Just like Mickey Mouse had his secret tool, every SEO agency or copywriter has their own SEO optimization tools that never let them down.
Today, we will talk about some SEO tools you can use to optimize your content marketing strategy, boost visibility, and increase your online sales.
1. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool designed to provide users with detailed analyses and actionable data. From exploring backlinks to keyword research and competitor analysis, Ahrefs offers a wealth of features that cater to the diverse needs of digital marketing professionals and website owners.
Key features:
One of Ahrefs' strengths is its ability to offer a comprehensive analysis of backlinks: it identifies and analyzes all the links pointing to a site and examines the keywords they are placed on. (Tip: it doesn’t just analyze your backlinks, but it can also analyze your competitors'—so you can see where they are featured, what keywords/services they focus on, etc.)
Provides powerful tools for keyword research: users can identify relevant keywords for their field and get insights into their current search engine rankings, as well as estimates of monthly search volumes for those keywords.
Facilitates performance comparison between your site and competitors: gain insights into your competitors' SEO strategies and monitor the ranking of targeted keywords.
Offers a thorough scan of technical aspects of the website: technical audits that can uncover 404 pages, unoptimized redirects, and other issues that might affect performance, along with suggestions for optimization.
Provides historical data from Google Search Console. If you're already familiar with GSC, you know that their interface only shows data for the past 18 months. Well, by connecting GSC to Ahrefs, you can view all the data from GSC since the account was created.
Additionally, it offers free courses (after account creation) for those wanting to learn how SEO services work in relation to the tool.
Price – Requires a subscription, with various plans available depending on the level of functionality needed.
2. WooRank
WooRank is a website analysis platform that provides a detailed view of a site's online performance. Using advanced algorithms and specialized analyses, WooRank delivers personalized reports and recommendations for optimizing a site to improve its search engine rankings and user experience.
Key features:
WooRank performs a detailed SEO audit, identifying issues like missing meta descriptions, improper title tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.), or indexing problems.
Evaluates page load times to ensure a fast and pleasant experience for visitors.
Offers social and security analysis: provides insights into the presence and performance on social platforms, along with security evaluations to ensure a safe online environment.
Identifies the keywords the site ranks for and suggests potential new keywords.
Backlink analysis: assesses the backlink profile to identify opportunities to improve site authority.
Content recommendations: WooRank offers suggestions to improve content, including keyword ideas, content structure, and search engine optimization tips.
Price – Subscription-based, with different plans tailored to various needs.
3. SEMrush
In the digital marketing world, SEMrush is one of the most renowned SEO tools. With a variety of innovative features, SEMrush has become an indispensable resource for SEO specialists and website owners.
Key features:
Keyword research: SEMrush is a robust tool for discovering relevant keywords for any niche and allows comparison with competitors' targeted keywords.
Competitor analysis: provides detailed insights into competitors' online marketing strategies, including keywords, backlinks, and advertising strategies.
SEO audit for websites: scans the site for technical issues that could affect search engine performance, such as 404 errors or inefficient redirects, and provides concrete suggestions for improving on-page optimization, including meta descriptions and titles.
Backlink analysis: creates a comprehensive picture of the backlink profile, helping to identify link-building opportunities while tracking changes in the backlink profile and evaluating their impact on site authority.
PPC research: SEMrush helps identify keywords for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns and provides insights into competitors' paid advertising strategies.
Social media tracker: monitors social media performance, including engagement and audience growth.
Price – SEMrush offers a range of plans suited to different needs and business sizes:
Pro Plan: Ideal for small businesses and personal websites, with basic features.
Guru Plan: Offers extended functionalities, including more detailed traffic analytics and custom reports.
Business Plan: For large businesses or SEO agencies, with access to all advanced SEMrush features.
4. Answer The Public
Answer the Public stands out as an innovative platform that provides valuable insights into how people ask questions and search online. Using a powerful search engine, Answer the Public analyzes vast amounts of data to reveal frequently asked questions and identify keywords associated with a specific topic. This tool gives marketers and content creators a detailed understanding of users' needs and curiosities.
Key features:
Generates content ideas: the platform provides a rich list of questions associated with a keyword or topic, helping generate relevant content ideas.
Analyzes search types: Answer the Public groups results into categories such as "what," "how," "where," offering a structured view of search intent.
Provides a graphical view of the data: presents results in an easy-to-understand visual map, highlighting relationships between various words and questions.
Export functionality: users can export results in formats that can be easily integrated into the content creation process.
Creates personalized links: allows the generation of personalized links for quickly sharing results with team members or clients.
Sends alerts and tracks in real-time: users can set up alerts to be notified when new questions or searches relevant to their topics of interest appear.
Monitors in real-time: Answer the Public provides constant updates to keep users informed about changes in search behavior.
Price – Answer the Public offers two types of access:
Free: the free version offers a limited number of daily queries and restrictions on access to certain advanced features.
Pro: the Pro version removes restrictions and provides unlimited access to features like data export and real-time monitoring.
5. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC), previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, provides a comprehensive set of tools to evaluate and improve a site's visibility and performance in Google searches. Through GSC, users can receive critical information on how Google indexes and interprets content on their websites. From our perspective as SEO specialists, no site should be without Google Search Console.
Key features:
Monitors and evaluates performance: GSC provides detailed information on how the site appears in search results, including click numbers, impressions, and click-through rates.
