If you are looking to drive traffic from organic search, then it's important to invest in reliable rank tracking software to keep track of your keyword rankings and search performance.
Every day, over 5.6 billion searches are made on Google, and even more when you consider other search engines like DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Yahoo.
Keyword tracking tools like SE Ranking, and Semrush makes it easy to stay on top of your search rankings so that you can monitor which of your organic pages are driving search traffic to your website over time.
But subtle changes in the way rank tracking tools operate make it difficult to pick the best option for your business.
Beyond price, it's important to think about data freshness, the number of keywords you can track, how your rank tracker integrates into other tools, and which metrics each tracking software actually measures.
Best Rank Tracking Software & Tools
We've tested all of the best rank tracking software tools out there so that you can make a quick and easy decision on which rank tracker works best for your business.
- SE Ranking
- Semrush
- Wincher
- AHREFs
- SERPWatcher
- Serpstat
- Advanced Web Ranking
- SEO Powersuite
Focused Look At The Best Rank Tracking Tools
SE Ranking
If you're looking for a well rounded SEO tool that is affordably priced, then you can't go far wrong with SE Ranking.
SE Ranking was initially designed to track keyword rank, but has also evolved to offer customers SERP tracking, backlink insights, website audit tools, and API access.
Thousands of clients globally use SE Ranking to carry out keyword research, and track keyword performance over time. And the great thing about SE Ranking is that you can adjust your pricing plan depending on the number of keywords you need to track.
The features we like:
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Keyword rank tracking - SE ranking makes it easy to track competitor keywords, identify top keywords in your niche, and to stay on top of Google's algorithm updates. They include every major search engine and allow you to check keyword performance at country level or down to local zipcode
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SERP tracker - you can measure competitors search rankings in depth and pull in metrics like page quality score, organic traffic forecast, number of backlinks per page. Within the SE Ranking dashboard you can also benchmark key metrics like quality score, title, length, meta data, URL length vs competitors and keep track of these metrics over time
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Backlink checker - SE ranking offers competitor backlink auditing alongside their rank tracker tool, meaning you can analyze competitor backlink profiles in detail. Not only can you see top backlinks per website, but you can drill down to examine domain trust, page trust, referring domains per page, and dofollow/nofollow ratio. When benchmarking, you can directly compare to 5 competitors at a time
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Website audit tools - for those looking to audit within their rank tracking software, it's also possible to run regular site audits to examine your site's health score, core web vitals scores, and to uncover any top issues that need to be fixed
- API access for advanced users - for advanced users you can manage multiple projects, pull data into wider business applications, and internal your own data studios
SE Ranking Pricing
All of the pricing plans SE Ranking offer return excellent value for money. The Essential plan starts at just $39 per month and allows you to track between 250 and 750 keywords per month.
For advanced users you can upgrade to Pro and Business plans to access further features, and extend your report limits. The Pro plan allows you to track between 1,000 and 1,750 keywords per month at one of the best price points available.
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Essential - $39 per month - 10 projects, 250 keywords per month, 1 user
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Pro - $89 per month - unlimited projects, 1,000 keywords per month, 3 users
- Business - $189 per month - unlimited projects, 2,500 keywords per month, 10 users
Semrush
Semrush is the most popular SEO tool on the internet.
Their range of SEO products are used by some of the biggest brands in the world, including Tesla, Forbes, Samsung, and Booking.com. In fact, SEMRush is used by over 10 million marketing professionals, and 30% of the Fortune 500.
But it's by no means an exclusive tool for large enterprises, millions of small businesses and entrepreneurs rely on Semrush to optimize search engine performance.
Like other rank tracking tools, Semrush allows you to monitor your search engine rankings and monitor search volume. However, they also provide over 55+ other digital marketing tools to measure everything from backlink performance, through to content scoring.
We like Semrush because it's very well known in the site flipping space, so if you do wish to sell your business in the future, building your Semrush domain authority is a great tactic.
