30 must-have SEO tools for your website

Positioning a website in search engines requires knowing how to use resources that reach the maximum number of users, especially when there is a tendency to search for information. The tools of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization (search engine optimization) meet this requirement and make it easier to access a link when doing a search on the Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and other search engines. But the main benefit of enhancing your content to appear in online searches is generating traffic.

By relying on this technique, your site becomes recognized with authority and people start to see more media that are related to that content. Thus, views and access to publications start to grow, in addition to improving issues such as indexing and competitiveness with other sites. Next, you will learn about 30 tools that can facilitate your reach with searches by Google and with other search engines.

How did SEO come about?

It is in the 1990s that some search engines appear that are still in operation today. In 1994, it was the turn of the Yahoo! and in 1997 the Google, which began to gain notoriety over time. This is because this search engine, created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, followed a strategy called PageRank, whose premise was to provide a more accurate formatting on the internet.

Organizing with a metric from 0 to 10, the searches performed were in order of reputation (ranking) the number of times a link was cited. That is, if a site had content already included on other sites, it was more likely to be recommended. This may sound familiar if you are an academic and think about scientific relevance: one of the criteria is to start being cited and used as a reference for other scientific works — the more references for your production, the more trust and reputation the production receives.

Google Popularization

When creating this scale, Page and Brin's purpose with the measurement was to monitor not only the number of times the link appeared on other pages, but also its quality. But the idea of ​​search optimization only appeared with the concept of key words: the creators of the most used search engine today realized that the terms made the pages go up in searches. Thus, they appeared faster and first-class for users.

By developing these relevance assessments, the Google started to receive investments and became increasingly incorporated into browsers. This, in turn, led to a greater demand for creating sites that were more polished and created optimized content. Even more so because Google works with crawling and indexing tools.

Optimization: How Google operates to show answers to searches

When people search for a term on Google, the algorithm tries to determine what will appear to the user from a tracking of pages and indexing. The task of locating and tracking happens by frequency and priority of some response to search terms, in general: depending on how a result appears, the search engine's own bot will place it on the tracking list.

The indexing process is what will differentiate the search page for each user. This is because different criteria are used to list what will appear: location, publication date, description, information about the page data, among other items.

“Google also collects pointers about the canonical page [address where the result was originally produced] and its content that can be used in the next step, where we display the page in search results. Some indicators include the language of the page, the country where the content is located, the usability of the page, among others.”

Google Search Center on Indexing Web Pages

SEO tools list

From here, you can find a description of the tools free and paid ones that we are going to cover, with the main points about each one. Let's get to know how they work, what they do exactly and when they are most appropriate to use. In cases where the tool is paid, we present the advantages for using the resources that are free. We also have different sections, so you can find the application that best suits your needs.

The list below is organized by types of tools, in order to facilitate the choice for the option that is most useful for you. The first 16 tools are dedicated to giving some kind of assessment regarding the optimization. Then you find another three utilities that provide key words that are better for improving the SEO of your content. Afterwards, you still check out three more tools to evaluate which questions they are more related to a specific theme, which can be useful when it comes to production and improving the ranking of your site. The list also includes Google tools and finally, plug-ins that can help improve your site's position in search engines.

---

⌨️🖱️ Website Optimization: for starters, let's see how a website can be improved from some applications for optimization. In this section, you will learn about tools capable of giving a diagnosis useful for developing strategies SEO, focusing on search results, positioning on search pages, among other important points for the ranking of a web address

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

The tool of Ahrefs makes it possible to give greater stability when using the SEO. It allows you to see who is placing your site as reference (in some word in the text, for example), also making it possible to see any problem that is happening with your content, such as the keywords that are part of your site, verifying if they are generating traffic in a relevant way. That is: the Webmaster puts at your disposal useful information regarding how the indexing is being done, to assess whether Google is qualifying the page well or not.

If there is any page with problems like or related to any other issue involving SEO, the Webmaster alerts you to the steps that must be taken. He informs about the situation that is happening and how to proceed. An example of this are the backlinks: they are a way to give a reference to your site, from an external content. O Webmaster can check how many of these links are coming to your site, giving you a view of how your page is gaining value to be well reputed in internet searches.

generator of markup diagram

We are now talking about something quite technical: the generator of markup diagram. They allow you to bridge the gap between your content and what appears to search engines. You, human, are much more capable of reading an image than a robot, right? You markups arise precisely in this skill that search engines do not have as well as we do.

