Let’s be honest, there is a lot of advice out there when it comes to what companies should do to improve their SEO. Some range from novice suggestions to intensive complex solutions. Sometimes just knowing where to start is difficult enough. Luckily enough for us, there are power SEO tools that range from research platforms to management software that make SEO a little easier. In this article we’ll dive deep into the value of these SEO tools and provide a list of 10 of the most power SEO tools available. The best part is that most of the tools on our list are free!
The Importance of Using Tools to Improve Local SEO
Since the dawn of time man has been using tools to innovate, make life easier, and to outperform competitors. SEO tools are no different. The tools at our disposal to improve SEO help project managers in the research/ discovery phase understand the competition and discovery quality keywords. Data analytic tools provide valuable insight into organic SEO performance to aid in uncovering hidden opportunities and areas for improvement. SEO management tools keep teams on task and provide progress reporting to all clients, external & internal, understand the complexity of SEO. Discover some of the valuable benefits below of what SEO tools provide the industry.
Keyword/ Query Research
Start your SEO projects knowing which keywords will be the best to target. This is done by conducting thorough keyword research to decide which are the most valuable targets.
Competitive Research
Knowing what your successful competitors are doing is an easy way of knowing what you should do. Gain insight into competitor strategies and efforts.
Data Analytic Analysis
To improve SEO, you need to know how your keywords are producing in search results and what actions your organic seo traffic are performing.
Actual Search Result Rankings
Track keyword performance over time with the following KPI’s.
- Clicks
- Impressions
- CTR
- Avg. Position
Backlink Building Ideas
Building backlinks is a time intensive process that is the most critical to improving SEO. Backlink building ideas from SEO tools gives project managers a head start knowing where to ask and gain backlinks to improve future results.
Local Listings
Local SEO listings are critical to appearing in local map pack snippets on search engines like Google. Most 72% of people conducting a local search with visit a store within 5 miles.
Project Management
Project management SEO tools help teams implement and execute projects along with curating leads after they have been produced.
Education
For the DIY and professional SEO experts, SEO blogs are a great resource to learn new strategies and stay on top of industry trends.
Here is a list 10 SEO tools that we consider a must have.
Google Search Console
Google’s search console is a free SEO tool that provides your domains performance for organic search results. Data can be segmented by keyword, URL, device, and country. This SEO tools provides valuable insights into how your keywords and URLs are performing for organic clicks, impressions, average position, and CTR.
Google My Business Listing
Your GMB listing is an important SEO tool when competing in local search results. Well maintained and optimized GMB listings display in map packs for local search results along with a phone number, address, website, and operating hours. Learn more about how to optimize a GMB listing.
Google Analytics
Understanding how organic traffic interacts with a website is vital to performing optimization efforts. If web visitors aren’t performing the type of desired actions/ conversions, the data will usually provide answers to why and provide suggestions for further testing to improve SEO results.
SEM Rush
SEM Rush is a paid subscription service that is well worth the investment. This SEO tool provides accurate keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink building tools, project management, SEO writing guides, progress monitoring services, custom reporting, and much more.
UpCity
Keeping a team on task is important, especially when tasks are often siloed. Upcity provides a quality seo project management software that makes it easier to manage projects and produce results.
SEOblog.com
Using SEO industry blogs as education is an important part of self learning efforts. They are a great resource for building knowledge, staying on top of trends, and discovering new strategies.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a meant for paid advertising but the keyword planning tools is a free resource within the platform that provides some very accurate data. This SEO tools is great to use to discover seasonal trends and popular search terms. Discover how to use the Google Ads platform for PPC marketing research as well.
Salesforce
Managing leads as they come in is an important part of SEO because the whole point of an SEO project is to increase sales from leads. If the business isn’t ecommerce, leads will be generated from the website and how those leads are passed along and managed will dictate customer experiences and overall consumer values.
Competitor Websites
Look and see what competitors are doing. The good SEO project managers will first identify the competitive landscape to understand the level of competition and what’s needed to succeed.
Schema.org
This free SEO tool helps search engines like Google understand your web pages content faster and in more detail. The more the search engines know about a page and the higher their confidence in it, the likelihood of improved performance on that search engine is increased.
Other SEO Tools
We’ve mentioned a few tools available, we think they are some of the most powerful, but there are many more available. Please comment below which ones you think should be added to this list.
Key Takeaways
- Serious SEO projects need serious SEO tools just like any other project in any industry.
- There are a wide variety of free SEO tools available through the Google platform that provide valuable data.
- Know your competition. They’ll provide an easy initial road map to get a new SEO project started.
- Know your data. It’s hard to improve upon results if you don’t know the data. Invest time and money into SEO tools that will help make optimization efforts easier.
