Essential Free SEO Tools: A Comprehensive Guide

Enhance your website’s search engine performance without spending a dime. Here’s a curated collection of the most effective free tools for search engine optimization.

In today’s digital landscape, SEO operations heavily depend on specialized tools. These tools are crucial for website analysis, research, and informed decision-making in SEO strategies.

While premium SEO tools offer comprehensive features and dedicated support, their cost might be prohibitive for many. Fortunately, numerous free alternatives exist. With proper knowledge and implementation, you can build a robust toolkit of free resources to achieve your SEO objectives.

Understanding SEO Tools

SEO tools serve as essential instruments for website analysis and optimization. Rather than just providing raw data, these tools deliver actionable insights and strategic recommendations to enhance your online presence.

Consider these tools as your navigation system in the complex landscape of search engine optimization. They precisely indicate your current position and guide you toward improved visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Each tool serves a specific purpose within your SEO strategy:

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The Necessity of SEO Tools

In simple terms, SEO tools are indispensable for effective website optimization.

Think about constructing furniture without any tools - it’s virtually impossible. Similarly, while basic website management is possible with fundamental knowledge, proper optimization requires specialized tools.

Without these instruments, you’re essentially operating on guesswork.

Lacking SEO tools means missing crucial insights such as:

While maintaining a website without SEO tools is technically possible, achieving optimal performance and audience reach requires these essential resources.

Premier Free SEO Tools

For those beginning their SEO journey or seeking cost-effective solutions, here’s our selection of 110 outstanding free SEO tools.

Free Analytics Tools

1. Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics interfaceImage captured May 2022

With 14.2 million active websites, Google Analytics 4 stands as a cornerstone tool for digital marketing professionals focused on SEO.

This platform delivers comprehensive website analytics, including visitor statistics, traffic origins, and demographic information.

The insights provided by Google Analytics enable marketers to refine their content strategies and identify successful approaches.

Google Analytics 4 represents an essential tool for digital marketing success.

2. Looker Studio (Formerly Data Studio)

Google Looker Studio allows you to merge data from various sources, such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and create sharable visualizations.

If you’re just getting started with it, this beginner’s guide to Data Studio will be helpful.

More advanced users can learn how to use CASE statements for better Data Studio segments here.

3. Keyword Hero

Missing keyword data? Leave it to Keyword Hero, which uses advanced math and machine learning to fill in the blanks.

This service is free for up to 2,000 sessions per month. Keyword Hero also provides a 14-day free trial of any of its plans.

4. Mozcast

Mozcast provides real-time monitoring of Google’s algorithm changes.

Given Google’s frequent algorithm updates throughout the year, staying informed helps maintain optimal search result rankings.

5. Panguin Tool

Panguin Tool from Barracuda Digital correlates your search traffic data with known Google algorithm updates.

When you notice a traffic decline that coincides with an update, you can identify the cause and implement necessary improvements.

6. Google Search Console Enhancer

A powerful Chrome extension that amplifies your Google Search Console capabilities. The Google Search Console Enhancer supercharges your Console experience with enhanced data visualization and analysis features.

7. Better Regex in Search Console

This innovative Chrome extension enhances your Google Search Console experience.

Perfect for SEO professionals who need advanced search pattern capabilities to analyze website search query data in detail.

8. Lost Impressions Index Check

The TameTheBots tool helps identify potential visibility gaps in search results, revealing opportunities for SEO improvement.

Free Crawling & Indexing Tools

9. Redirect Path

Redirect Path ToolScreenshot from Redirect Path, March 2024

The Redirect Path Chrome extension, trusted by over 300,000 users, identifies various HTTP Status Codes including 301, 302, 404, and 500.

It also detects client-side redirects such as meta and JavaScript redirects, ensuring comprehensive redirect monitoring.

Additional features include access to HTTP Headers information (server types, caching headers) and server IP addresses, all available with a single click.

All detected information can be easily copied for sharing or documentation purposes.

This Chrome extension ensures your redirect chains are properly configured for both users and search engines.

11. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Conduct thorough website audits with Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

Identify various technical issues including HTTP header problems, JavaScript rendering issues, excessive HTML, crawl errors, content duplication, and more.

12. Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer

Utilize Screaming Frog’s Log File Analyzer to process your log files and verify search engine crawler behavior.

13. SEOlyzer

Another SEO log analysis tool that provides data in real-time and page categorization.

14. Xenu

One of the original free SEO tools, Xenu is a crawler that provides basic site audits, looks for broken links, and the other usual suspects.

15. Where Goes?

Track where redirection URLs and shortened links go with Where Goes?

