What do you like best about the product?

We regretted our decision to sign on with BrightEdge within the first month. This tool is highly overpriced. There are multiple other software services which provide valuable real time data. BrightEdge data lags by up to two weeks.

Not a lot of positive to talk about here.

What do you dislike about the product?

Experience was a nightmare! Prior to signing on with BrightEdge we made our intentions very clear. We needed the ability to see rankings on a market by market basis which is not possible with the platform. If you are looking for a tool to help with Local search do not go with BrightEdge.

Contract:
We requested an out for non performance within the first 30 days and were told there was nothing they could do. We expressed our concerns time and time again regarding lack of attention by their team and lack of the software capabilities. We were told one thing through the sales cycle and come to find out nothing was true.

Lack of Consulting:
Every meeting we had with our account manager was us teaching her about SEO. We received zero advice and after every call we would get: "Let me look into that for you". Then on the next meeting 1-2 weeks later we would not receive an answer. Month after month they continued to charge us, though we never received the advice or help we requested. One of the large selling points for us was the one on one consulting we were told Bright Edge provides. When we signed up for the platform we were looking forward to getting a professional involved for recommendations on SEO. We haven’t received any meaningful consulting. The advice we were given was faulted. We were coming to our client success manager with thoughts and were told “yes that sounds good” or “I will look into that”, without any tangible results. We haven’t been given instruction on how to implement anything properly using the BrightEdge platform.

Keyword Research:
During our first months of using Bright Edge we were not able to sync google keyword planner and BrightEdge. In fact BrightEdge was giving us false information on keywords which in turn would lead us toward bad recommendations. Customer success manager from BE couldn’t explain this and we wasted time duplicating efforts because BrightEdge wouldn’t work for Keyword research. The BrightEdge platform is only as good as the information we put into it and we were worried that without proper consult we would heading down the wrong direction. Without accurate data the platform is not doing as promised. Even after we cleared up the time frame of searches there are specific keywords that do not match google, making our internal team complete duplicate efforts.

In conclusion I can not provide enough warning and concern to not utilize BrightEdge! It is a bulky tool that does not provide any more information than competitors like SEMRush and Ahrefs. Buyer Beware!

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were not able to solve any problems relevant to our industry or site. Feel free to reach out to me prior to signing on!

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Do Not Use!!!

What do you like best about the product?

The ease and ability to be able to support analysis and reporting across an entire, complex organization with multiple operating units, divisions and stakeholders.

Beyond the platform, the account and support folks I've worked with over the years at BrightEdge have been phenomenal. They go above and beyond and are comfortable with pushing you forward to find success. I've found them to be more 'partner' than just 'support'.

The last piece I'll note is the community. BrightEdge has really done a great job to promote and foster a community that is way more than just focused on the platform. Their local user groups have been tremendous for knowledge sharing and networking (pre-Covid, anyways) with other SEO and digital folks.

What do you dislike about the product?

Most of my dislikes about the platform have been gradually disappearing as they've done a lot of work around UX and task completion.; eliminating some of the redundancy and reducing the number of clicks needed to do key tasks.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Centralization of SEO research and reporting. We've been able to develop and streamline processes, eliminate other tools and realize cost-savings, as well as enable marketers with intelligence to develop content that performs better from day 1.

What do you like best about the product?

Weekly/biweekly SEO consulting calls with our customer success team; real-time research results; opportunities to connect with their user community. Early on in the pandemic, BrightEdge arranged a virtual community session with home-delivered dinners. Last year, they hosted an onsite workshop for our team, with colleagues not even using the tool, to help us set & align on SEO strategy. BrightEdge brings a personal touch in a highly technical space.

What do you dislike about the product?

