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Hubspot vs RhinoSEO:Comparison of Keyword, Inbound Link, and SEO Tools

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Are you on a quest to discover the right tools to take your web marketing to the next level? 

If so, you’ve probably stumbled across two of the most popular web marketing products available today:  Hubspot and RhinoSEO. 

So here’s the deal.  If you’re a “technologically challenged” small business owner who wants to better your web marketing efforts, you’re in luck because this product comparison is written for you.  We are looking to answer a single question: 

Which product, Hubspot or RhinoSEO, best empowers “non-techie” business people to run a rock solid DIY web marketing campaign? 

Let’s start this comparison by asking ourselves a quick question:  What are the fundamental objectives of web marketing?

In short, simple terms, they are the following:

In this four part series, we'll use these objectives as the basis for our comparison.  Here in part one, we'll compare SEO tools to see which product best empowers businesses to increase traffic to their site.  

Hubspot vs RhinoSEO (Part 1 of 4): Comparison of SEO Tools

Driving traffic to a website is no small undertaking, and it's multi-faceted.  In order to effectively bring visitors to a site, you have to do several things:

• Create content on a regular basis
• Have good On-Page SEO
  
• Have a solid keyword strategy
• Have as many quality inbound links to the site as possible

So which product, Hubspot or RhinoSEO, offers the tools to help small businesses do this best?   Let's dive in and find out!

CONTENT CREATION TOOLS:

Right off the bat, the biggest differentiator between these two products is that Hubspot offers a Content Management System (CMS) and Rhino does not.  What is a CMS?  Basically, it’s a system that simplifies the process of adding or editing web content.  A good CMS is like web design for dummies, because it allows “everyday Joe’s” to build and manage their own websites without knowledge of HTML code (computer language).

Translation: Rhino doesn’t give users the ability to manage their site, so in order to add or edit content, another Content Management system, such as Wordpress, is required. 

We’re going to cover the implications of an external CMS more in another section, but in terms of adding content for the purpose of driving traffic to the site, Hubspot gives the user the ability to do it ‘in-house’ where Rhino does not. 

ON-PAGE SEO TOOLS:

There are many types of SEO tools, but what I’m referring to here is On-Page SEO.  In other words, tools that allow the user to analyze each page of the site and give them specific direction in ways to achieve maximum SEO. 

Hubspot has a tool called Page Grader, which is basically like a built in On-Page SEO coach.  It grades the SEO effectiveness of each page by analyzing critical components such as the url, page title, meta description, meta keywords, images, etc.  As shown below, Page Grader indicates when there’s an SEO problem with a page and tells the user how to correct it.    

Here's a look at Hubspot's Page Grader Tool: 

As you can see, the tool indicates when each component of the page is "seo friendly" with a green check mark and throws up a yellow caution sign when something needs tweaking.  Page Grader also tells the user other useful info about the page such as how many keywords the page ranks for, how many links are coming into the page, and how many visitors the page receives.  It also shows the keywords the page currently ranks for in a chart (which was below the fold so it doesn't appear in the image.)

This may not seem like a big deal to the SEO experts out there, but trust me, it’s vital to the small business person who’s learning the basics of SEO and needs constant feedback to insure they’re getting it right…..and anyone who's familiar with SEO knows that this stuff has to be on point because even the pros get it wrong sometimes.     

Rhino SEO does not currently offer any interactive tools to help the user with On-Page SEO.

Now, let's take a look at Inbound Link tools offered by both products.

INBOUND LINK TOOLS:    

Inbound links are essential because the quality and quantity of the links coming into a website greatly influence search engine results.  For this reason, inbound links need to be monitored and even nurtured.  Hubspot and Rhino both offer inbound link tools so let's take a look at both:

RhinoSEO Link Tools:

  As you can see, the above chart indicates whether inbound links to the site are increasing or decreasing over a period of time.

The above page shows what pages are linked to the site.  Rhino also has, as part of it's inbound link tools, a page that lists inbound links to the site from strongest to weakest. 