Os schema markups scan your site, looking for items such as lists, directions, steps in a recipe, general guides, reviews of movies, records, books, etc. which may or may not be accompanied by images. Anyway, they look at all these aspects, which often appear in authoritative content, and create a code, which serves the internet search service to know what your site actually looks like.

Below is an example of using the Rank Manager, where you can insert aspects of your website to generate this resource (after filling in each field, just click on “Test”, in the upper right corner). This information appears on the screen as soon as you access the page. Furthermore, the use of this tool is free.

Google SERP Snippet Optimizer

The function of Google's optimizer is quite simple, despite its complex name. It shows how the site looks on the search engine results page (also known as Search Engine Results Page, or SERP). The tool needs three types of data to be provided: the title of the page being tested, its meta description and URL.

As you fill in, the pixel numbers will vary to show if you have an ideal size for each item. Here, it is worth an important tip regarding these metrics: the ideal length for a title is 60 characters and for the meta description (the text that talks about your own website itself) it is 160 characters.

Ahrefs Backlink Checker

If you are looking to identify links that refer to a website, it is very useful to have a tool like Backlink Checker from Ahrefs. Main function: the user can see the most referenced pages in links, in addition to the total of backlinks — ideal for making your site well positioned in search engines, as they show that your content is being shown on other pages on the internet. This can happen when, for example, the showmetech do a review of some TV and the brand shows our evaluation on the website.

Along with this information, the checker also allows you to check notes related to the URL (known as the authority domain) to the website's domain, which are accompanied by the numbers of backlinks, including addresses dofollow (these are the links that make the search engine return to a site). When applying the tool with any website, the result also shows a ranking with the websites that are mentioning another internet address.

EmailHunter

the use of Hunter allows detecting email addresses, being very practical for link building. This practice is a strategy aimed at generating more backlinks, with the aim of creating marketing content and mentioning a brand name that does not have the URL address on a page. That is, you can make the site be well positioned through references to your site. For this, Hunter verifies contacts and emails that can help in this task of creating these links

And where does email come into this story? With the bulk of EmailHunter, you can scan to check email addresses that are on a website, with a limit of 25 free searches per month. From the contact, it is possible that you offer some service in partnership with the content of your website, through the email addresses offered in the results. In the image, a test with a store's website: see that Hunter shows several fonts (sources) pointing to several emails that can be used for this.

Google Search Console

O Google it also offers a feature to check the site against the SERP. When inserting the link, the Google Search Console observes whether the address appears in the search engine's database, in addition to evaluating the indexing of the page and indicating possible defects in navigation with the address. In this way, the Search Console it indicates how the online page appears in search results, how the keywords are related to the site, all in addition to other very robust resources for optimization.

Also, you can check how the links are, with the possibility of evaluating the performance of different media that are in the content — seeing click-through rate data on each of them, for example. It is worth remembering that, if you are going to use the search engine platform, to access this tool, you need to confirm that you are, in fact, the owner of the website.

We give an example below of how this true penknife for improving website optimization can facilitate your content management with SEO. You can ask for Search Console check click-through rates, while also looking at total impressions and other statistics over time. Check it out in the image:

Cloudflare

The content network also has a tool that looks to see if a site has a valid SSL certificate. As you may have seen throughout this article, having a good reputation it helps to stay on the first page of internet searches. Precisely for this reason, the Cloudflare is a good solution: if you try to use the DNS option (acronym for domain name system, which is the 'domain name system', that is, the database where your site's name is), it tries to find out whether or not the address provided is letting you see the identification of a site.

To have access to the options page, which you saw earlier, it is necessary that you have an account in the Cloudflare: This way you get access to other tuning features that can make your content SEO management easier. Among the other services that the network system for websites offers is the possibility of adjusting your content distribution network, page redirection, in addition to protecting your website from attacks and spam and contributing to improving its speed. , as you see in the image:

GTmetrix

If your objective is to see the performance of a site, the GTmetrix can help. It also diagnoses what is making the site slow to appear, giving some tips on what to do if there is a problem — the application may indicate, for example, changes in the size of images or use of the Content Delivery Network (CDN). In the image, a test made with the website of the showmetech. We can see that there is a high score, with the time to load and interact with the page on display.

