As a business owner, managing your website’s SEO can be challenging and time-consuming, especially if you’re doing it all on your own.
But having high-quality tools at your disposal that help with important tasks like keyword analysis and link removal definitely makes things easier.
If you’re looking for a few new tools to add to your arsenal that will save you time and help you identify ways to improve your site’s SEO, then keep reading.
6 essential SEO tools
According to SmartInsights, there are six different types of SEO tools that should be on your radar.
- Keyword analysis
- Rankings
- Content ideas
- Link building
- Link removal
- Technical SEO
Below, we’re going to go into a little more depth about what each type of tool does and give you our top product recommendations.
1. Keyword analysis tools
Picking the right keywords is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy, and it’s impossible to do without the right tools. The ones below will give you lots of keyword ideas and information about their competitiveness so you can choose the best untapped keywords for your business.
UberSuggest
If you want to get tons of keyword suggestions, UberSuggest is the tool to use. Put in one keyword and it will give you a huge list of keyword variations that you can use in your content.
It also shows you the estimated competitiveness and search volume of every keyword to help you choose the best ones. And best of all, it’s completely free to use.
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Ahrefs is known for being one of the best keyword research tools on the market, but it’s a little pricey. If you have the money to spend, though, this tool is worth it.
Ahrefs provides highly accurate data on over 5.6 billion keywords. You’ll be able to use it to identify keywords with low difficulty and high search volume that will bring lots of traffic to your website.
2. Rankings tools
If you want to improve your search rankings, knowing where your site currently ranks for each keyword you’re targeting is important. Scrolling through search results to figure out where your rank, though, can take hours.
So to save yourself time and headaches, use one of these tools instead.
Google Search Console
Google offers a free tool that gives you a list of the keywords you’re currently ranking for. It also allows you to see the ranking position for each keyword, so you’ll know exactly where you stand when it comes to search results.
Authority Labs
This rankings tool isn’t free, but the additional reporting features makes it worth it. It performs daily checks of your ranking position for the keywords you specify and turns the findings into a weekly report.
3. Content ideas tools
Coming up with new content ideas week after week is tough. Using a content ideas tool can get your creative juices flowing and help you come up with a long list of potential topics.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a tool that searches across multiple social sites to see what people are talking about. It allows you to set up keyword alerts so you can get notified when people discuss something related to your niche.
Keeping track of recent news in your industry will allow you to come up with timely, content that appeals to your target audience.
4. Link building tools
Link building is one of the best ways to increase your website’s domain authority. Here are a few tools that will make the process of finding websites that will give you backlinks easier and more efficient.
BuzzStream
BuzzStream is basically a project management tool for link builders. When you find a site you’d like to receive a backlink from, BuzzStream helps you find the owner’s contact information and manages communications between you by tracking your emails and tweets.
It also keeps track of your backlink requests and the backlinks you’ve successfully achieved.
LinkMiner
This tool enables you to analyze your backlink profile and check out what kinds of backlinks your competitors have too. It helps you identify potential backlinking opportunities and allows you to save the URLs for later so you don’t have to create a separate spreadsheet.
5. Link removal tools
Link removal can be a tedious process, but it’s necessary if you want to maintain the health of your website. Here’s a tool that will make it a little bit easier.
Google Disavow Tool
All you have to do to disavow a site is use this free tool from Google. Simply create a list of sites that you want to disavow and upload it.
CognitiveSEO
CognitiveSEO is a paid tool that has lots of features, including unnatural link detection and removal. It has a preview screen that allows you to check sites before you disavow them.
It creates a disavow file for you that you can upload directly to Google, saving you time.
6. Technical SEO tools
Understanding and managing the technical side of SEO isn’t easy, especially when you’re just starting out. Here are some tools that can help you identify ways you can improve your website even if you’re not a technical SEO expert.
WooRank Plugin
This plugin scrapes your website and provides a free SEO analysis. It identifies inefficiencies and gives you a checklist to complete to improve your website.
DeepCrawl
DeepCrawl not only diagnoses technical and performance issues, but also fixes them. So it’s great for business owners who are new to technical SEO and don’t know their way around their website’s backend yet.
Creating and executing an SEO strategy is challenging and time-consuming, especially if you’ve never done it before. But these helpful tools should take some of the burden off you and make your job of managing your website’s SEO easier.