Going Beyond SEO Tools
Tags: datascience, startup
Published: 2020-09-24 10:39:16

_Republished from Medium.com_

Nowadays, every SEO expert worth one’s salt utilizes a wide range of tools. [Ahrefs](https://ahrefs.com/), [SEMrush](https://www.semrush.com/), [Mangools](https://mangools.com/) and many others have become the hallmarks of many professionals, even those outside of the SEO realm.

Yet, if everyone gets data from the same sources, no one can gain a competitive advantage over anyone else. While the quality of analysis might differ, ultimately the insights can only be as good as the data itself.

Gathering data no one else has can allow experts to develop strategies that win over those used by competitors. Keeping an eye out for newcomers to the SEO tool field is a great way to obtain previously unavailable data and reduce marketing budgets. To see how the data provided by two SEO tools might differ, we chose to compare Ahrefs and Mangools.

##The Regulars: Ahrefs

Almost everyone knows Ahrefs by now. Marketing itself as the “All-in-one SEO toolset”, Ahrefs has a lot to offer for both the budding newcomer and the battle-hardened veteran. With the amount of SERP data analysis features on offer, there’s a well-earned reason why it is still so widely utilized.

Yet, as with nearly every all-in-one product, there’s either a lack of customization or swiftly rising costs of utilization. Ahrefs slightly lacks the former and suffers heavily from the latter. For example, the two most common pain points are:
Important data and features are gated behind increasingly expensive plans

Keyword tracking costs rapidly outscale most budgets
It isn’t difficult to see why smaller digital marketing agencies might have budgetary troubles keeping up with the most advanced features. For example, each 1000 keywords adds an additional $100 to the monthly operating costs. E-commerce businesses who often track large amounts of keywords might begin to overspend in order to retrieve the data they so desperately need.


![Source: Ahrefs](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*Ry6FTCdLw4TMLlxJ)


Additionally, keyword data delivery timings depend on the plan in use. These timings can range from updates every 7 days to every 3 days. Accounting for the time taken to analyze the provided data, the insights gained from research might be more than a week out of date. Few industries (e.g. books and literature) are so SEO stable that consistently drawing conclusions from data that is over 7 days old would have no negative outcomes.

![Source: Ahrefs](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*lSFAWIYgZP_U8uma)

Acquisition schedules get even more important in industries where information is time-sensitive. Anything related to events could be out of date the same day. Even the most expensive 3 day keyword acquisition schedule wouldn’t be an option.

##The Outliers: Mangools

Mangools is a bit of an SEO outlier. They provide most of the same features Ahrefs do but in a slightly different manner: a keyword finder, a SERP analysis tool, a backlink checker and a few other useful additions for an SEO expert.

Mangools do have a few stark differences from Ahrefs (outside of being the cheaper alternative). They both have hard capped tracked keyword limits. However, Mangools do not limit fresh SERP data which is a feature Ahrefs have gated behind plans in their Keyword Explorer feature.

Yet, Mangools do not clearly state how “fresh” is their keyword data. As we shall see later on, the data is certainly not acquired in real time. While we could say the same about Ahrefs, they at least state their keyword update schedules. Additionally, data on select keywords may be updated (within plan limits) manually.

Mangools only provide data on keyword difficulty and the last time a SERP has been fetched. Their update schedules seem to depend on several undisclosed factors which might include the popularity of a keyword, user actions, etc.

Additionally, Mangools provide a SERP analysis tool that displays a lot more details about each website that ranks for a selected keyword. Most of the data provided is from third party APIs such as Majestic or Moz which further reduces the amount of unique data.

It seems that most SEO tools are closely related to each other and mostly provide similar data with slightly differentiated features. Utilizing several tools can provide a wider grasp on SERP data. Yet, there appears to be an impenetrable wall whenever specialized information is required.

##The Newcomers?

Most SEO tools acquire data in a similar fashion — they scrape SERP pages at set intervals and aggregate the information into an easy to digest format. Gaining access to the backend for a regular user is nearly impossible. Yet, some newcomers to the SEO tool field have started providing highly specialized (e.g. location and time-sensitive) data.

Highly specialized data might seem like an overkill in some projects. Yet, we should always remember that our insights can only be as good as our data. We can’t draw conclusions from non-existent data. Additionally, if everyone draws conclusions from the same sets, then with enough expertise all insights will be either closely related or identical. Therefore, gaining a lead over strong enough competitors becomes nearly impossible.