ShortPixel

Using this feature is very simple: it serves to make the images of your content more compressed. That is, opting for this tool for this task can reduce the burden of uploading the photos that are included in your content. With this, your website loads faster and is better positioned in search results, contributing to the SEO of your page.

A bonus of having the ShortPixel is that it optimizes your media library by giving you guidance on how to adjust the size of images. Still, another advantage is that it manages to accelerate the performance of your site, improving the position in search engine rankings, in addition to being also available as a plug-in for Wordpress. In the image, we leave an example of an application, which also has a paid version (to access it, just click on the Pricing, in the top bar section of the site). See a sample of the tool's action with the showmetech:

Robots.txt

When a site has a file robot.txt, it becomes more accessible to search engines. The reason is that it can indicate to Internet search engines how to explore the site more quickly. Also, when using a file like this in the HTML of the site, search engines can see a string (string) of URL specific. In this case, there is no specific tool: it is an application in the internal structure of the site.

In the image, we have an example of using the code applied to a page of Wordpress. It contains permission to index all content on the site. In the part where it says "Disallow” (do not allow, in free translation), automation does not let search engines see the “core” files of your site. In the part that comes before this line, we see that the robot.txt allows the site to be accessed outside of this central area.

By using this code file on your website, you can obtain more accurate control of page traffic, as search engines are directed to specific parts of your content. However, it is good for you to be aware of some observations regarding the code of the muzzle: not all search engines analyze the file in the same way, so you need to observe (preferably with the support of a web developer) how the syntax of the robot.txt; even if a part of the site appears in disallow, it is possible that it is placed on other sites and, even so, be found by internet search engines.

hreflang tag generator

One more for those who like to tinker with HTML: with a hreflang consistent with the content of your site, you tend to guide search engines about the region and language of your content. In other words, use of this tag allows search engines to understand the target audience of what is on a website. The example of the following image, which serves to obtain sitemaps in XML format, can be accessed here:

View Rendered Source

The function here is to know how your web page is rendered. One more for developers: the tool lets you see the “raw” version and what is being rendered. if you use the Google Chrome, it is possible to have a plug-in. Once installed, it shows both versions and there is a function to check how the Google bot is treating your content — an essential feature for SEO.

SEO Content Template (Semrush)

A Semrush it also gives you the chance to organize your content with a more original structure that creates a greater relationship with your site. For this, the SEO content template prepares the structure of your online content with greater reputation, seeking to verify that you cover as much as possible of the subject that you seek to have on your page.

How it works: by placing the keyword linked to the content you produce, the tool observes some other producer on the internet in the same area. To use, in addition to the KW, you indicate the country, region, city and content format (mobile or desktop). In this way, the resource Semrush verifies which attributes must be put into practice in order to implement a more efficient optimization, also showing information about what may be contributing or hindering your site's position on search results pages.

In the example, in the image, I put the following parameters: Brazil, Pernambuco, Recife and results for mobile. The KW placed is “carnival block”. Note that the tool indicates which content is most appropriate with the site, with hints of backlinks, according to the entries provided in this example.

BrightLocal's SERP Checker

This other tool for search engine results pages lets the user see searches for KWs in relation to more specific locations. When using the SERP of BrightLocal, you can include the address, country and language in which you want to see the results. After clicking on “Check search results” (check search results, in free translation), you will be taken to a section that contains pages of results with the term, according to the location selected before. It is worth remembering that the free use of the platform is limited to 10 free surveys per day.

Google Analytics

This is one of the most famous. It is useful for websites because it verifies various data of a website: impressions (accesses to the page), duration of each user's session, including the number of visitors, among other important points to evaluate a website's audience. There are other possibilities with Google Analytics, ranging from visitor conversion monitoring, demographic data linked to audience and website traffic analysis.

Google Analytics works with the inclusion of a website for monitoring. After you observe the useful data for your page, it is recommended that you observe if it is better to evaluate sessions, access rates and other data that are shown, as shown in the image:

It is also important that you knew what the reports are for, which are on the left side of the graphics page of the Google Analytics, as they show the effects of optimizing the online content produced by you or your company. Here's a list to guide you on the first three items:

• Real time: where you can see how users are browsing your online content (you can click on this feature and see how many users are currently accessing the site, for example);
• Target public: shows the website owner data related to the profile of people who have access to the website (age, gender, location, etc.);
• Acquisition: ideal option for those who work with campaigns, because it indicates how many people started to consume a product or service on the site, after clicking on an ad on the page.

