As a small business owner, using the right SEO tools can be the difference between a struggling business and a successful one. This means SEO plays a very important role in the current business landscape.
While small companies know the critical role that SEO plays, they think that it’s either too expensive or it’s a complex process. Thankfully, there are a number of great SEO tools that can get you started.
With the help of a few online tools, you’ll find that practicing SEO is simple. You, therefore, need to know about the best SEO tools so as to start your business on the right footing and make it grow in the long term.
However, with several tools out there choosing the best one can be tricky. Once you’ve learned how to go about it, you’ll put your business on the right track.
With this in mind, we have compiled a list of some of the Best SEO Tools that most small businesses are using.
1. Moz Pro
If you are looking for an SEO tool that can help you collect the links from other websites and give you domain authority then Moz is the right choice. Since Moz does one of the best jobs, any new business owner should strive to know how it works.
It will provide you with a lot of important resources that you can use to analyze the industry trends and boost your strategies. With this tool, finding the right keywords, crawling your sites for mistakes and tracking your rankings should now be a non-issue.
Featuring a MozBar extension, you can also link it to your browser and start receiving key metrics such as On-Page analyzer, spam score, and domain authority. The good thing is that it’s located at the top of your browser hence you can switch it on and off wherever you want.
Plus, it comes with additional SEO tools that can boost your ranking efforts.
How Much Does Moz Pro Cost
- Standard costs $99 per month
- Medium costs $179 per month
- Large costs $249 per month
- The premium cost $599 per month
Pros
- Very useful for purposes of keyword search
- Good user interface
- Pretty easy to navigate and use
- High-quality educational content
- Quite affordable
Cons
- Interfaces can be a bit confusing
- It can be hard to get back to where you were
2. Ahrefs
If you are in business then you know that properly using backlinks is very important. If you are looking for a tool that gives you all the information about this it’s Ahrefs. With this tool, you can confirm whether all the backlinks on your website are from a legitimate site.
Remember, if you are using links from questionable sites then Google is likely to penalize you. It might also be difficult to achieve higher rankings until you remove them. You may also use this tool to track your competitors so that you know more about them.
This is perhaps the reason why it has grown a lot in popularity in the recent past. Since it provides you with advanced analytics you can use it to track your website. Whether you want to crawl your website, find the right keywords or check backlinks it’s an amazing tool to use.
How Much Does Ahrefs Cost
- 7-day trial $7
- Lite Plan $99
- Standard plan cost $179
- Advanced plan cost $399
- Agency plan cost $999
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- A range of innovative features
- Highly responsive customer support
- Several training materials
- Regular updates
- Largest backlink database
Cons
- No free trial
- Higher pricing mode
3. Optimizely
Optimizely is an amazing SEO testing tool that you can use to make your website better. As the world’s leading experimenting platform you can use it to deliver a continuous personalization and experimentation of your website, connected devices, and apps.
As a multi-page testing platform, you can use it to test both large and single page sites. In addition, it allows you to exclude specific groups or aspects from your testing procedure. It also allows you to deliver variations depending on ad campaigns, cookies, and other dimensions.
Unlike other tools, you can use it to develop and launch tests without engaging developers. To create your experiment you just need to use its visual editor. Once you are done with the testing you can see all the results by device, campaign or your own segmentation.
This will then allow you to make the best decision concerning your website. Even if you need to make just a small change, such as different designs you’ll get valuable insights.
How Much Does Optimizely Cost?
Optimizely plans start at $17 per month.
Pros
- Get test running within a short time
- An experience that you publish live immediately
- Eliminates the need for developers
- Ideal for putting hotfixes
- Enables you to make effective quick decisions
Cons
- Changes in pricing make it challenging
- Minor bugs here are there
4. SEMRush
As a complete digital marketing tool, SEMRush is a tool that will help you understand how your business competitors have succeeded. This will allow you to do the same so as to succeed in the same process.
Since it concentrates on saving you time and money and giving you all the data that you need there is nothing that you cannot do with this tool. By tracking all your competitor’s strategies you can come up with the best move to tackle them.
From auditing your website to collecting benchmark data, you can use this tool to accurately analyze your site’s performance and see the improvement that you need to make. Plus by analyzing every page of your website it will provide you with key SEO ideas that you can use to improve your business.
