Has SEO software disrupted SEO consultants and specialists? How?

Just like any good bookkeeper needs an accounting package, SEO consultants need to rely on SEO Software for reliable and accurate metrics reporting.  At gShift Labs (http://www.gshiftlabs.com) we have seen this trend first hand and are working with our digital marketing consultants/agencies to get daily seo metrics to you so that you can make strategic decisions and provide transparent data and updates to your clients.

There are many different types of SEO Softwares. I think it would be a mistake to assume that all SEO softwares are disruptive. In fact, I would go on and say that certain functions are best left for SEO softwares to do. We work with a lot of agencies and small business clients. Many times we have found that a designer on client's side updated the web page without informing us. Its almost impossible and waste of time for SEOs to check this manually every week. Similarly there are chances that various codes like Google Analytics might get replaced or deleted. Hence we created a crawler in our system http://www.agencyplatform.com which automated all these tasks. If our crawler finds any such problem, it alerts the project manager. I think softwares which are used to check repetitive tasks are no longer optional but absolutely necessary!

I believe SEO software has the potential to disrupt SEO consultants in a good way, by providing a means for them to deliver measurable results and to be more accountable to their clients. Without SEO software many consultants spend more time gathering, analyzing and formatting data to report back to clients than they do actually following through on the tactics necessary to achieve results.  gShift Labs was developed as a response to this challenge and we have many clients who can attest to the efficiencies they have realized, which also enables them to deliver more profitable services.

SEO software has not really "disrupted" SEO consultants, like Brian points out, and I agree, life became much easier. This job is very complex and you have to look at so many factors, so a little help is always appreciated.

It has in my opinion changed the education process a bit. For example someone might think that a specific software or program is the cats bag but what they don't realize is that they still have to execute the activities in order for the software to work. If you do not have the skills to execute the activities being recommended by the software program than it is useless for you.

I have run up against a few clients that thought they can just plug site variables into SEO software and get rankings. Although some tool-sets allow me to do my job faster and more completely I find there a few misconceptions that I need to dispel as well.