Wayback Machine

Do you want to know how some internet page looked like in the past? Use the Wayback Machine to view sites in old formats and get to know how other competitors' sites were organized. This use is good for knowing which sections were relevant and understanding what subjects are on the radar of other sites. In this way, you have another optimization strategy with SEO that observes what is being done and, mainly, better plan its content.

---

🔠 Keywords: search engines and suggestions: this section is dedicated to understanding how the SEO can be improved from important search terms or, as they are better known, the Keyword (keywords), also called KWs. Thus, the resources you see listed in this part are aimed at showing how tools can search for useful names to index your content well, bringing them closer to the top of the results.

Ahrefs Keyword Generator

Producing content requires you to delve into search terms that are related to what users are most looking for. Simply put: be aware of how other people are looking for a subject, before producing content. To follow this premise, you need to know more about the content to be produced, what other producers are publishing on the subject, but you also need to look, mainly, for the Keyword involved. As keyword generator you see the most relevant 100 KWs, which come together with the most pertinent ideas.

In addition to this function, the generator is also incorporated with searches on other websites. You can do research on relevant KWs within YouTube, Bing, Amazon. Did you find little? The website even has a ranking with useful keywords and metrics that evaluate some potential, including traffic to a site that has a high reputation for the term.

Google Keyword Planner

Speaking of simplicity, the planner of Google to find KWs serves as a tool to have other keywords that are related to the main term. That is, it acts to find subjects that are relevant to what you are looking for. The difference is that Keyword Planner ( Google Keyword Planner, GKP) works with the use of semantics (the network of meaning linked to the word of interest).

If you try to search for “sneakers” in GKP, for example, the tool will return results beyond “running shoes”, or “casual shoes”. Instead, the GKP will show terms like “shoe”, “moccasin”, “high heels”, among other types of footwear, as shown in the image.

Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush also provides a platform for you to find useful terms for your page. The advantage of using the Keyword Magic Tool is to find keywords for content, with more targeted indications: the tool has both KW for the focus of your content and for more secondary terms.

The key terms platform is very simple to use. Just put the term you want to focus on in your content and then indicate which of the searched words are the main ones. After requesting the search, the result that appears contains questions and other KWs that can help optimize the content, in addition to informing, for example, if the use of the term is commercial or a specific answer. The image shows a test with “running shoes”:

---

🗨️ Questions & Terms: Searches for some words have a strong relationship with questions. When you don't know a name you hear on the news, for example, you might want to do a search and find out more. That's where the questions in the search box: they are also the focus of SEO. Next, check out tools that work with questions about KWs.

Also Asked

The purpose here is to see that questions are more relevant within Google searches. Usually, when you search for simple terms, the search engine will show you some questions that are related and put in a paragraph that might meet the search term. That's where the Also Asked enter: when a term is searched, the site cites relevant questions, with subtopics and, of course, questions that have to do with KW.

The operation is very intuitive. You soon notice with the network shown by the application, with simple and more specific questions. An ideal application for Also Asked is to search for topics that are important to some content: that way, you reach an audience that tends to look for a specific question. But attention! This tool only has 3 free uses per month.

Answer the Audience

Neil Patel's tool is able to give a range of results about a KW, with a grid relating specific questions to each research question. That is: the Answer the Audience manages to unite the word suggestion and question functions, bringing a ranking with terms association tips.

Other data that the tool shows include search volume (the application evaluates whether the number is good or not), cost per click, in addition to comparing with other search results for other KWs. Check out the example:

keyworddit

It is useful to use the Reddit to give more traffic to your content? If this is the strategy, it is worth counting on the keyword. The searches in this application are dedicated to the social network of forums, with data on the volume of monthly searches and where the word is being discussed. This is important because the forums accumulate a lot of debates, which extend into several networks of comments and responses.

The tool asks the user to place the subreddit (as the network's forums are called) and when clicking on Get Keywords (Get Keywords, in free translation), appears a list with several high KW in the forum, with searches made by inhabitants of the USA. An example below subreddit “cooking for beginners” (kitchen for beginners):

---

💻 Other Google Tools: without one of the most famous search engines on the internet, it is possible to risk that this post would not even exist. So here's a special space for other engine tools. Here are other applications from one of the most promising companies in the world. Alphabet Inc. that may be more useful to you. Check out:

Google Trends

Another tool that is provided by the most well-known search engine is the Google Trends: the use of the resource allows mapping search trends by KW in regions, selecting a time interval, among other possibilities. The use of these settings allows the content producer to do research on subjects that will still be more likely to be searched in the short term, including.

