Squirrly SEO is an excellent plugin for those new to search engine optimization. But the first thing people notice is unlike its competitors, it doesn’t have a free version. So we’re here to help you decide if it’s worth the price.
Let’s start with the basics – What is Squirrly SEO?
Squirrly SEO developers describe the plugin as having your own personal “AI SEO Consultant,” meaning you receive expert advice as you would any consultant. However, the plugin uses artificial intelligence backed by 7 years of research on over 600,000 different websites.
Squirrly SEO provides a complete suite of SEO tools, a game-changer for anyone new to content marketing. Here’s what you get with any one of their price points:
1. Daily SEO Goals
Optimizing your website for search engines can be overwhelming. There are so many factors to take into account; it’s hard to know where to begin or which will yield the best results. Squirrly SEO’s Daily SEO Goals can help you get started on the right track by breaking down solutions into easily digestible tasks.
There is not a clear-cut magic bullet to boost your search engine rankings. In fact, it is a combination of several SEO efforts that will move you up the search engine results pages (SERPs). Based on machine learning and your unique website, Squirrly SEO will provide you with Daily SEO Goals to ensure progress through several practices.
- Your daily goals will point out any glaring SEO issues on your website that might be hindering your rankings.
- It will provide you with specific tasks to complete that day.
- These tasks will help you maximize your SEO efforts by focusing on factors that will have the most impact on your rankings.
- Each task will have an estimated time to complete and include a “Show Me How” button to walk you through the process.
Just like a human SEO consultant, it will assess your current situation, prioritize any issues, and show you how to move forward.
But what’s also important to note here is that these are not generic practices that most other SEO plugins will give you. As we mentioned earlier, Squirrly SEO is based on machine learning from 7 years of data and research. Their A.I. makes decisions on your Daily SEO Goals by learning the quickest paths to success and compares them to your specific website. This way, you know you are getting something unique to your current situation.
As a bonus to keep you motivated, this feature will give you a snapshot of your progress and achievements. These details might include a positive change in Google rankings, time spent on a page, page authority scores, social media shares, and more!
2. Built-In Keyword Research Tool
As a marketer, building an SEO strategy takes a lot of time, research, and intentionality. Let’s use the keyword “women’s shoes” as a quick example. If you want to rank for that term, an SEO consultant will show you that a quick Google search will show major retailers like Zappos or Nordstrom on the first page. Realistically, competing with them would take thousands of dollars and a lot of time.
The best thing to do is to find the best keywords in your market that will rank quickly. Squirrly SEO’s Keyword Research Tool can help you do this by discovering long-tail keywords. (Hm, long-tail… Is that how Squirrly got their name?) Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search terms. They are also voice-search-ready.
Let’s revisit our “women’s shoes” example. A boutique gym that reviews athletic gear might be buried under those major retailers. But the long-tail keyword, “best women’s shoes for weightlifting,” is a less common search term, meaning less competition and easy to rank. A quick Google search will show specialty women’s fitness blogs and the likes on the first page.
The Keyword Research Tool uses data to find long-tail keywords, giving you a better chance to reach first-page rankings.
Their algorithm will bring you real-time data on four major factors:
- Discussion: The level of popularity of a given keyword on social media.
- Search Volume: How common these words are searched for.
- Competition: How easy or difficult it is for you to rank for that word. This will also give you an idea of what NOT to waste your time with.
- Trend: Will show if searches for a particular topic are upward, downward, or steady – giving you an idea of ranking longevity.
The user process is simple. Enter a keyword that matches your business, select the country you want to focus on, select similar keywords from a provided list, and get 10-15 long-tail keywords to start writing about!
We also want to note Squirrly’s keyword tracker tool called “Squirrly Briefcase” to keep track of your keywords. You can save recommended long-tail keywords to your briefcase directly from the discovery results to use at a later time. The briefcase will show you if you’ve already used the focus keyword in a post and create labels to separate keywords into categories specific to your strategy.
3. Focus Pages
When crafting your SEO Strategy, you’ll need to identify your Focus Pages. These can be 4-5 posts or pages that you consider to be the most important on your site, no matter what the seasons or news cycles bring. These are the pages that convert the most visitors into buyers.
(Note: The more widely-known names for these pages are also “Evergreen” or “Pillar Content,” but we’ll use Squirrly SEO’s rhetoric here.)
