It doesn’t matter what the size or purpose of your website is, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical if you want to be found on the melee that is the Internet.
But you probably know this already. However, while it’s easy to get the gist of SEO, it starts getting tricky when you need to figure out which tools to use to boost your SEO content efforts.
The good news is I’ve made (or tried to make) it easy for you. I’ve put together 9 of the top free and paid tools (both SEO and non-SEO) that can help you improve search ability, visibility and ultimately, findability.
9 Top SEO Tools To Aid You In Creating Great Content For the SERPs
The tools we’ve featured can help you with some core SEO tasks that you should be utilizing to increase your SEO. There are many tools out there. This list is merely a compilation of the ones we’ve found helpful.
1. SEO Quake & SEMrush
The toolbar from SEO Quake has to be on our list. It gives you the opportunity to access a range of SEO tools all while browsing the Internet. You’re able to customize search results, monitor your competitor’s site’s SEO and customize search results. You can also request keyword density reports and get link counts. Created by the awesome team at SEMrush, it is one of the leading SEO tools online. It provides analytics for your current rankings, keyword research abilities with excellent findings (some of the most reliable I’ve found), site audit tools, and much more. This should be any content marketer’s go-to SEO tool. It has been mine for a few years now.
The toolbar is free to try out; the SEMrush software is a monthly subscription.
2. Moz
If you’re looking for a suite of tools that can help you continually analyze and refine your site while optimizing your SEO, check out Moz. Some specific features include:
- Managing SEO
- Analyzing site regularity
- Rank Tracking
- Website crawling
- Analytical reporting
- Social media management and monitoring
- Research capabilities
Aside from premium suite offerings, there are a few standalone services from Moz that can help with specific aspects of SEO. One such tool, Get Listed, is great for optimizing online business listings.
All you need to do is input your business name and zip code. Get Listed will pull up business listings you’ve already claimed and services you have yet to claim. It will give you links to claim your listing on every service, all from a single page.
3. Ubersuggest
This free program lets users quickly generate keyword ideas. Ubersuggest is powered by Google Suggest and works by scraping search results, adding a digit or letter to the search term and then generating a list of keywords based on the results.
This tool has been designed to be uber-simple. You can quickly brainstorm and get keywords that your users are searching for. Simply type in a keyword and hit enter to see almost 400 recommended phrases.
4. Live Keyword Analysis
Easy for checking and optimizing keyword density, Live Keyword Analysis is the answer to finding the perfect keyword balance.
Enter the keywords you’re keen to target and paste in your text. That’s how effortless it is. Once you’ve done that the tool analyzes the text and gives you your keyword density.
You can also check out the site for tips and tricks to help make sure you’re getting top SEO value.
5. InSite 5
Let’s talk about accuracy for a second. Yes, your rankings are crucial for findability, but getting visitors to trust you enough to convert to paying customers can be greatly improved by eliminating unnecessary spelling and grammar errors on your site.
This is where InSite 5 really comes into its own. At the moment it is only compatible with PCs. The desktop software crawls your site checking for grammar and spelling errors. Once the crawl is complete, it generates a PDF report of any and all errors. It also lets you customize the dictionary to eliminate false positives.
While it costs $60 it is an investment that can, and should, be used regularly against all the sites you run.
6. Attentiv
If you have a team of people working on projects, Attentiv makes collaborating painless. Thanks to idea upvoting, polling and threaded commenting, the tool helps you with creativity and decision making.
It’s free for the first 10 users and thereafter $5 per month.
7. Canva
With the saturation of content on the Internet, sometimes you just need a great graphic – and quickly – to grab visitors’ attention.
If you need a fantastic image to support a blog post, head to Canva. You don’t need to be a designer to quickly put something together that you’ll be happy with.
It is free to edit images or you can browse through the stock photo library and pay just $1 for a photo.
8. Infogr.am
Infographics most definitely have a place in SEO, especially for the right message accompanied by phenomenal data. Infogr.am is really handy if you’re in a hurry and you can use it when working on creative content for marketing campaigns or just putting together a couple of charts for client reports.
Try it out free for 30 days and if you love it, it’ll only cost you $15 per month.
9. Title Tester
Beautifully simplistic. That’s Title Tester for you. In fact, once you use it, chances are you’ll be using it for every piece of content you publish. All you need to do is craft a couple of great title options for the content you’re working on.
Stick them into Title Tester and it gives you a link to share with your network. Everyone in the network can then vote for his favorites. The result: an almost data-driven approach to choosing a title.
The tool is free if you’re keeping votes within your own network. If you’d like people on the platform to upvote, you can pay a nominal amount to join.
Lastly: Just Keep Creating, & Optimizing
SEO takes a great deal of work. And after that it takes a pretty long time for the hard work to pay off in the form of higher rankings and better search results. It’s a test of patience.
Before throwing in the towel in frustration that your efforts were for nothing, you need to wait it out weeks or even months to see the fruits of your labor. These 9 tools can make it much less painful and help boost those rankings a lot quicker.
We have to mention one final tip: don’t ever use any bad SEO tactics (also known as blackhat). Stay away from keyword stuffing. Avoid invisible text and doorway pages like the plague. And NEVER use unethical tactics to try and boost your SEO. Those search engines will notice. And when they do, you get put on their list – and that is definitely not a nice list to be on.
Your site’s reputation will suffer and so will your SEO.
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By Julia Spence-McCoy