As search engines endlessly hone their skills, search engine optimization (SEO) continues to change. That’s why you need the latest report on the best SEO tools that impress businesses and SEO experts alike.
There’s a dense jungle of sophisticated SEO software out there — but you only need the top-of-the-line picks that offer practical features and effortless functionality.
Below, we outlined the best free and paid SEO tools to fit your unique budget and business goals. Ready to find out what makes them stand out and start upgrading your rankings? Just keep reading!
To get your SEO campaign up to speed, contact us online to speak with an expert or call us at 888-601-5359.
Independent research from Clutch has named WebFX the
top SEO company in the United States.
Clutch has personally interviewed more than 250 WebFX clients to discuss their experience partnering with us.
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20 Best SEO tools to help you skyrocket your rankings in 2023
Here are our top 20 best SEO tools in 2023 for improving your site’s search engine performance:
- WebFX SEO Checker
- FAQFox
- KeywordsFX
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Google Search Console
- Keywords Everywhere
- Screaming Frog
- WooRank
- Answer the Public
- Page Speed Insights
- Google Mobile-Friendly Test
- Google Analytics
- Ahrefs
- Moz Pro
- Majestic
- SEMrush
- Raven Tools
- BuzzSumo
- MarketingCloudFX
- SpyFu
We’re breaking down our list into the top free and paid SEO tools below! Just keep reading for in-depth look at each one!
Best free SEO tools
If you can add robust tools to complement your SEO campaign without spending money, it makes sense to start there.
Several of the best SEO tools are free, and they remain tried-and-true resources to find profitable keywords, brainstorm content topics, evaluate sites, and review backlinks. Here are the five top free SEO tools:
1. WebFX SEO Checker
Whenever you’re starting with SEO, you should always do an SEO audit of your website. Checking your SEO via an in-depth audit will help you understand which areas of your site need the most help.
You can find a number of free SEO analysis tools online, but we’re going to suggest the WebFX SEO Checker. It may seem a bit biased since it’s our tool, but it’s free, and it gives you a bunch of insights you can use as a basis for your SEO strategy. Just plug your information into the form to see an analysis of your site speed, content optimization, links, security, and much more.
After you have a basis for your SEO strategy, you can get started with on-page SEO.
2. FAQFox
A large part of SEO is creating content that your audience is looking for online. But what’s the best way to find out what they’re searching for? FAQFox!
Our FAQFox tool can help generate topic ideas by crawling other websites and creating a list of things your audience is talking about online.
You can then turn those generated topics into valuable content that not only satifies your audience, but boosts your rankings in the search results!
3. KeywordsFX
You need to target the right keywords to ensure your website appears at the top of relevant search results. KeywordsFX is a free tool that can help you make that happen.
Our KeywordsFX tool offers a list of keyword suggestions based on a starting keyword you provide. Simply enter a starting keyword to receive a list of related keywords you can target. You can also export your results for easy access and review later.
4. Moz Keyword Explorer
There are free and paid versions of Moz’s Link Explorer, but with the free version, you get a pretty great link analysis. You’ll be able to gain insight into the most impactful links to your site, as well as pages that you link the most to.
Simply plug in a URL and gain insight into the links to and from that site. Link Explorer is much more than just a link checker. When you get into paid versions of the tool, you’ll have access to tons of other beneficial metrics including spam scores, link building opportunities, and top-performing content.
Links are a huge part of SEO, and Link Explorer helps you keep a close eye on the links pointing to and pointing away from your site.
5. Google Search Console
As the premier search engine, it’s no surprise that Google offers a masterful tool to support SEO strategies. Google Search Console lets you directly request URL indexing, receive notifications about site problems, and gain suggestions for optimization — all for free.
With Google Search Console, you can also take advantage of Google Search Analytics, which shows how your tailored keywords perform. Google Search Analytics and Google Search Console work hand-in-hand, so you can start directly from the Analytics page.
This is one of the best SEO checkers because it presents areas for actionable progress to push your organic traffic higher. At WebFX, we also have a free SEO checker that can score your site for a specific keyword. Head on over to see if your site is SEO-friendly or if you need to step up your SEO game.
6. Keywords Everywhere
Keyword research is the heart of successful SEO strategies, and Keywords Everywhere is a convenient browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that uncovers specifics about keyword trends.
When you type in a potential keyword, it delivers information about the search volume, competition, and CPC value. Data on the popularity of queries is useful for crafting high-ranking content and pleasing your audience.
Keywords Everywhere goes beyond Google, too — it also operates on Bing, YouTube, and other sites. As an extension and with informative, compiled data, you can start your SEO research by simply opening a new browser tab.
7. Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version)
For auditing websites like search engines, the Screaming Frog SEO Spider is resourceful and meticulous. It serves as a crawler to audit your SEO strategy and produce advice from a bot’s perspective. Rapid feedback on your pages is one of the most attractive qualities of this SEO Spider. In real-time, it diagnoses your website’s SEO health.
As a heavily analytic tool, it’s thorough in detecting numerous ranking factors that Google or Bing crawlers look at. It locates redirects, server errors, broken links, duplicate content, and other barriers that hurt your rankings. The Screaming Frog SEO Spider brings to light plenty of weak spots that need TLC. If you have empty or repetitive meta descriptions, it calls your attention to these mishaps.
8. WooRank (free version)
Another handy Chrome extension, WooRank explains the condition of whatever website you’re on. If websites don’t have an existing score, you can ask WooRank to do a quick inspection.
WooRank grades websites on SEO criteria like keyword performance and content structure, and it shows where a page is falling short. It also extends positive comments on what you’re doing well.
For SEO content optimization, the extension points out the impact of your title tags, headings, links, and more. It breaks down your performance in categories like usability and mobile optimization, so it covers many bases that other free tools fail to assess.
It’s a comprehensive add-on that you can use to do reconnaissance on your competitors, too.
9. Answer the Public
Insights into user questions can beef up your keyword targeting and help you create content that matches the search intent of target customers. Answer the Public organizes descriptive questions from searches, related queries, and comparisons.
Rich questions can focus your keyword targeting and content creation, which is invaluable for SEO. Because Google and alternate search engines pay close attention to user experience, your ranking can improve by meeting the needs of searchers.
What puts Answer the Public into the best SEO tools grouping is its ability to turn a concise one-word search into a range of possibilities. Although the free version has limits, it’s highly informative and boosts your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Bonus Read: 14 Chrome Extensions for SEO
10. Page Speed Insights
A tool created by Google, Page Speed Insights helps you understand the speed of your website as well as how you can go about improving it.
Simply plug a URL into the search bar and get a full report of that URL’s page speed.
Not only does this tool show you the speed of your website, but it also provides technical “lab data,” in addition to opportunities to speed up your page. There is also a diagnostics section which gives additional information about the performance of the page.
Page speed, much like usability, is a metric that Google considers when ranking your website. If your page doesn’t load quickly, users will bounce to another website since they didn’t get their answer quick enough. This can affect bounce rate and time on page, which affects the overall ranking of your site over time. Don’t worry, if your page speed is less-than-desirable, WebFX offers page speed optimization services to ensure that your site is speedy.
11. Google Mobile-Friendly Test
As it says in its name, the Mobile-Friendly Test tool tells you if your site is mobile-friendly and shows you how it appears on a mobile device.
Google likes to show mobile users websites that will display and function correctly on mobile devices. That means if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be missing on tons of traffic.
Use the quick and easy tool to ensure your website is optimized for mobile users.
12. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tried-and-true SEO tool that helps you track user behavior, site traffic, conversions, and so much more. It’s a go-to tool for just about everything SEO, and it’s a no-brainer that it landed first on our list of best free SEO tools.
Google Analytics essentially uses a piece of JavaScript tracking code that allows the program to collect information about how users interact with your site by dropping cookies in their browsers.
Google Analytics provides a treasure trove of information that can help your SEO campaign in countless ways. It can help you determine whether or not your current campaign is working by allowing you to compare metrics in different time frames, as well as helping you visualize increases or decreases in specific metrics.
Did you know that WebFX offers Google Analytics consulting to help you understand important metrics on the platform? It’s true!
Best paid SEO tools
While it’s fun to get freebies, investing in advanced tools can drive more revenue and qualified leads. Many tools are worth the price, and digging into the full paid features can yield a well-rounded view of your SEO.
Here are the top paid SEO tools:
13. Ahrefs
Price: Starting at $99 per month
A long-time favorite, Ahrefs is widely used for SEO, and even in 2023 it continues to show up in experienced marketers’ toolkits. What is Ahrefs? It’s a collection of tools, including rank tracking, web monitoring, content and keyword research, competitive analysis, and backlink research.
With at least 16 trillion known links and ongoing crawling, their index is expansive. Its best paid feature is the Site Explorer, which analyzes backlinks and gathers in-depth research. If you’re wondering how to check your backlinks without a time-intensive process, check out Ahrefs.
Bonus: Among their resources, they offer a free SEO toolbar that reports on well-known search engine metrics.
14. Moz Pro
Price: Starting at $99 per month
Moz Pro also garners a lot of recognition as a one the top paid SEO tools because it pulls together multiple capabilities into an all-in-one suite. Especially for large-scale businesses, Moz Pro provides a sizable number of components to help your bottom line.
From crawling to keyword research, it highlights different stages of SEO, and it’s skillful at monitoring developments in your campaign. On both local and national fronts, Moz Pro gives an exceptional outlook on visibility. Its reports help you implement authentic recommendations, linking opportunities, and content quality considerations.
