12 of the Best Free SEO Tools to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

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Has SEO got you confused and overwhelmed? Are you looking for some of the best free SEO tools?

You’re certainly not alone. I feel sometimes like you have to remember 10,000 things to do before and after you publish a blog post – keyword research, add related keywords, use your keyword in your heading, make sure your keyword is in your title………

I’ve said it before. I feel like trying to rank on Google is like trying to navigate through the jungle being chased by flying monkeys from the Temple of Doom. Even when you have the exact steps to get results, you still end up going in circles (hmmmmm I think I saw that already).

And worse, no matter how hard you try, you still end up on the 15th page of Google scratching your head? It makes you wonder if you’re holding the map upside down.

Do you feel the same way?

You’ve probably heard me talk about this before. I struggled with SEO for a long time. But I started to get better at it and that was because of these resources that I’m about to share.

Let me shine a light on a path that will lead you out of the jungle. 

You’ve probably heard how important SEO is to your blog and business website, and that’s absolutely true. Good SEO can make or break you but it’s often the most frightening thing for new online entrepreneurs and bloggers.

Trust me; I feel your pain 100 percent. When I first started blogging, it was all I could do to build my website and get my articles up on it. I am about as tech-savvy as a wooden block, maybe less so! I figured I could tackle it later and kept pushing it to the backburner. But I wasn’t getting traffic! Shocking I know!

I finally buckled down and took some free and paid SEO courses, and while I’m still not an expert, I understand it much better than I did before and it’s a lot less scary,  Plus, these free (and some paid) resources make SEO tasks much easier.

Here are some of the best free SEO tools that will save your ass when you’re trying to bring up your ranking on Google.

1.   Rank Math

Rank Math is a personal favorite of mine, thanks to Chelsea, the founder of HerPaperRoute. She did some work on one of my websites and got me hooked on this SEO tool. Rank Math is an SEO plugin for WordPress that helps you optimize the pages and posts on your website.

It has smart features that increase your SEO capabilities and has a simple setup wizard that makes it easy to use right away. You can optimize your posts for an unlimited number of focus keywords, unlike other SEO plugins.

The interface is simple to use and highlights the critical information that you need to know. It also features advanced snippet previews so you can preview rich snippets and see how your posts will look once you share them on social media.

Rank Math tells you what you need to fix to improve your SEO score instantly by showing “errors” that can affect your ranking. It looks at title and content readability. Rank Math lets you edit the metadata, title as seen on Google, and link, as well as giving you a preview of how your post shows up in Google.

At the time of this writing, Rank Math just has the free version, but they plan on releasing a paid one eventually. All this is great news because you don’t have to pay to get all of Rank Math’s great features, unlike many solutions that make you upgrade for advanced elements.

Related: 9 of the Best Free Blogging Courses to Help You Grow Your Blog And Make More Money

2.   Yoast WordPress Plugin

Yoast is another amazing WordPress plugin that is essentially the alternative to Rank Math for many entrepreneurs and bloggers. I’ve used it and definitely agree. One huge plus is that you get most of the great features for FREE. There is a premium version as well, with even more great aspects.

Yoast has many cool features, but one of the best is the XML Sitemap Generator. Sitemaps help search engines such as Google crawl and index the pages on your website. Also, Yoast automatically updates your sitemap so you never have to mess with it whenever you add a page.

You can see Yoast under your post in WordPress, and much like Rank Math, it gives you tips to boost your SEO score. It shows you a preview of how your post or pages will show up in Google and provides a Flesch Reading Ease score which is big. It lets you know if your article is too difficult to read. The main goal is to make your post readable at an 8^th-grade level because that’s the age that the Google Gods or SEO experts decided was appropriate.

It’s really a toss-up between Rank Math and Yoast because they are both very similar, but each has something that the other doesn’t.

3.   Answer the Public

Answer the public can spit out hundreds of keywords in a matter of minutes. This tool is different from the others that all gather data from The Google Keyword Planner. It searches social media, blogs, and forums where people ask questions and turns them into incredible keywords. It’s got a kind of rebellious vibe to it, which is so cool.