Squirrly SEO gives you the ability to mark these pages specifically as Focus Pages. Doing so will trigger an on-page SEO audit, including checking for social media signals, backlinks, content optimization, and more. Then Squirrly’s artificial intelligence will create a roadmap to help you improve that page to rank in SEO. In other words, that page is marked as a priority, and the plugin will give you a plan to make sure you start ranking.
If you are new to SEO strategy and are unsure what your Focus Pages should be, here are some ideas:
- Pages that reflect the key products or services for your business.
- Pages that take a deep dive into a particular topic.
- They can be long-form posts that include insights and ideas which could serve as standalone blog articles.
- Content is original, interesting, and positions you as an authority on the topic.
- Content that is always relevant and stays “fresh” over time.
- They can be conversion-based pages like sign-up forms.
Here are some examples of a specific business that you can build from:
If you are running a house cleaning business, you might have a page describing the cleaning service you offer for short-term rentals. This page will outline all included in the service (deep cleaning, changing out bed sheets, etc.) and include a form or a phone number to book one of your house cleaners.
If you are a non-profit that holds an annual fundraising event, you might have a page describing the event in detail. This page might have information on past events as well as upcoming event.
If you are a clothing company that specifically sells items made of biodegradable material, you might have a long-form blog post explaining its benefits. This page will help users better understand you as an eco-conscious company.
4. SEO Live Assistant
Imagine having an SEO Consultant sitting right next to you while writing your next piece of content. You put your industry expertise into that blog, and the consultant comes alongside you to make sure you are hitting all the SEO marks. It’s a match made in digital heaven!
Squirrly’s SEO Live Assistant gives you professional writing advice based on current trends and best practices. Here are some of the checks the Live Assistant performs as you are writing:
- Keyword Stuffing
- Clarity in writing
- Strong opening and closing paragraphs
- Length of the URL, Title, and article
- Use of Header Tags
- Image with ALT tag
- Meta description
- Repetitive words
5. Blogging Assistant
Whether you are new to blogging or a seasoned blogger, you probably have a ton of tabs open, including WordPress, Google, articles for research, and Twitter to find the latest news on your topic. Going back and forth between them all can be confusing.
Squirrly SEO provides a blogging assistant right inside the WordPress composer. No more clicking around!
This tool helps you stay focused on writing effective, quality content by providing resources on the same page. The Blogging Assistant provides access to:
- Copyright-free images to add rich content to your post based on your focus keyword. Not only that, but the assistant will automatically add an ALT text for on-page optimization.
- A stream of Tweets based on your focus keyword so you’ll have the latest discussions right in front of you. Click “Insert it” to incorporate a specific tweet in your article.
- Wikipedia articles for easy fact-checking or background information on your topic. You can go to the article directly or add it to your post by clicking the Read It or Insert It options.
- Blog excerpts from fellow bloggers or Influencers of your topic you can reference. Or, on the other hand, use it as competitor research.
The Verdict
So, is it worth it? Here is the Squirrly SEO review.
Squirrly SEO is an all-in-one tool. While it has the content optimization features like Yoast SEO or RankMath, it comes with bonuses. The Daily SEO Goals is something we haven’t seen before that keeps writers motivated and progress moving in the right direction. The built-in Keyword Research Tool also is nice to have, rather than a separate service like Moz or SEMRush.
No SEO campaign is complete without a robust off-page SEO effort. Off-page SEO includes the acquisition of backlinks and perfecting off-site digital assets that will improve your website ranking. No site will rank on page one for competitive keywords without backlink work. This work can be done in one of two ways – fire an in-house employee to do the work or an SEO agency for a fraction of the cost.
If you want to get started implementing SEO strategies, but don’t have the resources to hire an SEO agency, then Squirrly SEO is worth the price. If you’re serious about ranking well, you probably won’t achieve your best results due to a lack of off-page SEO work.
Tim Woda is the CEO and founder of White Peak and the creator of Love Your Site, Mercury Reviews, and Sprout AI Chat. He has been on the founding team of five successful start-ups, and his digital marketing campaigns have acquired more than 800 million customers. Tim has been featured by The New York Times, Fox News, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and more. Under Tim’s direction, White Peak was selected as one of America’s Top Digital Marketing Agencies by MarTech Outlook magazine.
