Tools We Actually Use & Recommend
These aren’t sponsored placements or padded “best of” lists — they’re the tools we’ve personally tested for SME marketers and business owners. Each one earned its place by solving a real problem. We update this list as our stack changes.
SEO Tools
Semrush
A full-suite SEO and competitive intelligence platform — keyword research, site audits, backlink analysis, and rank tracking under one roof. The data depth is the main reason serious SEO practitioners keep renewing it year after year.
Best for: SME marketers who want one platform for keyword strategy, technical audits, and tracking competitors without stitching together multiple tools.
Pricing: Paid (subscription — free trial available)
Ahrefs
A comprehensive SEO research platform best known for its backlink index and keyword explorer — solid choice if competitor link analysis is central to your strategy. The learning curve is real, but so is the depth of data.
Best for: Businesses focused on link-building and competitive keyword research who want reliable, high-volume index data.
Pricing: Paid (subscription)
AI Writing & Content
Claude (claude.ai)
An AI assistant built for longer, more nuanced tasks — drafting articles, editing copy, summarizing research, working through strategy questions. Handles complex instructions reliably and produces output that requires less cleanup than most alternatives.
Best for: Marketers who write long-form content and need an AI that can hold context across a full-length article without going off-track.
Pricing: Free tier available; Claude Pro subscription for higher usage
Surfer SEO
A content optimization tool that analyzes top-ranking pages for your target keyword and shows you exactly what your draft is missing — subtopics, structure, word count, semantic coverage. We use it in our own content refresh workflow.
Best for: Anyone publishing or refreshing SEO-driven content who wants data-backed guidance instead of guesswork.
Pricing: Paid (subscription)
Email & Newsletter
Beehiiv
A newsletter platform built for growth — clean writing experience, built-in referral program, monetization options, and detailed subscriber analytics without the complexity of a full marketing automation suite.
Best for: Creators and marketers who want to build and monetize a newsletter audience without needing a developer or expensive add-ons.
Pricing: Free tier available; paid tiers scale with subscriber count and features
Kit (ConvertKit)
An email marketing platform built around creators and small businesses — simple automations, clean signup forms, and a more approachable interface than enterprise-style email tools. This is the platform powering our own newsletter signup.
Best for: Solo marketers and small teams who want to start building an email list without a steep setup curve.
Pricing: Free tier available; paid tiers scale with subscriber count
Some links on this page are affiliate links — meaning we may earn a small commission if you choose to sign up, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we’d use ourselves, and our opinions aren’t influenced by whether a commission is available. Full details on our Affiliate Disclaimer page.
We add tools as we test them — check back as the stack grows. In the meantime, the blog has deeper breakdowns of most of these.