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The Best Free SEO Tools

March 16, 2021

Did you know that globally we make 3.5 billion Google searches each day? That’s a lot of searches! It has never been easier for your customers to find your business. The internet has made it possible for you to reach customers all over the globe.

How can you ensure the right people find your business? A solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is the best way to start. Optimizing your website for search engines is integral to growing your business both online and in real life. 

There are hundreds of tools to help you start building an SEO strategy and optimizing your website.

This article will show you the best free SEO tools so you can beat your competition and get high search engine rankings. 

What Is SEO?

SEO is simply preparing your website for users to find you. You want your site to be indexed by search engines so your clients and potential clients can find you easily. 

There are different types of SEO. For example, technical SEO is more about how your website functions technically; its page speed, structure, and URLs.

On-page SEO refers to the content on your site. Off-page SEO is about the links to your site, along with various other external factors. 

Why Is SEO Important?

Having good SEO is vital for your website’s credibility. It also helps your audience find you and enables you to get more traffic to your website. 

If you have good SEO, then search engines recognize your site as credible and display it to people searching for your product or service. 

SEO is the internet’s way of filtering out spam, scams, and poor quality content—it priorities user experience to provide the answer to somebody’s search query as quickly as possible. 

Your business can hugely benefit from good SEO. It allows you to see what your customers are searching for. You can, in turn, find a way to fulfill these needs. 

Technical SEO is vital for the crawlers that index websites to recognize your website as legitimate. 

Off-page SEO is important because if other websites are linking to your site, it shows your site is providing something useful. 

What SEO Strategies Should You Adopt?

There are multiple ways to improve your site’s SEO. You should be aware of ‘white hat’ SEO tactics and ‘black hat’ strategies.

White hat SEO refers to methods that follow SEO best practices and provide the user with genuine and helpful content. 

Black hat SEO refers to strategies that aim to boost rankings through unnatural links, automated content, funneling content to your site using content that is not relevant to your business. 

You should always try to use best practice strategies to avoid being penalized by search engines. Here are some methods you can use for your digital marketing efforts: 

  • Do keyword research and target specific keywords
  • Analyze your competitors
  • Build backlinks from other reputable sites
  • Collaborate with other brands
  • Share guest posts on other websites
  • Repurpose your content across different social media
  • Get press coverage
  • use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools (alongside Google Analytics)

What Are the Best Free SEO Tools?

To be successful with online marketing, you will need to use some specific tools. There are hundreds of tools out there claiming to help you improve your SEO. To save you the hours of research, here are the best free tools you can use: 

1. Google Keyword Planner and Maps

Creating content that answers questions your customers are actually asking is the first step to winning at SEO. With this free tool, you can see data on search volumes and competition. 

It will help you understand the SEO’s bigger picture and which keywords you should use to create your content. 

Another important tool for local customers to find your website is Google Maps. A good listing on maps with some positive reviews will help your listing rank when customers search for local businesses. 

2. Ubersuggest Keyword Tool

Another great free tool for checking out your competitors and the keywords they rank for. You can type your competitor’s website into the search bar, and it will show you a list of their keywords. 

This tool may highlight a search term with a high search volume relevant to your industry that your competitor is not optimized for. You can use the search terms your competitors miss to create your own content.

3. Exploding Topics

If you want to get ahead of the curve and provide answers to questions on the cusp of mainstream popularity, this is your tool. 

The tool provides information on niches that are about to boom in search volume. Imagine getting to the top of the search engine ranking before anybody else has created content on that topic.

This tool is excellent if you want to satisfy the needs of the early adopters. SEO also takes some time; it can take a few weeks before a new piece of content shows on the Search Engine Results Page. This tool can help you get there first. 

Good quality backlinks from websites with high domain authority (how relevant the site is to a particular niche or industry) are essential for off-page SEO. 

With this free tool, you can check the sites that are linking to your competitors. You can check the pages linked and create even more valuable and relevant pages for your business website. 

Once you have done this, you can reach out to the websites linking to your competitors and ask them to link to your site instead. 

5. HARO

Another way to get top-quality links to your website is to procure news coverage. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a free service that links journalists and experts. When you sign up, you can set your location so you can connect with local reporters.

Sign up to their daily emails, and you receive journalist queries direct to your inbox. You will be able to answer questions that are relevant to your business of service and, in turn, get a backlink to your website. 

Start Growing Your Business 

Whether you have an online business or a bricks-and-mortar business, SEO is integral for clients to find you. 

You must understand your customer’s intent when they do an online search. Do you think they are looking for information, to make a purchase, or to find a physical business?

If you consider customer intent, do your keyword research, and content planning correctly, you will be on your way to SEO success.

The free SEO tools above will help make planning your SEO strategy much more accessible. 

Would you like to speak to an expert about your SEO strategy? Reach out to us; we would love to hear from you. 


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