Whoever said SEO is dead is surely living in a world of bubbles. SEO is not dead but has got more advanced over the years. Search engines have become smarter and so has the SEO tactics of marketers. Two such advanced tools that I am going to compare are HitTail and Wordtracker. Both these tools help in searching longtail keywords. Before proceeding to HitTail vs Wordtracker section, we will go over the features and other details of both the tools individually.
HitTail: Longtail Keyword Search Tool
HitTail welcomes you with a comprehensive explanation of what are long tail keywords, how it will benefit you and why should you target them. After discussing the benefits of targeting long tail keywords. HitTail moves to the next section- growing your website traffic. Now, this happens to be the trigger point. Everyone looking for an SEO tool has this particular necessity in mind. HitTail hits the soft spot showing elaborately how long tail keywords can catalyze the website traffic. And trust me, the explanation is logical and a lot convincing that thought. What next follows is the final section- improving traffic and getting more conversions. Yeah, that's the icing on the cake. HitTail promises to deliver keyword ideas and suggestions, issues that hamper your website traffic, and optimized solution to handle these issues.
HitTail gains the edge over other competitors with three unique features: Keyword Ideas, Hot Keywords, and SEO Checker.
Easy Search for Long Tail Keywords: Keyword Ideas
Long Tail keywords have improved focus, and it can target the research tactics in a more inclusive way as compared to short keywords. HitTail can identify which keywords can bring in the maximum traffic for you, helping you to deal with the "not provided" problem. HitTail needs zero installation. In fact, there is no plugin, software, cloud access, or any problems at all. HitTail never even touches your server in any approach.
This tool helps to generate long tail keyword ideas depending on your requisite topic. All you need to do is to enter a keyword phrase of 2 to 4 words, and HitTail will generate long tail keyword distinctions of the typed phrase along with predictable search volumes.
Hot Keywords
This tool analyses your website traffic and summaries underperforming keywords that you can use to enhance your results in the search engines rapidly. When you find keywords that you wish to target on your website, HitTail lets you move them into your To Do list. This way you can build a keyword portfolio for your site by continuously adding new applicable keywords to the list.
SEO Checker
The SEO Checker is a smart way to detect issues that cause your web page rankings to dip. All you need to do is, enter your website URL and your target keyword. The SEO Checker will analyze and also give you optimized solution to deal with the detected issues. It is a real-time on-page SEO tracker at your fingertips. Factors like URL length and structure, mobility, Heading tags, ALT attributes and other HTML elements, sitemap availability, Robots.txt and robots <META> tag issues, and more are taken into consideration.
SEO checker detects the problem, gives you optimized solutions and helps you in increasing your website traffic. A typical workflow to enhance website traffic includes:
- Research keywords via the HitTail Keyword tool.
- A web page drafting by including the target keyword in it.
- Using the SEO checker for analysis, and application of best on-page SEO techniques.
HitTail Pricing Plans
HitTail has three pricing options; namely Pro, Business, and Agency.
- Pro plan starts at $19.95/month. In this plan, you can generate around 7,500 keyword ideas. However, you will not have access to the web page audits.
- For audits, you need to upgrade to the Business plan, starting at $39.95/month. In this plan, you get 15,000 keyword ideas and 150 web-page audits.
- If you need more, then there is the Agency plan at $79.95/month. Here you get 30,000 keyword ideas and 30 web-page audits.
In case you exhaust the set limit of your plan before the month ends, HitTail will notify you of the same and upgrade your plan accordingly.
To know how HitTail works before investing in it, you can try it for free.
HitTail WP Plugin, Integrations and Affiliate Program
Google Search Console IntegrationHitTail provides integration with Google Search Console, making it easy for you to examine the quality of keywords and rely on the results as well. This also means that all the keyword suggestions that you get are churned out by analyzing real-time inbound traffic. This is an exquisite feature of HitTail that ensures keyword ideas that will work. If you have a Google Search Console account, you are good to go immediately.
However, if you don't have an account with Google Search Console, you will need to create an account. The following steps are:
- Click on Add a site button, and enter the full URL of your website.
- Click on continue. The verification page will open. Follow the instructions as mentioned.
HitTail can also be used as a WordPress plugin. There are two ways to use it.
Method 1: You can copy the tracking code and paste it into your footer.php file. You can even use your insert headers and footers plugin to include that code in your WordPress site.
