11 SEO tools free for creators
SEO is a confusing process and time-consuming, however it doesn't have to be. We've compiled a list of 11 SEO tools to help optimize your website and bring in more website traffic.
SEO can be confusing and complex, especially when you're not familiar with it. Short- and long-tail keywords, anchor text and TXT files, link building and backlinking . . . It's enough to turn your head spin.
What's good? There are many simple-to-use, inexpensive and often free -- tools out there that can do a lot of the SEO work (and algorithm analysis) on your behalf.
Here are 11 easy SEO tools to help you enhance your site and gain increased attention for your online merchandise. And as an added bonus, every tool on the list offers a free option.
Then, firstly, what is SEO?
What are SEO tools? (And why should you use them?)
SEO tools allow to anyone who has a website to improve their site's content to SEO engines.
The content that has been optimized is more prominent in search results for pertinent keywords and phrases. The more you optimize your content, the more easy it is for new people to find it through search.
And with organic search responsible for five-thirds of all internet traffic making sure you're able to grab one of the highest spots in the result page can be crucial and is especially important in light of the fact that the first five results from any Google search make up 67.6% of all clicks .
What exactly does SEO take on in real life?
If I'm a mom with a full schedule with a difficult time keeping the budget of my family If I'm a busy mom, I'll probably search an expression like "budgeting for moms who are busy".
And if I click on your site, I'll find your content, see you've got the knowledge I'm searching for, and maybe even sign up for your course.
The most popular snippet from the phrase "budgeting with busy parents" illustrates this article from Simplified Motherhood, a site that focuses on offering contentwhich includes online classes and digital downloads to help busy moms to stay on top of their schedules.
SEO tools can assist you to reach that highly sought-after top spot in the search results -even if you do not have the resources of a dedicated team for digital marketing (or any team in all). The tools could even level make it easier for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs to compete with big companies who have bigger budgets.
The reason is that SEO is considerably less expensive than cost-per-click (CPC) advertising and is more effective. The Databox survey revealed 77% of marketing professionals agree that SEO is better than PPC ads in generating sales.
And just a few simple SEO tweaks can make a big improvement in natural traffic and sales. That's why more than 64% of marketers actively invest time in SEO.
(If there isn't a website to optimize, you can create one using . Sign up for a trial of 14 days free , and start selling digital goods from your own site.)
Before we get into our selection of the best SEO tools designed for entrepreneurs, let's look through the most popular types of SEO tools.
Different types of SEO tools
Some SEO tools are akin to Swiss knives in the army that come with several options and can help with many SEO tasks. However, some are more specifically focused on a particular part in SEO. SEO puzzle.
Here are some of the most common types of SEO tools.
Keyword search instruments: These tools help to identify the most popular keywords or phrases people use in search engines.
They will also inform you of keyword difficulty -- how difficult it is for content to be ranked for a specific keywords -- as well as daily searches -- how many times keywords are used in a monthfor you to identify your best keywords .
Tools for tracking rank: Rank-tracking tools tell how your website is ranked for the keywords you want to rank and allow you to adjust your content accordingly.
Tools for building links: Link-building means earning backlinks, which are links to your website from websites -- in order to increase your website's credibility with search engines. is a vital element of a successful SEO strategy.
Links-building tools will help you locate backlink opportunities and find out which sites have links to your site.
technical SEO tools The technical SEO tools go into the nitty-gritty of SEO. On the front end of your website Technical SEO makes sure that your pages are designed for users as well as crawlers, which are the spiders that search engines use for indexing updated and new information.
Tools to analyze: SEO reporting and analytics tools will show you how well your site is doing in a wide range of measures, including traffic, conversions, time spent on site, and many other.
Now, without further ado, let's get in our most effective SEO tools for information entrepreneurs.
The top 11 free SEO tools for infopreneurs
1. Ahrefs' free SEO tools
While the paid plans begin with $99/month , Ahrefs offers a variety of free SEO tools. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Webmaster Tools : Ahrefs Webmaster Tools are completely free for all websites owners and are technically just "free restricted access to Ahrefs' Site Explorer & Site Audit " however, they offer some very useful options, like:
An SEO audit and backlink study of your website
Analysis of competitors' websites' SEO
Effective SEO metrics that include organic traffic as well as keyword rankings
Keyword generator : You can enter up to 10 words or phrases. Ahrefs will show you 100 related keywords that include the word you're looking for and the difficulty of the first 10.
keyword rank checker : Find out how your site is ranked on any particular keyword.