Featuring over 20 tools you can use it to optimize your website and significantly boost your website. You can also use it to determine what PPC and organic keywords your competitors are using.
Even if you’ve never done analysis before it will greatly help you. So whether you want to analyze your site or your competitor’s site it’s the best tool to use.
How Much Does SEMRush cost
- Pro plan costs $99 per month
- Guru plan cost $199 per month
- Business plan cost $399
Pros
- Bets keyword discovery tool
- PPC planning tool
- Competitive search tool
- Provides a list of things you need to do
- Covers many digital marketing needs
Cons
- Not every option is the best
- It’s a bit expensive
5. Screaming Frog
If you are looking for an SEO crawler that will thoroughly analyze your website to see whether there might be any broken links then the Screaming Frog SEO spider tool is the right one. Featuring lots of whistles and bells what sets this tool apart is that you can use it to conduct a website audit.
Once you’ve downloaded it, you just need to fill in your website name and click crawl. But since it’s not cloud-based you have to download and install it for it to start working. The good thing is that it works in both Ubuntu and Windows OS hence you can perfectly run it.
So if you love cloud-based tools then it might not be the right tool for you. Although it comes with a free version the only issue is that it gives you very limited features. As a matter of fact, if you are using the free version you can only crawl up to 500 pages.
Its free version is also hard to integrate into popular tools such as link metrics and Google analytics. Thus, if you want to get more than this the best thing to do is to go for a paid version. In a nutshell, if you want to check out whether your website has issues or not it’s the right tool to use.
Since it’s great at fining technical issues, it’s specifically designed for on-site SEO.
How Much Does Screaming Frog Cost
- The free version costs nothing. You just need to download
- The paid version cost $200 per year
Pros
- Easy to use interface
- Integrates well with Google Search Console and Google analytics
- Easy to export data
- Choose crawling options
- Comparatively cheaper
Cons
- Doesn’t run on cloud
- Constantly updating
6. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is perhaps one of the best SEO tools for small businesses. As part of the Adwords PPC platform, you can use it to find the right keywords for your campaign. The best part is that this tool is completely free hence you don’t have to worry about paying anything.
As a tool coming directly from Google, you can rest assured that it’s 100% accurate. With this amazing tool, you’ll know how to search for keywords and see all the keywords that people are searching for. It also separates your keywords into the search volume and keyword competitiveness.
Apart from that, it will show you the kind of keywords searched around where you stay. As an awesome tool, you’ll get to know the keywords with high volume but low competition. With its location adjustment feature, you can choose your location and then optimize your site for that particular area
While you can only get it through AdWords it’s totally free. Once you’ve reached the site you just need to go Gmail account and choose the Tools. In a nutshell, if you don’t have any budget it’s a tool worth trying out.
How Much Does Google Keyword Planner Cost
It’s a free SEO tool
Pros
- Ad group suggestion
- Provides search volume
- Keyword CPC search and competition
- Completely free
Cons
- Does not provide you with a negative list
- No keyword density check
7. Majestic SEO Explorer
Comparable only to Google, Majestic uses its exclusive algorithms to give you all the outcomes of your website expressions. If you know the value of backlinks to your websites then you probably understand why you need to use Majestic.
As one of the best tools, it comes with a number of pricing plans that you can choose. With this tool, you can easily find all the sites that link to yours. It generally works by creating and mapping the largest link in the world. It then uses this data to understand your website and know the improvement s that you need to carry out.
Although you can enjoy some free searches if you have a free account, if you want to enjoy everything that it offers choosing the paid version is the best. Overall it will allow you to check on metrics such as anchor text profiles, number of backlinks pointing to your website, and exact links to your website.
This tool is, therefore, suitable for anybody who wants to analyze backlinks. You can also use it on your competitor’s client’s site and any other page that you need to analyze. So if you want to get ahead of your competitors it’s the right tool to use.
How Much Does Majestic SEO Cost
- Lite plan costs $49.99
- Pro plan costs $99.99
- API plan cost $399
Pros
- Competitor research
- Backlink research
- Tracking backlinks
- A very handy search explorer
- Historical backlink checker
Cons
Not very effective
8. Rank Ranger
If you are looking for an SEO tool that provides comprehensive reviews and tracking of the site then it’s this one. As an all-round tracking tool, it not only helps you to track the top 100 on all the search engines but also does the best checking jobs.
