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Search engine optimization (SEO) has evolved from being a niche marketing tactic to a fundamental strategy for driving website traffic and conversions. With constant algorithm updates and the increasing competition for search engine rankings, businesses need to stay on top of their SEO efforts. To do that effectively, investing in the right SEO tools is critical.
Whether you’re looking to audit your website, optimize for keywords, analyze backlinks, or monitor your rankings, the right tools can make all the difference in creating successful SEO campaigns. In this guide, we’ll explore the top 10 SEO tools you should consider using in 2024. Each of these tools offers unique features and benefits that can help you stay ahead of the competition and drive more organic traffic to your website.
An SEO tool is a software application or online platform designed to help individuals and businesses improve their website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. These tools offer a variety of features that simplify the complex process of optimizing websites for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
SEO tools are used by a wide range of people, including SEO experts, website owners, and digital marketers, to improve their website’s performance, drive more traffic, and ultimately increase revenue.
SEO tools offer a variety of functions to make optimization easier, from finding the right keywords to tracking how well a site ranks over time. Let’s look at the different types of SEO tools available:
To summarize, all-in-one SEO tools are efficient because they cover every aspect of your SEO strategy in one place, saving time and effort. However, specialized tools may be more cost-effective for specific needs, such as focusing solely on backlinks or conducting detailed site audits.
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows website owners to moderate and optimize their website’s SEO presence. It stresses monitoring site performance, URL inspection, and indexing (i.e., registering the data via Google) and has a solid analytic dashboard that shows measurable data.
Google Search Console can track your website’s overall performance because guess what? It goes through a Google Search! How clever! This allows you to see key measurements, including the number of clicks, impressions, and CTR.
In SEO terms, Google has “digital robots” called “crawlers,” which act like spiders, weaving a web between all the information on your website. It is like a roadmap that lets Google “index” you, or in layman’s terms, it enables a better chance of being found in Google search results. Typically, the web platform does this, but it can be awkward. Google Search Console allows you to submit an actual sitemap that you created. This is a rare occurrence.
SEO often gets lost in the mix with so many websites adapting responsive themes. Considering that 58.67 percent of website traffic is through a mobile device, Google Search Console identifies how your website performs on these WiFi-consuming devices we all have.
Pros
There are a number of tools and plenty of data, and it can be a bit astute for those new to the game. Does Google Search Console differ in the sense that…well, who knows websites better than Google? Thus, they run your website through a Google Search and analyze it. This provides excellent analytics, and yes, their sitemap/indexing feature is great, but what are they missing? It is merited to say that they are highly recommended, as they show you how your website’s SEO looks to Google itself. This is an impressive benefit, but there are a few issues at the end of the day.
Cons
Google Search Console can be a bit difficult to work with, specifically if you have little to no SEO or website management skills. It also does not maintain information for the past 16 months, so if you have been running a website for 20 months, the first four months are long gone unless you downloaded a report. That is another feature: they provide error reports and mobile usability, but many have experienced errors using the platform. Lastly, it does not offer much in terms of keywords, has delayed data streams, and cannot provide competitive analysis.
This is still a great platform to use!
Summary
It is absolutely free to use and has received many accolades over the years. It is best for small to large businesses, SEO industry professionals, and other specialists for analytical monitoring. As an example, a business owner can use Google Search Console to figure out what keywords will determine the right traffic and discover that his sites are not fully indexed (with the option to include them). He can resolve the issue by troubleshooting, and now all his pages are indexed!
Ahrefs is a widely-used SEO toolset designed specifically for digital marketers, seasoned SEO pros, and website owners who wish to progress alongside the benefits of great SEO. It is a great way to explore keywords, analyze backlinks, and perform other monitoring, and it is tremendously capable of scaling organic search results. In that light, it is most esteemed for backlinks, and it may be the best platform for this purpose. Remember, backlinks increase your ranking because it shows value.
Ahrefs has a fantastic backlink analysis tool comprising one of the world’s most extensive indexes. This tool lets users see who is linking to them. Mind you, this is their premier feature, and it is important to show proof that you are trusted by other web sources, with links going from their page to yours—the most powerful SEO factor of them all.
Where would we be without keyword research? Ahrefs offers accurate keyword data, including the number of monthly searches, keyword difficulty, and traffic estimates. If we have anything to say about it, this is a go-to platform for keyword research.
Ahrefs is an excellent tool for competitive analysis. Because you want to see what others in your industry are up to, it is no shame to take some of their ideas and use them as your own. Please do not take their product or service ideas; instead, take as much data as possible. This is an excellent platform, and it even lets you see which keywords and backlinks are working.
The first pro is its easy-to-use interface. It has a minimalistic, clean, and organized layout that does not overwhelm beginners. It is one of the best platforms for competitive analysis, keyword research, and backlink tracking. I am sure they are well on their way to providing backlink-building services if they are not doing so already. They are also reasonably priced.
