The Best SEO Tools For Small Businesses

When researching on how to build up your business online you will definitely hear about the acronym SEO. What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The goal of SEO is to get on the front page of search engines. This can be done through relevant keywords, trustworthy information, and time.

It is a common misconception that SEO is just for larger companies. In reality, smaller businesses can benefit from SEO possibly more than large ones.

Unfortunately, the nature of smaller businesses means that you may not have the staff to constantly optimize your website. This is where SEO tools come in handy.

Below are some of the best SEO tools for small businesses and how they work.

Best Free SEO Tools For Small Businesses

When starting your online business you may be on a budget.

So, here are some free SEO tools for you to try when you first create your website (or blog).

Google Analytics

When it comes to free SEO, Google is the golden standard. Being the largest search engine, you know they know all the best ways to optimize your website to fit in line with what they want to feature.

With Google Analytics you are able to check the performance of your marketing, set goals you wish to achieve, and see the average session duration of visitors to your website.

You can also see which pages of your website receive the most traffic and also how each page of your website is performing month-on-month.

These are just some of the things you can do with Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is essential when expanding your business online. Make sure to configure for your website so you can start getting useful metrics from it.

Google Business Profile

Formerly called “Google My Business”, Google Business Profile is how you get your business on Google Maps.

This applies if you have a physical business and you want an additional chance to be found by your potential customers.

Arguably the quickest way to get local business is by having your own pin on that map.

Google PageSpeed Insights

A critical part of SEO that people don’t immediately think of is how well their site works. If you have a slow, poorly working site then people just aren’t going to use it.

Poor performance of your website will have an impact on usability that will also have an impact on search engine ranking.

Google PageSpeed’s function is to keep your website fast and at its peak performance level. You want your site to be usable on any device, which this tool helps you with.

If your site isn’t working to its best abilities, then Google PageSpeed will suggest ways to improve it.

Another way to help your website improve its speed is to use 3rd party caching services like the one called Leap provided by Ezoic, one of the most popular ad networks.

This requires a lot let work compared to the work you would have to do to try to improve the performance of your website by fiddling with WordPress plugins and settings.

Google Search Console

One of the joys the Google tools provide is that they can all link to each other.

Google Search Console works with Google Analytics to help you provide the standard content you would get from other SEO tools.

With this tool, you can learn exactly how people are finding your content, what keywords will benefit your site, and build an XML sitemap.

If you website starts losing traffic you can use Google Search Console to understand what the cause might be by looking at the following stats for pages of your website and for search queries:

• Total impressions
• Total clicks
• Average CTR
• Average position

Google Trends

Google Trends can be a very useful tool for your SEO strategy considering that it allows to find out what keywords are currently popular and which are on the rise.

By looking at Google Trends data you can also compare different search phrases and make some assumptions about their monthly search volume.

Another reason why Google Trends is useful is to understand the behaviour of a specific niche over time.

Imagine you are thinking to start a new blog. You can look at trends data to understand if the specific niche you have chosen is on an uptrend or if it’s losing popularity over time.

Trends data can also help you understand what kind of behaviour to expect in different periods of the year if you have a business in a seasonal niche.

Answer The Public

Sometimes picking the popular keywords isn’t the right direction to go in.

Answer The Public specifically tailors to the customer’s thoughts and what niche questions they are asking. There is an untapped goldmine of keywords that you could be using.

While there is a paid version of this service, we believe that the free version will be enough for smaller businesses.

Pricing Options

• Monthly – Up to 3 users and 5 search listening alerts
• Annual – Up to 5 users and 5 search listening alerts
• Expert – Unlimited users and 20 search listening alerts

MarketMuse

An AI-powered content research tool that scours thousands of pages to provide quality content for your site.

This can cut your writing time in half while focusing on topics that people are interested in.

There is a paid version of this service but similarly to the last tool, the free version should work well enough for small businesses.

Pricing Options

• Standard – 100 queries per month
• Premium – Unlimited queries per month

GTmetrix

A great tool to monitor your web page performance. GTmetrix gives you a vitals breakdown of your website so you can see its performance across multiple devices and countries.

You also have the option to be notified when your page is running slow so you can immediately fix it.

Pricing Options

• Solo – Monitor 3 pages and get 175 weekly on-demand tests
• Starter – Monitor 6 pages and get 200 weekly on-demand tests
• Growth – Monitor 12 pages and get 300 weekly on-demand tests

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

This interestingly named web crawler provides an abundance of features. They include fixing broken links, finding duplicate information, and audit redirects.

It also provides metadata and title analysis, so you can make sure your content is standing out in a competitive market.

