Here are some tools that business owners can use to optimize their websites and bring in more revenue
Small businesses face unique challenges when it comes to their marketing operations. For one, very few have dedicated personnel to manage marketing campaigns (there may be few team members wearing many hats). They might also have limited financial resources, making it difficult to subscribe to the latest and best marketing tools.
But running a small business also has its advantages. There is often far less competition within a small niche market, and successful marketing campaigns are significantly less expensive. Similarly, amazing results can still be achieved even with a small repertoire of marketing tools.
If you’re looking to increase organic traffic to your business via Search Engine Optimization (SEO), here are some cost-effective software solutions to have in your toolkit.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is Google’s own SEO keyword research tool. Although Keyword Planner is primarily used to identify keywords to target with Google Ads, the same data can be used to inform your organic keyword strategy for your website.
Use Keyword Planner to find keywords your target audience may be searching for, validate the search volume and competition level for each and discover related keywords that can help you reach people interested in your products or services.
Cost: Free
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is another Google-hosted SEO tool, but specific to your website performance and analytics. GSC measures your website traffic, identifies site issues and allows you to monitor your ranking keywords. Sign up for GSC using your Google account, add the code to your website, and start tracking. This data will allow you to make improvements to your website that can help increase your organic traffic.
Cost: Free
3. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is perhaps the most widely known SEO analytics tool, and for good reason. For one, it’s fed by first-party data directly from Google, making it one of the most accurate analytics tools. Also, it allows you to implement conversion tracking to monitor what actions users take on your website, whether filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, purchasing a product, etc. You can also monitor traffic from other channels, not just Google, such as referral traffic, direct traffic or social media traffic.
Cost: Free
4. Yoast (WordPress only)
With WordPress being the most popular Content Management System (CMS), it’s only fitting to mention Yoast. Yoast is a WordPress-specific SEO plugin that allows businesses to add essential on-page elements to their sites, including meta titles, meta descriptions, keywords and internal links. Once activated, the Yoast plugin displays a score (red, yellow or green) to reflect the degree to which your website is optimized. Some alternatives to Yoast include RankMath and SEOPress.
Cost: $99 per year
5. Semrush
Semrush is one of the best “freemium” SEO software options, with a wide range of keyword research functions, site auditing features, content optimization tools and more. Like Google Keyword Planner, you can research keywords relevant to your service or product and even discover the keywords your competitors are ranking for. You can audit your site for on-page and technical SEO issues and receive an easy-to-follow report on how to fix them. Semrush also includes backlink analysis, listing management and local SEO tools, which are not available via Keyword Planner or Google Analytics.
Cost: free (limited); paid starts at $129.95 per month
6. SpyFu
SpyFu is a small-business-friendly competitive keyword research tool. Its complete SEO marketing suite includes a Pay Per Click ad analyser, robust historical data, competitive analysis tools, backlink outreach and even custom reporting. SpyFu is a close runner-up to Semrush, as it provides a range of helpful SEO features at an affordable price. However, Semrush is often the preferred option, given that it includes on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tools (the trifecta).
Cost: free (limited); $16 per month (annual plan)
7. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is not explicitly an SEO tool but rather a “search listening tool,” but it made the list because it is supremely helpful when it comes to small business content strategy. And content is one of the most important drivers of organic traffic. AnswerThePublic allows you to search for a primary keyword and discover a “web” of questions and/or topics to turn into blog posts or web pages.
For example, say you sell dog toys online; some topic ideas generated could include “Are dog toys machine washable?” or “Which toys are safe for dogs?” These might make interesting blog posts that appeal to the interests of your target audience.
Cost: Free
8. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is an industry-leading website crawling and log analysis tool. Its purpose is to imitate a Google web crawler, “crawl” your website and identify any issues hindering its organic performance. Such issues might include broken links (404 pages), missing page titles, oversized images, unused JavaScript and many others. Addressing these issues can help you speed up your website, make it more discoverable by real search engines, and increase your organic rankings, leading to more site traffic. Screaming Frog is best paired with a keyword research tool like Semrush to ensure a holistic SEO strategy.
Cost: free (limited); paid starts at $259 per year
So now what?
In small business marketing, the challenges are unique, often stemming from limited resources and personnel juggling multiple roles. SEO can feel intimidating, especially to small business owners facing limited technical and financial resources. However, the advantages of operating in a niche market with lower competition and cost-effective campaigns are undeniable. To harness these benefits, businesses can leverage powerful yet budget-friendly SEO tools. Elevate your small business’s online presence with these tools, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and visibility. So, dig in, get optimizing and start seeing the organic payoffs for your website.
Entrepreneur & CEO Jason Hennessey is an entrepreneur, internationally-recognized SEO expert, author, speaker, podcast host and business coach. Since 2001, Jason has been reverse-engineering the Google algorithm as a self-taught student and practitioner of SEO and search marketing.
AI-driven technologies have revolutionized the world of SEO, offering over 100 free AI chatbots, cost-effective tools, and scalable solutions catering to marketing agencies and enterprises.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable part of various digital landscapes, particularly in search engine optimization (SEO). In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the transformative role of AI in SEO and present a curated list of over 100 AI chatbots, tools, solutions, training resources, and courses suitable for everyone in the SEO domain, from individual consultants to enterprise-level marketing teams.