There’s also a section of results dedicated solely to vs. keywords because people search those terms often like Google vs. Bing. I’ve used Answer the Public to find keywords and topics to write on. You’ll find that it is easier to use and gives you a ton of information to work with.

4.   Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is another amazingly popular tool, and it’s no surprise since Neil Patel is behind its creation. It’s totally free AND has many features only found on premium SEO products. It does several nifty things, but the keyword feature is the one most used by many.

You type in the keyword you want to rank for, and it provides detailed information on monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and more. Ubersuggest also spits out a list of related keywords based on the phrase you searched.

This tool allows you to search competing websites that you’re trying to rank higher than. Another great feature is the vs. keywords search. Like Answer the Public, it provides a list of X vs. Y keywords, and these are often underutilized. They get fewer searches but are very targeted and convert well. I love this tool too and it’s easy to use.

5.   KeySearch

Now, I use several tools for keyword research, but KeySearch is my absolute personal favorite. To me, it’s unique from other tools because it’s so robust and has many great features. One different feature is the content assistant. It’s under “more tools” on the top menu. You copy and paste your blog post in the block to the left and type in your focus keyword at the top. The right panel shows you the keyword difficulty and search volume.

But that’s not the coolest part. It compares your word count to those of the top pages on that topic in Google and tells you the average page count for pages and posts that rank on the first page of Google.

This allows you to add to your post to increase your word count for a better chance of ranking higher. That’s great because Google likes long-form content.

However, don’t be as stressed about exceeding it if it’s some crazy amount like 6,000 words. It also shows you how many must-have keywords appear in your post so you can go back and add more to improve your SEO.

Of course, the keyword research feature is awesome as well, and it gives you the search volume and difficulty score. It provides a list of other keyword suggestions too. The free version limits you to the number of searches, but the paid version offers an unlimited amount.

I invested in KeySearch because another blogger got me thinking. If you’re going to invest in anything and you want your website found, a premium keyword research tool is the place to start investing. You’ll use it frequently, so keep that in mind.

And if you sign up through my link you get 20% off. KeySearch is regularly $17.00 a month for the starter plan but it’s $13.60 through my link. Check out my in-depth review of KeySearch to learn more about the amazing features it has.

6.   Keyword Shitter

This name accurately describes this tool because it essentially shits out keywords. It’s literally labeled “a bulk keyword ideas tool.” Keyword Shitter is easy to use.

Just type in a keyword and then click the button “Shit Keywords.” I, of course, love this name and the humor that goes with it, but some people aren’t big fans because of the profanity. I’ll just leave it at that.

7.   SEMRush

SEMRush is an all-time favorite for many entrepreneurs. It has a free and paid version, and both are pretty dope since it’s powerful for all marketers.

This SEO tool is best known for finding the keywords your competitors rank for so you can incorporate them into your content. It really provides vital information and shows you words that you should be using too.

Simply type in the domain that you want to analyze, and it shows you the traffic it receives and the total number of backlinks it has. You can also use it for competitive analysis as well as topic and keyword research.

SEMRush has many raving fans who say the best feature is Keyword Magic. Enter a keyword, and you’ll get thousands or even tens of thousands of related keywords. It’s an excellent SEO tool.

8.   Screaming Frog

This SEO tool is a new one for me, but I can’t wait to try it. There’s a reason it makes many top SEO tool lists. Screaming Frog identifies and fixes technical SEO problems in mere seconds. Coming from someone who’s technically challenged, it sounds like good news for me!

It’s a website crawler that lets you crawl URLs and retrieves essential elements to audit and analyze onsite and technical SEO. All for free. They do have a premium version available that offers more advanced features, but the free version seems to be extremely helpful.

Another favorite feature is that Screaming Frog searches for duplicate content, and we all know that Google does not like duplicate content.  Screaming Frog stands out because it’s unique from other SEO tools, which explains its popularity.

9.   BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is another distinctive SEO tool, and one of its most helpful features is the Chrome extension that appears to be the best at delivering dependable estimations on social share counts for any one piece of content.

