A lot of businesses, and aspiring SEOs are unaware of the fact that the best SEO tools are used to automate even the most difficult SEO tasks. Be it scraping thousands of domains to check availability, or analyzing your competitor’s best keyword strategies, the best SEO tools give you an edge, that’s impossible to get otherwise.
However, it’s not as easy as it was a decade ago to find the best tools. As the SEO market started to explode, there was a sudden surge in the number of SEO tools as well. Every developer worth their salt was trying to develop a tool that could get them a share of the lucrative pie.
So if you are feeling a little overwhelmed with all the options and choices you have, we won’t blame you.
To make life easier, we have handpicked 5 of the best ones out there for you, both paid and free. No matter what your SEO expertise or goal, these tools will get the job done.
#1 – Ahrefs
Ahrefs has been one of the most popular SEO tools in the industry for years. There’s good reason for that as well. They have been one of the pioneers of the SEO landscape and have constantly evolved, adding newer features to their software.
Unless you are a huge SEO company handling tens and hundreds of clients at a time, Ahrefs alone can be used to complete even the most complex SEO tasks.
While all the capabilities of the software would be impossible to list over here, let’s take a look at some of the best features that it offers.
- Domain Research – Tons of actionable information on domains. If you are looking to analyze domains for your PBN or for your personal websites, this will get the job done.
- Keyword research – Just plug in any keyword to get the search volume, keyword difficulty determined by a proprietary algorithm and also find out the websites that are ranking already for those keywords. What’s more is that you can select from 10 top search engines for the research. So, if you are a YouTuber, you can perform YouTube based keyword research as well.
- Backlink research – Once again, you get a variety of backlink related data for any domain that you plug into the tool. This is an excellent feature if you are looking to research your competitor’s website for backlinks.
Tip – Ahrefs offers a fully functional 7-day trial which is a great way to test the waters, whether this is the best seo tool for you.
#2 – Spyfu
Spyfu is a portmentau of the terms Spy and Kung-fu. As made obvious by the name, it’s a tool for ninja SEOs looking to spy on their competition. All you need to do is plug in a few simple details and Spy Fu will start spying for you.
The basic features are SEO research, PPC research, Keyword research, backlinks, list building, tracking and reporting. That’s an all-encompassing SEO toolkit that would satisfy even the most discerning SEO expert. However, there’s one major advantage that you get with Spyfu. It does not set a limit at the number of queries that you can run.
You can research unlimited domains and export an unlimited amount of data, even with the most basic plan, which is priced at $38/mo.
As you dig deeper into the Spyfu interface, you realize that there’s tons of actionable data that it provides. Some of it, like the PPC research can be a goldmine for someone who runs PPC ads.
If you are an SMB that finds Ahrefs unaffordable, Spyfu should be a great pick that does not require you to break the bank. More importantly, it does not cut corners either. It has all the features you need to create winning SEO campaigns.
#3 – KWFinder
KWFinder is one of the best keyword research tools out there. Now that’s no mean feat because it competes against some huge names such as Moz & SEMRush. However, we love KWFinder more because of the way it presents the data.
Everything is ridiculously simple. You can plug in a keyword and at a glance, get a fair idea of how competitive it is, where you rank for that keyword, who ranks on page one for those keywords and alternative suggestions for better keywords.
Can you beat that? If you are looking to find Long tail keywords with low competition, this is the tool of the trade you need. There might be other best SEO tools as well that will get the job done. But KWfinder does it better and makes it easier.
#4 – Answer the Public
Enough of paid tools. Here’s Answer the public, an excellent Free SEO tool that uses a single keyword to come up with a whole bunch of long tail keywords in the form of questions. For instance, if you sell Sunglasses online, and you plug it into the tool it shows you a set of questions related to ‘Why, are, will, how, who, where, what and when’.
Example – Will sunglasses protect your eyes from laser, are sunglasses cheaper at the airport & what sunglasses are in style.
If you struggle with long tail keyword research, then this is a one-click shortcut to find some terrific keywords. You can then pair it with Ahrefs or KWFinder or any other tool of your choice.
By the way, Answer the public also has a pro plan which we believe is totally worth every penny you spend on it.
#5 – Google Trends
A lot of SEOs don’t fully realize the potential of Google trends. It’s been around for years, but it’s been terribly underrated. If you know how to use this tool, you can create some fantastic content marketing plans based on it.
It’s also very effective for geo targeting specific keyword phrases. For example, if we plug in the keyword ‘radiator’ into Google trends and set the country to UK, you will notice that the interest has steadily increased in the past one year.
It also shows you a section called ‘Rising topics’, which show related keyword phrases that are also trending in that geographical area. In this case, it shows that Sofa Tables are trending with a 200% increase in UK. The primary target regions being Northern Ireland and Scotland.
That makes it so easy to integrate these keywords into your keyword research and content marketing plans.
Closing thoughts
Always remember that every SEO company will have their own set of best SEO tools. No one tool is necessarily superior or inferior to the other. You can very well use a whole bunch of tools to expand on your SEO research.