Method 2: You can use the authorized HitTail plugin for WordPress. All you need to do is simply install and activate the plugin. After integration, it crowds in some keywords. Originally, you will get access to the ten keywords suggestion.
Affiliate ProgramHitTail provides a simple affiliate program. As a part of the program, you will receive 20% recurring affiliate commissions.
HitTail User CaseHitTail mainly targets long tail keywords. There are a series of blogs on what long tail keywords are, examples and why such keywords show better results. Among other blogs, HitTail has one article dedicated to long tail keywords examples and case studies. You can find the entire case studies here. There are two case studies mentioned in this article. One of them is of Banckle.Chat, a web-based support application that lets you add live chat widget to your website.
HitTail did a detailed research on the CPC ads that Banckle was running. Their next plan was to increase the ROI. HitTail started this by first revising the keyword list for Banckle. Then there was the budgeting and planning. HitTail removed the generic keywords like online chat, live chat app, live online chat, etc. Rather, they devised long tail keywords that were more narrowed down and relevant to search queries.
Result: There was a 167% increase in Click Conversion Rate and a 60% reduction in Cost per Converted Click.
HitTail features come to an end.
Let's move on to the next tool: Wordtracker
Wordtracker also reveals long tail keywords, but there is a catch. The moment you land on the homepage, you will see the search bar with some more specifications- You can search long tail keywords based on time period and territory. The search button looks something like this:
Yes, this is the first point when discussing on HitTail vs Wordtracker. Moving forward, Wordtracker gives you a detailed analysis on how it surpasses Google Keyword Planner. Although I was sticking to Google Keyword Planner all these while, this direct comparison convinced me to try Wordtracker. It also provides an affiliate program, wherein you can sign up and earn commissions in return for bringing them new paid customers.
Wordtracker: Features Overview
This tool is pretty much direct in mentioning its core functionalities.
Related Terms: Wordtracker is best suited to search related long tail keywords that boost the content rank in search engines.
SERP Preview: When doing a keyword research, it is essential to know how competitive a keyword is. Wordtracker helps you to search high performing keywords, as well as show you how difficult is the competition for that particular keyword.
Multiple Sources: When showing you related keyword search results, Wordtracker combines the result from multiple sources like Amazon, YouTube, Google, and Wordtracker. This enhances the keyword search and gives you optimum search results.
Wordtracker ScoutWordtracker provides integration with Scout for better keyword research. It helps in searching for high performing keywords in seconds with the Scout Browser extension. Some of the benefits of having Scout extension are:
- Big keyword data from Wordtracker's huge database
- Analyze keywords from competitors' websites
- Instant keyword performance metrics to analyze
- Time and money saving keyword search
- Keyword data that matches with page elements
- Chrome browser extension makes it more simple- just one click to get started.
Scout basically is simple Chrome extension. It has the power to enhance keyword search, turning the whole web into a huge keyword database. You can pick a web page that appeals to your target audience and unravels all the keywords used in that web page. Get keyword ideas from web pages that have already attracted your target audience. Wordtracker uses two metrics to identify low competition and high ranking keywords:
- Competition- Promptly judges the level of serious competition for more than 320 million keywords in the database of Wordtracker.
- KEI(known as Keyword Effectiveness Index)- You can use KEI to improve in on keywords with great traffic and low competition. These are the profitable niches that will aid your business to thrive.
Wordtracker provides a flexible API for those who wish to create build their own tools and applications to interact with Wordtracker's huge database. With the API, you can:
- Boost your SEO tool and give your competitors a tough challenge.
- Get detailed keyword reports based on territory or time. Know your competitors better and pinpoint business opportunities.
- Discover profitable market trends from domain registration opportunities.
- Since the Wordtracker API is fully scalable, you can get
- List of profitable keywords that can catalyze the conversion rates
- Access to historical database
- Opportunity to engage with the international market.
The API pricing is planned on a per month basis. The free plan has 300 included units and 30 throttles per hour. The paid plans start at $20/month and go up to $1,000/month.
Price Calculation:Each call = 100 seeds. Hence, if a call is somewhere between 101 and 200 seeds, it is considered as 2 calls.
