Search engine optimisation (SEO) can be a daunting topic for many marketers.
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SEO tools can make your life a whole lot easier, especially when you’re just starting in marketing.
Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned professional, mastering SEO is not an easy feat.
This is not because SEO is impossible to learn but because a successful SEO strategy comprises many small moving parts. Not to mention Google’s ever-changing algorithm.
“Each year, Google makes hundreds of changes to search. While most of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a “major” algorithmic update (such as Google Panda and Google Penguin) that affects search results in significant ways.” – Moz
The good news is that many online tools help you analyse and implement your SEO strategy. Therefore, we have put together a list of SEO tools to help make your life easier.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the SEO tools used by specialists worldwide.
1. The Search Result Pages
This may sound obvious, but search result pages are one of the best SEO tools available.
By using the search results through your project, you can see which pages on your website are indexed by simply typing in site:yoursite.com (replacing yoursite.com with your URL). This is also a great way to see how your website appears on search results.
You can do competitor research, research keywords, content ideas, and more using the search result pages. A regularly missed opportunity is looking at the Google autocomplete, people ask section and related searches down at the bottom of the page for content inspiration.
2. SEO Plugins
Rank Math
If you own/look after a WordPress website, it’s a no-brainer to install Rank Math.
Recommended by some of the world’s biggest names in digital, Rank Math is a Search Engine Optimisation plugin for WordPress that makes optimising your content a breeze.
Nailing SEO is all about following best practices, and with Rank Math, you don’t have to remember it all off the top of your head.
Whether you want to customise SEO settings, control indexable pages, or control how you want your website to appear in search, Rank Math is a tool you need to use.
Just look at the screenshot below to see how easy Rank Math makes it to nail your SEO.
Yoast
Another great option is Yoast SEO plugin. This plugin doesn’t implement SEO for you, but it’s a great ally. It’s worth taking the time to go through each section of the plugin and get to know how you can get the most from the Yoast SEO plugin.
Bonus: Yoast has just been added to Shopify, so it’s a great choice if you’re in the eCommerce space.
3. SEMrush
There are various SEO management platform tools available around the web, from the likes of Moz, Ahrefs, and more. SEMrush is popular as they have a free version alongside paid subscriptions.
Through SEMrush, you can do keyword research, competitor analysis and track your website as a ‘project’. You can track keywords, run a site audit, and get content ideas through your project. The good thing about SEMrush is that it gives you lots of information about why your website may have issues and how to fix them.
4. Image Optimisers
Did you catch our blog post on Image SEO – Optimising Images for Search Engines? If you didn’t, you need to know that the images on your website can assist or hinder your SEO efforts.
The need for speed is massive for websites in 2023 and beyond. According to their Test My Mobile Site Tool, Google believes a ‘slow’ webpage is any page that takes more than 2.5 seconds to load.
2.5 seconds sounds fast, right? Online, however, it’s an eternity.
One of the biggest bloats on a website is typically large image files. Therefore, before uploading any images to a website, to not hinder your website’s performance, it’s best to resize your images to the max dimensions they’ll show alongside compressing the file as much as possible.
You can reduce an image file size through tools like Photoshop, alongside free online tools like these:
5. PageSpeed Insights
No one likes a slow-loading website, especially in 2023. Thankfully, Google’s PageSpeed Insights has you covered. This free tool is great for testing your load times, core web vitals, and more.
6. Chrome Web Store
If you’re not using the Chrome browser yet, get onto it stat. SEO professionals love Chrome so much because of the extensions you can add through the Chrome Web Store.
Many SEO Chrome extensions will help you do SEO tasks a lot easier and quicker. Some of our favourites are:
- Check My Links – to help you spot broken or redirected links on a page.
- Google Tag Assistant – to check what tracking tags are on a website and troubleshoot any issues.
- Meta SEO Inspector – to check on your metadata, heading tags, image alt text, and more.
7. Google Analytics 4
Is a list of SEO tools complete without mentioning Google Analytics 4? Of course not! Every website should have Google Analytics set up. Without it, you can’t track the success of any of the work you’re putting into your SEO.
Like SEO, Google Analytics 4 can be daunting as it holds so much data and information about your website. Our advice is to take it one step at a time. The more you look at and learn about your data, the more you can hone your SEO strategy.
We’d recommend starting with the Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels report, which will show you where your website traffic is coming from. Once you understand this report, you can delve into the Conversions, Behaviour, and Audience reports.
The Google Analytics Academy is great for learning more about this essential marketing tool. You can also complete the Google Analytics exam to become certified, which looks great on your LinkedIn profile!
Important: it’s worth noting that all Universal Analytics properties will be fully deleted from July 1, 2024
8. Google Search Console
If you’re looking to improve your performance on Google Search (and you definitely should), you must check out Google Search Console.
Google Search Console offers so many tips to help optimise your site, great courses, and much more. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into, so jump in and get started as soon as possible.
9. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a website crawler that helps you improve onsite SEO by extracting data & auditing for common SEO issues.
Screaming Frog can find broken links, audit redirects, generate XML sitemaps, discover duplicate content, visualise site architecture, and so much more!
10. Lumar (FKA Deepcrawl)
Formerly known as Deepcrawl, Lumar takes what you know and love about the website crawler and technical SEO tools and expands it into a “broader website intelligence platform.”
So, what is a “broader website intelligence platform” exactly? Well, Lumar allows users to monitor and benchmark the technical performance of the websites and discover new opportunities for revenue and organic growth. Additionally, Lumar offers automated QA testing, so you can find issues with your site before they go live.
11. Ubersuggest
If you’ve spent time researching SEO tools or digital marketing, we’re willing to bet you’ve stumbled across Neil Patel.
A free tool from NP Digital, Ubersuggest enables you to do keyword research, analyse competitors, do site audits, and more. It’s a feature-rich tool that offers a domain overview, SEo page rankings, keyword suggestions, backlink data, and even content ideas.
12. Copyscape
Have you ever wondered if your website content has been copied somewhere on the internet? Wonder no more!
With Copyscape, you can search the web for copies of your web pages. All you have to do is enter a URL and let Copyscape do the rest. Pretty neat, right?
Not only is Copyscape an excellent tool for finding plagiarism, but it’s also an effective tool for finding duplicate content on your website.
13. Keywords Everywhere
Keyword research can be a real pain. It’s time-consuming, and there’s often a lot of back and forth spent copying information and analysing search volume… and you’re already asleep.
If you’re looking for help with your keyword research, Keywords Everywhere is a simple browser extension built for Chrome and Firefox that provides search volume, CPC, and competition data for keywords from websites all over the web.
Keywords Everywhere works across a host of Google services like Google Search, Google Trends, Google Search Console, and even on YouTube, Bing, Amazon, eBay, and a whole lot more. With no monthly subscriptions, pay as you go from $10 for 100,000 credits—1 credit = 1 keyword.
Final thoughts
We’d like to end with this quote:
“For big SEO results, start small” – Sean O’Keefe, Website Optimization at Google.
SEO doesn’t need to be overwhelming, just take it one step at a time. The above SEO tools should help you further understand, analyse and implement your SEO strategy.
Discover how SEO can help you rank higher, increase traffic, find quality customers, and more.
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