Check My Links sampleScreenshot from Check My Links, May 2024

Check My Links is a nifty Chrome Extension with over 10,000 users that crawls through your webpage and identifies the status code for each link on the page – including broken links.

Each status code is color-coded with 200 status codes returning dark green, 300 status codes returning light green, and 400 status codes returning red.

Once identified, you can copy all bad links to your clipboard with one click.

17. Robots.txt Generator

Create a correct robots.txt file instantly so search engines know how to crawl your website.

Advanced users can customize their files with Robots.txt Generator as well.

18. HEADMaster SEO

Checks URLs in bulk for status code, redirect status, response time, response headers, and HTTP header fields with HEADMaster SEO.

Get results in real-time, sort and study your findings, and export your work to CSV.

19. Keep-Alive Validation SEO Tool

Check URLs in bulk – or one by one – to see if their servers support persistent connection, which makes your website load faster.

Check what version of HTTP your server is on and whether there are any external connections on your URL with this tool.

20. Hreflang Tag Generator

Generate hreflang tags so that Google knows which language particular pages on your website are in.

This will allow Google to search those pages in that language.

21. XML Sitemaps

Create a site map of up to 500 pages for free without registration.

Download your sitemap as an XML file or get it via email.

22. SERP Checker

Determine the potential ranking difficulty of a keyword with Ahrefs’ free SERP Checker tool.

You can check the top 10 search ranking results from any location without using proxies or location-specific IP addresses.

23. SFAIK Screaming Frog Analyzer

A robust visualization of Screaming Frog crawl data using Google Data Studio.

24. SEOWL Google Title Rewrite Checker

This Google Title Rewrite Checker will allow you to check if Google is rewriting the title of a list of pages, allowing for deeper Title Tag structure analysis.

Free Keyword Research Tools

25. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic for marketingScreenshot from AnswerThePublic, May 2024

AnswerThePublic is a nifty tool that provides content marketers with valuable data about the questions people ask online. It has over 2.7 million customers.

Once you input a keyword, it fetches popular queries based on that keyword and generates a cool graphic with the questions and phrases people use when they search for that keyword.

This data gives content creators insight into potential customers’ concerns and desires, and enables them to craft highly targeted content that addresses those needs.

AnswerThePublic also provides keyword suggestions using prepositions such as “versus,” “like,” and “with.”

It is an excellent research tool that can help you create better content that people will enjoy and be more likely to share.

26. Keyword Explorer

This keyword research tool will give you up to 1,000 keyword suggestions, a keyword difficulty score, a click-through rate date, and SERP analysis.

You get three free searches per day.

27. Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner is designed for ad campaigns, but you can use it for keyword research by seeing how keywords perform in ads.

28. Keyword Sheeter

Get keyword volume, cost per click, and competition data with this free keyword tool.

29. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere sampleScreenshot from Keywords Everywhere, May 2024

Keywords Everywhere is a must-use keyword research tool due to the massive list of sites that it provides free search volume, CPC, and competition data for:

It’s available for Chrome and Firefox.

30. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty

This tool lets you discover how difficult it will be to rank in the top 10 search results for any keyword.

Simply enter your term and choose your location, and Ahrefs will give you a score, with 0 being easy and 100 being extremely difficult.

31. Also Asked

Find out what questions people are asking about particular keywords so that you can write content that answers those questions with Also Asked.

Conduct searches by country and in different languages. You can claim three free searches to start.

With Google Trends, you can see the interest in a particular term from as recently as an hour to as far back as 2004.

Sort by categories, country, and type of search. See related topics, popularity by region, latest most frequently searched-for terms, and compare to other terms.

33. Glimpse – Google Trends Search Extension

This Chrome extension brings Google Trends right to your browser, offering instant insights into trending topics.

It’s a goldmine for SEO strategists looking to tap into current interests and emerging searches.

34.  Keyword Surfer

This Chrome extension shows you the search volume in your Google search results. You can also see the word count and the number of keywords for top-ranking pages.

35. CanIRank

CanIRank homepageScreenshot by author, March 2024

As the name implies, CanIRank helps you determine if you can rank on the first page of search engines for a particular keyword.

Unlike other tools that merely provide data about how competitive keywords are, CanIRank lets you know the probability that you’ll rank for a search term and uses AI to give you suggestions on how to better target keywords.

CanIRank provides great competitive analysis data and actionable steps to get your site ranking higher with better SEO.

36. Seed Keywords

Come up with a question or topic you want to research, send it to your contacts, and have them select the keywords they would search for to get the information you want with Seed Keywords.