By using real-time scraping tools, we can begin to acquire data that is unavailable to the competition. Our unique data can be used to validate data sets or glean previously unseen insights from information acquired from tools like Ahrefs or Mangools.
Providing additional data to sets acquired from Ahrefs, Mangools or other SEO tools allows us to replace information that’s out of date or fill in gaps that might otherwise lead to conclusions founded upon shaky reasoning.

[SERPMaster](https://serpmaster.com/) is one such tool that can provide real-time, highly specialized SERP data. We can send any query and specify our parameters (such as geo-location or device settings) in order to receive SERPs according to our wishes.

![Source: Google](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*yz2wFpQopaiCwqv0)

```javascript
"organic": [
{
"pos": 1,
"url": "https://www.adidas.com/us",
"desc": "Welcome to adidas Shop for adidas shoes, clothing and view new collections for adidas Originals, running, football, training and much more.",
"title": "adidas Official Website | adidas US",
"sitelinks": {
"expanded": [
{
"url": "https://www.adidas.com/us/women",
"desc": "Shoes - Shop Women - Tops - Women's Tights & Leggings - ...",
"title": "Women"
},
{
"url": "https://www.adidas.com/us/men-shoes",
"desc": "Shop our collection of men's sneakers, shoes & slides at ...",
"title": "Men's Shoes"
},
{
"url": "https://www.adidas.com/us/men",
"desc": "Men's Shoes - Men's Shop - Men's Clothing - Running Shoes - Tops",
"title": "Men"
},
{
"url": "https://www.adidas.com/us/women-shoes",
"desc": "Browse adidas women's shoes for running, working out, casual ...",
"title": "Women's Shoes & Sneakers"
}
]
},
"url_shown": "www.adidas.com› ...",
"pos_overall": 1
}
...
```
###Gaining an edge

Let’s acquire some data from SERPMaster and compare it to Ahrefs and Mangools to see how we might gain more than ever before by querying for the keyword “serps”:

>Ahrefs

![Source: Ahrefs](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*_DxCYvNT2faL12qx)

>Mangools

![Source: Mangools](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*MsdhsqVzeXBHdcN3)

Our SERPs seem to be quite different even if we’re taking data from the same location (United States). Ahrefs do not list Mailchimp in the first 10 (they consider “People also ask” as a separate result) results while Mangools show it at the 8th spot. There are quite a few other differences.
Seems like the data is a little outdated in either Ahrefs or Mangools. Time to use our SERPMaster API to clarify. We can be certain that the data will be completely new as acquisition happens in real time:

>SERPMaster

```javascript
{
"results": [
{
"content": {
"url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=serps&safe=off&uule=w+CAIQICINdW5pdGVkIHN0YXRlcw&gl=us&hl=en",
"page": 1,
"results": {
"paid": [],
"organic": [
{
"pos": 1,
"url": "https://www.wordstream.com/serp",
"desc": "Search Engine Results Pages: What They Are and How They Work. Search engine results pages are web pages served to users when they search for something ...",
"title": "What Does SERP Mean? Search Marketing Jargon Explained",
"url_shown": "www.wordstream.com› serp",
"pos_overall": 1
},
{
"pos": 2,
"url": "https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/serps",
"desc": "Search Engine Results Pages (also known as “SERPs” or “SERP”) are Google's response to a user's search query. SERPs tend to include organic search ...",
"title": "What Are SERPs and Why Are They Important for SEO ...",
"url_shown": "backlinko.com› hub › seo › serps",
"pos_overall": 2
},
{
"pos": 3,
"url": "https://ahrefs.com/blog/serps/",
"desc": "Jul 2, 2020 - Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are the pages that Google and other search engines show in response to a user's search query. They're made up of organic and paid search results.",
"title": "What are SERPs? Search Engine Results Pages Explained",
"url_shown": "ahrefs.com› blog › serps",
"pos_overall": 3
},
{
"pos": 4,
"url": "https://moz.com/learn/seo/serp-features",
"desc": "A SERP feature is any result on a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is not a traditional organic result. SERP Features include Rich Snippets ...",
"title": "Google SERP Features [2020 SEO] - Moz",
"url_shown": "moz.com› SEO Learning Center",
"pos_overall": 4
},
{
"pos": 5,
"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_results_page",
"desc": "Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) are the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user. The main component of the SERP is the ...",
"title": "Search engine results page - Wikipedia",
"url_shown": "en.wikipedia.org› wiki › Search_engine_results_page",
"pos_overall": 5
},
{
"pos": 6,
"url": "https://www.brightedge.com/blog/serp-serps-must-knows",
"desc": "SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page and it refers to the results that show up on your screen after you type in a query to Google or another search ...",
"title": "Breaking Down SERPs: Keys to SEO Success - BrightEdge",
"url_shown": "www.brightedge.com› blog › serp-serps-must-knows",
"pos_overall": 6
},
{
"pos": 7,
"url": "https://www.webfx.com/blog/seo/what-is-serp/",
"desc": "Jun 29, 2020 - A search engine results page (SERP) is a page generated by a search engine in response to a user search or query. SERPs display a list of ...",
"title": "What Is SERP? Search Engine Results Pages Defined - WebFX",
"url_shown": "www.webfx.com› Blog › Search",
"pos_overall": 7
},
{
"pos": 8,
"url": "https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/serp/",
"desc": "Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The page that a search engine returns after a user submits a search query. In addition to organic search results, search ...",
"title": "SERP | Everything You Need to Know About Search Engine ...",
"url_shown": "mailchimp.com› marketing-glossary › serp",
"pos_overall": 8
},
{
"pos": 9,
"url": "https://www.searchenginejournal.com/serp-search-engine-results-page-features-guide/377094/",
"desc": "Aug 12, 2020 - SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page, a term coined by Brett Tabke on a message board in 2000. In the simplest terms, it's the page that ...",
"title": "What Is a SERP: A Visual Guide to Google Search Results ...",
"url_shown": "www.searchenginejournal.com› SEO",
"pos_overall": 9
},
{
"pos": 10,
"url": "https://en.ryte.com/wiki/SERP",
"desc": "SERP is the abbreviation for search engine result pages. In the SERPs, the search results of a search query are listed, organized by descending relevance.",
"title": "What is the SERP and why is it important to SEO? - Ryte Wiki",
"url_shown": "en.ryte.com› wiki › SERP",
"pos_overall": 10
}
```

