Digital Marketing Tools We Actually Use

There are thousands of digital marketing tools. The useful question is not which platform has the longest feature list. It is which combination helps a team answer a real marketing question, complete the work, and measure the result.

This guide covers the tools McDougall Interactive uses across SEO, technical SEO, analytics, user research, local search, lead attribution, sales follow-up, project management, email delivery, multimedia production, website security, and performance monitoring. It is organized around the marketing questions each tool helps answer, with practical guidance on where the tools overlap and where a smaller stack is enough.

Last reviewed: October 16, 2026. Product names, features, plans, and pricing change. Confirm current details with the provider before buying.

Start with the marketing question

Marketing job	Core tools	Add when the work requires it
Search performance and technical SEO	Google Search Console, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, and one SEO research or optimization platform: Semrush, Ubersuggest, or Rankability	Ahrefs, Bing Webmaster Tools, or Google Trends when the question requires another view
Website behavior and user experience	Google Analytics	Contentsquare formerly Hotjar, plus Userbrain for task-based user testing
Lead attribution and sales follow-up	Defined GA4 events and the firm’s intake records	WhatConverts or CallRail, connected to Pipedrive or the firm’s approved CRM
Local visibility	Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business	BrightLocal or Local Falcon
Interview-led content and screen walkthroughs	Riverside for expert conversations and Loom for quick explanations	A documented preparation, consent, storage, editing, and approval process
Audio, video, and short-form production	Audacity, Adobe Premiere Pro, or CapCut	OpusClip for candidate clips, Libsyn for podcast hosting, and SoundCloud for selected public audio
Marketing operations and email delivery	Smartsheet	Twilio SendGrid when the workflow needs transactional or high-volume email infrastructure
Website security and availability	Sucuri	Pingdom for independent uptime, transaction, and performance monitoring
AI-assisted research and production	One approved AI workspace	ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Codex based on the files, systems, and output required

The tools in each row overlap. That is intentional. We do not recommend paying for every platform in a category. Start with the smallest useful stack, add a tool for a defined gap, and keep it only if the team uses its output to make better decisions.

A practical search-to-content workflow

A useful tool stack connects research, original source material, production, review, and measurement in a defined order.

Find a real search signal. Google Search Console identifies an important page or query with a meaningful change in impressions, clicks, click-through rate, or average position.
Inspect the site. Screaming Frog checks status codes, indexation signals, canonicals, metadata, headings, internal links, and related technical conditions.
Add market context. Semrush provides broad competitive, keyword, backlink, and topic context. If a full Semrush subscription is more than the work requires, start with Ubersuggest for lighter keyword and competitor research or Rankability when content research and optimization are the priority.
Check demand and timing. Google Trends helps assess relative interest, seasonality, and geographic differences. It does not report absolute search volume.
Capture first-hand expertise. For subjects that depend on an attorney’s or another expert’s experience, Riverside can record a prepared conversation and produce clean source media for an article, podcast, video, or content brief.
Organize the evidence. One approved AI workspace can help analyze a sanitized export or approved transcript, group findings, and prepare a working content brief.
Apply human review. A marketer checks the sources, strategy, links, and measurement plan. An attorney reviews legal, practice, outcome, and compliance claims.
Measure the right layer. Search Console measures Google search performance, GA4 measures activity on the website, and intake or CRM data is needed to evaluate lead quality and business results.

That workflow uses a small set of tools in a defined order. The rest of this guide shows where other tools fit when the work expands.

Search research and technical SEO tools

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is our starting point for first-party information about how a verified site appears and performs in Google Search. We use it to review queries, pages, clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, indexing, sitemaps, URL inspection, rich results, and Core Web Vitals information.

Search Console is not a competitor-research platform, fixed rank tracker, or revenue report. Some query data is limited, and average position is not the same as one permanent ranking. Use its patterns to identify what deserves investigation.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is the Microsoft counterpart to Search Console. We use it for Bing search performance, indexing and crawl diagnostics, URL inspection, sitemap submission, and IndexNow workflows.

It covers Bing and Microsoft search surfaces, not Google. New properties also do not receive unlimited historical data, so add and verify important sites before a problem occurs.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawls a website and exposes technical details that are difficult to review page by page. We use it for broken links, redirect chains, duplicate or missing page elements, canonical issues, crawl directives, internal-link patterns, and migration checks.