Featuring a very comprehensive keyword research metrics, you’ll get a chance to group your keywords and display them based on their positions. By doing this to your competitors as well, you can always focus on the less competitive keywords.
As compared to other tools out there, it focuses on quality instead of quantity. One thing that you’ll love about this tool is that it will provide you with the tools that you need to compete well in the industry.
For instance, once you’ve identified what your competitors’ use, it’s quite easy to tackle them head-on. The best part is that the data that they give you is simple thus easy to understand.
Furthermore, Rank Ranger will help you monitor and keenly check your engagement on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
This way you can always identify the most important signals to use. Once you create a free account you are good to go.
How Much Does Rank Ranger Cost
- Basic plan cost $69 per month
- Standard plan cost $119
- Pro plan costs $399
Pros
- Clear display of all the progress
- Integrate Google analytics
- Track competitors
- Put different keywords into groups
- Provided automated reports
Cons
- The tool is not mobile-friendly
- The keyword tracking tool is fairly accurate
9. HubSpot
As compared to other SEO tools for small businesses, HubSpot is a tool that provides SEO, content publishing and marketing services. Whether you want to boost your sales increase leads or build a powerful website this is the tool that you need.
When it comes to all the tools and services that it provides it’s perhaps the most advanced SEO software out there. Ironically it’s the simplest to manage. This means you don’t need any particular knowledge or skills to start using it
Although it has a free version if you are looking for a wide range of services you need to choose paid packages.
Whether you are looking for retargeting or marketing services it is the most suitable tool to use. From website speed optimization to landing pages, integrated analytics to social management tools, it will provide you with all these.
It will also allow you to analyze your customers from right where they’ve come from to how far they’ve been on your website.
This will, therefore, help you to attract them depending on your business interests. Overall it’s a very powerful tool that can simplify your online business.
How Much Does HubSpot cost
- Start plan cost $50 per month
- Professional plan cost $800 per month
- Enterprise plan cost $3200 per month
Pros
- It tracks opens and clicks so well
- It organizes and filters all contacts
- Tech support is knowledgeable
- Provides several online help
- Keep technology up to date
Cons
- Creating a workflow can get tricky
- A little bit expensive as compared to others
10. Spyfu SEO Tool
As the name suggests Spyfu is an SEO tool that allows you to spy on other websites by checking what they are doing to boost their traffic and enhance other search results. Once you know about their strategies you can apply the same to your website and get greater exposure as well.
Unlike other tools out there Spyfu is very easy to use. You just need to type in the domain of your competitor and it will provide you with everything that you need. It will provide you with reports such as key insights about organic search, data and other details about their websites.
Because you have more than one competitor this tool will also give you information about your competitor competitors. Having a tool known as Kombat you can also use it to search for the right keywords for your target audience.
You can, therefore, use this report to learn about the keywords that your competitor ranks for, keywords that you rank for and the keywords that other competitors may be ranking for.
Plus, it boasts of several helpful features such as smart recommendations on what your Adwords campaigns should focus on. Since backlinks are a very important strategy Spyfu will show you how your competitors are getting their backlinks.
The good thing is that it only shows backlinks that let your site rank.
How Much Does Spyfu cost
- Basic plan cost $33 per month
- Professional plan cost $58 per month
- Team plan cost $199 per month
Pros
- Affordable pricing system
- Reveals competitors
- You can learn from your competitors’ mistakes
- God support system
- Shows competitors’ ROI
- Nice tutorials
Cons
- Overwhelming user interface
- A bit slow at times
11. Buzzsumo
If you have created your website and you need to start driving traffic by creating good posts then this tool is for you. Whether you are finding it hard to create posts that are relevant to your website or not, Buzzsumo is all that you need. With this SEO tool, you can create content that directly targets your audience.
As a marketing and content analysis software, Buzzsumo also helps to monitor your brand reputation. Once you enter your company and your website’s name, every time your business has been mentioned online you’ll get a notice.
In addition, it’s perhaps the only tool of its kind that will help you to create evergreen content. Provided you know how to use its research content feature, you are good to go.
What makes it more amazing is that it features one of the best filter systems to help you deeply search for what you are looking for.
