I have been in the SEO industry for more than 8 years and I think I have tried most of all the SEO tools out there. Today it seems like the industry is saturated with a tool for every application or need, but are all they really necessary? Below are my 10 favorite SEO tools I use almost every day that all SEOs should know about.
Ahrefs – My primary tool when viewing a website’s backlink profile. I feel that Ahrefs is faster, more accurate and has a better usability experience than other tools on the market.
Used For: Backlink review
Cost: 79$ starting point
Rex Swain’s HTTP Viewer – This website has been in my SEO tool belt for the longest and I use for checking 301 / 302 redirects as well as 404 page response codes. The only down side is that it can not check https header requests.
Used For: Checking Site Response Code
Cost: Free
SEMRush – Over the years this tool gets better and better with every update. This powerful tool can help shed insights on any websites’ online marketing performance from Organic Keyword Placements to Paid Search Bids. Most 3rd party website analysis tools are not very accurate when it comes to the data it is pulling, but SEMrush is very accurate. I primarily use this tool to review current and historical rankings over time to look for SEO penalties like Panda or Penguin.
Used For: General Site Analysis
Cost: 69$ starting point
Google’s Structured Data Tool – With Google relying more and more on enhanced markup in their search results it is nice they give you this free tool to check for proper coding. The check by “HTML code” is a great feature because many times the code you are working on is behind a password protected enviroment.
Used For: Review MicroData Implementation
Cost: Free
Moz’s Google Algorithm Change History – I consider this the “Farmer’s Almanac” of SEO. Moz has put together a comprehensive list of official and non official algorithm changes by Google.
Used For: Checking for Penalties
Cost: Free
Chrome Scraper – In the world of SEO you always run into a scenario where you need to scrape data from a page. This lightweight tool does the job in just a few clicks.
Used For: Data Mining
Cost: Free
Uber Suggest – All SEOs need to add this website to their arsenal of keyword research tool as it scrapes Google’s auto suggest tool and gives you thousands of keyword ideas for your next blog post or content expansion effort.
Used For: Keyword Research
Cost: Free
The hreflang Tags Generator Tool – Since Google released the support of Hreflang tag to help with international SEO many SEO’s have struggled with formatting the code correctly. This tool makes it a breeze with a simple drop down functionality.
Used For: International SEO
Cost: Free
Lorem Ipsum Generator – Be it for SEO recommendations or design mock ups, from time to time I have the need to generate Lorem Ipsum. I have this site bookmarked so I can quickly copy and paste what I need.
Used For: Misc
Cost: Free
Giphy – I had to throw at least one fun tool into this list. This is my secret (now not so secret) gold mine for animated gifs. There are endless possibilities when it comes to their application: blog posts, funny team emails, client communications and more!
Used For: Fun
Cost: Free
Did I miss one? What’s your favorite SEO tool? Comment Below!
One Response
Great list, thanks for posting. One of the tools I find invaluable is the Moz Bar for Chrome. This lets me see Domain Authority, Moz Rank, and other key indicators of popularity in the eyes of Google.
Keep up the great work with the blog. Lots of valuable stuff here!