11 SEO tools free for creators
SEO can be confusing and time-consuming, however it doesn't have to be. These are the top SEO tools to help optimize your website and bring in more website traffic.
SEO is often difficult and complicated, especially if you're new to it. Long-tail and short-tail keywords anchor text and TXT files, linking and backlinking . . . it's enough to make your brain turn.
The good news? There are a lot of simple-to-use, inexpensive (sometimes even free) -- tools out there which can take care of a great deal of the SEO work (and algorithm analysis) for you.
We've rounded up 11 simple SEO tools to help you enhance your site and gain increased attention for your online products. As an additional bonus each tool in the list is free.
First, let's look at what is SEO?
What are SEO tools? (And why should you employ them?)
SEO tools make it easy for any website owner to optimize their content for search engines.
The content that has been optimized is more prominent on search results that include appropriate keywords and phrases. If you can optimize your content, easier it is for new people to discover it on search.
And with organic search responsible for five-thirds of the total internet traffic making sure you're able to grab one of the highest spots on the search results page is crucial particularly considering that the first five results from every Google search make up 67.6% of all clicks .
What would SEO look like in action?
If I'm a parent with lots of responsibilities who's struggling to maintain my family's budget If I'm a busy mom, I'll probably search a phrase like "budgeting for busy moms".
When I go to your website, I'll be able to see your website, find out that you've got the knowledge I'm searching for, and maybe even enroll in your course.
The most popular snippet from the term "budgeting to help busy mothers" shows this article by Simplified Motherhood, a site focused on providing content -that includes online courses as well as digital downloads to help busy moms stay organized.
SEO tools can help you get that coveted top spot within the search resultsregardless of whether you have an in-house digital marketing department (or even a team). They can level give small and solopreneurs to be able to compete against big corporations that have larger budgets.
This is why: SEO is considerably less expensive in comparison to cost per click (CPC) marketing and more efficient. An Databox study found the fact that 70% of advertisers say they believe that SEO is better than PPC ads for generating sales.
A few SEO tweaks can make a big impact on the amount of organic traffic that you get and also sales. It's the reason nearly 64% of marketers actively invest time in SEO.
(If you don't have a website to optimize then you could create one using . Sign up for a trial of 14 days free before you can begin selling your digital products through your website.)
Before diving into our most effective SEO tools to help entrepreneurs, let's take a look over the top types of SEO tools.
The types of SEO-related tools
A few SEO tools are akin to Swiss army knives -- they have several options and can help with many SEO tasks. However, certain tools are specifically focused on a particular part that makes up the SEO puzzle.
Here are some of the most popular kinds of SEO tools.
Keyword research Tools: These tools help to identify the most popular keywords or phrases people use in Google and other search engines.
They will also inform you of keywords' difficulty -- the degree to which it is for content to be ranked for a specific term -- and the daily keyword volume -- the many times keywords are searched in a month -- to figure out the best search terms .
Tools for tracking rank: Rank-tracking tools tell you how well your website performs for keywords that you are targeting, so you can adjust your content accordingly.
Tools for building links: Link-building involves earning backlinks -- hyperlinks to your site from websites -- in order to boost your site's reputation with search engines. is a vital element of an effective SEO strategy.
Links-building tools will help you locate backlink opportunities and find out which websites link to your site.
technical SEO tools: Technical SEO tools dive to the core of SEO. The website's back end the technical SEO tools ensure that your web pages are designed for users and crawlers. These are search engine robots responsible for indexing new and updated material.
Tools to analyze: SEO reporting and analytics tools let you know the performance of your site with regard to a range of indicators, including traffic, conversions, duration of time on the site and more.
Without further delay now, let's dive to our best SEO tools for infopreneurs.
11 . The best free SEO tools for infopreneurs
1. Ahrefs' free SEO tools
Although the premium plans begin at $99/month , Ahrefs offers a variety of free SEO tools. Below are a few of the most popular ones:
Webmaster tools: Ahrefs' webmaster tools are available for free to all site owners and are technically just "free access" for Ahrefs' Site Explorer & Site Audit " however, they offer some very useful tools, such as:
A backlink audit and SEO audit study of your website
Competitive analysis of other websites" SEO
Relevant SEO metrics for the business, such as organic traffic as well as keyword positions
Keyword generator : Enter up to 10 words or phrases. Ahrefs will provide you with 100 related keywords that include the word you're looking for and the difficulty of the first 10.
keyword rank Checker for Keyword rank : See how your website ranks on any particular keyword.