Even if you don’t want to use what you’ve searched immediately you can always save it. Apart from the engagement figures that it provides for social media platforms it also gives you the total number of links that each search has produced.
Its approach to making you identify and create engaging content makes it one of the tools that you can’t do without.
How Much Does Buzzsumo Cost
- Pro pricing plan cost $99 per month
- Plus pricing plan cost $179 per month
- Large pricing plan cost $299 per month
- Enterprise pricing plan cost $499 per month
Pros
- Quality and authenticated data
- They pride a 7-day free trial
- It’s easy and accurate when searching or competitors
- Useful when searching for popular topics
- Tailor-made for competition analysis
Cons
- Its navigation can be a bit confusing
- It’s a bit expensive for small businesses
12. SEOptimer
If you are looking for simplicity then this is the right tool for you. Unlike others, if you use it to crawl your website, you’ll be presented with results in areas such as performance, usability, and security. Whether you want to carry out a complete website audit or snapshot, it’s the right option.
With its white label option, you can build your email list and use it to provide your clients with the same analysis for their sites.
Apart from grading your site, it will also give you a list of things that you need to do to improve your website’s performance. As a content marketing tool, it also has something to boost your content marketing strategy.
Plus, featuring several free tools, regardless of the improvement that you want to do you can always find it in the tool. Using it is also quite easy.
Once it researches your business and competition it will give you a strategic plan to help you boost your traffic. This makes it one of the best tools for both new and established websites.
The best part is that you can use its free package to evaluate your website in terms of usability, social media and performance. You’ll then find detailed results with all the components that you’ve searched for.
How Much Does SEOptimer cost
- DIY SEO plan cost $19 per month
- White label SEO plan cost $29 per month
- White label and embedding plan cost $59 per month
Pros
- Easy to follow recommendations
- White label option
- Several free tools
- Content marketing option included
- Good security checks for malware and SSL
Cons
No specifics on how to perform the recommendations that they give
13. BrightLocal
BrightLocal is also another SEO tool that can be likened to YEXT or WhiteSpark. This is because they both work by building citations to boost SEO growth. However, the good thing about BrightLocal is that it’s not only cheaper but also developed in such a way that you can use it for one business.
If you want to keep track of the performance of your competition then BrightLocal will provide you with all the information that you need. This will not only allow you to see all the information about your website but your competitors as well.
This way you’ll see the reasons why your website might not be doing well and see how you can improve. To get all this information, you need to provide your business and your customer’s business information.
You also need to install your social media accounts and Google analytics. Once you are done with these data it will give you a detailed report and then inform you all that needs to be done.
Another good thing about it is that it can help you track different search terms depending on the location. This way you can know the search terms that you need to rank for a particular location. Additionally, it comes with great video training and information on topics that will help you maximize its use.
How Much Does BrightLocal cost
- Single business plan cost $29 per month
- Multi business plan cost $49 per month
- SEO pro plan cost $79 per month
Pros
- Superior local data search
- The best review monitoring
- User-friendly interface
- Useful tracking tools
- Improved efficiency for local business marketing
Cons
- They provide computer-based feedback
- Limited free plan
Frequently Asked Questions
The direct answer to this question is YES! You need one. Consider this, for all the websites that people visit daily almost 50 percent of the people who visit these websites come from search engines such as Google.
Since such engines are tools, it means that most people visiting your websites are perhaps discovering them for the first time. Without using the correct SEO tools, your websites will not be optimized in such a way that it can be found by search engines.
This means, in most instances, your website will be lying at the bottom of the search engines such as goggle.
But as more people visit your website through the search engines, you’ll also see a boost in channels such as social media, email and as this gets bigger and better, the other things such as traffic, leads and conversions will improve and your business will grow in the long term.
While using SEO tools is a legal practice using blackhat SEO tools or services is not allowed. These may include stuffing your website with keywords that are visible to the search engines but not to the reader. If you do this you risk getting banned by Google.
Although these tactics were quite effective many years back nowadays Google is too keen. This is why nowadays there are a number of algorithms to rid the websites of such unethical practices.
This means even if you find a way through which you can bypass Google, you need to know that it won’t be long before Google gets you.
It’s therefore very important to use only ethical SEO tools and services to boost your business.
