You can use various tools to optimize your website for search engines. Complete solutions usually charge a fee, but there are also free tools that are very helpful. Below we will show you 12 free SEO tools you can use to improve your ranking positions.
1. Google Analytics
Many websites use Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) for web analytics. In Google Analytics you can also find relevant metrics for measuring the SEO performance, like for example the development of the traffic sources and conversion data.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is an often-underrated instrument for search engine optimization. The tool is very valuable for keyword research, content marketing planning and brand monitoring. You can learn how to use Google Trends in our tutorial.
3. Webmaster Tools
Every search engine has its own webmaster tools: Google calls it “Google Search Console“, Bing “Bing Webmaster Tools” and Yandex “Yandex.Webmaster“. With these tools you can improve the indexing of your website and identify problems. Our tutorials for the Google Search Console and for Bing Webmaster Tools show you how to use them.
4. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a crawling application that you can use to analyze many relevant on-page factors like meta tags, response codes etc. Like a search engine crawler, Screaming Frog works its way through the website from link to link. The free version crawls up to 500 pages.
5. Google Mobile-Friendly Test
When Google introduced the “mobile-friendly” label, they also launched the Mobile-Friendly Test Tool. With this tool you can check if your website is optimized for smartphones and receive specific suggestions for improvement.
6. Google PageSpeed Insights
Page speed is an important ranking factor. With the Google tool “PageSpeed Insights” you can test the load speed of your pages. The tool evaluates your website and gives a value between 0 and 100. You will also receive specific optimization proposals.
7. xPath Helper
xPath Helper is a browser extension for Google Chrome. It helps you to identify elements on a page without looking at the source code.
8. Schema Creator
Schema Creator is a web-based tool to create structured data for your website. You just enter the information into a form and the tool will generate the HTML code. Then you just need to add the code to your website.
9. Google Structured Data Testing Tool
With the Google Structured Data Testing Tool you can check if Google interprets the structured data on your website correctly. You can either enter the HTML code or the URL of the page.
10. Hreflang Testing Tool
If you use the hreflang tag, you can check the code with the hreflang Testing Tool “flang”. You can see errors with the hreflang tag in the Google Search Console as well – the advantage of flang is that you can test websites before they are live.
11. Moz Open Site Explorer
The free tool “Open Site Explorer” from Moz retrieves the links to your website (backlinks as well as internal links). You will also see relevant metrics for the quantity and quality of your backlinks and you can compare your domain to competitor domains.
12. MozBar
MozBar is an SEO toolbar from Moz that you can download as an extension for Chrome and Firefox. It shows you the relevant meta tags, link metrics, markups, the HTTP status code and the speed of a page.
Source header image: Flickr – India7Network