Backlink tester : Click on any domain to see the domain's ranking (the importance of a site's backlink profile) and the amount of backlinks it's got, and the number of websites which connect to the site.
If you like Ahrefs free tools, and want to get even deeper into the information, you can try for a seven-day free trial of their entire platform for $7.
If you opt for the paid subscription, I recommend checking the SEO Toolbar that is a cost-free Firefox and Chrome extension that shows you the SEO performance of any web page you go to.
2. Moz's free SEO tools
Like Ahrefs, Moz has a solid paid platform, but it also provides several free applications . Here are some of the best:
The Domain SEO Analysis Tool Use this tool to enter a domain and see SEO metrics, including:
Domain Authority, Moz's version of "Domain Ranking"
Pages that rank top based on "Page Authority" Moz's algorithm of link metrics
The estimated number of clicks on key phrases
Recent new links to the domain
MozBar : A Chrome extension that shows you immediate SEO metrics when you visit any web page or search engine results webpage (SERP).
Keyword Explorer Search for an appropriate keyword to gain access to:
Monthly search volume
Keyword research data that can be exported as CSV and Excel spreadsheets
Keywords Long-tail -- that are more relevant and have lower search volume
Keyword difficulty scores
SERP analysis, with data for each result appearing on the very first page of search results.
Keyword suggestions for each country
When you sign up for a free Moz account, you're limited to 10 keyword analysis queries per month. For full access to Moz's services, which include Keyword and Site Explorers, Keyword as well as Site Explorers, Moz Pro plans cost $149/month however, you are able to take a trial of 30 days prior to committing to a paid plan.
3. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner Google Keyword Planner is Google's search engine for keywords.
This tool can help you figure the keywords that people are looking for in your field. You can see an annual search volume as well as a projected search volume. You can also discover keyword ideas that will help you connect with your target audience.
The service is free to anyone who has a Google account. (That is said, it could be a bit difficult to find in the event that you get into trouble, this guide from Ahrefs provides some helpful solutions to troubleshooting.)
4. Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC is a different tool that's free provided by the search engine masters at Google. GSC provides reports and tools which help you assess your website's traffic and performance especially with regard to how and where it shows on Google searches.
A few of the most important aspects of GSC comprise:
Validating that Google will be able to find and crawl your website.
Resolving issues with indexing and the re-indexing of any new or modified material.
Accessing Google search traffic data for your website, such as how frequently your site is featured in Google results, what search terms show your website and how often searchers visit your website from those queries.
Notifying you when Google detects spam, indexing or any other issue on your site.
Showing you which sites connect to your site (a.k.a. backlinks).
GSC has a long learning curve but there are various resources available to help you navigate the platform, like these free training videos from Google.
P.S. : If your audience also makes use of 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 need to understand how customers engage with your site. To use it for SEO, add a google Analytics tracking code on your website and connect your site with GSC.
GA gives free reportage on SEO measures like:
Organic traffic (on mobile and desktop)
Organic conversions
Top landing pages
Pages that are the top exits (the final page people go to before they leave your site)
Rate of bounce
Time on site
Pages per visit
And a ton of . . .
A drawback to GA can be that like GSC it's robustness can lead to a higher learning curve. That said it is possible to find amazing training tools available such as Google Analytics Academy and this article by Ahrefs regarding making use of GA to improve SEO.
6. Google's mobile-friendly test
Google's mobile-friendly tester is our final free software from Google that we've included on our list. While it's technically component of GSC, it's important enough -- and easy enough to utilize that it merits its own spot.
Enter the URL of your site then Google informs you whether or not your site is optimized to work on mobile devices. It also shows you a preview of what your site looks like in a mobile phone.
What is the reason this tool is so useful?
Mobile optimization is a key aspect of your site's user experience as well as SEO.
The mobile-friendly traffic accounts for about half of all web traffic worldwide Visitors who are mobile-friendly visitors nearly five times as likely to abandon your website in the event that your website is not mobile-friendly.
Additionally, Google announced in 2018 that they'd be boosting ranking of sites optimized for mobile within their results for mobile searches Optimizing your website's mobile accessibility can aid your search engine optimization as well.
As with all the other tools available in GSC Mobile-friendly tester is available for free.