The features we like:
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Rank tracking - Semrush makes it easy to track exact SERP positioning at keyword level, as well as tracking the volatility of Baidu and Google's SERPs over time. They also predict traffic estimations per websites so you can keep track of your competitors likely organic traffic
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Keyword research tool- within Semrush there are a number of tools to help you research new keyword ideas. These include keyword overview reports, the ability to drill down and look at related and matched keyword groups, as well as a keyword magic tool that allows you to generate thousands of keyword ideas by entering one seed keyword. If you have core competitors you wish to compete with, you can also run keyword gap analysis to examine the gaps in your strategy vs key competitors
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Local SEO - for those optimizing locally, Semrush makes it easy to track keyword positioning at zip code level, and you can automatically list your website on most popular ranking directories locally
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Backlink Analysis - Semrush allows you to audit competitor backlinks, carry out backlink gap analysis, find backlink outreach opportunities at scale. This is a great feature, and important when you're aiming to build domain authority
- App Center - hundreds of apps in the Semrush app store which further help you optimise search strategy
Semrush Pricing
Semrush is a more expensive tool than SE Ranking, with their starter (Pro) plan sitting between the advanced SE Ranking plans.
With that said, Semrush Pro gives you much more than keyword ranking performance. They have a full suite of keyword research tools, and offer other features that enhance your ability to drive traffic from search engines.
The Pro plan allows you to enter 500 tracked keywords. For bigger businesses, the Guru and Business plans allow you to track 1,500 and 5,000 keyword respectively.
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Pro - $119.95 per month - 5 projects, 500 keywords, 10,000 reports per page, includes SEO, social and PPC tools
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Guru - $229.95 per month - 15 projects, 1,500 keywords, 30,000 reports per page, includes content marketing tools, historical data, and Google Data Studio integration
- Business - $449.95 per month - 40 projects, 5,o00 keywords, 50,000 reports per page, includes extended limits, and free migration from other tools
Wincher
If you're looking for a dedicated rank tracking software, Wincher is a great option.
Like Semrush, big brands rely on their keyword tracking platform to monitor search engine performance daily.
Wincher also sits at an affordable price point, with the Starter plan allowing you to track 500 keywords at just $29 per month.
The features we like:
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Daily ranking updates - you get daily ranking updates with Wincher, and depending on your plan track upwards of 500 keywords at any one time. Wincher also pulls data from over 130+ search engines
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Free ranking history - regardless of your plan, you can access 6 months of historical ranking data for any keyword. This allows you to track keyword ranking changes across major search engines
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Unlimited users - you can provide access for as many users as needed with any Wincher price plan. Most of the other rank tracking tools out there charge extra fees for adding incremental users
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Monitor competitor domains - we like the fact that Wincher offers daily competitor ranking updates and allows you to set up notifications to track important keyword ranking changes so that you can take the right action in the event of a search engine algorithm update or a drop in performance
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Local rank tracking - like SE Ranking and Semrush, Wincher also allows you to monitor keyword rankings at local level. They offer over 100k locations globally, 40k cities, 180 countries
- API access - for advanced users, you can also integrate Wincher keyword data into external BI systems to analyze alongside other key digital marketing data. If you're looking to track keyword rank outside of Google Search Console, using Google Data Studio or other data visualization tools, you can access Wincher's keyword data via API
Wincher Pricing
Each of the Wincher pricing plans offers great value for money and will help drive return on investment for your search engine strategy.
The Starter plan will work for most start ups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. For those who require bigger limits, the Business and Enterprise plans offer scale.
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Starter - $29 per month - 500 keywords, 10 websites
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Business - $59 per month - 1,000 keywords, unlimited websites, on-demand ranking updates, API access
- Enterprise - $249 per month - 5,000 keywords, unlimited websites, priority support, external users
AHREFs
If you're looking for an alternative to Semrush, then look no further than AHREFs.
We use AHREFs extensively at Visualize Value to optimize our own SEO strategy and include AHREFs analysis within our headline SEO course, Compound Content.
Like Semrush, AHREFs is used by millions of small and large customers, including Facebook, Netflix, Tripadvisor, Uber, and Shopify.
AHREFs is an all-in-one SEO toolkit, that allows you to analyze entire websites, complete keyword research, track keyword rankings, complete site audits, and analyze competitor content and site performance.
