1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console shows queries, clicks, and pages that get the most visitors. Use Google Search Console to track and improve website performance. Factors included in determining performance include search terms, clicks, impressions, average positions, and more. Make sure to monitor the best performing pages on your site and the keywords you rank for.
In addition to improving visibility and rankings, Google Search Console also notifies you of errors and warnings with your website. Keep a close eye on this tool and quickly fix any reported issues before they affect your SEO.
2. Google Analytics
Like Google Search Console, Google analytics is another free tool from Google that anyone with website ownership can utilize. The main difference is that Google analytics is user-focused instead of search-engine focused. Use Google Analytics to get to know your audience. Track user behavior and take note of demographics.
Besides showing useful audience information such as age, location, gender, device, and session length, Google Analytics also shows you where your traffic is coming from. This acquisition data is especially helpful when running ad and referral campaigns. Find out if users found you through organic search, social media, or referrals. Analyze your top performing blogs and recreate the conditions that made those pages successful with both new content and any old content that needs refreshing.
3. Screaming Frog
Perform website audits for free with Screaming Frog. You can download and crawl 500 URLS for free, making this an amazing tool for smaller websites. Find broken links and redirects, identify titles and meta descriptions that need work, generate XML sitemaps, discover duplicate pages, and more.
4. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest’s goal is to get your website more traffic. This tool has multiple SEO-focused functions, including competitor tracking, daily rank tracking, keyword tracking, keyword suggestions, backlink tracking, content ideas, and site audits. There is a daily limit for the free version of Ubersuggest, but users still get a lot of access. Besides tools, the site also offers a number of useful SEO training videos and workbooks for free.
5. Semrush
While Semrush is a bit more limited with its free version, users who create an account can perform daily competitor and keyword research, manage one project, track 10 keywords, and audit 100 pages of a website. Find out more about what you can do with a free Semrush account here.
6. Yoast
If you have a WordPress site, you should be leveraging Yoast. Yoast is an easy-to-use on-page SEO tool. Yoast optimizes your posts and pages to help you rank better in search engine results. Yoast’s real-time content analysis gives your pages an SEO score that increases as you improve things like your title, readability, and meta description. It also has several behind-the-scenes features like automated SEO improvements and faster loading times.
7. Bing Webmaster Tools
With 900 million searches per day, Bing is a search engine you need to optimize for. Bing Webmaster Tools gets your site indexed and ranking on Bing. Think of it as Microsoft’s version of Google Search Console. It’s a great way to get keyword ideas that will differ a bit from the tools using Google for their data. It also crawls your site for SEO issues and errors.
Find more ways to keep improving your SEO by reading this blog.
About the Author: Sheri Holshouser is a marketing manager based in Dallas, Texas. In her free time, she likes to read science fiction novels and play with her pug Chloe. Learn more about her professional qualifications on LinkedIn.
