A majority of buyers in both B2B and B2C segments start their query about a product or service with a Google search. Find out how to optimize your website for greater visibility on search engine results pages (SERPS) using 19 of the best free SEO tools.
Reports suggest that 89% of B2B buyers and 81% of online shoppers start their journey on Google, making your Google search engine ranking the key to organic traffic. Smarter search engine optimization (SEO) can help your website rank higher on Google search and drive high organic traffic volumes.
5 BIG STRATEGIC CONTENT EXPERIENCE QUESTIONS FOR CMOs
The future of effective content marketing is not in solutions that enable marketing teams to do the same activities with just more volume and efficiency
This is where dedicated SEO tools can help. They offer detailed views of how you’re performing on Google’s search algorithms, and some even provide pointers to take action. We have put together a comprehensive list of free SEO tools that can help you stay ahead of Google’s ever-changing ranking algorithms.
Learn more: 3 Tips on Using SEO to Get Your Small Business Noticed Online
19 Essential Free SEO Tools for Marketers
These 20 SEO tools are extremely useful, completely free, and a must-have for any marketer’s SEO stack:
1. Yoast SEO – A free tool for WordPress users
Yoast SEO is available as a free SEO plug-in on the WordPress platform, a staple for any marketer. You can use it to analyze meta-tags and content, generate canonical URLs to avoid content duplication, and lots more. There’s also a premium version available that lets you expand into video, localization, and news.
2. Answer the Public – Your free guide to keyword identification
In the era of voice search, users frequently search for action-oriented queries starting with “are”, “can”, etc. Essentially, they ask questions – on the search bar as well as to their voice assistants. These questions are revealed by Answer the Public in a visual format.
3. MozBar – A handy SEO toolbar
MozBar works like most webpage SEO analyzers, but its USP is that it sits right on your browser, giving you visibility in real-time. Any website you visit will be assessed immediately by this free SEO tool.
4. Mobile-Friendly Test – A free mobile responsiveness checker
Given that the bulk of Google traffic now comes from mobile devices, mobile-friendly website design is key to your ranking. There are several tests out there – but we recommend Google Search Console’s built-in free tool available right there on the search engine.
5. Ubersuggest – A free long-tail keywords creator
Coming up with long-tail keywords (words and phrases that are related to your primary keyword) can be difficult. Ubersuggest is a free SEO tool by content marketing veteran Neil Patel, that makes this task faster and easier.
6. PageSpeed Insights – A performance checker by Google
Recently, Google unveiled several updates such as AMP optimization to make pages faster. Its free PageSpeed insights tool reveal exactly how your SEO tactics have impacted loading speeds, identifying any problem areas.
7. Ahrefs backlink checker – A powerful backlink verification tool
The full version of this SEO tool is paid, but there is a pretty useful free version available online. You can check whether any of the links on your website/blog is broken, along with a URL score and overall domain assessment.
8. SEO Web Page Analyzer – A 360-degree free SEO tool for all your needs
This free SEO too is pretty much a jack of all trades – it breaks down every component on your site to reveal SEO details. However, there isn’t any benchmarking against industry best standards.
9. SEMrush – A freemium SEO tool that packs a punch
SEMrush comes with a free 7-day trial for business customers. However, you can uncover a plethora of insights about your website in this period, including organic and paid search ranking, top performing keywords, and ad traffic.
10.Responsive Design Checker – A design simulation tool for cross-device search
How is your website going to be rendered on mobile, tablets, and desktops? Responsive Design Checker draws up a visual simulation of how different elements would be rendered, helping mobile SEO.
11. Browseo – A great indicator of how Google sees your website
This free SEO tool is unique in its category because it doesn’t give you a report or assign ranking to your website. Instead, you can view your website without any CSS design elements, which is exactly how Google will scan your website.
12. Panguin Tool – A website update validity checker
As mentioned, Google’s search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Panguin by Barracuda Digital lets you investigate if Google’s updates have impacted your SEO performance, provided you give the tool access to your Google Analytics data.
13. Varvy SEO tool – A free audit platform
Varvy offers a detailed deep dive into website search engine optimization, benchmarked across all the key parameters. The results are color-coded to help you understand your site’s problem areas and what’s working just right.
14. LSI Graph – A feature-rich long-tail keyword generator
LSI Graph depicts unexpected keywords that you might not have considered. It bases these insights on user behavior, identifying which words and phrases are likely to appeal to your audience. The free version gives you a complete list of long-tail keywords, while the pro version includes metrics and analysis.
15. Toptal Mergewords – Your window to better content optimization
It can be difficult to optimize your content for SERPS without impacting its flow, narrative, and overall readability level. Force-fitting keywords is never a good idea – that’s why Mergewords lets you input your targeted keywords and then derives coherent and comprehensible keyword combinations that you can use.
16. SERP Simulator – A glance at how your website appears on Google
This free SEO tool performs a critical function – ensure your google search engine result works exactly as designed. The meta-title and description appear in search results helping you fix any issues before publication.
17. SimilarWeb – A free competitor analysis tool
SEO performance is all about how your website ranks against similar search results. SimilarWeb is a free tool that ranks any website based on key parameters, letting you analyze how your SEO tactics are helping to get ahead of the competition.
18. Robots.txt Generator – A tool that helps leave out not-to-be-crawled pages
Robot.txt files are essential to any website, specifying which pages to crawl and which ones to leave out when ranking for SEO. This free SEO utility helps you create a robot.txt file with ease.
19. Smush Image Compression and Optimization – A free SEO tool for your pictures
On-page visuals can slow down your website and adversely impact SERPS performance. Smush helps to compress images in bulk, without compromising quality. You can even optimize images that are already up and running on your website.
Learn more: A CMO’s 5-Point Search Manifesto for 2019, with Fernando Angulo, SEMrush
Looking to Go Beyond Free SEO Tools? Here’s What You Must Consider
There are plenty of free SEO tools out there that in combination can meet most of your requirements. Unless you have a massive website with a highly complex sitemap, you can ensure sustained performance using the free SEO tools listed above, combined with Google Analytics. Google has a sizeable library of tools for marketers and SEO professionals, including analytics, keyword planner, and its search console.
So, before you invest, conduct thorough research and try out a free demo of the selected SEO tool. This will ensure that you make the right call.
Do you use any other great free SEO tools? Tell us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. We’d love to learn from you.