Why AI Matters for SEO in 2024
AI is now an integral part of virtually every facet of digital life, particularly in the context of search. A recent survey conducted among 2,205 adults in the United States revealed that over a quarter of respondents trust AI-powered search engines for various activities. Search engine giants like Google have been leveraging AI for decades to enhance their ranking algorithms, and Bing has introduced AI-powered chat, summarization, and image creation features. Notably, AI integration is not limited to search engines alone; it has permeated into the top advertising, business, marketing, productivity, and SEO platforms, offering generative AI chat and tools. Custom AI tools are also used to build links, boost brand visibility, and generate leads and sales.
One of the key benefits of AI in SEO lies in its ability to conduct web searches through chatbots, providing valuable insights into optimizing content for both search engines and AI. With Bing AI reshaping the search landscape, Perplexity aiming to modernize PageRank, and Cohere striving to enhance search results with rerank technology, AI’s role in SEO is more prominent than ever.
Important disclaimers for AI usage in SEO
Before diving headfirst into the world of AI-driven SEO tools, it’s essential to be mindful of some important disclaimers:
Confidential information: Never share confidential or sensitive information when using AI tools or online services, as human reviewers may access this information for quality assurance.
Training data: Information shared may be used for training future AI models. Some platforms allow users to opt out of contributing to training data.
Accuracy and uniqueness: AI-generated content may not always be accurate or unique, so it’s crucial to fact-check and not rely on it for areas like medical or legal advice.
Copyright infringement: Understand the copyright protections, if any, offered by the AI tools you use, especially if you are accused of copyright infringement.
Usage policies: Always review the terms of service, content use policies, and other usage policies for the tools you rely on, particularly when using them for professional tasks.
The top AI chatbots for SEO
AI chatbots have made significant strides since OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in November 2022. These chatbots offer assistance in various areas, from analysis and content creation to coding and research. Some of the noteworthy options include:
ChatGPT: Offering access to GPT-4, DALL·E, file uploads, beta features, and web browsing with Bing, ChatGPT stands out with its extensive plugin library and the ability to create custom chatbots.
Claude by Anthropic: Known for its larger context window, Claude excels at tasks like summarizing extensive text. Subscribers gain access to the latest model and beta features.
Google Bard (Gemini Pro): Integrated with Google Docs, Drive, Gmail, and more, Bard streamlines productivity.
Microsoft Copilot (GPT-4):* Leveraging web resources and plugins, Copilot enhances coding and problem-solving.
Perplexity: Providing in-depth answers through deep searches and sources, Perplexity is highly effective. Subscribers can switch between various AI models.
Pi (Inflection-1): Pi differentiates itself with emotionally intelligent and personalized interactions.
Poe: Hosting 27 official chatbots powered by the latest AI models, Poe also allows users to create custom chatbots. Subscribers gain access to more advanced models.
AI chatbots on social media
Social media platforms have also embraced AI chatbots, enhancing user experiences:
Meta AI chatbot: Operating on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta’s AI chatbot generates images and conducts web searches through Bing.
Quora and Poe: Quora integrates the ChatGPT bot from Poe into select answers, offering AI-powered insights.
Snapchat’s My AI: One of the early adopters, Snapchat’s My AI, enables users to engage in direct messaging and group chats with AI chatbots.
X (formerly Twitter) Grok: X introduced Grok for Premium+ subscribers, utilizing X’s posts/tweets as “sources” for AI responses.
Please note that while not a social media platform, Pi by Inflection is also available on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
AI chatbots with context
As AI chatbots become more prevalent, users often repeat details for better responses. Some platforms allow users to provide context and specific instructions:
ChatGPT: Users can give context and specific directions through Custom Instructions.
Perplexity: Offers users the ability to provide context, specific directions, location, and language preferences in their AI profiles.
Custom chatbots with minimal coding
Creating custom AI chatbots tailored to specific needs has become more accessible:
ChatGPT: Subscribers can create GPT-powered chatbots with features like web browsing, DALL·E integration, code analysis, custom instructions, knowledge files, and action sets.
Microsoft Copilot Studio: Enables 365 users to create custom Copilot experiences.
Poe: Users can create custom chatbots using eight popular AI models, allowing specific instructions for each conversation and referencing knowledge files.
Consider the SEO perspective when utilizing custom chatbots; they can serve as free or cost-effective tools to promote on webpages, enhancing link building, brand visibility, lead generation, and sales.
Disclaimer:The information provided is not trading advice. Cryptopolitan.com holds no liability for any investments made based on the information provided on this page. We strongly recommend independent research and/or consultation with a qualified professional before making any investment decision.
Glory is an extremely knowledgeable journalist proficient with AI tools and research. She is passionate about AI and has authored several articles on the subject. She keeps herself abreast of the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning and writes about them regularly.
I expect that you are using Free SEO tools but facing some problems in ranking your website. There are chances that you can make a brand of your online business, but these chances are pretty low with Free SEO tools.
If you are struggling to mark your online presence, you must start using paid SEO tools instead of free ones because Paid SEO tools will give you a more detailed report of your competitor’s website.
With proper analysis, you will be able to replace your competitor on every search engine.
In this article, I’ll be discussing five signs of your website that indicate that you should start using paid SEO tools now. But, first, let’s Optimize for SEO to get more and more engagements.
5 Signs Indicating you to use Paid SEO tools
#1 Conversion Rate is low
You are getting enough impressions to attract many visitors/customers, but you are getting enough CTR, so eventually, you aren’t getting enough people on your website. This is a problem because your website lacks some crucial aspects that search engines require.
Generally, free SEO tools don’t have enough data to analyse the flows of a website; to thoroughly analyse your website and understand what is stopping your website from converting your impressions into visits; you should use paid SEO tools.
