SEO has been a digital marketing buzzword for quite some time now. And unless you have been living under a rock, you know why you need SEO to rank high on search engine results pages and attract more organic (free) traffic to your website. But, maybe you think that to track all those complicated SEO strategies you need to invest a lot of money? Think again!
There are many free tools to choose from in the SEO world, to make your task easy. Here’s a full suite of SEO tools you can use to boost your digital marketing strategy, without wasting much time or energy. Moreover, I have categorised them according to their features, to make things simpler. So, let’s dig in.
Table of Contents
SEO Keyword Tools
Keywords hold a lot of importance in the SEO world. And so, it becomes important to target the right keywords at right time. Here are some free keyword research tools to help with this task.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Google’s own keyword tool, the Keyword Planner is ideally built for Google Ads. But that does not mean that it works any less for keyword research. It uses Google’s data for SEO related information and also has a country-wise filter option available. It does have a few limitations, especially with metrics like competition and volume, but serves as a great keyword tool in finding ideas that other traditional tools might overlook.
2. Answer The Public
As the name suggests, Answer The Public is a tool that provides valuable data regarding the questions people ask online. You just need to enter a keyword, and the tool with pull up questions and phrases people use while searching about the keyword. So, if you are looking to generate a list of questions from a keyword, this is the tool for you.
Similar Options: Keywordtool.io,Keyword Sheeter
3. Keyword Explorer
Moz’s Keyword Explorer is one of the best SEO tools that only give you thousands of keyword suggestions, but also keyword difficulty score, SERP analysis, and Click-Through-Rate (CTR) data. The free version of this tool will allow you 10 queries monthly, which means up to 1000 keyword suggestions with SERP analysis.
4. Google Trends
This keyword tool will not actually help you in finding new keywords, but rather it will assist you in knowing their popularity over time. As the name says, it’s about trending keywords and to know when they were popular. This tool is important to capitalise on the trending topic and avoid investing time and money in keywords that are already waning.
5. Keyworddit
Keyworditt is the same as Google Keyword Planner, but for Reddit. It will extract the information like a list of keywords and monthly search volumes, when you enter any subreddit. The best thing about using this keyword tool is that it offers you a list of topics, which your audiences are interested in, but you may not have considered until now.
On-Page SEO Tools
Just keywords won’t do all the magic. You also need to implement them well in your on-page SEO along with other SEO strategies. Here is a list of on-page and free SEO tools to optimise your webpages to rank higher on search engines.
1. Yoast SEO
This is the best SEO plugin tool available for WordPress websites. It helps with on-page as well as technical SEO. Some of the things Yoast SEO will take care of are:
- Adding titles, OG tags, meta tags, and meta descriptions for posts and webpages
- Redirecting URLs
- Adding data markup for snippets
- Finding and fixing the error pages on your website
Similar Options: All in One SEO Pack, Rank Math, The SEO Framework
2. Rich Result Test
Google’s Rich Result Test is an ideal tool to check if your markup is valid and get a pass. It of course doesn’t mean that your page will be higher on the SERPs, but it will definitely improve the chances.
3. Schema Markup Generator
Just bookmark this page. Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator will create a structured data markup for your page. Just select the type of markup you want to generate, like FAQ, product, local business, etc. Then fill in the form available. And finally, copy-paste the markup generated on your site. Tada! You are done.
4. SERPSim
This SEO tool will show you how the webpage will look on Google’s search result page. You just need to enter the page title, URL, and meta description of your proposed page. SERSim is also useful for figuring out if your meta description and page title are too long for the search engine. This way, you can fix them beforehand.
Similar Options: Portent’s SERP Preview Tool
5. Structured Data Testing Tool
Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool is yet another option for checking and troubleshooting your structured data format. Moreover, this tool also comes in handy while performing analysis on your competitor’s structured data.
Analytics Tools
Keeping an eye on how your SEO strategy is performing is essential in content marketing. These free analytics tools will help you monitor and analyse your performance on the search engine as well as your competitors.
1. Google Analytics
This tool is literally the most widely used analytics tool on the face of our planet. And why not – it is free and handy while using with other Google products like Search Console, Optimise, Data Studio, etc. Google Analytics gives you a complete range of data to improve your marketing strategies.
Similar Options: Clicky, Open Web Analytics, Bing Webmaster, Yandex.Webmaster
2. Google Data Studio
This tool will let you create a dashboard for all SEO tasks. So, if you are looking for a free SEO tool to merge data from different sources like Google Analytics and Search Console, merge it and share it, then Google Data Studio is your best bet.
3. Google’s Search Console
Previously known as Google Webmaster Tool, this tool comes in handy for monitoring and troubleshooting the website’s appearance on the search engine page. You can use this tool to fix technical errors, check structured issues, submit sitemaps, etc. In short, Google’s Search Console is probably the most reliable location for gaining information on how Google will crawl and rank your website.
4. Mozcast
Mozcast is your go-to tracker whenever Google drops in a big update bomb. This tool tracks all big and small changes to Google’s algorithm. Along with keeping you updated with the latest algorithm changes, this tool is also useful for tracking features of SERP like knowledge panels and ads.
