SEO has become an essential digital marketing skill for any business. Whether you are starting an ecommerce brand, a blog, or even a SaaS company, you must have a robust SEO marketing plan in your arsenal. No matter what your business is, you need traffic on your website, and the best way to get organic traffic on your website is by ranking your website on Google with the help of specific keywords that alight with your business.
So for doing SEO, you would need to use some SEO tools for keyword research, website audit, competitive research, or for monitoring how well you rank on Google. There is a huge variety of paid and free tools for SEO that can help you should know about. In this article, we will be only listing the best SEO tools for auditing and monitoring your website.
In case you are unaware of what SEO is? It is a process of listing your website amongst the top ranks of a search engine (normally Google). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital part of digital marketing that allows people to find you and purchase from you. Even though many things initiate the buying process, SEO is the first step for getting your website recognized on Google. As there are many things involved including analytics, stats, and current ranking of the website, you need to use different SEO tools. Here are some of the top paid and free SEO tools that you can use for website auditing and monitoring in 2022.
1. Ahrefs:
Ahrefs is one of the second fastest tools for web crawling (only behind Google), which is the reason that it deserves to be top of the list. This SEO tool has an incredibly simple user interface that not only helps you monitor traffic but it also helps you in getting more traffic to rank higher. You don’t have to be an SEO pro to understand how Ahrefs work because it is simple and easily accessible for anyone.
The primary use of Ahrefs includes keyword research, competitive analysis, URL rankings, backlink auditing, and much more. This tool also provides organic search reports of competitors’ websites to analyze the search traffic. Such reports are used for content marketing, building SEO marketing strategies, keyword research, and rank tracking.
Pros:
- With a single research query, you can generate millions of keywords.
- You can monitor the ranking history of any keyword from any page of your website.
- You can keep track of your guest posts links, as this tool allows you to prepare outgoing link reports so that you can monitor outgoing links.
- It also allows you to conduct extensive content research.
Cons:
- It might not be such a great resource if you are running a digital marketing agency, as lacks automated client-facing reports.
- This tool isn’t for free, as you have to pick a package of at least $99 (Lite Package) to use it.
2. SEOquake:
If you are looking for a powerful SEO tool that performs numerous SEO metrics and you can get it for free, this tool might be what you are looking for. SEOquake is extremely resourceful for content marketing, as it quickly analyzes any website and quickly provides extensive information on that particular website.
This is a great tool for monitoring and detailed research on your competitor’s websites, as it is entirely free so you can use it for multiple purposes without worrying about any charges or subscription.
Pros:
- It allows the user to view detailed analysis of SERP and can be converted into CSV format.
- It contains an SEO bar that provides you with quick information about the page just by browsing it.
- It also provides structured keyword reports along with detailed keyword analyses.
- This tool is entirely free of cost.
Cons:
- It can be often complex to new users, as the interface is quite confusing.
3. SEMrush:
SEMrush is one of the best SEO tools, when it comes to competitor analysis, as this tool helps in analyzing their content, as well as the content of your competitors. It provides keywords and page content of top-performing pages. SEMrush has been assisting a wide range of business owners and SEO strategists to identify the strategy of their competition.
Amongst medium and small-sized enterprises this is one of the best SEO tools that offer a wide variety of features and authentic results. This tool is an effective and useful asset for SEO activities but is also great for PPC, ad campaigns, keyword research, backlinks, SERP, and more.
Pros:
- You can identify the top-ranking keywords of your competitors with the help of this tool and crop the changes in the domain.
- Using this tool, you can also see product feeds and product listing ads.
- This tool provides an authentic report of the analytics of your website.
Cons:
- It is confusing and complicated for new users.
- It is a paid tool and you have to pay hefty money for availing of advance features
- There have been instances where the data regarding ad campaigns and backlinks was not authentic.
4. GrowthBar:
If you are new to this tool, you won’t have any trouble using it because it is one of the simplest SEO tools today. This tool allows you to get millions of keywords, competitors’ backlinks, generate blog content and pull up Google Ad data in just a single click. The results provided by GrowthBar are exceptionally authentic, as it works on open AI.
Open AI is one of the most sophisticated languages ever made, and this is the main reason why the reports and results from this SEO tool are dependable as much as possible. With the use of such sophisticated language, this tool also features a simple interface. The dependable, yet simple use has made this tool a favorite choice for most entrepreneurs, small businesses, and freelancers.
Pros:
- This tool shows millions of keyword suggestions for you to target along with their competition.
- You can also see your competitor’s top-ranking organic keywords with the help of this tool.
- It can generate content outlines, links, keywords, headlines, and more for your post.
Cons:
- It is a paid tool that you can only use for a five-day trial period.
- If you are an SEO specialist, you might find that this tool lacks some technical SEO metrics.
- You might not be able to find detailed historical data.
Final Thoughts:
SEO marketing has become a need for all businesses regardless of their size and nature. SEO allows you to rank on Google and bring organic traffic to your website and then the rest includes transforming those visitors into buyers. The process of SEO is time taking and requires focus but the results are significantly useful. So make sure that you don’t hold back when spending on SEO because it ensures growth and improvement, unlike any other marketing strategy.