Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial to your website’s online success.

SEO is a combination of technical work, content creation, and creative on-page techniques that improve the visibility and search engine rank of your site. Higher visibility means more website traffic. More website traffic means more potential customers, leads, and sales. Identifying the SEO techniques that work for your site will take time and hard work, but using the right tools can make that process a bit easier.  

With SEO being so important, there are many, many tools available on the internet. To help you narrow the list, we’ve put together the top five SEO tools to use for your website in 2022.

Keyword Research Tool

One of the first tools to look into for SEO is a keyword research tool. Not only do these tools provide helpful information related to popular keywords in your industry, but they’ll also give details on how to improve your site’s speed and technical elements. Some of the most popular tools used are Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz.

You will only need to choose one of the three to get started with SEO, but do your research to decide which tool best fits your company’s needs. Each of them offers competitor analysis, website optimization suggestions, rank monitoring, detailed reporting, and more. Pretty much any data you could need from a keyword research tool can be found from using one of these tools.

Google Analytics

A higher volume of website traffic is great when working on your SEO. However, knowing the quality of this traffic is even better. Google Analytics generates beneficial data to understanding where your visitors are coming from, how they interact with your site, and what they’re using to find you. Are certain pages performing well for keywords but have a high bounce rate? Are other pages leading to more contact form submissions? Knowing how your website performs once it receives the increase in organic traffic is essential to turning traffic into customers. 

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to monitor how Google views your website. When connected with your Google Analytics account, it monitors your site’s performance and provides a look into keyword terms and phrases customers are searching to find your website. Keywords that aren’t performing well in search engine results show a lower percentage of traffic. You’ll also be able to analyze pages with a low click-through-rate. Google Search Console is a great tool for providing an insight into your website’s data and performance.

SEO WordPress Plugin

Before creating any website content, you should look into adding an SEO WordPress plugin to your website. Yoast SEO and All in One SEO are two of the most common beginner-friendly plugins available for WordPress. They analyze pages and content as you write them and provide suggestions on how to improve optimization. Search engine titles and meta descriptions are customizable to offer the best chance at ranking higher on Google, Bing, or other search engines. SEO plugins also handle some of the more technical sides of SEO, such as creating an XML sitemap. As long as you do your research and choose a safe, secure plugin, your website will benefit from using SEO WordPress tools.

Even if you don’t have a WordPress website, SEO tools are usually available within website builders. 

Competitor Research Tool

While keyword research tools offer competitor analysis for keywords, some sites take the cake when it comes to delving deeper into your competitors’ SEO strategies. SpyFu generates a comprehensive analysis on competing websites. Simply enter your competitor’s domain to find out keywords they rank for, the amount of organic keywords they have, keywords they pay for, and much more. You can even see ads they’re currently running and top competitors to their ranks. Analyzing your competitors’ SEO strategies provides valuable insight into how others are performing and where you can improve.

Choosing the right SEO tools for your business is the first step to establishing an SEO strategy. However, knowing how to effectively use these tools can be challenging. There isn’t one SEO tool that works as a one-size-fits all. You won’t be able to rely on an SEO tool alone to increase your website search engine rankings. For a more in-depth look into SEO strategies to optimize your website, check out How to Rank Higher in Search Engine Results.

Search engines are constantly changing how SEO works. Let us handle the work of making your website visible. We keep up with current trends so you don’t have to. Our SEO specialists in Quincy, IL have years of experience working with clients from all industries and has successfully created unique SEO strategies for each one. Let’s chat about how we can start growing your online success. Contact us today to get started.