SEO Tools to Help You Optimize Your Site

Let's Start with Google!

Every entrepreneur needs to know how to optimize his or her site for search engines. Since Google is the most important search engine by far, it’s a good idea to start with it. Google offers a variety of tools you can use to improve your website’s SEO—the art and science of ranking well in its algorithm. When you rank on the first page of results (also known as Google Juice), your website gets more traffic, your brand grows and you sell more products!

Google Search Console

Google’s free Search Console is a suite of tools that allows you to track, monitor, and improve your site’s SEO performance. It also gives you access to keyword data and insights into your search traffic. If you haven’t already set up a Google Search Console account for your site, we highly recommend doing so. While it’s not as robust as some other monitoring platforms, it will provide you with enough information to get started on improving your site. Best of all, it’s free!

Google Analytics

This is a web analytics tool you can use to track and measure traffic, engagement, and conversions on your website. Most administrators know that analytics are important. However, they may not realize how powerful they can be. Google Analytics provides in-depth analysis of your traffic sources, including referring sites, social media websites and mobile devices. The platform also allows you to set up goals for conversion tracking, which helps determine what content users find most valuable. If you’re serious about SEO services for your business or organization, it’s worth setting up Google Analytics as soon as possible.

Google Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner tool is a powerful resource for any campaign. Use it to track keyword searches and find new, related keywords that you may not have thought of before. This can help you optimize your efforts in terms of both content creation and backlinks. It’s also free!

Scream and Shout with Screaming Frog Tool

It analyzes your site from a technical standpoint and provides in-depth information on a variety of issues, including duplicate pages, indexable URLs, titles, meta descriptions and much more. In other words: it lets you know what’s working (and what isn’t) with regards to SEO on your website. It’s free for up to 500 pages per month, which is plenty for most small businesses. It’s also available as an iOS app if you want to analyze sites on-the-go.

Have it All with Ahrefs

This is one of our favorite tools because it helps us see what others are doing for SEO. It can also be used for competitor analysis and keyword research. They offer a free version, so you don’t have to pay a dime before getting started. Just keep in mind that like many free services, there are limitations on how much data you can export each day. This tool offers invaluable support in the field of in-depth examination of issues related to linking, page visibility, organic traffic or the subjective value of a given domain.

Don't limit yourself, reach for SEMrush

Looking for a way to better track your search engine optimization campaigns? SEMRush is a tool that allows you to monitor multiple websites, including competitors, allowing you to view data on specific keywords and their rankings across all search engines. It also provides information about social media mentions of your brand or business name as well as how much traffic each site gets from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. In addition to keyword research, it can also help you find new link building opportunities with broken backlinks and see which pages are getting most of their links from what sources.

Manage Analytics with Moz

The company says it makes marketing easy. The tools Moz offers are free, too. This tool is best for small businesses just getting started with SEO, but anyone can use it. It’s a great place to start if you want an audit of your site. They offer a free trial so you can test out their features before committing to anything.

WordPress Must-Have: Yoast SEO

This free WordPress plugin is one of the best SEO tools for analyzing and improving your site. It provides a ton of information about your content and gives you in-depth recommendations on how to optimize it for search engines, making it easier for people to find you online. A must-have tool for any serious blogger.

Check Your Efficiency with GTmetrix

Although Google can handle many issues, most things aren’t handled by a simple 301 redirect or meta refresh. The best way to get Google in your corner is by providing as much good content and information as possible; they will reward you with better placement in their search results. One of my favorite tools for doing just that is GTmetrix. This free tool analyzes your website and provides instant feedback on what you can do to speed up your site. It also gives you suggestions on how to improve your SEO. It’s a great place to start when optimizing your site for Google.

Don't Get Fooled by the Name, Check Out Ubersuggest

If you’re looking for inspiration for new keywords, Ubersuggest is one of our favorite tools. Type in a keyword and let it run. It’ll spit out hundreds of long-tail keyword ideas in no time at all. It’s a great tool if you want to build a long-tail strategy or try AdWords but haven’t quite settled on which keywords you want to target. As an added bonus, it works well with search volumes from both Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner so you can compare your data with actual search trends across different regions and devices.

Conclusion

SEO is a never-ending game of cat and mouse. While you’re busy implementing SEO tools, Google is constantly updating its algorithm to try and beat you at your own game. The need for these tools will continue as long as Google continues releasing updates. Although there are many ways to perform good SEO, it’s always important to use an effective toolkit.