SE Ranking Review – The Best Budget SEO Tool?

I’ve been using SE Ranking for all my SEO purposes for more than a year.

I know that many people are interested in it, and I decided to share an in-depth SE Ranking review, compare it to some alternatives, and show you whether SE Ranking is the right choice for you or whether you should pick some other SEO platform.

Quick Overview of SE Ranking

SE Ranking Features

Here, you can see all of the SE Ranking features. I’ve pasted an image for most of the features so you can get a better idea of how it works.

Projects

Projects are where all your projects will be stored. Over here, you can track ranking changes, add new projects, remove existing ones, check your competitors, make a marketing plan, do a website audit, check backlinks, etc.

This is where you’ll get the most detailed information about your websites (or your competitors’ if you add them to projects).

When you add some websites to projects, you’ll get the full website scanned, and all the info about the website will be accessible to you, which is much easier than doing each check one by one per website.

Research

Here are all kinds of research you can do with SE Ranking.

1. Competitive Research

Competitive research is where you’ll be able to check your competitors for the keywords they’re ranking, traffic numbers for pages on their website, domain trust, backlinks, referring domains, and actually everything you need to thoroughly check on competitors so you can find ways on how to outrank them.

What I especially like is that you can choose the country you want to check competitors on. While I usually pick the “Worldwide” option, if you want to check something specific, you can pick any of the countries from the list.

You can also check their PPC campaigns, which is extremely useful if you have an e-commerce website or something similar.

2. Keyword Research

Inside the keyword research tab, you can investigate one or multiple keywords to get difficulty scores, keyword volumes, CPC price, global volume, related keywords, questions related to that keyword, similar keywords, and more.

Here you can also choose every single country you want your results for. And for each country, you’ll get different results, especially the SERPS, which is probably the most important thing when it comes to keyword research.

For instance, here are the SERPS in the USA for the keyword “how to tie a tie.”

All the data you get is pretty detailed, and it’s easy to check all the parameters, especially because of useful filters you can use. Export is also pretty simple, which is great if you want to export SERPS or keywords to use in Excel or Google Docs.

While related keyword recommendations aren’t as good as on Ahrefs or Semrush, I still find it very useful to get more keyword ideas for my new posts, especially when a “writer’s block” happens to me.

3. Keyword Manager

A keyword manager is like your organization for keywords that you research. While researching, I just pick keywords and organize them into lists for each specific website. You can have as many lists as you’d like, so it’s easy to navigate through them later on, even if you have multiple websites.

4. Keyword Grouper

If you’re not very familiar with clustering or creating topical maps, the Keyword Grouper tool inside SE Ranking might help you with that.

You just need to enter some queries, and it will automatically research Google or other search engines, find similar and related queries, and group those keywords so you can write them on your website.

However, do note that this tool is paid additionally and does not come with typical pricing plans. In my opinion, that’s understandable because it costs a lot of resources. One query will cost you $0.004, which I think is completely fine. For a few bucks, you can get some great keyword ideas that are already grouped.

5. Search Engine Autocomplete

Search engine autocomplete is great if you don’t want to manually do the Google Alphabet Soup keyword research method. It’s a quick and easy way to get some fantastic keyword ideas that people often ask on Google.

The great thing is that you can again pick a specific country, and you can even pick from different search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

While there are some free searches, this is also a paid tool for anything more than 5 search queries. The price per search query is $0.001 which I’ve found extremely affordable.

6. Search Volume Checker

Search volume checker is more for people doing advertising, and you probably won’t need it for SEO. But it’s worth knowing that there’s an option to do it.

This is for checking specific keywords through Google Keyword Planner, so you can get better estimates of search traffic per query. The great thing is that you can pick a desired country and even a region inside that country, which is great for local marketing.

7. Index Status Checker

While checking if some of your posts and pages are indexed is very simple, if you want to check a bunch of pages, it gets complicated and time-consuming. That’s where this Index Status Checker comes in.

It’s the simplest way to check whether a URL is indexed or not. You can simply copy and paste the website sitemap and quickly check for all URLs. It’s also a paid tool, so keep that in mind when using it.

Backlinks

Here you can see all the SE Ranking features related to backlinks.

1. Backlinks Checker

The Backlink checker is something I probably use the most out of all SE Ranking features. Over here, I track my websites, but also my competitors, so I know whenever they acquire some new great backlink.

When you open the report, you get a detailed analysis with plenty of filters that you can check (SE ranking even introduced a toxicity score of backlinks, which is a fantastic feature).

Over here, I also track my HARO pitches; since most journalists don’t notify you when the pitch is accepted, they just hit publish, and over here, I see new backlinks from HARO pitches as well.

2. Backlink Gap Analyzer

If you’re serious about link building for your websites, Backling Gap Analyzer is a tool you should use. It scans your and your competitor’s websites to check competitor backlinks that you don’t have from the same referring domains.

