Seven cool SEO tools - the webmaster's most important tools
In this post, I'm opening up my own toolbox to give you an insight into a selection of the tools I use more or less every day.
However, I only deal with tools that can be used across CMSs - so no Yoast, WP Rocket, Shopify apps and other CMS-specific solutions in this post.
Common to all the tools is that they require practice to master. Therefore, this post will be a general presentation of the tools and their advantages and benefits, as I could write seven skyscrapers about each of the seven tools if I really wanted to go into depth.
If you want more nerdy and specific tips than I have space to give you in this post, write to me at ak@amplify.dk.
Good tools are half the battle
The chef does not cook with a rough knife. The painter doesn't paint with old, cheap paint. And the carpenter doesn't carve with a dull chisel. But the chef, painter and carpenter also know that neither knife, paint nor chisel will do the job alone. They need an arsenal of tools to deliver a solid job. Good tools are half the battle.
The same applies to webmasters with ambitions for top rankings on Google - you can't optimize for search engines without good tools. But one good tool isn't enough either. Your toolbox needs to be filled to the brim with tools that serve their own purpose while complementing each other.
So with no further ado: Let's open the toolbox and take a look around.
1) Ahrefs - The SEO consultant's all-in-one tool
Ahrefs is always at the top of my toolbox when I take on an SEO case. That's not to say it's only useful in the initial phase of your SEO strategy. It's also great for ongoing monitoring and optimization - it's not without reason that I call it the SEO consultant's all-in-one tool.
But the reason I keep it at the top of my toolbox is because I see it as an indispensable tool for establishing a data foundation. This is not least due to Ahrefs' "content gap" function. Here you can compare your own visibility on relevant keywords with that of comparable competitors.
By entering competitors' domains, specific paths or URLs and comparing them to your own, you get a list of keywords that competitors are found on - but your website is not. In this way, the content gap feature is an exemplary tool for keyword analysis because you find new keywords that can make you visible to your target audience.
Example:
In the example below, I have compared a dental clinic website with 3 competitors in Ahrefs' content gap feature.
For example, I can see that all 3 competitors are found on "teeth whitening", and I get data on estimated monthly search volume (5,000) and keyword difficulty (3) for the keyword. This way I already know that:
- That the clinic's website should have a subpage on teeth whitening (if it offers this service).
- That there is a considerable amount of potential monthly traffic to be gained by ranking high on this keyword.
- That I don't need to invest much time and energy in link building for the site - keyword difficulty of 3 means that Ahrefs estimates that I only need backlinks from about 4 other websites to rank in the top 10.
I can then do this exercise with other relevant keywords from the list. Then I can dive deeper into my competitors via Ahrefs. For example, I can use Ahrefs' link building tool "Referring domains" to see which websites my competitors have backlinks from.
Finally, in the "overview" I can get additional data about a given keyword - for example, I get a list of typical questions about teeth whitening and input for alternative keywords.
In this way, I get a data-based direction for the angle of the text on my landing page because I now know which questions and subtopics are being searched for on Google. This increases my likelihood of ranking high.
I usually organize and categorize my keywords in a spreadsheet afterwards because it gives me an overview of keywords within the same category and prioritizes them. This ensures that I don't just write landing pages based on keywords - but also with a focus on matching the users' search intent.
Ahrefs comes with a wide range of features that make it easier to do both on-page and off-page SEO. In addition, you can use it to track keyword trends (Rank Tracker) and identify technical pitfalls (Site Audit).
I highly recommend exploring the Ahrefs Academy universe if you want to geek out on the countless options and features of this all-encompassing all-in-one tool.
2) Screaming Frog - instant insight into technical pitfalls
Don't let the silly name fool you - Screaming Frog is indispensable for the technical SEO consultant. It's also my go-to tool when I need to identify technical pitfalls on a website.
In fact, I always crawl a website in Screaming Frog as one of the first things I do when I need to find SEO-related technical pitfalls with a new customer. Screaming Frog reveals a lot of parameters that I would otherwise have to look through thousands of lines of code to find.
Via Screaming Frog you can, among other things:
- Find missing and duplicate h-tags
- Find missing and duplicate meta tags
- get an overview of images over 100 kb
- check if meta tags are the correct length
- Get an overview of your image sizes and alt texts
- Find broken links(404 pages)
- Analyze redirects during page migration
- via API retrieve data from Analytics, Search Console, Ahrefs, PageSpeed Insights and other SEO tools
- find directives that prevent your page from being crawled correctly
- Get an overview of your internal link profile and outbound links
- crawl your page the way Google will
- and much, much more....
In short, Screaming Frog gives you insight into all the technical challenges that can hinder your website's performance in Google's organic search results. And then you can start optimizing based on the information Screaming Frog serves you on a silver platter. .
You can read much more about how in Webamp's seven tips to improve your SEO via Screaming Frog.
You can download the program for free here - you can also purchase a license for Screaming Frog on the site. However, this is not necessary for most cases, as the free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, which is primarily relevant for larger webshops with many URLs.
