Authority Labs Review: Features, Pricing, & Alternatives
I spent a lot of time trying to keep track of the search engine ranking positions of my target keywords. It was a major hassle since Google defaults to showing personalized results based on my activity, and pulling up an Incognito window to try to get accurate data ate up a lot of time.
I had no way of scaling SEO strategies for myself or my clients without getting a clearer picture of the rankings. I needed a better method for seeing the changes without a lot of manual workarounds.
I didn’t know about Authority Labs at the start of my SEO specialist career, but I would have used it to fix this dilemma instantly. In this post I will tell you everything you need to know about Authority Labs before you consider it for yourself, including:
- Things to Consider About SEO Rank Trackers
- What Is Authority Labs?
- Authority Labs Features & Benefits
- Authority Labs Pricing
- Authority Labs User Reviews
- Authority Labs Alternatives
Things to Consider Before Buying SEO Rank Tracking Software
Many factors go into a successful SEO strategy, with rank tracking being among them. Some SEO software offers an all-in-one experience, while others are purpose-built for a particular aspect of optimization.
SEO specialists may have a preferred all-in-one platform that they use for every component of their strategy. This solution includes rank tracking as one feature among many. The downside of an all-in-one solution is that it may not be the best at rank tracking, since it’s not a primary focus. Purpose-built SEO rank tracking tools have a limited feature set in comparison, but everything revolves around this functionality.
If you like using best-in-class software and don’t mind switching between applications when working on your SEO efforts, this type of solution may fit well with your approach. People who would prefer to work with a single unified platform or who only have occasional rank tracking needs may not get the full value from it.
Before buying software in this category, keep in mind:
- The scale of your SEO strategy
- The number of tracked keywords and domains
- Whether you need API access
- Your SEO software budget
- If you want a cloud-based or desktop application
- Whether you need to generate reports and dashboards for clients
Presenting Authority Labs
Authority Labs focuses almost entirely on tracking the search engine position of keywords. It’s a cloud-based solution that doesn’t require downloads or contract. This application promises to deliver accurate and reliable SEO tracking. The development team continually adds feature updates to Authority Labs and rolls them out automatically.
Authority Labs is intended for SEO specialists, website owners, and business owners who want automated daily tracking of their search engine rankings. It does not include other common SEO features, so users searching for an all-in-one experience would be better served elsewhere.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface
- Advanced rank tracking tools
- Supports desktop, mobile, local, and device tracking
- Automatically generates daily reports
- Tracks a wide range of search engine results data
Cons:
- The price adds up quickly for users with large keyword sets and many campaigns
- API access is only available at the Enterprise plan level
- The features entirely revolve around rank tracking and no other SEO metrics
Authority Labs Features and Benefits
Authority Labs has a comprehensive set of features designed to make it easier and more efficient to track the search engine position of keywords.
Cloud-based Software
I don’t have to download or install any software to get started with Authority Labs, as they host everything in the cloud. I can get started right away and as long as my device has Internet access, I can check-in on my rankings. Authority Labs handles the maintenance, updates, bug fixes, and troubleshooting for their software. All I need to do is log in and get to work.
Daily Updates
Daily data allows me to dynamically make changes to the current SEO strategy. Unexpected trends or business pivots by a competitor may require a fast response to keep up. This feature also creates a complete picture of my SEO ranking performance over time, whether I want to look at the last 30 days, 90 days, or the entire length of my campaign.
Local Tracking
Authority Labs’ local tracking capabilities can break down to exact zip codes and GPS coordinates. This hyper-local data is invaluable when I’m working with local businesses that only need to rank in a certain city or neighborhood. I can allocate marketing and optimization resources where they’ll have the most impact, rather than competing against someone who is on the other side of the state.
Mobile Tracking
The way people use desktop and mobile search engines can be quite different, as mobile searchers may be looking up information on local businesses near them, performing price comparisons, and taking other actions with purchase intent. Authority Labs can highlight the mobile data so I can create a mobile-first SEO strategy to improve my ranking in this area.
Global Tracking
The United States isn’t the only online market out there, but many SEO rank trackers fail to support international traffic sources. Authority Labs covers global tracking so I can expand my efforts to international clients.
