The release of Google’s November 2023 Core Algorithm Update means companies have a great opportunity to earn higher rankings on the search engine results page (SERP). This update comes with changes that affect how customers find your business online.
According to Google, with this release, marketers should focus on high-quality, helpful information to earn a higher ranking. Furthermore, there’s a crackdown on spam content such as cloaking, doorways, scraped content, spammy auto-generated content, hidden text and links, and keyword stuffing.
To help you boost your web ranking, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best SEO tools on the market. While these tools have paid options with more advanced functionality, the free versions are helpful for link building, local SEO, keyword research and more. Here are the top free SEO tools that we recommend.
1. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is an excellent tool for keyword research and content topic ideas. Similar to a Google SERP, this website autosuggests data for topics others have been searching for. It takes autocomplete suggestions that appear for the initial search term, known as a “seed keyword,” and displays them on the same page.
For example, if you enter the seed keyword “roof,” you will be presented with a series of questions containing the 10 question words: will, why, who, which, where, when, what, how, can and are. Each of these keywords has a list of six questions listed below the question word.
Another valuable function of AnswerThePublic is its cost-per-click data that reveals the average amount advertisers are willing to pay for each click on their ads targeting specific keywords. By looking into the cost-per-click, users can gain further insights into each keyword's competitiveness level and gauge the potential value of targeting them in their advertising campaigns.
2. Ubersuggest
This keyword research tool gives marketers insight into what’s working for other companies so they can adopt the strategy, customize it for their brand and get ahead of the competition. With the top SEO pages report, discover which of your competitors' pages rank for popular keywords and which are most used on social media like Facebook.
Get keyword suggestions, see the volume, learn who the top competitors are and find out the seasonal trends for each keyword with the help of website analytics. Never run out of ideas with the content ideas feature. Discover the pieces of content that are shared the most in your industry and check for backlinks.
3. Google Analytics
Almost everyone is familiar with Google Analytics, but few tap into its power for SEO. Identify high-converting pages and improve their rankings. Compare your pages' SEO metrics to those ranking higher in the SERPs.
Automating organic traffic dips and spikes reporting will alert you to issues affecting your site’s usability and SEO. Furthermore, you can easily create similar content by analyzing the pages with an increase in rank or views.
4. Google Search Console
Google Search Console diagnoses technical SEO issues, which will help you improve website rankings and maintain the health of your site’s digital presence. This tool monitors organic traffic, keyword ranking, click-through rate, average position and traffic data.
In addition, Google Search Console will alert you to any pages that can’t be properly indexed by Google crawlers or have mobile usability issues. It also provides crucial backlink data such as internal links, external links and anchor text to help users maintain high SEO performance and make improvements.
5. Nibbler
Nibbler is a free SEO audit tool that measures the overall quality of your site and offers suggestions on how to improve it. Nibbler focuses on five major categories and provides numerical grades for each. With this tool, you can gauge things that are important for technical SEO and how popular your site is.
After entering the website of your choice, you’ll be presented with an overall grade for the site. Following the overall grade, you will see a rating for how accessible the website is to mobile and disabled users, how satisfying the site will be for users, how well the website is marketed, and how well designed and built the website is.
6. Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing enhancement tool and grammar checker. This tool will not only help you create error-free, trustworthy content, but it will also improve your SEO rankings.
Search engines use algorithms to decide which websites should appear at the top of the search results; a key factor is the quality of the content. Grammatically correct content is more likely to appear higher in the SERPs. In addition, Grammarly will also help you tailor your content’s language to better match people’s search intent.
7. Soovle
Next on our list is Soovle. This search engine collects and reports on the search results from other engines. It allows you to aggregate and display search results from multiple engines in one spot. This saves users the process of scanning search engines one by one to view results.
Soovle can be used to find broad topics that can be divided into keyword targets. For example, if you are writing content related to “garage doors,” you can enter “garage doors” in the Soovle bar and you will be presented with a list of phrases, such as garage doors opening and closing, garage door repair, etc., that have appeared on search engines like Google, Yahoo and YouTube.
8. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool developed by OpenAI that produces human-like text based on the input it receives. The tool operates by predicting the next word in a sentence repeatedly. The result is complete sentences and paragraphs that are surprisingly human-like.
ChatGPT is excellent for many things, SEO included. It can be used to conduct keyword research, group keywords based on relevance, create topic clusters, generate headline ideas, craft outlines, create content, draft a meta description and generate a sitemap. Simply type in a question or command and it will respond.
9. Google Trends
Google Trends is a website that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search. It provides real-time information about trending topics and allows you to view search trends for different keywords and see if they’re still relevant.
You can use this tool to create content and do keyword research. Furthermore, it’s also helpful in creating seasonal content. Using Google Trends to identify keywords or topics that are trending at the time, you can promote your content when it is most relevant.
10. Seobility
Seobility is an online SEO software that optimizes websites. This software checks your website by crawling all linked pages. It analyzes things critical for SEO, such as duplicate content, slow-loading pages, blocked pages, sitemap problems and technical SEO issues.
Pages are continuously crawled and analyzed to track the progress of your optimization. Users will also receive email notifications from the monitoring service regarding the status of the website and if there are any errors or significant issues.
11. Cloudflare
Cloudflare does two significant things essential for SEO: it improves website loading time and creates a more secure site. Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches static content across multiple servers, resulting in faster page load times.
Cloudflare offers many levels of security, including DNSSEC, Cloud WAF and rate limiting. These features protect your site from a wide range of threats like malicious traffic that can affect your SEO. In addition, Cloudflare provides a free SSL certificate, making your website HTTPS, a more secure site, which is an important ranking factor for Google.
12. Yoast Plugin
Yoast is another must-have plugin for WordPress users. It takes care of your local and technical SEO, letting users add all business details in a central location. It takes care of all the needed technical stuff, such as generating and adding information, like your geo sitemap and KML file, to your XML sitemap.
If your business has more than one physical location, the plugin will optimize your Google listing for all of them, so people see the nearest location in the search results. It even helps users add a store finder on their website via a CSV file.
13. Rank Math
If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll especially appreciate Rank Math. This SEO plugin can help you optimize your website and improve your rankings.
One of the best uses of this plugin is for title tag and content optimization. All you need to do is provide a focus keyword, and Rank Math will provide an SEO score.
The setup process is very straightforward. Upon installation, Rank Math verifies your site’s settings and recommends the best settings for optimal performance. The step-by-step wizard then sets up your site’s SEO, social profiles, webmaster profiles and additional SEO settings.
14. HubSpot Website Grader
HubSpot website grader breaks down website performance in an easy-to-understand format. It highlights which changes are essential and which are not. It helps users learn about their web page’s performance, security, SEO and mobile experience.
Get the SEO Help You Need with GO2 SEO Services
While there are many tools to help you improve your website’s SEO, optimizing your website is no easy task. Having a solid SEO team in your corner is essential for the success of your digital marketing efforts.
If you have any questions about why SEO is important for business or general digital marketing, contact us today. We’d love to discuss the importance of SEO and how it can boost your business. Our team of experts combines knowledge of the latest digital trends and technology with industry expertise to provide measurable marketing support to help you reach your business goals.
Contact GO2 today to discuss your needs or learn more.
