Best Free SEO Tools For Bloggers On A Budget
Optimizing your blog for search engines is very important, but not everyone can afford to pay a consultant.
If you wish to drive more organic traffic to your blog, there are many tools out there that can help you do what you need in order to being to rank for keywords to your site.
Several tools out there can be expensive, and if you are just starting out, saving money certainly is important! To help you out, I have created a list of the best free SEO tools I use to help research keywords for posts, find what my competitors are ranking for, and analyze my results.
1. Google Analytics - Best Free SEO Software
The first thing I do when I start a blog is connect it to Google Analytics. With this free tool, you can find out:
- Who is coming to your site
- Where are they coming from
- Demographics of your blog traffic
- What pages they viewed and for how long
2. Google Search Console - SEO Analysis Tool
The second thing I do when I start a new blog? You guessed it connect Google search console to my site. This tool allows you not only to see accurate data about who is coming to your site based on queries or keywords, you can also find:
- Mobile usability errors
- Indexing issues
- 404 errors
- Schema errors
- Submit your sitemap to Google
- Security issues
3. SEM Rush - Best All Around Tool
SEM Rush is one of my favorite free SEO tools. There are paid versions of this one, but their free version is rather useful for smaller sites, or quick research.
This is a robust tool with several applications. I love using SEM rush for new content creation. Their SEO content template gives you the basics of how to compile your posts based on current results, and even suggests keywords to use.
You can also use it to perform extensive backlink audits, and find what keywords are driving traffic to your site. It’s a great tool!
4. Keywords Everywhere - Keyword Research
Keywords everywhere is super useful for quick keyword ideas. It is a Chrome plugin that compiles monthly search volume, cost per click and competition data for your list of keywords.
I love this tool to help find ideas for keywords on the fly. You can also compile a list and download.
5. Google Trends - Keyword Research
Google trends is a tool to find search volume for different topics being searched on Google. This one is great for overall keyword research and can be used to:
- Find seasonal trends
- Help plan your content calendar
- Where your topics are popular ( geo location)
6. Answer the Public - Long Tail Keyword Research
Looking for long tail keyword ideas to spread your rankings reach? Answer the Public is a great free tool that visualizes search queries based on a topic of your choice.
This SEO tool is great for “How to” questions you may not have thought of yourself. You will not get any more data than that, but couple this with keywords everywhere to find CPC, and volume data.
7. Ahrefs - Backlink Analysis Tool
If you want to know who is linking to your site, or you want to see the fruits of your link building campaign, try using the free tool Ahrefs.
With the free version however, you can only see your first 100 links. If you are just starting out, this would be enough. You can also see a limited amount of anchor text, and top pages that are being linked to.
8. Screaming Frog - Website Crawler
For bloggers who are looking for a solution to analyze all the pages on their website, try Screaming Frog.
With this free tool, you can audit your site and fix any on page or technical errors you may find on your site. Screaming Frog makes it easy to find them too by bucketing your results to find 404 errors, pages with no titles and descriptions, and much more!
There is a paid version for this tool if you wish to crawl sites with more than 500 pages. Definitely a great investment down the line.
Final Thoughts On Free SEO Tools
Every website will need to perform some optimization in order to rank well on search engines. If you are on a budget, use these free tools to get started. If you would like to hire me to audit/create a plan, be sure to contact me. What free tools do you use for search engine optimization? Comment below for any ones I may have missed.