Competition Tracking
I don’t need to be the best at search engine optimization; I just need to be better than the competition. I can load my domains and competitor domains into this SEO software to get a daily comparison on how my strategy performs.
Extensive Information Tracked
Authority Labs tracks many data points from the search engine results. In addition to the typical organic results, this SEO software also looks at:
- Local pack
- Answer snippets
- People also ask
- Related searches
- Paid search engine advertisements
- Shopping packs
- Knowledge graphs
- Image and video packs
- News pack
- Jobs pack
If I run into a keyword that is highly competitive for the top slot, I focus the strategy on getting into one of the packs or snippets. I can see whether I succeed at that through this Authority Labs feature.
Ecommerce Tracking
I don’t focus on ecommerce search optimization, but if you do, you can use this software to track the rankings on 20 ecommerce sites. Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and Target.com are among the sites supported.
Device Tracking
Device tracking is useful for knowing whether I need to optimize landing pages for particular devices. If my target audience overwhelmingly uses a particular tablet or smartphone, I can go out of my way to make that experience perfect for them.
Custom Data Collections
Authority Labs pulls in a lot of data, but I don’t need extraneous information getting in the way. Custom Data Collections let me put together a custom list of SERP features that I want to track. I save a lot of time by focusing on the metrics that matter and hiding the rest.
Reporting
The reporting tool is easy to use and gives me a visual representation of the SEO rankings. I use these for myself to track campaign perform over time, and I send them to clients so they know that I’m earning my keep. The visualizations are clear and user-friendly, and I can schedule daily email reports.
“Not Provided” Keyword Reports
Keyword not provided is the bane of an SEO specialist’s existence. This traffic has to come from somewhere, but most rank tracking tools are unable to attribute it to a particular keyword. Authority Labs integrates with my Google Analytics account, as well as other data sources, to try to surface the keywords for that search. I gain valuable information about how searchers find the domains. It’s hard to find SEO solutions that work with Not Provided keywords, as it can be a challenging process to determine the original search.
Unlimited Users
My SEO campaigns have a lot of people involved in the process. The unlimited user accounts offered by Authority Labs means that I can bring in as many people as I want without worrying about my costs going up.
Importing and Exporting
I use many types of SEO applications, so being able to import data from other sources and export Authority Labs information streamlines a lot of business processes. This feature also lets me backup the ranking data or move it to my favorite data analysis software. While Authority Labs keeps my data safe and secure on their cloud-based servers, I prefer having backups in multiple locations in case a disaster happens.
Clickstream Data
One of the data sources that Authority Labs has access to is clickstream data. This set covers click patterns for keywords, paid keywords, and more information about organic search. Clickstream data is typically included in Enterprise-level solutions, and Authority Labs is making it accessible to smaller businesses, SEO firms and SEO specialists.
White Labeling Interface
I use the built-in white labeling feature, available on Pro plans and higher, to create a professional dashboard and ranking report for my clients. They only see my branding throughout the dashboard, and it cuts down on the amount of basic inquiries I have to field from them.
API Access
The Enterprise tier of Authority Labs includes access to the API. If you want to integrate your own applications with Authority Labs data or functionality, they offer a fully featured and flexible API to make it possible.
Some ways that you can use the API include incorporating the SEO data into another analytics tool, pulling the rankings into a marketing dashboard, and leveraging many Authority Labs features in another application. Real-time results are also available for software that requires time-sensitive responses and data.
Authority Labs has a usage-based pricing plan in place for API usage. You pay per request that goes through to the system, and if you want the data in real-time, they charge an additional fee. You can track this through an admin dashboard that provides full visibility into the API activity. Both JSON and raw HTML formats are available.
It typically takes around two weeks to integrate Authority Labs API into another solution.
Big Data Integration
Authority Labs supports Big Data technology, such as Amazon S3 buckets, Google Data Studio, and AWS Elasticsearch. I like being able to have the rank tracking data easily integrate into the big data solutions, as they may have more ways to process and analyze the data. My clients may prefer to look at information through Business Intelligence solutions that they’re already using, rather than the customized ranking dashboard.
User Reviews
I scoured the Internet for Authority Labs user reviews, and I found most had positive things to say about this SEO solution, though some wish the tool had more features or a lower price. As with any tool, it depends on your needs.