37. Exploding Topics

Similar to Google Trends, Exploding Topics will help uncover topics that are about to become popularly searched before they become popularly searched!

38. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest exampleScreenshot by Ubersuggest, May 2024

Ubersuggest is a simple keyword research tool that scrapes data from Google’s Keyword Planner for keyword ideas based on a keyword you provide.

The tool, which boasts more than 50,000 users, also returns handy data for each keyword, including the search volume, CPC, and level of competition.

An excellent feature of Ubersuggest is its ability to filter out keywords you’re not interested in from search results.

The tool has recently added a feature where you can type in a competitor’s domain to get better keyword ideas.

39. Keys4Up

Get the related keywords, also known as semantically linked keywords, for any search with Keys4Up.

40. Wordtracker Scout

Wordtracker Scout will help discover what keywords people search for when they’re ready to make a purchase.

41. KWFinder

With KWFinder, you can discover long-tail keywords – those more specific, less frequently used keywords that yield higher results because of how specific they are.

42. Keywords People Use

Get into the minds of your audience by discovering the exact phrases and questions they use.

This tool helps you align your content with real user searches, making your site more visible and relevant.

43. Disavow Tool

Use Google’s Disavow Tool to free yourself from toxic backlinks.

See the backlink profile and domain authority of any URL with Link Explorer.

Discover if a given URL has any broken links and discover the metrics of those links, including both search and social data with the Link Miner extension.

Use this Backlink Checker to discover all the backlink data about a particular URL.

See the number of referring domains, the number of backlinks, the domain and URL rating, and its Ahrefs Rank, a domain’s position in Ahrefs’s list of most powerful sites.

47. The Anchor Text Suggestion Tool By Outreach Labs

Discover the best anchor text to use for any URL with this Anchor Text Suggestion Tool.

48. SendPulse

SendPulse allows for the configuration of chains of emails, notifications, and SMS messages based on user actions, variables, or events.

49. Scraper

This Chrome extension lets you scrape data from any URL and export the info into a spreadsheet.

50. Help A Reporter (HARO)

Help A Reporter is a resource that connects journalists and experts who act as sources for stories.

51. Streak

Convert your Gmail inbox into customer relationship management (CRM) software with this free extension.

Local SEO

52. Google Business Profile

Connect with customers across Google Search and Google Maps using a free Google Business Profile.

Use this tool to find your Google Review listing and generate a shortened link to your page.

54. Local Search Results Checker

Conduct local searches using Google Search or Google Maps with Brightlocal’s Local Search Results Checker.

55. Moz Local Check Business Listing

Confirm that your company’s details appear correctly on various directories with Moz’s Local Business Checker.

56. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

Track your citations, discover new opportunities, and get the citations your competitors have with this Local Citation Finder.

57. Review Handout Generator

Print instructions on how to leave a Google review via desktop or mobile device for your business with Whitespark’s Review Handout Generator.

58. Fakespot Review Checker

This Chrome extension lets you know if the product you’re about to buy comes from a reputable seller and, if not, provides an alternative.

59. Mobile SERP Test

See your local SERPS on various mobile devices with Mobile SERP Test from Mobile Moxie.

Mobile SEO Tools

60. WebPageTest

webpagetest mobile seo toolScreenshot by author, March 2024

Get visual insights for Core Web Vitals, including the primary image responsible for low LCP scores, scripts responsible for render-blocking, and .gif examples of cumulative layout shifts from the WebPageTest.

61. Merkle Mobile-First Index Checker

See how your website stacks up relative to SEO best practices, depending on whether it’s your desktop or mobile version, with Mobile-First Index Checker.

62. Google Page Speed Insights

Test your website’s mobile-friendliness with Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.

63. GTMetrix

See how quickly your website loads with GTMetrix.

Discover what’s keeping it from loading as fast as possible, and see what steps to take to optimize load speed.

64. Cloudflare

A free content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that speeds up content loading by using the server closest to the person doing the loading.

65. Reddico SERP Speed Test

Reddico’s SERP Speed Test tool allows you to compare your page speed at keyword level with the rest of the pages ranking on page 1.

The best part? Most countries are supported – simply choose your local from the drop-down.

Free Multi-Tools

66. Semrush Free Account

Semrush for SEJScreenshot from Semrush, March 2024

Semrush is an excellent keyword research SEO tool that, among other things, makes it easy to find out what keywords any page on the web is ranking for. It currently has 10 million users.

It provides detailed information about those keywords, including their position in SERPs, the URLs to which they drive traffic, and the traffic trends over the past 12 months.