15. Majestic
Price: Starting at $49.99 a month
Behind Majestic is an advanced link intelligence map, which is perfect for grasping your website’s place on the Internet. Majestic has a site explorer, backlink history checker, and search explorer that orient your page in the larger scheme of things. Particularly in link building, it can pass on the big picture of your website, so you can perform the right adjustments.
It checks backlinks in bulk, and Majestic even offers a “topical trust flow” to display your proximity to industry authorities. Also, its bots sift through domains — even competitors’, which can make you a viable contender — and supply precise data to shape your strategy. It’s also a more affordable paid SEO tool, so you can maintain your marketing budget.
16. SEMrush
Price: Starting at $99.95 per month
SEMrush is a marketing software that can boost your online presence in the eyes of search engines. If you want to see your organic traffic surge, this resource spreads your reach and revamps your SEO practices with fact-based insights. It’s proficient in comparing domains and their related keyword rankings, which can let you branch out to competitors’ high-ranking keywords.
SEMrush’s solutions highlight many technical analytics, so you can keep up with your position on search engines. Their software involves 50+ tools to sharpen your SEO strategy, and they offer guidance in wielding keywords through content, blogs, and product pages.
17. Raven Tools
Price: Starting at $79 a month
Raven Tools is a leading site auditor, and it has evolved tracking and reporting abilities compared to several similar products. Raven Tools scores your website’s SEO in a readable format.
You can turn gaps in your strategy into successes once you know where to look. Whether you have mobility issues or you’re in the dark about your off-page SEO, Raven Tools is an incredible time-saver.
Its 17 metrics peek into your website practices and allow you to bolster your pages, code, design, and layout for Google and related engines.
18. BuzzSumo
Price: Starting at $119 per month
A big part of SEO is earning backlinks. These links from other reputable sites to your site can show search engines like Google that your website is trustworthy and provides value, which can help your rankings.
Finding people to pitch your website to can also take up a lot of your time. You can search for relevant websites using Google, sure. But BuzzSumo is a great starter tool when it comes to the best SEO software for beginners.
With BuzzSumo, you can research influencers in specific topic areas, see their followers or subscribers, and figure out how to reach them.
19. MarketingCloudFX
Price: View pricing
Next on our list of the best SEO software of 2023 is MarketingCloudFX. Powered by IBM Watson, MarketingCloudFX is your all-in-one digital marketing and SEO solution.
Here’s what you can do with MarketingCloudFX:
If you’re looking for one of the best SEO tools that can help you power up your search engine rankings, MarketingCloudFX is the perfect tool for you.
20. SpyFu
Price: $33 – $79 per month
Next on our list of the best SEO tools is SpyFu. SpyFu is your comprehensive SEO marketing suite to help you maximize your results.
With SpyFu, you can:
If you’re searching for a user-friendly SEO tool that helps you choose the best keywords and phrases for your strategy, look no further than SpyFu.
SEO Tools FAQs
Get answers to common questions about SEO tools and platforms below!
What are SEO tools?
SEO tools are defined as any tool or program that allows you to complete a step in the search engine optimization process. So, for example, keyword research is a huge part of SEO. A tool that most marketers can’t go without is an effective keyword tool for SEO. Other tools that are important to the SEO process include a free SEO checker, backlink tools, page speed tools, and more.
How do you choose the best SEO tools?
To choose the best SEO tool for your company, it’s best to first evaluate your needs. Do you need a tool that helps you monitor rankings or a tool that helps you create SEO content?
Once you know what you need, you can then search for software that helps you accomplish your goals.
You’ll also want to consider your budget to find a tool that won’t break the bank.
If you’re just getting started with SEO tools, it’s best to first opt for a tool that’s simple and user-friendly to get started.
What is an SEO crawler?
An SEO crawler helps you find and fix issues that hinder a search engine’s ability to crawl and index your website. It can help you spot indexing issues, like 404 errors, and many other important SEO issues that are impacting your site’s rankings.
These are real SEO results driven for a WebFX client.
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260%
increase in organic revenue
198%
increase in organic transactions
150%
increase in organic traffic
3872%
increase in sessions from SEO
Need help using our recommended SEO tools?
The best SEO tools are always updating, and it’s difficult to keep up with digital marketing trends. SEO experts that track the newest practices can maximize these tools and elevate your ranking.
WebFX has the #1 ROI tracking technology platform in the industry, and both our tools and team will drive revenue for you. We provide free access to the IBM Watson-powered tool, MarketingCloudFX, for all our clients.
To learn more about our SEO services and tools, contact us online today or call us at 888-601-5359. If you’re having SEO issues with your current campaign, we can help, too!