So you’re going to work on the findability of your website, but you don’t have a budget for professional tools? No problem! In this blog, we discuss the 10 best free SEO tools in 2022 that will help you on your way to top positions in Google search results.
Essential SEO Tools
The SEO tools in this category are not optional but much needed. If you want to measure the impact of your work, you really can’t do without these tools.
1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a great tool to start with.
By creating a free account and adding a piece of code to your website, you have access to a huge amount of information that will help you determine if you are on the right track.
The tool gives you insight into, among other things:
- Through which channels visitors come to your website;
- Whether they mainly use a desktop or mobile devices;
- Which pages did they visit?
- How long do they stay on your website?
And much more.
In the analytics courses of the Analytics Academy, you will learn everything about this tool and how to use it.
The presentation of the course videos is sometimes a bit clumsy, but they help you on your way in the wonderful world of digital analytics.
2. Google Search Console
The second tool that is indispensable for SEOs is Google Search Console.
With the tool you gain insight into, for example:
- Which pages of your website are in Google’s index (and which are not);
- On which keywords your website is found via Google. Including average ranking in the search results;
- Which pages on your website are slow according to Google;
- Approximately how many pages of your site Google processes per day.
With Google Search Console, you can see whether your SEO activities lead to better performance in the search results.
So link it directly to your website!
You can read more about what else you can do with Search Console and how to activate it in our extensive Google Search Console blog.
3. Google My Business
Every company that is registered with the Chamber of Commerce is entitled to a Google My Business listing that can be found in Google and Google Maps. So there is a good chance you already have such a business listing. But are you already doing something with it?
Hopefully, the listing is usually the first thing someone sees when they search Google for your business using a branded search, such as ‘ MavenUp Creatives ‘. Therefore, it is important that it looks as good as possible and that it does not deter (potential) customers.
By setting up your business listing ultimately and regularly adding photos and reviews, you immediately make a good impression when a potential customer searches for you on Google. At the same time, you improve your findability in Google search results. So get started with your Google My Business listing!
Okay, you’ve got the basics in order now. Fast forward to tools that help you create content!
Content tools
Without content, you probably won’t score high with your website in Google search results. However, how do you decide what kind of content to make?
An excellent first step is to look at competitors that score well in Google. What do they write about? How often do they publish new content? This information already gives you some insight into what works within your industry.
The next step is keyword research that will help you determine focus. The tools below will help you with that.
4. Ubersuggest
Before you create random content, it is, of course, nice to know what your target group is looking for exactly and which search terms they use.
The Ubersuggest tool will help you with this. It gives you a quick idea of how many people are searching for a specific keyword or topic. You enter a term, and voila! You get an estimated monthly search volume in seconds. It doesn’t stop there. You can also use the tool:
- Easy sorting;
- Filter by keyword;
- See additional keyword ideas from Google Suggest;
- Exclude keywords.
Keep in mind that the search volumes from the tool are approximations. So use it to find relevant search terms, but don’t see the numbers shown as absolute truth.
And do you want to do serious and extensive keyword research? Then you would do well to use professional tools, such as Semrush, Ahrefs, and Keywordtool.io.
Other useful free content tools that are also worth trying:
- Keyword surfer (Chrome extension)
- Keywords Everywhere (Browser extension)
5. Answer the public
You are often busy answering questions that affect your target audience when writing content. If you respond well to the search query, you will get happy website visitors, and you will rank higher in Google than a competitor that does not.
But how do you find out which questions are important to your target group? For example, via the tool AnswerThePublic! If you enter a topic here, you will get a handy overview in no time with questions that are asked in Google about this topic. The questions are presented in clear diagrams.
When you click on an item, you will immediately see the search results in Google. And so, who do you compete with if you decide to create content around the question.
The tool’s free version allows you to do a few searches per day. The paid version costs from$79 per month.
6. Also Asked
Alsoasked is another tool that allows you to collect frequently asked questions about a topic. Enter a subject and immediately see which questions are playing your target group.
The tool retrieves the questions from the People Also Asked (PAA) block, which you often see in Google search results, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Alsoasked works best to search for your keywords in the UK or the US.
7. Detailed Chrome Extension
With SEO, you compete with other websites with your website to rank high in Google. To find out what a good SEO strategy is for your website, it is often valuable to analyze what high-scoring competitors are doing with their websites.
The Chrome extension of Detailed will help you with this. You can easily view per page, among other things:
- What the page title and description are;
- Which subheadings a page contains;
- How many images are used;
- And much more.
This information will help you create content for your website because a competitor that scores well in Google is doing something right.
So study these competitors’ websites, and use what you find as inspiration for your website. Alternative free browser (Chrome) extensions:
- SEO Peek, SEO Pro extension, SEO Minion, SEO META in 1 CLICK
Another handy online tool to analyze a page in multiple ways is the ZOMDir’s Page inspector.
Technical SEO tools
If search engines like Google can’t find or understand your content, they won’t rank you. The technical basis of your website must therefore be in order and must not contain any bottlenecks.
With the SEO tools in this category, you can spot technical barriers with a little SEO knowledge.
It is important to note that SEO technology can quickly become complicated. You can use the tools below to identify problems, but don’t adjust things that you don’t fully understand yourself. In any case, consult with a web developer or SEO specialist before making technical adjustments.
8. ScreamingFrog
Almost every website contains errors. For example, links that no longer work or pages accidentally blocked by search engines. Especially with large websites that have been around for a while, these kinds of errors often sneak in unintentionally over time.
You will never get them all to the surface manually, but with a tool like Screaming Frog, you can track them down in no time. The tool analyzes your website and maps all kinds of interesting information per page. For instance:
- Broken links and images;
- Missing, duplicate, or too long page titles and descriptions;
- Pages with very little content;
- Whether the page may be indexed.
- And much more.
With the free version of the Screaming Frog SEO Spider, you can analyze up to 500 URLs of your website, enough for a small website. The paid version costs £149.00 per year.
The Getting Started Guide will help you get started using the tool.
9. Page Speed Insights
A slow website is no fun for anyone. It hinders your SEO performance and the user experience on your website. Want to know how fast your website is? The Google Pagespeed Insights tool gives you an excellent first impression.
Do you get a lousy speed score from Google? Then talk to a developer about how you can make your website faster. Some tips are already given in the tool to work on it.
Other free tools for working on your site’s speed:
- lighthouse
- webpage test
- GTmetrix
- giftofspeed
Link building tools
An essential pillar of SEO is website authority. Links from influential websites to your site boost your website authority. And the more authority your website has, the easier it becomes to rank well in Google.
10. MozBar
The MozBar is one of the few free SEO tools to estimate the authority of a website. Moz’s browser extension gives you a score from 1 to 100 for both the page you’re on (PA) and the website as a whole (DA). The higher the score, the higher the authority.
The tool can help you determine how strong a website is, among other things. So is it worth trying to get a link?
Professional tools
The above free tools can go a long way for a small website if you want to work on your SEO. When you have little competition, the tools may even help you achieve top positions in Google. More significant websites, and with a lot of competition, will probably need some big guns.
That’s why at MavenUp Creatives, we use several paid SEO tools, including Semrush, Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer, Deepcrawl, and Majestic. These professional tools provide a wealth of information that helps us thoroughly study our customers’ websites and their high-scoring competitors to arrive at the best SEO strategy ultimately.
Need advice?
Of course, it is about tools in optimization and the right approach, monitoring of the process and resources. We can help you with that, of course. For example, read about our SEO approach or check the SRO case.
That was it! Hopefully, these tools will help you optimize your website. Curious how we can help you with our approach? Let us know. We will be happy to help you. Contact us.
