SE Ranking vs. Shorthand

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
SE Ranking
Score 9.3 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
An SEO toolset for agency and in-house pros.
$65
per month
Shorthand
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Shorthand enables the user to create interactive multimedia stories for any online audience — all with no code. The vendor boasts that Shorthand is used by hundreds of publishers, brands, non-profits, and more — including the BBC, Honda, Business Insider, and Doctors Without Borders.N/A
Pricing
SE RankingShorthand
Editions & Modules
Essential
$65
per month
Pro
$119
per month
Business
$259
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SE RankingShorthand
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSE Ranking’s subscription plans are available at a 20% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SE RankingShorthand
Features
SE RankingShorthand
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
SE Ranking
7.9
16 Ratings
2% above category average
Shorthand
-
Ratings
Keyword analysis7.99 Ratings00 Ratings
Backlink management7.316 Ratings00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking7.915 Ratings00 Ratings
Page grader7.611 Ratings00 Ratings
Competitive analysis7.915 Ratings00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics7.916 Ratings00 Ratings
Site recommendations8.412 Ratings00 Ratings
Task management7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
SE Ranking
8.1
14 Ratings
7% above category average
Shorthand
-
Ratings
Local SEO8.111 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile SEO8.112 Ratings00 Ratings
Global SEO8.213 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
SE Ranking
8.4
14 Ratings
0% below category average
Shorthand
-
Ratings
Multi-domain support8.512 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools8.413 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Creation
Comparison of Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
SE Ranking
-
Ratings
Shorthand
9.0
1 Ratings
13% above category average
Content collaboration00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content Publishing
Comparison of Content Publishing features of Product A and Product B
SE Ranking
-
Ratings
Shorthand
6.8
1 Ratings
15% below category average
Content hub00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Embedded CTAs00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Content distribution00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Content promotion00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
SE RankingShorthand
Small Businesses
Nozzle
Nozzle
Score 10.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Advanced Web Ranking
Advanced Web Ranking
Score 8.2 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Conductor
Conductor
Score 9.2 out of 10
Conductor
Conductor
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
SE RankingShorthand
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(16 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
SE RankingShorthand
Likelihood to Recommend
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a fantastic tool if you are a marketing agency or freelancer looking for a single tool for the majority of your SEO work. It also includes B2B tools like their lead generation widget and white label reports that can help you generate new leads for your business. It would get 10 stars if their database was larger to accommodate research for small geographic areas, but they are always expanding their database so it may just be a matter of time. Research SE Ranking has pricing plans available for every budget.
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Shorthand
Shorthand is ideally suited to visual stories where you have a good number of images and/or embeds or video to include. It is well-suited to long-form stories, where you wish to keep the readers' attention longer than usual. It can help to differentiate particularly important or intriguing stories from others on your website - and for this reason, it could be used as a premium content tool, perhaps for subscribers. It can also be used to showcase stories about awards you've organised, giving them special treatment. It is less suited to breaking news, or very time-sensitive news stories, as it can take some time to prepare, post or update shorthand stories. And it doesn't work well for stories with strong accompanying imagery
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Pros
SE Ranking
  • Rank racking. It’s really important for us that the ranks are tracked accurately.
  • Monitoring of changes made on the website. We’ve found this feature really useful.
  • Reports. This includes auto reports and manuals. We can easily and quickly create reports to check our SEO progress month by month.
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Shorthand
  • Enabling visual storytelling with multiple pictures
  • Embedding rich media within a story, including video
  • Engaging readers for longer than average dwell times
  • Making it easy to create striking article design without coding experience
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Cons
SE Ranking
  • I really don't think SE Ranking has many flaws. They are also rolling out an app at the moment - SE Ranking Pro - need to test that one.
  • Some more video tutorials on the site on how to use some tools would be helpful.
  • More in-system popups would be more helpful too.
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Shorthand
  • Additional flexibility in how text is overlaid on pictures would be welcome so that there are more choices on what images to use with particular layouts
  • Enabling users to control the path of text - for example, enabling runaround - could enable some excellent designs
  • Adding additional section templates could speed up design
  • More flexibility in caption placement would be helpful
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Usability
SE Ranking
They had a huge update recently and the platform is now even better. Although not all the tools are yet in the new design.
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Shorthand
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
SE Ranking
No answers on this topic
Shorthand
I have never known it to be down during my use of it. All you require is an internet connection to log in and you can use it on multiple devices. Adding ease of accessibility, there are simple ways to log in. I've also never known a Shorthand story to go down once live on our site.
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Performance
SE Ranking
No answers on this topic
Shorthand
Due to the integration with our content management software, there is a short delay on our site while it loads, which may cause some readers to drift away. However, I've seen other sites where it instantly loads articles, so I believe this to be down to the content management software behind our site more than Shorthand itself. Once that brief initial period is over, it doesn't require additional loading time.
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Support Rating
SE Ranking
The support is great but they don't have 24/7 support. And time zones can also be an issue sometimes. On the other hand there are plenty of guides and videos around to get yourself started. I never really needed support for "big" issues. And the help I got was good enough.
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Shorthand
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is better than Serpstat or MOZ or Ahrefs when it comes to tracking keyword rankings, but it lacks in every other SEO category, such as onsite and offsite SEO metrics, content analysis, etc... It's a good choice for agencies that are interested in tracking keywords for their clients, but other than that it underperforms in every other SEO category.
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Shorthand
No answers on this topic
Scalability
SE Ranking
No answers on this topic
Shorthand
As a web-based service, it is easy for users to log into from anywhere. Content can easily be shared, as you can set up teams that enable access to each other's work as required. And content can be reviewed by others before publication using the sharing function. You can also view how an article will look on different devices.
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Return on Investment
SE Ranking
  • The website "health" report has allowed us to fix things that Google might find strange or cause us to lose rankings, which has been very helpful.
  • It's given us more visibility into what exactly our SEO management company is doing and how they are performing, and if things are changing or not. It's very easy to see right from the dashboard.
  • Being able to see how our competitors stack up against us has helped us know where to improve, what to focus on, and how to be even better.
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Shorthand
  • Helped us create one of our top 10 most-read and most-shared stories in the last year
  • Enabled us to elevate key pieces of content, boosting dwell time on our site
  • But can also be time-consuming to adopt for some stories, meaning you need to choose well what stories really deserve the investment in time
  • Boosted collaboration between teams via its ability to share, including offering the chance for others to preview content prior to publication
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ScreenShots

SE Ranking Screenshots

Screenshot of SE Ranking main dashboardScreenshot of SE Ranking keyword researchScreenshot of SE Ranking website auditScreenshot of SERP CompetitorsScreenshot of Organic SERP HistoryScreenshot of Content tool

Shorthand Screenshots

Screenshot of Easily add sections and adjust styling.