Paid SEO tools will give you detailed and correct information about your website’s optimization. In addition, paid SEO tools will help you optimize your website according to search engines.
#2 Not getting enough Sales
There are situations where you are getting visitors, but your website cannot convert them into your customers. If you are struggling with this problem and free SEO tools aren’t helping you. So, now it’s time to switch to paid SEO tools so that you can understand what is wrong with your content and your website’s layout.
You have enough backlinks and good off-page SEO to attract visitors, but your content has some problems. Once someone lands on your website, then it’s your content that can convert the visitor into your customer.
Paid SEO tools like Grammarly can help enhance your website’s content.
#3 Unable to generate quality content
This is somewhere similar to the above situation, but here you have neither visitors nor the content to upgrade. So here you are struggling with the essential requirement of a website that is content, Right? And Free SEO tools aren’t effective in helping with content quality.
Only paid SEO tools can help you in such situations because they will make the content creation process much easier for you.
For example, Grammarly will analyse each sentence you write and find errors, if any. If it finds any errors, it will highlight the particular word/phrase where the error is present.
Apart from this, Grammarly will suggest possible corrections that will undoubtedly help you generate better content relatively quickly.
#4 Unable to find worthy keywords
Keyword Research is the most important aspect of SEO. You can’t rank on search engines without proper keywords, and without keywords, you can’t even make your SEO strategy. But, on the other hand, if you pick the wrong keywords, you will waste your effort and time.
You have to be very careful while picking your keywords to work on. However, I discovered that most of them aren’t accurate enough to rely on while using Free SEO tools. Thus, for me, Paid SEO tools like SEMRUSH, AHREFS work perfectly fine.
These tools are regularly maintained and upgraded by a bunch of professionals, and these are entirely reliable.
#5 Email Marketing isn’t working
If you are facing problems with email marketing, then you are pretty much sorted with the website’s optimization and content-related issues; if you aren’t, then before email marketing, you should concentrate on them. Then, once you are satisfied with your content, you can use Email marketing to grab some extra visitors.
If you are already generating quality content and your website is also well-optimized. Still, emails aren’t working for you, then it may be because of a wrong template, or your mails are piling into the receiver’s spam folder.
You need to pick a reliable tool for email marketing because most of the free email marketing tools aren’t very effective. So you have to keep on shuffling with some paid SEO or email marketing tools and need to analyse which one is working for you.
Final Verdict
Using paid SEO tools for your business, you can also generate income and increase your online presence through some free SEO tools. But, again, as mentioned above, the chances are pretty low. However, many Digital Marketing Companies, such as an SEO Company in India, SEO Company In the USA, SEO services in Vietnam, etc. are started using many tools for their clients.
If you are using some paid SEO tools, then no doubt they will give a good ROI. It is mainly because most of the paid SEO tools are accurate and precise. This makes them reliable to use.
To get faster results and you want to make your website/business a brand, then I think it is entirely worth it to invest in some good Paid SEO tools.
Aashirvad Kumar is a Writer at Tele Trick Mania and SEO Executive at Optimize For SEO. He has been blogging since 2016 in the technology niche. He has experience of more than 5+ years in Digital Marketing.
Who says you have to spend money to get more traffic?
For today’s blog post, I thought it would be fun to break down all of the free SEO tools. Sure you may know of some, like Ubersuggest, but there are many more options than just my own tool.
Now before I dive into the tools, I’ve broken them down into the following categories:
Keyword Research
Content Marketing
Rank Tracking
Link Building
Technical SEO
So, are you ready to dive in? Let’s get started!
Keyword Research
All of the tools in this category will help you find more keywords. Many of them have different ways of coming up with keyword suggestions, so you may want to check them all out.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest has many different keyword research options. First of all, it shows you how many searches a keyword has had over the last 12 months so you can see if there is any seasonality.
In addition to that, it pulls keywords from a few different sources such as Google Suggest and its own database, it shows you all of the keywords your competition ranks for, and it provides keyword suggestions based on questions, comparisons, and prepositions.
My favorite feature of Ubersuggest’s keyword research capabilities is that it not only can you see how competitive a term is, but it also tells you how many links the average ranking website contains.
That way you know how many links you need to build to rank well.
What’s also unique about Ubersuggest is that it provides local keyword suggestions. This is great if you are trying to do local SEO.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public leverages Google Suggest to find all of the questions people may have related to any industry or keyword.
Just type in a keyword and it will give you a laundry list of questions people are searching for related to that keyword.
Similar to Ubersuggest it also shows you comparison and preposition related keywords.
What I like about the tool is compared to any competing tool, it represents the data in nice visuals.
KeywordTool.io
SEO doesn’t just exist on Google. You can also rank higher on Amazon, YouTube, Bing, and tons of other sites.
KeywordTool.io uses the same concept of Google Suggest, but for a handful of sites like Amazon, Play Store, and YouTube.
If you are performing SEO on sites other than Google, you should check out KeywordTool.io.
FAQfox
FAQfox is a neat little tool that finds you questions people want to be answered based on any specific site you want information from.
For example, you can type in the word “cat” and quora.com as the URL and it will show you category based questions people are asking on Quora.
You can do this for Reddit or any other site you want keyword ideas from.
Google Keyword Planner
Of course, the search giant, Google, has its own keyword research tool.
You’ll also notice that a lot of other keyword tools have CPC data, but chances are they are pulling it from Google Keyword Planner.
When you are using Keyword Planner, look for terms with a high CPC as they tend to convert well when you rank for them organically.
