Mastering SEO optimisation and implementing it effectively is hard and takes many years to be proficient. Fortunately, there are many free and paid SEO tools on the market that can aid you in being strategic when rolling out the necessary changes to a website.
Here we look at some of the most popular software tools used and some not so well-known.
We’ll split these into categories so it is easier to sift through which SEO tools you might be interested in.
Analytics
Analytics are crucial for dissecting data related to your website. It’s these tools that help you obtain useful knowledge about your website’s performance.
Google Search Console (FREE)
Google Search Console helps you see how your website is performing on Google Search, and you get a glimpse into how Google sees your content (and whether or not it displays your content on its index).
From seeing any technical issues that affect the crawling and indexing of your web pages to submitting sitemaps and manually choosing to index/remove URLs, Google Search Console boasts plenty of useful analytical features that are imperative for any webmaster to look into.
Google Analytics (FREE)
Google Analytics provides a vast amount of insights into how your website is performing in terms of the users that enter it.
From seeing how users behave on your website to which devices they use and where they come from, Google Analytics helps paint a granular picture of exactly what goes on when visitors land on your website. This data is extremely useful for identifying patterns and trends related to your audience’s behaviour, as well as identifying pages that can be improved.
Google Data Studio (FREE)
Google Data Studio provides a stunning way to report on data from a bunch of data sources. You can create stunning reports or use pre-made templates to report on various aspects of your website.
The tool can take some time to fully get used to it, but once you have, you’ll see how effortlessly it really is to create SEO reports.
Bing Webmaster Tools (FREE)
Why not use the Bing Webmaster Tools to better help your content appear on the Bing search engine. After all, you might well get some traffic coming to your website from Bing, so it’s best to utilise it fully to stay ahead of competitors.
Technical SEO
Any technical issues on a website, from crawling, rendering, or indexing, should be fixed. These technical SEO tools help ensure that you can monitor the technical health of your site, as well as seeing different things in the eyes of a search engine bot.
Screaming Frog (FREEMIUM)
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a great way to see structured, raw data. It is extremely efficient at crawling websites and providing lots of useful metrics that can help you identify and technical SEO issues.
You can get started with it for free and crawl a site up to 500 URLs, and their paid plan is very inexpensive, too, so it’s worth considering.
Sitebulb (PAID)
A great feature of Sitebulb is how beautiful it makes data look, and it can generate useful reports very quickly which highlight the key technical issues of a website.
OnCrawl (PAID)
A web-based technical SEO tool that provides detailed visualisations of data and crawling.
DeepCrawl (PAID)
Granular website crawler that is responsive and offers integration with Google Analytics & Google Search Console.
Redirect Path (FREE)
This free Chrome extension lets you see what redirects have taken place going from one URL to another. You can spot any redirect chains and quickly know how to fix them.
Check My Links (FREE)
Nobody likes broken links, so this nifty Chrome extension highlights any broken links on a web page, allowing for a quick fix.
Keyword Research
You can’t start to optimise websites without having done some keyword research. Utilise these tools to research keywords and better target your audience.
Semrush (PAID)
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is fantastic for its beginner-friendly interface and comprehensive keyword data.
You can type in a seed keyword and choose your country of choice to quickly see related keywords. You can also identify questions that include your chosen keyword, which is great for creating FAQs on your pages.
Ahrefs (PAID)
Ahrefs features a keyword research tool that is easy to use. You can also combine it with other features such as the Content Explorer to get an idea of how to structure your content.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator (FREE)
Ahrefs does have many free tools, one of them being the keyword generator tool.
Its simple UI allows your to get keyword suggestions based on the keyword searched, and you’ll get other metrics like average monthly search volume and keyword difficulty.
Answer The Public (FREE)
Find out what questions are being searched around the seed keyword you type in.
AlsoAsked (FREE)
Better identify user intent by seeing what questions are being asked around your topic.
You can also export this data, so it’s quite handy for generating bulk keyword ideas.
Keyword Shitter (FREE)
This tool is quite fun to use. Simply enter a keyword and it will start flooding you with related keywords.
Ubersuggest (FREEMIUM)
A nifty keyword research tool providing you with top-level metrics that can help guide your strategy.
Keywords Everywhere (FREEMIUM)
Keywords Everywhere is a quick and easy Chrome extension to use that shows you search volumes of keywords on Google.
A nifty feature is that it shows you which tags YouTube creators are using on their videos, to help you with your own keyword research on YouTube.
