Caleb Ulku, owner of a 7-figure SEO agency, shares the exact 9 tools his team uses daily and argues strongly against 'tool hopping' — constantly switching tools in search of marginally better or cheaper alternatives. His core stack includes Google Search, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Go High Level (GHL), Page Optimizer Pro, Screaming Frog, Local Dominator, Google Analytics, and Asana. He emphasizes that Google's own tools (Search and Search Console) should always take precedence over third-party data, and that GHL alone replaced five separate tools his agency previously used.
The counterproductive habit of constantly switching between tools or seeking marginally better/cheaper alternatives instead of mastering the tools already in use.
View concept page →Google's own platform providing accurate first-party data about a website's search performance, considered more reliable than any third-party SEO tool.
View concept page →An all-in-one platform for agencies that consolidates lead funnels, client communications, website building, and Google Business Profile management into a single tool.
View concept page →Using Google Search itself as a primary research tool to understand search intent, competition, and what type of content Google rewards for a given keyword.
View concept page →A third-party SEO tool used for competitive analysis and backlink/keyword data that provides estimates rather than exact figures, but offers data unavailable in Search Console.
View concept page →An SEO tool that analyzes competitor content to provide specific recommendations on word count, LSI keyword usage, and content comprehensiveness to help content rank on Google.
View concept page →A rank tracking tool specifically for local SEO that tracks the position of a Google Business Profile for a given keyword across a geographic area.
View concept page →The practice of measuring SEO success by tracking traffic to URLs rather than individual keyword rankings, based on the principle that successful campaigns rank for many keywords simultaneously.
View concept page →The primary guest and SEO expert featured in the video, founder of an AI SEO agency that developed the Core 30 local SEO methodology and scaled to 97 plumber clients using AI-driven content and local link-building strategies.
View concept page →In local SEO, the physical proximity of a business to the person performing the search is a significant ranking factor for Google Business Profile results.
View concept page →A website crawling tool used to find broken links, slow pages, and technical SEO issues, with integration into Page Speed Insights for performance auditing.
View concept page →The process of improving AI-generated content for user conversion by adding calls to action and refining formatting, done selectively based on analytics data showing increasing traffic.
View concept page →A task management software used by the agency for project and workflow management, chosen pragmatically because it met requirements at a reasonable price.
View concept page →The main advice is to minimize the number of tools you use and avoid 'tool hopping.' Get good at a few tools, and if a tool does what you need it to do at a reasonable price, keep using it. Don't constantly look for alternatives that might be slightly better or slightly cheaper — choose your tools and stick with them.
Google Search itself is essential because it directly shows you what Google considers the best URLs on the planet for any given keyword. By searching the query you want to rank for, you can see what type of content (e.g., e-commerce pages, blog posts, etc.) Google favors, which tells you exactly what your new page should look like. For example, if eight of the first-page results are e-commerce pages, creating a blog post to rank for that keyword won't work — you'll need an e-commerce page.
Google Search Console should be prioritized because it contains real, direct data from Google itself. Third-party tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic, and Moz only use estimates — they don't have Google's budget, crawling strength, or proprietary data. Optimizing a website based solely on third-party tool data can lead to serious mistakes. When Google Search Console and Ahrefs show disagreeing data, Search Console always wins out.
Ahrefs is used because it provides a large amount of data that Google Search Console doesn't offer — such as competitor analysis, backlink data for other websites, and keyword research across sites you don't own. Since you can only access your own data in Search Console (competitors won't give you access to theirs), Ahrefs fills that gap. However, its data should always be taken with a grain of salt, and when comparing your own site's data, Search Console always takes priority.
Go High Level (GHL) is an all-in-one platform used extensively for lead funnel pipelines, client communications, client websites, and Google Business Profiles. It replaced multiple separate tools including ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, SimpleText, and others. It also has a built-in website builder that makes it easy to build and rank client websites, and allows you to copy an existing website template whenever you land a new client. While it's a complex tool to learn, it saves significant time and money by consolidating many functions into one platform.
Page Optimizer Pro (POP) helps you understand what Google wants to see for a given search query. You provide it with a handful of URLs that are already performing well for your target keyword, and it analyzes those pages to tell you how long your content should be, what topics to cover, how many paragraphs and heading tags to use, what LSI keywords to include, and more. Essentially, it reverse-engineers top-ranking content for a given search query to give you guidelines for writing your own content so Google clearly understands what it's about. It's described as one of the agency's top tools, used constantly.