Though Ahrefs won a 4.7 on Capterra’s review board, it is missing social media tracking, which can affect backlinks from social posts. It also has a lot of data (sufficient enough to power the sun), but this is only useful when you know how to analyze it. Lastly, there is no direct Google integration; it works independently, meaning it may not be as accurate a tool.
Ahrefs is well-reviewed and is best for SEO professionals, businesses, and agencies who want to see what their competition is doing and analyze their backlinks. It is priced reasonably at a starting package of $99 a month, with higher-tiered options that allow a few more advanced features. They offer a free trial, and Capterra gave them a 4.7.
Google Analytics is a free platform that can be linked to a website’s data, and it will ultimately provide you with just about everything you need. This includes demographics and the device used to access the site, and it features simple, clean, and appropriate data accordingly. Google Analytics is best for those who want to understand the behaviors and consumerism of their traffic flow.
Google Analytics can integrate with any website using an online check-in system (i.e., you feed them your URL) or via tracking code, allowing them to provide real-world statistics and measurements about your visitors. They also offer behavior tracking, which shows the pages they visited, how long they stayed on them, and what their journey through your website is. This is immensely needed when split-testing your website.
This feature allows a tracking code to be installed on a website to track events. This can include pre-designated conversion opportunities, such as sign-up forms, purchases, and overall intake. Lastly, they make this easy with Google Tag Manager.
Because of the immense amount of data Google has (yes, on you, as well), Google Analytics can show you more about things like gender, age range, and geographic location. That’s not all: you can assemble reports that are easy to understand. Segmentation lets you know the people buying your product or service based on what Google gathers.
Google Analytics integrates with just about every web platform and is completely free. It offers an easy-to-use interface, is easy to digest, and receives regular updates with new features and adjustments. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, as Google Analytics has changed in recent years and is much simpler yet equally complex.
Sampling of data is a disadvantage. This means that if a website has too much traffic at once for Google Analytics to handle, and because it is a free tool that is self-run by Google itself, it may “sample” or limit the actual information. It also has some data retention limitations, meaning that data can often be misconstrued, indicated wrongly, or wiped out altogether.
Google Analytics is free and best for digital marketers, SEO professionals, and business owners who require massive analytical information. Capterra gives it a 4.7. Say you are an eCommerce site that is hooked up to Google Analytics. You want to know where visitors are dropping off while navigating your website, and they can look to target their paid ads better.
SEMrush is perhaps one of the biggest “all-things-SEO-related” platforms that hosts everything you need. From being able to look up the traffic of a competitor, research keywords, analyze results, and maintain proper SEO guidelines, SEMrush has it all.
Using SEMrush, you can enter a domain name into their platform, and it will show you their domain authority, keywords, average traffic, and how many backlinks they have. This is a valuable feature for other reasons, too. It can be used to determine partners if you are looking for someone, such as a blog writer you want to target – enter the URL and see the results!
SEMrush features an extensive system to identify high-performing keywords and shows search traffic, the difficulty and ranking of their keywords, and other trends. This can be a valuable alternative to Google Keyword Planner, a platform in and of itself.
You can also maintain your backlink data, including a systematic tool that helps identify “bad links” and discover new websites to link to in exchange for the same. This is a more balanced backlink analysis, and it would not be complete without content, right?
Lastly, they offer a system for planning and executing content marketing strategies such as guest blog posts, podcasts, social media ads, and more! They will even help create the content or, if not doing so directly, can advise you on the right choices.
The pro of SEMrush is that it is an all-in-one suite for your website or SEO needs. It covers all aspects of marketing, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, and more. SEMrush also provides a much more thorough competitive analysis system, publishes regular updates, and offers reports. Lastly, the interface is very easy to understand once you get the hang of it.
The cost is relatively high, likely too expensive for a smaller business. There is also a bit of a learning curve, which the author does not see, but many have mentioned that the interface is a bit confusing. Lastly, analyzing the mountains of data they will pull from their research requires a lot of time, and paywalls block many advanced features.
SEMrush costs around $120 a month, and it is highly rated by Capterra at 4.7 and by thousands of online reviews. It is most likely best for SEO professionals who can analyze data, digital marketing agencies, and other companies that engage in mass marketing efforts. It is worth it, but there are, of course, other options. I highly recommend SEMrush, as do many others.
Google Trends is a rather peculiar platform. It does not have much benefit, as it is a free tool that shows data-backed search inquiries (i.e., what the user typed in) and allows for trends and valuable content to be assessed. Though it is great for targeting keywords and search queries, it is limited only because this is all it does. However, for the sake of argument, we will list the features.
