Last updated on November 29th, 2024.
I’m not hiding it: I’m an SE Ranking supporter. I’ve shared my support for the tool in previous conference talks and in several Slack conversations. What’s in front of you is a positive, yet still honest user review.
In the past, I’ve worked with three different full-stack SEO tools: Ahrefs, Searchmetrics (now Conductor), and Semrush.
I enjoyed working with them and I think they are all great.
But when I had to pay for the SEO tool out of my own pocket, pricing mattered. (It’s not that I don’t care about money when I’m in-house —but needs were different. )
So, I went on the lookout for alternatives and started a trial with SE Ranking.
I haven’t looked back since.
In this post I’m spilling the tea on what I appreciate about the tool and further down I share where I see room for improvement.
Here’s the overview on what I will cover in the article:
Don’t want to read everything, but test right away? Here’s the sign-up lik for a 14 days trial. No credit card required.
^All subscription links in this article are affiliate. I get a couple of bucks if you end up using the tool.
The pros of SE Ranking
1. SE Ranking pricing is attractive – it’s all about money, money, money
I’m going to be honest: I started using SE Ranking because, at CHF 49.58 per month, it was cheaper than its competitors some years ago. My expectations were limited—how good could something at half the price really be?
But I was pleasantly surprised. I found a full-stack SEO tool that truly fits my needs, and I save some money. (As we’re talking about money, money, money, here’s the overdue link to the ABBA song).
Below is the overview of the SE Ranking pricing, as of 4 of November 2024.
SE Ranking price:
- Essential plan: $65 per month if paid monthly
- Pro plan: $119 per month if paid monthly
- Business plan: $259 per month if paid monthly
And SE Ranking has frequently promotion codes available which gives you a couple of % off. As of December 2024 I know that the coupon code WELCOM15 gives you 15% off. It works for monthly as well as for annually subscriptions.
2. It has all the features I need from a full-stack SEO tool
I need an SEO tool for the following actions:
- Backlink monitoring
- Rank tracking
- Keyword research
- Competitor analysis, aka “What keywords is a certain domain ranking for?”
- Quick website audit to get a high-level overview of the technical SEO health of a specific website
All of this is covered in their essential plan.
SE Rankings features page provides a full overview of all features.
In the future I want to test the white-labeling function and their reporting API. Agency plan and business plan is required for testing this.
3. Rank tracking per country and city is easy with SE Ranking
I appreciate how easy it is to track ranking performance by country and city. In the Rank Tracker, I can switch between regions with a single click. In the below, you can see me switching from Zürich, Switzerland, to India (no city selected), and then to Berlin, Germany.
3. SE Ranking support responds at lightning speed
I have only positive words for SE Ranking’s support. They respond at lightning speed. Most issues resolve easily and they even followed-up proactively once when I took me longer to reply. They are also very open to listen to feature requests.
As the cherry on top, the support team is incredibly friendly and attentive, as shown in the screenshot below:
4. Export data to Google Sheets
I appreciate that I can export keyword data directly to Google Sheets, which makes my keyword research easier. Ahrefs offers this feature too, but I think Semrush does not for keyword research (link to their export documentation.)
5. Bonus: SE Ranking academy – a learning hub for every step
The last pro isn’t tool-related. It’s their academy. If you buy a SERanking subscription, you gain access to their academy, which includes stellar trainings such as Myriam Jessier’s course on agency management and Lazarina Stoy’s course on reporting.
Link to the courses:
How to Promote Your Agency to Get Better Clients
SEO Reporting and Data Visualization for Agencies
The “better ifs”, aka disadvantages of SE Ranking
While SE Ranking has proven to be a versatile and affordable SEO tool with many strengths, I’ve identified a few “better ifs” (I avoid the word “disadvantages” – it’s in the H2 for obvious reasons 😉 I’m an SEO, after all).
Here’s where I see some room for improvement:
1. No data on keyword bulk analysis
When I analyse a a set of keywords for a small market – like the German speaking area of Switzerland – I often get a red line with no data in response. See an example in the following keyword research:
Out of a set of 31 keywords, 30 had no data. I reached out to SE Ranking support, and the reason for the absence of data is the lack of previous search for these keywords in this region.
If I now click on the keyword, a new page loads, and I get the data:
But with large data sets, clicking on each keyword is time-consuming. So, I’ve tested and found a workaround with ChatGPT and openallurls.com. Find full tutorial for the workaround here: No keyword data in SE Ranking’s database. Here’s how to get data without clicking on numerous links. Grab a cuppa, it’s long.
2. No global search volume
There is no global search volume aggregation feature like the one Google Keyword Planner offers. You can’t combine search volumes across multiple countries in a single view.
For those working in multi-country regions like the DACH area (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), this would be a valuable addition.
3. If you share the tool with other users, project and keyword list are not private
The SE Ranking business plan has 5 manager seats. All 5 manager can view your project and keyword list. There is no such function to keep those lists private. For the keyword list it looks as follows:
As you can see, all keyword lists of Dani Leitner, whom I shared the tool with at that time, were visible to me.
That’s a wrap. I hope my honest review helps you in deciding whether you want to trial SERanking or not. Feel free to ask me anything in the comments.
Here’s again the link for the trial subscription at no cost.