Backlink checker : You can enter any domain, and view its domain ranking (the strength of a target site's backlink profile) and the amount of backlinks are there, as well as the number of websites which connect to the site.
If you are a fan of Ahrefs' free tools and are looking to become deeper into the information it is possible to try for a seven-day free trial of their complete platform for just $7.
If you decide to sign up to a paid account I would suggest checking for their SEO toolbar , a free Firefox and Chrome extension that provides immediate SEO statistics for every website you browse.
2. Moz's SEO tools for free
Similar to Ahrefs, Moz has a robust paid platform but also offers various free tools . Here are some of the top:
Domain SEO Analysis Tool : Enter a domain and see SEO-related metrics like:
Domain Authority, Moz's version of "Domain Ranking"
The top pages are ranked that are determined by "Page Authority" Moz's algorithm to determine link metrics
Clicks per click estimates for the key phrases
Recent new links to the domain
MozBar : A Chrome extension that displays instant SEO metrics while viewing any web page or search engine results page (SERP).
Keyword Explorer Search for a keyword and get access to:
Monthly search volume
Keyword research data that can be exported as CSV and Excel spreadsheets
Long-tail keywords -- keywords which are of greater relevance but with lower search volume
Scores for Keyword difficulty
SERP analysis, with data about each result that appears on the initial page of results.
Keyword suggestions for each country
When you sign up for an unpaid Moz login, users are limited to 10 queries for keyword analysis per month. If you want full access to Moz's toolsand services, such as the Keyword as well as site Explorers, Moz Pro plans begin at $149 per month and you're able to take a trial of 30 days before starting a paid package.
3. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner Google Keyword Planner is the Google's tool for researching keywords.
This tool can help you figure the keywords that people are using to search for your product in the market. The tool lets you view monthly search volume and predicted search volume. It can also help you discover keyword ideas to aid you in reaching your audience.
It's completely free for all users with the Google account. (That is said, it could be a bit difficult to find If you do run in trouble, this guide from Ahrefs has some great ways to solve the problem.)
4. Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC is another free tool provided by the search engine masters of Google. GSC has reports and tools that help you measure your website's performance as well as traffic particularly by determining the way it appears and how often it pops prominently in Google search results.
Some of the principal characteristics of GSC are:
Confirming you are sure that Google can find and crawl your site.
Fixing indexing problems and requesting indexing for new or revised information.
Accessing Google search traffic data for your site, which includes how often your site appears in Google searches, which queries show your site, and how often searchers click through to your site in response to those searches.
Alerts sent out whenever Google discovers issues with indexing, spam, or other issues in your website.
The ability to show you the websites that have links to your website (a.k.a. backlinks).
GSC is not without its steep learning curve but you can find a variety of resources to assist you in navigating the platform, like these training videos that are free from Google.
P.S. If your target audience utilizes Bing to search, Bing Webmaster Tools is the (free) Bing equivalent of GSC.
5. Google Analytics (GA)
Google Analytics gives you all of the information you require to determine how visitors interact with your website. For SEO purposes include an google Analytics tracking code on your website and connect the site to GSC.
GA offers free reporting on SEO measures like:
Organic traffic (on mobile and desktop)
Organic conversions
Top page of landing pages
Pages that are the top exits (the final page people visit before leaving your website)
Rate of bounce
Time on site
Pages per visit
Plus a lot more . . .
A drawback to GA can be that just like GSC the robustness of GA leads to a higher learning process. But, as mentioned that there are a lot of excellent training materials available, including Google Analytics Academy and this tutorial of Ahrefs on making use of GA to improve SEO.
6. Google's mobile-friendly test
The mobile friendly tester from Google is the final free software available from Google that we've included on our list. And while it's technically a component of GSC, it's important enough as well as simple to use -- that it merits an own space.
You enter your website's URL in the URL field, and Google will tell you if your site is optimized for mobile. It also shows you the way your site looks like when viewed on mobile devices.
What makes this tool so useful?
Mobile optimization is a key factor in your site's user experience and SEO.
Mobile devices account around half all web traffic worldwide And users are 5 times more likely to abandon your website if it isn't mobile-friendly.
Additionally, Google announced in 2018 that they're boosting the positions of mobile-optimized websites within their results for mobile searches, so optimizing your site's mobile accessibility can aid your search engine optimization also.