3) PageSpeed Insights - indispensable insights into your website speed
Many SEO specialists have been pulling their hair out since Google made speed a ranking factor in 2020 with the Core Web Vitals algorithm update.
Because with the infamous algorithm update, website speed suddenly had a direct impact on SEO. Website speed was no longer just a question of user patience, but also of a website's ranking in Google's search results.
I've seen many online discussions about whether speed optimization is the responsibility of SEO specialists or developers. While it is developers who in many cases have the skills to optimize speed, it is also the responsibility of SEO specialists to identify the speed pitfalls, precisely because the speed of a website is so SEO-critical.
This is where PageSpeed Insights is indispensable. Because PageSpeed Insights gives you insight into specific speed pitfalls on both desktop and mobile devices.
By entering your URL in the tool, you get an overview of your website's ability to meet Core Web Vitals' parameters - and not least whether it passes or fails Core Web Vitals. Finally, you'll also get suggestions for improvements that can make it pass - and thus perform better in relation to Google's requirements for user experience and load time.
Who is ultimately responsible for improving the shortcomings pointed out by PageSpeed Insights is a completely different discussion. In Webamp's SEO department, we work with speed optimization ourselves - partly because we think that developers' skills are better served elsewhere, but also because we as SEO specialists feel responsible for solving our customers' SEO challenges without compromise.
4) Google Search Console - Google's goldmine of a webmaster tool
Google Search Console - formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools - is Google's own goldmine of SERP and SEO technical data.
Here you'll find indispensable data on how Google users interact with your website in search engine results. In addition, Search Console can provide you with information about any user and technical pitfalls on your website - including page experience, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability and other technical parameters that affect the user experience and thus also your SEO.
Finally, Search Console gives you an overview of the coverage of your website - for example, are there invalid URLs, 404 pages or pages that are not indexed by Google and therefore do not appear in search results?
In other words, Search Console is an essential tool in the webmaster's toolbox because it gives you concrete and data-based suggestions for improvement.
Personally, Search Console is probably my most frequently used tool. This is not least because the platform gives me insight into optimization opportunities on alternative keywords. I get this in the "effectiveness" tab, where you can gain insight into how your subpages are performing in Google results based on the following criteria:
- total number of clicks
- Total number of exposures
- Average CTR
- average position
The numbers are based on real user activity on Google, so you won't find more "pure" data about how successful your SEO strategy is. For example, you will know how many times your subpages have been exposed to a given keyword in a given period.
In addition, you can also filter by country and device to get an insight into your SEO performance in different countries and on different devices - for example, are you lagging behind in some of your geographical markets or are you performing worse on mobile than desktop?
And this is where Search Console shines compared to Ahrefs, SEMrush and similar platforms. Because where Ahrefs and co. work with an estimated monthly search volume, in GSC you can actually see the actual search volume in a given period.
This gives you a much more data-based basis for assessing whether it makes sense to be visible on a given keyword - and possibly optimize your landing page accordingly.
For example, does it make sense to update a landing page because it has been exposed enough times on different keywords than you originally intended when you wrote it?
Example:
Let's take an example from a masonry company's landing page about extensions. The page has been viewed 50,962 times in a given period for the search term "extension", which has been the top priority. In addition, the page is shown on a number of related search terms.
And with a ranking in good company in Google's top 10 for the keyword, the site has also received a respectable amount of clicks on the various searches.
But GSC tells me that the page has also been viewed 3,846 times on the search "house extension" - a keyword we didn't have in mind when we wrote the text for the page, but which the page still gets views on in Google search results. However, with an average Google position of #42 for this keyword, the click-through rate is unsurprisingly quite low.
In other words, the bricklaying company has missed out on a considerable amount of potential clicks during the period by not having optimized the site for this keyword. Now we can just start optimizing our content to rank higher on this keyword.
5) Google Analytics - Google's data monster
While Search Console gives you technical data and statistics about how your users interact with your website in search results, Google Analytics gives you insights into your users' behavior after they've clicked through to your website - and it's an almost inexhaustible source of valuable data once you've learned to navigate its many features.
You can use this data to optimize content, navigation, conversion and much more on your website.
Google Analytics is not just an SEO tool. Anyone who works with online marketing and sales or runs a webshop or website can benefit from Analytics - whether you work with search engine marketing, social media marketing or are a business owner with ambitions to generate leads through your website.
The layers of Analytics are many and deep, and you can quickly get lost in a tangled web of filtering options once you scratch the surface of the data. But this is also where Analytics shines. There are virtually no limits to what data you can retrieve about your users' actions on your website.
I might as well say it right away. Analytics is a MONSTER that, on closer inspection, can seem impossible to rein in and tame. And it doesn't help that Google is currently phasing out the current Analytics Universal in favor of GA4, which in many ways differs considerably from Universal.
