There are thousands of SEO tools which you can use for improving ranking, content writing, traffic, keywords research, keyword position tracker or website design review. Whatever you choose to do with these free tools for SEO will depend on your own needs.
Whether it’s optimizing your site, doing better link building or improving your homepage speed score there are plenty of ways to make SEO easier without spending a penny…
Google Search Console
If Google Analytics is the air that an online marketer breathes, then Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) is the food that the online marketer eats.
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The word “webmaster” in the former name is a bit of a misnomer. The tool is for more than webmasters. It’s for SEOs. The very focus of the tool has to do with “search” and “optimization.”
Some of GSC’s best insights come from just glancing at the dashboard. SEOs and marketers need to keep up with the dashboard on a regular basis.
Google Search Console provides some of the same data as Analytics, but in a simpler and more straightforward way. There’s less tweaking you can do with the numbers, but easier access to them.
One of the most important datasets is the link data. (Search Traffic → Links to Your Site → More). Staying up to date with toxic backlinks is one of the most essential steps in off-page SEO.
If you ever have to deal with the dreaded manual penalty, or are routinely disavowing stubborn spam links, you will become very familiar with Google Search Console.
Ubersuggest
Ubersugest is an all-in-one SEO tool designed to help you win the game of SEO. A big part of SEO success is knowing what you’re doing, what your competitors are doing, and how to adjust your strategy to take advantage of holes in the market.
Getting started with Ubersugest is as simple as typing a domain or keyword into the search bar.
From here, you gain instant access to a report for your chosen domain or keyword.
For the sake of this post, I want to focus on the keyword search capabilities of Ubersuggest. It’s a great alternative to the Google Keyword Planner tool, which has lost some of its luster over the years.
After running a search for your primary keyword, here’s how you can use Ubersuggest to uncover related keywords to include in your content.
Step #1: Click “Keyword Ideas”
Located in the left sidebar, click “Keyword Ideas” to be taken to a comprehensive report.
Step #2: Review the Results
This is where the fun begins. You’re provided a long list of keywords related to your seed keyword.
There are four columns with corresponding data for each keyword:
- Volume: Average number of monthly searches the keyword has on Google.
- CPC: Average cost per click for a Google Ad for the keyword.
- PD: Estimated competition in paid search (the higher the number, the more competitive).
- SD: Estimated competition in organic search (the higher the number, the more competitive).
While this data alone is helpful, I want you to drill down deeper. Let’s keep going.
Step #3: Click on a Keyword
For example, if you want to rank for the keyword phrase “content marketing agency,” click on it to access the following.
Now, there’s no question as to what you need to do to reach the first page of Google. This data allows you to address points such as:
- How much traffic you can reasonably expect to receive for each position on page one
- The number of backlinks for your page one competitors
- The number of social shares for each URL
Use this data to create content that’s 10x better than your competitors.
Step #4: Filter Your Search
After you gain a clear overview of related keywords that align with your company and its goals, turn on the filter feature to narrow your search. Here’s an example.
You can set additional parameters, but this is where I like to start when searching for long-tail keywords.
You want to uncover keywords with enough search volume to move the needle, without focusing on anything that has an extremely high SEO Difficulty score.
Even though it cuts out more than 400 keywords, you’re left with 12 that match your exact criteria. “Content marketing examples” is one of the best keywords on the list, despite an average monthly search volume of only 1,000. It has the ability to drive highly targeted traffic to your website, and with an SD of 17, you have a good chance of ranking.
Bing Webmaster Tools
While Google Webmaster Tools gets all the glory, folks forget that Bing Webmaster offers a full suite of website and search analytics. Especially useful are keyword reports, keyword research, and crawling data.
Get it: Bing Webmaster
Also useful: Yandex.Webmaster
Data Studio
If you need to merge data from different sources (say Search Console and Google Analytics), visualize, and share it – this is Google Data Studio’s comfort zone. For an idea of all the SEO tasks and dashboards that you can build for free, check out these Google Data Studio Resources from Lee Hurst.
Get it: Data Studio
Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations
How do you know if your dip in traffic (or rise) is associated with a Google Algorithm update, or perhaps a major holiday? This is a highly-recommended Google Chrome plugin that overlays additional data on top of your analytics, so you can easily send screenshots to clients showing exactly how outside forces impacted traffic.
Get it: Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations
Alternatives: Panguin Tool, Zeo Tools
Google Analytics
If you’re not yet using Google Analytics, I recommend you start as soon as possible. There is no other data source that provides high-quality and detailed information like Google Analytics. In a Google-dominated era, it’s what we have to work with. Most of the other data tools simply piggyback on Google’s data using the API.
The big kahuna, and the most widely-used web analytics package on earth. For being free, Google Analytics is surprisingly robust and plays well with other Google products, including Optimize, Search Console, and Data Studio. Some folks have privacy concerns with GA — though Google swears they don’t use this data for search rankings.
Get it: Google Analytics
Alternatives: Clicky, Open Web Analytics
Keyword Hero
Did somebody say (not provided)? Keyword Hero works to solve the problem of missing keyword data with lots of advanced math and machine learning. It’s not a perfect system, but for those struggling to match keywords with conversion and other on-site metrics, the data can be a valuable step in the right direction. Pricing is free up to 2000 sessions/month.
Get it: Keyword Hero
MozCast
The brainchild of Dr. Pete and the original Google SERP tracker, MozCast is the go-to algorithm tracker whenever there’s a big update, or not. Also useful are the SERP tracking features showing the prominence of such features as ads and knowledge panels.
Get it: MozCast
Also useful: Algoroo, Rank Risk Index, Ayima Pulse
Crawling/Indexing
Specific tools to make sure your site is crawlable and optimized.
Beam Us Up
If you need a free, desktop crawler, you can’t do better than Beam Us Up. While it doesn’t have as many features as Screaming Frog, it does offer 100 percent free crawling with no limits. Windows only.
Get it: Beam Us Up
Link Redirect Trace
A free Chrome extension, lots of SEOs recommend Link Redirect Trace as the “all-in-one redirect path analyzer.” The extension reveals information about HTTP headers, rel-canonicals, robots.txt, and basic link metrics from LinkResearchTools. The “Save Screenshot” feature is super useful too.
Get it: Link Redirect Trace
Redirect Path
Similar to Link Redirect Trace, Redirect Path is a nifty tool from the good folks at Ayima that shows redirect paths and header information for every URL you visit. Gotta admit, I’ve used this extension for years and it’s almost “always on” in my browser.
Get it: Redirect Path
Screaming Frog
Aside from having one of the best Twitter accounts of any SEO tool maker, Screaming Frog is the most popular desktop-based crawler available today. Many people don’t realize that there’s a free version that allows for up to 500 URLs per crawl. While not as fully functional as the paid version, it’s great for small projects and smaller site audits.
Get it: Screaming Frog
12. Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer
Most folks in the SEO space are familiar with Screaming Frog, but many don’t realize that the Frog also offers a standalone free/paid Log File Analyzer tool. The free version is very robust, though limited to 1000 lines.
Get it: Screaming Frog Log File Analyser
SEOlyzer
SEOlyzer is a log analysis tool recommended by Aleyda Solis in her very excellent SEO podcast Crawling Mondays. SEOlyzer is a terrific log analysis tool with some cool features like real-time analysis and page categorization.
Get it: SEOlyzer
Conclusion
How to use seo tools to track the progress of your seo project is one question that almost all webmasters ask. While some search engine optimizers recommend using free tools for SEO, others swear by the best paid SEO tools. As far as the best SEO tools are concerned, you need not spend thousands of dollars on software with lots of features.