Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be part of your content strategy if you want to increase organic visibility and site traffic. And to achieve this, you need good SEO tools.
There are various paid and free SEO tools that help you with keyword research, site audits, analytics and reporting, and backlink checks.
In this blog, we’re going to discuss 14 of the best free SEO tools you can use to improve keyword rankings, track site performance, and perform other tasks to optimize your site.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner helps you find keywords for your search campaigns or ads. You can use this free tool to discover new keywords for your business, estimate the search volume they are likely to get, and project the cost associated with targeting those keywords. It also allows you to discover historical metrics and forecasts,
Just enter one or multiple keywords or fetch keywords from a URL, then set the location, and click ‘See Results.’ The tool will then get you more relevant keyword ideas and search phrases, details about the average monthly search volume, and competition.
You can further refine the results by adding more filters according to your requirements.
Google Keyword Planner is a great way to brainstorm keyword ideas for your search ads and optimize them accordingly.
2. Google Trends
You can use Google Trends to track the popularity of topics in your industry and niche. It’s absolutely free and quite useful for identifying current trends and popular searches over time that are specific to countries, regions, and sub-regions. Google Trends can also help you track seasonal changes in search popularity, check related topics and queries, and compare them.
3. Ubersuggest
Those working in digital marketing and SEO need no introduction to Ubersuggest.
Ubersuggest comes with a free plan that allows you to add up to one project.
Once you add your project and the domain link, you can audit your site, track backlinks and keyword rankings, check on-page SEO scores and do much more!
In addition to that, you can also use the Keyword Discovery Tool, discover new keyword ideas, content ideas, and other tools within Ubersuggest to amp your SEO.
4. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
Much like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs also allows you to use its free plan to add as many sites as you want through Google Search Console.
Whether it’s your own site or you’re working on a client’s site, if you have been granted access to the Google Search Console, you can import your project to the Ahrefs tool. You can also add it manually.
After doing that, the site crawl will start, and you can see the health score, domain rating, backlinks, and organic keywords by country.
The free tool does not allow you to check historical data or add keywords to track, but it’s pretty helpful as a free SEO tool and a must-have for your projects.
Ahrefs also has a different keyword checker tool that’s absolutely free to use. Check #12 on this list to learn more about this.
5. Moz
Moz offers a bunch of free SEO tools like Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer, Mozbar, and the free domain analysis tool.
If you cannot subscribe to their paid version of the tool, you can continue using the free tools with a limited number of queries.
The Moz Keyword Explorer tool gives you a keyword search database, while the Link Explorer tool allows you to check backlink opportunities by comparing competitors’ sites.
Mozbar is a free browser add-on that works on Chrome and gives you link metrics for pages and domains.
6. Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool, best known as Keywordtool.io, is one of the best keyword research tools in the market.
You can use the free version of the tool to search keyword ideas while also getting limited access to information about cost (CPC), trend, and search volumes.
The best part is, Keyword Tool gives you keyword suggestions for not just Google but YouTube, Bing, Amazon, Play Store, Instagram, Twitter, and eBay.
7. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free SEO tool that is a must-have for every site owner. It provides in-depth traffic analysis and page visit information, breaking it down into regions, devices, and more.
With the help of Google Analytics, you can add customized UTM tracking codes to track traffic sources and get more granular information useful for optimizing your site.
And now, with the new Google Analytics 4, you will gain more insights and AI-powered predictions that will give you alerts about data trends such as surging demand for a product you sell so that you can prepare accordingly.
Image Source: Search Engine Land
8. Semrush
Just like Ahrefs and Ubersuggest, you can use the free version of the Semrush tool to add up to one project.
If you are using the free version of the tool, you can track up to 10 keywords for your project, get access to 10 SEO Ideas Units, and audit up to 100 pages of your site.
If your site is new or you’re working on a small project, you can use the free version.
Image Source: Semrush
9. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is one of the most important and free SEO tools.
It allows you to measure your website’s search traffic, see which keywords are responsible for driving traffic, and identify technical errors.
GSC is also useful for checking mobile usability reports, problems with crawling and indexing your website.
You can also test individual URLs, check clicks, impressions, CTR, and average positions for keywords.
Image Source: Google Search Console
10. Free Keyword Tool by Wordstream
Did you know Wordstream has a free keyword research tool? The tool utilizes the latest Google search data to deliver accurate, targeted keyword ideas.
You can enter a base keyword or a URL to find new keywords, check competition scores, and get an estimated CPC for each keyword.
You can check the tool here.
11. Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin
If you use WordPress, you can use Yoast’s free SEO plugin. It will help you optimize your site, identify content gaps, and do a lot more.
You can also access their free SEO training, get readability analysis, and add structured data automatically! But to access more data, you have to purchase the premium plan.
12. Ahrefs Keyword Generator
Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator shows you keyword ideas and search volumes. You can also check keyword difficulty for up to 10 keywords using the free version.
In addition to Google, you can check keywords for Bing, YouTube, and Amazon.
13. Bing Webmaster Tools
Create your free Bing Webmaster Tools account, add your site, and confirm the ownership to get started. Bing offers a full set of analytics to help you with website and search analysis.
Using this tool, you can create or upload your own sitemaps, optimize your website and content using suggestions, and access reports.
Bing also works as a great keyword research tool and gives insights into ‘related keywords,’ ‘question keywords,’ and ‘newly discovered keywords.’
Image Source: Bing
14. Rank Math WordPress SEO Plugin
Rank Math is a WordPress SEO plugin that has more than 300,000 installs to date. The best part is it combines Google and Google Analytics and GSC information directly into your WordPress dashboard, so you don’t have to look everywhere else to find data.
In addition, Rank Math does rank tracking, checks site errors, and generates schema markup.
SEO is a crucial part of your content marketing process. Using these free SEO tools, you can kickstart your keyword research journey without investing anything.
Now choose your favorite free SEO tools and get started!
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