Google Trends
Out of all the tools on the list, I probably use Google Trends 3 to 4 times a week. That’s how much I love it.
What I love about Trends is that it shows you what is hot right now. In addition to that, it tells you if an industry is getting less search volume or more over time.
You can also filter your data based on a specific country or you can look at the data from a global perspective.
Soovle
Soovle takes the concept of Google Suggest (autocomplete) but for a lot of the popular sites around the web.
Soovle pulls all of the popular keywords on Google, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, Bing, Yahoo, and Answers.com.
You enter in a handful of terms you want to target and it will combine them to make different variations for you.
Not all of the keywords will be popular when it comes to search volume, but it will give you a sense of how you can go after long-tail variations within your site.
Keyworddit
Reddit has a ton of categories (subreddits) and Keyworddit helps you find all of the keywords within that subreddit.
What’s neat is it even breaks down the volume for each of those keywords. That way you can quickly see if any are worth going after.
Generally speaking, you’ll want to use tools like this as it will give you a new perspective on keyword research.
Pulling results from Google is something that all SEOs already do. Because of that, you need to use other sources if you want to get a leg up on your competition.
Bulk Keyword Generator
The Bulk Keyword Generator by Higher Visibility does keyword research a bit differently than most of the keyword tools out there.
First, you pick a business category. Then you select the type of business you have and enter in any locations you are targeting.
You’ll then be given a list of keywords that you can potentially target.
What I like about this tool is that it makes things super simple, especially if you are new to SEO.
WordTracker Scout
WordTracker Scout is a browser extension that gives you a list of keyword ideas from any web page.
Just browse any site or check out your competition, click a button and boom, you are given ideas on keywords that other people are using.
It breaks the keywords down by relevance and volume.
SearchVolume.io
When you are doing keyword research, how do you know a keyword is getting enough searches?
SearchVolume.io lets you bulk upload up to 800 keywords and it tells you how popular each keyword is.
The tool also works for a handful of other regions, such as Brazil, France, and Italy.
Google Location Changer
Serps has a neat tool that works well if you are doing international SEO.
Their Google Location Changer allows you to search Google in any country or city. Just type in a keyword and you’ll see who ranks.
Using this tool in combination with WordTracker Scout can give you unique keyword suggestions.
Content Marketing
Content is the one thing we all have to create if we want more search traffic.
Here are free content marketing tools that can help you get the most out of your search traffic.
Animalz Revive
Have you noticed that your rankings decrease over time?
It’s not just because of Google algorithm updates. In most cases, your old content won’t perform as well because it’s old.
Animalz Revive shows you which content pieces are dying over time.
That way you know what to focus on. Just look at the ones that have declined the most and then spruce them up so you can get more rankings.
What’s cool about this tool is it will save you a lot of time. For example, my team updates 90 pieces of content a month. The last thing you want to do is waste a ton of time on content that never had much traffic.
Google Search Console
Most people use Google Search Console to see which keywords are driving them traffic.
My favorite way of using Search Console is to see which one of my blog posts are getting a lot of search impressions but have less than a 4% click-through rate.
I then go in and modify each of those pages to include the right keywords in my meta tags. Then I look to see which keywords I am ranking for but not really targeting yet, and then either create new content around those terms or modify existing content to also target them.
Content Ideas
Ubersuggest has a feature similar to Buzzsumo but it is 100% free. It’s called Content Ideas.
All you have to do is enter in a keyword or phrase and it will show you all of the popular blog posts that contain that term.
The blog posts are then sorted by social shares, backlinks, and search traffic.
This helps you create content around topics people want to read, which means more traffic.
Hreflang Tag Generator
One of my biggest traffic gains has come from translating my content.
A lot of people ask me if they would be penalized from duplicating and translation their content.
This tool creates tags for you to place in your HTML code so Google knows you are targeting specific languages and countries with certain content pages.
Portent Title Generator
For every 10 people that see your headline, only 2 on average will continue to read your content.
In other words, content marketing is all about the headline.
It may not sound important to you, but if your titles look off, people may not click through from SERP results to read your content, which can decrease your rankings over time.
Which do you think Google prefers? Ranking a blog post that reads well or one that contains a lot of spelling and grammar errors?
Grammarly helps you avoid spelling mistakes. This is really important if you want to rank on Google.
Google SERP Tool
Have you noticed that some listings on Google get cut off because the title is too long?
A big misconception is Google uses character counts for meta tags. In reality, they count pixels.
Google SERP Tool will tell you how many pixels your meta tags contain and if they will get cut off by Google.
It also shows you a preview of what your web pages will look like on Google.
Rank Tracking
Google Analytics is a great tool to show you your overall traffic, but it doesn’t tell you where you rank.
If you want to track your rankings, you’ll need to use some tools.
Google Search Console
I know I mentioned this tool above, but Google Search Console is the most unique rank tracking tool out there.
Because this tool is from Google, they can tell you your average ranking for any one of your pages per country.
And because the data comes from them, they average it out to give you accurate information.
You can also go back 16 months and see how your rankings have changed over time.
Ubersuggest
Again, I know I also mentioned Ubersuggest above, but it now has a free rank tracking feature.
It provides the same features as those paid rank trackers. You can track your rankings daily for any keyword or groups of keywords for any country, city, or county.
It also saves your data for you so you can go back as far as you want to see if your rankings have been increasing or decreasing.
Search Latte
If you want to track your rankings manually, you can do so with Search Latte.
Just put in a keyword and select the language and country so you can see all of the sites that rank in the top 100.