It’s a fantastic tool that I’ve been using for months, and it’s much easier to find link-building opportunities this way. It’s much quicker than doing everything manually.

While not all of the recommendations are useful, I still find this tool awesome and pretty helpful.

Audit

Here are all the website audit features you can find on SE Ranking.

1. Website Audit

Even though Website Audit isn’t a new feature on SE Ranking, in the past, you had to add a website to Projects if you wanted to do an audit. A few months ago, they added the feature of doing website audits exclusively.

I use website audits to get technical SEO details about websites, and it helps me find mistakes my clients have made so we can quickly fix those mistakes and improve our on-page and off-page SEO.

2. On-Page SEO Checker

Even though I don’t use this option too much, I was using it more in the past. With the On-Page SEO Checker feature, you can check how your pages score depending on some specific keyword.

It works in a similar way to the Surfer SEO by checking the top-ranking sites for the phrases, images, alt tags, etc. And based on that, give your page an SEO score.

I’m on the lowest (cheapest) subscription plan, and I have 10 scans per month for free, which is more than enough for me, and I’m sure it’s more than enough for most people. That’s enough if you write two articles per week, which is great.

3. SERP Analyzer

SERP Analyzer is a quick tool to check the SERPS for some keywords, and it gives you a score on how hard it is to rank for specific keywords.

But more importantly, it also shows you the content score of each result, as well as how many referring domains each page has. That way, you know how many links you should build to your page in order to have a higher chance of ranking for that query.

Content Marketing

When it comes to content marketing inside SE Ranking platform, there are two main features you can use.

1. Content Editor

If you’re into optimizing content based on NLP (tools like Surfer SEO, Neuron Writer, and similar), a content editor might be a perfect choice for you.

There are plenty of built-in tools to help you write optimized content very quickly, especially with the recent AI-writer assistance addons.

While it’s an extra option (you need to pay it separately), I’ve found it to be fantastic and much cheaper when compared to Surfer SEO. I even made a YouTube video about it, so make sure to check SE Ranking Content Editor Video.

The price for 15 articles and 25,000 AI words per month is roughly $35, which is pretty affordable, in my humble opinion.

2. Content Idea Finder

Content idea finder is a part of a content marketing platform, and it generates you unique content ideas based on keywords you provide to it.

It’s a great way to get additional blog post ideas about some topic. That way, you’ll reach that “topical authority” much quicker.

Local Marketing

I haven’t used local marketing yet, but soon I plan on starting a local SEO agency, and then I’ll subscribe to these features as well. Let’s check all of them.

1. All Locations

While most niche site owners won’t need this feature, it’s a great thing if you’re trying to get some side SEO hustles to earn money quickly.

You’ve probably heard of many bloggers selling their SEO services to local businesses who need help with ranking higher on different search engines.

If you’re one of those guys (I’m still not, but I plan on becoming one), SE Ranking has fantastic local marketing features that will help you get local businesses on top of SERP.

2. Overview

In the overview tab, you can simply see the most important data and analytics about your local business.

3. Local Rankings

On the local rankings tab, you can check how your business ranks for specific keywords on your location.

That way, you can track positions and do specific SEO optimizations to earn top spots on SERPS and Google Maps.

4. Local Marketing Audit

In the Local Marketing Audit tab, you can do local business audits to check for any errors and things that you should improve to get better rankings.

5. Google Business Profile

Here, you can connect your business profile with SE Ranking, and it will give you traffic analytics of all different kinds of visits that your profile had from the web.

6. Business Listings

Business listings are used to check for any new listings your business has appeared on. It also scans these listings for any errors (for instance, if they haven’t added your mobile phone number, etc..).

7. Reviews

In the reviews tab, you can check online reviews of your local business. That’s a great way to track all reviews because sometimes it’s hard to find all of them (not all reviews are on Google exclusively).

Report Builder

While I was still working with some clients, I’d use this Report Builder feature a lot at the end of each month.

You can use plenty of free templates (depending on the info you need about a website) and generate fantastic reports that you can share with your clients.

What I especially like about this is that you can generate a report and then share a link to that report with your client, and they can check it as a viewer. I’ve just done that a few days ago, and it’s much quicker than exporting something to PDF, etc.

This way, they can manually check each section, which is much more convenient.

Agency Pack

Here are two main features you get inside an agency pack on SE Ranking.

1. White Label

If you have an SEO agency or are doing some freelance work, you’ll build your brand much quicker by sharing personalized reports with your clients.

Once you have an agency pack, you can create reports with your own logo (instead of the SE Ranking one) and change the color scheme, etc.

I still haven’t used this feature because I’m not working with a lot of SEO clients (they’re mostly friends and family, so I don’t need any branding for now).

