Introduction
SEO tools are software applications that help you improve your website’s ranking and visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
They can help you with a variety of tasks, including keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, off-page SEO, and rank tracking.
Why do beginners need SEO tools?
SEO tools can help beginners in a number of ways. First, they can help you understand how search engines work and what factors they consider when ranking websites.
Second, they can help you identify opportunities to improve your website’s ranking and visibility.
Third, they can help you automate many of the tasks involved in SEO, which can save you time and effort.
How to choose the right SEO tools for beginners
When choosing SEO tools for beginners, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Ease of use: Some SEO tools can be quite complex and difficult to use. Choose tools that are easy to understand and navigate, even if you don’t have any prior SEO experience.
Features: Consider what features you need in an SEO tool. Some tools offer a wide range of features, while others focus on specific tasks such as keyword research or on-page optimization.
Budget: SEO tools can range in price from free to hundreds of dollars per month. Choose tools that fit your budget and needs.
Best SEO tools for beginners
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that helps website owners and SEO professionals monitor and improve their website’s performance in Google Search.
It provides insights into how Google sees your website, including:
- Which keywords your website is ranking for
- How often your website is appearing in search results
- How many people are clicking on your website from search results
- Any technical errors on your website that may be preventing it from ranking well
Google Search Console also allows you to submit your sitemaps to Google and request indexing of new pages.
Pricing
Google Search Console is a Free platform.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another free tool that is essential for any website owner. It is a freemium web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. It is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market, and it is used by businesses of all sizes.
It provides detailed insights into how visitors are interacting with your website, including:
- How many visitors come to your website
- Where your visitors are coming from
- What pages they visit on your website
- How long they stay on your website
- What devices they are using to access your website
Google Analytics also allows you to track specific goals on your website, such as signups, purchases, and form submissions.
And it is a valuable tool for website owners and marketers because it can help them to understand their audience, improve their website’s performance, and track the results of their marketing campaigns.
Pricing
Google Analytics is Free for everyone.
Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a paid online SEO tool that provides insights into what people are actually searching for on Google and other search engines.
It does this by using search suggestions from Google to generate a visual representation of the different ways that people are searching for a particular keyword or topic.
Answer the Public is a paid keyword research tool that helps you discover what people are asking about your topic.
It provides a variety of different views, including:
- Questions people are asking about your topic
- How people are searching for your topic on Google
- Related topics that people are interested in
Answer the Public is a great tool for generating new content ideas and finding long-tail keywords to target.
Pricing
Paid, starting at $99/month (Expert Plan).
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a Chrome extension and web app that provides users with real-time keyword data directly in Google Search results.
It allows users to see search volume, CPC, keyword suggestions, and related terms for any keyword they search. Keyword Surfer also includes a content editor that provides users with feedback on their content based on Surfer’s SEO algorithm.
It is a free and paid Chrome extension that provides keyword insights directly on the Google search results page. It includes features such as:
- Real-time keyword data in Google Search results
- Keyword suggestions and related terms
- Keyword difficulty analysis
- CPC (cost per click) for keywords
Keyword Surfer is a great tool for quickly getting insights into keywords that you are interested in.
Pricing
Free and paid, starting at $69/month (Billed annually).
Moz Local Listing Score
Moz Local Listing Score is a free tool that helps businesses improve their visibility in local search results. It provides a score for your business listing on each of the major local search directories, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Bing Places.
You can use your Moz Local Listing Score to identify areas where you can improve your business listings, such as by adding more photos or completing all of the required information.
Pricing
Free with similar features.
Also read: Social media platforms for Niche Marketing
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps you optimize your website for search engines. It is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, with over 12 million active installations.
Yoast SEO is available in both a free and premium version.
It includes features such as:
- SEO title and description optimization
- Readability analysis: Yoast SEO provides feedback on the readability of your content.
- XML sitemap generation
- Social media integration
Yoast SEO is a great tool for WordPress users who want to improve website’s SEO.
Pricing
Yoast SEO is available in both free and premium versions. The free version includes a variety of essential SEO features, such as on-page SEO analysis, readability analysis, and XML sitemap generation.
The premium version includes additional features, such as keyword research, social media integration, and advanced technical SEO features.
Yoast SEO Premium costs $99/€99/£99 per year. There is no free trial available.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a popular SEO toolset that offers a comprehensive suite of features for website owners and marketers.
It includes tools for keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and more.
Ahrefs is known for its large and high-quality data set, as well as its user-friendly interface.