“Authority Labs provide a great dashboard tool for company’s who are looking to monitor their online presence, keyword rankings, and track SEO performance.” – G2 User Review
“The dashboard was simple and intuitive, allowing you to easily see the data you want quickly. The keyword limits, as always, were limiting, especially if you were tracing a large enterprise site. We liked the data we get through Authority Labs and especially the data through the API, that was probably the most benefit to us.” –Capterra User Review
“We are solving the problem of reducing the time it takes to check out how our domain and relevant keywords are performing. This has allowed for more efficient reporting, and a clear view of where we are at.” –G2 user Review
“It is one of the best scalable tools that track all keywords for a number of domains across the mainstream search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.” – FinanceOnline.com
Authority Labs Pricing
Authority Labs has a 30-day free trial available, which I like because it gives me plenty of time to try out its capabilities. The company didn’t want people to feel pressured into making a purchase, so they don’t ask for a credit card during the trial. I only needed to add that information if I wanted to keep using Authority Labs after my trial ran out.
This SEO rank tracker offers four pricing tiers, which are primarily differentiated through the number of domains and keywords you can track. All plans include local and mobile tracking, daily updates, unlimited users, and Keyword Not Provided reports.
- Plus Plan: $49 per month, which includes tracking for 250 keywords and 50 domains.
- Pro Plan: $99 per month for 1,000 keywords and 100 domains. This tier and up include white labeling.
- Pro Plus Plan: $225 per month for 2,500 keywords and 300 domains.
- Enterprise Plan: $450 per month for 5,000+ keywords, unlimited domains, and API access.
I found that the cost went up significantly fast compared to other SEO solutions, due to the way it handles SEO campaigns and tracked keywords. The expenses were in line with typical SEO software costs at the lower tiers, but were expensive at the top tiers.
I was not locked into a contract and had the option to cancel at any time. I could also switch to a higher or lower tier plan with ease. Since each plan is tied to the number of keywords I wanted to track, I didn’t run into unexpected costs.
The only additional expenses outside of the tracked keywords and domains comes from API access in the Enterprise tier. I would pay on a per-request basis for the API, so the expenses associated with that would depend on the way I integrated Authority Labs into my applications.
Authority Labs Alternatives
You may want to consider these Authority Labs alternatives, if this rank tracking application doesn’t appear to meet your needs. Here is a list of SEO tracking tools that may be right for your business:
SEMRush
SEMRush is a comprehensive, all-in-one SEO platform. Its features include position tracking, backlink audits, content templates, gap analysis, SEO writing assistance, and a robust dashboard bringing all of these features together.
This platform works best if you prefer to have an all-in-one solution, rather than a dedicated rank tracking tool like Authority Labs. The sheer number of features can make it overwhelming for people who are early on in their SEO or digital marketing careers, however. It’s cloud-based and starts at $99 per month.
Click here to check out SEMRush.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs tracks all of the factors behind a particular position on the search engine results. Backlinks, keywords, and content are analyzed to determine what the competition is doing, and what I need to gain positions.
Ahrefs has a powerful rank tracking feature that’s complemented by its competitive analysis capabilities. Pricing starts at $99, and it’s similar to Authority Labs’ structure.
I pay more based on the keywords I’m tracking, along with expanding into more advanced features. However, Ahrefs limits the number of users I have. If that drawback doesn’t bother you, it can be a good alternative to Authority Labs.
Click here to see for yourself.
MozPro
Moz Pro is another all-in-one platform that streamlines the process of choosing significant keywords and tracking their volume and difficulty.
The Keyword Explorer function quickly generates these lists, which I find useful when I’m working with a new SEO client that doesn’t have a pre-existing target list. Moz Pro starts at $99 per month, and does end up being the more expensive option on a tracked keyword basis.
The user-friendly platform is accessible to freelancers, individual marketers and others who need small-scale SEO strategies, with the capacity to grow right along with you. If you want an all-in-one SEO platform designed by one of the pioneers of the field.
Click here to check out Moz Pro.
Conclusion
Authority Labs does a good job at automating SEO keyword rank tracking and providing better visibility into this data. You get daily updates of your ranking, a comprehensive set of trackers, and the ability to break down data on a granular level. If you only need keyword tracking and you want a user-friendly experience, click here to check out Authority Labs for yourself.
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