In this article, we cover the top 10 free SEO tools you can use to supercharge your business.
What are SEO Tools?
Several tools are used in search engine optimization work, and each SEO specialist has their preferred tools. The greatest all-inclusive SEO solutions are typically pricey and demand a monthly membership. Because of this, they are best suited for larger businesses and agencies that frequently employ them and require all the sophisticated features these SEO audit tools offer.
Smaller businesses often struggle to justify the expense of pricey SEO-specific tools because you may only utilize them occasionally or only a portion of their functionality is required. In these circumstances, it’s wiser to employ various free tools that, perhaps not quite as strong, can do most of the necessary work.
Many different SEO tools are available, making it challenging for a novice SEO to determine which tools will be most helpful. Particularly considering that we are all busy individuals with obligations other than simply testing various tools.
In this article, we cover our top 10 free SEO tools for your use in your search engine optimization campaigns.
The Crucial Elements of SEO Marketing
Keywords
The days of using keywords solely as an SEO strategy are long gone, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still important today. However, today’s keywords need to be carefully considered, chosen, and applied if you want them to work in your content.
But what are keywords exactly? Online information searches by potential customers include keywords that businesses can use to connect with customers interested in their products and services.
It’s critical to search for terms with high search volumes and low levels of competition while carrying out the necessary phases of keyword research. To include in your content, you should use short-tail, long-tail, and regional keywords like “pups for sale in Boston,” “dog,” and “terrier puppies for sale.” In addition to your core or seed keyword, you should have secondary and tertiary keywords because they will still benefit your business. Include keywords in all of your titles, URLs, and other on-page SEO components, to name a few (more on that later…)
Content
Content is essential to SEO since it is how you connect with and engage with people. Understanding your angle and producing compelling content is necessary.
For instance, you might publish various blogs about gardening, selecting the best plant species, growth guidance, and other subjects if you own a nursery and want to increase your visibility. When someone searches for gardening knowledge, your blog comes up, and by providing them with helpful information, you might build a relationship with that possibility.
Today’s material must be instructive while also being entertaining, timely, and shareable. Content can take many different forms, including:
- Web page content
- Videos
- Blogs
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Listicles
- How-to guides
- Whitepapers and e-books
- Social media posts
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to external optimization methods employed on websites other than yours.
Creating high-quality backlinks from other websites to your website lets search engines know that it is essential and high caliber, promoting authority. The critical strategy utilized for off-page SEO is link building.
Although there are many other ways to develop backlinks, some of the most popular strategies currently include influencer marketing, creating lots of highly shared infographics, and guest blogging.
Local SEO
Local SEO is becoming more crucial as more people search on their mobile devices. Today, 60% of all searches are made on mobile devices, and about 50% of those inquiries have a local purpose.
Let’s say you are a restaurant owner. Local SEO would ensure that locals find your website when looking for the best restaurants in the area.
In addition to utilizing local keywords, some examples of local SEO best practices include creating location-specific pages for your website, claiming directory listings, and constructing business pages on Google My Business local directories and Google Maps.
What to analyze with SEO tools
For web admins and SEO experts to decide how to optimize search, domain monitoring is crucial. The following ideas merit your attention.
Keywords:
Through keyword analysis, you may discover the most common search phrases associated with your website and the terms your competitors are using. They help Google and other search engines decide which websites match consumers’ searches.
Content:
Keywords that correspond to search terms should be used in the website content. Using keywords in the content’s titles, descriptions, and tags is crucial for search engine optimization (SEO). To score highly in organic search results, content must be engaging, relevant, and distinctive, including keywords. To present Internet users with the most effective websites for their search, sophisticated algorithms measure each of these variables.
Backlinks:
A good ranking also depends on backlinks. A backlink is an external website that links to your website. High-traffic websites might assist in directing visitors to your website. Your PageRank is also impacted by how frequently other websites connect to your website.
Domain:
Because domains are crucial for SEO because Google and other search engines examine the URLs for keywords to determine the site’s content, including keywords in the URL aids Google in choosing the topic of the page and is one of the criteria used to match an area to a searcher.
Ranking:
Numerous SEO tools are made to assess the position of specific websites. They rate individual pages and entire websites by comparing them to rival websites. It’s critical to employ keywords wisely, create original content frequently, and publish site backlinks whenever possible to maintain good search ranks.
Traffic:
Some tools allow for measuring both internal and external website traffic flow. It tracks how frequently people visit the website, where they come from, and how they utilize it. They may also reveal the search terms the user used to find the website.
Social media:
Some SEO tools examine the information from social networks like Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. They can track how frequently blog pages or articles are linked on social media and roughly how many users view a blog or other subpages of a domain. Additionally, many technologies scan for frequently used terms to uncover patterns in social networks.
Provider:
The makers of SEO tools are numerous. They provide many possibilities, from cost-free services to more involved and pricey ones.
Ahrefs
Marketers all across the world are familiar with the term Ahrefs. It is well known for its valuable materials and tools for enhancing site performance in any niche. The majority of the tools provided by the company are open to everyone to aid in the creation of good content. In addition to SEO specialists, eCommerce sites, aspiring bloggers, and digital marketing companies also use the all-in-one package.
The five primary tools in Ahrefs are Site Audit (for website optimization), Site Explorer (for competition research), Keywords Explorer (for finding the most popular keywords), Content Explorer (for finding the best performing content), and Rank Tracker (for tracking rank progress). Its collection of free tools also includes platform-specific ones, such as the YouTube Keyword Tool, WordPress Plugin, and Amazon Keyword Tool.