A crawler reports conditions, not business priority. Confirm the affected pages and the system causing the issue before turning a long export into a development queue.

Semrush and Ahrefs

Semrush and Ahrefs are broad paid SEO research platforms. We use them for keyword and content gaps, competitor research, backlink review, rank tracking, site audits, and search or AI visibility research. Semrush is our primary full-suite research platform; Ahrefs gives us another strong research and backlink perspective.

Every team doing ongoing SEO needs at least one SEO research or optimization tool. If Semrush is more than the budget or workflow requires, start with Ubersuggest for a lighter keyword and competitor-research option or Rankability when content research and optimization are the main need. Those tools do not reproduce every Semrush feature, so choose the smallest platform that supports the work the team will actually complete.

Traffic, keyword, competitor, and visibility figures from third-party platforms are estimates. Semrush and Ahrefs also overlap heavily, so most organizations should choose a primary platform and add the second only when a recurring question or client requirement justifies it.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest supports keyword ideas, competitor research, backlink review, rank tracking, and basic site auditing. We use it as a lighter research option or a second perspective on a specific question.

It should not become a duplicate subscription without an owner and a defined use. Search Console plus one paid research platform is enough for many smaller teams.

Google Trends

Google Trends helps us compare the direction of search interest, seasonality, breakout topics, and geographic differences. It is useful when timing a campaign, checking whether interest is changing, or comparing the language people use around a topic.

Trends data is sampled, normalized by time and location, and scaled from 0 to 100. It shows relative interest, not absolute query volume or guaranteed demand.

Rankability

Rankability is AI SEO software built for agency workflows. We use it to connect research, content briefs, optimization, audits, reporting, and visibility tracking across traditional and AI search.

Content scores and AI visibility checks are inputs to editorial judgment. They do not guarantee rankings, citations, leads, or accurate copy. Original evidence, a clear page purpose, readable writing, and expert review still matter.

Website analytics, user experience, and conversion tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics helps measure what visitors do after they reach a website. We use GA4 for acquisition analysis, landing-page behavior, content engagement, and defined conversion events.

Useful reporting depends on meaningful events, consistent campaign tagging, consent choices, internal-traffic controls, and regular quality checks. GA4 does not replace Search Console, call tracking, a CRM, or intake reporting.

Contentsquare (formerly Hotjar)

Our team has used Hotjar for heatmaps, session recordings, surveys, and qualitative clues about where visitors struggle. Hotjar and Contentsquare have merged, and new users are now directed to Contentsquare. We use this category of tool to investigate friction that aggregate analytics may not explain.

Session replay and behavioral tools require careful consent, masking, retention, and privacy settings. A heatmap or recording can suggest a problem, but it does not prove why every visitor behaved a certain way.

Userbrain

Userbrain provides unmoderated, task-based usability tests in which real people think aloud while using a website, app, or prototype. We use it to observe where users hesitate, misunderstand navigation, miss a call to action, or interpret a page differently than the team expected.

User tests are qualitative. A small group can reveal important usability problems, but it should not be presented as statistically representative market research.

WhatConverts and CallRail

WhatConverts and CallRail connect marketing activity to calls, forms, chats, texts, appointments, and other lead events. We use this category to understand which source, campaign, keyword, or landing page contributed to an inquiry and to pass useful context into intake or sales workflows.

These platforms overlap substantially. Choose one primary lead-attribution system unless a documented client environment requires both. Dynamic number insertion, number pools, forms, integrations, recording, consent notices, and qualification rules must be configured and tested. A tracked lead is not automatically qualified business or revenue.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales CRM for tracking leads, activities, follow-ups, deal stages, and forecasts after marketing generates an inquiry. We use it to keep ownership and the next action visible as a lead moves through the pipeline.

A CRM is only as reliable as its process. Define the stages, required fields, owners, duplicate rules, and reporting standards before using pipeline totals as evidence of marketing performance.

Local search tools

Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business

Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business control how eligible businesses appear in their respective search and map products. We use them to manage business names, locations or service areas, categories, hours, services, photos, links, and other listing information.