The features we like:
- Rank tracker - AHREFs first and foremost offer rank tracking updates for desktop and mobile. They offer clean visualization tools to see how your tracked keywords and trending performing over time. There are also overview screens to show average position, traffic, number of SERP features, position changes, and distribution of SERP rankings
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Site explorer - the site explorer allows you to analyze organic and paid performance for any website, and analyse backlink growth over time. It's easy to evaluate the most valuable pages for any website, and to analyze keywords at site level and page level. AHREFs also has reports to show you the number of new keywords, and movements in existing rankings
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Keyword research tool - when it comes to keyword research, AHREFs is one of the best SEO tools out there. They offer coverage in 171 countries, across 10 search engines and accurately predict search volumes and keyword difficulty score to allow you to plan your strategy. Their keyword research report also offers keyword suggestions and gives you the ability to look at phrase match, related match, and question queries with easy filtering options. For an advanced look at this process, check out Compound Content
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Site audit - like Semrush, AHREFs provides access to their site audit tool on every price plan. The site audit tool allows you to check site score against 100+ SEO metrics so that you can understand the current helath score of your website. AHREFs provides a comprehensive breajdown of the key areas to fix, including everything from broken links, to thin content, and missing meta data. They also allow you to track health score over time
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Dashboard - the AHREFs dashboard shows you referring domains, backlinks, organic traffic, organic keywords, traffic value, and other important ranking and traffic metrics for your projects. This is a great place to monitor performance
- Enterprise plans - for advanced users, AHREFs offers a Google Data Studio integration, and allows you to share projects across teams. Their enterprise plans also include 1:1 customer support, scalable user pricing, higher limits for extended use and other leading SEO features
AHREFs Pricing
AHREFs is priced at a similar level to Semrush. The Lite plan gives you access to most of the reports you'll need to get off the ground, and start optimizing search performance - this plan also allows you to track 750 keywords at one time (on a weekly schedule).
For advanced use cases, the Standard, Advanced and Enterprise plans allow you to scale up.
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Lite - £79 per month, track 750 keywords, weekly frequency (daily updates extra available)
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Standard - £159 per month, track 2,000 keywords, weekly frequency (daily updates extra available)
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Advanced - £319 per month, 5,000 keywords, weekly frequency (daily updates extra available)
- Enterprise - £799 per month, track 10,000 keywords, weekly frequency (daily updates extra available)
SERPWatcher by Mangools
SERPWatcher is built for marketers and agencies who are managing clients.
Like other top rank tracking software companies, you can measure keyword ranking performance at a granular level, and look at historical ranking performance to measure and display ranking changes over time.
Some excellent agency features include white label reports, and a white label client portal that you can use to keep clients up to date on their ranking data.
SERPWatcher also offers keyword weighting data so that you can monitor how reliant websites are on groups of specific keywords.
Like any good rank tracking software, SEPRWatcher also keeps track of Google algorithm changes, and allows you to monitor competitor performance over time. They also have responsive support, an intuitive UI, and advanced features like Google Analytics integration capability.
The features we like:
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Rank tracking - it's easy to keep track of keyword performance across mobile and desktop, and across search engines (including Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Youtube) - you can also access snapshots showing proof of rankings (helpful in presenting to clients). SERPWatcher also integrates with Slack, so that you can keep up to date automatically
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White label clients portals - an amazing feature for agencies, you can host a white labelled portal on your own domain and give clients access to the portal to track your SEO impact on their business over time. In addition you can generate branded reports and automatically pull insights into emails
- Local rank tracking - for those optimizing local search strategy, SERPWatcher tracks over 100,000 geo locations, and gives you the ability to track down to city, neighborhood, and zip code level. They also offer access to Google Map Pack
SERPWatcher Pricing
The SERPWatcher pricing plans are affordable, and perfect for those looking to specifically keep track of keyword performance over time.
The starter plan allows you to track 200 keywords daily. That represents excellent value for money at just $29 per month.
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Starter - $29 per month, 200 keywords checked daily
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Growth - $59 per month, 700 keywords checked daily
- Premium - $199 per month, 1,500 keywords checked daily
Serpstat
Serpstat is an all in one enterprise solution for professional SEO professionals, and clients include Samsung, Uber, Rakuten, and Shopify.
The Serpstat rank tracker includes advanced SERP analytics, historical data, keyword grouping by tag, and market share fluctuations.
