The Best Free SEO Tools to Get Started
You can do good SEO with free tools. Here are the ones that cover measurement, technical work, keywords and content.
· 1 min read
A tight budget doesn't stop you from managing your SEO. Search engines themselves offer very complete free tools. Here is a selection, organized by use.
Measure visibility and traffic
- Google Search Console: the indispensable tool. Queries, impressions, clicks, positions, indexing, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, manual actions.
- Google Analytics: visitor behavior, traffic sources, conversions, landing pages.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: Microsoft's equivalent, with performance and crawl reports, and the ability to import Search Console data.
Analyze technical performance
- PageSpeed Insights: speed and Core Web Vitals measurement, with real-user data when available and recommendations.
- Lighthouse, built into Chrome's developer tools: performance, accessibility and best-practice audit.
- Your browser's developer tools: inspect code, HTTP headers, loaded resources.
Crawl your site
- SEO crawlers, some of which offer a free version limited in number of URLs, enough for a small site: 404 errors, redirects, missing titles, orphan pages.
Find keyword ideas
- Google Trends: compare terms, spot seasonality and rising topics.
- Google Keyword Planner, available with a Google Ads account: query ideas and volume estimates.
- Google's autocomplete, related searches and "People also ask".
Check structured data
- Google's Rich Results Test: checks whether a page can display rich results.
- Schema Markup Validator (schema.org): validates the syntax of your markup.
Manage local presence
- Google Business Profile: management of the listing, reviews and local insights.
How to combine them
- Search Console + Analytics: from query to conversion.
- PageSpeed Insights + Search Console: spot slow pages and measure the effect of fixes.
- Crawler + Search Console: compare what exists on the site with what Google indexes.
Limits of free tools
- Little or no data on competitors and other sites' backlinks.
- Free versions sometimes limited in volume or features, which can change.
- Approximate search volume estimates.
Start with Search Console and PageSpeed Insights: on their own, they reveal most of the problems that hold a site back.
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