Matrix is the Enterprise or Agency level search engine optimization platform formerly developed and owned by Barcelona based company Intelligent SEO which was recently (Jan. 2014) acquired by American company Insequent, Inc to expand their offerings. Matrix presents the full panoply of SEO features, like search ranking and tracking, keyword and backlink monitoring and suggestions, site audit, competitor tracking and head-to-head comparison with the home team, also a landing page generator, and…
I think that Matrix is a fairly good CRM tool for sales organizations to utilize to manage account lists and track progress to budget. Managers can encourage sales folks by utilizing the reports to track progress from current year to previous years, and see what changes need to be made. I don't feel like relying completely on the integration of other systems to give you a fail proof look at where you are to budget is a great idea with this software, but for a basic CRM tool, it does the trick.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is well suited to auditing brand new websites, when you need a quick, holistic view of the websites technical issues. Its great for providing a top line view of a websites architecture, perhaps for a new business approach where you need to assess the scale of work to maintain a website. Its also a useful tool in situations where you might need to see whether a large scale change in the website has taken place, you can see word counts, pages and their https response codes. Screaming Frog may be less useful if you need an idea of the customer experience on a website, it doesn't really provide information that helps assess how fast a website loads, what issues might come up when trying to convert or faults with the payment process. Screaming Frog is largely a technical SEO focused tool, it also can't assess the quality of a websites, layout or the quality of the content used on the website. As mentioned, its niche, but very useful within that niche.
I do think that completeness in which it integrates data from our traffic and order entry system could improve some. We have found instances where data isn't cleanly input and requires some manual clean up on the backside.
While the system itself is pretty user-friendly, sometimes the system itself seems a bit slow. For AE's whose time is rather valuable, this I know they find annoying at times.
Since I have the ability to see everyone's data and not just one AE's, I would like the managerial functionality a bit more comprehensive. Some of the reports are a bit cumbersome.
Requires Java. This isn't a huge deal as many computers already have it installed, but it's yet another 3rd party component.
The free version has a crawl limit of 500 pages per site. This is fine for smaller sites, but if you're running a big e-commerce site then you'll need to pay for Pro version.
The user interface isn't very pretty. This is an analytics tool so it doesn't really have to be, but it might be helpful for improving the overall user experience.
The tool has become integrated into our teams daily workings and I have yet to find a tool other than scremaing frog to replicate all of our use cases for it. It's a great tool and we're sticking with it
Easy for me to use because I have using the product for a long time and understand the ins and outs of it. If I was a newbie, I would be completely lost. It does take some prior knowledge to operate this software and understanding of what a crawl means
Screaming Frog is a relatively primitive system, and doesn't need to be supported by devs or other software. Screaming Frog does interface directly with some programs that are most needed (Google Analytics, Search Console, Page Speed Insights), so that's convenient. It isn't widely supported by other programs, but it also doesn't need to be.
I think they are doing the right things, staying in their lane. I never like it when companies try to be everything to everyone. It dilutes their effectiveness on their core values to me. I want them to drill down and focus on the things they are already doing and keep making them better.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is probably the best non-client facing SEO audit tool in terms of technical SEO. There are other tools on the market that do a more complete job of keyword tracking, competitive analysis, and backlink profiles...however, for analyzing the technical SEO health of any website, Screaming Frog is the best
I do think that Matrix has had a positive impact of requiring AE's to better manage their own business.
Since I don't directly deal with the contractual piece of Matrix, as far as what the actual ROI is, I can't speak to that. But I can say this, our organization has used this for at least the 6 years I've been there. It is used on a national level, so I do believe that it's roll up features are ones that can be utilized through the organization.
As far as our overall business objectives in the sales department, it certainly meets the needs of both the management team as well as the sales team to managing clients and annual budgets.
Increased employee efficiency - We spend many less hours tracking down and reporting simple meta tags.
Better Client Servicing - We are able to ensure we have a total look at a client's site before we recommend anything.
True Pricing Structure - We are able to more accurately predict how much help a client may need based on factors such as size of site, number of redirects, proper use of meta tags, etc.
