Whether you are a small patisserie on the block or a multinational business corporation, you need SEO for lead generation and long-term traffic growth.
A single, well-optimized web page or an informative SEO-optimized blog post can attract many qualified business leads for years. Brilliant, isn’t it?
But do you think SEO is easy? Well, it is, but only when you have the right tools in your marketing arsenal. The best SEO tools can help you build a solid SEO strategy to elevate your business’s online presence.
In this blog, we will explore the ten best SEO tools that can help you boost your SEO game and take your online business to new heights. Let’s get started.
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What is an SEO Tool?
An SEO tool is a specialized software that helps your business to rank better in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. To be a little more specific, SEO tools can help with an array of functions, such as:
- Keyword research & content optimization
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Link building
- Website audits and performance analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Reporting AI-generated content & more
There are many different categories of SEO tools. While some offer only keyword research or audit functionalities, many all-in-one SaaS tools tackle a comprehensive list of SEO tasks.
Below, we have compiled some of the best paid and free SEO tools, which can fill your toolkit with options for every scenario.
Best SEO Tools (Free)
Here are our top 5 free SEO tools, listed based on their SEO-centric functionality, value, user experience, and ease of integration.
1. Google Search Console – Best free SEO platform
Source: Google Search Central
Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free SEO tool every website owner must own. It is an official SEO tool offered by Google that offers valuable insights into your website’s organic traffic and any technical flaws a crawler might encounter while crawling your website.
The tool's Index Coverage Report is one of its best features. It provides a list of pages on your website that aren’t getting indexed. Additionally, the tool offers a Core Web Vitals report that informs you of your website’s stability, page load speed, and mobile responsiveness.
Salient features & benefits:
- Search Analytics Report provides an overview of your website’s performance on Google
- Enables submitting your sitemaps to Google for quickly getting your site indexed to the Google database
- Allows you to check crucial SEO metrics such as impressions, clicks, average ranking position, etc.
Ideal for: Anyone looking for a tool, particularly for technical SEO.
Pricing: Free.
2. Answer the Public – Best for keyword idea generation
Source: PageTraffic Buzz
Next on the list is this brilliant content ideation tool, which lets you discover what questions users are asking about a particular subject. The tool is a treasure trove for comprehending user intent and generating relevant content ideas.
Whenever you enter a phrase or keyword, the tool offers a wide range of related queries, which include questions (why, how, what, etc.), prepositions (with, without, etc.), and comparisons (vs., like, etc.). Thus, it is extremely useful for businesses looking to create valuable content and connect more deeply with their audiences.
Salient features & benefits:
- Discover popular content topics and long-tail keywords based on frequent user queries
- Offers search data in visually engaging formats such as graphs to easily detect trends in user search behavior
- Competitor analysis tool allows for analyzing competitors’ search queries and content strategies
Ideal for: Individuals or SEO companies looking to generate content ideas and understand user queries.
Pricing: The free plan offers three searches per day. The tool also offers three paid plans, namely Individual ($5/month), Pro ($49/month), and Expert ($99/month).
3. KWFinder - Dedicated tool for keyword research
Source: Mangools | KWFinder
Long-tail keywords are highly targeted phrases that have the potential to bring more traffic to your website. KWFinder is an excellent tool that lets you research all long-tail keywords related to your business.
Additionally, KWFinder is great for analyzing backlinks and SERPs. Users can use its rank-tracking tool to determine their current rankings and discover ways to improve them.
Similarly, the local keyword research tool can help identify what people are searching for in your area. This information can be used to attract niche traffic to your website.
Salient features & benefits:
- Discover long-tail keywords that give you better opportunities for acquiring traffic
- Obtain insights on competitor keyword strategy and compare it to your own
- Analyze competition in SERPs to find out the elements that readers are looking for on your web pages
Ideal for: Bloggers and SEO companies looking for an SEO tool primarily for keyword research.
Pricing: The tool lets you create a free account with limited functionalities. It also offers four paid plans: Entry ($19.90/month), Basic ($29.90/month), Premium ($44.90/month), and Agency ($89.90/month).
4. SEOptimer - Best SEO audit tool for SMBs
Source: SEOptimizer
If you are looking for an efficient SEO tool that is also affordable, SEOptimer is a brilliant option.