Screaming Frog is a technically detailed SEO tool used primarily for manual walkthroughs of large client websites. It is described as a specialized tool for advanced SEOs and is not used frequently — only about once a month or even every other month. It's most useful when conducting technical SEO audits on websites with a large number of pages.
For national SEO campaigns, keyword rank tracking is generally not done because a successful SEO campaign results in ranking for a large number of keywords — making it impractical to track individual keyword positions. Instead, traffic to specific URLs is tracked, which gives a broader and more meaningful picture of campaign success. Rank tracking is reserved for local SEO campaigns, where position for specific keywords in a local area is more relevant.
Local Dominator is a rank tracking tool specifically designed for local SEO campaigns. It allows you to easily track the rank position of a Google Business Profile (GBP) for a given keyword across a local geographic area. This is important because distance to the searcher is a ranking factor in local SEO, meaning the same business can rank differently depending on where the searcher is located within the local area.
Google Search Console is the primary tool for SEO analytics because it provides more accurate SEO-specific data. For example, if a user types a keyword, clicks your site, bookmarks it, and visits five more times, Search Console counts that as one click while Analytics counts it as six sessions. Google Analytics is used more sparingly for SEO — primarily to monitor user engagement with AI-generated content. When sessions to a specific article start increasing in Analytics, that's the signal to invest time in improving that article's conversion rate, calls to action, and formatting.
When publishing AI-generated content at scale (e.g., using ChatGPT), it's not practical to immediately optimize every article for conversion, calls to action, and formatting. Google Analytics is used to monitor session data for individual articles. When sessions to a specific article begin to increase — indicating that it's gaining traction — that's the trigger to go back and invest time in improving that article's conversion, formatting, and calls to action. This allows the team to focus optimization efforts on content that's already showing results.
Asana is used for task management. It was chosen by finding an alphabetical list of top task management tools online, trying the first one on the list (which happened to be Asana), finding that it did what was needed at a reasonable price, and sticking with it. This choice reflects the broader philosophy of not tool hopping — once a tool works, you use it and move on.
The 9 tools used are: 1) Google Search — for understanding what content Google favors for any keyword; 2) Google Search Console — for accurate, first-party SEO data; 3) Ahrefs — for competitor research and data not available in Search Console; 4) Go High Level (GHL) — for lead funnels, client communications, website building, and Google Business Profiles; 5) Page Optimizer Pro — for reverse-engineering top-ranking content to guide content creation; 6) Screaming Frog — for technical SEO audits of large websites; 7) Local Dominator — for local SEO rank tracking by geographic area; 8) Google Analytics — for monitoring content performance and prioritizing optimization; and 9) Asana — for task management.
When comparing your site against competitors, you should use the same data source for both sides. For example, use Ahrefs data for your site versus Ahrefs data for competitors. You should not compare your own Google Search Console data against a competitor's Ahrefs data, as that would be an apples-to-oranges comparison and could lead to inaccurate conclusions.
The risk is that you may make serious strategic mistakes. Third-party tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic, and Moz are all working with estimates — they don't have access to Google's actual crawl data or proprietary metrics. If you optimize your entire website around their data and then check Google Search Console, you may find the real data tells a very different story, meaning your optimization decisions were based on inaccurate information.
If a tool does what you need it to do and the price is reasonable, just keep using it. Stop looking for other alternatives that might be very slightly better or very slightly less expensive. Seriously, move on with your life, choose your tools, and run with them.
Tool hopping can be such a waste of time. So many rabbit holes.
Type the query we want to rank for and Google will show you its favorite URLs on the planet for that given keyword. And now we know exactly what our new page should look like.
If I type something into Google and eight of the first page results are e-commerce pages, creating a blog entry to try and rank for that won't work. You'll need an e-commerce page.
They don't have Google budget to crawl the internet. They don't have Google strength. They don't have Google data. They're just using estimates — but Google is the real deal.
If you optimize an entire website around Ahrefs or SEMrush or Majestic or Moz, you might find out that you made some terrible mistakes because Google Search Console has different data.
Google Search Console always wins out over Ahrefs when the two of them have disagreeing data.
Page Optimizer Pro essentially reverse engineers the top-ranked content for a given search query to give you guidelines on how to write your content to make sure Google knows what it's about.
I found an alphabetical list online of all the top task management tools and tried the first one, which was Asana. It did what I wanted, it was priced reasonably well. So I started using it and I still use it to this day. I don't tool hop.
Everyone I knew was telling me I needed to check out GHL, but it took years before I finally did. I jumped in and I haven't left it since.
