What would be a really good reason to pay for SEOmoz Pro service?

[_Z_]

What would be a really good reason(s) to pay for PRO membership after 1 month free trial expires? What do I get here that I didn't already use during my trial, or can get somwhere else for free or less money?

Not trying to criticize, just looking for facts. Thanks.

[RobertFisher]

Thanks Rand, I will send an email to Andrew. The issue for me is that someone is looking at it and I have always felt you guys were proactive. As a businessman, I have a lot of things I would love to be doing for my clients, but I, too, have to take my time and pick my battles. 
I think one of the reasons the moz community is so strong, is because of the proactive stance and the TAGFEE approach. (Thanks for sharing that one with me, Sha). When I say strong community, I also mean bright, inquisitive, educated, robust, etc.

My best to all.

BTW: Z it would be cool if you let us know if we were persuasive in our anecdotes. Best

[_Z_]

Thank you all for your time and your answers.

So basically it all comes down to the tools. Are they worth the price? Let me find out, and let you know what I think.

[randfish]

Hey Robert - really appreciate both the kind words and the constructive feedback re: the member level structures for campaigns and sites. I'll talk to the team about the potential to allow for larger number of smaller sites. In the meantime, feel free to drop a line to Andrew@SEOmoz.org, who's working on projects around customizable pro memberships (it's a work in progress and requires a bunch of engineering stuff, too, so it's not available immediately, but is something we're working on).

[randfish]

Hey Z - totally fair question. A lot of folks use the membership for the free trial to simply do a site audit or get some data, then leave, but we often get those folks back (especially if they continue to do serious SEO work for their own sites or those of clients).

The most used features are (relatively in order):

• http://www.seomoz.org/users/pro - the PRO campaigns that track crawl, rankings, on-page and competitor link profiles (and we add new features here every 2-4 weeks)
• http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/ - which provides access to in-depth link research
• http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar - Firefox and Chrome toolbar for watching metrics and quickly getting key SEO data as you surf the web
• http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/keyword-difficulty - for comparing the competition for various keyword phrases
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-best-kept-secret-in-the-seomoz-toolset - inside the KW difficulty tool and also available from inside the campaign app; a way to determine why/how another site is ranking ahead of yours
• http://www.seomoz.org/webinars - IMO, some of the best content on SEO in webinar/slideshow format
• http://www.seomoz.org/labs - a bunch of tools that aren't fully supported but can often provide interesting data and highlight some things we're trying before they go "live"
• http://www.seomoz.org/toolbox/pagerank - one of my personal favorites that lets you see PR back in time,  often helpful for spotting penalties/manipulation
• And, obviously, this Q+A section (note: this is not the least used feature, I just put it at the end. I think in usage numbers it would fit right near the webinars)

Hope that helps!

[gfiorelli1]

Why to be Pro Member? Good question...

And I reformulate in a personal way: is it still worth to be pro member after 3 years? Yes, it is.

Even though the Campaign apps is right now very SEO oriented and not broader like can be the Raven Tools Site Campaign, I find the it has an incredible value.

Tools like the Crawl Diagnostic and the On-Page Optimization are such a time savers that just for them it is worth the pro membership.

Others tool I can find here and not somewhere else are the Keyword Difficulty tool, now doomed in part because of the new google policy about the Adwords API (but its advanced report is what makes this tool unique).

Open Site Explorer, which is fully available just to pro members, is right now a must must if you want to do a real link building campaign, or competitive analysis or audit your own site.

But the pro membership advantages go further the tools. Private q&a and instant access to the public one, the webinars, which are an extremely high value source of ideas, the perks for many services a marketer may need and the discounts codes for the most valuable SEO conferences out there.

[ShaMenz]

Hi Robert,

Sounds like time to hit SEOmoz Feature Requests and suggest something

Sha

[ShaMenz]

Hi Z,

There are basically 5 things that make PRO worthwhile for me

• Outstanding Tools that save me time and money, allowing me to give better service to my clients
• Online Webinars from industry experts who can quite literally rock my world with a single idea at times
• This Q&A, which provides access to other members, but also the ability to ask a private question and have SEOmoz staff and Associates help me nail a problem.
• Top notch customer service if I ever need help with something.
• The opportunity to be included in the development of new tools, analysis of new hypotheses on search etc combined with the knowledge that the people pursuing them are authentic thought leaders in this industry.

That about says it I guess.

Hope that helps,

Sha

[AlanBleiweiss]

I find some of the OpenSiteExplorer.org data that only comes with a Pro account, and the campaign monitoring in Pro Tools to be an invaluable part of my SEO audit and ongoing SEO toolset.  Pro Q&A is a great place to come as often as you need to to ask questions and get some amazing feedback, answers, suggestions...

[RyanKent]

What would be a really good reason(s) to pay for PRO membership after 1 month free trial expires?

Everyone will offer a different perspective on this question based on the tools and parts of the site they use. My recommendation is to work with every tool and explore the site. Find which tools you like and what portions of the site you value. Next, log out of your PRO account and then try to use those same tools or access that same portion of the site.

Some tools are offered for free and you will still be able to use them. Other tools are not available, or not fully available to non-PRO subscribers.

Another thing you will probably find is your tool usage will increase over time. As you work with each tool more, you will grow more comfortable with it and use it more. Additionally, you will find cause to begin using other tools which you may not initially use.

It depends very much on your situation. If you are a SEO or provide services to others, the ROI is very clear and unquestionable. If you are a do-it-yourself SEO person, then again the value is clear. If you hire others to perform SEO work on your behalf, then it may or may not be as worthwhile. It would be more for learning about SEO and being able to better understand the methods your SEO provider is using.