7. Screaming Frog SEO Spider
The Screaming Frog's SEO Spider is a web crawler. This means it audits and analyzes both technical and on-page SEO problems. SEO Spider is "trusted by thousands of SEOs and other agencies across the globe to conduct technical SEO site audits".
Web crawlers such as SEO Spider can help you identify broken links, find redundant content that is on your website, and analyze your page descriptions and metadata to be sure that your SEO performs exactly the way it should be in the front and back.
SEO Spider's free version SEO Spider lets you crawl up to 500 URLs which, unless your website contains greater than 500 page, should be plenty. If you have a ton of material or operate multiple sites, the paid version will set you back PS149.00 annually.
8. GTmetrix
GTmetrix analyzes the loading speed of your websites. If it determines that your site is slower than it ought to be, GTmetrix tells you what's slowing the site's performance and provides actionable suggestions to make things load faster.
As with mobile optimization, load time and page speed have a significant impact on your visitors' user experience.
26.9% of ecommerce website visitors will wait less than four seconds for loading a webpage -as well as 45.4 percent of those who visited stated that they are less likely to purchase things if loading speeds were slower than expected.
Load time plays a role in the SEO side, too. According to SEO experts of Moz , "Google has confirmed that site speed (and as a result, page speed) is among the factors that it uses to rank pages."
The free version of GTmetrix lets users monitor one URL per day, while upgrading to GTmetrix PRO costs $10 per month. If you'd prefer to stick with an unpaid tool, Google's PageSpeed Insights tool offers a comparable -- if less robust alternative.
9. Yoast SEO
If you have your own WordPress blog and you're looking for an SEO software for you. It's an WordPress plugin that helps you optimize your content right from the WordPress page editor.
Enter the keywords or phrases you want your webpage or blog to rank in search results, and then Yoast analyzes the content you've created and tells you whether you're using the keyword enough (or too often) and at the appropriate places like headings.
Yoast also lets you see how your website or article will appear on a Google search results page.
At the backend, Yoast generates and applies schema.org structures as well as structured data which "helps [search engines] discover what each element of your site means, who it belongs to and what the connections between everything".
The trial version of Yoast comes with nearly all features of the Premium version. It costs $89 per year for only one WordPress site.
10. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a competitor research tool. You can look up the websites of your competition and check their stats on traffic such as:
Top pages
Visits total
Traffic sources
Top sites for referring to
Pages per visit
Average visit duration
Rate of bounce
SimilarWeb offers a free option, which is limited to 5 results per metric. If you love the free software, it is possible to upgrade to "Enterprise" down the road, but the free version will give you lots of top-level data to use.
11. SERPsim
Billing itself as "the most precise SERP design tool," SERPsim is a search results preview tool that has both mobile and desktop view.
The tool is free and will allow you to test your title and meta description -- an HTML attribute that gives a brief summary of your site's content to test how it will look in a search engine result page.
You can import your existing metadata or paste in text. It's a great method to ensure that your metadata doesn't get removed from search results due to being excessively lengthy.
Increase the visibility of the information you provide with these simple SEO tools
SEO can be a fantastic way to drive more visitors to your site and also bring your product information the eyes of more customers. But search engine optimization can be a confusing and time-consuming process to handle on your own.
Luckily, there are tools available to help with nearly every aspect of SEO -- and many are free. version.
To recap, here are eleven of the top SEO tools that are free for information entrepreneurs:
Ahrefs' free webmaster tools include keyword generator, keywords, rank checker, as well as a backlink checker.
Moz's completely free SEO tools, which include the Domain SEO Analysis Tool, Mozbar Chrome extension, and Keyword Planner.
Google's free tools, including Keyword Planner for keyword research, Google Search Console and Google Analytics for more in-depth analysis as well as reporting, and the mobile-friendly tester.
The Screaming Frog SEO Spider to audit your site for technical and on-page SEO problems.
GTmetrix to make sure the load speed is as fast as can be.
Yoast SEO, an WordPress plugin that allows you to enhance your content when you upload it.
SimilarWeb provides competitive analysis that lets you know how your website stands up to the competition'.
Search Engine Results Simulator for a basic preview of your title and meta description in search results.
Overall, regardless of whether you decide to employ one of these SEO tools or any combination of them, having them in your marketing toolbox is a step toward reaching greater numbers of people and selling more goods.