When approaching Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), there are a plethora of tools you should consider investing in to boost your site rankings. SEO tools assist in analysing site data and keywords through automation, saving time and money. Some SEO tools can specialise in particular areas such as backlinks, onsite and auditing and some are all round. When choosing the SEO tool best for you it is important to consider ranking features, integration of the software with your current setup and that the tool provides detailed reporting for ease of analysis. In this article, we will examine some of the best tools you can have in your arsenal for 2021.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an easy-to-use SEO tool that focuses on keywords and backlink analysis, widely known for having the largest and most remarkable backlink index that far exceeds competitor tools within this category. This tool provides all the necessary SEO features including Site Audit, Site Explorer, Keywords, Content Explorers and Rank Tracking. The Site Audit feature highlights site health, technical issues or errors and provides valuable methods to resolve any issue for better search engine rankings. The crawler runs on a cloud-based system for fast analysis so your computer will not need to do any heavy lifting. This tool can also be used to determine valuable competitor backlinks and identify the most linked content within your domain to help you find the best link opportunities. The best-known use of this tool is to assist in writing content relevant to your industry by pulling competitive content research to outperform your competitor’s content.
Positives
- Largest backlink index
- Smart user support
- Free Tutorials
Negatives
- Poor API
- Basic Report Style
- Expensive for large teams
SEMrush
SEMrush specialises in SEO, Marketing and Content. It allows you to easily access your keyword and site rankings giving the user ability to identify changes to rankings and identify new improvement opportunities to rank your site higher. SEMrush uses Domain vs Domain Analysis for ease of comparison between your site and your competitor’s site. It includes an on-page SEO Checker tool for ease of monitoring rankings and providing accurate recommendations for improving your site’s performance. The unique feature in this tool known as ‘Pages’ allows for an analysis of organic traffic insights displaying all keywords, articles and social media shares providing a quick and readable overview of site performance while determining which competitor sites attract the most organic search traffic.
Positives
- Analyze competitor metrics
- Informative dashboard
- Great Auditing tool
Negatives
- Complicated terminology
- Data collated from one search engine (Google)
- Difficult to use on Mobile Device
SpyFu
Claimed as the most detailed Analysis Tool, SpuFu is a free PPC & SEO tool with an easy-to-use interface for comparing competitor keywords and site performance. This tool allows you to view the keyword search amount, ranking difficulty and frequency of keyword use between competitors. You can view relevant keywords, leads, monthly clicks, organic traffic and active google ad campaigns for your site and your competitor’s sites, saving time researching your market competition. SpyFu pulls all of this information into presentation worthy reports so you can one-up your competitors and increase website traffic. The Competitive Keyword Spy tool reveals keywords used by similarly ranked competitors so you can jump ahead of your competition.
Positives
- Easy to use features
- Priced competitively
- Good for both small and large businesses
Negatives
- Includes advanced tools not required for beginners
- Too much data may be difficult for new users to navigate
- No free trial
Moz Pro
Moz Pro is an SEO Software suite with the best-known keyword search tools due to the ever-so-helpful SERP (Search Engine Results Page) information features provided for any keyword. This tool provides relevant insight on how to improve site performance and is always up to date on google algorithm changes. Moz Pro includes a program-specific toolbar that displays your site analytics while browsing other sites for live comparisons. The built-in chat portal assists in answering all SEO questions and queries and their page optimization feature shows defined steps to improving every individual page performance on your site so you can spend less time lost in spreadsheets and more time promoting quality website traffic.
Positives
- All-in-one SEO tools
- Good amount of data
- User friendly interface
Negatives
- Occasion fail due to large amount of data
- Time spent learning certain features
- Expensive for large teams
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
SEO Spider by Screaming Frog is one of the most efficient site crawlers available, faster at checking and delivering website insights than most SEO tools when performing audits. This site crawler informs the user of duplicate content, errors, broken links, broken pages, missing title tags, duplicate meta tags, wrong length tags and ineffective redirections, in addition to identifying areas of improvement for links. Crawling URLs is capped at 500 for the free version so if you are a small business and want the best bang for your buck, the Lite version of SEO Spider would be most suitable.
Positives
- Industry leaders use this program, such as Disney, and Dell
- Amazing crawling features
- Large technical seo analytic capabilities
Negatives
- Free version URL cap
- Basic UI that may be hard to navigate at first glance
- Full capability only available in purchased plan
https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is one of the top link analysis tools, able to find the best keywords specific to your target audience. The tool includes a wide range of features for site analysis and keyword term generators, allowing you to see a general overview of your site and backlinks. Majestic allows backlink checks to any site to easily compare how your site stacks up to competitors’ sites. One of the outstanding features of this tool, ‘The Majestic Million’, reveals the rankings of the top million websites ranking for a specific keyword.
Positives
- Large database
- Range of features
- Great analysis
Negatives
- API Isn’t always accurate
- Doesn’t always identify all backlinks
- Free version is limited
Answer the Public
Answer the People is a free SEO tool that taps into the most searched terms on the internet to help you answer the public. This is one of the most efficient and opportunistic ways to find trending SEO topics relevant to your website by presenting a list of commonly searched google questions, regarding relevant keywords, to identify trends in public search topics using one of the most important datasets in the world. Content created around relevant public queries minimises tedious customer service calls to your company. The best use of this tool is to assist in the creation of content relating to your domain as blog topics can easily be found by understanding what the people are asking for.
Positives
- Great for new businesses
- Good content creation ideas
- Free tool
Negatives
- Mainly content creation based
- Free limited to two searches per day
SurferSEO
Surfer is a content intelligence tool providing efficient, faster and easier to manage for developing streamlined website content. The tool monitors word count, headings, paragraphs and images needed to measure successful overall quality and relevancy of your written content.
Makes it easier to keep track of processes, view rankings and increase content quality through AI monitoring processes, saving you hours figuring out topics and relevant keyword inclusion. The tool also includes SERP analysis and auditing features to ensure your site is running smoothly and efficiently.
Positives
- More affordable SEO tool
- Easy to use
- Semantic keyword analysis on competitors
Negatives
- High focus on content creation
- Limited number of credits depending on plan
- Some suggestions compromise readability
Google Search Console
Google’s Search Console focuses on search optimization to provide search engine data and analytics in easy to understand terms. This tool monitors your website’s presence in Google SERP and allows you to understand and control how your site is ranking on Google.
Positives
- Free tool
- User-friendly interface
- Reliable data directly from google.
Negatives
- Less advanced tool
- No competition Analysis
- Limits visibility of top backlinks and organic keywords
https://search.google.com/search-console/about
Direct Rank
Direct Rank specialises in backlinks and provides very easy to afford packages. They only provide the highest quality white hat backlinks through an organic outreach process. This ensures that your links are valuable, and that they won’t come from spammy websites. When building links, it’s important to find a backlink provider that can reliably fulfill your needs to get your site ranking. That’s why Direct Rank is the only backlink provider on this list as they are one of the best backlink providers that I’ve used and have always provided quality results.
Understanding your competitors is crucial to SEO success, that’s why you need a SEO tool stack that allows you to streamline the process. These tools can provide direction for relevant content, insightful keyword research for your site and to make sure everything is running smoothly on the technical side.
If you’re not getting results on your own, book a call with us today. Partnering with an experienced SEO agency will allow you to focus on your business while ensuring you are ranking as high as possible in search engines, for what your customers are searching for.