Tool hopping wastes time and sends you down rabbit holes; if a tool does what you need at a reasonable price, keep using it
The marginal gains from switching tools rarely justify the time cost of learning new ones
Type the keyword you want to rank for and study the top results to determine what type of content/page Google rewards for that query
Creating the wrong content type for a keyword will prevent you from ranking regardless of content quality
Third-party tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Majestic use estimates and can be significantly wrong; Search Console has real Google data
Third-party tools lack Google's crawl budget and data, making their estimates unreliable compared to Search Console
Mixing Search Console data for your site with Ahrefs data for competitors creates an apples-to-oranges comparison
GHL handles lead funnel pipelines, client communications, client websites, Google Business Profiles, and has a built-in website builder
Copying an old website template in GHL speeds up the client onboarding process significantly
Feed it URLs of pages performing well for your target keyword; it tells you content length, topics, paragraph count, heading tags, LSI keywords, and more
It is a specialized, technically detailed tool best suited for advanced SEO audits; use it roughly once a month or every other month
A successful national SEO campaign ranks for many keywords, making rank tracking less meaningful than overall traffic growth
Distance to the searcher is a local SEO rank factor, so tracking rank across a geographic area is essential for local campaigns
When sessions to a specific article start increasing, that's the signal to invest time in improving conversion, adding CTAs, and refining formatting
It's inefficient to optimize every article upfront; let traffic data tell you which ones are worth the extra effort
Caleb chose Asana because it was the first alphabetically listed tool he tried, it did what he needed, and was reasonably priced — and he still uses it
Caleb resisted GHL for years despite recommendations and regrets not adopting it sooner
Listed as #1 SEO tool; recommended for understanding search intent, competition, and content strategy
"number one, of course, and always, Google search itself"
Listed as #2 tool; recommended as the authoritative source for SEO data over third-party tools
"Google Search Console has different data... Google Search Console always wins out over Ahrefs when the two of them have disagreeing data"
Described as their preferred third-party SEO tool, but noted its data can differ from Google Search Console
"the third-party tool we like the most, Ahrefs, still presents data that's very wrong compared to what's available in the Search Console"
Mentioned as an example of a third-party tool whose estimates can be inaccurate compared to Google data
"if you optimize an entire website around Ahrefs or SEMrush or Majestic or Moz or any other third-party tool, you might find out that you made some terrible mistakes"
Mentioned as an example of a third-party tool whose estimates can be inaccurate compared to Google data
"if you optimize an entire website around Ahrefs or SEMrush or Majestic or Moz or any other third-party tool"
Mentioned as an example of a third-party tool whose estimates can be inaccurate compared to Google data
"if you optimize an entire website around Ahrefs or SEMrush or Majestic or Moz or any other third-party tool"
Listed as a key agency tool for lead funnels, client communications, websites, and Google Business Profiles; highly recommended
"we use GHL extensively for everything from our lead funnel pipeline, client communications, and client websites and Google business profiles. Honestly, GHL replaced like five other tools we used to use"
Mentioned as a tool that was replaced by Go High Level
"GHL replaced like five other tools we used to use. ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, SimpleText, and on and on"
Mentioned as a tool that was replaced by Go High Level
"GHL replaced like five other tools we used to use. ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, SimpleText, and on and on"
Mentioned as a tool that was replaced by Go High Level
"ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, SimpleText, and on and on"
Listed as a top tool for reverse-engineering top-ranking content to guide content creation; highly recommended
"Page Optimizer Pro essentially reverse engineers the top rated content for a given search query to give you guidelines on how to write your content... we use it constantly it's one of our top tools"
Recommended as a technical SEO crawl tool for large client websites, used occasionally
"another good tool screaming frog it's a very specialized tool primarily we use screaming frog for manual walkthroughs for client websites that are very large"
Recommended as a rank tracker for local SEO campaigns to track GBP position across a local area
"for local SEO campaigns we do use a rank tracker it's called local dominator this lets you easily track rank position of a GBP for a given keyword across a local area"
Listed as a tool used occasionally, primarily to monitor session growth on AI-generated content to prioritize optimization
"the eighth tool we use is Google Analytics... analytics will tell us when users are looking at those articles"
Mentioned as a generative AI tool used to create content at scale
"when we create content with generative AI, like ChatGPT"
Recommended as their task management tool; chosen because it was the first one tried and it worked well
"for task management, we use Asana... It did what I wanted, it was priced reasonably well. So I started using it and I still use it to this day"