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Search engines offer a window into our collective wants, questions, concerns, and curiosities. Knowing the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) can help you become a more effective entrepreneur, whether you’re using search volume to evaluate demand for a product idea or learning how to create the most useful content for your customers.
From the technical aspects of your site to backlink analysis to keyword research, there are many components to SEO. Luckily, you can automate this process. “There are so many [SEO] apps, tools, and resources,” says Jeremiah Curvers, cofounder and CEO of Polysleep. “You don’t need to be an expert, especially now with the advent of so many AI tools.”
Many of the best ecommerce SEO tools have a monthly fee of about $100 and up, but there are still good free SEO tools (or good tools with free trials) you can use for keyword research, backlink analysis, and more. Here are 28 of the best.
Free keyword research tools help you uncover which phrases your target audience is looking for on search engines. Once you identify them, you can include them in your website copy to increase the odds of appearing in the search results for those phrases. Here are the best options:
Ahrefs’ comprehensive package starts at $29 a month, but the company also has a suite of free SEO tools for keyword research, checking the difficulty of a keyword, and SERP analysis.
Best features:
Use it for: Keyword research and tracking backlinks.
Totally free or not? Ahrefs has several free tools, but it does try to upsell you to one of its paid packages, which starts at $29 a month.
WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool provides recommended target words and phrases to incorporate into your SEO strategy. Enter a keyword or your website URL to receive a list of recommendations and keyword difficulty rankings. It’s a great tool for coming up with short- and long-tail keywords to target, filtered by industry and location.
Key features:
Use it for: Keyword research.
Totally free or not? WordStream’s free keyword tool is free to use.
Keyword Tool is another great keyword research tool for search engines like Google and Bing, as well as YouTube, Amazon, and social media platforms, including X and Pinterest.
The free version of the tool lets you find relevant long-tail and short-tail keywords, but if you want insights into the search volume, competition, and keyword difficulty, you’ll need to pay for the Pro version.
Key features:
Use it for: Keyword research.
Totally free or not? You can access limited features on the free version, including lists of long-tail keywords. To unlock search volumes and additional features, you need to upgrade to the Pro plan (starting at $69 per month if billed annually).
With Google Keyword Planner, you can find new keywords to target, research estimated search volumes, and discover related keywords and phrases. You can also unlock long-tail keywords to find phrases that are hyper-focused for your business and its goals.
Key features:
Use it for: Keyword research.
Totally free or not? Google’s Keyword Planner is free to use. However, you must sign up for a Google Ads account, create a campaign in Expert Mode, and enter your billing information.
Ubersuggest is a free tool that provides keyword suggestions based on a URL or a target keyword of your choice. You get three daily searches with a free account; anything beyond that requires a paid subscription.
Ubersuggest will offer you a list of keyword ideas you can use to generate product ideas, angles for capturing more organic traffic, your next blog post, and more. You can also see the blogs ranking at the top of the SERPs with your target keywords to understand search intent and generate content ideas.
Best features:
Use it for: Keyword research and SERP analysis.
Totally free or not? You can run three free searches a day. If you want to do more, you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan, which starts at $29 a month. You can start a free seven-day trial of any plan.
With Amazon Keyword Research by Helium 10, you can research keywords and Amazon Standard Identification Number, a 10-character code that identifies Amazon products. In addition to search volume, this tool reveals the estimated number of competing products, match type (organic searches, sponsored ads, or Amazon Recommended lists), and frequency of related words. It’s a great tool to improve your Amazon search rankings.
Best features:
Use it for: Amazon SEO.
Totally free or not? You can use Helium 10’s Amazon Keyword Research tool for free.
When you type in a keyword or URL, AnswerThePublic provides a list of related keyword ideas in the form of phrases and questions—these make great headers for blog posts, FAQ pages, or other forms of content marketing. You can download a CSV file with the keywords or look at the visual analyzer, a wheel that groups questions into categories like how, why, where, and when.
Best features:
Use it for: Relevant keywords and content ideas.
Totally free or not? Three free searches per day. You can get more searches with a paid plan, which starts at $11 per month and is free for the first seven days.
Seed Keywords differs from other keyword research tools; rather than providing keywords and their search traffic and volume metrics, Seed Keywords leverages crowdsourcing. You prompt your network to picture themselves in a hypothetical scenario and ask what phrase they would search in that scenario. It helps you understand how people search, which can inform your research process.
Best features:
Use it for: Keyword research.
Totally free or not? Seed Keywords is free.
Technical search engine optimization is the process of increasing your website’s functionality. Looking for an easy way to track your website’s speed and mobile friendliness? Here are the best technical SEO tools that won’t break the bank:
Bing Webmaster Tools offers a breadth of SEO features, including backlink tracking, keyword research, and site audits. You can use the free SEO tool to run reports as well.
