{"id":1031,"date":"2020-01-24T16:26:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T16:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2020-02-13T11:05:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T11:05:06","slug":"why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Decided to Give SEO Software for Free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"791\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/free.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1032\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/free.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/free-300x128.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/free-768x328.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px\" \/><figcaption>free stuff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It was hard at first, but I felt it to be the\nright action. After 13 years of running SheerSEO with paid subscriptions. I\u2019m\nturning it to free accounts. Keep on reading to find out why I did this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up until now we gave 2 months free trial, and\nthen stop the account. People had to start paying from that point on. Now we\nwill give a lifetime free account. It will be limited to 20 keywords per\ndomain, but it will allow users to get real value for free. All features\nincluded, but limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It felt kind of crazy, giving stuff for free,\nbut it is time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_40 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" area-label=\"ez-toc-toggle-icon-1\"><label for=\"item-6a07e1f30bef3\" aria-label=\"Table of Content\"><span style=\"display: flex;align-items: center;width: 35px;height: 30px;justify-content: center;direction:ltr;\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/label><input  type=\"checkbox\" id=\"item-6a07e1f30bef3\"><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#The_story\" title=\"The story\">The story<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#Competiton\" title=\"Competiton\">Competiton<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#Typical_SEO_Software_Clients\" title=\"Typical SEO Software Clients\">Typical SEO Software Clients<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#The_Features_of_SEO_Software\" title=\"The Features of SEO Software\">The Features of SEO Software<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#More_Traffic\" title=\"More Traffic \">More Traffic <\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#Gaining_Trust\" title=\"Gaining Trust\">Gaining Trust<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#Selling_Services\" title=\"Selling Services\">Selling Services<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/why-i-decided-to-give-seo-software-for-free\/1031\/#Conclusion\" title=\"Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_story\"><\/span>The story<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When\nI started the business at 2007, there were no online SEO software around. All\nyou could find was softwares to download. And they were scammy! They all\nbragged about getting you rich in no time, just pay\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most\nof those are out of business these days. The number one result on Google at the\ntime was <a href=\"http:\/\/seoelite.com\/\">seoelite<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nknew something else is needed, and I can provide that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having\na software background and SEO success with my local website put me in the position\nthat I can provide what people need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On\nthe first year, we operated for free, and accumulated more than 1000 free\nusers. Then stopped the free program and started charging after 2 months of\nfree trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On\nthe first few years, all I saw was major progress. Business was growing fast. I\nthink it was more than a 100% per year. It was great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Competiton\"><\/span>Competiton<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"794\" height=\"539\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/competition.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1034\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/competition.jpg 794w, https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/competition-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/competition-768x521.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><figcaption>competition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then,\nmore and more competitors started to arise. At first, they couldn\u2019t beat the\nfeatures we offered. They were the same at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nthen, since they raised money, they were able to develop things I couldn\u2019t without\nfunding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nfirst of those, was the backlink explorer. It meant scanning all the pages over\nthe internet, so billions if not trillions of pages scanned each year. And the\nbigger problem was storing all that data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nstarted developing that feature but gave up once I realized this meant a lot of\nmoney. A lot of risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later,\nI realized that companies like Moz had 150 employees. I had no chance of\ncompeting with their product head to head. Nor with their marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With\ntheir fund-raised money (Rand Fishkin from Moz stated they raised around $40M),\nthey created articles that were amazing. It looks like each of their articles took\na few days to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next\nstep, tons of little companies started to create basic tools, that mostly did\njust rank tracking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nstarted losing customers to both pricy and cheaper solutions as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally,\ntoday there are around 100 companies competing in the SEO industry. Every time\nI hear a client leaving to another solution, I get a different answer. There is\nno one solution, but plenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Typical_SEO_Software_Clients\"><\/span>Typical SEO Software Clients<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Clients\nof SEO software are either SEO professionals or businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each\nclient has different needs and thus needs different features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nSEO professional needs to manage many clients. Some only need the rank\nreporting and some want to use the more advanced features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nbusinesses only need 1-2 domains there. Some of those businesses only need\nbasic features and some could use more advanced features, but they don\u2019t have\ntime for a product that needs a lot of learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Features_of_SEO_Software\"><\/span>The Features of SEO Software<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most\nof the features are around five areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>links \u2013 explore them.<\/li><li>Rank tracking<\/li><li>Keyword research.<\/li><li>Content analysis.<\/li><li>SEO Audit &#8211; technical SEO\nissues.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>SheerSEO\noffers all the above features. You might find some of those will be more robust\nwith the Biggest competitors, like Moz, Ahrefs and SemRush, but you won\u2019t get\nmuch more value then you get with SheerSEO. We have around 80% of the value you\ncan find anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nwe can\u2019t implement something, we will use a 3<sup>rd<\/sup> party solution, as\nin the case of links. We use MajesticSEO for backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now,\nall of that will be given for free! I\u2019ll tell you what I plan to achieve here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"More_Traffic\"><\/span>More Traffic <span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since\nI don\u2019t have the time or the money to create hundreds of great articles, I\u2019ll\njust give something for free, and hopefully, that will create more traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When\nsomething gives value, people talk about it, recommend it. Could be through social\nmedia or through links in forum. Or even from word to mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Gaining_Trust\"><\/span>Gaining Trust<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>People\ngain trust with a solution that works for them. Hopefully, they will trust\nsheerseo to provide their solutions when they need something more than the\nbasic package given for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Selling_Services\"><\/span>Selling Services<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nhad a lot of success with our blog submission and directory submission features.\nIn the future, I plan to find more services to sell to our users. It is a game\nchange. We might not earn from the software, but from the services we provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As\nwith every industry, changes happen, and you need to adapt or close shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\nhope you enjoy this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\nme know what you think,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was hard at first, but I felt it to be the right action. After 13 years of running SheerSEO with paid subscriptions. I\u2019m turning it to free accounts. Keep on reading to find out why I did this. Up until now we gave 2 months free trial, and then stop the account. People had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[53,54],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheerseo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}