There is a paid version but you get a free 500-page limit which is usually enough for smaller businesses.

Pricing Options

• Paid Version – Unlimited URL crawl

SEO Quake

This tool is a browser extension, so that means it can work on real-time information. SEO Quake gives you an SEO diagnosis of any site you are looking at so you can get competitive data.

Best Paid SEO Tools For Small Businesses

As with anything in life, the paid option of SEO tools usually offers more features. These are recommended for when your business is making enough money to budget for online marketing.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the 2nd most active web crawler after Google and labels itself as an “all-in-one SEO toolset”.

It allows you to explore content and keywords so you can improve your SEO and has an excellent backlinking feature.

As well as optimizing backlinks, it searches for any broken links and offers an easy way to fix them.

I have found Ahrefs a really great tool also to understand if the content you add to your blog or website keeps ranking better and better over time.

Ahrefs shows you if pages on your website that rank for specific keywords are moving towards the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

It basically gives you an indication that your efforts are actually bringing results while your blog might not be getting any traffic yet.

Pricing Options

• Lite – Basic features and 750 tracked keywords
• Standard – 6 months of history and 2,000 tracked keywords
• Advanced – 2 years of history and 5,000 tracked keywords
• Enterprise – Unlimited history and 10,000 tracked keywords

BrightLocal

While global SEO is good, for smaller businesses you might want to focus on local SEO first.

BrightLocal offers a reputation and review management system and can link directly to your Google Business Profile.

You can also track your local ranking so you know exactly where you land and where you can improve.

Pricing Options

• Just Reviews – Monitor and showcase reviews
• Single Business – Manages up to 3 locations
• Multi Business – Manages up to 6 locations
• SEO Pro – Manages up to 100 locations

Frase

Frase uses AI to create content that has natural language and uses relevant keywords. It allows you to write content fast so that you can get back to running your business.

Pricing Options

• Basic – 30 document credits
• Team – Unlimited document credits
• Enterprise – Contact them for custom needs

KeySearch

KeySearch is a fantastic keyword tool for small businesses. It prides itself on finding low competition keywords to make your business stand out.

It is a completely web-based software so you don’t have to worry about downloading anything.

As well as keywords, KeySearch also provides backlink checking, competitive analysis, and rank tracking.

Pricing Options

• Starter – 200 daily searches and 50 rank tracker keywords
• Pro – 500 daily searched and 150 rank tracker keywords

Keyword Tool

Keyword Tool uses Google autocomplete to find you long-tail keyword opportunities.

There is a free version that you can use without even creating an account. We recommend the paid version however as it has double the amount of keywords.

Pricing Options

• Pro Basic – 7,000 keywords
• Pro Plus – 35,000 keywords
• Pro Business – 70,000 keywords

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a browser add-on which can link with Answer The Public, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console.

It provides search volume for keywords so you know which ones are being searched and if there are any related keywords.

It also has a pay-as-you-go subscription rather than monthly billing, which may be a good idea for those who are just starting SEO.

Pricing Options

They have an option to buy 100,000 credits at a minimum and 10,000,000 credits at maximum. Each credit equates to 1 keyword.

LocalFalcon

Local search visibility is key for small businesses, LocalFlacon provides the tools to optimize it.

It uses a grid ranking so you can get an accurate idea of what is searched and where in your local area.

They also have a competitor tracking system so you can improve your local rank easier.

Pricing Options

• Starter – 7,500 credits
• Basic – 15,000 credits
• Pro – 31,000 credits
• Premium – 63,000 credits

Mangools

This easy-to-use tool is great for finding keywords and analysis about SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

You can also find the best backlinks for your site and get metrics on how they stack up to competitors’ backlinks.

It also offers scalable price options so you can increase your tool features as your business grows.

Pricing Options

• Basic – 100 keyword lookups and 100,000 backlink rows monthly
• Premium – 500 keyword lookups and 500,000 backlink rows monthly
• Agency – 1,200 keyword lookups and 1,200,000 backlink rows monthly

Moz

While Moz Pro is good for global scale businesses, we recommend Moz Local for smaller businesses.

Moz Local is a reputable keyword explorer which helps your business profile be more accurate and visible. You get a plethora of reports for every stat including reviews and traffic.

Its citation feature allows you to see any websites that have mentioned your business.

You can see where potential customers are coming from and if all the information on those sites is accurate.

Pricing Options

• Lite – Basic features
• Preferred – Additional reputation management and social posting
• Elite – Additional directories submission

Nightwatch

The main feature of Nightwatch is as a search engine rank monitor. Nightwatch works across multiple search engines, not just Google.