And their backlink analyzer contains two years of historical backlink performance, including quality scores at domain level, and the ability to find pages by link volume.
If you require access beyond rank tracking software, Serpstat also included advanced keyword research features, and site audit tools.
The keyword research module allows you to examine tree-view keyword distribution analysis, in-depth URL analysis, and insights on question queries.
The site audit tools shows a domain optimization score, and allows you to check site health, and get alerted to issues that need fixing.
The features we like:
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Rank tracking - easily pick up trending keywords, track keyword performance over time, and get daily to monthly data on ranking performance
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Keyword clustering - compose the right structure for your site by clustering keyword groups by page, connect keywords with semantic relationships so that you can target groups of keywords in the correct way
- API & Integrations - if you need to run batch analysis for Google spreadsheets or integrate with Google Data Studio, then Serpstat has you covered (metrics include, search volume, keywords, visibility, traffic, competitors, positions, backlinks, and audit issues)
Serpstat Pricing
While Serpstat is an enterprise level SEO tool, they have some great plans for startups and entrepreneurs.
The Lite plan allows you to check 15,000 positions per month, and starts at just $55 per month. If you require scale, the enterprise plans also offer excellent value for money.
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Lite - $55 per month, 15,000 position checks per month, 1 user
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Standard - $199 per month, 60,000 position checks per month, 3 users
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Advanced - $239 per month, 150,000 position checks per month, 5 users
- Enterprise - $399 per month, 300,000 position checks per month, 7 users
Advanced Web Ranking
Like SERPStat, Advanced Web Ranking is an enterprise ready tool that is already used by over 24,000 agencies and brands.
Advanced Web Ranking allows you to track website rankings, carry out custom SEO reporting, and complete competitor research at scale.
The entry plan also starts at just $49 per month, so you can access the technology without having to spend a fortune.
The features we like:
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Rank tracker - track rankings in over 4,000 search engines, and 170 countries, cross-device, and set daily, weekly, monthly intervals to schedule checks
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Local rank tracking - set location, down to city, state, country or GPS coordinates to track local keyword performance and search engine rankings
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Custom reports - configure custom SEO reports to share with clients, show those keywords that have moved up in position, and how keyword performance is trending over time, add personalized notes to reports, alongside charts and graphs
- Difficulty metrics - get detailed difficulty metrics including domain difficulty, URL difficulty, and content difficulty, aggregate difficulty by topic cluster, and keyword group, overlay SERP data, traffic potential, and search intent into keyword research to portray an accurate picture of performance and landscape over time
Advanced Web Ranking Pricing
The Advanced Web Ranking plans start at $49 per month, and are priced based on unit consumption. If you run an agency or work in-house at a large brand, the agency and enterprise plans offer enough scale to track big SEO projects.
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Starter - $49 per month, 2,000 units
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Pro - $99 per month, 7,000 units
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Agency - $199 per month, 14,500 units
- Enterprise - $499 per month, 35,500 units
SEO Powersuite
SEO Powersuite is one of the most enterprise focused keyword rank trackers on our review.
Their rank tracking software is used by over 2 million global users, including startups, through to agencies, and enterprises (clients include Amazon, IMB, and Disney).
They offer an all-in-one SEO platform, that allows you to complete keyword research, check backlinks, edit content, optimize PPC campaigns, and more.
The allow you to fully automate reporting, complete site audits, track keyword rankings, and check backlinks via scheduled instances. All of the reports within the system can be branded to enable you to generate SEO reports for your clients or internal stakeholders.
Pricing starts at $299 per year, but you can try SEO Powersuite on an unlimited basis for free. The only catch is that you cannot save projects, which means that you have to repeat work every time you access the platform.
The features we like:
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Advanced rank tracking - easily check global or local positions and scan the top 50 - 1,000 search results per keyword (both for universal results and Google Maps listings). In addition, monitor keyword performance daily or weekly, and set device to track average position and visibility regularly
- SpyGlass backlink checker - SEO Powersuite crawls 7.1 billion websites every day, showing you new backlinks every day. It's easy to audit backlink quality and check the number of backlinks per domain/page. SEO Powersuite also makes it simple to analyze anchor text clouds, top linking countries, and more advanced metrics - you can also check for potential penalty risk in advance of issues occurring
SEO Powersuite Pricing
The free plan gives you extensive access to SEO Powersuite's full range of suites, with unlimited evaluation. However, you cannot save projects.
