The AuthorityLabs review reveals an app designed specifically for local business promotion. It is focused on targeted work rather than massive advertising campaigns. Moreover, it has a range of tools that would be interesting and useful for SEO beginners, small business owners, and startups. However, this targeted approach has a downside — the limited functionality of the service. Read more about its features in our AuthorityLabs review 2024.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Tracker data granularity down to the postal code;
- Possibility to work with keywords marked “not provided;”
- Emphasis on website optimization for mobile devices;
- Automatic generation of daily reports;
- Ability to create customer newsletters in most subscription plans;
- User-friendly interface, easy to learn.
Cons
- The service provides only rank tracking and keyword research tools.
- The price difference between the subscription plans is too great.
- Uploading data to third-party applications is allowed only with the most expensive subscription.
Overview
All AuthorityLabs reviews note that it is a narrowly specialized tool. You should not expect anything more from it than being able to work with keywords and track rankings. However, it does its job well, providing you with huge amounts of granular data.
In this review about AuthorityLabs, it is worth emphasizing the word “granular.” The information is not just pages of raw numbers that can only be understood by a professional analyst with years of experience. It is categorized by day, search engine, device type, and geographic locations. If you want to run an advertising campaign targeting your neighbors in your neighborhood, it won’t be a problem.
Another advantage of the service is its simple interface. There is something archaic about it that reminds us of web applications from the early 2010s. But it will be understandable even for those who are just hearing about specialized SEO platforms for the first time. Key functions are placed on the control panel on the right side of the screen. Reports contain only the elements you need to optimize your site. Large fonts and colorful graphs grab your attention, preventing you from getting lost in an array of numbers.
Pricing & Plans
At the time of the AuthorityLabs review 2024, the service offered a 14-day trial period. You can use it in a couple of clicks — you do not have to enter a bank card number or sign a contract upfront.
If you are satisfied with the web application, you can sign up for one of the paid subscriptions:
- Plus — $49 per month — gives you access to all basic functions. There is a set limit for tracking 50 domains and 250 keywords.
- Pro — $99 per month — unlocks “white” customer reports and Google Data Studio service. Increases the limits to 100 domains and 1,000 keywords.
- Pro Plus — $225 per month. Despite such a big difference in price, you only get an upgrade of 300 domains and 2,500 keywords.
- Enterprise — $450 per month. It finally unlocks the API and the ability to integrate with third-party services. It does not limit the number of domains but allows you to work with 5,000 keywords.
Features
Rank tracking
As we mentioned when we began to review AuthorityLabs, this is the main function of the service. It lets you know exactly where your business is at the moment. How important is it? This information can be the key to success as it allows you to compare your company with competitors, evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaign, and look for priority areas of development. So, when reviewing AuthorityLabs, we want to focus on the following features.
Global tracking
Almost every large business started out as a small enterprise — just recall the stories of Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. That is why in AuthorityLabs reviews, it is important not to ignore the global monitoring functions. The service works with Google, Bing, and Yahoo! search engines. It allows you to segment your audience by all regions and languages available with those resources.
When we conducted this review of AuthorityLabs, we started very quickly. To begin tracking, you just need to enter a domain — your own or a competitor’s — and then add keywords to the list. Everything takes a few clicks and about a minute, after which you get vital information.
AThe daily data update and automatic report that was generated based on it was a pleasant surprise for us in this AuthorityLabs review. If your optimization methodology reaches a dead end or a new competitor decides to push you to the margins of the market, you will know about it immediately and can take the necessary measures before you lose any money.
But our true favorite is the “Now Provided” report. If you’re already experienced in SEO, you understand the frustration and disappointment that “Not Provided” notes can cause when you’re researching keywords. Just imagine — you have very serious traffic sources, but you can’t work with them because of a lack of information. In this regard, AuthorityLabs is up to par with market leaders. Using its database and Google Analytics services, the service fills in the gaps, allowing you to make truly informed and effective decisions.
Another reason to use at least a trial subscription is the click-through rate statistics. It allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of attracting organic and paid traffic using certain keywords, as well as track the user’s path to the target action. AuthorityLabs reviews always rate this solution highly. Competing services provide click-through statistics only with top subscriptions, which are much more expensive.
In general, the developer is very loyal to small agencies and SEO specialists who are just starting their careers. This is confirmed by the ability to create branded reports in one of the basic subscription plans with a $99 subscription. This is yet another feature that is usually provided only in maximum plans.
And most importantly, all these features are available to an unlimited number of users within one account! AuthorityLabs allows you to hire the team you need. You don’t have to pay extra for each additional workplace — you can easily scale your project at any time.
Local tracking
This is one of the key features of the service, which inspired us to review AuthorityLabs. Its operating principle is very simple: it allows you to independently determine locations for working with your target audience.
Why is local tracking so important that it has become the focus of all AuthorityLabs reviews? For a small business, it is much more effective than working on the entire Internet. You have to admit, no one is going to drive from Houston to Chicago to visit a small coffee shop or buy sweets in a store. No, your customers live nearby, maybe even on the floor above.