You can then manually find your site and keep track to see if you are improving or declining.
You may want to use Search Latte in combination with Excel as you can create a daily log of your rankings.
Link Building
You used to have to pay for tools if you wanted link data, but that’s not the case anymore. Here are the free link tools you can use.
MozBar
This is probably my favorite link tool that I use.
Even though Google doesn’t use domain authority, in general, the higher the authority of a site that is linking to you, the better off you are.
MozBar shows you the domain authority and page authority of every page on the web.
If you are going to build links, focus on the sites with the highest authority.
SEOgadget for Excel
If you are like me, you probably love using Excel when you are building links.
SEOgadget for Excel makes it really easy to pull in data from Majestic and Moz.
If you haven’t tried this yet, you should consider it. It will make it easier for you to find new insights and run your own calculations.
Backlinks
Backlinks is a free tool that shows you all of your backlinks. There are no limits in row count or anything like that… you can just see everyone who links to you.
You can see if any of your links are dofollow or nofollow as well as the anchor text.
You can filter the results to find backlink opportunities when researching competitors and you have the option to look up link data on a domain, subdomain, or a specific URL.
It will also show when a link was first found and last crawled and the authority of each link.
Bulk Metrics Checker
Tired of looking up the domain and page authority manually on each of your pages or sites?
Just upload a list of URLs and within seconds you’ll have a list of your page authority per URL. You can also do the same for domains and upload dozens of domains at once.
Technical SEO
SEO has changed. You no longer can do just a few things and expect your site to rank well. You have to do everything if you expect to beat your competition.
And when I mean everything, that includes technical SEO.
SEO Analyzer
If you haven’t already, try running your URL through my SEO Analyzer.
It will tell you what’s wrong with each of your web pages.
From duplicate meta tags and redirect errors to sitemaps and much more… it pretty much looks at every major factor when it comes to SEO.
It will even tell you your overall site speed and what you need to fix in which order to get the maximum results.
And if you register for a free account, it automatically checks for errors each week on your behalf.
Google Analytics Referrer Spam Killer
When you are doing SEO, there is a good chance that your Google Analytics gets messed up by referral spam.
Google Analytics Referrer Spam Killer solves that problem by connecting with your Google Analytics account and blocking off the most common referral spam.
Once you connect it, you’ll find that your data is much more accurate so you can make better SEO decisions.
Pagespeed Insights
Speed is everything. The faster your site loads the better you will rank, especially when it comes to Google’s mobile index.
Pagespeed Insights tells you what you need to fix for your site to load fast on any device.
It doesn’t matter if you are optimizing for tablet devices, desktop, or mobile… it will tell you what to fix.
Pingdom
Fixing your code is one thing, but you’ll also want to make sure your site loads fast overall.
Your overall load time is affected by things like your server and CDN.
In a nice graph, it shows your traffic over time and tells you if a Google update has caused your traffic to go up or down.
Structured Data Markup Helper
A simple way to increase your search traffic is to use schema markup.
But there is one big issue, schema markup is a bit complicated to implement. Because of that, Google created a Structured Data Markup Helper to guide you.
All you have to do is select what kind of markup you want to use, type in your URL, and go through the walkthrough wizard.
And at the end, you’ll be given code that you just paste within HTML.
Woorank
Looking for a simple SEO analysis? Woorank shows you a simple report of what’s wrong with your web page.
All you have to do is type in your domain and within a minute you’ll see a thorough report of what you need to fix.
What I love about Woorank is that it is a great tool for beginners because of their easy-to-use interface.
SEOptimer
Just like Woorank, SEOptimer is a simple tool that gives you a technical overview of your on-page SEO as well as your content.
It breaks down things like page speed as well in addition to showing you how your website loads for both desktop and mobile devices.
You can even see social sharing data.
Varvy
Varvy provides a detailed technical checklist of all things related to your SEO.
From your Robots.txt file and your sitemap to security settings and even your links, it covers all the bases.
If you don’t have a technical background, Varvy might be a bit complex unless you take the time to read each of their articles that outline what each tip/recommendation means.
301 Redirect Code Generator
When you are doing SEO long enough, eventually you find yourself changing your older URLs.
But if you don’t add a 301 redirect, you’ll lose your rankings.
He is the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.
SEO agencies need a variety of tools for different monitoring and analytical purposes. Luckily there are a number of tools that suit the different needs. But what if you just want to have the essentials? Well, this is a list of 10 essentials as recommended by top SEO agencies. These are the tools they cannot do without.
When talking organic search, Google is the leading search engine and so it is only appropriate that its analytical tool is top of an SEO tool list. This is a free tool but offers expansive analytical reports about SEO and general performance of a site. You can provide a client with monthly reports that are generated automatically. Many agencies say if there is one tool they cannot do without, this is it.
Tool Mobile devices are everywhere and a lot of focus is being put on getting a site optimized for mobile. This tool will enable an agency test on how well the website works on mobile devices. You can get direct information telling you if the site is mobile friendly or not.
This tool gives you a diagnosis of the health of a website. It can provide reports on basic issues as well as complex ones. When it comes to checking links, this is a top tool for that. Screaming Frog will crawl and find broken links, duplicate URLs, server errors and more. Some of the advanced issues it can help with include: international SEO implementation issues, pagination problems and problems with a website structure. It can also help identify missing page titles, meta keyword issues, and images that may be too big.
