Free SEO tools anyone can start using

Free SEO tools anyone can start using

Free SEO tools anyone can start using 1920 1280 George Cotter

So who doesn’t want their website to appear in the top positions for relevant searches on Google? Every business regardless of sizes wants to be found online, but it’s far from easy (don’t let anyone tell you it is).

Having a strong online presence is crucial to the success of your business online. SEO is the process of optimising a website in order to rank higher in search engines, increase organically generated visitor numbers, and ultimately improve the overall visibility of a website. Whilst SEO can be a long term strategy, there are a number of free SEO tools available that anyone can start using today.

From keyword research through to backlink monitoring and technical issues, I’m going to introduce you to some of our favourite free tools – at least those with a good free version to get started.

Google Analytics

If you have no idea how many people are actually visiting your website, or where they’re being generated from then Google Analytics is where to go. At the time of writing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is being introduced to supersede Universal Analytics (essentially GA3). GA4 is a set up in terms of how easy it is to navigate and understand but still a great free tool.

The setup will need a snippet of code adding to your website, but it will only take any webmaster a few moments to do if you not yourself. There’s plenty of guides out there depending on the platform your website is built on.

Search Console

Another free tool from Google is Search Console. This is probably more important than Google Analytics for SEO but they’re both a great place to start. Formally known as Webmaster Tools, Search Console is where you can monitor and evaluate how your website is performing in Google organic search results.

You could simply use it to view what keywords are triggering impressions (views) on Google and the position your website currently holds for each. Perhaps then moving up a stage would be to monitor more technical issues affecting SEO performance or check what links currently point at your website – both serious factors for successful SEO. Search Console is especially useful for new websites as this is the place where you submit sitemaps to Google and view insights into how your pages are appearing.

Google Keyword Tool

OK, this one isn’t completely free as now a days you need to have spent money on Google PPC Ads to be able to access it, but it’s very useful if you have. Within the keyword tool you can research the specific searches people are using on Google when research the products and services you provide or sell. In my experience, this often differs from the way business owners refer to their own products.

Simply input a keyword / search phrase and the tool will produce a list of closely related keywords and how many searches they’ve recently received.

Google Trends

Google trends is only useful is you are researching keywords that receive a high volume of searches. Within this tool you can analyse how search trends have changed over years and can often explain why you might have seen a downturn in a certain business area.

It’ll also show you any seasonal trends that certain keywords enjoy. This can also be narrowed down to certain regions for more localised search trends.

Looker Studio (Was Data Studio)

The free tool from Google is Looker Studio. Here you can create reporting dashboards that can pull in data from all tools into one easy to digest website report. It’s ideal for both in house marketers and agencies to produce clear reporting that even the most technical novice can understand.

Screaming Frog

Although a paid for tool Screaming Frog has a free version which still produces a great level of detail for smaller websites. It’s easily the most popular desktop website crawler, with the free version allowing up to 500 URLs to be crawled. It’ll produce a spreadsheet style report showing where there are gaps in website fundamentals such as title tags and heading structures.

Ultimately Screaming Frog is ideal for large websites where an SEO needs to do widespread crawls of a website to identify how to prioritise their work.

SEOptimer

Need a high level overview of your website which produces a list of action points to boost SEO performance? Head over to SEOptimer.

Simply input your website URL and it’ll do a crawl which analyses key SEO metrics and will give a rank for each – On-Page SEO, Links, Usability, Performance and Social.

Don’t treat what it’s tell you as gospel as it’ll need some context around the stats, such as it doesn’t really know what your website is about or what the content is saying.

In conclusion, there are numerous free SEO tools available for individuals and businesses looking to improve their online visibility. These tools can help you identify areas for improvement and take steps towards higher search engine rankings.

Whether you’re a seasoned SEO professional or just getting started, incorporating these tools into your strategy can help you achieve better results and gain a better understanding of SEO.

About The Author

George Cotter

I launched Tall Marketing to bring fresh ideas and digital marketing strategies that are both current and change the way local businesses think about marketing themselves online.