Wordtracker: PricingWordtracker offers a 7-day risk-free trial for FREE. It has three paid plans, namely Bronze ($27/mo), Silver ($69/mo), and Gold ($99/mo). If you opt for annual payments, you can save about 40% on any of the plans you choose.
P.S.: The Bronze plans requires you to subscribe for a minimum of three months' tenure.
Wordtracker AcademyApart from helping in looking up for long tail keywords, Wordtracker also has helpful resources in the Wordtracker Academy-
- How to add keywords in a website
- Guide to migrate your website to HTTPS
- How to write catchy headlines (A step-by-step guide)
So, now we are done analyzing both the tools in details. Let's move on to the main part now-
HitTail Vs Wordtracker
On doing a direct comparison between the two tools, Wordtracker provides more effective keyword distinctions in the search results as compared to HitTail. This means that with Wordtracker you can expect more long tail keywords.
HitTail is perfect if you already have a setup of a website that has an inflow of traffic. Wordtracker has an outstanding feature at comparing traffic volume in contradiction of competitiveness. But Wordtracker never had an easy solution for considering the competitiveness of the keyword phrases people were already attracting - which, in a nutshell, is actually what HitTail does.
HitTail is exceptional when it comes to keyword tools. As an alternative of giving you a search box to search new keywords to optimize like Wordtracker, HitTail analyzes your current website traffic (by using a small script or plugin that you can install on your website) and automatically recommends keywords it thinks would have a good chance of ranking high. It also displays the "not provided" keywords otherwise veiled in google analytics.
Feature-Based Comparison: HitTail vs WordtrackerHitTail provides you with features of real-time traffic analyzing statistics onpage, while such real-time traffic analyzing feature is absent in Wordtracker. While HitTail gives access to features without having to install any plugins, it is not same with Wordtracker. You will need to install a plugin to access Wordtracker features. Unlike Wordtracker, HitTail provides you with a To-Do list to build a keyword portfolio for your website by continuously adding latest relevant keywords to the list.
Wordtracker lets you know how many people searched for a particular term along with multiplying profits through a targeted keyword search. This is not available in HitTail. Unlike HitTail, Wordtracker has features to have direct access to very recent data. Wordtracker can also help with keyword optimization. Wordtracker interface lets you organize your keywords into an appropriate format which is absent in HitTail. Also, the access to its built-in thesaurus is unique to Wordtracker only.
Price-based Comparison: HitTail vs WordtrackerThe whole HitTail vs Wordtracker is incomplete without doing a head-to-head pricing comparison.
The initial starting plan i.e. 'Pro' plan in HitTail is cheaper as compared to Wordtracker, simultaneously providing you with more keywords searches per month also. The pricing structure of HitTail is based on a number of keywords suggestion on a monthly basis, while the pricing structure of Wordtracker is focused more on the number of territories and competition metrics. Wordtracker pricing structure provides initial risk-free 7 days free trial. This provision is not available in HitTail. HitTail does permit you to get plugged into their system for free, though will only let you track only a few keywords. Unlike HitTail, the pricing structure of Wordtracker includes API access.
The pricing in HitTail goes up to $79.95 providing access to 30,000 keywords. Wordtracker's pricing goes up to $ 99 per month giving you access to only top 10,000 keywords results.
HitTail vs Wordtracker: Integration-based ComparisonHitTail integrates mainly with WordPress and Google Search console. Wordtracker tool integrates mainly with similar software modules on drupal site. Wordtracker integrates in such a way that you can discover how frequently several terms are searched for and the popularity of keyword alternatives.
Usability Comparison: HitTail vs WordtrackerThe usability of HitTail is prominent even if you have just launched a new website or blog as it is not dependable on website traffic. Wordtracker is more dependable on website traffic. The usability of Wordtracker is related to small businesses to research keywords, build new links, and create an advanced strategic SEO platform. On the other hand usability of HitTail is related to website content, blog posts, or PPC campaigns. The usability of HitTail is applicable on any platform by using google search console, while the usability of Wordtracker is platform specific.
This brings us to the conclusion of the whole discussion on HitTail vs Wordtracker. Few more SEO tools that you can try are: SEMrush, Keywordtool.io, Moz Local Listing Score, Google Trends, QuickSprout Website Analyzer, and more.
If you know any other tool that has great features, or you have something more to add to HitTail vs Wordtracker conversation, do post them all in the comments section below.