There are cheaper tools out there, so budget approval that looks only at cost can be a challenge. But for our team, the white-glove consultation our BrightEdge success reps provide is like having a dedicated SEO team member. Our SEO returns have been solid after one year and more than made the case for us to renew.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Our team creates global content without an in-house SEO specialist. Before BrightEdge, our articles lacked basic technical components to help them be found in search and definitely weren't helping us rank for keywords we'd want associated with our brand. Once we started working with BrightEdge, they advised on how to immediately improve our content from the back end and build completeness into our publishing process. They also helped us start identifying keywords we wanted to rank for and taught us how to build keyword research into our content creation process. Because of our regular calls with our success team and applying what we've learned, we've seen 500% growth in our platform's organic footprint year over year. Organic traffic has become a top source of visits.

What do you like best about the product?

BrightEdge listens to the needs of its customers more than any other software vendor I've worked with. They truly cares about customer success, and makes sure the platform capabilities match the ever changing needs of the customer. For example, BrightEdge Instant was launched from a need of customers like myself wanting instant ranking data and SERP layouts. Instant has also become my go-to keyword research engine because it has consolidating a lot of disparate platforms i was using into one powerful section within BrightEdge with up to the minute data on keywords.

What do you dislike about the product?

There's very little to dislike, but the platform can become cost prohibitive if you need to track many keywords across multiple locales and/or search engines.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Being able to monitor, optimize and discover keywords that drive the majority of traffic to a global website is a necessity. With organic traffic ranging from 50-60% of all traffic sources there's no argument that knowing how to retain and improve a primary traffic source is key to success. Personally, BrightEdge has helped us see a 20-50% YoY increase in organic traffic over the past 3 years with only a small team of dedicated SEO specialists.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Like all software, to get any value out of it you need to dedicate time and resources. It does not do SEO for you. BrightEdge does provide visibility into areas of focus, saving time and allowing you to focus on high opportunity areas.

What do you like best about the product?

Data Cube is an essential SEO tool that I cannot live without. It boasts the longest running collection of SEO ranking and domain-level data and thus is without equal in my opinion. I would put their upgraded tools, like Instant, Link Equity Manager and Market Insights, up there as well. Not every enterprise can afford the upgraded tools so I will only say that if you can they are worth every additional penny. All SEO tools offer something a little different but BrightEdge comes pretty close to having everything I need. I can track links, review technical issues, and assign them to my staff. Reporting is top-notch too. Bottom line: whether you go all in or just take a base package just know that BrightEdge can make your life much easier as an SEO. I am able to translate my overarching SEO strategies into actionable pieces and then track and measure performance. I have used them twice in my career and consider them a big part of my success. Finally, your customer success team is there to help you win and make you look. I've had several reps, all up to the task. My CSM team is the cherry on top.

What do you dislike about the product?

SEO tools are only as good as what you put into them and BrightEdge is no different. It takes time to research, strategize, and put your plan into action. How you set up BrightEdge can help you exponentially. At the same time, if you don't put in effort into setup you may not reap all you can out of them. If you are new to their platform, you may also have trouble understanding where to find things. Looking in settings to create your keyword groups may not be all that intuitive but once you realize that all setup is in your settings, it is a breeze. Also recommendations have come a long way but hard to automate what is inside an SEO's head. A small gripe really given all of the value I receive from their platform but needed to say it nonetheless.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Keyword tracking, reporting, analysis, research, competitive research, technical SEO, site performance, global optimization, and trended results over tine. Ultimately, I use BrightEdge to assist me and help me obtain the SEO goals I have set to achieve. When you ask if a tool is worth it, you have to look to see what contributions is makes to your overall SEO success. Or better stated, how can this tool help me accelerate the path to proficiency. I increased kw's ranking on Page #1 by 30% in year one and at 5% in year two with associated levels of traffic and conversion improvements. Clearly, BrightEdge has helped me to deliver.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Take a demo, see Data Cube and picture yourself needing to quick and accurate research on a whim for either you or a need to investigate a competitor. A common occurrence at an enterprise level. Then see how BrightEdge can help you manage this task easily. Next see reporting and how useful it could be setting up dashboards and tracking results. Finally, take a look at their advanced feature sets. If not for now, at least to see where these guys are headed. Self-automating SEO, as a future state. Then ask how you can live without them.

What do you like best about the product?

I personally love DataCube as well as Instant. These two features alone do more than any other platform. The rest - things like ContentIQ is cherry on top!