Our data is completely fresh if a little harder to parse than in other tools. For readability purposes I have expunged some unrelated data such as related search queries and other SERP features. Note that Ahrefs also places the Ryte Wiki slightly higher than it actually is at the given moment.

There’s an additional hidden benefit that tracking in real-time might bring to larger projects — protection against unintended changes. Someone noindexed a page that was supposed to be visible to Google? By the time you find out through Ahrefs or Mangools, all that SEO juice has already been consumed by someone else.

Tracking position changes, of course, is less useful for industries that have low SERP volatility. Let’s visit our friends at SEMrush to see the current status of various categories:

![Source: SEMrush](https://miro.medium.com/max/278/0*JKW8bgoyEWvnW0hR)

There are clearly some industries that are highly dependent on time and location sensitive data. Gaining insight into news through the use of 3 day (God forbid, were it 7 day) old data doesn’t seem like an option.

###Retrieving location-sensitive data

Both Ahrefs and Mangools provide data from many different locations. Their tools are a little limited as they generally include only larger regions or cities from countries. In many cases, those would be enough (if not for the delay in data acquisition).

Of course, for those interested in local SEO such as building a profile for restaurants, limited geo-location options become an impenetrable barrier. Tracking keywords according to approximations can yet again lead to imprecise datasets which can lead to misinterpretations or simply unfounded conclusions.

