This an up-to-date list of some of the best SEO tools available in 2015. It covers everything from web traffic and content analytics to keyword planning and speed optimization. Mastering these 10 tools is all you need to put your website in the front row of every search engine out there.
1. Google Analytics
When it comes to website traffic analytics, there is no doubt that the freemium solution from Google has everything any seasoned web developer or site owner could ask for – after all, there is a good reason why it is the most commonly used the analytics service in the world.
Google Analytics originally launched in November 2005, and has since then seen many modifications leading up to the latest version called “Universal Analytics”. This version offers a single view of all your visitors and easily connects many separate data sources. Users of this service have access to a large number of different reports, which are designed to give you a detailed overview of what exactly attracts visitors to your site and how do they behave once they are on it.
Google has also developed a broad library of learning material to help both newcomers and seasoned web developers get the most out of Google Analytics.
2. Inspyder Power Search
Power Search from Inspyder is a popular web scraper with intuitive user-interface and powerful, yet easy to use, set of features. Web scrapers are handy when you want to quickly gather a large amount of data from a website or search content that would otherwise be invisible to regular search engines like Google or Bing.
It takes just a few minutes to get started with this application. It is able to automatically learn everything it needs to know from a single product page. Power Search will then proceed to scrape the entire site, looking for the query you have entered. Results can be exported into CSV or XML files for further editing and use with 3rd party tools.
There is a free version that will let you try the most important features for free, so you know exactly if it is the right software for you.
3. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a search marketing agency with a quite large number of services, among which is their signature SEO Spider. This incredibly useful tool can be a true life-saver for medium-sized and larger businesses. Manually checking all pages and all links can be extremely time-consuming and almost impossible with very large sites with frequently updated content.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider is able to check the whole site in a very short time, allowing you to export all essential website elements into Excel. This summary provides a convenient overview of broken links, redirects, URI issues, duplicate pages, problems with meta-description, word count, images, and much more.
The free version is limited to 500 URLs in a single crawl and does not allow for complete control over configuration settings. It is, however, an excellent way to see how to works.
4. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a rebrand of previously popular Google Webmaster Tools. Since not all users of this service are webmasters, Google has decided to make it friendlier towards small business owners, SEO experts, designers, and basically anyone who has anything to do with modern web development.
The main purpose behind Google Search Console is to help people rank their site on a Google’s search engine results page, commonly known as SERP. The application is able to give alerts in case Google cannot access the content of your website and it also allow admins to work hand-in-hand with Google in order to control how it crawls and monitors websites.
Even business owners who hire outside companies and freelancers to build and maintain their sites should learn how to use Google Search Console. The access to important reports is often critical for the selection of the optimal solution.
5. Rank Tracker by SEO Powersuite
Rank Tracker is one of many incredibly useful applications that are sold under the umbrella name “SEO PowerSuite”. It is designed to help users gather accurate rankings data and track the results of SEO campaigns. Software like this is must have for everyone who is serious about search engine optimization.
Rank Tracker is able to gather data from 327 search engines, analyze your competitor’s websites, help you find the most profitable keywords on your site, create stunning reports that you can achieve or show to clients, and even automatically check rankings while you are busy doing something else.
The free version is limited in terms of its features and number of competitors you can compare your site to. The great news is that there is no limit on the number of sites and keywords you can use.
6. Swydo
Online marketers are often required to manage many different projects, customer relationships, and the overall flow of a whole company. Such a high workload necessitates a capable tool that enables marketers to better serve their clients. Swydo is exactly this tool.
It can create a great looking PPC and Analytics reports for clients, cover all major website monitoring needs, and it even comes with capable workflow management tools. Scheduling meetings, assigning tasks, or collaborating on a project is as easy as it can be.
7. AdWords Keyword Planner Tool
Keyword Planner Tool was introduced in 2013 and it has since then became one of the most commonly used tools for search engine optimization and precise keyword targeting. Its main purpose is to be a complete toolbox for planning advertisement campaigns and selecting the right keywords and audiences.
You can conveniently select all relevant keywords and ad groups for your plan, which basically serves as a shopping card for your entire campaign. AdWords Keyword Planner Tool is then able to give you detailed performance estimates with a range of max CPC bids and generally everything else you might need. Your plan can be downloaded and implemented later as you see fit. With the support for many different workflows, Keyword Planner will please everyone.
8. SpyFu
SpyFu is used to analyze competitor’s most profitable keywords and ads. This information is indispensable for increasing your own website ranking and identifying weak points that could be leveraged to your own advantage. It also gives a clear idea about the direction in which the competition is heading. Newcomers can use data to better position themselves on the market and avoid stepping not toes of big guys.
There are three plans to choose from, each targeting a specific user. There is the basic plan that unlocks the access to all pro tools, the professional plan that adds full access to UK data and API, and, finally, there is the agency plan that enables up to 10 user logins and comes with unlimited custom reporting.
9. PageSpeed Tools
Loading speeds are important for visitors and also search engines, who use this metric as one of many attributes contributing to the final ranking in SERP. PageSpeed Tools is a set of tools from Google that lets you analyze and optimize your website based on several different criteria. Administrators can even take utilize the PageSpeed Module for automatic optimization of any Apache or Nginx webserver.
10. Varvy SEO Tool
Varvy SEO Tool is a convenient way how to check whether your website follows the Google webmaster guidelines. It checks for all important SEO aspects, including titles and alt tags, blocked resources, robots.txt file, advertisement, redirects, and many others.
All you need to do is input the URL of your website and you will be presented with a comprehensive report with a clear advice on how to address each individual issue. Varvy also offers the same tool for Mobile SEO. Responsive design and high accessibility from smartphones and tables are very important in 2015 and being able to easily check for any weak spots is vital.
About Tim Dugan
