Company: TextOptimizer
Background: TextOptimizer is a service provider who’s concept mainly revolves around two front – helping users come up with creative content ideas and helping them optimize already existing content. However, aside from the fact that it is run by a Mauritius-incorporated company called Webinfo LTD, there isn’t much else to go on.
Starting Price: Free
Currency: USD
Visit Online: https://textoptimizer.com/
Review Summary & Ratings
TextOptimizer seems like a very useful and lightweight tool that makes optimizing and planning content very easy for the layman. It comes clutter-free and is so simplistic that I would say it is close to idiot-proof. It would take real skills not to be able to use it. Touting “better ranking” as its primary marketing spiel, TextOptimizer claims that its system can help you find the right changes to make to your text in order to appeal more on search engines. It can help optimize text for two main search engines, Google and Bing.
Using TextOptimizer to Optimize Content
The basic premise is simple. You choose the search engine you want to optimize for, enter the desired search terms, choose a targeting location and then either provide a web link to existing content or paste your text into their system.
I’m not really a big fan about their targeting mechanism for two reasons. The first is that it seems to be a little vague. For example, if I move the arrow over the United States, does that mean I can’t target specific regions within the country? The second is that there seems to be no option for global targeting.
There is a third option which lets you simply run the optimizer based on your desired search terms and other options, but that leads to finding content ideas (more on that later). Once you’ve run everything, you will be presented with a report page that documents findings and offers suggestions;
Analysis
TextOptimizer will first off show you its analysis of your existing content. This comprises of a simple percentage score of how well it is currently optimized. In the test I ran it returned a 57% rating.
Keyword and Phrase Suggestions
Under that score is a huge block of keywords which are shaded in either white or grey backgrounds. The grey background keywords or phrases are the ones you already have in your article. The white ones are other suggestions that you can add to increase the quality of your article.
Next there is a segment called “Actions”. I am not entirely sure what this is for and there isn’t much infromation about the subject. My closest guess is that these are also keywords, but those with more of an actionable intent, such as a call to action.
Content Suggestions
The next segment on the page offers suggestions about what questions your article could offer answers to. This is apparently based on search volume and how competitive the field already is for that content.
How Search Engines View Your Content
Search engines usually consider intent when they are raking articles during searches. TextOptimizer can help you anticipate how the search engine you’ve selected will interpret what your content is offering and how suitable it is for specific intents.
For example, in my test I analysed a page with the keywords “Best Domain Name” and the results that TextOptimizer returned showed that search engines would view it as largely educational.
Formatting
Your article will also be assessed along four key format ratings; Length of content, verbs, number of sentences and sentence length.
From there you can either choose to download the entire report as a PDF file or start a new optimization.
Using TextOptimizer to Find Content Ideas
Finding content ideas on TextOptimizer is almost as simple as using a search engine, albeit that it is much more focused, and purpose-driven. Any term you enter to the search bar will return a string of possible question that may be asked by people who are searching for that term.
The results mirror the “Content Suggestion” segment of the report in analyzed text results and I’m pretty sure they are the same thing. You will be able to tell not just what questions people are asking, but also how many are looking for the answer to that question and how competitive the field already is in addressing the topic.
There is one thing I would like to highlight though, and that is the fact that search volume and competitiveness is only representational. There are is no actual hard data for you to see. Personally, I feel that this can be a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it can be very easy to use for those who are not hardcore SEO fans. It’s so simplistic that anyone can read it and make decisions based on it. Yet the lack of any real data does raise doubts in my mind as to how exactly they are getting this representation.
Chrome and WordPress Plugins
Aside from running TextOptimizer from their website, you can also opt to use their WordPress and Chrome plugins. This makes it much more useable and practical in fact. What is worrisome is that the plugins aren’t very highly rated, and their WordPress plugin hasn’t been updated in over a year.
In fact, it hasn’t even been tested with any of the more recent iterations of WordPress. Considering how much WordPress has been changing that might be cause for alarm. Still, the options are there if you decide to go in that direction.
Testing the TextOptimizer System
Before –
After –
Having chosen a single article online as my sample, I ran the optimization and recorded ahref rankings before and after I made changes based on TextOptimizer suggestions. I made only very minor tweaks to see if anything would be picked up.
As you can see, after around a two-week period, the number of organic keywords had gone up, along with a slight improvement in ahref ranking. This could mean one of two things; either TextOptimizer really works, or it was natural growth over time.
The jury is still out on whether it works or not, but theoretically, there was an improvement, so they get the benefit of the doubt.
TextOptimizer Pricing and Plans
On their pricing page, TextOptimizer lists two columns, a Free and Pro plan. This is a little misleading for two reasons. The first is that they don’t really have a Free plan. That only kicks in as a free trial period after you’ve bought the Pro plan.
The second is the price of their pro plan which is listed at $45 per month. However, that price is only valid if you pay for an entire year in advance. Incidentally, I haven’t yet found any assurances of a money-back guarantee.
In my opinion, $45 per month is still a hefty sum for a tool like this.
Who is TextOptimizer Suitable For?
I have to say that having used the system briefly for some time, the sheer ease of use means that this tool is easily use-able to the general public. In fact, if you’re running any website you will likely be able to use this tool to help you in some ways. It doesn’t throw in a tong of jargon and uses terms that the layman would understand for the most part.
Because of the value it brings, it might even be suitable for use in some advanced cases for website veterans who aren’t willing to fork out the big bucks for a more comprehensive and detailed tool like Moz SEO which starts at a minimum of $99 a month.
And believe me, there are even more expensive tools in the market.
For Developers
For those interested in building on the TextOptimizer platform, they have an API that allow you to work it into your web applications (try the demo here). You can extract user intent from text they enter and accepts inputs in 14 languages. This does expand the usefulness of the system somewhat.
Conclusion: Easy to Use But There Are Doubts
TextOptimizer seems like a very useful and lightweight tool that makes optimizing and planning content very easy for the layman. It comes clutter-free and is so simplistic that I would say it is close to idiot-proof. It would take real skills not to be able to use it.
Yet because of the pricing, I am a little unsure about where this tool stands. It is unlikely that the average website owner will pay $45 a month for this tool, nor will the advanced SEO user pay that for such little hard data.
As you can see, it is a little bit of a conundrum because the price point doesn’t seem to match the potential target market. If it were cheaper, I would say they it brings real potential value to the masses but as of now that is still a little debatable.
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