Google Trends offers a thorough look into the popularity of certain search terms (e.g., keywords). It tracks trends, seasonal or quarterly patterns, and trending topics.
They also offer real-time data, which means that you can see how people are engaging with your website at the exact moment they are on it.
Google Trends has a neat dashboard that allows assessments in visual form, including graphs, maps, charts, and more. This allows for the data to be understood more effectively.
It is free to use and has an easy-to-understand interface—again, it’s free! Though it does not offer the entire suite of SEO marketing, it is a great tool for SEO research. It is accessible worldwide, meaning you can gather data on other countries. It is great for understanding search queries and trending keywords. This allows you to include keywords related to popular search results. Lastly, it understands seasonal trends, allowing for data mining.
Though Google Trends is a great platform for tracking keywords and search explorations, the con is that that is really all it does. It only provides search popularity and does not have a dedicated keyword-generating system. Lastly, it does not integrate with most websites, meaning you will have to work with two tabs on your browser to understand what is going on.
Google Trends is a good start, but it is not an end-all SEO platform. Rather, it is a tool that allows for the user to understand what is being searched for. This can help by showing who is searching for what. Then, you can go ahead and add those popular search queries as long-tail keywords. If you are going to use PPC, such as Google Ads or Meta Ads, this can help you understand what to bid on. Capterra gave it a 4.7 out of 5, and it has stellar reviews. It is best for any specialist looking to enhance their SEO by utilizing trends, whether seasonal or quarterly, and it is recommended as a good tool.
PageSpeed Insights is yet another free tool that Google uses to assess the performance of a website. It provides you with a score with the page’s load time (which is essential for SEO), the visual hierarchy of the page, and suggestions on how to improve them. It also gives what is called a “First Contentful Plan,” a “Largest Contentful Plan,” and a “Cumulative Layout Shift.” These are detailed reports that relate to the performance metrics and other measurements of your website.
This feature provides a performance score of your website on both the desktop and mobile spectrum. This comes with core web vitals such as the FCP, LCP, and CLS, and First Input Key (FID). Their scores can be detailed in a report.
The platform provides rather specific details about how to improve load times (often done by optimizing images, using browser caching, and the minimization of render-blocking items.
They provide an analysis in a report that provides a relatively exhaustive performance review on both types of devices, showing how well your website performs
This feature takes into consideration data from real users (called “field data”) in simulated testing slots (called “lab data”) to give an overview of the specific page’s performance.
PageSpeed Insights is a great way to measure load speed. The tool is free, which is another plus, and it is built to run in a Google-based environment, allowing metrics and providing recommendations on how to improve your website’s ranking.
It is a bit technical, almost requiring knowledge of web design and development just to use the platform, so it is not very user-friendly. It also has a limited ability to go over other key SEO areas (it is missing access to content quality, the number of backlinks, and keyword optimization). Thus, it is not what is considered a comprehensive SEO tool. It is a good addition, however.
It is free to use, so there is no harm in trying it. Load speed is an important factor when it comes to your SEO ranking, so understanding what causes a page to load slowly can be a time-saver. It is rated very highly, with Capterra giving it a 4.5. It is best for website owners, developers, and SEO professionals. The focus of this platform is simply, to provide detailed page load insights for the user.
As SEO includes your content, Page Optimizer Pro works as an on-page SEO tool that helps the user understand what factors are necessary for a better search engine ranking. It provides a recommendation based on data for all top-ranked keywords. An advanced algorithm provides specific changes that need to be made to any/all content, allowing keyword optimization.
Page Optimizer Pro recommends when, where, and how to include keywords within SEO assets such as headers, titles, content, and meta tags.
The platform can show you which of your competitors are ranking highly for a specific keyword, and once this is accomplished, it generates suggestions for optimization.
This feature offers creative and data-driven optimization, which assists in the formulation of content. These recommendations are based on the data gathered by top-ranked pages.
The pros of Page Optimizer Pro include data-driven tactics that make highly detailed recommendations based on information gathered from top-ranking websites. It also provides a competitive analysis tool that lets users create their content properly and a user-friendly interface.
Unfortunately, the cons include limited scope (though it is excellent at optimizing pages, it does not cover backlinks, site speed, or any technical SEO), a subscription priced at (on the low end) $22 a month, and it is highly-used for on-page optimizations. Still, it does not offer other SEO features.
The tool is great for examining ways to improve search engine ranking, and it has mostly positive reviews. It is an easy-to-use platform for those who want a quick way to assess their on-page content and SEO, but for those in the small business world, this might not be a viable option. Still, it is worth taking a look at, with a Capterra score of 5.0. Overall, it is helpful, but not in every aspect.
Everyone and their best friend has heard of Moz. This is one of the most popular SEO platforms, and it provides just about everything you would need, from a fully functioning SEO toolset to keyword research to a site audit to provide details about SEO elements (tags, meta descriptions, and content) and beyond. Moz is quite likely one of the better platforms on this list.