Some links that may help:

http://www.seomoz.org/tools

http://www.seomoz.org/features

[RobertFisher]

Not a bad question at all. I own an SEO, SEM agency so my answer comes first from ROI: Did the investment bring me a reasonable return. Current one year pro is around $950 or $99 a month. We charge our clients a fee for ongoing SEO. The Pro Tools allows us to utilize less people to provide that service and to provide the written deliverables to the client. (For us, we have no contract and we are not cheap. Every client is told at the moment we begin they only need give us 30 days notice and we will leave without a fight. We follow that with this, "If we are not providing you what we promised or what you needed, the greatest thing you can do for us is to fire us - that will be a wake up call that we have lost our way." 
Obviously, I do not want to lose a single client and I do not want to see a single client lose. By having so many tools and resources (such as this Q and A) available to me on a moment's notice, I can deliver as promised. _Just the Q and A alone has been worth every dime I have spent.  _

I have only asked one private question in 17 months, but I had a top staffer continually answer follow up questions for about a ten day period. The insight gave me what I needed to conquer the issue. (And, it has never recurred.)

Beyond that, I have in the last month ended two other relationships with a similar fee structure. I just did not see any evidence that the $139 and the $79 was giving me really actionable data. One was actually mentioned multiple times on SEOmoz, but I found the data too broad and too irregular in timing to assist me in assisting clients. So, I am not bashful about pulling out if it does not work.

Now, I do have a beef with SEOmoz. As it stands now the membership "levels" are too rigid and in no way help me. I am pro, will be going to Pro Plus in the next few days, but am disappointed in the way campaigns are geared more to large sites. Pro = 5 campaigns and 10K pages with 300 keywords. Pro+ = 12 campaigns, same 10k and 1K keywords. Pro Elite is 30 campaigns, 3500 keywords, and 20K pages. So Pro = $100 per 10K pages, Pro+ = $199 for same, and ProE = $500 for 20K pages. Or P = $20 per campaign, P+= $17 per campaign, and PE= $17 per campaign.

We have a lot of clients with multiple small sites (less than 10 pages). Most are focused on not more than 5 to 10 keywords generally. But, for us the 5 campaigns equal 45-50pgs. and roughly 50 keywords - counting dupes among sites. Someone with one site and 5K pages with 250 keywords gets a better deal. Yet, I am still here and increasing my spend.

The reason for me is that the package of tools (some are available elsewhere for free) along with quality staff and phenomenal members is just a no brainer. I make at least a ten to one return on what I spend. No BS.

Hope you join Pro and give it a try. Would love to know your before and after opinions.

[RobertFisher]

Not a bad question at all. I own an SEO, SEM agency so my answer comes first from ROI: Did the investment bring me a reasonable return. Current one year pro is around $950 or $99 a month. We charge our clients a fee for ongoing SEO. The Pro Tools allows us to utilize less people to provide that service and to provide the written deliverables to the client. (For us, we have no contract and we are not cheap. Every client is told at the moment we begin they only need give us 30 days notice and we will leave without a fight. We follow that with this, "If we are not providing you what we promised or what you needed, the greatest thing you can do for us is to fire us - that will be a wake up call that we have lost our way." 
Obviously, I do not want to lose a single client and I do not want to see a single client lose. By having so many tools and resources (such as this Q and A) available to me on a moment's notice, I can deliver as promised. _Just the Q and A alone has been worth every dime I have spent.  _

I have only asked one private question in 17 months, but I had a top staffer continually answer follow up questions for about a ten day period. The insight gave me what I needed to conquer the issue. (And, it has never recurred.)

Beyond that, I have in the last month ended two other relationships with a similar fee structure. I just did not see any evidence that the $139 and the $79 was giving me really actionable data. One was actually mentioned multiple times on SEOmoz, but I found the data too broad and too irregular in timing to assist me in assisting clients. So, I am not bashful about pulling out if it does not work.

Now, I do have a beef with SEOmoz. As it stands now the membership "levels" are too rigid and in no way help me. I am pro, will be going to Pro Plus in the next few days, but am disappointed in the way campaigns are geared more to large sites. Pro = 5 campaigns and 10K pages with 300 keywords. Pro+ = 12 campaigns, same 10k and 1K keywords. Pro Elite is 30 campaigns, 3500 keywords, and 20K pages. So Pro = $100 per 10K pages, Pro+ = $199 for same, and ProE = $500 for 20K pages. Or P = $20 per campaign, P+= $17 per campaign, and PE= $17 per campaign.

We have a lot of clients with multiple small sites (less than 10 pages). Most are focused on not more than 5 to 10 keywords generally. But, for us the 5 campaigns equal 45-50pgs. and roughly 50 keywords - counting dupes among sites. Someone with one site and 5K pages with 250 keywords gets a better deal. Yet, I am still here and increasing my spend.

The reason for me is that the package of tools (some are available elsewhere for free) along with quality staff and phenomenal members is just a no brainer. I make at least a ten to one return on what I spend. No BS.

Hope you join Pro and give it a try. Would love to know your before and after opinions.

[Francisco_Meza]

I used to be a subscriber at SEObook and I paid $100/mo at the time, now $300/mo. Aaron Wall the owner of SEObook and is well known in the industry. I came here to SEOmoz because of the tools. I outgrew learning 'tips and tricks' and did more strategy. A problem arose... while SEObook is a great forum, I needed tracking software to see how I was doing instead of praying for my results. In comes SEOmoz. SEOmoz has tracking capabilities for your site AND your competitors. Google Webmasters will not tell you a single freakin' thing about your competitors while SEOMoz will. You can see the backlinks for your competitors and their rankings.