It was introduced just a couple of years ago and already has a strong community of raving supporters (including yours truly) Let’s take a quick look at standard SEO competitive intelligence features they are offering: SERP analytics (Keyword Explorer): Yes (Check out the variety of filters allowing to drill down the results) Ranking monitoring: Yes Backlink analysis + monitoring: Yes Content gap analysis (Domain vs Domain): Yes Content gap analysis (URL vs URL): Yes Top pages: Yes Multi-language support: Yes Serpstats’ best unique feature you’ll love: Text Analytics Text Analytics is the smart extension of Serpstat’s keyword clustering feature which I talked about earlier. They are building some competitive intelligence features: SERP analytics (Keyword Explorer): Partial Ranking monitoring: Yes (With very cool email alerts, also with mobile ranking monitoring) Backlink analysis + monitoring: Coming soon Content gap analysis (Domain vs Domain): Yes Content gap analysis (URL vs URL): No Top pages: No Multi-language support: Yes Rankedy’s best unique feature you’ll love: Topic Orientation I’ve never seen this done before, so I was very intrigued to try. The tool grabs the top 100 competing domains ranking for your core queries, analyzes their content and compares it to yours. [Example: Rankedy took the query [website building], fetched content of my top competitors, classified it and found that my competitors’ top-ranking content includes the following classes “Business”, “Machine”, “Product” and “Design.” My site content matched nothing of those, so my landing page content needs work] I think it’s a very fresh look at competitive analysis. That’s definitely a tool to look out for. It gives you a graphical representation of what Google organic SERPs looked like for any given domain (e.g. your competitor): See its new keywords See its lost rankings See which queries it fell from top 10 for, etc. I am not yet as familiar with the new suite as well I’d like to be (as it’s pretty new) but it looks awesome so far: SERP analytics (Keyword Explorer): Yes Ranking monitoring: Yes Backlink analysis + monitoring: Yes Content gap analysis (Domain vs Domain): No Content gap analysis (URL vs URL): No Top pages: Yes (+Most linked to + shared pages) Multi-language support: Yes CognitiveSEO’s best unique feature you’ll love: Broken links research Broken link building research has never been easier: Type in your competitor’s domain and click through “Broken Pages” tab. The tool will show you the list of your competitor’s pages that receive backlinks. Ahrefs and SEMrush alternatives at a glance: Ahrefs and SEMrush alternatives Cost /m Competitive Intelligence Features Cool innovative feature KWD Expl* Rank Mon Link Mon D vs D URL vs URL Top Pgs Serpstat $69 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Clustering + Text Analysis Rankedy ~$7 Partial Yes Soon Yes No No Topic Orientation SpyFu $39 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Organic Ranking History Cognitive SEO ~$130 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Broken Pages Notes: *SERPs Analytics (Keyword Explorer) is a bit different from platform (going back to my point that each tool brings something new to the point). Which innovative Ahrefs and SEMrush alternative did I miss?
Let me start by saying I love SEMrush and Ahrefs. I use them both on a daily basis and cannot imagine my life without them.
Through their awesome technology and studies, the two tools have contributed an impressive amount of value to SEO community. If you are already using the tools, by all means keep them!
Why then explore alternatives to SEMrush and Ahrefs?
Well, I have two strong arguments behind this article:
- You can never have enough of SEO research tools: Each of them adds something unique and different to the analysis process. Sometimes, when I am stuck, all I need to do is to try a new tool. Either through a fresh layout or an innovative feature (more on this below), I am always able to discover new solutions to old and new SEO problems.
- Competition drives innovation. And there’s no shortage of both in the SEO niche, thankfully. Thanks to the following strong emerging or re-developed solutions, our industry is getting smarter. That’s been amazing to watch and that’s something I am going to highlight below:
1. Serpstat
Serpstat is one of the most successful newcomers in the SEO industry. It was introduced just a couple of years ago and already has a strong community of raving supporters (including yours truly)
Let’s take a quick look at standard SEO competitive intelligence features they are offering:
- SERP analytics (Keyword Explorer): Yes (Check out the variety of filters allowing to drill down the results)
- Ranking monitoring: Yes
- Backlink analysis + monitoring: Yes
- Content gap analysis (Domain vs Domain): Yes
- Content gap analysis (URL vs URL): Yes
- Top pages: Yes
- Multi-language support: Yes
Serpstats’ best unique feature you’ll love: Text Analytics
Text Analytics is the smart extension of Serpstat’s keyword clustering feature which I talked about earlier. It analyzes your competitor’s content for your given query and returns some on-page content recommendations for you to implement:
The important thing here is, Serpstat advises against keyword density or exact-matching. It uses semantic analysis to thoroughly analyze competing content and transforms the analysis into actionable recommendations for your writing team to follow.
2. Rankedy
Rankedy is one of the newest SEO suites out there (I think it may still be in private beta) but I strongly suggest going and requesting your trial. I am sure they are up to something really unique. They are not trying to offer competing solutions but instead working on something completely unique: applying machine learning to many standard SEO analyses they offer.
They are building some competitive intelligence features:
- SERP analytics (Keyword Explorer): Partial
- Ranking monitoring: Yes (With very cool email alerts, also with mobile ranking monitoring)
- Backlink analysis + monitoring: Coming soon
- Content gap analysis (Domain vs Domain): Yes
- Content gap analysis (URL vs URL): No
- Top pages: No
- Multi-language support: Yes
Rankedy’s best unique feature you’ll love: Topic Orientation
I’ve never seen this done before, so I was very intrigued to try. The tool grabs the top 100 competing domains ranking for your core queries, analyzes their content and compares it to yours. It then shows how…
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