SEO Tools: Keywords, Competitive Research, and Backlinks
Tools
- Ahrefs (free trial))
- Answer The Public
- Bing Webmaster Tools (free)
- BloomBerry – crawls sites where people ask questions
- BuzzSumo (limited free. Able to see what is popular on social media)
- Cognitive SEO (Offerings include free Keyword Tool)
- Google
- First page of Google Search: What is coming up in search results? (aka “SERPs”)
- Google auto-suggest / auto-complete
- Adwords Keyword Planner (need to set up Adwords, but can benefit without launching campaign)
- Trends (free)
- Hubspot SEO (paid)
- Keyword Density Checker (free)
- Keywords Everywhere Tool (free)
- Keyword Tool
- KWFinder / SerpWatcher (some features currently free)
- Import.io (no free version)
- LSI Graph (latent semantic indexing)
- Related: WordPress Plugin SEOPressor (paid)
- Long Tail Pro (free trial)
- Mozbar (free trial)
- Rank Tracker (free trial)
- Raven Tools (free trial)
- Screaming Frog (free — depending on site size)
- SEMrush (some free functionality)
- SE Ranking Keyword Grouper (paid)
- SEO SpyGlass (free download)
- SEObar / SEOQuake (free)
- SERPS.com (free trial)
- SerpStat (free trial)
- SerpWatcher
- SpyFu (may be able to obtain some data for free; includes Keyword Kombat)
- UberSuggest (free)
- WordStream (free trial)
- WordTracker (free trial)
NOTE: “Free trial” correct as of August, 2017
Other Resources / Additional Reading
- Competitor Analysis Tools: 14 Quick Ways to Compare Websites (Orbit Media Studios, 2017)
- Comprehensive On-Page SEO Audit Checklist (startups.co, 2017)
- Link reclamation: How to find mentions you can turn into links (Builtvisible, 2017)
- The responsive design SEO checklist (Builtvisible, 2017)
- How to perform a comprehensive SEO audit (Flywheel, 10/2017)
- A Deep Keyword Research Process That Will Attract More Customers (Search Engine Journal, 09/2017)
- 5 Powerful Keyword Research Tools Compared (And How To Use Them) (Search Engine Journal, 11/2017)
- Free Backlinks for SEO and Traffic (2018 Edition) (Jason Acidre, 2018)