It reports on the average session times, click potential, and your business’s average position.

It also provides a site audit so you can optimize and fix your site. It can discover rank-boosting keywords for you.

You are able to integrate Google Analytics and Google Search Console so you can see all your data in one place.

Pricing Options

• Starter – 250 daily keywords and 50 websites tracked
• Optimize – 1,000 daily keywords and 200 websites tracked
• Agency – 5,000 daily keywords and 1,000 websites tracked

SE Ranking

SE Ranking provides real-time ranking of keywords so you know which ones are optimal at any given time.

It also does competitive research for what other keywords businesses are using. You can also be notified whenever a competitor changes something on their site.

On top of keyword ranking, SE Ranking also monitors backlinks and suggests fixes so your site can always be up to date.

Pricing Options

• Essential – Website audit for 40,000 pages and monitoring for 6,000 backlinks
• Pro – Website audit for 250,000 pages and monitoring for 30,000 backlinks
• Business – Website audit for 7000,000 pages and monitoring 90,000 backlinks

Semrush

Semrush is known for being a multipurpose SEO tool, and it shows through the number of features it provides.

Here is a short list of some of its features: keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, link building, market analysis, and content optimization.

If that wasn’t enough it also has a social media management feature so that you can boost your business and track competitors’ social media.

Pricing Options

• Pro – 500 keywords to track with daily updates
• Guru – 1,500 keywords to track with daily updates
• Business – 5,000 keywords to track with daily updates

SEOJet

Where SEOJet really shines is with its backlink management. It can look at your previous backlinks to create an anchor text that will compete against other businesses.

A unique feature is that when you become a member you gain access to a guest post service, this gives you quality content from informed writers who know how to work SEO.

Pricing Options

• Launch – Target 100 keywords and add 5 websites, a 5% link-building discount
• Flight – Target 600 keywords and add 25 websites, a 10% link-building discount
• Attack – Target 1,500 keywords and add unlimited websites, a 15% link-building discount

Sitebulb

This website auditing tool uses thousands of URLs to find out the best way to prioritize SEO.

They have an intuitive user interface so you can easily create a plan on how to optimize your website through research and layout.

They also invest in projects to improve environmental sustainability, so you know you’re participating in a good cause.

Pricing Options

• Lite – 10,000 URLs per audit
• Pro – 500,000 URLs per audit

SpyFu

SpyFu is the ultimate tool to see how your competitors are performing with SEO.

You are able to see up to the past 14 years of a competitor’s strategy and keywords so you know exactly how they got to where they are.

If you are using Google Ads Campaign then this tool is a must for discovering how competitors have previously utilized their ads, and recommendations on how you can make the most out of your ads.

Pricing Options

• Basic – 10k row search results and 6 months of historical data
• Professional – Unlimited search results and 10+ years of historical data

Surfer

Surfer is an AI-powered content optimization platform that offers article outlines, content suggestions, and a full-page audit so you can implement any suggestions easily.

There is also a free browser extension that allows you to search keyword search volumes based on the top 20 results.

The best part is that Surfer also works across multiple languages.

Pricing Options

• Basic – Write 10 articles and audit 20 pages per month
• Pro – Write 30 articles and audit 60 pages per month
• Business – Write 70 articles and audit 140 pages per month

Ubersuggest

This tool’s main feature is that you are able to reverse-engineer competitors’ SEO. You can see their content and social media marketing strategies.

It can recommend keywords to you, it even suggests how to use them in a question which helps with SEO.

One of the best ways to help with SEO is backlinking, and with this tool, you can see what other people are linking to and create an effective linking profile.

Pricing Options

• Individual – Manage 1-3 websites
• Business – Manage 4-7 websites
• Enterprise/Agency – Manage 8+ websites

WP Rocket

WordPress is a free content management system and if you built your site on it then you may want to consider WP Rocket.

It is a WordPress plugin that works on caching your pages to increase the speed and improve your PageSpeed score. This is a great tool if you have a blog on your business page.

Pricing Options

• Single – For 1 website
• Plus – For 3 websites
• Infinite – For unlimited websites

Conclusion

Hopefully, now you have an idea of the tools available to make your business more visible in such a saturated market of sites. Remember that all of these aren’t a guarantee for immediate success.

You need to put in the effort and show yourself to be an expert in your field in order to get on that first page of results.

Also select one or two tools and use them for a while in order to get familiar with them.

From experience if you start using too many different tools you will just get lost in metrics and you won’t focus on the activities that will make your business grow (e.g. writing content if you are growing a blog).

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