Let’s utilize our API again to retrieve data by providing a small city (i.e. Farrell, Pennsylvania) with the query “Restaurants near me”:

```javascript
{
"results": [
{
"content": {
"url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=restaurants+near+me&safe=off&hl=en",
"page": 1,
"results": {
"paid": [],
"organic": [
{
"pos": 1,
"url": "https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=restaurants&find_loc=Farrell%2C+PA",
"desc": "Best Restaurants in Farrell, PA - T & T Bar And Grille, Italian Home, Basilone's, Middlesex ... There really is no better food around and it is worth the trip out to grab some steak ... Huge pita wraps and fresh salads and great prices. from me.",
"title": "THE BEST 10 Restaurants in Farrell, PA - Last Updated ... - Yelp",
"url_shown": "www.yelp.com› search › cflt=restaurants",
"pos_overall": 4
},
{
"pos": 2,
"url": "https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g52636-Farrell_Pennsylvania.html",
"desc": "Restaurants in Farrell. Filter and search through restaurants with gift card offerings. See restaurants with gift cards. View map. Also show. Hotels. Things to Do.",
"title": "THE BEST Restaurants in Farrell - Updated August 2020 ...",
"url_shown": "www.tripadvisor.com› ... › Pennsylvania (PA) › Farrell",
"pos_overall": 5
},
{
"pos": 3,
"url": "https://www.opentable.com/nearby/restaurants-near-me-sharon",
"desc": "Book now at 58 restaurants near you in Sharon, PA on OpenTable. Explore reviews, menus & photos and find the perfect spot for any occasion.",
"title": "58 Restaurants Near Me in Sharon, PA | OpenTable",
"url_shown": "www.opentable.com› Pittsburgh / Western PA",
"pos_overall": 6
},
{
"pos": 4,
"url": "https://www.grubhub.com/delivery/restaurants-near-me",
"desc": "Find national chains, local favorites, or new neighborhood restaurants, on Grubhub. Get delivery from restaurants near you, on time, featuring deals and promos.",
"title": "Restaurants Near Me | Find Best Restaurants Near You ...",
"url_shown": "www.grubhub.com› delivery › restaurants-near-me",
"pos_overall": 7
},
{
"pos": 5,
"url": "https://www.doordash.com/restaurants-near-me/",
"desc": "Restaurants Near Me · Chick-fil-A® Las Vegas Chicken $ 4.8 · Carne Asada Fries California Bean with Cheddar Cheese Carne Asada Robertos Taco Shop.",
"title": "Restaurants Near Me - Order Food Delivery - DoorDash",
"url_shown": "www.doordash.com› restaurants-near-me",
"pos_overall": 8
},
{
"pos": 6,
"url": "https://www.ubereats.com/near-me",
"desc": "Craving food? Discover restaurants near you and get food delivered to your door.",
"title": "Restaurants Near Me | Uber Eats",
"url_shown": "www.ubereats.com› near-me",
"pos_overall": 9
},
{
"pos": 7,
"url": "https://www.famousdaves.com/",
"desc": "Check out the list of all Famous Dave's Barbecue restaurants near you in USA. Enjoy our latest cuisines with our exclusive offers and coupons.",
"title": "Best BBQ Restaurant in USA, Barbecue Good Restaurants ...",
"url_shown": "www.famousdaves.com",
"pos_overall": 10
},
{
"pos": 8,
"url": "https://www.outback.com/",
"desc": "When you join Dine Rewards we'll use this phone number to easily identify your account in our restaurants. Sign Up. In signing up I acknowledge that I am 18 ...",
"title": "Outback Steakhouse",
"url_shown": "www.outback.com",
"pos_overall": 11
},
{
"pos": 9,
"url": "https://www.dominos.com/en/pages/order/",
"desc": "Find pizza places near me for carryout or delivery with Domino's. Over 5000 nearby pizza restaurants to choose from.",
"title": "Pizza Restaurants Near Me - Find a Nearby Domino's",
"url_shown": "www.dominos.com› pages › order",
"pos_overall": 12
},
{
"pos": 10,
"url": "https://www.zomato.com/restaurants-near-me",
"desc": "Restaurant near me. Showing the top restaurants nearby based on your detected location. To find the best restaurants nearby based on your actual location, ...",
"title": "Restaurants near me | Zomato",
"url_shown": "www.zomato.com› restaurants-near-me",
"pos_overall": 13
}
```

Of course, it’s highly unlikely that we will be doing SEO for business in a city with a population of less than 1000.
 
Nonetheless, it goes to show that we can now do SEO with real-time data for businesses located in absolutely any country, state or city in the world. For those more daring, SERPMaster also accepts any set of coordinates if the data needs to be narrowed down to the smallest detail. No SERP data at the atom level yet though!

###Staying within budget

As previously mentioned, the main gripe with Ahrefs is often the cost. As keyword tracking begins to scale and more projects are added, the price of running an account can quickly get out of hand. Ahrefs gate almost every feature behind increasing costs.

Most projects need several features at once which means there generally isn’t a good way out of paying more. With SERPMaster certain costs can be significantly reduced. Instead of being priced by feature, the API grants a set amount of delivered result pages. Not only can budgets be leaned out to only contain the necessities but the data acquisition process can be significantly customized.

Each keyword can be tracked separately within any timeframe. Instead of waiting for SEO tools to update their rankings (or paying for them to do it), an automated setup can be used to track SERPs and keywords at any frequency.

##Conclusion

SEO has always been at least a little about finding ways to one-up the competition. Nowadays, with everyone utilizing a wide variety of data acquisition tools, the path forward seems to be to dig under them and see how even more specialized data can be acquired. Instead of waiting to receive updates, we can utilize real-time scrapers to get the SERP data we want when we want it. All that has to be done is aggregation and collection.

Instead of running up costs through the tried and true tools like Ahrefs, keeping an eye on newcomers to the field might be the more sane option for some.