Indexes pages: users can check if the pages on the site are indexed by Google and fix any issues that may affect this process.
Analyzes keywords and search presence: GSC provides a list of keywords for which the site ranks well in search results.
Performance search tracking: you can track how the site performs for specific keywords and identify optimization opportunities.
Evaluates technical aspects: the platform identifies and reports crawl issues, allows users to submit and monitor sitemaps to help Google efficiently index site content, provides information about external links to the site, and helps monitor the evolution of the backlink profile. It also identifies and reports problematic or improperly indexed links.
Price – Google Search Console is free.
6. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a specialized SEO crawler tool designed to analyze and evaluate web pages from a search engine's perspective. This tool provides a detailed overview of the website's structure, technical issues, and other essential aspects for SEO optimization.
Key features:
Complete site crawl: Screaming Frog performs a full crawl of the entire site, identifying every page and providing data on their status.
Site structure analysis: Offers a visual map of the site's structure, helping to identify important pages and their relationships.
Meta Tags verification: Screaming Frog checks meta tags to ensure they meet SEO best practices, including the optimal length of titles and meta descriptions.
HTTP error detection: Reports server errors, redirects, and other HTTP communication issues.
Keyword and Meta Data analysis: Reports on keywords used on each page, providing information on page titles, meta descriptions, and other essential elements for on-page optimization.
Duplicate pages and content issues detection: Identifies pages with similar or identical content and highlights pages with little or insufficient content.
Price - Screaming Frog offers two main versions:
Free version: Screaming Frog provides a free version with basic functionalities, ideal for smaller projects or testing the platform’s potential.
Paid license: The paid version (annual license) removes the limitations of the free version and offers advanced functionalities.
7. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a service provided by Google that allows website owners to collect and analyze web traffic data. Through a tracking code implemented on the site, Google Analytics provides detailed information about visits, interactions, and user behavior, facilitating informed decisions for improving the website.
Key features:
Detailed analysis of site visits: Precisely monitors the total number of visits to the site within a specific time frame and provides insights into the average time users spend on the site.
Tracks user interactions: Allows setting up and monitoring customized events, such as button clicks or file downloads, and identifies and analyzes conversions, such as form submissions or online purchases.
Traffic source analysis: Provides information about traffic sources, including organic search, direct traffic, and ad campaigns, as well as the keywords driving traffic to the site, and evaluates their performance.
Advanced audience segmentation: Segments users based on demographic characteristics, such as age and gender, as well as their behavior on the site.
Creates customized reports and alerts: Users can create personalized reports to highlight data relevant to their business and set alerts to receive notifications when significant changes occur in the analytics data.
Price – The basic version of Google Analytics is free. However, the Google Analytics 360 Suite, a premium version of the platform, is available at additional costs for companies with more advanced analysis and reporting needs.
Google Analytics Standard: Free for most users and small to medium websites.
Google Analytics 360 Suite: Offers advanced functionalities, including access to BigQuery and specialized support.
8. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free platform provided by Google that offers insights into the popularity of search queries on the search engine. This platform is used to identify trends, analyze the evolution of interest in specific keywords, and gain valuable insights into online user behavior.
Key features:
Tracks search trends: Provides an overview of how the popularity of a search term evolves over time and allows comparison of two or more keywords to evaluate the relative public interest.
Filtering options: Users can filter results by location, highlighting regional variations in search queries, and adjust the time frame to examine search trends over a specific period.
Categorization and related topics: Provides information about topics associated with search terms, facilitating the identification of relevant ideas, and visualizes trends within specific categories like news, technology, or entertainment.
Real-time data: Google Trends provides access to almost real-time data, quickly reflecting changes in search behavior and offering estimates of future search trends for certain keywords.
Price – The platform is free.
9. Keyword Planner from Google Ads
Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, is a powerful advertising platform created by Google to help businesses promote their products and services in Google search results and on various partner sites. Keyword Planner, a tool that is part of Google Ads, is essential for identifying and planning keywords to maximize the effectiveness of ad campaigns—but also for content creation activities, as it provides a clear perspective on search volumes.
Key features:
Keyword research and identification: Provides insights into how frequently certain keywords are searched for each month and delivers detailed keyword suggestions relevant to a specific industry or product.
Competition analysis and cost estimation: Indicates the level of competitiveness for specific keywords, helping to select the most effective ones.
Estimates cost per click (CPC): Provides estimates on costs for clicks on certain keywords based on competition.
Assists in planning ad campaigns: Provides performance estimates for an advertising campaign based on the allocated budget and selected keywords.
Geographic segmentation: Allows campaign planning based on location, adapting to market specifics.
Integrated with Google Ads: Users can directly import identified keywords from Keyword Planner into their Google Ads campaigns.
Automatic bid adjustments: The platform suggests bid adjustments for identified keywords, maximizing campaign performance.
Price – Keyword Planner is accessible through the Google Ads platform and is offered free to users running ad campaigns on this platform. However, the costs related to advertising itself (CPC, CPM) depend on each user's strategy and budget.
If you've stayed with us until the end, congratulations! We know this wasn’t an easy read, but we promise the tools mentioned above are vital for creating optimized content marketing, effective Google promotion, and, most importantly, for website development.
The diversity of options can often be overwhelming, which is why a digital marketing agency will always be there to assist you with quality SEO services tailored to your business needs and goals.
