KeySearch is an affordable, simple alternative to SE Ranking.

KeySearch vs SE Ranking: Which Keyword Software Better Aligns With Your Needs?

Maybe you’re looking for a tool that can help you find relevant, low-competition keywords for your niche. Or maybe you just need a solution that can monitor keyword rankings to help you manage your strategy and assess efforts over the course of time.

But the more likely possibility is that you’re looking for a tool that can both of these things and a whole lot more, helping you map out and execute a successful SEO strategy that doesn’t just boost traffic, it grows revenue and profitability.

Well, you’re in luck. We’re going to compare and contrast two of the most popular choices on the market today: KeySearch vs SE Ranking. Both claim to be the only SEO toolkit you need, but which more closely aligns with your specific needs?

We’ll help you find out by comparing and contrasting their suite of tools, from keyword research to tracking, backlink auditing, and content optimization, along with pricing, brand support, and more.

But if you just want to get started optimizing your site and making your SEO goals a reality, save yourself the time and just hit the ground running with KeySearch’s free SEO tools today. With more functionality at a lower price than SE Ranking, the answer is clear!

What Does KeySearch Do?

KeySearch is a versatile SEO software that gives you everything you need to boost organic search rankings. This includes a comprehensive suite of tools aimed at keyword research, site analysis, and competitive intelligence.

It's a web-based platform, meaning users don't need to install any software on their devices, making it both fast and accessible from anywhere. It uses the latest algorithms to pull search data and make sure you always have access to the most accurate real-time data.

It’s the toolkit of choice among 10,000 bloggers, agencies, and solopreneurs with a 4.9-star review rating across hundreds of testimonials. It’s even used by companies like Shopify, Ezoic, Mediavine, and more.

KeySearch Features

When we say KeySearch is all in one, we mean it. You gain access to 12 intuitive features that encompass all angles of building, executing, and managing an SEO strategy:

• Keyword Research: Discover effective keywords with feasible competition, helping to target phrases that offer the best chance of SEO success.
• Backlink Checker: Analyzes incoming links to a given website, providing insights into how well-connected a site is and the quality of those connections. You can use this to assess your own link profile or see what a competitor has been up to.
• Keyword Suggestions: Offers a list of related keywords based on initial search terms, complete with data on search frequency and advertising costs. This helps you build your content strategy from scratch.
• Keyword Rank Tracking: Monitors the rankings of specific keywords, showing where a website stands in Google search results over time. This way, you can see how your efforts are paying off and focus on underperforming keywords.
• Long Tail Keywords: The LSI keyword tool helps you find more specific keyword phrases that might be easier to rank for due to lower competition. These represent low-hanging fruit that can make an immediate impact on your SEO results.
• Difficulty Checker: Assesses the competition level of keywords to help predict how difficult it will be to rank for them on Google using an intuitive keyword difficulty checker. You can even check the difficulty for multiple keywords at once, saving time and streamlining the SEO strategy.
• Webpage Audit Analyzer: Scans a website to identify SEO weaknesses that might be impairing its ability to rank well in search engines.
• Competitive Analysis: Offers insights into competitors' strategies, allowing users to understand what they are doing right and how to outperform them. You can effectively steal your competitors' top keywords.
• YouTube Research: Provides keyword research tools specifically tailored for YouTube, helping to optimize video content for search.
• Content Optimization: From an AI content assistant that helps you optimize existing content based on what’s currently ranking to a duplicate content tool that can help you avoid penalties and plagiarism, KeySearch helps you create content that ranks after finding keyword opportunities on your behalf.

KeySearch Pricing Tiers

One of the best things about KeySearch is you can use it free for an entire month to see how it can support your SEO strategy. Then you can pick from one of two highly affordable tiers:

• Starter: At just $24/month you gain access to 200 daily searches, 80 tracked keywords, 2,000 site audits, and 5,000 monthly AI credits.
• Pro: At just $48/month you get even better value, with 500 daily searches, 200 tracked keywords, 5,000 site audits, and 15,000 monthly AI credits.

You can save big on both plans by investing in a full year, with the pro plan costing a mere $480 annually. You’ll come for the low pricing, but ultimately, you’ll stick around once you realize you’re still getting the most comprehensive, easy-to-use SEO toolkit.

That being said, how does the over half of the KeySearch vs SE Ranking comparison stack up?

What Does SE Ranking Do?

SE Ranking is also an all-encompassing SEO platform, except it’s tailored specifically for agencies and marketing teams. It simplifies, scales, and enhances client and team interactions through a range of SEO and marketing tools.

Its user-friendly interface is home to a broad array of functionalities from SEO monitoring to in-depth keyword and competitive research, making it a versatile choice for professionals seeking comprehensive data insights.