Google Trends (FREE)
Find how trendy certain keywords are and compare them to other keywords.
You have the choice of sourcing data from Google and YouTube searches, plus you can filter the countries and time frames.
Questiondb (FREE)
This tool sources questions that people ask on Reddit about various topics, and you can sort questions by both topic and popularity.
The database has over 50 million questions, so you’ll likely find relevant questions as part of your keyword research.
Keyword Surfer (FREE)
This free Chrome extension lets you see the estimated monthly search volumes of keywords that you type directly into the Google search bar.
It also shows local search volume data for some countries, including the UK, USA, and Canada.
The tool will also show you the search volumes for autocomplete keywords as you type into the Google search bar.
Keyworddit (FREE)
You can use Keyworddit to get keyword ideas that are pulled from Reddit.
You can pull keyword ideas from specific subreddits, so it’s helpful if you’re not too familiar with a particular niche/industry.
Bulk Keyword Generator (FREE)
With a unique 3-step process, Bulk Keyword Generator prompts you to select your business type, locations, and then it will compile various keywords that you can target which match the criteria.
The tool is quite unique is that sense, and when you select a business type it will provide many options to choose from so you can really niche down.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is critical for establishing relevancy and building out comprehensive content that fulfils the user’s intent.
SEO Ruler (FREE)
SEO Ruler allows you to scrape on-page copies of any web page, as well as SERP sections like domains, people also ask questions and related searches.
Mangools SEO Extension (FREEMIUM)
This extension provides a solid kit for seeing on-page SEO aspects of any web page such as its SERP presence, meta tags, structured data, headings, and more!
Google Tag Manager (FREE)
This nifty tag management system allows you to create tags/triggers to facilitate how tags are fired throughout your website. Learn more about Google Tag Manager here.
Mobile-Friendly Test (FREE)
This tool quickly identifies whether or not your website is mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, you should consider working on the mobile version of your website.
Structured Data Testing Tool (FREE)
Allows you to see all structured data that has been implemented on any web page.
Off-page SEO
When it comes to building EAT on Google and improving your link acquisition, you should check out these off-page SEO tools:
Pitchbox (PAID)
Pitchbox essentially provides everything you would need in a link building/outreach tool. It covers everything from prospecting, personalisation, and email scheduling.
The dashboard is perfect for setting up different team members to cover different tasks, and the pipeline feature provides a granular look into the different stages of your outreach campaigns.
Hunter.io (FREEMIUM)
This tool allows you to find and verify email addresses from various targeted websites.
Disavow Tool (FREE)
Got toxic/spammy backlinks pointing to your website?
Use the Disavow Tool to manually alert Google that you want to remove either the exact URLs or entire domains.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker (FREE)
A nice freebie from Ahrefs where you can check the backlinks of any website.
Email Extractor (FREEMIUM)
This Chrome extension can detect email addresses associated with a web page, and it’s handy if you’re doing some manual outreach.
Local SEO
If you’re a local business, you know the importance of generating online visibility in your surrounding areas. At a time where local businesses have been massively impacted by Covid-19, it’s imperative to utilise the latest local SEO best practices and tools.
Google My Business (FREE)
Google My Business (GMB) is a must for any local business that is trying to drive traffic from Google and Google Maps. You can set up and verify a listing and add information about your business. You can also personalise it quite nicely by adding photos, as well as enticing more customers by getting reviews on your GMB listing.
Google Review Link Generator (FREE)
Finding it hard to ask customers for reviews? This tool will ease the process so you’ll have a ready-made URL that directly leads someone to leave a review for your GMB listing.
Local Search Results Checker (FREE)
A nice SERP checker that lets you find local search results from any location.
YouTube SEO
It’s not just enough to rank on Google, so if you have a YouTube channel, check out these tools to help you improve your rankings on YouTube.
Google Trends (FREE)
Google Trends is an amazing tool for looking at trending topics at different times in different countries.
Using this tool for YouTube is great because you can see trending topics that have been searched for specifically on YouTube.
Fact that it’s impossible to see accurate search volumes for YouTube searches, Google Trends is a great free tool to utilise.
vidIQ (FREEMIUM)
Provides detailed insights into various YouTube elements, including search results and video pages.
TubeBuddy (FREEMIUM)
Another extension (similar to vidIQ) whose features require access to your YouTube account.
Want to know more about SEO tools?
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