What are the best SEO tools on the market?
From way back in the early stone age 2.6 million years ago, humans have utilised tools to simplify their lives. And suffice to say, we’ve come quite a long way from hammerstones and sharp stone flakes.
These days, there are helpful tools for pretty much everything – including SEO. For those who aren’t aware, SEO is short for ‘search engine optimisation’. It is the practice of making improvements to your website so search engines like Google and Bing see it as one that should be displayed high up on their results pages.
This increased visibility means users are much more likely to click through to your site, driving more traffic which in turn should effectively boost your sales and/or leads. Because there are well over 200 factors Google and other search engines look for in order to rank sites, it’s astoundingly difficult and takes a substantial amount of knowledge and experience to truly master SEO.
However, with the right tools you may be able to update some of the elements on your site and push its SERP (search engine results page) rankings in the right direction!
In this article we’ve compiled a list of 15 fantastic SEO tools we reckon are the best out there at the moment. And while some might not be of interest, there are bound to be some super-helpful options you can use to start your search engine optimisation journey.
Our top 15 SEO tools in 2022
If you’re thinking about taking care of your own SEO (and have the time to do so), here are what we think are the 15 top tools available in 2022 in no particular order.
- Google Ads keyword planner
It’s absolutely essential that you’re targeting the right keywords when you write the copy for each page on your website you wish to rank higher. And Google Ads’ free keyword planner tool makes it nice and easy to do just that.
Just input your URL as prompted and you’ll be presented with a list of suggested keywords that you should be using in your site’s content. Remember though, that the figures you see aren’t real-time search volume numbers but rather approximated.
- Google Trends
Take a deep-dive into particular keywords and find out things such as how search interest has shifted over time, the current trends surrounding the topic in question, and which geographic locations have higher engagement rates.
This free-to-access information can help you better shape the approach you take to your campaign, including revising keyword phrases on specific pages and modifying geotargeting.
- Google Search Console
This is a great solution for beginners who are just starting out with SEO and have little to no knowledge. Google Search Console offers a variety of different tools in one, showing you essential information like overall site performance and making possible issues visible for you to rectify.
Best of all, like all the other Google tools it’s completely free to use so you don’t need to fork out anything to take advantage of its awesome functions.
- Google Analytics
There are heaps of ways you can use Google Analytics for SEO purposes. The data collected provides plenty of insights into how your site is performing, and you can drill down into metrics to:
● Determine which content is performing the best
● Track organic users’ visits and experiences
● Compare organic versus non-organic users
● Discover your top-performing landing pages
● Create SEO-centric goals
● Track the keywords you’re using
And these are just a few of the things Google Analytics offers data-wise. It’s really one of the best tools to help you properly optimise your site to effectively drive substantially more conversions – if used properly!
- Google Optimize
Google Optimize is a slightly more complicated tool, but if you keep at it and spend some time using it you may find it becomes a little easier. It’s yet another freebie from Google’s suite of marketing tools, and enables you to perform a variety of different testing.
Whether you want to do a simple A/B test with your audience to see which version of a webpage performs better or you are interested in taking it a little further with complex multivariate testing, you can do it with Google Optimize.
- Ahrefs
Stepping out of the Google realm, Ahrefs is an incredibly popular solution that offers a full suite of SEO tools in one.
You can conduct a website audit, monitor your competitors, use the keyword and content explorers and track how your rankings are progressing, all in just a couple of clicks on the user-friendly dashboard.
Plus, of all the different SEO tools, it actually boasts the biggest backlink index including around 300 billion indexed pages and over 16 trillion (yes, with a T) backlinks.
It’s USD$99/month for the bare minimum plan and stretches to USD$999/month for an enterprise plan.
- SEMRush
Another all-in-one SEO tool that is hugely popular around the world is SEMRush. In fact, the company provides everything from site auditing, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, link building outreach and even a content ideas generator.
Plans for SEMRush start at USD$119.95 per month.
- Majestic
After opening its doors way back in 2011, Majestic SEO Tools has become a favourite of many SEO specialists – and rightfully so.
This tool provides subscribers with a variety of tools including a bulk backlink checker, keyword checker and generator, domain comparison for competitor analysis and comprehensive site analysis.
The Majestic Lite plan is priced at USD$49.99/month, Pro is $99.99 and API is $399.99/month.
- Moz Pro
When it comes to staying up to date with the continuous algorithm changes made by Google, Moz Pro is king. It’s a serious contender for the top spot of SEO tools that provide all the features you need to increase your site rankings, offering everything including:
● Keyword explorer
● Rank tracker
● Site crawler and audit
● Individual page auditor with optimisation recommendations
● Link explorer and backlink data
● Report customisation
A standard plan from Moz Pro costs USD$99 per month, and there are packages ranging all the way to Premium which is USD$599/month.