SE Ranking has its own advanced data algorithms that are continuously expanding. This means you can rest assured the data you’re accessing is up-to-date and relevant.

SE Ranking Features

SE Ranking’s features/products can be broken up into a few different categories - SEO monitoring, SEO research, content marketing, local marketing, and agency success. Here is the full list of offerings:

• Rank Tracker: Accurately tracks keyword rankings across different locations, search engines, and devices, offering insights into competitors' rankings as well.
• Website Audit: Runs detailed audits to identify both minor and critical issues affecting site performance alongside suggestions to fix the problem.
• Backlink Monitor and Checker: Analyzes the quality and value of backlinks while monitoring the status of existing backlinks, alerting you if one is lost.
• On-Page SEO Checker: Evaluates how well a webpage is optimized for specific queries and provides a detailed optimization report.
• Keyword Suggestion Tool: Generates a comprehensive list of keywords including similar, related, and long-tail phrases.
• Competitive Research: Offers insights into competitors’ organic and paid search strategies, helping you find effective tactics and potential areas for improvements in your own strategy.
• SERP Checker: Analyzes the top 100 search results for detailed insights into keyword dynamics and competitive positioning.
• Content Editor and Marketing Tool: Helps plan, create, and optimize content to meet SEO goals, so you can make sure your content aligns with best practices and has the highest likelihood of ranking.
• Local Marketing Tool and Local Rank Tracker: If you run exclusively local SEO campaigns, this feature will give you better visibility in specific regions.
• Scheduled SEO Reports and White Label: Enables customized, detailed client reporting and branding options. This creates a sense of professionalism while saving you time and stress.
• Lead Generator: Captures and manages leads for your agency directly through the platform.

SE Ranking Pricing Tiers

SE Ranking is quite a bit more expensive than KeySearch, which will ultimately be the key takeaway from this comparison of the two solutions. If you aren’t running a bustling agency, it’ll be hard to justify the extra cost for features you may not necessarily need. Here are the 3 tiers:

• Essential: At $44/month, this entry-level plan covers all core tools needed for comprehensive site optimization, suitable for individual managers handling less than 10 projects and tracking less than 750 keywords. You can run 100 keyword research reports a day.
• Pro: This mid-level tier starts at $87/month and offers extended data limits and tools for enhanced collaboration, ideal for small agencies and teams looking for deeper analytical capabilities and project management. At this tier, you’ll unlock unlimited projects and 2,000 keywords tracked. You can run 5,000 keyword reports daily on this plan.
• Business: The most robust plan starts at $191/month and provides advanced features and priority support for large agencies that need extensive data processing and integration capabilities, including historical data and expanded keyword databases. You’ll gain access to 5,000 keywords tracked and 10,000 keyword research reports daily.

You’ll want to take the time to research the costs associated with the specific features you need to get a better sense of what you can expect to pay.

For example, you can tack on another $23/month to the Essential plan for content marketing features, and another $38/month for local marketing features on the Pro plan. Like KeySearch, SE Ranking offers a substantial discount for annual subscriptions - a whopping 20% off!

KeySearch vs SE Ranking: Which is the Better Keyword Research and Management Solution?

While both KeySearch vs SE Ranking make a compelling case as the best all-in-one SEO toolkit, you only need one. So, which is better for your specific needs? Let’s put them side by side and assess where each has an edge in keyword research, keyword tracking, additional SEO tools, pricing, and brand support. This will give you a better understanding of why KeySearch is the #1 choice.

Keyword Research Tools

KeySearch and SE Ranking both offer robust keyword research tools, yet they cater to somewhat different user needs through unique features and capabilities.

For example, KeySearch helps you find keywords for the specific platform you’re trying to rank on. The algorithms that pull in search data are primarily based on the platform’s own results but then supplemented with data from Google as well, offering a dual approach to research. Different tools include:

• Amazon keyword tool
• Pinterest keyword tool
• Etsy keyword tool
• eBay keyword tool
• YouTube keyword tool

You can also find LSI keywords specifically, as these tend to be lower competition and “quicker wins”. KeySearch has a separate tool for keyword clustering, organizing your keywords into relevant groups for more targeted content creation.

You can further dial in your content creation efforts through a keyword density checker that makes sure you’re not under or overutilizing keywords. The software also tracks trends over time, helping you align your strategy with what’s most relevant today.

On the other hand, SE Ranking offers its own powerful keyword research features. Simply plug in a keyword or upload a list and you’ll be met with search volume and detailed metrics to assess how hard it will be to rank for each keyword.

Those running PPC campaigns also use SE Ranking’s features to analyze just how effective your paid advertising efforts are on a granular keyword basis.