We definitely recommend signing up to evaluate whether their enterprise SEO tools can add value for your business before moving onto the paid plans.
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Free - unlimited evaluation, but you cannot save projects
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Professional - $299 per year - full access
- Enterprise - $699 per year - full access, includes ability to export data, and to save, and schedule reports
Why is it important to invest in keyword rank tracking software?
If you remain unconvinced about the value of investing in a keyword rank tracking software, then it's important to consider the below factors.
It's never been more difficult to rank your content in Google and other search engines. And while Google tools like Google Search Console provide insight, your often operating behind real-time.
These days, there are billions of website vying for search traffic, and SEO tools have never been so affordable and accessible to those looking to rank content.
What's more, SEO teaching resources like Compound Content make it easier than ever to upskill into SEO, and millions of entrepreneurs are realizing that creating content driven businesses requires zero permission.
Overlaying this with the risk of optimizing for search, without understanding how your content is ranking means you are operating blind.
Here's how rank tracking software can help.
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Monitor SEO performance - the best rank trackers contain a wide range of SEO tools that make it easy to track and measure your search performance over time. Either track the keywords you care about directly, and measure ranking performance on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or access generic tools to see your keyword movements, and new ranking data
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Find new keyword opportunities - if you are planning to launch new content, it's important to understand where optimize your time. Keyword tracking tools help you to find and uncover new keywords that you can target with your content. More sophisticated tools also feature the ability to semantically link keyword data so that you can structure your overarching site to rank on a wide range of keywords within your niche
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Analyse competitor performance - another important element of rank tracking software is to monitor competitor performance. There is so much you can learn when you analyze the best sites in your niche, including what they rank, where they rank, and how the achieve it. The best tools on the market also contain information on backlinks, and allow you to run site audits
- Gather location specific data - if you are running a website or business that relies on local search traffic, then it's also vital to understand how you can rank for local terms, and integrate your business into Google Maps and local search results. Rank tracking tools often give you the ability to drill down to state, city, or zip code level, so that you can analyze the effectiveness of your efforts
How to pick the best rank tracking tools for your business
Once you've decided to invest in a SEO rank tracking tool, we recommend thinking about your specific needs upfront. This will ensure you future-proof yourself, and track the metrics that will help you grow your business, and improve your search ranking over time.
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Number of keywords - different rank trackers allow you to track different numbers of keyword ranking position. Some have unlimited tracking, others restrict you to a certain number per month, but add value by offering a wider feature set within their toolkit
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Tracking schedule - how many keywords do you need to track on a daily basis? For our projects, there are core keywords we care about tracking regularly, whereas others we are happy to monitor over longer periods (for example weeks, or months). Ensure you pick tools and plans that can accommodate your needs
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Granularity - what level of granularity do you require? Are you happy to receive rank in isolation, or do you need to overlay richer lata like difficulty, quality score, traffic, visibility, and backlink data? We like to get as much information as possible, so that we can inform our actions
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Price - one of the main factors you need to consider is price. Some of the enterprise solutions include better feature sets, but they sit at a higher price point. SE Ranking is a great option because it includes a wide set of features, fresh data, and sits at an affordable price point, with a range of plans
- API and integrations - do you need to integrate keyword data into your wider business analytics? Some platforms allow you to connect to data warehouses like Google Data Studio, others prefer you to stay within their platform interface. Ensure that you pick a rank tracking tools with API and integration capability if this a current or future need
Sign up for the best email marketing software for your business
Get moving, and check out one of our leading rank tracking software recommendations now.
Start by setting up your project, entering the keywords you wish to track, and take advantage of wider SEO toolsets to start optimizing your organic search strategy.
If you are looking for advanced materials that can help you optimize your wider SEO strategy - check out Compound Content.
Compound Content is a 5-star rated SEO course that walks you through how to conduct keyword research, optimize content for search, and take care of SEO fundamentals to ensure you're set up for success.
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