We all love getting something for free, but it’s even better when free things can help you make more revenue. There are many SEO tools out there that are designed to help you rank higher, drive traffic, and increase clicks, but many of them are junk. We’ve combed through every blog post about SEO tools to determine the best free SEO tools.
Each tool has been tried and tested, and only the most useful and easy-to-use SEO tools have been selected for this list. You should be able to pick them up and quickly start making improvements to your website. The aim is to provide a list of essential tools that don’t require much time to learn or use and add value to your marketing arsenal.
So, let’s get started with the eight essential free SEO tools.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console can provide as little or as much information as you wish. At the most basic level, it shows how your website performed in search results. You can see how your website has performed for a set date range, and hopefully, that number is constantly going up. You can also see a brief overview of any errors that may be affecting your ranking.
However, if you dig deeper and view the full report, you can see your website’s total impressions in search results, the average click-through rate, and your average ranking. Then, you can scroll down and see what search terms are getting you the most clicks, which pages are performing best, and where you are getting visitors from.
This tool should be one of the first things you look at each morning. It only takes a couple of minutes to see if anything needs your attention before continuing with your day. You can also dive into deeper information when you need to find out a little more and have the time to analyze it in more detail.
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2. UberSuggest
UberSuggest has many aspects and purports to be an all-in-one SEO tool. However, we will focus on the keyword search tool. If you’ve ever used the Google Keyword Planner tool, you’ll be familiar with how this works. It’s can be more helpful than Google’s tool and allows you to discover different data about the keywords relating to your niche.
You can simply enter a keyword you are targetting and get suggestions for similar keywords. This information is accompanied by the search volume, cost per click for Google Ads, and estimated competition for each keyword. Its data is beneficial, but the real magic comes when you dig a little deeper.
If you click on a keyword suggestion, it will list the most visited websites for that keyword. You will be able to see how you compare to your competitors and even identify ones you may not know about. Then, you can see how many visits they get, how many links they have, and how many shares they have on social media—giving you a clear picture of what’s required to rank highly for said keyword.
3. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is great to use in combination with other tools listed here and provides another level of data analysis. It is the free version of Ahrefs that allows you to monitor the performance of a single website in regards to prevalent ranking factors like SEO and backlinks. It has more minor features than the paid version, but it’s still a valuable tool to have on standby.
The most important tools it gives you access to are its Site Explorer and Site Audit. Site Explorer gives you a detailed view of your website’s backlinks, referring domains, organic keywords, and organic traffic and allows you to dig into this information and easily track this data. At the same time, Site Audit acts as a more advanced version of Google Search Console.
Site Audit creates a weekly report on the health of your website and identifies precisely what errors are affecting it. This information will help you understand where to focus your SEO efforts and provide suggestions for fixes to technical aspects of your website. Combining these tools makes for a powerful package that doesn’t cost you anything.
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4. SEOptimer
SEOptimer works similarly to Ahrefs Site audit, though it doesn’t give you as detailed information. This makes it helpful for dipping your toes into the SEO of your website without the complexity that comes with more technical tasks. It’s great for understanding where your website stands and how much work needs to be done to get the most out of it.
This tool could be helpful for business owners who are considering hiring a marketer or agency to work on their website. It will give you a brief insight into the scale of work necessary to improve your website’s SEO, links, usability, and performance. It makes it easier to determine the size of the task at hand and the best path forward.
It can also be used as a stepping stone into SEO. Its concise information and simplicity make it the ideal tool for beginning to understand your website. Then, once you grasp the basics, you can move on to some of the more advanced tools on this list. So, this should be a great starting point for your SEO journey.
5. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is essential for anyone who is running a website. It provides detailed and high-quality information about how your website is performing. It’s also reasonably easy to install on your website and has detailed documentation to help you get started and understand the breadth of what it can do. Hint: It’s a lot! Most other SEO tools use Google’s data API to operate.
Once you’ve had it running for a week, you will see how much traffic your website is getting, where it’s coming from, what time of day people visit your website, what country they are from, what devices they use, and your best-performing pages. And that’s just what the dashboard will show you; each can be dived into for a microscopic view of your website.
It’s something you have to look at yourself to appreciate the capabilities and tools it offers fully. It’s highly recommended, and no website should be without it. In addition, for eCommerce websites, you can set up conversion goals and see where your sales are coming from and what channels need more work to get the best out of them.
6. Pagespeed Insights
You may or may not be aware, but your website’s loading speed has a massive impact on search rankings. The faster your website loads, the better it will rank, and this goes double for mobile search results. Pagespeed insights gives you information on loading times, how to speed them up, and what you should be doing to optimize for mobile visitors.
You simply need to enter your website address, and Pagespeed Insights will get to work testing your website and creating a report. Then, your website will be given a score in the most crucial areas affecting loading speed. You can see what needs improving and roughly how much faster your website will be once you can take action on them.
It can be pretty scary when you see lower scores and red indicators, but this is normal. Often, when websites are set up, they aren’t 100% optimized, and loading speed can be affected as they evolve. So, it’s essential to spend the time to address changes and test loading speed with this tool after changing your website.
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7. Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Ahrefs Backlink Checker is an excellent tool for checking your own website’s backlinks and those of your competitors. You can plug any website into this tool and receive an instant report of how many backlinks they have and where the top 100 backlinks come from. Backlinks are considered to be an important ranking factor and should be tracked.
By checking competitors’ backlinks, you can find out which websites link to their websites. These could be directories, council websites, newspapers, review platforms, etc. This list will tell you where you should be putting your website and where you can most easily gain an advantage over your competitors.
By knowing the best places to get backlinks, you can create a strategy to boost your website’s backlink profile. This can have a significant impact on the ranking of your website while also providing new sources of traffic that you may not have thought about. You never know what you might find, and there could be golden opportunities for you to capitalize on.
8. Google My Business
Finally, Google My Business is essential for any company operating in a local area. It provides a profile for your business in Google search results and on Google Maps. The strength of your profile is a significant indicator to Google, and it influences how you appear in Google search for search terms relating to your business - especially for searches for the goods or services you offer.
Your Google My Business profile is where you are likely the first contact a potential customer will have with your company. You want to make a great impression with accurate information, great photos, and reviews that provide social proof for potential customers. Alongside your website, this will help Google rank you competitively for your niche.
Considering the importance Google places on the Maps, results that appear at the top of most search results are essential. It would be best if you aimed to appear here as any time someone in your local area searches for goods or services related to your business; this is where they will look first. It is easy to set up your Google My Business profile, so do it immediately.
