Raven Tools – Is It The Best SEO And Marketing Tool?

Introducing the tool

The Raven SEO suite of tools* was originally designed for SEO’s (and by an SEO agency) but they now include quite a few extra features that would benefit other disciplines of digital marketing, including integration with a number of email services, social profile data integration and PPC Ad reporting and CallRail integration. For this review, we’ll stick primarily to the SEO features, but as you will discover, Raven Tools is a reporting powerhouse.

Early iterations of Raven SEO were widely celebrated for their keyword tracking capabilities – but that all changed in early 2013 when Raven removed their rank tracking system following pressure from Google. They must’ve been doing something right. That’s all water under the bridge now though, and we’re pleased to say that Raven’s keyword rank tracking is now back online and better than ever. More on that later.

Raven Tools is a fully hosted web app, like all the tools in this comparison, and its biggest selling point is the sheer number of integrations it provides with 3rd party tools to pull all your campaign data together. When we first reviewed Raven in 2010, we were excited by the electric pace of development as they rolled out new integrations and features regularly. Previously we reported that this development seemed to have slowed down. However, there have been a number of improvements since we last updated this review, so clearly, they are still refining the system and making improvements to the interface and reporting options.

Raven Tools Review: Rank Tracker

No SEO solution would be complete without a rank tracker. Fortunately, Raven includes one in its tool suite. Use the rank tracker to check your search rank for keywords on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. Keep in mind: some tools won’t let you check on a daily basis. You’ll have to settle for whenever the tool updates its index. Raven’s tool allows you to track rank based on location, search engine, and device. Raven also prices its service based on the number of keywords you want to track. Extra keywords cost only $.003 each. That’s certainly affordable.

Backlink Analysis

Another common offering among SEO solutions is a backlink analysis tool. Raven has one of those as well. It’s worth noting, though, that Raven’s backlink analysis service isn’t home-grown. The tool relies on Majestic to deliver backlink info. That means if you already have Majestic, you really don’t need Raven for backlink analysis. The tool allows you to uncover backlinks for up to 50,000 URLs. You’ll see info about each link such as its type, anchor text, and Trust Flow. You can also use the backlink tool to identify spammy links that might hurt your rank. One of the more valuable benefits of the backlink analysis tool is its ability to show you where your competitors are getting their links. If you see that a competitor is ranking better than you for a certain keyword, you can run a backlink analysis check on the page that’s beating yours in the SERPs. You might uncover some backlink opportunities. You can run a backlink analysis on whole domains or single web pages.

Raven Tools Review: Keyword Research

Raven also includes a keyword research tool in its virtual toolbox. To give you complete info about keywords, it draws from a variety of sources, including Google, Bing, Majestic, Moz, and Open Calais. For each keyword, Raven shows you search volume and ad data. That gives you the info you need whether you’re trying to rank for that search term organically or you’d like to use it in an ad. The tool will also show you similar search phrases for a keyword you enter. Harvest that data for content marketing opportunities with keywords that your competitors aren’t using. You don’t have to evaluate keywords one at a time, though. Raven lets you upload a CSV-delimited document of keywords. Then, you can use the tool to organize those keywords based on filters or tags. Raven has no limit on the number of keywords you can upload.

Competitor Research

I’ve already mentioned that you can use the backlink analysis tool to spy on your competitors. But you can use Raven to get more than just backlink info about your competitors. The tool allows you to evaluate competing websites based on quality, keywords, social media metrics, overall design, citation flow, trust flow, page speed, and more. Raven will also show you a side-by-side analysis so you can see how your site stacks up against the competition. Use that info to find the competitors that might be the easiest to “take out” and identify the ones that might be more challenging.

Raven Tools Review: PPC Info

Raven can help you with PPC marketing by showing you info about online ads. The tool pulls its PPC data from three different sources: Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Bing Ads. What kind of info will you see? Important metrics such as:

• CPM
• CTR
• View impressions
• Conversions
• Clicks
• Conversion rate
• Total conversion value
• Cost per conversion

In addition to showing you metrics, Raven will also show you the ad as it appears to users. That way, you can see what potential customers are seeing. The tool also enables you to compare PPC data with charts and graphs.

Link management

Raven’s Link Manager is a powerful link management facility, providing a dedicated CRM for backlink monitoring and competitor analysis. It taps into the Majestic database to discover up to 50,000 backlinks for any URL.
You can also manually add any links or import links from spreadsheets as well as auto-import links found in Google Analytics which is a great time saver. All your backlinks – including those discovered via Majestic and any you’ve added manually – can be easily monitored using the Raven Tools Backlink Explorer, which flags up important considerations such as toxic links and no-follow-tagged links. You’ll be able to see the authority (trust flow), type and anchor text of each link.

The other dimension to Raven Tools backlinks reporting is Link Spy – a competitor analysis tool that analyses links to your rivals’ websites in much the same way Raven checks backlinks to your own. This is a useful resource for performing a gap analysis between your current search performance and your goals. Gaining a vantage over the backlinks that feed into a competitor’s high search visibility will give you a basis for emulating and potentially surpassing their success.

Raven offers a link reporting module which will be useful for agencies running link building campaigns for clients and needing to report on monthly link building activity. There are also some built-in link research tools powered by data from Majestic SEO, Moz and Open Calais. These are going to be a useful addition to small businesses and DIY SEO’s who don’t want to pay for additional subscriptions on more advanced link research tools.

Email Marketing

Yes, you can also manage your email marketing from Raven. That’s significant. For each campaign, the tool will show you your open rate, click rate, and number of unsubscribes. Once again, Raven lets you view everything in one place with a chart.

Raven Tools Review: Integrations

Raven integrates with the following tools:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Majestic
• Moz

Raven already pays for Moz and Majestic integrations, though. All you need to do is reap the benefits of gaining access to their data at a reduced price.

Pricing

Raven offers various levels of service at different price points. The cheapest is the Small Business plan. That costs $39 per month or $468 annually if prepaid. For that, you get three campaigns, one user, and 7,500 position checks. The most expensive plan is the Lead plan. It costs $399 per month or $4,788 annually if prepaid. For that, you get 320 campaigns, 40 users, and 30,000 position checks. There are three other levels of service between those two: Start ($79 per month), Grow ($139 per month), and Thrive ($249 per month). If you want Enterprise pricing, you’ll have to contact Raven for a quote.

Raven Tools Review: Pros & Cons

Raven has plenty of users and they’ve got a few things to say about the platform. First, let’s look at the positive things that people are saying about the tool:

• Pulls in key data points with ease
• Easy to set up
• Enables scheduling of reports
• Helpful integrations with popular tools
• Reporting is easy to customize
• Affordable
• Support folks are professional and courteous

Next, here are some of the areas where people think Raven needs improvement:

• Limited ability to customize reports
• Training videos need an update
• Interface is clunky at times
• Sometimes difficult to work around bugs
• Visuals not always “pretty”

Raven Tools Review: Final Verdict 

If you’re looking for an all-in-one SEO tool that won’t break the bank, you should absolutely add Raven to your short list. Remember, though, Raven also offers a few goodies such as social media management and email marketing analytics. You won’t often find those tools in competing services. As is the case with many similar solutions, though, Raven lets you try before you buy. You should definitely take advantage of that just to make sure it’s what you want.