Best SEO tools for your search and content marketing

Search Engine Optimisation is great for pushing a website up the rankings. Some key elements are choosing your keywords, understanding your user’s search intent for certain searches, knowing who you’re competing against to rank, and creating quality content for your website.

Do all of these, you’ll soon be on your way to the top of the page where everyone will want to click. But you wouldn’t know where you’re ranking or what’s working without the help and insight of SEO tools.

SEO progress is next to impossible to track manually. No business owner has the time to constantly check metrics like their website ranking, the changing search result pages and change of search volumes of chosen keywords, or how many backlinks there are to their website.

SEO tools are every marketer’s best friend.

What are SEO tools?

SEO tools allow you to track the growth of your online presence.

They can provide insight into a variety of things, including your keywords you rank for and in what position in the results pages, which other websites rank for certain keywords, quickly and effectively.

They’re an integral part of the overall SEO toolkit and can make optimising your website a whole lot easier.

Some of the most popular SEO tools are capable of actions like:

  • Research: find the best keywords for driving traffic to your website
  • Analytics: track your website’s SEO performance on an ongoing basis
  • Auditing: scan your website for SEO effectiveness and provide recommendations on the best actions to take

If you want to track your SEO progress, you’re going to need to use tools like these. They’ll get the work done for you in a matter of seconds using real data from elements like your website’s position and monthly traffic.

And the best part? We’ve got a load of free tools to share with you – including our number one recommendation for the best free SEO tool that you definitely won’t want to miss out on.

The best paid SEO tools

SEMrush

Describing themselves as an ‘all in one suite’, SEMrush is an SEO powerhouse. They’re an overall marketing software that allows you to make use of data-backed tools all in one place.

These tools include:

  • Keyword research
  • Track keyword rankings
  • Competitor analysis
  • Link building
  • Website SEO audit

With 25 billion keywords in their database, the reports these tools generate are incredibly in depth and the insight they offer is some of the best in the market.

Plus, the majority of their tools have a free version available for use. But if you want true insight into your SEO progress – especially relative to other businesses in your niche – you’ll have to pay for a subscription.

As of November 29th 2024, the cost for a SEMrush subscription starts at £110 a month.

Ahrefs

Another well known name in the SEO world, Ahrefs is a marketing intelligence platform that’s been around since 2010, and over time has developed a large host of high quality SEO tools.

To us, their best tools are their ‘Explorer’ varieties, which allow you to:

  • Research keywords
  • Analyse websites
  • Investigate backlinks
  • Come up with new content ideas

Ahrefs also use the most active crawler in the SEO market, meaning any insights they generate are guaranteed to be up to date and relevant.

They also have a free keyword generator tool which will show you the first 20 relevant and high volume results related to your initial keyword search. You’ll have to pay to unlock any further research, and the bulk of their tools are locked behind a paywall.

As of November 29th 2024, the cost of an Ahrefs subscription starts at £99 a month. They also have a series of add-ons you can pay for, such as their Content Kit, which could end up doubling the price.

Other notable mentions of paid SEO tools

  • Moz
  • Sistrix
  • Accuranker
  • Rankability
  • seoClarity

The best free SEO tools

WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool

This keyword research tool offers a more comprehensive look at potential keywords than either of the free versions above.

You can sort your keyword searches according to both industry and region, and the results page is longer than the free set of up to 20 that Ahrefs provides.

You can also enter your own or a competitor’s website URL into the search box to have ideas for relevant keywords generated for you.

Google Keyword Planner

The keyword planner, whilst not strictly an SEO tool, is a great ad targeting tool for anyone interested in both organic and inorganic traffic. It can help you come up with and list relevant keywords and phrases for both web pages and marketing campaigns.

The tool acts both as a research element and a literal planner, where you can find the best keywords for you and then set them into your own custom categories. This makes it easy to stay organised.

You’ll need a Google Ads account to use Google Keyword Planner.

Any of these tools are great for businesses looking for a low cost insight into creating an SEO strategy.

However, there’s one more tool we think is the best out of any on this list.

Google Trends

You can see more broadly what searches are trending on the renowned search engine.

TJ Creative’s number one SEO tool of all time? Google Search Console

Google Search Console is one of the best SEO tool on the market at the moment.

It allows you to track your online presence but also offers valuable data for your search presence to spot opportunities and optimise existing content. Really, everything you need to know is right in there!

It’s also super easy to use the console’s intuitive dashboard, where with just a few clicks, you can access all of your website’s data

The only caveat is that your website needs to be indexed in Google and getting plenty of impressions (your website showing for a search) and clicks.

Here’s what Google Search Console allows you to do:

  • Check whether or not your site is crawlable
  • Track what’s been indexed as well as identify and amend any indexing issues that could be affecting your site’s ranking
  • View your website’s traffic, including where and when your site appears, what search terms users are finding it with, and how many times those terms lead to clicks
  • Showcase other websites that link back to yours
  • Link to other Google tools like Analytics

The data you get from these functions can then be used in a variety of ways to track your SEO progress.

A great practical application of using Google Search Console data: tracking click through rate (CTR).

Google Search Console will allow you to track the click-through rate (CTR) of your links in search engine result pages. Each of your web pages will have their own CTR and you’ll be able to see them via the console.

The lower a CTR, the more likely it is that the page isn’t appealing to users. For example, if the impressions are high but the clicks are low, this indicates that the link is in a relevant place but just isn’t click-worthy enough yet.

Google Search Console can let you know what’s going wrong and where by assessing your website page by page. This will allow you to target these low performing pages and optimise either the keyword you’re targeting or the content you’ve created using it.

You can see this data by checking out the ‘Search Results’ option on the console dashboard and downloading a performance report.

Google Search Console is also totally free! All you need to do is sign up for it.

But be careful about how you’re planning to use it. As an SEO tool, it’s only really useful if you’re already driving traffic to your website.

After all, this tool provides an insight into how your website is performing in real time. The console collects statistics on this performance over time and it’s this data that can tell you what’s working and what isn’t.

However, you won’t have access to this kind of actionable data without a clear SEO strategy already in place.

How to sign up to Google Search Console

Signing up to Google Search Console is very easy. All you need to do is log into your business’ Google Account.

Once you’ve logged in, head to the Search Console and go through the on screen form. Here you’ll need to register your business’ website as well as verify that you’re really the owner.

To do this, it’s best to check out what verification Google accepts before you go through the process. Don’t worry – there are multiple ways to verify that you’re the owner and at least one of the methods will be suitable.

Once this is complete, you’ll be all good and ready to use the console for SEO purposes.

Honourable mention: Google Looker Studio

Not an SEO tool as such, but Google Looker Studio is a wonderful supplementary tool if you’re using any of our recommendations above.

It’s another free tool that can provide a huge advantage to business owners looking to track their SEO progress.

With this tool you can: 

  • Build all different kinds of reports using your website’s data
  • Integrate data with other Google products, like Search Console and Analytics

Looker Studio can break your analytical data down into bite size pieces that are easy to understand and generate full reports that will be easy to read and share.

This makes it great for anyone who isn’t an SEO expert but wants a clear overview of how well their strategy is working.

Let TJ Creative sort the SEO tools and strategy for you

If you’re unsure about the effectiveness of your SEO, talk to us at TJ Creative.

We’re well versed in using SEO tools and we’re more than happy to chat about your website’s SEO progress.

Our team of experts can help you come up with the best strategy for you and help you to monitor it as time goes on.

Got a question for us?

We’re just an email, call, text or social message away!

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