With this feature-packed tool, you can easily find out what keywords your competitors are ranking for and craft great content around those terms and phrases.

Semrush also offers more features and unlimited access with various paid plans.

While they’re not cheap, you can get started with a 14-day free trial to test the premium features. Or follow the company’s guide on how to use features with a free account.

67. Chrome DevTools

Edit pages in real-time using tools that are built into Google Chrome DevTools.

Diagnose problems as you encounter them.

68. Marketing Miner

Get SERP data, ranking, tool reports, and competitive analysis all in the form of convenient reports with Marketing Miner, which has over 40,000 users.

69. MozBar

MozBar sampleScreenshot from Mozbar, March 2024

MozBar is a free SEO toolbar that works with the Chrome browser. It calls itself the industry’s leading SEO toolbar, with over 1 million installs. It provides easy access to advanced metrics on webpages and SERPs.

With MozBar and a free Moz account, you can easily access the Page and Domain Authority scores of any page or site.

The Page Analysis feature lets you explore elements on any page (e.g., markup, page title, general attributes, link metrics).

You can find keywords on the page you’re viewing, highlight and differentiate links, and compare the link metrics of different sites in SERPs.

If you need to do detailed SEO research on the go, MozBar is one of the best options.

You can unlock even more advanced features, such as Page Optimization and Keyword Difficulty, with a MozPro subscription.

70. SEO Minion

Conduct on-page SEO analysis, check for broken links, get a SERP preview, and more with this Chrome extension.

71. SEOquake

See SEO metrics and conduct an SEO audit with this Chrome extension.

72. Sheets For Marketers

Learn how to automate tasks in Google Sheets and discover the best automation templates and tools via this curated list.

73. Meta Length Tool

Character Counter InterfaceInterface snapshot, May 2024

While traditional methods focus on character count for meta descriptions and title tags, Google actually measures these elements in pixels rather than characters.

The Counting Characters tool provides both character and pixel measurements, ensuring your meta content displays properly without truncation (indicated by “…”).

74. Reddit Insight

The Reddit Insight tool offers valuable perspectives into Reddit’s vast community discussions and trends.

Understanding popular Reddit topics can inform your content strategy by revealing what genuinely interests your target audience, helping shape both keyword selection and content development.

On-Page SEO

84. Named Entities Indexing Checker

Part of InLinks, this indexing checker tool checks how well search engines understand the named entities (people, places, things) in your content.

Ensuring your content’s context is spot-on for better SEO performance is crucial.

85. JSON Crack

While more technical, this online JSON tool can help SEO professionals work with JSON, a common data format, making it easier to analyze and utilize structured data for SEO purposes.

86. Counting Characters Google SERP Tool

Counting Characters homepageScreenshot by author, May 2024

While counting characters has been a long-standing approach to evaluating meta description and title tag length, the reality is Google doesn’t count the meta title and description in the number of characters. It uses pixels instead.

The Counting Characters tool will provide both the character count and the pixel count to ensure you are creating meta tags that are not cut off by an ellipsis – represented by (…).

87. Natural Language API Demo

Use machine learning to determine the sentiment of text with the Natural Language API Demo.

New customers get $300 in free credits to spend on Natural Language. Use this data to improve your product or site design.

88. Rich Results Test

The Rich Results Test will discover if your website can support rich results, which is when your Google result includes non-textual elements like images.

89. Structured Markup Validator

Google’s structured data tool no longer exists. The Schema Markup Validator is the recommended alternative.

90. Ryte Structured Data Helper

The Ryte Structured Data Helper will provide you with a handy overview, showing you how to quickly and clearly validate your page’s Schema markup.

91. Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager allows you to manage your website tags without editing any code!

92. View Rendered Source

See how your browser renders a page with this Chrome extension, including modifications made by JavaScript.

Differences between raw and rendered versions are shown line-by-line.

93. Higher Visibility Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool

Find out what your SERP snippet will look like with Higher Visibility’s Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool.

94. Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator

Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator tool will help create JSON-LD markups for articles, breadcrumbs, events, FAQ pages, and how-to guides.

95. Animalz Revive

Find out which of your pages needs an update or an upgrade with Animalz Revive.

You can see the traffic for your pages, including the percentage of traffic your page lost since its peak.

96. Copyscape Free Comparison Tool

Copyscape’s Comparison Tool will help you check the percentage of shared text between two different pages to weed out plagiarism.

97. Internal Linking Tool

An internal linking tool to help you weave a web of internal links on your website, boosting your SEO by making your site more navigable and interconnected. Think of it as laying down a network of roads within your website, guiding visitors and search engines alike.