No. Although many people think that Google might punish them if they use certain SEO tools this is rarely the case.
Unless you are using unethical tools you should not be afraid of using SEO tools like the ones we’ve talked about above to boost your website.
Although there is no specific free SEO tool that will provide you with everything that you need there are a number of them that you can combine and use together.
For instance tools such as Spyfu and Moz have free trials that you can use to try them out and see whether they are the best.
More so, Google Keyword Planner is a free tool hence it’s limited on the kind of features that you can use.
In a nutshell, if you want your business to succeed the best thing to do is to commit some cash on the paid plan. The good thing is that there are a number of them that are quite affordable.
YES! There are a number of SEO tools that come with programs to use. Tools such as SEMRush and Ahrefs have provided several online programs that you can use to up your game.
Whether you are a novice or not you can use their programs to teach yourself everything that you need to know about SEO.
If you like, you can also check out LinkedIn’s several SEO courses that are suitable for all knowledge levels. One of the courses that you may consider is an SEO foundation.
One thing that you need to know is that there is no specific time set for SEO tools to work. Each tool works in a different way.
While one might start showing results after 6 months another may take even up to 1 year. So you just need to be patient once you’ve chosen the best.
Remember if you are using SEO tools there are a number of strategies that you may need to implement. This might either be a minor or a major action.
But generally for most SEO tools and strategies you should be ready to give yourself even up to 6 months t start seeing any meaningful results.
Since using SEO tools is not a one-off thing, you should prepare to do it for sometime before you can start seeing any results. As a business owner, you need to keep track of your website and see what needs to be done at any given time.
With things such as search engine algorithms and competition constantly changing, you need to commit yourself to SEO strategies if you want to succeed in online business.
With this mind, you need to know that SEO is not a one-off job. It’s something that should be done continuously for you to start seeing any results
Google search is the most common way that clients are now looking for products and services. This means that using SEO tools is one of the best things to do if you want to put your products and services in front of customers.
Although it’s a good marketing approach there are a number of things that you need to consider before opting for it.
Before committing, make sure you consider your budget, the competition you get from ads and what your competitors are using.
While some SEO tools are good, it’s important to ask yourself whether the tools you are using are the best.
Well, there is some SEO work that you can always do alone. In fact, if you already have a business website then the mere fact of uploading and optimizing content is itself SEO.
However, if you want to get factor results the best thing to do is to engage a professional.
But if your budget cannot allow that there are several amazing resources out there that you can use to do your own SEO.
We can, therefore, conclude that there are some aspects of SEO that you can do alone and others that you need to engage a skilled worker to help you with.
There is no set amount of money that you need to pay an SEO consultant. This is because SEO may involve a lot of work. So before budgeting, you need to know the amount of work that needs to be done.
This way you’ll know whether your SEO expert is fair or is overcharging you.
It’s also important to arm yourself with some basic SEO knowledge so that you know whether the charges are fair or not. This will also help you separate skilled SEO workers from non-skilled workers.
But generally, there are basic jobs that you can always do alone.
If you are using SEO and your website is not ranking then there are a number of things that you need to check out. One of the reasons for this is that Google could have put a penalty on your website.
You could also have not done SEO or used the tools correctly. So if you are experiencing this then you need to engage an expert to help you know what could be the issue.
If you are experiencing this then you need to know that you are not alone. It’s a common practice in every industry. While some of them might be naïve others are just looking for quick ways to rank faster and make money.
The only thing that you can do is to ignore them. This is because with Google’s new algorithms, they will be found and their websites will be penalized.
Although some may get away with that, you just need to focus on doing the right thing so that you can protect your website.
Wrapping Up
If you are involved in online marketing then SEO is an asset that you cannot just ignore. It costs very little to do some keyword research or strategy that can help your business. Although you may not see immediate results with SEO tools, it’s one of the best ways drive traffic and boost your business in the long term
By using the best SEO tools your audience will trust you to deliver high-quality resources and this will bring them even closer to your business. The tools that you choose and how you use them is going to impact your engagement rates and ultimately conversions.
Whether you are just starting out or you are established, these tools will put you on the right path. While there are a number of tools that claim they are the best it’s important to read about them and choose only the most effective one. But if you have a small business the above tools should help you start out. So get out and start boosting your website!
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