specialist tool like Buzzstream, these features provide a great way to go from
link opportunity to link acquisition.
The Social Media Tracker, while not entirely comprehensive in its current iteration, is also the most effective
tool for monitoring social media performance within this vendor list.

47
Customer experience
The tools in our guide are all sophisticated and will provide invaluable insights, and some brands want their
technology provider to be a strategic partner too.
This section also looks at price, which does largely go in tandem with the level of service a customer can
expect to receive.
There is a broad split between self-serve tools and managed services here. The level of importance that the
scores in this section bring to each organization will entirely depend on the criteria for vendor selection.
following 6 sub-categories for customer experience:
At an enterprise level, customer experience can be a vital criterion for vendor
selection.
Onboarding process:
How thorough is this vendor’s onboarding period?
Training:
Is training provided for all relevant team members, and when new features are released?
Cost:
Does this platform provide value for money?
Client support:
Does this vendor provide support, both with technical issues on the platform and with
SEO strategy?
New innovations:
Are new innovations released on a regular basis?
Workflow tools:
Can users manage SEO tasks and delegate to other team members within this
software?

48
Ahrefs provides excellent value for money, with monthly packages available at $99, $179, $399, and $999. It
is also at the forefront of innovation with many of its features, so these packages provide access to a lot of
insightful tools for a relatively low level of investment.
It should be noted that Ahrefs access does not come with a dedicated account representative, but support is
available at all times. The level of training scored lower for Ahrefs than other sub-categories here, as was also
the case for Moz Pro and SEMrush.
Although these three platforms do provide access to training materials, they were described as less
comprehensive than those provided by BrightEdge, Conductor, and Searchmetrics. This is a trade-off that each
brand must weigh up in association with the level of investment each platform requires.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Onboarding
Process
Client Support
New
Innovations
Cost
Training

49
BrightEdge scored very well in this section for its onboarding and training. Customers stated that the process of
getting started on the platform was smooth and comprehensive training is provided over a long period of time.
BrightEdge also hosts a range of community events, which allow users to meet and discuss newly-launched
features.
This all contributed to positive feedback in the customer experience category.
Some customers did note that, while the technology is thorough and impressive, it can be expensive if users
want to track a lot of keywords across locations and devices. Once more, this decision will ultimately come
down the each brand’s perception of the value they receive for their investment.
Conductor excelled in this category for the usefulness of its workflow tools. These features, combined with new
innovations like Content Launchpad, allow clients to both analyze and affect their SEO performance in a very
tangible way within the Conductor interface.
The news feed style of the homepage, also in favor with BrightEdge and Searchmetrics, was viewed as a
contributing factor to a positive user experience with Conductor. This vendor was among the more expensive
options within the vendor list, but it does also provide access to an extensive and sophisticated list of
technologies.
Moz Pro has over 37,000 customers and has historically appealed more to smaller businesses, but plans are
afoot to make a more concrete move into the enterprise SEO arena. This will mean adding client success
representatives to the team, but for now Moz Pro is mainly a self-service platform.
All new users are given a full demo on the platform and the Moz community forums also provide an invaluable
set of resources, both for SEO questions and information about using the Moz Pro suite.
Overall, Moz Pro was seen as great value for money, as it as datasets are reliable and its list of tools continues
to grow.
Searchmetrics scored very well for its client support and training initiatives, but customers did also feel there
was room to improve on the training provided. This vendor was also one of the highest scorers for the quantity
and quality of new innovations it provides, with plenty more on the horizon.
SEMrush provides the best value for money in the list, according to current customers and our expert panel.
With over 30 tools available and monthly plans starting at $99.95, marketers at small businesses will find
everything they need in this platform. Those at larger organizations may want to invest in a comprehensive
SEO suite, but also complement this with an SEMrush licence too.

50
Reporting
It is also not an efficient use of a search marketer’s time to spend hours reporting on whether their work is
working or not.
Enterprise SEO tools can make sense of multiple data sources and display it in a user-friendly fashion. Reports
can be tailored and scheduled to arrive in inboxes on a regular basis
This type of reporting falls into the arena of diagnostic analytics. The more sophisticated tools on the market
are moving on from displaying the ‘what’ to revealing the ‘why’ and the ‘what next?’ of SEO data.
following 6 sub-categories for reporting:
Compared to other marketing channels, it can be challenging to prove the direct
return on an investment in SEO.
Reporting dashboards:
Are the reporting dashboards comprehensive and customizable?
Analytics integrations:
Is it possible to link analytics accounts to this technology and view performance data
alongside SEO data?
Cross-channel capabilities:
Does this platform help shape strategy for other marketing channels, such as SEM
and Display?
Content marketing:
How effective is the reporting on content marketing campaigns in this platform?
SEO performance insights:
Are actionable insights generated from a brand’s data sources?
Automation:
Does this vendor make effective use of automation to derive new insights and
take over laborious tasks?