The official Microsoft product name is Bing Places for Business, not Bing Business Profile. Neither listing replaces the other. Profile views and interactions are also not automatically leads, so connect local activity to call, form, intake, and CRM data where appropriate.

BrightLocal and Local Falcon

BrightLocal supports a broad local SEO workflow that can include local rank tracking, citation and listing work, Google Business Profile audits, review monitoring, and multi-location reporting. Local Falcon is especially useful for geo-grid scans that show how local visibility changes across a neighborhood or service area.

These tools overlap. BrightLocal is the broader local operations suite; Local Falcon provides a focused view of local rankings by location and now includes additional AI and platform visibility features. A grid scan is a snapshot based on the selected query, business, radius, location, settings, and time. It is not a lead or revenue metric.

Interview, podcast, and video production tools

Riverside and Loom

Riverside is critical to our interview-led talk marketing workflow. We use it to capture an attorney’s or another subject-matter expert’s first-hand experience, examples, language, and expertise as clean source material for articles, podcasts, videos, and short-form clips. That original input can support E-E-A-T-friendly content, but the recording still requires fact-checking, editing, and final expert or attorney approval.

Loom is better for fast screen-and-camera walkthroughs, client updates, quality-assurance notes, training, and asynchronous feedback. Riverside supports planned source content; Loom supports quick explanation and review. Neither replaces preparation, consent, a quiet recording environment, file management, or an approval process.

Audacity, Adobe Premiere Pro, and CapCut

Audacity is a free, open-source audio editor that we use for focused trimming, cleanup, level adjustments, and format conversion. Adobe Premiere Pro is our choice when a video project needs detailed timeline, color, audio, template, and production control. CapCut is useful for faster social-first edits, captions, reframing, and template-driven work.

Choose one primary editing path for each project and keep the original recording. Review licenses, storage, privacy, music, stock media, and generative-feature terms before client work enters an editing platform.

OpusClip

OpusClip can identify candidate excerpts in a longer video, reframe them for short-form formats, and generate captions. We use it to speed up the first pass after an interview or another long-form recording.

Automated clip selection can remove context or favor a catchy line over an accurate one. A person must compare the clip with the source and review captions, names, claims, branding, and the call to action before publication.

Libsyn and SoundCloud

Libsyn is our more purpose-built option for podcast hosting, feed management, distribution, and podcast analytics. SoundCloud can provide public audio hosting, embeds, sharing, and access to its listener community.

They can overlap, but they should not both become the system of record by accident. Use Libsyn when the podcast feed and directory distribution are central. Use SoundCloud when a public audio embed or discovery channel serves a separate purpose.

Marketing operations, email, security, and monitoring tools

Smartsheet

Smartsheet helps us coordinate campaign calendars, content and creative requests, owners, approvals, deadlines, dependencies, budgets, and status reporting. It provides the operational layer around the marketing work.

Smartsheet is not a CRM, analytics platform, or campaign-delivery system. Its value depends on clear ownership, consistent fields, useful views, and a process people actually maintain.

Twilio SendGrid

Twilio SendGrid supports transactional email through API or SMTP and can support marketing email campaigns and deliverability reporting. We use it when a project needs developer-oriented email infrastructure or higher-volume delivery rather than a simple newsletter tool.

Production sending requires sender and domain authentication, DNS work, list and consent governance, reputation monitoring, and technical ownership. The platform does not transfer responsibility for permission, privacy, or anti-spam compliance.

Sucuri

Sucuri provides website security services that can include malware scanning and removal, blocklist monitoring, a cloud web application firewall, and CDN-assisted performance. The correct product spelling is Sucuri.

Sucuri does not replace software updates, least-privilege access, strong authentication, tested backups, or an incident-response plan. Protection features also must be configured and monitored rather than assumed.

Pingdom

Pingdom monitors uptime, page speed, important transactions, and real-user performance. We use it to alert the team when a site or campaign destination is unavailable or unusually slow.

Monitoring detects and helps diagnose a problem; it does not repair the site. Assign an alert owner, escalation path, and response expectation before a check becomes operationally useful.

AI tools for marketing work

Our current AI workbench includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Codex. They overlap, and most organizations do not need every platform.

