Why do people hate Neil Patel so much? and… is Ubersuggest really that bad?

Search Engines And SEO
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Hi everyone,

Bit of a random one, but I could really use your opinions on SEO tools - and some clarity on all the Neil Patel hate I keep bumping into :sweat_smile:

So here’s the story:
My brother runs a small eco café in Portugal (he and his partner moved there to “live the sustainable dream,” as he says). I’ve been helping him with his website and local SEO the past few months. learning as I go - and honestly, it’s become a proper obsession. Watching the numbers climb is addictive.

Anyway, with all the Black Friday deals, I nearly grabbed a lifetime Ubersuggest plan for about £1000 (it’s advertised as 90% off but is actually 50% off). Looked great for keyword research and site audits - until I made the mistake of checking Reddit. Cue dozens of people calling Neil Patel a “sales machine” and saying Ubersuggest is basically a watered-down Ahrefs.

So now I’m second guessing myself.

  • Is the dislike for Neil Patel just because of his marketing persona, or is Ubersuggest genuinely subpar?

  • Can I get away with Keywords Everywhere for now?

  • And what do you think about Adobe buying SEMrush - good thing or doom incoming?

  • Lastly (curveball): I’ll soon be helping a bilingual eco brand (English + Portuguese, maybe Spanish later). Any SEO tools that handle multiple languages/regions well?

Sorry fore all the questions! Lol …I don’t expect a full essay - just your honest takes. I’m new enough to still find this all exciting, but wise enough to know when I might be about to waste my hard earned cash money :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks in advance - and if anyone here has done SEO for bilingual/local European businesses, I’d love to pick your brain!

Rita

2 Likes
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I can take or leave Patel, to be honest. I’ve used Ubersuggest and a bunch of the others. It’s fine for small sites, but the data isn’t very deep. The main issue is people think the tool will do the work for them. It won’t.

Ahrefs and Semrush are stronger, but not worth it if you’re just running one or two sites. You’ll learn more from Search Console and real SERP checks than from any paid keyword tool.

If you can drop a thousand bucks on the lifetime deal and you want to experiment, go for it. Just don’t expect it to change your rankings by itself.

2 Likes
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Hey Rita. I’d say yes … for now. KE can give you a rough idea of search volume and P1 competition in Google. It’s still guesswork but unless you’re a big player managing sites with large numbers of visitors, I’d say hold on to your cash money for now and stick with KE.

The real gold nuggets often come from keywords that look terrible in keyword tools. Those PAA keywords can really surprise you, even though the tools report zero volume.

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Ha ha! He is a bit cheesy hey? But he’s built a very successful operation, in no uncertain terms.

… and I use KE all the time. Nowhere near to it’s full capability either. There’s some great tools there for the small investment :slight_smile:

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