51
Reporting was an area that showed a lot of variations within the survey scoring.
Ahrefs does not integrate with analytics platforms like Google ANalytics, Adobe Analytics, or Google Search
Console. This was viewed by current customers as something of a drawback, but this will likely only be an
influencing factor for businesses seeking a true all-in-one solution.
Equally, Ahrefs is currently developing a Report Builder tool, which may link with analytics platforms. Its current
strength in this arena is the availability of content marketing metrics within reporting dashboards.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Reporting
Dashboards
Content Marketing
SEO
Performance
Insights
Cross-channel
Integrations
Automation Analytics
Integrations

52
BrightEdge is the leader in this field, based on our scoring results. Its reporting dashboards are highly
customizable and the Story Builder allows marketers to tailor the narrative that their reports tell.
Combined with the insights drawn from its deep learning technology and the widespread use of automation
in the platform, BrightEdge provides a very comprehensive reporting solution. Analytics integrations are also
available for all major technology providers.
This vendor’s lowest scores in this section were received for its cross-channel insights, particularly in relation
to paid search, social media, and display advertising. No vendor performed particularly well in this regard, but
other platforms do provide more advanced cross-channel features than BrightEdge.
Conductor also provides a lengthy list of analytics integrations and does an excellent job of synthesizing this
data with SEO reporting to provide new insights. Its interface was seen as slightly less user-friendly than those
of BrightEdge and Searchmetrics, but on the whole COnductor received very positive feedback across this
category.
Its partnership with DeepCrawl also provides access to sophisticated technical SEO reporting, which some
marketers will view as a key advantage.
Moz Pro can create and send automated PDF reports to a range of stakeholders, including ranking dashboards
and traffic data. These dashboards also include performance insights, which help marketers to make informed
decisions about their SEO activities. In line with its lower price point, Moz Pro is less comprehensive than some
others on the vendor list, but it does still report on the core metrics that matter to most businesses.
Searchmetrics identifies patterns in performance data to create automated insights across the fulls cope of
a domain, which will prove invaluable to SEO practitioners. The CMO dashboards are effective too, and can
be tailored to suit a brand’s particular requirements. Across the board, Searchmetrics scored very well in this
section and its visibility checker tool was cited as the main highlight.
SEMrush contains excellent dashboards, populated with proprietary data and data from a range of analytics
packages, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Where it does fall a little behind the more expensive packages is in its uses of automation and machine
learning-driven insights, which may be areas of attention after the recent injection of $40 million into the
company from investors.

53
Across the board, the highest average scores were received in the categories of keyword analysis and tracking,
technical SEO, and backlinks and social.
This is perhaps unsurprising, as most of these technologies started out by specializing in at least one of these
areas before branching out into other areas of search marketing.
The features that start to set enterprise SEO platforms apart include:
The quantity of URLs that can be tracked and analyzed
Use of machine learning to surface performance insights
Automation of time-consuming tasks
Levels of customer service and strategic insights
Analytics integrations
Content marketing tools
Workflow management
In these areas, it would be fair to say that BrightEdge, Conductor, and Searchmetrics form one group, while
Ahrefs, Moz Pro, and SEMrush compete within another sub-group.
This starts to show in some of our categories. For example, the biggest range of scores was seen in the analytics
section, as the larger vendors have invested heavily here to create nuanced dashboards, while others keep a
pure focus on their SEO tools.
The most keenly-contested category, which contains a low level of differentiation in scores across all vendors,
is backlinks and social media. This functionality is a must-have of any enterprise SEO tool, while analytics
integrations tend to arrive at a later stage.
That picture is not particularly well-defined, however, and it grows more complex with each passing month.
BrightEdge is focused on AI-driven technologies to improve its content marketing suite; Conductor is extending
its engineering team to fuel a new period of innovation; and Searchmetrics has an exciting roadmap of new
features for content marketing and reporting.
Simultaneously, Ahrefs is improving its reporting and analytics features significantly; Moz Pro has just launched
a new link index and has ambitions to attract larger businesses; and SEMrush looks well placed to become
a comprehensive search marketing suite, with new investment in the company helping to accelerate their
progress.
Final scores & summary
The final scores across all 6 categories demonstrate just how competitive and
sophisticated this field is.
4

54
As such, we should expect the market to become even more competitive, which is great for marketers.
Competition will inevitably breed innovation and this will help brands to get even more value from their data.
The SEO industry has matured and moved into the marketing mainstream; fittingly, search marketers have more
sophisticated technologies at their disposal than ever before.
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Keyword Research
Backlinks and
Social
Customer
Experience
Content
Marketing
Analytics and
reporting
Technical
SEO

ClickZ SEO Tools Buyers Guide

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