One of the most common reasons people will leave a website is its page speed. So many agencies are focusing on ensuring they help their clients have sites with faster speeds. With WebPage Test, it is a lot easier to achieve that. You can identify what is slowing the web page, measure how fast it is, as well as check on competitors’ website speed as well so that you are either better or at least on a par with the competition. With this tool, you can check a combination of features that lead to the final efficiency of a page.
Another issue you need to keep track of is content duplication. You do not want to have a lot of pages with duplicate content. Use this tool to find duplicate content on any of the pages on the site and then you can remove the duplicate. Duplicate content is considered a black hat technique by Google and websites that have it will be penalized. This tool can also be used to monitor your links internally and externally, you can also use it to spy on the competition to find out how fast their pages take to load.
This tool has undergone an upgrade to make it even more efficient. Agencies can best use this tool for reporting. It has a really good reporting feature that can help you provide a client as much information they need about the SEO campaign. You can even compile reports for months and ensure that nothing is lost so when you need to show the client any data, you can find it easily in one place. Agencies can also use this data to evaluate their performance and figure out what they need to improve or put more effort into. Google Search Console is a tool you cannot do without.
It is next to impossible to successfully carry out SEO without building links, so there has to be a link tool you can depend on. Linkody gives you analysis on backlinks that you create. You can find out if other sites are creating links back to you and what is causing loss of links. The tool sends periodic email reports on your backlinks. As you create backlinks you also need to keep an eye on the competition, this tool will give you information about your competitors ranking and any new links they may have created. This insight puts you in a favorable position to compete.
Use Web Developer Toolbar to solve code problems with JavaScript and CSS. A site can be slowed down by code problems and it can affect the entire user experience. You need to be able to identify these problems and solve them. With JavaScript and CSS turned off, it becomes easier to pinpoint what issues are affecting the browser. There are also other issues that can be identified in this audit like broken images, alt text as well as meta tags. You can get a comprehensive audit report with this tool.
Keywords play a pivotal role in SEO success and you need to be able to know which keywords are performing well and which are a waste of time. WordStream is a refined tool that could be compared to Google AdWords. With this, you can find high volume keywords that have low competition. There is really a great amount of information about keywords that you can get from this tool. It keeps track of keyword usage online and shares that date with you and effect you can choose the best keywords to reach the right audience.
Yes, this is the common Excel that you know and it is an essential tool for agencies. Think of the amount of data you deal with, where would you place that data and manage it best? Excel is the best option. Excel provides a number of tricks, for example, you can compare data from different tools. There is a lot you can learn about using excel for SEO analysis.
These are essential tools that agencies can use to perform their work better. They are not the only tools though, there are probably hundreds of other tools but these 10 have come highly recommended and they are used more often. If there are a few you have not been using, you should start now.
Ritu Sharma is an SEO specialist & Online Marketing Strategist with over 9 years of professional experience. She is currently working with India’s leading SEO company PageTraffic. She has spearheaded many successful SEO campaigns for PageTraffic. You can follow her at twitter @realritusharma or Google+.… View full profile ›
You don’t need a massive marketing budget to rank higher on Google. The best free SEO tools help you boost traffic and analyze the competition.
You don’t have to pay to boost your website’s Google rankings with these free SEO tools. Whether you want to see who’s backlinking to your site or dive deep into keyword research, these are the best free SEO tools for the thrifty, digital entrepreneur.
Yoast SEO
Yoast is a popular WordPress plugin that gives you all the basic information you need when optimizing on-page SEO. The free version of Yoast has the following important capabilities.
Choose One Keyword per Piece of Content: Yoast will tell you your keyword density, distribution, and whether or not you’re conflicting with preexisting content. This is crucial for virtually anyone with a website.
Check Readability: Though most search engine optimization discussions involve ranking for Google, it’s important to remember that how your viewers engage with your content will ultimately decide where search engines rank it.
That’s why Yoast integrated the Flesch Reading Ease Score to determine how easy is it to read your content. This goes along with the top SEO marketing trends in 2019: Content quality, not just quantity, matters for Google and readers.
Avoid Duplicate Content: Creating duplicate content is a sure way to confuse Google’s algorithms. That’s why Yoast creates canonical URLs in its free plugin.
A Favorite Plugin Among Paid and Free SEO Tools: Though the free version of Yoast offers some incredible capabilities, Yoast Premium has several features for added optimization. These include:
A Redirect Manager to avoid 404s
Internal Linking suggestions to boost your internal optimization
Keyword optimization for multiple keywords
However, a recent update tells you less, not more, about your keyword optimization. For instance, instead of listing exactly what percentage of your text contains the keyword, it only lets you know whether that percentage is too high, or too low.
Google Analytics
Applicable to WordPress, Shopify, or even Tumblr blogs, Google Analytics is one of the best free SEO tools due to its versatility. Once you’ve hooked your free account up to your websites, you can do the following:
Set Goals: These can be how many people sign up for your newsletter, track your product or any metric you think would benefit your website.
View Live Site Traffic: How many people are on your site right now? Are they on a desktop or mobile? Where are they coming from? Google Analytics will tell you all this in real time.
Create Audience Overview Reports:Google Analytics will create free reports for you on data including:
Sessions
Pageviews
Users
Bounce rates
Average session duration
Want to know the nitty-gritty, like which states your users are coming from, which browsers they use, their screen resolutions and their operating systems? This is one of the best free SEO tools for accessing everything you need to know about your traffic.
Paid Google Analytics for 10 Million+ Hits
If you get more than 10 million hits per month, you’re required to pay for Google Analytics 360, which costs $150,000 per year. On the upside, this comes with additional services like Google Drive Integration and 24/7 support.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Ahrefs, which focuses on paid software, also has a free backlink checker tool. In a matter of seconds, this software can tell you the following about any domain on the internet.