Best features:
Use it for: Website audits and tracking backlinks.
Totally free or not? Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service.
With 70 SEO functions, SEO Review Tools offers one of the most comprehensive collections of free SEO tools. It includes technical SEO tools, content SEO tools, and SEO authority tools that can help you create content clusters or test your Core Web Vitals (how Google determines a site’s technical health).
There are a lot of tools to trawl through here, but it’s handy if you want to build your own free tech stack for your SEO needs.
Best features:
Use it for: Tracking backlinks, keyword research, SERP analysis, and checking broken links.
Totally free or not? The tools available through SEO Review Tools are free to use.
Semrush offers a wide range of SEO features. Though you’ll need a paid account to access most of them, Semrush offers a handful of free SEO tools to help you monitor and improve your site’s search performance.
Best features:
Use it for: Search rankings and site audits.
Totally free or not? There are several free tools, but if you want more complex features, you’ll need to pay for a subscription (prices start at $117.33 a month when you pay for the year).
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a free SEO tool that analyzes your website to find broken links and other SEO issues that might harm the user experience and your rankings. Screaming Frog will audit up to 500 URLs for free and tell you which pages need attention. You can also pay for more URLs.
Key features:
Use it for: Website crawling and technical SEO audits.
Totally free or not? You can access most of the features in the free version and crawl up to 500 URLs for free. If you want advanced features, such as crawl comparisons, Google Analytics integration, and spelling and grammar checks, upgrade to the paid version for $259 per year.
GTmetrix is a free SEO tool that checks your site for site speed, performance, and structure issues. Create a free account for monitoring from a few locations, like San Antonio, Texas; Mumbai, India; and London, UK.
Best features:
Use it for: Site performance and speed.
Totally free or not? The free version provides different charts and graphics to help you visualize how your page loads. If you need historical data and more test locations, you can upgrade to a paid version, which starts at $4.25 a month if billed annually.
The Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool is a real-time editor that helps you write optimized meta titles and descriptions. As you enter the text in the form field editor, the free SEO tool will show you how it will appear in an actual Google search.
Checking the length of your title and description will ensure vital information doesn’t cut off.
Best features:
Use it for: SERP snippets, meta titles, and meta descriptions.
Totally free or not? Google’s SERP Snippet Optimization Tool is free to use.
Backlinks are a valuable currency in SEO. Other sites that link to yours essentially vouch for it, which influences trust and credibility. Here are the best free backlink checkers to monitor your site’s backlink profile:
Enter your website URL into SEOptimer’s free backlink checker to learn which sites link to yours. In addition to tracking your backlinks, you can also enter a competitor’s URL to see who’s linking to their site. This can help you build a backlink database of potential sources.
Key features:
Use it for: Tracking backlinks.
Totally free or not? The Free Backlink Checker SEO Tool is free to use, but advanced features—such as keyword recommendations, SEO audits, and weekly email digests—start at $21.75 per month when billed annually.
The Synup Listing Scan is a complete audit and review of your local listing profiles. Enter your basic information and the free SEO tool will scan your digital presence and check your Google listing, as well as third-party listing sites like Yelp and your local chamber of commerce. You’ll also see your reputation via reviews.
Key features:
Use it for: Local SEO.
Totally free or not? You can run a scan of your local listings for free.
BrightLocal offers a host of free local SEO tools for small businesses. These free tools provide a good insight into your current local positioning and identify areas for improvement.
Key features:
Use it for: Local SEO.
Totally free or not? BrightLocal has a few free tools, but accessing the advanced features requires a paid package. These start from $29 a month if you pay for the year.
Search engines use the content on a webpage to contextualize what it’s about—and therefore, what it should rank for. These on-page elements also significantly impact the user experience, which is a ranking factor in many algorithms. Here are the best free on-page SEO tools:
The Detailed SEO toolbar is a browser extension that displays SEO metrics. Available for both Chrome and Firefox, it’s a free tool that also adds a menu to your right-click menu to complete basic tasks, such as highlighting nofollow links, performing a site search, and viewing the site in another SEO tool.
Key features:
Use it for: On-page SEO analysis.
Totally free or not? The Detailed SEO toolbar is free to use.
Wincher offers a suite of SEO tools, including a free on-page SEO checker. Enter a URL and keyword target into the search bar to view how optimized your page is for that term. The tool will show opportunities to improve the page for your target keyword.
Key features:
Use it for: On-page keyword optimization.
Totally free or not? The on-page SEO checker tool is free. For other features—including reports for up to 500 keyword reports, 10 websites, and daily ranking updates—you need a paid plan, which starts at $41 per month when billed annually.