What do you dislike about the product?

I would love to have more control in ContentIQ. I am sure they will evolve it and will happen soon!

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

1. How are my competitors preforming compared to myself and where are they winning the most?
2. What content should I be producing to gain market share?
3. What parts of our site from a technical front are a problem and how do we prioritize them?
4. What keywords should I use to optimize existing content?

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It's worth the investment - just make sure you understand what the platform does. Often if you don't understand the information the platform is describing - make sure you have an in-house SEO person or a customer service rep to help explain. They analyze a lot of the data for you but it's good to do your own analysis as well. If you are struggling with ranking content - this is the perfect opportunity to figure out what your competitors are doing and steal market share! You can also utilize this to help prioritize technical enhancements.

What do you like best about the product?

The combination of the tools and the account manager support has allowed us to continue to grow our SEM results and ensure we chase the relevant items.

What do you dislike about the product?

The word rank measurement tool is not as clean as other tools, but still effective.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We increase keyword rankings for targeted categories and help drive more traffic. the link equity manager has been very useful.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

The account manager is a key part of guiding our reviews for the team to keep focused.

What do you like best about the product?

Working with the account team that helps to support our goals is definitely a highlight. They listen and work with us to identify opportunities resulting in strong organic growth. As far as the platform goes, the feature we probably use the most is the Data Cube research tool. It gives us instant insights that help inform our strategies along with the Share of Voice feature.

What do you dislike about the product?

I think it would be nice to see more technical based features. We currently use a separate technical based platform to fill in the gaps between the content & technical insights.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We're getting a lot of insights that help to influence other teams to consider our recommendations. That's been very useful. We've also trained content producing teams to use the keyword research functionality of the platform to influence their topics. This is has been pretty easy since we can quickly add users to the platform.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

It's a solid enterprise level SEO platform and good support team.

What do you like best about the product?

The team that supports you to help you get and close new business is key to the platform's success. The agency support team enables you to prepare data and slides to integrate into presentations. They help get things started for you and crank it up.

What do you dislike about the product?

It could be easier to integrate into other reporting platforms. They have an API feed, but there may be additional ways to integrate into a reporting platform like tableau. The team that supports the agency team could improve their support and speed. Often waiting for some time for support. Could add additional improvement to backlink feature similar to SEM rush.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

we were trying to serve clients faster and bring them more engaging charts. We have been able to reduce our time spent to generate reports and additional analysis to clients. It has allowed us to bring more detail to clients faster that allows them to see what action items should take place.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Determine if you need top level support. If you do this team is great

What do you like best about the product?

BrightEdge is a great SEO tool. The support team behind it is outstanding. They provide good training as to how to use the tool and then biweekly updates to help you best optimize your SEO. BrightEdge has a complete library of tools you can use to learn how to best use the tool.

The upside of using BrightEdge is how you are better able to maximize the results of your webstie. It also allow you to maximize the results of your other marketing communication tools too.

BrightEdge provides some strong executive summary tools that help you tell your story to management.

What do you dislike about the product?

It takes a time to learn the tool and how to best use it. To get the most out of the tool you need to spend a minimum of five hours per week working with the tool to start to see the benefits. When you begin to use the tool you need lots of consultation time from the BrightEdge team.

You need to be aware of the time required upfront and on an ongoing based before you purchase the tool. This information should be made clearer in the buying process.

The downside of a tool like this is that you are required to do the work vs. having the consultant handle it. What is least helpful about BrightEdge is the change of consultants. However, it should be noted that each consultant assigned to us was very good.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We had never really done any true SEO work and we needed to raise our visibility and increase the quality and quantity of our website traffic. As a result of BrightEdge we were able to do both. Our website traffic increased. In addition we received more new business leads and RFPs .

BrightEdge impacted our work by making our website work harder and better for us. It allowed us to better understand how we needed to modify our messaging to get the results that we needed. It also allowed us to keep on top of the changes in the industry and our competition. This competitive intelligence helped us tailor our messaging to make it more effective.