URL Rating and Domain Rating: Though Ahrefs Backlink Checker does not explain how it calculates a website’s URL Rating and Domain Rating, these figures still give you a good idea of website authority.
URL Rating: This number (out of 100) tells you how strong a website’s backlink profile is. It takes internal and external links into account. Generally, it correlates with a website’s Google rankings.
Domain Rating: This figure will tell you where a website stands in terms of link popularity.
Backlinks: Not only does it list how many sites are linking back to your domain, but it provides you with a list of the top 100 backlinks, the percentage of dofollow links and the top five anchor text used to link to the website.
The Paid Version of Ahrefs Is Comprehensive: Only in the paid version of Ahrefs can you audit your site, track keywords, generate reports, and fully understand the direction of your website’s search engine optimization. We included the paid version in our list of best SEO tools to help you rank higher in Google.
MozBar
Also on our list of best free SEO tools is the MozBar: a free extension that can give you a good idea of the site structure of any website you visit. It provides information on five main categories: on-page elements, general attributes, link metrics, markup, and HTTP status.
On-Page Elements: In the first category, the MozBar can tell you:
Page title
Meta description
Meta keywords
The H1 and H2
Alt-text
It provides the character count for each, as well.
Link Metrics and Other Information: The other three categories in the MozBar provide more information about how the site you’re visiting is structured, including:
Page load time
Page and domain authorities
Total links
External followed links
Much of this information requires creating a Moz account, which is also free.
Use the MozBar to Understand Other Sites: If you’re just getting started with search engine optimization, the MozBar is a great way to glimpse the back end of any website.
It does not, however, provide actionable information for your own website.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is one of the best free SEO tools, though you need to have a Google AdWords account to use it. Once you have your account set up, you can log in to Keyword Planner to access a few key functions:
Find New Keywords: This part of the tool helps you accomplish exactly that: find new keywords. Google lets you enter a URL, phrase, or keyword, for which it will generate a new list of possible keywords.
Compare Keywords: Here, you can enter a list of keywords to generate metrics about each. This part of Google’s free SEO tool generates predictions for specific keywords based on:
Impressions
Clicks
Monthly search volume
Ranking competition
Cost per click
Google Keyword Planner Now Provides Less Information: The latest update to Google Keyword Planner restricted some of its capabilities. For one, you now need an AdWords account to use it. You can no longer distinguish between your desktop and mobile audience, either.
Additionally, keep in mind that though Google Keyword Planner is among the most useful free SEO tools, it was designed for use in AdWords campaigns.
Wayback Machine
Though it may not seem it at first glance, the Wayback Machine is among the most interesting free SEO tools to use. For starters, the Wayback Machine is an archive of the internet. This means that you can see what a website looked like five, 10, 15 years ago, or more and chart how it has evolved every month since then.
Using the Wayback Machine for SEO: There are a few ways to use the Wayback Machine for optimization, especially if you’re a professional.
Track how a website has changed, giving you insight into why traffic is fluctuating
Archive what your website used to look like if you ever want to return to an earlier version after altering your site
Understand whether links have disappeared
In simple terms, the Wayback Machine is an impartial way to keep track of how your (or a client’s) site has evolved over time.
Screaming Frog Spider
The Screaming Frog Spider is free software that mimics how a search engine would crawl your website. Keep in mind that this process takes longer than other software on our best free SEO tools list. For beginners, Screaming Frog seems to give you an overwhelming amount of information. Here are a few things you should note first.
Redirects: This software will find every broken link within your website. Of course, it’ll be up to you to go back in and fix them.
Page Titles: Screaming Frog will list every URL with its page title. You want to make sure there aren’t any duplicate page titles and that you’re correctly optimizing your keywords.
Content Report: This program will give you information on your meta descriptions, titles, and the amount of content on each page. It will also create a content report for you, which you can export.
One of the Best Free SEO Tools for an Entire Website Overview
Screaming Frog creates a massive spreadsheet that lays out your entire site. If you know where to look, this information is actionable, but it can be overwhelming for some who could benefit from a professional service. Additionally, Screaming Frog has to be downloaded to your computer, and it is on the large side.
Optimizing your website doesn’t have to be expensive. There are free SEO tools that you can use to understand other websites’ optimization, perform keyword research, and even chart a campaign.
Whether you want to keep track of your progress after choosing your next SEO firm or start optimizing your content yourself, there are more free options than ever to increase your rankings today.
Yes, and it can improve your blog traffic quite a bit!
And more traffic means more monetization opportunities as well as more potential clients to work with.
So to state the blindingly obvious, increasing the amount of traffic to your blog is a top priority.
By utilizing proper SEO techniques and tools, you can dramatically increase your organic search visibility.
The good news is, SEO is not rocket science. You don’t have to hire an SEO consultant or pay for expensive tools. You can totally master DIY SEO at home and achieve long-term search visibility on a very tight budget.
Disclaimer: I am not an SEO expert, but I have been using the following tools on a regular basis when producing content for clients and myself. So I know what they help with and how to succeed, from my own experience.
What should you be looking for in SEO tools?
Unless you are a professional SEO consultant, the best criteria for choosing SEO software you can focus on are
Ease of use (You can understand how a tool works without additional training),
Inexpensive and/or free software
Reliability! Stay away from false promises and outdated SEO advice such as keyword density metric that can harm your content quality.