That being said, the keyword research functionality of SE Ranking falls short here. KeySearch was designed to uncover keywords at its core, whereas SE Ranking was not. This precision is seen in KeySearch’s more comprehensive set of research tools.

Keyword Management and Tracking

It’s not just about finding keywords - you want to see how you’re ranking for them at any given time. This is where SE Ranking has the edge with its Rank Tracker, especially for agencies that are managing hundreds (if not thousands) of keywords for each of their clients.

You are given precise, daily updates on where your keywords stand across search engines from Google to Bing, Yahoo, and even YouTube. You can track rankings both on desktop and mobile for the full picture of performance.

Better yet, you can see how your rankings stack up against the competition. You even have the ability to identify special SERP features triggered by keywords and forecast potential traffic, showing possible SEO outcomes down the road. If you’re trying to show a client what’s possible to get them to stick it out and stay on board, this is a great feature.

It’s also worth noting that tracking URLs and keywords with Rank Tracker will alert you to issues with cannibalization so you can resolve multiple pages vying for the same keywords. Make no mistake, KeySearch offers its own set of tools for managing and tracking keyword performance - but it pales in comparison to SE Ranking. Still, it’s more than enough for individuals tracking a single site’s performance.

You won’t need the full capabilities of SE Ranking unless you’re running an agency with a ton of clients - and even then, you’ll have to weigh the costs and consider if it’s really worth the extra functionality. More on that later.

Additional SEO Tools and Features

Both SE Ranking and KeySearch are equipped with additional tools and features that round out your SEO arsenal needs, from content support to backlink analysis.

The only difference? All of these are included in KeySearch, whereas some of these are add-ons for SE Ranking that you have to pay extra for.

For instance, KeySearch has its own content assistant that helps you improve existing content based on what’s ranking for the keywords you’re targeting. You can also analyze backlinks to support your content creation efforts and build out a well-rounded strategy.

KeySearch’s site analyzer will check for common SEO issues and offer you a list of solutions to get your website dialed in, giving you the best chance of ranking. You even get a niche finder to help you brainstorm ideas if you aren’t sure where to start. These are just a few of the many other tools and features you have at your fingertips.

SE Ranking offers its own set of tools for deeper and more detailed SEO analysis and execution, including an on-page checker that delivers detailed reports on where you can improve for specific queries.

The toolkit also consists of its own backlink checker and monitor so you can track your links over time and disavow harmful links. There are many other features built into SE Ranking too.

So, take some time to consider what’s important to you in your SEO tools and determine with software better aligns with your needs. Remember that just because a feature sounds great doesn’t mean you’ll actually benefit from it - be honest about what you don’t need as well.

Pricing and Value

Most people assume that because SE Ranking is more expensive surely it has better functionality and more diverse capabilities - but this isn’t necessarily the case.

Its starter plan is $44/month and includes the ability to track up to 750 keywords daily, manage 10 projects, and perform comprehensive SEO tasks including rank tracking, site audits, competitive and keyword research, and backlink checking.

Add-ons for content marketing, local marketing, additional manager seats, and an agency pack can increase the cost significantly. This pales in comparison to KeySearch, where what you see is what you get.

The KeySearch Pro plan is more affordable at $48/month and offers more volume, too. You can conduct five times as many keyword searches daily (500), all while tracking a modest 200 keywords.

Again, it just comes down to what you need. If you envision yourself doing more ongoing keyword research, stick with KeySearch. If you need to track thousands of keywords across multiple brands, you’ll find better value in SE Ranking.

Brand Support

Last but certainly not least, let’s assess the support you have at your disposal with KeySearch vs SE Ranking. Both brands do an exceptional job here compared to the rest of the field, so you can’t really go wrong either way.

You have access to live chat and a suite of helpful resources on both platforms, including tutorials to maximize the use of the tools along with one-on-one assistance for agencies specifically on SE Ranking.

Closing Out Our Comparison of SERanking vs KeySearch

As we wrap up this detailed look at KeySearch vs SE Ranking, you can see where each positions itself as a leader in the SEO tools industry.

SE Ranking provides a depth of features tailored for large agencies and advanced SEO professionals who require extensive analytics and detailed reporting. However, the truth is that this software will align more with large-scale agencies.

On the other hand, KeySearch is the #1 choice among small and medium-sized businesses, bloggers, and individual marketers who need an affordable, straightforward tool without compromising on functionality. You gain access to essential SEO tools such as keyword research, competitive analysis, backlink checking, and content optimization, all within a user-friendly interface at an unbeatable price. What more could you ask for?

We encourage you to take a chance on KeySearch for a month through a free trial and see firsthand what it can do to support your SEO strategy, whether you’re just getting started or looking to begin optimizing your campaign. Work smarter, not harder, with KeySearch!