That's why I won't go further into Analytics in this post - partly because both Universal and GA4 are far too comprehensive, and partly because it is currently possible to use both Universal and GA4. And the two platforms are so different that it would be like learning Danish and Afrikaans at the same time to learn to understand the two platforms at the same time.
That's why I highly recommend visiting Google's Skillshop if you want to learn how to use Analytics.
6) Schema Markup Generator - structured data for dummies
Structured data is a way to technically optimize your content so that search engines understand it better. You can read much more about it in Webamp's introduction to structured data.
However, structured data can be a bit of a stretch if you can't write JSON-LD, which is the coding language Google recommends for writing structured data.
I'm definitely not a code cruncher, which is why Schema Markup Generator is my go-to tool for creating schema markups. Schema Markup Generator speaks fluent JSON-LD. All it needs is your input and it will return a flawless schema markup(Schema.org is the universal vocabulary for structured data). This little tool makes it possible for anyone to generate their own schema markups.
Afterwards, you can test your code snippet in Google's Rich Results Test tool to make sure there are no errors in your code - because while Schema Markup Generator ensures an error-free output, it also requires that you give the tool the right inputs.
You can then copy and paste the code into your website - either directly in the source code or via Tag Manager. I'm a big fan of the latter, as it allows me to gather all my structured data in one place and thus avoid having to search in my website's backend if I need to edit or delete a schema markup.
Below, I've used Schema Markup to create an FAQ markup on Webamp's online marketing subpage. On the left, I have inserted my questions and answers, and on the right, Schema Markup has returned an error-free script, which I have subsequently tested and implemented on the subpage.
And the result? Firstly, it's now even easier for Google to understand that the site is about online marketing. Secondly, my little FAQ now appears in the search results, which means that Webamp takes up more space in the search results and we increase the chance of getting more clicks on the search result - in technical terms, we increase our CTR.
Last but not least, it creates a better user experience because users can get answers to common online marketing questions directly on the results page. And good user experience equals good SEO.
This is how my schema markup is interpreted by Google, which translates JSON-LD into easy-to-read human language, presented in a clear fold-out section.
7) Thruuu - awesome SERP scraper for the content creator
I'm not the one who labeled Thruuu "awesome", but the developer himself. But Thruuu is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Let me elaborate...
Good content is the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. Because if you hit the mark in relation to your target audience - and thus your users' search intent - you will also be rewarded with better rankings on Google, because Google is always interested in delivering the most relevant results to its users. That's why text, images and other content on your website are top priority once you have your keyword analysis in place.
But if your texts and other content are to secure higher rankings for your website on selected keywords, they must also be competitive. In other words, they must be on par with the competition - in terms of information, angle, length and structure.
However, chewing through your competitors' texts to find a common thread in what gets a given landing page in the top 10 on Google can be a lot of work - and this is exactly where Thruuu comes into its own.
With Thruuu, you can gain insight into the content that performs on the Google results page with just a few clicks. This means you don't have to manually click around on the landing pages you want to compete against for a given keyword.
Enter the keyword you want data on (remember to select language, country and other desired parameters); and voila: Thruuu gives you an overview of your competitors' parameters that can help you produce content that can get your landing page to the top - including:
- title tag and meta description
- Average number of words on the pages in the search results
- number of words on each page in the search results
- h tags on each side - in other words: angle and
- sub-angles on the texts
- number of images on each page
- Number of links on each page - both internal and outbound links
- related searches and Google's Frequently Asked Questions
- speed performance on the different landing pages
- Last update of the different landing pages
- structured data
You can also export your data to a spreadsheet, so you can easily get an overview and organize when implementing your content on your landing page.
This gives you an overview of content and SEO technical formalities that ensure higher rankings. Not least, you will be able to better angle your content in relation to search intent because you can see angles and sub-angles within a given search query. This makes it easier to produce content that focuses on topics rather than keywords - aka semantic SEO.
For example, I entered "teeth whitening" and scraped the search results for data about this search.
I can then dive into the individual landing pages - below the landing page that is at the top of the search in the organic rankings.
This allows me to look over my competitor's shoulder and find out why this particular landing page performs so well in search results.
FAQ about SEO software
What are SEO tools?
SEO tools are software that ensures your SEO strategy is 100% grounded and strategically targeted - from initial keyword analysis to ongoing monitoring and optimization.
Why are SEO tools important?
Because they give you a data-based foundation for your SEO strategy. This way, you avoid shooting blind and increase the likelihood of success with your SEO.
What are the best SEO tools?
From keyword planning and content optimization to technical analysis and data analysis, there are countless SEO tools available. In this post, you can learn about Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Schema Markup Generator and Thruuu, which make up a palette of tools that can help you in all parts of your SEO strategy.
Get help with your SEO strategy
A good start is half done. A bad start is.... well, not good. If you don't have the resources to create a well-thought-out SEO strategy, we as an SEO agency are ready to help you on your way to higher search engine rankings.
you are always welcome to send me an email at seo@amplify.dk.
Get even smarter
Whether you're a generalist or a marketing specialist, our specialists have put together some great advice for you on our blog.