The free account doesn’t give you as much as the premium version, but BuzzSumo still gives you access to trending data and top content. Use BuzzSumo to create amazing content, generate new ideas, identify the influencers in your niche, and monitor how you perform.

10. Stupid Simple SEO Free Training

I wish I’d taken Mike Pearson’s Stupid Simple SEO training much earlier in my blogging journey. It would have saved me a lot of time had I just started out learning SEO right away. But money was tight as it is for most new bloggers. Thankfully, Mike has a free SEO video training that is chocked full of actionable information.

Stupid Simple SEO was hands down one of the best investments I made in my blog. Mike walks you through the basics of search engine optimization from setting your blog up to be Google friendly to creating content and promoting it. So, if you like his free course check out Stupid Simple SEO.

11. Google Search Console

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Google Search Console. It’s extremely helpful and completely free. This tool helps you monitor how your website shows up in Google Search results.

Google Search Console lets you troubleshoot problems with your site and helps you understand how Google views it. Then you can take the information it provides and correct issues, and properly optimize your website.

Google Search Console is one of the best free tools in your arsenal when it comes to SEO. Here are some of the reports and tools Search Console offers:

• Fix indexing and request indexing if you’ve made changes to a post or it’s not on Google
• Show you which other websites link to yours
• View Google Search traffic information such as the search queries your site shows up in, how often your website shows up, and much more.
• Confirm that Google can actually find your site and crawl it.

So, if you haven’t signed up for it yet, do it now.

12. Google Analytics

Like Google Search Console, if I didn’t tell you about Google Analytics, I would be cheating you out of what is probably the number one free SEO tool you need. This tool analyzes the traffic your website gets.

By putting tracking code into your website code, you can gain critical information on the people using your website, how many page views you get, and much more. You can even learn more about local search results, but I’m not going into that because it’s definitely not my jam.

Using your Google My Business listing, you can assess your local listing traffic using Google Analytics Campaigns. This article about how to show the value of local SEO explains it all much better than I ever could.

Google Analytics provides invaluable information on who your primary audience is. For example, this SEO tool can tell you that 70 percent of the visitors to your website are women between the ages of 20 and 40 in west coast cities.

That’s helpful and actionable data you can use in your marketing strategy.

But one thing I find is that even if you’ve heard about Google Analytics and know you should use it, you still may not know what information is important or how to use it. Well, you’re in luck; I have a great resource for you!

Debbie Gartner, one of my favorite SEO gurus, wrote an eBook that tells you what information you should be paying attention to in Google Analytics  and how to use it. It’s called Google Analytics Easy as 1, 2, 3.

And since this is an article about SEO, I want to tell you about her other eBooks. First, there’s Easy On-Page SEO to help you optimize your blog posts for SEO. Then she wrote Easy Backlinks for SEO to help you gain backlinks, a critical piece of any SEO strategy.

You can also get Easy Backlinks for SEO and Easy On-Page SEO together in a bundle and save money. Debbie also has an eBook called Easy SEO Revamp that I’m looking at for my next purchase. In it, you’ll learn how to focus your SEO efforts for better results, how to research your competitors and use that data as part of your SEO strategy, and more.

As someone who has read many of her eBooks and taken Stupid Simple SEO, I can tell you they complement each other perfectly. Even if you can’t take any of the paid courses and eBooks I mentioned in this article now, they should definitely go on your list of ones to take in the future.

The Best Free SEO Tools Make Online Marketing Easier

These free SEO tools and training make optimizing your website and posts for SEO simple. None of them are too complex to use, which is fantastic since SEO can be frightening and overwhelming on its own. By utilizing these SEO tools, you’ll be ahead of those struggling to rank on Google.

Now, they aren’t quick fixes because the game of SEO is a short one. But if you consistently optimize your blog posts and website pages, you’ll gradually see more traffic so your clients and customers can find you.

Want to learn more about SEO? Check out these two books on SEO and Digital Marketing.

Now start using at least one of the best free SEO tools on this list to start ranking higher on Google than on Page 17.

What are your favorite free keyword SEO tools? Let me know in the comments below.

Related: 9 of the Best Free Blogging Courses to Grow Your Blog