Like most premium tools, it offers an array of SEO functionalities, such as keyword research, performance tracking, and reporting. Additionally, it has several independent auditing tools, such as font size and legibility checker, meta description checker, title tag checker, SERP preview, and no-index tag test.
The tool can comprehensively review a website in less than 30 seconds, analyzing over 100 site data points to offer clear tips for boosting SEO rankings. It offers a helpful general overview of metrics such as on-page SEO, user-friendliness, and mobile usability.
The top-paid plan also offers the option of White Label Reports for efficient performance tracking.
Salient features & benefits:
- Comprehensive website audit to identify potential SEO issues
- Offers website crawlers that index the content of websites all across the internet for improved rankings
- Discover thousands of keywords for every niche, along with advanced metrics for each
- White Label SEO Reports available in multiple languages
Ideal for: Small and medium-sized businesses with a limited budget.
Pricing: SEOptimer offers a free trial for fourteen days. It offers three different plans: DIY SEO ($19/month), White Label ($29/month), and White Label and Embedding ($59/month).
5. Yoast SEO – Best for on-page SEO
Source: WPML
Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin. The nifty tool works best at analyzing your content structure and suggesting adjustments to make your content more professional and easily readable.
Yoast SEO is commonly used to edit on-page SEO elements such as titles, meta descriptions, headlines, etc. It also enables you to set different titles, meta descriptions, and images for various social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Salient features & benefits:
- Readability Analysis checks the readability of your content and offers suggestions for improving clarity and cohesiveness
- Offers quick technical optimization of the website by verifying sitemaps, creating and managing redirects, etc.
- Analyzes focus keywords and ensures it is adequately used throughout the content
Ideal for: Small business owners who are looking to boost organic traffic.
Pricing: Free. The paid version offers additional features and is available at $99 per year.
Best SEO Tools (Paid)
1. Ahrefs – An all-in-one SEO toolkit
Source: Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a web-based SEO tool that is thoughtfully designed to help users boost their website’s search engine visibility and online marketing efforts. It is widely used by SEO professionals and marketers to gather insights, optimize their online strategies, and assess their competition.
The complete suite comprises several individual tools such as Keyword Explorer for identifying relevant keyword ideas, Site Audit for analyzing your website’s common SEO issues, Rank Tracker for evaluating mobile and desktop rankings, and more. It also includes tools for competitor analysis and link building.
One of Ahrefs's best features is its highly active web crawler, the Ahrefsbot. The bot collects and processes vast amounts of data daily, helping users get an up-to-date view of their website’s performance.
Everything is meticulously displayed on embedded dashboards with easy-to-understand reports, enabling you to make complete sense of all your data.
Salient features & benefits:
- Provides data for nine search engines, not just Google
- Discover high-potential content gaps to target
- Offers a ‘traffic potential’ metric that helps to understand the real value of a keyword
- Crawls the web 24x7, gathering, analyzing, and displaying backlink data
- Access an extensive collection of free and downloadable SEO guides and tutorials at the online Ahrefs Academy
Ideal for: Large-scale enterprises, SEO companies, and SEO consultants seeking a comprehensive SEO toolkit.
Pricing: The Lite plan starts at $99/month, the Advanced plan at $399/month, and the Enterprise plan at $999/month.
2. Semrush – Best for identifying search engine opportunities
Source: Semrush
Semrush is an all-inclusive online marketing platform that offers highly efficient tools for SEO.
From SERP analysis and competitive research to keyword research and on-page SEO, it assists users in optimizing their online strategies and boosting their websites' visibility.
Semrush comes with detailed dashboards that offer a thorough overview of a website's performance in terms of metrics like traffic, keywords, backlinks, authority, etc. Every metric has a dedicated widget that lets you drill down deeper into it.
Apart from this, the tool also helps to develop effective PPC campaigns and take your content marketing to an altogether different level. It also provides strategic insights into competitors’ search strategies and link-building opportunities and generates relevant site audits with acute issues that require attention.
With Semrush and other tools, you can also track website visitors to understand them and optimize your website accordingly.
Salient features & benefits:
- An all-in-one tool for digital marketing, from SEO to paid advertising
- Comes with an extensive keyword database
- Allows for comprehensive keyword research along with competitor insights, SEO audits, link building, and technical SEO
Ideal for: Large-scale enterprises, SEO companies, and marketers looking for an all-in-one digital marketing platform.
