Top 10 Free SEO Tools

Even without the use of costly paid SEO software, a lot of optimization can be done. The trick to getting the most out of free tools is to find the best for each category that you need and combine results from multiple tools to come up with actionable information. There are literally hundreds of free SEO tools available online and it is hard to sort through a lot of the fluff. Here are ten of the best free tools we could find:

SEOmoz

The free version of the popular tools gives limited results from some of its most popular tools. For the full experience there is also a free trial which allows limited time use of all the tools with unlimited results. This toolset is very powerful so plan out your action plan before starting the trial.

Google Keyword Tool

Probably the best tool to search for keywords on Google and for ad group ideas. The results will include keyword competition, traffic estimation and related phrases. All of these can be added to keyword lists which can be exported or used for ad bidding.

Rankquest SEO Toolbar

This SEO toolbar provides information on site and page performance on search engines. There are many other toolbars, but most are tied to paid services like SEOmoz PRO.

SEMRush

SEMRush is a keyword competition and analysis tool. The reports provide a list of the phrases that a site ranks for, the ranking and estimated traffic. The free version of SEMRush shows limited number of results but allows you to look at any number of domains.

BuzzStream Meta Tag Extractor

When doing competitor keyword research, there will be a point when you have a list of links and will need more basic information from each. The BuzzStream Meta Tag Extractor will extract titles, description and keywords for each URL entered.

Rank Tracker

Although smaller search engines no longer provide meaningful traffic, Rank Tracker checks for rankings on up to 400 different search engines.

Keyword.io

This is a keyword research tool which uses Google’s own auto complete to generate keyword lists. When you enter a word it uses prefixes and suffixes to build a list. Perfect for long tail keyword research, it generates up to 750 per query.

Copyscape

The most popular method of searching for plagiarized content online. The paid version allows you to check content directly, while the free version allows a URL to be checked. There is nothing worse than duplicate content, so a good practice is to run Copyscape on every published article to look out for any content theft.

Xenu

A downloadable free windows application which can scan a website and provide information such as internal links, error codes and broken links. Even external links can be scanned. A very fast scanner that might need to be adjusted.

Siteliner

An online tool similar to Xenu. Enter a URL and it will scan the entire site and generate reports for everything from broken links to PageRank.