Dan Wheatley
Developing a comprehensive plan that covers every aspect of your SEO strategy can be a complicated task with many moving parts. Here are 10 tools to simplify the process and help you deliver results quicker.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is your most trusted ally in measuring SEO results. Once installed on your website you will be able to see you traffic numbers, where the traffic is arriving from, which activities are driving the most traffic, leads and sales. Most importantly you can see how visitors interact with your site. In one sentence Google Analytics tells you what is working and what isn’t so that you can make smarter, more profitable decisions.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the free Google tool where you can submit your sitemap, see any errors and track which keywords or queries Google is ranking you for. You can even link Search Console with your Google Analytics to create a perfectly connected system that allows you to review keyword rankings, click through rates and much more through your analytics account.
Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Adwords but is also a great tool for SEO. The search volume calculator allows you to enter keywords and see how many people have searched for them each month. This will help you to place a value on which keywords or queries to target. You can also find suggested keywords based on what you submitted. You can use this to find keywords that can be more profitable to you but you may not have thought of.
An example of this could be “web design New York” being more profitable than “web designers in New York.”
Hootsuite
More than ever social media is playing a role in search engine ranking. By using a tool like Hootsuite you can quickly plan your social media posts across all platforms for the month ahead. Plus use the dashboard to track brand mentions, social media traffic and discover content to improve your social media strategy. Hootsuite is free for 1 user with 3 social media channels.
Google Optimize
Google Optimize is a free tool that allows your to experiment with different variations of your website to determine which is best at achieving your goal. Google Optimize allows you to set up A/B testing, redirect and multivariate tests. Using correct targeting and testing methods can increase conversion rates up to 300% so optimizing your site is well worth it.
Canva
On average people retain 10% of the information they hear but when coupled with a relevant image 65% of the information is retained 3 days later. The message is that the right images are important when looking for social shares and creating memorable content. Canva is a tool that helps you create great content for free. The dashboard is simple to use and developed with non-designers in mind. It is important to have one image on each page you publish.
Moz Local: Check Listing
For businesses focusing on local SEO it’s imperative that your name, address, phone number are easy to find. Moz Local provides a free way for you to audit this information. See your verified listings and confirm how visual you are to your local community.
Site Liner
Content plays a huge role in SEO. Site Liner gives you an instant assessment of your site. Showing the amount of duplicate, common and unique content. The free version will also show you the average page size, average load time and links.
Answer the Public
Do you struggle with knowing which questions your content should answer? Answer the Public is the solution. The free tool lets you submit questions, topics and keywords and returns a list of related questions currently being asked online. This lets you provide the most relevant content with the best answer.
Pro Webmasters
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with SEO you will always have questions. Pro Webmasters is a free Question and Answer forum without the chit chat. Anyone can sign up for free and post a question. Users will answer your question and vote on the best answer.
We actually had 11 tools that we wanted to add to the list so here is another one for free.
Open Site Explorer
If you want to outperform your competition you need to understand their link profile and how it compares to your own. Drop your competitor’s url into Open Site Explorer to see which sites are linking to them. You can immediately see which areas you need to improve on and who to target.
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