Mastering SEO optimisation and implementing it effectively is hard and takes many years to master. Fortunately, there are many free and paid SEO tools on the market that can help you be strategic when rolling out the necessary changes to a website.
Here, we look at some of the most popular software tools used and some that are not so well-known.
We’ll split these into categories to make it easier to identify which SEO tools you might be interested in.
Analytics
Analytics are crucial for dissecting data related to your website. These tools 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. It also gives you 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 extensive insights into how your website is performing in terms of the users who visit 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 happens when visitors land on your website. This data is extremely useful for identifying patterns and trends related to your audience’s behaviour and identifying pages that can be improved.
Google Data Studio (FREE)
Google Data Studio provides a stunning way to report on data from various sources. You can create stunning reports or use pre-made templates to report on various aspects of your website.
It can take some time to get used to the tool fully, 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 help your content appear better 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, such as crawling, rendering, or indexing, should be fixed. These technical SEO tools help ensure that you can monitor your site’s technical health and see things from the perspective of a search engine bot.
Screaming Frog (FREEMIUM)
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a great way to see structured, raw data. It is incredibly efficient at crawling websites and providing lots of valuable metrics that can help you identify technical SEO issues.
You can get started with it for free and crawl a site up to 500 URLs. 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. It can also generate useful reports very quickly that highlight a website’s key technical issues.
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 optimising websites without doing some keyword research. Use 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 select your country 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 an easy-to-use keyword research tool. You can 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 you to get keyword suggestions based on the keyword you searched, and you’ll also 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 pretty handy for generating bulk keyword ideas.
Keyword Shitter (FREE)
This tool is quite fun to use. 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 that shows search volumes for 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 keyword research on YouTube.
Google Trends (FREE)
Find how trendy specific keywords are and compare them to other keywords.
You can source data from Google and YouTube searches, as well as filter the countries and time frames.
Questiondb (FREE)
This tool sources questions that people ask on Reddit about various topics. You can sort questions by topic and popularity.
The database has over 50 million questions, so you’ll likely find relevant questions when conducting 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, which is helpful if you’re not too familiar with a particular niche or industry.
Bulk Keyword Generator (FREE)
With a unique three-step process, Bulk Keyword Generator prompts you to select your business type and location. Then, it will compile various keywords that match the criteria that you can target.
The tool is quite unique in that sense. When you select a business type, it will provide many options 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 perform related searches.
Mangools SEO Extension (FREEMIUM)
This extension provides a solid kit for analyzing the 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 the firing of tags throughout your website. Learn more about Google Tag Manager here.
Mobile-Friendly Test (FREE)
This tool quickly identifies whether your website is mobile-friendly. If it isn’t, you should consider improving its mobile version.
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 prospecting, personalisation, and email scheduling.
The dashboard is perfect for assigning different team members to cover various tasks, and the pipeline feature provides a granular view of the various 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)
Do toxic/spammy backlinks point 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, which is 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. Local businesses have been massively impacted by COVID-19, so 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 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 and enticing more customers by getting reviews on your GMB listing.
Google Review Link Generator (FREE)
Are you finding it hard to ask customers for reviews? This tool will ease the process, giving you a ready-made URL that directly leads someone to leave a review for your GMB listing.
Local Search Results Checker (FREE)
A friendly SERP checker that lets you find local search results from any location.
YouTube SEO
Ranking on Google is not enough, so if you have a YouTube channel, check out these tools to help you improve your YouTube rankings.
Google Trends (FREE)
Google Trends is a fantastic 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.
The 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.
