12 best SEO tools that SEO Experts use in 2022
1. Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner is by far the best-known SEO tool when it comes to conducting keyword research or mapping various keyword statistics. Being the most reliable SEO tools, it comes with good keyword suggestions and gives you an indication of the cost per click, so you can make a good estimate of the competition that prevails on that keyword.
However, Google Keyword Planner is no longer what it used to be. This is mainly due to the fact that when one does not invest an x amount in Google AdWords, the tool also does not shows exact search volumes. For example, you will see that the keyword ‘SEO tools’ is searched between 100 and 1000 times per month in India. That’s quite a difference! It is therefore recommended to use the Google Keyword Tool in combination with other tools and invest some amount in Adwords as well to get exact search volumes of the keywords.
2. Keywordtool.io
Keywordtool.io is another reliable SEO tool that gives useful suggestions for new keywords. The tool provides precise search volumes and specifies these search volumes per month. Not only does Keywordtool.io give good ideas that contain the literal keyword, but it also offers additional options. First of all, it is possible to request related keywords. When you enter ‘SEO tools,’ you will receive suggestions such as ‘search engine optimization’ or ‘online marketing agency.’ The Questions option is also available. This maps out the various questions related to the keyword, so you can immediately find out which questions exist with your target group.
3. Ahrefs
If I could only use one tool for all my SEO activities, I would definitely choose Ahrefs. This is by far the most all-round tool (in my opinion, of course).
The above print screen shows the keyword part of Ahrefs. The tool gives you very extensive keyword statistics of a website. Not only useful to find keywords but also helpful to find out which keywords your competitors rank!
Ahrefs can be filtered by country and offers various statistics. Think of the search volume, the keyword difficulty (how difficult it is to rank on this keyword), the cost per click, the average traffic attracted, and the current position of this website.
On-page SEO Tools
Tools used:
4. SEO Yoast
The on-page optimization often requires a bit of creativity and experimentation. As a result, I personally use fewer tools in this part. Still, a tool like SEO Yoast is a very useful checkpoint.
SEO Yoast is perhaps the best known WordPress plugin. You are not going to win the battle with it, but when you use it as a checkpoint, it is beneficial. This way, you can Optimize the keywords and its density, Optimize the meta tags, OG Tags, Readability of the content. And, with the premium version of Yoast, you will get Internal linking suggestions, Content insights, Redirect manager, and it will be ads-free.
Note: SEO Yoast is only a guideline, sometimes a page with red light can score even better than a page with a green check!
5. Siteliner.com
Siteliner allows you to map various statistics, but it is especially useful to check the duplicate content on a website. Opinions often differ about duplicate content and SEO. Where one person thinks that this will put you directly on a penalty from Google and is very negative for the organic position in Google, the other (including myself) believes that this is much more nuanced. Anyway, that’s a discussion for later.
Siteliner shows the percentage of duplicate content but goes even further than that. This way, you can find out which duplicate content can be seen on which page and which different word combinations can be viewed (too) often: ideal for identifying possible vulnerabilities.
6. Screaming Frog SEO Auditor
The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a power website crawler that shows conceivable statistic. In my view, it is an ideal tool to analyze the entire website URLs and help to optimize the website with millions of pages with ease. However, this tool is mainly aimed at advanced users.
Unlike other SEO tools, Screaming Frog makes your PC your own crawler. The program is free for up to 500 crawled URLs. That’s just enough for small websites.
Keywords features of Screaming frog:-
- Its help in checking Broken Links
- Help in creating XML Sitemap
- Identify Pages with Thin Content
- Find and Fix Redirects (301,302,etc)
- Check Server Response Time
- And, many more
Off-page SEO Tools
Tools used:
7. Majestic
Majestic is the go-to tool when it comes to link building. The options are very diverse and very specific. Among other things, it gives you answers to the following questions:
- What is the link Value of a page?
- What is the link value of the entire domain?
- Who links to the website?
- What is the link value of those who link to this website?
- Under which anchor texts is this website linked?
In addition to the answers to the above questions, Majestic gives Link Intelligence data that you need to dominate your niche. It also helps in finding Topical Trust Flow and Citation Flow of the URL and Domain. This gives you an idea of what kind of link value a page represents. These Values are, of course, not 100 percent accurate but take you a long way in the right direction.
8. MozBar
While I may be a little less of a fan of Moz than the average person, it remains a very handy tool to handle. For example, you can use the MozBar, which immediately shows various statistics of all search results in Google. This is ideal if you want to compare your competitors. The Mozbar shows the PA and DA (0-100). PA stands for Page Authority and says something about the authority of this specific page. The DA, Domain Authority, represents the authority of the entire domain. You will also receive information about the number of links and the number of RDs (referring domains).
All in all, the MozBar is a very handy SEO tool, but I would certainly not use it as the only tool.
9. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is back here again. Apart from keyword research, I personally use this tool for analyzing the competitor’s backlink and keep an eye on the link profiles of the competitors. Also, with this tool, you can get new link opportunities on autopilot using Ahref Alerts.
Also, this tools allow us to check the number of links, Referring domains, URL rating, and the Domain rating.
In addition to the above statistics, Ahrefs also shows other statistics and overviews. For example, you can see new backlinks and lost backlinks, you see in a clear overview what is the authority of the websites that link to the domain, and you get insight into the number of Dofollow links vs. the number of Nofollow links.
Majestic, MozBar, and Ahrefs all have their advantages and disadvantages. It is therefore advisable to use all three tools and to average them out.
Technical
Tools used:
10. GTMetrix
Not everyone is familiar with the technology of a website. However, technology is also very important when it comes to optimizing the website for Search engines. The speed of a website is especially important. Although Google PageSpeed Insights says a lot about the way Google views a website, GTMetrix is much more extensive.
By analyzing your website with Gtmetrix, you will get a clear idea about all those factors which you need to optimize to improve the website speed and loading time. This tools not only show the matrices but also give you a detailed report about what code needs to be fixed and which part of the website needs to be optimized for better performance.
12. Brokenlink check
Broken links on websites are not just annoying, but their presence may cause some substantial damage to your online business and decrease the chances of higher ranking.
Also, an SEO expert can’t find dead links by constantly checking every page and click every link; it is useful to use this SEO tool for this task.
It indicates on which page the broken link can be found and also shows where in the code you can find that broken link. It is advisable to have a brokenlinkcheck scan your website at least once a month.
13. Website.grader
Website.grader is a good, general tool when it comes to the find out the technology behind a website. It gives you an overview of the website speed, it shows how the website scores on mobile devices, it analyzes some technical elements (title, meta description, headings, and sitemap), and it also checks the security of your website. At the bottom, you will also receive a short advisory report of the steps you can take to improve the technology of your website.
All in all, Website Grader is a free online tool that grades your site against key metrics like mobile readiness, Performance, SEO, and security.
