Special Edition: I Just Cancelled £509/Month in SEO Tools - Built Something Better

Special Edition Newsletter - Tuesday 12th August

Hi there,

This is a special edition newsletter because something massive just happened that I wanted to share.

I just cancelled £509/month in SEO tool subscriptions:

• Ahrefs: £199/month - CANCELLED ✓
• SEMrush: £190/month - CANCELLED ✓
• BrightLocal: £45/month - CANCELLED ✓
• ContentStudio: £75/month - CANCELLED ✓

That’s £6,108/year I was burning on tools that gave me data I couldn’t control, reports that confused clients, and metrics that didn’t drive results.

I’ve replaced it all with my own unified platform. The transformation is complete. And the results are already game-changing…

This Week’s Big Announcement

Platform Transformation Complete: From Tool Chaos to Unified Intelligence

I’ve just completed a massive transformation - migrating from Wix to Astro, and more importantly, built my own SEO intelligence system that brings together:

• Google Search Console data (direct from the source)
• Rankings tracking (my own system, not third-party)
• Technical audits (custom-built for what actually matters)
• Competitor analysis (focused on opportunities, not vanity metrics)
• Local SEO tracking (without BrightLocal’s limitations)

The best part? It’s all in one place, loads in seconds, and focuses on what drives results - not what looks impressive in reports.

💡 Why I Ditched £509/Month in SEO Tools

Here’s exactly what I was paying and why I cancelled:

Ahrefs - £199/month (CANCELLED)

• Why I had it: Backlink analysis, competitor research, content gaps
• Why I ditched it: Overlapped with SEMrush, expensive for what I used
• The reality: Same backlink database everyone else accesses
• The kicker: No API access without enterprise plan

SEMrush - £190/month (CANCELLED)

• Why I had it: Keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits
• Why I ditched it: 500+ features, used maybe 20
• The reality: Same data everyone else has = no competitive advantage
• The kicker: Want content marketing tools? Extra £46/month. White label reports? More fees. They nickel-and-dime you for everything

BrightLocal - £45/month (CANCELLED)

• Why I had it: Local SEO tracking, citation monitoring
• Why I ditched it: Limited to 10 locations unless you pay more
• The reality: Citations don’t drive revenue, rankings do
• The kicker: Generic reports that look like everyone else’s

ContentStudio - £75/month (CANCELLED)

• Why I had it: Social media scheduling, content planning
• Why I ditched it: Another dashboard, another login
• The reality: Clients want SEO results, not social vanity metrics
• The kicker: AI tools now do this better for free

The Real Problem

£509/month × 12 months = £6,108/year for tools that:

• Don’t talk to each other
• Give you data you can’t own
• Produce reports clients don’t understand
• Focus on metrics that don’t drive revenue

🚀 What I Built Instead

Using Claude Code (yes, that £5.23/day developer from last week), I built my own unified platform in just 4 weeks:

Week One: Data Pipeline Architecture

• Direct Google Search Console API integration
• Custom ranking tracker using DataForSEO (£38/month vs £190 for SEMrush)
• Automated data collection every 6 hours

Week Two: Intelligence Layer

• AI-powered opportunity detection
• Competitor gap analysis
• Technical audit automation
• Custom scoring algorithms

Week Three: Client Dashboard

• Lightning-fast Astro frontend (99/100 PageSpeed)
• Real-time data updates
• Mobile-optimised interface
• One-click report generation

Week Four: Migration & Testing

• Moved all client data from multiple tools
• Set up automated monitoring
• Created custom alerts for opportunities
• Built presentation-ready reports

Total Development Time: ~40 hours with Claude Code Total Cost: £157 for Claude + £38/month for DataForSEO API
Previous Tool Costs: £509/month (£6,108/year) New Running Costs: £38/month (£456/year) Annual Savings: £5,652

📊 What My New Platform Can Do

The new unified platform brings together:

Ranking Intelligence:

• Track unlimited keywords (no more limits)
• See position changes in real-time
• Identify “near-miss” keywords (positions 11-20)
• Spot competitor movements instantly

Technical Auditing:

• Automatic detection of duplicate titles/descriptions
• Find pages Google can’t properly crawl
• Identify broken links and redirect chains
• Monitor Core Web Vitals continuously

Opportunity Detection:

• AI-powered quick win identification
• Competitor gap analysis
• Content optimisation suggestions
• Local SEO improvement areas

🎯 What This Means for My Clients

By consolidating everything into my own platform, I can now deliver something that was impossible before: truly unified insights that connect all the dots.

What clients got before:

• Reports from different tools that didn’t talk to each other
• Generic templates every agency uses
• Data scattered across multiple sources
• Metrics without context or actionable insights

What clients get now:

• One unified view of their entire SEO performance
• Custom insights specific to their business
• Real-time opportunity detection
• Clear action items, not just data dumps
• Direct access to what’s actually working

🚀 What This Means for You

If you’re one of my SEO clients, your reporting just got a massive upgrade:

• Faster insights: Real-time data instead of 48-hour delays
• Clearer opportunities: AI-powered detection of quick wins
• Better tracking: Everything in one place, no more scattered reports
• Actionable intelligence: Not just what happened, but what to do next

📮 Coming Thursday

Back to my regular Thursday newsletter: “The Death of Traditional Web Agencies”

I’m going to show you why traditional agencies charging £5K for a website are panicking, and how smart operators are using AI to deliver better results in days, not months.

Until Thursday,

Tony Cooper
Founder, We Build Stores

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