An Introduction to SEO Software
SEO software is somewhat of a new concept in the realm of Internet marketing. In the past, competition was much lower and allowed average webmasters to simply create websites and naturally watch them rise in the search rankings. In the last year alone, however, the number of websites has more than doubled, making competition much more fierce for those competitive keyword terms. The inevitable result is that successful webmasters will need to do much more diligent keyword research to find the most profitable niches with high commercial intent, high traffic, and low competition. This area is where SEO software comes in handy.
The Power of Keyword Tools
The first piece of SEO software that webmasters should take a look are called keyword tools. These are simply, or sometimes complex, pieces of software that download data from Google’s online keyword tool and organize them into a useful format. (You can view Google’s free Keyword Tool here.) Whenever people search using Google, that search is recorded and placed in a large database. Google then provides webmasters with data on the daily searches for almost any keyword combination you can image. The only problem is that the official Google Keyword Tool is designed for Adwords advertisers, and lacks the functionality to truly help webmasters attempting to do keyword research for organic rankings and general SEO purposes.
One of the most famous keyword tools available is Market Samurai. Market Samurai compiles not only the search volumes for any keyword combination, but it also provides relevant competition data in an easy to understand format. In one tool you can look at search volume, competition numbers and Adwords spending to determine whether or not your keyword selection is viable. It takes a little time to get used to analyzing the numbers, but Market Samurai has become an invaluable resource for almost all professional SEO experts and online marketers. Market Samurai is not free, however, and can be quite expensive for those who are just starting out. If you are looking for a free alternative, I 
suggest using Google’s Keyword Tool in conjunction with SEO Quake for Firefox. That combination, while not as organized, will provide you with the same search volumes and competition data for free.
Other SEO Software Programs
Once you get your keyword research completed and have found a profitable niche, then you need to begin optimizing your actual website for those keyword terms. If you already know a great deal about search engine optimization, then you do not really need software to accomplish this step. Also, if you have an unlimited budget, you can hire a professional SEO company or seek out SEO consulting services. These can be quite expensive, however, as SEO pricing often reaches $500 to $1,000 per month.
One neat alternative to outsourcing your on-page SEO work is to use software like SEO Pressor. SEOPressor is a plugin that appears whenever you write a new post or page on your WordPress blog. Once you either hit the “Save Draft” or “Publish” buttons, it automatically analyzes your post and determines what on-page SEO factors are missing and could use improvement. It then highlights those errors and provides suggestions on how to improve those, while scoring your SEO the entire time. Another great alternative to SEO Pressor is a very similar program known as the Clickbump Engine, which has almost identical features. The All in One SEO Pack is also a good, free plugin to have because it lets you control how each page or post handles meta tags. This can also be extremely helpful for website rankings.
Once you have your on-page organic SEO factors completed, you may want to look into software to help promote your site off-page. Basically, this type of SEO software consists of private article directories and private blog networks. Although sometimes quite pricey, private article distribution software and private blog networks are excellent ways to create quality links back to your site where you control the anchor text! The only limitations to these types of software is that many restrict the types of sites that can be linked to, and they also require a bit of work and effort in order to see truly exceptional results.
Promoting Your Site Without SEO Software
Aside from using software, however, you can naturally promote your site by simply writing valuable content that is beneficial to your readers. If your website is naturally appealing, people will share it on websites like Facebook or Twitter. Alternatively, articles that are informative or popular will naturally be linked to by other webmasters, and your website’s popular will grow as a result. This is the link structure that Google had originally envisioned when it developed an algorithm to factor in links as a measure of how to rank each website.
If you find that this method is simply too difficult to achieve, and people are not naturally finding your website, then consider reaching out to other website owners in your niche. Do a Google search for your main keywords and find the top SEO ranked sites. Contact those website owners and see if they would be open to posting articles written by you with your link included. Webmasters are always eager to get free, unique content to keep their sites fresh, not to mention that you should get some click through traffic from any sites ranking in the top ten of Google.
Conclusions…
Start out with proper keyword research, and then move on to correct on-page, organic SEO methods. If you are not able to rank, then invest in plugins to help you boost your rankings with actual data and a comprehensive SEO score for each article you post. If that is not enough, then reach out to private blog software directories and begin promoting your site with good quality links. Finally, reach out to others in your niche for a little help every now and then. Good luck with your search engine optimization efforts!