Pricing: Semrush offers three different plans, Pro, Guru, and Business, priced at $129.95, $249.95, and $499.95 per month, respectively.
3. Moz Pro – Best for boosting overall search engine visibility
Source: Moz Pro
Next on the list of the best SEO tools for 2024 is Moz Pro, a comprehensive SEO toolkit for carrying out rank tracking, site audits, keyword research, and backlink analysis.
One reason for the tool’s widespread popularity is its easy-to-use interface. With intuitive dashboards, proprietary metrics, and customizable reports, it makes it easy to boost your SEO strategy immediately.
Moz offers several domain and keyword analysis functions that work brilliantly.
For instance, Page Authority (PA) is a great performance indicator that leverages a machine learning algorithm to predict how well a page will rank in Google on a scale of 1-100. Similarly, there is a Spam Score that identifies irrelevant content on your site that needs optimizing.
Salient features & benefits:
- Intuitive dashboard with striking visualization
- Comprehensive keyword research capabilities with metrics such as monthly volume, ranking difficulty, etc.
- Competitor tracking and weekly site audit reports to boost website SEO
Ideal for: Anyone looking for a do-it-all SEO solution to boost search engine rankings.
Pricing: Moz Pro offers three different plans. The Standard plan, priced at $99/month, has certain usage limitations. In addition, there are Medium ($179/month), Large ($299/month), and Premium ($599/month) plans available.
4. Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool – Ideal for technical SEO audit
Source: Screamingfrog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is another popular SEO tool that is ideal for conducting detailed site audits and identifying technical SEO issues. It works brilliantly, even with large websites, meticulously indexing all key pages and content.
The tool acts as a web crawler that checks for duplicate pages, broken links, unsuitable image sizes, missing metadata, and pagination errors.
After crawling a website, it creates a spreadsheet of all website pages and SEO elements. It also readily integrates with GA, GSA, and PageSpeed Insights, offering a structured view of your website’s search performance.
That said, the user interface is slightly difficult to navigate. Also, the large amount of technical data can be overwhelming for beginners.
Salient features & benefits:
- Provides complete technical and on-page auditing for website optimization
- Easily integrates with existing technologies such as Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and Google PageSpeed Insights
- Creates XML sitemaps for better indexing
- Interactive diagrams of page relationships for comprehensive site structure analysis
Ideal for: Anyone looking for an in-depth audit of their website for technical issues.
Pricing: Offers both free and paid plans. The free plan has a crawl limit of 500 URLs. The paid version offers unlimited URLs and costs $259/year.
5. SE Ranking - Best for overall website analysis
Source: SE Ranking
SE Ranking is one of the most competent SEO tools. It offers a plethora of features for boosting your search engine rankings. Its keyword tracking functionality provides accurate data on keyword ranks and suggestions.
The SE Ranking tool’s auditing features are excellent. It has separate tools for auditing backlinks and on-page SEO. All audit reports are displayed in an intuitive dashboard with a highly detailed breakdown of key technical and SEO elements.
Like Semrush, the tool also provides Content Marketing features for your marketing website, including an AI Writer to expedite your content creation process.
Salient features & benefits:
- Monitor your and your competitors’ keyword positions with accurate keyword rank analysis
- Allows you to evaluate all your website pages to identify performance errors and how to resolve them
- Creates comprehensive backlink profiles with data on new and lost site links and referring domains
Ideal for: Freelance individuals and SEO companies looking for a premium SEO tool at an affordable price.
Pricing: The tool offers three pricing plans, namely Essential ($44/month), Pro ($87.20/month), and Business ($191.20/month).
Conclusion
Identifying the best SEO tool for your business isn’t possible since there are many categories and classes of SEO tools to choose from. The right tool ultimately depends on factors such as your organization’s size, budget, and the tool’s ability to integrate with other software.
It is best to try out your chosen tool with a free trial. This can help you determine if it is a good fit for your organization’s SEO needs.
Author Bio
Yash Chawlani is your go-to digital marketing specialist and founder of Merlin Marketing, a performance-driven marketing agency. With over 7 years of experience, Yash has worked with some big names like Elementor, G2, and Snov, just to name a few, to boost their online presence. When he's not diving into the latest marketing trends, you'll either find him at the gym or on the football field.