You can use Trends to narrow down your results by cities, seeing what searches are performed on your keyword. Below is an example with a specific region: the application spans various graphs and lists to see what is gaining the most attention with the term “fantasy”

Google DataStudio

This time, let's talk about graphics. If you want to know more about your site's data with an accessible and intuitive view when editing, you can count on Google DataStudio. It is possible to assemble several graphs with the search engine platform, but you can also include monitoring data for your content, importing it in the data studio.

The platform has several formats and you can divide the data categories into a section that is on the right of the screen. There, you place the file (in spreadsheet format, as in CSV) and adapt each type of information contained in the file. Then just choose which type of chart to mount.

Google Company Profile Manager

If you are looking for a solution that puts your business at the top of the results, try using the Google business it's a great opportunity. It supports your company's content to appear well positioned in simple search results and on Google Maps, as it facilitates the creation of a greater reputation for your brand.

The finder application also provides useful links to people's reviews of your organization. That is, you get internet addresses that can be useful for your business website to appear in other search results.

Google Alerts

Google alerts are very efficient in searching for a term or the name of a company. It could be that you own a business that is growing and you are trying to understand, for example, what other terms your organization is being searched for. through the Google Alerts, you can see this and hear about mentions related to your business or your content — even with pages that don't link to what you're looking for, but involve the term of interest.

It's worth a tip here: if you want to use this feature of the search engine, be aware of the emails that Alerts sends, as the messages show which pages are cited. And, if you want to go deeper, just open the source code of the page you are interested in observing (to do this, open the site you want and then press CTRL+U) and look in the code itself for the domain of its content (the command is CTRL+F).

---

🔌Plugins to improve SEO: in this section, we have examples of applications that, most of the time, come coupled with other resources, such as editors or even browsers. You can try to install them and experiment, if they serve your need for reputation with internet search engines.

Rank Math

Anyone who has ever used the Wordpress You should already be familiar with this one. Ranking is a plug-in that evaluates the SEO of a page by various parameters within the page, as well as more technical characteristics of search engine optimization. Within the text editor for websites, the Rank Math operates giving a score from 0 to 100, depending on the use of some items.

Among these important aspects for content optimization are keywords, use of images, external and internal links, in addition to varying terms in the text. As these points are met by the author of the text, the tool gives more points to what is being produced.

the use of Rank Math it can be quite wide. So, once it's installed, it's worth taking a look at the functions it performs for you and knowing what else is appropriate for your content. If you are interested in improving automatic redirects or check o markup diagram of your site, having this tool can be important,

Ahrefs SEO Toolbar

Here we have an example of an extension that can be installed in browsers. What does he do: Ahrefs SEO Toolbar verifies data from pages visited and, with that, gives ideas of terms that can be used to improve some content. This is relevant to actually seeing search results via the plugin.

When you install the Ahrefs toolbar, you get to know keyword numbers, search traffic, backlinks, among other useful functions. Just search for a term and the application already lists which keywords are most associated.

WordPress SEO by Ahrefs

O Ahrefs it can also be embedded in a site editor. When applied, the WordPress SEO by Ahrefs manages to evaluate the content of the site managed by the platform, indicating some recommendations (more or less how the RankMath do WP). After evaluating, you can click on any of the suggestions and see what steps to take. That is, you have a resource that, within the editor itself, already shows what must be done to resolve any error in optimizing your content.

Squirrly SEO

This other plugin is for users who don't have as much SEO experience. Even in operation, he is by your side, in case of doubts with the creation of content, as he provides tips on how to improve your text while it is being written. In addition, there is a considerable advantage with using this tool: you can use other plug-ins, such as those shown above, without interfering with the functioning of the Squirrly SEO.

A bonus: not only are tips given by the little squirrel, but he will also send you a weekly report on how your progress is going with the site you manage, and even show recent tweets as a KW that is important to you.

And there? Think you can more easily optimize your content? Tell us in the comments, here at showmetech!

See also:

10 tips to increase your reach on Instagram

Check out 20 Hidden Google Chrome Tips and Tricks

Source: Digital Results | Blog | Google Search Center | Ahrefs Twitter Thread

reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 2 / 5 / 23.