Moz has a “Keyword Explorer” that allows users to locate the best keywords to target. It also provides metrics such as traffic amount, difficulty, and potential CTR.
This analyzes backlinks and shows their quality and quantity, as well as where they came from. This feature will assist you in building link strategies.
The Site Audit feature, or a “Site Crawl,” facilitates precisely what it says: a site audit that provides information about SEO, including broken links, duplicate content, and index errors.
Moz is an all-in-one SEO toolset. Its interface is engaging and easy to understand, and it has a strong communal function where blogs and other educational tools are listed. This lets the user keep up with SEO insights and trends, potentially making it easier to rank higher.
Moz is expensive, starting at around $99 a month, and data accessibility is limited on lower-priced plans. This means that to get the full experience, you must be able to afford the higher tiers, which run as high as $599 a month! Lastly, it will not assist those seeking local SEO.
Capterra gave Moz a 4.5, and it is a great tool for SEO professionals, agencies, and businesses that need a top-notch, all-in-one SEO tool. It is recommended that you at least try the 30-day free trial, and if you like it, maybe you can afford it. It is a comprehensive SEO tool meant for all levels of skill, keyword research, and backlink analysis, all on a user-friendly interface.
HubSpot is yet another well-known name in SEO. Though it is actually a CRM-based platform, it provides SEO Marketing Software tools that provide SEO recommendations, the organization of content into “clusters” or batches that your target audience will appreciate (this improves site authority and the ability to rank), and tools for researching and planning content built around given keywords. Lastly, it allows keyword tracking and competitor analysis.
This feature typically provides real-time SEO recommendations while you are creating content. This makes it an excellent tool for facilitating the optimization of pages, blogs, and landing pages for higher ranking and domain authority.
HubSpot is also a CRM, or “customer relationship management” system, and its SEO toolkit fits into this category. This can be helpful when collecting leads; you can link the CRM system to the SEO platform, allowing for detailed organization with manual effort.
This feature helps users organize their content and find relevant content. If used correctly, it can increase your domain ranking and site authority. It is almost as if you can build content through the platform, allowing for an emphatic third-party tool that covers all SEO aspects.
The pros of HubSpot are similar to those of others we have mentioned. It provides a user-friendly and easy-to-learn interface, making it an intuitive tool for beginners. It is also an all-in-one platform, offering competitor analysis, keyword tracking, and on-page SEO analyses.
The pricing can be a barrier, with costs starting at $45 but extending beyond that. Also, though the interface is user-friendly, it can be overwhelming for someone just hopping on to use it. Lastly, it provides excellent SEO functionality but is not built for that specialization. It will not offer the most useful SEO-related data compared to other platforms (such as Moz or SEMrush). It is rated 4.5 by Capterra and is well-reviewed on other platforms.
Last but not least, Answer The Public allows for keyword research, facilitates content ideas, and powerfully visualizes search queries from both Google and Bing. This can assist businesses and marketers alike in understanding what questions are in demand. It is much like the former Google Trends, except it is a bit more intuitive. It is a free platform for keyword research, in particular.
As we have seen, many SEO tools offer keyword research. This is very important, as, without the right keywords, you cannot succeed. This feature visually shows search queries, allowing for a better understanding of what content is worth producing.
Type in a seed keyword, and Answer The Public will provide several long-tail keywords in response. This is not an exclusive tool, but Answer The Public does this incredibly well. Due to this particular feature, it is great for keyword research and content creation.
You can even export the documentation as needed, which makes it easier to track in a spreadsheet or other document. Many platforms lack this easy export feature, and it makes everything a whole lot easier when you can copy over the material.
Answer The Public has an easy-to-understand interface and can be used by those without professional experience. It provides content ideas based on what your users are searching for and is a free tool. However, as with all pros, there are inevitable cons.
Though useful for keyword research, it does not have any analytics, backlink information, or competitive analysis tools, meaning it is a standalone platform limited in its abilities. Also, sometimes users have complained that the data can be overwhelmingly detailed, which can be good or bad, depending on the scenario.
Answer The Public is a good tool for keyword research, but it does not do much else. Still, for a free platform, it is best used by SEO professionals, content creators, bloggers, and anyone looking to produce content with high-converting keywords. It is rated 4.6 on Capterra.
SEO tools are essential for the ranking of a website. Understanding which platform is best for you depends on your needs. As discussed, several services can enhance your web presence, increase your traffic, and grow as a company. In conclusion, SEO optimization, keyword research, backlink analysis, and site audits are necessary. The tools listed are very useful for any SEO professional, content creator, or business owner who wishes to enhance their web presence by utilizing organic SEO to rank highly on Google.
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