Using the proper theme for your online business isn’t enough. It isn’t even enough to invest in a reliable hosting platform. You need to look for ways to permanently improve your website’s search ranking. The following 10 SEO tools will help any webmaster get in the good graces of search engines.
Fortunately, web admins have a vast array of SEO tools to choose from. The biggest issue is that you need time to test these tools. To save time, take a look at the tools that have satisfied us.
Google Search Console & Google Analytics
You can’t call yourself a website admin and not use Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA). These tools are free of charge and provide actionable data about your site. As long as Google is the leading search engine, GSC and GA are crucial for webmasters.
GSC provides data about your site performance, clicks, search position, keywords, pages crawled, and security issues. GA shows how users consume your content, which pages are the most popular, time on site, users demographics, etc. The information combined from these tools will give you a clear idea about your overall site performance and organic traffic.
The main problem of both GSC and GA is the lack of user-friendliness; beginners may feel overwhelmed with so much information. It’s nearly impossible to provide that amount of information in a super-friendly format, but it gets easier as you familiarize yourself with the interface of the tools.
GTmetrix
No matter how skilled you are at SEO, a slow-loading website will never rank highly in users’ searches. Hence, you need a reliable tool to improve your site loading speed, and GTmetrix is what you need. It provides a detailed report of the site speed in addition to precious hints to fix any issues. Sign up for a free account to select from multiple testing locations. More locations and extra features are available for premium subscription holders.
Along with a plethora of details, you get two major sets of grades: GTmetrix grades, a built-in assessment of the site performance, and Web Vitals, metrics taken into account by Google to rank sites.
Website Grader
If you are doing a client’s work, you need the initial state of the website to show the progress you made. Website Grader by HubSpot is what you need for a first site evaluation. In just a few seconds, it delivers a simple and valuable brief. It comprises four sections:
- Performance
- SEO
- Mobile
- Security.
The overall grade is a sum of each section’s scores. Indeed, it’s not a complex tool, and the suggestions are broad, but it’s the ideal tool for a simple site assessment.
Semrush
Semrush is another SEO tool that doesn’t need any intro. Among the most complex SEO tools on the market, it’s a real Swiss army knife for marketers. While the price is prohibitive for most budgets, you get real value for your money. Altogether, a skilled webmaster may extract actionable data even from the Semrush free account. Semrush works for:
- SEO
- Local SEO
- Advertising
- Social Media
- Content Marketing
- Trends.
The SEO module includes competitive research, keyword research, link building, and on-page SEO. Use it to get a thorough analysis of the website traffic, organic traffic insights, and how your site performs for your targeted keywords. The site audit highlights the strengths and weaknesses of your website, so you should focus on those aspects. And don’t skip over the backlinks analysis—backlinks are still relevant!
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest may not be as complex as Semrush, but it is one of the most effective SEO tools and manages to produce a complex yet user-friendly report. It’s great for pros and amateurs alike! Use Ubersuggest to audit your website, get keywords ideas, check the traffic stats, and get an idea of the backlinks acquired by your website. The free plan comes with a limited number of queries, but it’s still a helpful tool if you manage to focus on the crucial queries. The premium plans are acceptable even for tight budgets, and you are free to use the seven-day trial to make sure that Ubersuggest deserves your money.
Keyword Explorer by Moz
Keyword Explorer is an effective tool that deserves your attention. It provides a full report for each query and displays keyword suggestions, complete SERP analysis, monthly volume, and three metrics for ranking your keyword. Keyword Explorer also offers backlink analyses and competitive research.
A free account offers ten queries a month. It is a small ratio, but a wise webmaster knows how to administer these queries to generate more traffic. In simple words, use your free monthly quota because Keyword Explorer gives you actionable data. For more complex projects, we recommend purchasing a premium subscription.
SEOquake
You need a simple, free, and effective tool to check your competitors. Complex tools provide data about competitors but aren’t convenient. SEOquake is what you need—it’s a cool Chrome browser extension. You just click on its icon in the browser toolbar, providing plenty of useful data about the visited websites. It’s a time-saving tool that should be installed on your browser!
Yoast or RankMath
We strongly recommend using an SEO plugin. There are many to pick from, but Yoast and RankMath are the most used SEO plugins for WordPress websites. We’ve tried both with positive results. Either plugin can help you rank higher for your keyword, so check them out and install whichever works best for your website. Bear in mind that installing two or more SEO plugins will result in a plugin conflict and not a ranking boost!
Over to You
These tools will help you craft an SEO strategy that grows organically. You don’t necessarily need other tools if you manage a small to mid website. However, you will need more tools to fine-tune your SEO efforts when running more ambitious projects. Did we miss your favorite SEO tool? Leave a comment to let us know your cool suggestions.