Similar Options: Algoroo, Rank Risk Index, Ayima Pulse
5. Keyword Hero
This tool solves the problem of missing keyword data by combining a lot of advanced maths with machine learning. Although not a perfect tool, Keyword Hero is definitely a saviour for those who are struggling to match keywords with conversions. Moreover, you can get around 2000 sessions per month on the free account.
Link Building Tools
Backlinking is an important aspect of building high SEO ranks. These are a few free link building tools that will help you find, evaluate, and optimise the backlinking opportunities.
1. Link Explorer
This tool is ideally the largest and accurate link index and backlink checker. The tool boasts around 35 trillion links in the SEO world. When you opt for the free account, you can access 10 queries and around 50 rows of data for each query monthly. Plus, it also adds the basic link metrics like domain authority of the link for further data analysis.
2. Link Miner
This tool is an extension that helps in checking if any URL has broken links. Along with this, Link Miner also helps to check the basic metrics of links that include the social and search data.
3. Disavow Tool
This tool is more of a ‘getting rid of toxic backlinks’ than ‘creating new opportunity’. Disavow Tool will help you in disowning links to fight off the negative SEO and also penalties at times. So, bookmark this tool and keep it for safe use in the future.
4. Backlink Checker
Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker is a pretty useful tool for knowing about all the data about a particular link. It gives information regarding the URL and domain rating, the number of backlinks, domain position, and Ahrefs Rank. Although your search will be limited to 100 links, it’s a handy pick for those who are on a tight budget.
5. Detailed
This tool will help you in checking and detecting the links that drive the most traffic and rankings in each category. Detailed is a unique tool that focuses on the factors that drive the links to a particular niche. Use this tool to reverse engineer the process and get backlinks to your website too.
Crawling/Indexing Tools
An indexed website that is easy to crawl is what a search engine looks for. These free crawling and indexing tools will help you make sure that your website is optimised for search engines.
1. Beam Us Up
If you are looking for a free, desktop crawler tool, Beam Us Up is for you. It does not have many features as others, but some like ‘filtering by error type’ and ‘export result’ options make up for it. Plus, it is absolutely free.
2. Redirect Path
This tool helps in showing the redirecting path and header information for all the URLs. It can easily flag the 301,302,404, and 500 status codes. You can get all these data with just a click of a button. What’s more? You can copy all the data to your clipboard for sharing or technical audits in the future.
3. Link Redirect Trace
It is a free Chrome extension that serves the needs of all redirect path analyser. It offers you information about the headers, robots.txt, rel-canonicals, and other basic link metrics. The Link Redirect Trace ideally helps you to make sure that all the links direct are actually directing crawlers as well as people to the link you want them to go.
4. Screaming Frog
Being the most popular desktop crawler available, Screaming Frog definitely does not disappoint with its free account. It allows up to 500 URLs crawling, which makes it great, especially if you have a small website. It provides you with details like HTTP header errors, crawls mistakes, JavaScript rendering hiccups, duplicate content, excess HTML, and more.
5. SEOlyzer
This is a log analysis tool with amazing features like page categorization and real-time analysis. This tool helps in checking and confirming the URLs that are crawled, search engine bots, and studying the search bot data.
Other SEO Tools
Apart from the above-mentioned categories, there are some useful SEO tools that you need to have a look at before deciding on the ones that are best suited for your website and brand.
1. Google PageSpeed Insights
Your website speed is one of the most important factors while considering SEO. It not only affects your page ranking but also user experience. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights for checking your PageSpeed score and ways to improve it. The tool also offers suggestions to fine-tune the website and its performance.
2. SEMrush
This tool can tackle technical matters related to your SEO. SEMrush is like a single tool for many purposes. You can do everything with it, right from keyword research to crawling webpages, domain analytics, and technical auditing of your website. In short, you can literally manage the entire project with the free version of this tool.
3. Google My Business
If you own a business with a physical store or office, then Google My Business is a necessity, especially if you have a market for local customers. This tool will help you to appear in local SERPs when someone searches something related to your business. But just creating a GMB profile isn’t enough, you also need to optimise it for better rankings.
Also Read: Frequently Asked Questions About Google My Business Posts
4. HARO
This tool again helps in building authoritative backlinks from blogs and publications. It actually works as a community. Once you sign in, you will start receiving emails from reporters all around the globe looking for sources to elaborate on their stories. And this is your chance to build high-quality backlinks quickly.
5. SimilarWeb
Though this tool is not for your SEO, it can help you spy on your competitor’s strategies. SimilarWeb is ideally a competitor research and analysis tool. By checking their SEO and content strategies, you can look into new opportunities in the market or understand user behaviour. Using this data, you can frame your SEO and marketing strategies.
Final Thoughts
I hope this list of SEO tools will help your workflow (without making a dent in your pocket). I have curated this list especially for SMEs or beginners dealing with SEO strategies. There is no end to the list of amazing tools and plugins in the industry. But, I have tried my best to sum up all the tools that will cover your SEO needs. However, if I have missed your favourite SEO tool, let me know by leaving a comment below.
Very helpful information, the information about free SEO tools that you have provided is much useful in every SEO process.
Very useful information about free SEO audit tool, Every website need a SEO audit tool. But always need to care about to choose the right tool otherwise it can harm our website ranking and reputation.