Best SEO Tools 2021
If you have a website, you need SEO (search engine optimization) tools, the exact tools you need depends on the size of your operation and the kind of business you’re in. You’ll want to understand SEO so you can make the best of your online content and get the highest ROI possible. SEO tools make sure your web pages have the right tags and keywords and will tell you when you have broken web pages or missing links. Other tools will even tell you what topics people in your region are interested in when it comes to a certain keyword. This is all so important because it informs your content, and how you publish it.
SEO will ensure that you are getting the most bang for your buck in relation to your online presence and some will even let you evaluate how your competitors are doing! In many ways, SEO is just like marketing, if you don’t have the money, don’t spend it. Luckily there are free tools on the market to get you started, until your business is doing well enough to justify spending on some of the more detailed and complex tools.
What’s on This Page
Top Rated SEO Tools
Google Search Console (GSC)
Price: Free
Who better to ensure that your site is Google-friendly than Google themselves?! Google’s SEO tools are free and easy for beginners. To use Google Search Console, all you have to do is prove that you own your own site, then you’re all set to get started. Previously known as Webmaster Central, Google Search Console, gives you exactly what you need to understand your site’s performance. The free SEO tool gives you the same information as Google Analytics, but in an even more straight forward and easy way to understand, making it perfect for any beginner.
The tool’s main focus is search and optimization, so it will let you know how your site is performing and identify any issues that you need to address. The suite offers an URL inspection tool that will let you know how Google is crawling and indexing a webpage, giving you information that includes AMP errors, structured data errors and indexing issues.
If your site has incurred a penalty for something like cloaking, sneaky mobile redirects or AMP content mismatches, you can request a reconsideration directly from this tool.
When it comes to retrieving data, some users have reported that they would prefer more granular information and there is a delay in data collection, so you don’t see real time analytics.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.8 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.7 (41 user reviews)
G2.com
4.5 (42 user reviews)
SEMrush SEO Toolkit
Price:
- $119.95 USD/month – Pro, 10,000 results per report, 3000 reports per day
- $229.95 USD/month – Guru, 30,000 results per report, 5,000 reports per day
- $449.95 USD/month – Business, 50,000 results per report, 10,000 reports per day
When it comes to your SEO needs, this tool offers everything you want and more! SEMRush is a great offering for any business but is popular amongst agencies. The tool is known for their intuitive UI, detailed dashboards and the ability for you to measure the performance of your page against competitors.
Competitor analysis is one of the main features of this SEO tool. Traffic analytics will show your competitors’ sources of traffic, and let you analyze backlinks. With this information you will be able to better understand the competitive landscape. With the Traffic Sources Comparison feature, you can get a quick lay of the land on multiple competitors at once, which includes identifying keywords they’ve targeted.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.85 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.7 (1375 user reviews)
G2.com
4.5 (1200 user reviews)
Answer The Public
Price:
- $99 USD/month ($79 USD/monthly paid annually) – Unlimited searches, 5 search listening alerts
- $399 USD/month – Enterprise – unlimited searches, 50 search listening alerts
This SEO tool is perfect for niche businesses and content creators. It does exactly what its name suggests, ‘answer the public.’ As soon as you enter the tool, you’ll see a ‘discover what people are asking about…’ feature. Type any word, choose your geographic location and get a visualization of the most popular search queries.
When you type in a word associated to your business. The tool lets you know what people are searching for in relation to your topic or niche, allowing you to tailor your content for your audience’s needs. By understanding what people are highly interested in or what kind of questions they are searching for, you’ll be in a better place to serve your niche audience.
When you understand what your audience wants, you’ll be able to convert your content into more engagement, click throughs and revenue.
On the free plan, you’ll only be able to ask a limited number of questions per day. With a paid plan, you’ll enjoy unlimited searches and advanced data visualizations.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.3 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
Not Available
G2.com
4.6 (8 user reviews)
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Price:
- Free – limited to 500 URLs
- $180 USD/month – unlimited URLs
Do you have a massive website with a lot of pages? We’re talking huge – like Disney, Shazam or Dell.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is best at crawling big websites. If you have a site with URLs in the triple or quadruple digits, this tool will save you a ton of time when it comes to audits. The dedicated crawler automates the entire audit process which only takes a few minutes to determine if you have broken links, missing tags or missing content. Once you’re able to identify these issues, you’ll be able to improve them for a more SEO friendly website.
The tool breaks down pages by HTML and non-HTML making it easy for marketers and developers to use.
While this is a must have for SEO professionals, it does take some getting used to if you’re new to the tool. Luckily, there are a lot of tutorials and educational materials available.
There is a free version of this crawler that has basic features but is limited to 500 URLs. The paid version is $180 US for the year and comes with free tech support.
Overall Ratings:
StackCompare.com
4.9 (Aggregate Score)
Capterra.com
4.9 (52 user reviews)
G2.com
4.7 (45 user reviews)
Product Features
Google Search Console
Free
/ month
- Measures traffic & performance
- Resolve issues
- Improve Rankings
SEMrush
$119.95 – $449.95
/ month
- Analyze competitors
- Detailed dashboard
- Track key keyword rankings
Answer the Public
Free – $399
/ month
- Niche business ideas
- Find out what people are asking
- Content ideation
Screaming Frog
Free – $180
/ month
- For large websites
- identify broken pages in minutes
- Affordable
Alternative Options
Other Services
Frequently Asked Questions
SEO tools help you increase your visibility online. They help evaluate your website’s success and make comparisons between you and your competitors. Ultimately, they will identify areas for opportunity in order to increase your search ranking.
What are the most popular SEO tools?
Some of the most popular SEO tools include Google Search Console, SEMRush and Ahrefs. Before committing to a tool, do your research to ensure that it is the right tool for your business and level of expertise.
Most SEO tools will require you to download a browser extension, once you have the browser extension you can run the tools on your website.