1. Google Tools: Monitor Your SEO Health (FREE!)
For the best in free, Google has its own set of optimizing tools for small businesses and content marketers in the form of Google Analytics and Google Search Console (previously Google Webmaster Tools).
Google Analytics
Google Analytics focuses solely on traffic driven to sites and offers statistics on what methods work for this, sales, and more. Everything is set up in a smooth dashboard that’s minimalistic and easy to read.
Google Analytics can get quite intimidating when it comes to goal tracking and setting URL parameters, but if you are just starting out, use the rule I went by:
If I don’t know what it means, move on.
Focus on what matters and learn everything else later
This helped me get started with Google Analytics. Install the script (using one of these plugins). Give it a few days to accumulate the data and focus on this section:
Behavior -> Site Content -> All pages
This will help you identify your articles that are driving more traffic. You can use a filter to drill down to article topics and sections to get a better understanding of your blog most successful pages:
Google Search Console scans your website and alerts you to any errors that you may have made in SEO specific to your website. Linking these two accounts together can also add data specific to your website through Analytics.
My favorite section here is “Performance”. (This can only be found insider new Search Console design. I believe it used to be “Search traffic”)
Here, if you enable the “Average position” tab, you’ll see your best-performing keywords in Google:
While they may not be the top of the line in SEO Marketing tools, the ease of use is a definite positive. Search Console and Analytics are both compatible with mobile devices as well, allowing you to work on the move.
2. Text Optimizer: Implement Keyword Topic Research and Content Optimization ($60/m)
You’ve probably heard that you need to research and optimize for keywords in order to rank, right?
It’s not simple. You also need to know the topic well.
Fortunately, Google has moved away from matching keywords to content to understand its relevance. And it’s good news for content marketers who want to focus on in-depth, high-quality content.
These days Google understands semantic relationships between words, related concepts and neighboring topics. In other words, Google knows what should be included in a page copy for it to satisfy the user’s query better. Keyword research now includes intent research, synonymous concepts, related terms and neighboring terms.
With that said, put aside your traditional keyword research tools you are using now and give this tool a try.
Topic Research
Text Optimizer is a topic research tool which uses Google search results to give you cues on what needs to be included in a copy for it to rank better.
The tool uses semantic analysis to create topic clusters and help you create better-researched content that Google will like. It can be used to optimize your existing content as well as to create content from scratch.
Let’s see how it works and how it can help:
Say you have a general content idea
Single out a phrase that best describes the idea
Put the phrase in Text Optimizer
Now, select the “Start from scratch” option. The tool will search this phrase in Google and come back with the list of terms and concepts that need to be included in your content:
Select around 20 of those terms that look like they will fit your future article well, then start working on your article. Here’s what I got for “healthy living”, for example:
The tool also provides “Editorial Suggestions” that you are likely to find quite helpful. Those are popular questions on the topic you are writing about:
Once you are done with your content, run the tool again (now choosing the “My text” option). This will show you whether your article is optimized well. Continue tweaking your copy until you have a minimum score of 80. Pay attention to the “Content quality” section for better results:
This way, this helpful tool will direct your writing process allowing you to come up with both better-optimized and higher-quality copy.
One word of advice re. this and most other tools that analyze content – including Grammarly:
Sometimes, machines don’t understand nuance. Always make sure that the suggested changes actually look right to the eye.
3. Yoast SEO: Get Your Structured Data and Important SEO Elements in Order (Freemium)
I am a huge fan of Yoast, and you have almost certainly at least heard of them in the past. This plugin for WordPress guides you along the way to SEO excellence. You put in a focus keyword, write a meta description, put the focus keyword in the bulk text and let the plugin analyze how you are doing regarding basic SEO.
It will give you recommendations to further strengthen your SEO in the post, turning green when you have reached the minimum for Google benefits. It will help you improve readability and structure of your text by encouraging you to use shorter sentences and paragraphs, fewer words between subheadings, active voice, etc.
Yoast also contains a lot of up-to-date sections that help you capture more Google ranking opportunities and optimize for the most recent SEO trends including:
Additionally, the plugin comes with an enormous amount of SEO tutorials that guide you through complicated processes, explain SEO terminology and help you optimize your content better.
Bonus DIY SEO Tools
Cyfe: This tool is not an SEO tool, but it can be used for monitoring your SEO success easily. Import your most essential stats from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, your rank tracking tool, etc. Cyfe can save you lots of time and turn complicated data into easy-to-understand graphs. It’s a great multi-feature tool, especially if you are not doing SEO 24/7 and want to just keep an eye on your progress without spending hours going from a report to a report
Answer the Public: This site is a free tool that provides data for searches on popular search engines like Google and Bing. This can help you streamline the keywords you decide to use in your site. This one is also set up similarly to a search engine itself, and the data is clearly displayed for you on a dashboard. It may be a really simple tool, but it can give you valuable information that sends your ranking up leaps and bounds from where you started. It’s also a great content inspiration tool for FAQ pages, lead magnets and even eBooks.
Detailed.com: Do you want to get better at SEO? Detailed sends you two emails a month listing best SEO tricks and techniques. This won’t help you directly in your smaller market. But it will give you insights on what makes these larger companies tick and the strategies that they utilize to stay on top. This can give you an active look at these strategies being utilized without having to fork out the money to see your competitors.
Don’t underestimate the power of basic actionable SEO. By utilizing the DIY SEO tools when optimizing your content, you step out on the right foot and increase your chances of getting found online!
By Anna Fox
Anna Fox is the blogger behind Hire Bloggers, a website helping bloggers to find jobs and monetize their sites.