The GoSEO Product Optimizer is a Shopify app that has a free plan and works within your Shopify admin. It offers SEO scores to monitor how optimized your product pages are, alongside AI content generators to produce copy for product descriptions, image alt text, and tags.
Key features:
Use it for: Page optimization on your Shopify store.
Totally free or not? Free to install. There is also a paid plan; for $14 a month, you can also access real-time SEO recommendations, an SEO audit by an expert, and more ChatGPT features.
The TinySEO Speed Image Optimizer offers one-click image optimization for Shopify stores. It offers automated image backups, image compression, and alt text to ensure that product imagery doesn’t hinder search performance.
Key features:
Use it for: Image optimization on your Shopify store.
Totally free or not? There’s a free plan. For more features—including lazy loading, asset preloading, and instant indexing—choose a paid plan, which starts at $14 a month.
Are you exceeding your SEO KPIs? Has visibility increased since you implemented your new SEO marketing strategy? Uncover the answers with these free SEO reporting tools:
Google Analytics is a powerful analytics tool that gives you real-time insight into your website’s performance and visibility in search. It shows what keywords people are searching to land on your site, your bounce rate, and other important metrics for improving your search ranking.
Install the HTML code in your website’s code to start taking advantage of Google Analytics for free.
Best features:
Use it for: Website analytics.
Totally free or not? Google Analytics is free to use.
Formerly Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free website analytics tool that tracks your website’s performance in Google searches. You can dig deeper into your data, find click-through rates and which keywords you rank for, and submit XML sitemaps and individual URLs for ranking.
Best features:
Use it for: Keyword performance and click-through rates.
Totally free or not? Google Search Console is free to use.
Google Trends is another great keyword research tool to inform your SEO strategy. Enter a topic or phrase and Google Trends will show you line graph charts depicting peaks and dips in search volume for that phrase. It will also tell you where in the world the phrase is trending, as well as related trending keywords.
Best features:
Use it for: Keyword research.
Totally free or not? Google Trends is free to use.
Google Business Profile is an important, free local SEO tool. With it, you can create and manage your Google listing that pops up when someone searches for your business. This is also what shows up in Google Maps. Note: You don’t need a physical business presence to use this tool, but you must make contact with clients in person; online-only brands may not find as much value in it.
Best features:
Use it for: Local SEO.
Totally free or not? Google Business Profile is free to use.
PageSpeed Insights is a diagnostic tool that will help you identify SEO issues with page load time. If your site takes too long to load, your SEO rankings will fall. Simply enter your URL to receive an SEO audit and list of recommendations to optimize your site for better performance. You can run both desktop and mobile-friendly tests.
Best features:
Use it for: Website load speed and technical SEO audits.
Totally free or not? Google PageSpeed Insights is free to use.
Digital public relations helps raise brand awareness and position yourself as an authority in your industry. Here are the best marketing tools to get started:
Qwoted is a free SEO tool that connects journalists with sources. You can create a profile to become an expert in the database, which then allows you to answer journalist call-outs about topics related to your business or industry. Qwoted will also automatically match you with journalists seeking sources that fit your profile—a great way to develop press relationships and backlinks.
Best features:
Use it for: Building backlinks
Totally free or not? You can create an expert account for free.
While Qwoted spans pretty much every industry, B2B companies may want to check out Help A B2B Writer. Journalist requests are sent only to qualifying sources, so you won’t have to sift through requests that are not relevant to your business. This is a great way to build relationships with writers and journalists to secure backlinks for your website.
Best features:
Use it for: Building backlinks.
Totally free or not? Help A B2B Writer is free to use.
There are endless paid software suites that offer robust tools to meet most SEO needs—from keyword research to backlink analysis—in much greater depth. But the tools above can prove pretty useful for the price (free!).
If you’re a Shopify store owner, check out the Shopify App Store for SEO apps to optimize your site for search.
There are several free SEO tools, including Google Keyword Planner, WordStream’s free keyword research tool, and MozBar’s SEO toolbar. Many comprehensive SEO tools have a handful of free features or a free limited-time trial.
Use free SEO tools to help plan and execute your SEO strategy for free. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush have features to find keywords, audit your site, and generate backlinks for free.
Many great SEO tools provide accurate information about keywords, SERP performance, and backlinking. Some of the best include Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, WordStream, Ubersuggest, Google Keyword Planner, and Yoast SEO.
When searching for free SEO tools, shortlist those with the following features:
Free SEO tools can offer the same results, but they tend to limit how much data you can pull from them. They’re good for optimizing smaller sites, but if you’re working on a larger website, you might need to upgrade to unlock the tool’s full feature set.
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