SEO Research Tools

98. Hunter

Hunter will help find all the important email addresses associated with a given domain.

99. SimilarWeb

Conduct competitor analysis with SimilarWeb that shows you a given domain’s traffic, top pages, engagement, marketing channels, and more.

100. Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer will help you determine if a given website is using a CMS, CRM, ecommerce platform, advertising networks, marketing tools, or analytics.

101. Wayback Machine

See a website throughout time, including pages that are no longer on the web with the Wayback Machine.

Bonus* check out the Compare tool to visualize how a page has changed based on specific timestamps.

wayback machine compare datesScreenshot by author, March 2024

102. SEO Explorer

SEO Explorer is a free tool for keyword and link research.

103. RedditInsights.ai

This is a cool tool for peering into the vast world of Reddit to uncover trends and topics.

Understanding what’s buzzing on Reddit can guide content creation, helping you tap into what your audience is interested in to inform your keyword and content strategy.

104. Thruuu Page Comparison Tool

Dive into side-by-side SEO comparisons of different web pages with the Thruuu Page Comparison Tool.

You can use this to help you understand how to optimize your own content.

Free Rank Checking Tools

105. Ahref’s SERP Checker

See the domains that place in the top 10 for any given keyword in 243 countries, and get robust analytics from Ahref’s SERP Checker.

106. SERPROBOT

Find a dedicated SERP tracking tool with the appropriately named SERPROBOT.

Set up automatic alerts, choose the frequency with which your SERP is checked, and get visual representations of changes.

107. Bulk Google Rank Checker

See your website’s SERPs for various keywords en mass with the Bulk Google Rank Checker.

Free Site Speed Tools

108. Lighthouse

This is Google’s open-source site speed utility. Lighthouse provides audits of performance, accessibility, web apps, SEO, and more.

109. WebpageTest

WebpageTest conducts site speed tests from different locations using different browsers.

110. Web Vitals

This GitHub extension measures Core Web Vitals, providing instant feedback on loading, interactivity, and layout shift metrics.

Here is an additional list of plugins to improve site speed.

WordPress SEO Tools

WordPress is a robust SEO-friendly CMS platform with numerous plugin options available to improve SEO.

While this post isn’t a WordPress-specific list of plugins, it is worth mentioning a handful of key plugins worth considering.

111. RankMath

A newer SEO suite for WordPress, RankMath has 15 modules and provides SEO guidance using 30 different types of improvements.

112. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most installed SEO suite for WordPress, with 13+ million users. It provides regular updates and new tools.

113. Ahrefs WordPress SEO Plugin

The Ahrefs WordPress SEO plugin will provide you with content audits, backlink checking, and tools to monitor and grow your organic traffic.

Here are additional lists of Google Analytics plugins and plugins to improve site speed.

Free AI SEO Tools

Last but not least, we cannot ignore AI.

For better or worse, artificial intelligence has completely shaken up the digital world. While it should never replace your current SEO activities, it can certainly enhance them.

Here are some free AI SEO tools; we’ll also explain how to use them.

114. OpenAI Chat (ChatGPT)

chatgpt seo toolScreenshot by author, March 2024

Perhaps the most famous AI tool out there – with over 200 million weekly users – ChatGPT can be a great help in your SEO efforts.

You can ask for advice, generate content ideas, and even get help with keyword research. It’s like having an SEO buddy you can brainstorm with anytime.

While the Premium ChatGPT, i.e., ChatGPT 4, is paid, ChatGPT 3.5 is free of charge.

115. AIRPM for ChatGPT

Think of AIPRM as your personal assistant to supercharge ChatGPT’s capabilities.

It helps you craft prompts that get straight to the point, whether you’re looking for keyword suggestions, content ideas, or SEO strategies, making your interactions with ChatGPT even more fruitful.

116. SEO.AI

This innovative tool leverages AI to analyze your content’s alignment with SEO best practices and offers suggestions for improvement.

It can provide insights into keyword optimization, readability, and other on-page SEO factors, helping you refine your content to better match search engine algorithms and user expectations.

You can get 10 content audits free!

Time to Take Your SEO Efforts To New Heights

In today’s digital landscape, standing out is not just about having a great website; it’s about making sure it’s seen.

With well over 100 free SEO tools at your disposal, the power to elevate your online presence is literally at your fingertips.

We’ll leave you with some parting tips to help you while using these free SEO tools:

So, whether you’re a seasoned SEO strategist or just starting, the wealth of free tools available means there’s no excuse not to optimize your site.

Dive in, explore, and watch as your website climbs the ranks, attracting more visitors and turning clicks into customers.