You can find a true treasure trove of resources for anything SEO on Ahrefs. They release articles, manuals, and training materials on numerous facets of search engine optimization.
Moz
Moz is renowned for its comprehensive range of SEO tools streamlining site improvement. Additionally, various free SEO tools are provided for keyword research, website performance, link building, and local listing audits.
Intelligent connection building is made possible by the Link Explorer. The largest search keyword database is available to users through Keyword Explorer, making it simple to identify the ideal search terms for your website. Every website you visit in Chrome is analyzed by the browser extension MozBar. Your top SERP competitors are instantly analyzed using the Competitive Research function. You can use additional tools for free in addition to these four.
The website is worthwhile visiting because Moz also provides free SEO education for newcomers and those who want to learn sophisticated techniques. It is an excellent platform for getting started with SEO or expanding your SEO expertise.
Answer the Public
Answer the Public takes you outside of the typical keyword sources. Extending keyword searches to blogs, social media, and forums positions itself as a social listening tool that helps you understand what others are saying.
Find out what topics, unusual terms, and inquiries Google users make. Within seconds of launching the tool, discover hundreds of keyword suggestions. Improve your comprehension of the thoughts and information needs of your audience.
You can create a robust content strategy using Answer the Republic that rules SERPs. You receive more leads and traffic from organic search for better site performance.
Woorank SEO Browser Extension
Woorank offers a free browser plugin that provides SEO insights for each website you visit and its suite of paid SEO solutions. Check the websites of your rivals or yourself. Obtain findings and insights in real time. Understand where you can improve and what more resources you’ll need to raise your SEO ranking.
Data on backlinks, website traffic, structured data, usability, mobile friendliness, and other fundamental SEO indicators are all included in the SEO study. You may download Chrome, Edge, and Firefox extensions to optimize your site for various search engines.
Yoast WordPress Plugin
Yoast SEO must be installed if WordPress powers your website. The free plugin provides almost everything you require to rank higher in search engines. It has features for making your material more readable overall and for making each piece SEO-friendly. Additionally, it automates technical SEO tasks, so you may spend more time concentrating on content creation for your audience. The plugin automatically inserts structured data even if you have no idea how to do so.
Subscribe to the premium edition to access more tools and advanced features. Yoast SEO Premium is a wise investment if you’re serious about beating the competition.
Keyword Surfer
Without putting too much time and effort into researching search recommendations and examining their monthly search counts, you may determine whether a keyword is worthwhile to pursue. With Surfer SEO’s Keyword Surfer, you can quickly determine the average search volume for a keyword straight in your Chrome browser. By providing the information you require in the search field, this browser plugin shortens the drawn-out process of keyword research.
Keyword Surfer’s metrics, in addition to search volumes, include cost per click, monthly traffic, and content word count. Additionally, a correlation chart that displays the effects of each ranking element on a particular keyword is produced. This Surfer SEO tool is entirely free compared to others requiring costly subscriptions.
Measure
View the performance of your website and get suggestions on how to improve it. Use Measure, a PageSpeed Insights-powered tool, to do a free site audit.
The measure uses the open-source Lighthouse to audit your website. It provides performance, SEO, and accessibility information and offers doable suggestions for each area’s improvement. Although it can be challenging for non-developers to grasp, it provides a more thorough site audit for better optimization.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
The Screaming Frog SEO Spider identifies SEO problems and fixes them quickly. This web crawler is one of the quickest tools for site audit and investigation.
You can download and crawl only 500 URLs in the free edition. You must purchase the paid license version and renew it yearly if you want complete audits. However, you already have access to valuable tools and optimization features with the free version. Create sitemaps, examine information, search for broken links and problems, find duplicate pages, and audit attributes. Additionally, you get access to reports that let you focus on essential tasks and avert any problems.
Panguin Tool
After an upgrade, did your ranks suddenly drop? Utilize the Panguin Tool to learn why. Using this free SEO tool, you can determine if something went wrong with your site during the most recent Google update.
Panguin provides an interactive timeline where you can view algorithm updates in chronological order. It reveals how an algorithm update affected your website’s traffic and ranking. You also have the choice to sort updates by kind so you can assess the effect on particular channels.
Siteliner
Explore your website to find issues that hurt your search rankings, such as duplicate content, broken links, redirects, and more. Obtain a thorough SEO analysis and a comparison with other websites that Siteliner has scanned. To better understand how you stack up against the competition, you can compare data like page size, page load speed, word count per page, and others.
If your website contains no more than 250 pages, Siteliner will assess it for free once per month. Join Siteliner Premium for scanning and unlimited pages.
Bonus Tool: SEO Test by Clio Websites
For those looking to get a quick and efficient on-page SEO analysis, the “SEO Test” by Clio Websites is a must-try. Found at seotest.me, this free tool allows users to simply enter their website URL and receive a comprehensive on-page SEO test result. Not only does it provide insights into your website’s SEO performance, but it also offers valuable resources on topics ranging from speeding up your WordPress website to the best SEO practices to follow in 2023. As a project powered by Clio Websites, a premier Calgary web design agency, users can be assured of the tool’s credibility and effectiveness. When considering the vast array of free SEO tools available, as highlighted in this article, the SEO Test stands out as an essential addition for anyone keen on optimizing their website’s on-page SEO.
How Clio can help with Search Engine Optimization
Clio Websites is a full-service website design and marketing company in Calgary. We have vast experience in responsive website design, website maintenance, WordPress development and speed optimization, and SEO. Clio offers free consultations and free website evaluations and we receive glowing reviews from our clients.
We are always here to give you a helping hand.
Our team is always happy to answer any questions regarding these top 10 free SEO tools, so please contact us.
