Have you ever wanted to know about your organic traffic, keyword rankings, backlinks, or other analytics? Maybe you want a comprehensive SEO Audit but simply don’t know where to go.

Of course, you could hand over your website to an SEO expert, and my startup proves just how many people choose this option – but you can also gain tons of knowledge all on your own by using the same tools the pros use.

Here are some of the top SEO tools that I use – and you can too!

Some of these online SEO tools are free, some are paid, and some have both free and paid versions. So, whether you want to stay under a certain price point, or don’t have a budget at all, you can find the perfect mix for you and your business below.

 

The Entire Google Webmasters Suite

 

Google has a whole slew of helpful tools – but since I only have space for 5 tools on this list, I decided to add them all into one – just think of it as getting more bang for your buck.

Google’s tools include their Keyword Planner, Trends, Search Console, Analytics, Sheets, and Pagespeed Insights. Got all that?

Let’s look a little closer at each:

  • Keyword Planner helps you research what keywords you should target
  • Trends show you trends – shocking, I know
  • Search Console will show you what you need to fix on the technical side of your website, or what on-page issues your site is dealing with (as well as how to fix the issues)
  • Analytics gives you data on your organic traffic like volume, demographics, and location
  • Sheets is sort of like Google’s version of Excel, which can help you organize and understand your data
  • And Pagespeed Insights tells you about your page speed (Google isn’t very creative with their names)

Yoast SEO Plugin

 

Yoast’s plugin has both a free and paid (premium) but both can help you with keyword optimization, letting Google know what your page/site is about, reminding you to keep your content fresh, checking your readability, easily editing your site visually, fixing and monitoring technical stuff in the backend of your site, and more.

The Yoast Plugin is something that every website owner should be using, simply because it gives you insights and tips (whether you use them or not) and can only help your site and knowledge, not hurt it.

Additionally, this plugin is easy to use and understand, so you don’t have to be an SEO guru to benefit from it.

 

SEMrush

 

SEMrush is best when paid for, but it can easily take over all of your other tools as it’s sort of like your one-stop shop for SEO, content, links, market research, and more.

I always recommend SEMrush to my friends, family, business connections – everyone. The only downside is it isn’t necessarily meant for someone who knows nothing about SEO or digital marketing. Not that SEMrush was created only for experts, but it isn’t as user-friendly or casual as some of the other sites mentioned in this list.

Luckily, there are many articles, forums, and support channels to make sure you get the very most out of your SEMrush subscription or free account.

An upside to combat the complexity of SEMrush is their SEO Audit, which is impressive, in-depth, and comprehensive – everything you want in an SEO Audit.

 

MozBar

 

Moz is great for research or competitor analysis as it can show you the background, links, makeup, and rankings of any site you type in. Plus, Moz shows everything in charts and tables, making it easy to digest if you understand general statistics.

Moz and SEMrush are competitors, as they have many similarities, so I often recommend that business owners or professionals looking to gain a deeper understanding of their SEO try out both and see which mesh with their style and level of understanding better.

But, of course, everything has a downside and Moz has no fully free version, unless you plan on using under 10 queries a month, though they do offer a 30-day free trial.

 

Neil Patel SEO Analyzer

 

Neil Patel is something of a household name in the industry, and that’s because he puts out content constantly that is helpful, relevant, and easily understood and digestible by SEO experts and novices alike.

So, it would make sense that his SEO Analyzer tool is easy to use yet thorough too. What’s better? This is a completely free tool, you don’t even have to sign in. Just copy and paste your URL into the search bar, hit enter and boom – look at your site audit.

From your on-page SEO score, to monthly organic traffic, organic keywords, backlinks, health checks, errors, warnings, and even recommendations, Neil Patel and his free tool are here to help.

The downside? It is only a couple pages, which makes it easy to understand, but if you’re looking for specific information or deep-tunneled stats, you might be better off choosing a longer SEO Audit which is more likely to have the information you are looking for, like SEMrush or MyWebAudit.

 

Feeling More Confident Yet? Go Ahead & Try the Above Tools Out!

 

I’m not affiliated with any of the above companies, I get nothing for recommending them – except the satisfaction of knowing I’m helping my readers out.

So, whether you are brand new to SEO or know most of the odds and ends, these tools can help you gain insights, research, statistics, and measurements that will greatly help guide your content and marketing plans.

Want a more comprehensive list that shows all of your potential tools? Check out this great (long) list here. Just want the free ones to start off? Check out this list by Backlinko.

Or, of course, if you are a little overwhelmed by the lists above or the prospect of taking on all this SEO, content, and digital marketing on your own, then contact me, or my team at JSL Marketing and we’ll get you set up without having to lift a finger.