Let's take a look at Hubspot's Link Grader Tool:

As you can see, Hubspot also shows how many links are coming into the site, but it also assigns each link a grade based on it's "link juice".  Hubspot also shows how many visits come from each link as well as how many leads convert.  Plus, as we covered earlier, don't forget that through Hubspots Page Grader Tool the user can view inbound links to each individual page of the site as well.   

Finally, let's look at the keyword tools offered by Hubspot and RhinoSEO.

KEYWORD TOOLS:

Keyword strategy is critical to the success of any web marketing effort.  Hubspot and Rhino both have excellent keyword tools that allow the user to track the effectiveness of specific keywords, competitors rankings, and even suggest new keywords to add to your campaign.  But let’s take a closer look at some of the differences between the two products.

RhinoSEO's keyword tool:

As you can see, the above page shows the keywords that visitors typed in to find the site from various search engines.  This is great to know as we are often surprised by the unexpected keywords people use to find us. 

The above page shows how the user ranks for each individual keyword compared to their competitors.  This is a great evaluation tool for monitoring your keyword success in contrast to your competition.   

This page basically give the same info, position and page rank, but shows the keywords in list form without competitors. 

Now let's check out Hubspots Keyword Grader tool:

As you can see, Hubspot provides the user with keyword rank and visit data as well, but also shows the level of difficulty as well as estimated CPC for each keyword. 

Hubspot also allows the user to customize their keyword list by choosing favorites (the red heart) and rank the relevance of each keyword on a scale from 1-5.  This is done in the relevance column on the chart.  The drop down menu beside "Show Keywords" allows the user to produce keyword lists based on relevance, favorites, actual visits, and several other values.  These customization tools are great for managing keyword lists as they tend to become more and more difficult to manage as they grow over time.   

The green and red numbers in the rank column also indicate whether the rank for that keyword is increasing or decreasing.  This allows the user to scroll down the keyword list and make an overall assessment at a glance. 

Like Rhino, Hubspot also allows the user to compare keyword rankings with competitors by simply clicking the check box beside "competitors view".  Then the following chart will appear:

As you can see, Hubspot spits out all of your competitors and how they rank for all of your listed keywords.

Hubspot also shows keyword progress over time.  By clicking "View Keyword Summary Chart" at the top of Hubspots keyword grader page, the following chart appears:

The great thing about this chart is that the date range is customizable which allows the user to track overall keyword progress over weeks, months, or years.  As you can see, it tracks keywords in the top 10, top 100, and how many keywords are actually producing traffic. 

Finally, Hubspot also allows the user to evaluate how each page performs for specific keywords.  As part of the Page Grader tool mentioned before, the user can see the following info for each page of the site:

This chart shows the actual keywords that brought visitors to the page.  This allows the user to hone in on specific pages to check keyword performance and add unexpected keywords to the list.

CONCLUSION:

So, which product, Hubspot or RhinoSEO, best empowers the "non-techie" business owner to drive traffic to their site?

My conclusion: Hubspot, for the following reasons:

• Hubspot simply gives the user so much more usable information than RhinoSEO such as....
• Keyword data: progress over time, rank changes, competition level, estimated PPC, keywords per page, plus customization such as favorites and relevance ranking.
• Link data: link grades, visits per link, leads per link, view links for each page

2.  Hubspot's Tools are Easier to use:

• Hubspot provides more detailed information at a glance.
• If you look at Hubspot's Keyword Grader for example, it presents the user with much more information on a single page than Rhino does in multiple pages.
• Because Hubspot's CMS is "in-house" there is no need to jump from one program to another.    

3. Hubspot's just better for Beginners

• Page Grader On-Page SEO tool spells out in plain language what search engines are looking for and allows the user to build web pages accordingly.
• Hubspot's All-in-one package, including the CMS, allows "regular Joes" to add and edit their own content with no knowledge of HTML code.

So there you have it, part 1 of 4 done.  In Part 2 we'll compare Hubspot's and Rhino's lead capture and lead nurturing tools.  Cheers until then.

We encourage and welcome you to share any honest feedback on either of these two products in our comments section below.  Thanks for being here!