Similar to all tools in GSC Mobile-friendly tester is free.
7. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Screaming Frog's SEO Spider is a web crawler, which means that it examines and reviews the technical as well as on-page SEO issues. SEO Spider is "trusted by hundreds of SEOs and agencies worldwide to conduct technical SEO site audits".
An online crawler such as SEO Spider can help you locate broken links, identify the existence of duplicate pages on your site, and analyze your page titles and metadata to ensure that your SEO is working exactly as it should, both in the front and in the back.
SEO Spider's free version SEO Spider lets you crawl up to 500 URLs and, in the event that your website has greater than 500 page will be enough. If you're a plethora of content , or have several websites, the paid version will set you back PS149.00 for a year.
8. GTmetrix
GTmetrix examines the speed of loading of your website pages. If it discovers that your website is slow than it ought to be, GTmetrix tells you what's slowing down your website and offers actionable recommendations to make things load faster.
Similar to mobile optimization, loading time and page speed are crucial to your visitors' user experience.
26.9 Percent of customers are waiting less than four seconds a page to load -- and 45.4 percent of users stated that they are less likely to purchase things if loading speed was slower than they anticipated.
Load time plays a role on the SEO part, too. According to the SEO experts at Moz , "Google has indicated site speed (and in turn the speed of pages) is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages."
The GTmetrix free version allows users to monitor one URL per day, while upgrading to GTmetrix PRO starts at $10/month. If you'd rather use an unpaid tool and Google's PageSpeed Insights tool can be a good but less powerful -- option.
9. Yoast SEO
If you own your own WordPress blog, Yoast is the SEO software for you. It's a WordPress plugin to help you optimize your content right in your WordPress page editor.
You enter the phrase or keyword you'd like your site or blog post to be ranked in search results, and then Yoast examines your blog or website content and tells you whether you're using the keyword enough (or excessively) and at the appropriate places for example, headers.
Yoast also lets you see how your website or blog post appears when you visit a Google results page.
At the backend, Yoast generates and applies schema.org structures and organized data which "helps search engines figure out what every part of your website means and who it is for, and how everything connects".
Yoast's free version Yoast offers nearly every feature that is available in the premium version. The latter costs $89/year for one WordPress website.
10. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is an online competitor analysis tool. You can look up the websites of your competition and see their traffic-related stats, including:
Top pages
Total visits
Sources of traffic
The top referring websites
Pages per visit
Average visit duration
Bounce rate
SimilarWeb offers a free choice, but it is limited to 5 results for each metric. If you like the free tool, you'll be able to move to "Enterprise" down the way, however the free version gives you plenty of data that you can use.
11. SERPsim
Billing itself as "the most precise SERP snippet generator," SERPsim is a search results preview generator with both mobile and desktop view.
The tool is free and will allow you to check your meta description -- which is the HTML attribute that gives a brief summary of your website -- to determine how they will appear on a Google SERP.
It is possible to import existing metadata or paste in text. This is an excellent method to ensure that your metadata doesn't get removed from search results because it's too lengthy.
Increase the visibility of your information products using these SEO tools that are simple to use
SEO can be a fantastic option to boost visitors to your website and also put your products and information in to the attention of potential buyers. However, it isn't an easy and lengthy process to manage at your own.
It is good to know that there are tools that can help in almost all aspects of SEO -- and all of them offer a free version.
To recap, here are eleven of the top SEO tools that are free for information entrepreneurs:
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for Free include keyword generator, keywords, rank checker, and backlink checker.
Moz's no-cost SEO tools include their Domain SEO Analysis Tool, Mozbar Chrome extension, as well as Keyword Planner.
Google's tools for free, such as Keyword Planner for keyword research, Google Search Console and Google Analytics to provide in-depth information and reports, as well as the mobile-friendly tester.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider to check your website for technical and on-page SEO problems.
GTmetrix is a great tool to make sure that the load speed is as quick as it gets.
Yoast SEO, a WordPress plugin that allows you to enhance your content when you publish it.
SimilarWeb to conduct competitive analysis which shows you how your site stands up to the competition'.
Search Engine Results Simulator for a basic preview of your title and meta description that you can see in SERPsim's search results.
Overall, regardless of whether you decide to employ any of these SEO tools or a combination of the two, having them included within your toolbox for marketing is a step toward reaching more people and selling more goods.