2. Users

When you have an agency, you’ll probably have more people (a team) working with you. This is where you can add any additional users so they can use SE Ranking as well.

The price per additional user is $20 a month, which isn’t very expensive. For instance, Ahrefs charges $50 per additional user, which is utterly high.

SE Ranking Pricing Plans

SE Ranking has four main pricing plans:

• Essential – from $55 a month
• Pro – from $99 a month
• Business – from $199 a month
• Custom pricing plan

I think that for most bloggers, especially new bloggers, Essential Plan is more than enough. But you won’t need anything more than the Pro plan ever, I’m sure of that.

Also, a great thing is that you can reduce the price even more. I’m paying an essential plan, ca. $30 a month because I reduced the number of keywords to track from 750 to 250. So, you can actually get a subscription for cheaper than what is promoted on their website.

If you’re looking for detailed info, check the official SE Ranking Plans since they’re updating them all the time.

My Experience With SE Ranking

Like I already told you at the beginning, I’ve been using SE Ranking for more than a year, and through that time, I think that I’ve had more than enough experience to see both the good and bad aspects of this platform.

I’ll try to be short and go straight to the point.

Reasons Why You Should Use SE Ranking

To make sure SE Ranking will suit your needs, make sure that you belong to some of the categories below:

• You’re a beginner. I know how hard it is to start from scratch, and it’s easy to get confused with tons of tools out there. As a beginner, you need something simple that has enough features for all your needs. SE Ranking is just that, and it’s more than enough to grow a website from scratch.
• You’re on a tight budget. If you’re on a tight budget, I really think that there isn’t any better alternative. SE Ranking is a budget-friendly, all-in-one SEO tool.
• You want a tool that’s simple to use. Some SEO tools (especially Semrush) can be hard to learn and navigate. SE ranking is pretty simple to learn, and I’m sure you’ll get used to it within a day or two.
• You want an all-in-one SEO tool. If you’re like me, you don’t like using ten different tools. I like simplicity, and the good thing about SE ranking is that it has all the features one would need for growing niche websites (or actually any type of website). I use SE Ranking for keyword research, backlink analytics, optimizing content, keyword tracking, etc.
• You want to try something new. If you want to try out some other SEO tool than the one you’re currently using, SE Ranking might be the right pick because of the 14-day FREE trial that they offer.

Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use SE Ranking

There’s no one-size-fits-all platform. The same situation is with SE Ranking.

SE Ranking might not be your best choice if:

• You’re mainly focused on link building. While SE Ranking has plenty of backlink analysis features, it’s not even close to Semrush or Ahrefs. The reason is that there are less filters and less backlink features. For most people, features inside SE Ranking are enough, but if you heavily do link building, I don’t think that SE Ranking is a top-notch platform.
• You need quick and up-to-date backlink analysis. SE Ranking takes some time to process all the new backlinks your website is acquiring. The reason is that they still have a smaller database than Semruh or Ahref. That’s one of the reasons why I use free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, where I get new backlinks reported much quicker. From my experience, SE Ranking backlink reports are ca. 2 weeks behind Ahrefs. It’s nothing special, but it’s worth noting.
• You don’t care about the budget. Look, if you don’t care about the budget and spending $200 on better tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs isn’t a deal for you, why would you make any compromises? While SE Ranking is a great tool, it still can’t compete with Semruh and Ahrefs in some features.

SE Ranking vs. Semrush vs. Ahrefs

To make this SE Ranking review even more detailed, I decided to make a quick table and compare some of the features between SE Ranking, Semrush, and Ahrefs. I’ll give my subjective scores for each feature. I’ve tried all three platforms, and I think that I’ve had more than enough insights for a realistic comparison.

Feature	SE Ranking	Semrush	Ahrefs
Value for money	5/5	4/5	3/5
Keyword research	4/5	5/5	5/5
Backlink reports	3/5	5/5	5/5
Website audits	4/5	4/5	4/5
Ease of use	5/5	4/5	5/5
Creating reports	4/5	5/5	4/5
Keyword tracking	4/5	5/5	5/5
FINAL SCORE	29/35	32/35	31/35

As you can see, SE Ranking has a total of 29/35, while Semrush has 32/35, and Ahrefs 31/35. That shows us that SE Ranking still can’t compete with these tools, but it’s a fantastic budget-friendly alternative to Semrush and Ahrefs.

FAQs on SE Ranking

SE Ranking Review: Final Thoughts

Finding the right SEO tool might be a hard task for most people, especially for beginners in the SEO world.

And because of SE Rankings’ competitive pricing and their 14-day free trial, I really think it’s a tool that you should check out and try out.

For the past year, I’ve been more than happy with it, and I plan to continue using it for a long time. One of the key reasons for that is that they’re constantly updating the platform with new features, all while still having a lower price than some of their top competitors.

If you have any questions regarding SE Ranking, let me know in the comment section below! 🙂