What SEO tools should I be using?

With an estimated 63,000 search queries per second on Google, getting your content ranked and visible on search engine results pages (SERPs) is serious business. If you’re new to search engine optimisation (SEO) this can seem a daunting task however there are some darn nifty SEO tools to help you on your way and the best thing? They’re free!

SEO tool #1 – Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog’s website crawler is an ace tool to add to your SEO toolkit. Simply download their free SEO spider onto your laptop or computer. Pop a website URL in the search bar and click crawl. Within a few minutes you’ll be armed with critical data such as:

The only catch with the free version is searches are limited to 500 URLs per site and it does not support JavaScript enabling. A single seat licence costs £149 per year so if this is an issue for you site it’s well worth investing in the premium offer.

SEO tool #2 – Google Search Console

Nearly all websites we audit or work with have Google Analytics installed but some are missing Google Search Console. Google Search Console (GSC) not only helps you decipher what search terms drive organic traffic but it gives you vital information about the health and crawlability of your site. You can submit an XML sitemap which is really useful for new sites to assist Google in finding and crawling all pages, check if any pages have mobile issues, which pages have been ranked and check back links to your site.

You can integrate your GSC with Google Analytics so your search query data shows up in GA but we would always recommend checking GSC directly at least monthly to identify any crawlability issues.

SEO tool #3 – MozBar

A handy little Chrome extension which allows you to track key link and page metrics on the go. Whilst browsing any site simply click on the MozBar Chrome extension and up pops Domain Authority, Page Authority and backlinks for the site you are viewing. This can be a really handy tool if you’re scoping out websites as part of a back links strategy.

SEO tool #4 – Google PageSpeed Insights

Google is obsessed with speed! If your site doesn’t load quickly and easily then even if you have the best content in the world, you will struggle with rankings. As far as SEO tools go, this is definitely one you should be checking especially your mobile speed. Since 2019 all new websites have been mobile indexed first and even historical websites will be more favourably ranked based on a speedy mobile loading site. Google PageSpeed Insights not only scores the speed of your site but will also give recommendations for improvement.