Features
- Site Explorer: Analyzes your website and competitors’ websites to identify backlinks, keywords, and other important SEO data.
- Site Audit: Crawls your website to identify technical SEO issues and provide recommendations for improvement.
- Keywords Explorer: Helps you find relevant keywords to target for your website and create content that ranks well in search engines.
- Content Explorer: Discovers high-performing content on your topic and identifies link opportunities.
- Rank Tracker: Tracks your keyword rankings in search engines and provides insights into your ranking performance over time.
Ahrefs is a paid tool, but it offers a free trial so you can try it out before you commit to a subscription.
The pricing for Ahrefs is as follows:
- Lite: $99/month
- Standard: $179/month
- Advanced: $399/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Is Ahrefs worth the price?
Whether or not Ahrefs is worth the price depends on your specific needs and budget.
If you are a small business or solopreneur, you may be able to get by with a free or lower-priced SEO tool.
However, if you are a serious about SEO and want to get the best possible results, Ahrefs is definitely a good investment.
SEMrush
SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool that offers a wide range of features to help businesses improve their online visibility. It includes tools for keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, site audits, and more.
SEMrush offers a free plan with limited features, as well as three paid plans: Pro, Guru, and Business. The pricing for each plan depends on the number of projects, keywords, and reports you need.
SEMrush SEO tools:
- Keyword Tool: This tool helps you to find relevant keywords for your website or blog, as well as information about their search volume, competition, and related keywords.
- Organic Research Tool: This tool allows you to analyze your website’s organic search performance, including your top keywords, traffic sources, and competitor rankings.
- Position Tracking Tool: This tool tracks your website’s keyword rankings over time, so you can see how your SEO efforts are paying off.
- Competitor Analysis Tools: SEMrush offers a variety of tools for analyzing your competitors’ SEO strategies, including their top keywords, backlinks, and organic traffic.
- Site Audit Tool: This tool crawls your website and identifies any potential SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta tags.
- Content Marketing Tools: SEMrush offers a variety of tools for creating and promoting high-quality content, including a keyword research tool, a topic research tool, and an SEO writing assistant.
SEMrush Pricing:
SEMrush offers three standard monthly subscriptions starting at the following prices:
Pro: $129.95
Guru: $249.95
Business: $499.95
You can also get a custom plan with Enterprise Solution.
Free Trial:
SEMrush offers a free 7-day trial of its Pro plan, so you can try out the tool before you commit to a paid subscription.
Majestic
Majestic is a web-based SEO tool specialized in backlink analysis. It indexes the entire web and builds a map of the internet that tracks every website that links to other pages.
It synthesizes all of this information to provide all sorts of insights for helping you understand and improve your internet search positioning.
Features:
- Backlink analysis: Majestic provides a comprehensive overview of your website’s backlink profile, including the number of backlinks, the referring domains, and the anchor text used in the links. You can also use Majestic to identify your top backlinks, your most linked-to pages, and your competitors’ backlinks.
- Link quality assessment: Majestic uses a variety of factors to assess the quality of your backlinks, including the trust flow and citation flow of the referring domains. This information can help you to prioritize your link building efforts and focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks.
- Competitor analysis: Majestic allows you to compare your website’s backlink profile to that of your competitors. This can help you to identify areas where you need to improve and identify new link building opportunities.
- API: Majestic offers an API that allows users to access its data from their own applications.
Paid plans:
Majestic offers three paid plans:
Lite: $49.99/month
Pro: $99.99/month
API: $399.99/month
The Lite plan gives you access to all of the features of the free plan, plus some additional features, such as the ability to track your website’s progress over time and see your competitors’ top backlinks.
The Pro plan gives you access to all of the features of the Lite plan, plus even more features, such as the ability to compare your website’s backlink profile to that of up to 10 competitors at once and see a list of all of the links that have been removed from your website.
The API plan gives you access to Majestic’s API, which allows you to integrate Majestic data into your own applications.
Conclusion
SEO tools can be a great way to improve your website’s ranking and visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, choosing the right SEO tools for beginners can be a daunting task.
In this blog post, we have introduced the best SEO tools for beginners, including Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Answer the Public, Keyword Surfer, Moz Local Listing Score, Yoast SEO, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
We have also discussed the features and pricing of each tool so that you can choose the right one for your needs and budget.
Whether you are a small business owner, a solopreneur, or a blogger, there is an SEO tool out there that can help you improve your website’s performance.
Ready to take your SEO to the next level? Check out our SEO Course for beginners!