There's always a lot of talk around SEO tools in the webmaster and SEO community. Some say a good piece of SEO software is all you need to improve your search rankings and get that desired spot on top of Google search results. Others argue that tools are useless and everything and manual labor is the only way to go. And some people go even further and claim that using SEO software can get your website banned ruining all the time and effort you invested into optimizing your site. As in many cases the truth lies somewhere between the extremes so let's try to dig it up.

Of course there's no magic SEO software that would propel your website to the top of Google in a click of a button. Even the best SEO tool out there won't help you rank any better unless you know how to use it. Of course there are poor SEO tools out there that don't hold any value but in many cases the problem lies not with the software or script but with the way people use it. There are a lot of helpful tools that really make the life of a website promoter easier. And with the right approach they can really boost your efficiency, give you new levels of insight and help you achieve more with less effort.

SEO tools can be helpful in a number of ways. First of all they help you get and analyze the data you need to plan and shape your SEO strategy. In many the data cannot be accessed otherwise. For example you can only guess how many people search for a particular keyword. And it's not very wise to base your SEO campaign on a guess, however educated it is. Therefore you simply can't do without a keyword research tool that has a database of the search volumes for each keyword. I'd like to see people who claim all SEO tools are useless try and do this by hand.

Another important aspect where SEO tools can be of a great help is automating the repetitive tasks such as rank checking, reporting, backilink checking, link popularity monitoring, etc. Of course you can try and do this manually, but you'll end up wasting so much time on these important yet monkey-labor tasks that you won't have much time left for actually optimizing your site. And if you're doing SEO on a scale going for a purely manual SEO is simply impossible.

SEO tools do help you get more productive and they do offer a lot of value to an SEO. The thing is you should not treat them as the ultimate solution. You still need to rely on your own skills and analytical thinking for analysis, testing and implementation of your SEO activities. But when it comes to gathering and breaking up data, monitoring your progress and drafting reports SEO tools are the only way to go.