The possibility to add multiple postal codes to study in the report is also worthy of special attention. It is very convenient for owners of businesses outside of large cities, such as restaurants, hotels, golf clubs, etc. Such businesses can target potential customers in several cities in a region or dozens of small towns. For them, AuthorityLabs will be an indispensable service, as it will allow them to separate the local target audience with surgical precision, minimizing costs and increasing the return on marketing investments.
Mobile tracking
The developer emphasizes that in some online business industries up to 70% of traffic comes from portable devices . Therefore, you should definitely optimize your website for them. To check how effectively you are working in this direction, you can track the ranks for mobile gadgets separately. Although this time, the process is somewhat more complicated.
Unlike competing services, it’s not enough to simply enable the appropriate filter in the report. For mobile tracking, you need to add a domain again, selecting the appropriate device type. On the one hand, you get the flexibility to customize your reports. On the other hand, in basic plans, you will quickly encounter limits.
Among the disadvantages that we noted in the AuthorityLabs review was the lack of a website audit. If you need to find out what percentage of users access your website from mobile devices or check the optimization of your website for portable gadgets, the service will simply redirect you to Google Analytics.
Featured snippet tracking
If you enter a fairly popular query in Google, you can see not only regular links. The search engine often provides results in the form of:
- brief background information, such as a definition;
- answers to frequently asked questions;
- images and videos;
- “carousels” with goods in online stores;
- news;
- similar queries in trends.
If you succeed to appear among these, the effectiveness of your SEO optimization will increase rapidly, as you will get a place in front of the organic search leaders. And it is free, except for the effort involved.
AuthorityLabs knows how to work with featured snippets. If a certain keyword query meets the requirements to be included in these blocks, a corresponding icon will appear next to it — an image, video, quote, information sign, etc. If your site is already receiving impressions, this icon will have a dark background.
What is it for? You can track which key queries your site is ranking for and which are dropping out of the SERP. In the AuthorityLabs review, we used a very simple tool. Unfortunately, it still requires some manual work — given the narrow specialization of the service, the developers could have automated it.
Competitor monitoring
Finally, we’ve come to the real basics of marketing. Rule #1 — know your competitors. And in AuthorityLabs reviews, this feature is always given enough attention. It works incredibly simply: you add domains of other market players to the tracker just like you add your own URL. Don’t forget that you will have to repeat this operation to track mobile traffic.
In the AuthorityLabs review, we should note that the developer does not just provide the possibility of monitoring the competitive situation. The platform contains a huge amount of reference information:
- instructions on how to use certain tools;
- explanations of complex marketing terms;
- tips for improving SEO efficiency;
- recommendations for working with keywords, etc.
Therefore, registering with this service is not just a smooth and convenient learning curve. It is an opportunity to improve your skills while you work — with real business instead of a textbook and real traffic figures instead of dull statistical reference books.
Other features
In addition to rank tracking, AuthorityLabs offers an API for working with large amounts of information. It is available only in the top Enterprise plan, and therefore, only well-promoted SEO agencies will be able to use it.
However, in AuthorityLabs reviews, this feature is positively rated. And for good reason — we contacted the developer’s representative to get more information. The specialist professionally answered all our questions and assured us that the service’s API integrates with any third-party platforms, regardless of their complexity. They even named the integration methods — HTML or JSON.
In addition, they assured us we would receive the necessary technical support. We were told that if this “bridge” between the two services stopped working for some reason, it would be restored within the shortest possible time.
Conclusions
In the AuthorityLabs review, we can give the service a mixed evaluation. It does provide very in-depth and detailed analytics, but many of its operations are not automated. The interface is simple and user-friendly, but the platform’s design shows trends from the early 2010s, which could annoy the contemporary user.
- AuthorityLabs’ basic plans are really quite affordable, although compared to services like SE Ranking or Moz Pro, you get fewer features for the same amount of money. And as soon as you step up to the next level costs increase 2-4 times.
Our conclusion is simple. AuthorityLabs is an ideal tool for small and medium-sized businesses that want to work effectively with their local target audiences. But on a larger scale, we recommend using a multi-purpose SEO platform that provides access to many tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AuthorityLabs?
AuthorityLabs is a handy website rank tracker. It allows you to conduct keyword research, monitor competitors, and evaluate the effectiveness of mobile web optimization. Its key features include the option to receive detailed analytics, an unlimited number of users in one account, and easy report generation.
How to use AuthorityLabs?
AuthorityLabs is a cloud-based service that can be run in any modern browser. You can create a trial account without signing a contract or providing bank card details. With the top subscription plan, you get an API for integration with various applications, plugins, or widgets.
What is AuthorityLabs used for?
AuthorityLabs is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses that want to attract the attention of local consumers. It allows you to granularize traffic by keywords down to the level of the postal code of a particular city or neighborhood. The service can also be used for global tracking — it works with all languages and regions of popular search engines.
How much is AuthorityLabs?
The cost of a basic subscription is $49 per month. To get access to “white” reports and integration with Google Data Studio, you need to pay $99. The Pro Plus plan, which significantly increases the limits on the number of domains and keywords, costs $225 per month. The top Enterprise subscription with an open API will cost you $450 per month.