There’s also Moz Local available which focuses on improving local SEO to make your business much more discoverable to potential customers in your area, though this is only currently available in the US, Canada, and the UK.
- SpyFu
Perhaps the best thing about SpyFu is that its reasonably-priced basic plan (USD$39/mo) is quite capable, and will most likely be able to do everything you need it to when you’re just starting out in the world of SEO.
It offers users a keyword ranking tracker, competitor keyword spy tool, backlink checker by keyword, domain comparison and loads more.
- SEOquake
As far as free SEO tools go, SEOquake is most definitely a frontrunner. It’s actually a Chrome extension which you install directly into your browser. Once you’ve done that, it’s just a matter of clicking the icon in your toolbar to access a range of highly useful features, like:
● On-page SEO site auditing
● Internal and external link assessments
● Keyword density checker
● URL and domain comparison against competitors
And when you’ve got important data and insights to share, it allows you to easily export and download it so you can do just that.
- Fat Rank
Another Chrome extension which costs nothing, Fat Rank will analyse the performance of your website in terms of how your keywords are ranking. All you need to do is input the keywords you’re looking to rank for on each page and it will tell you what position you’re currently sitting at on SERPs for each keyword.
Knowing this means you can make relevant adjustments with elements such as page content and meta information to improve your position. Just make updates and re-check to see if it’s made a difference; if not, keep working on the page!
- Keywords Everywhere
Although Keywords Everywhere isn’t actually free, it’s not overly expensive and doesn’t require a monthly subscription fee. Instead, you pay an amount for a certain number of credits, and each credit can be used for one keyword. For example, USD$10 gets you 100,000 credits.
Keywords Everywhere comes as either a Chrome or Firefox browser add-on. What it does is to collate data from a wide range of tools such as Google Trends, Analytics and Search Console in order to show you the perfect keywords for your campaign.
- Screaming Frog
If you want to conduct a site audit, Screaming Frog is one of the best tools to do so. It very quickly crawls sites of all sizes, gathering key data and finding common SEO issues such as:
● Broken links, errors and redirects
● Duplicate content
● Page titles and metadata (too long/short or missing altogether)
It can also generate XML sitemaps for you which saves a lot of time – and these are all included in the free version!
If you’re using the freebie plan it will also crawl up to 500 URLs, while opting for the licensed version (charged at £149 annually) means you remove this limitation. You’ll also gain access to dozens more features including spelling and grammar checks, Google Search Console and Analytics integration and much more.
- First Page Australia
Yes, you read that right – we have a bunch of free tools for you to use that can help you take a step in the right direction with your SEO strategy!
● Input some basic information into our SEO ROI calculator and you’ll be able to see how your potential monthly ROI.
● Type your URL into the box on our site audit page and in a few minutes we’ll send through a report that shows your site’s SEO score as well as expert recommendations on where you can make improvements to rank higher.
● Learn how your website stacks up against your competition using our competitor SEO audit tool, which also shows traffic, keyword, and on-site SEO analyses for insights into potential opportunities. It even includes a backlink profile that can assist you to develop your own strategy to transcend them.
Our tools don’t just cover SEO, though; you can take advantage of many others such as our Google Ads audit and Facebook Interest Finder tools, as well!
Why SEO is so important for businesses of all sizes
No matter how big or small your business is, a quality SEO strategy is absolutely integral if you want to see real success.
Ranking as one of the top results in the SERP for keywords relevant to your products or services is unquestionably going to lead to an increase in traffic. And provided your website is nice and easy to navigate, offering great UX (user experience), this will drive up conversions.
As a top-ranking site, it also means your business will be seen as a trustworthy option by your potential customers. Combine this with a solid Google Ad campaign and comprehensive local SEO strategy (where required), and any brand is going to see an incredible influx of site traffic.
SEO ticks so many different marketing boxes, from brand awareness and relationship building, to promoting credibility for your brand, and much more. As such, it’s seen as one of the most (if not the most) vital pieces of the marketing puzzle.
Prefer to leave it to the experts? Let’s have a chat!
Taking care of your own search engine optimisation is an incredibly complex and time-consuming process. You not only need to have all the insights into all of the factors Google takes into consideration when ranking pages, but also the knowledge and expertise to make all of the necessary on- and off-page changes.
If you’d rather focus on all the other aspects of your business and would like to bring in a team of SEO experts that’ll deliver nothing but the best results, you need to speak with the best SEO agency in Australia. First Page Australia has got decades of combined experience in SEO and will work tirelessly to boost your site’s SERP ranking.
Call us today on 1300 479 226 or send us an online enquiry and find out what we can do for you.