Useful jobs include organizing approved research, summarizing source material, analyzing sanitized SEO or analytics exports, drafting working outlines and copy, checking consistency, creating reusable instructions, and assisting with technical or code-based work. The best fit depends on the files and systems involved, the team’s approved data controls, and the finished output required.

For law firm marketing, use these review gates:

Protect confidential information. Do not upload client, matter, personal, privileged, or sensitive business information unless the firm has approved the account, settings, agreements, and workflow for that data.
Provide real sources. Give the tool the approved interviews, exports, pages, policies, or research it should use. A prompt cannot replace missing evidence.
Verify material claims. Check citations, names, dates, jurisdictions, results, statistics, quotations, and links against the source.
Keep expert and attorney review. AI output is working material. The responsible marketer and attorney decide what is accurate, appropriate, compliant, and ready to publish.
Record the handoff. Keep the source, working draft, substantive edits, reviewer, and final approval clear enough that the team can explain what was published and why.

How the expanded stack connects

Local visibility to qualified lead

Maintain accurate profiles in Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business. Use BrightLocal or Local Falcon when the program needs broader local operations or location-by-location rank tracking. Capture calls and forms with WhatConverts or CallRail, then pass qualified leads and outcomes into Pipedrive or the approved CRM. Compare local visibility, website behavior, lead quality, and signed business as separate layers.

Interview to approved multimedia content

Record the source conversation in Riverside. Use Loom for internal walkthroughs or feedback. Edit the approved source in Audacity, Premiere Pro, or CapCut. Use OpusClip to propose short excerpts. Publish the podcast through Libsyn and use SoundCloud only when it adds a useful embed or discovery channel. Keep approvals and deadlines visible in Smartsheet.

Website behavior to tested improvement

Use GA4 to identify an important page or conversion path. Review the experience in Contentsquare to locate possible friction, then use Userbrain to watch real participants attempt a defined task. Record the finding, owner, change, and approval in Smartsheet. After release, monitor availability and performance with Pingdom and maintain site protection with Sucuri.

How to keep the stack useful

Give every paid tool an owner and a recurring question it must help answer.
Distinguish first-party observations from third-party estimates and modeled data.
Choose one primary platform when products overlap heavily.
Connect marketing signals to intake, qualification, and CRM outcomes before claiming business impact.
Review access, privacy, consent, retention, and client-data rules before a new platform receives information.
Export useful data and document integrations so the team is not trapped by one vendor.
Reevaluate the stack after 60 to 90 days and remove subscriptions that do not change decisions or finished work.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need both Semrush and Ahrefs?

Usually not. Both cover broad keyword, competitor, backlink, audit, rank-tracking, and visibility workflows. Choose the platform that best fits the team’s recurring work and reporting. Add the second only when its data or workflow changes a real decision.

Should we use BrightLocal or Local Falcon?

BrightLocal is the broader local SEO operations suite. Local Falcon is a focused choice for detailed geo-grid rank tracking and related visibility analysis. Some agencies use both, but most organizations should begin with the one that answers their most important local-search question.

Should we use WhatConverts or CallRail?

Both can attribute calls and other leads to marketing sources. Choose one primary system based on the lead types, routing, conversation analysis, qualification, reporting, CRM integrations, and governance the team needs. Avoid duplicate tracking unless the implementation has a specific reason and a tested ownership plan.

Is Hotjar still the current product name?

Hotjar and Contentsquare merged. The current public path for new users is Contentsquare, so this guide uses Contentsquare formerly Hotjar. Existing accounts and migration timing may differ; confirm the current account and contract before changing an implementation.

Which tools can a smaller firm start with?

Start with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, GA4, Google Business Profile, Bing Places for Business, a limited Screaming Frog crawl, Google Trends, Riverside, and one approved AI workspace. Add one SEO research tool: Semrush when the program needs a broad paid suite, Ubersuggest for a lighter starting point, or Rankability when content research and optimization are the priority. Add local, attribution, usability, CRM, editing, or distribution tools only when a recurring workflow justifies them.

Need help simplifying your marketing stack?

Bring one priority and a list of the tools you already pay for. McDougall Interactive can help identify overlap, choose the evidence that matters, and map a focused next test for SEO, analytics, local visibility, user experience, lead attribution, content production, or AI-assisted work.

Book a free marketing strategy session