What Are the Best DIY SEO Tools?
To guide businesses with limited budgets towards the best DIY SEO tools, we gathered insights from eleven SEO experts, including SEO consultants and CEOs. Their recommendations range from SEMrush as a comprehensive SEO tool to MozBar for providing affordable and insightful data. Dive into these cost-effective solutions that can help optimize your online presence.
- SEMrush: Comprehensive SEO Tool
- Google Search Console: Cost-Effective and Informative
- SEOptimer: Affordable and User-Friendly
- Ahrefs: User-Friendly with Rich Insights
- SE Ranking: Comprehensive and Actionable
- Yoast SEO: On-Page Optimization and Analysis
- Moz: Wide Range of Affordable Features
- Keywords Everywhere: Integrated and Cost-Effective
- Screaming Frog: Free and Informative
- Ubersuggest: Treasure Map of SEO
- MozBar: Affordable with Insightful Data
SEMrush: Comprehensive SEO Tool
Choosing one DIY SEO tool, SEMrush would be the pick. There is a learning curve because of the comprehensive nature of their platform, but once mastered, it’s invaluable.
SEMrush has a site-audit function that identifies any broken links and other technical errors on your site.
It also boasts one of the best (if not the best) keyword databases, making keyword research much more accessible. The Keyword Manager tool allows for a deep dive into specific topics and quick building of topic clusters.
The local SEO function enables monitoring of local competitors, checking of citations, submission of new citations, and more.
SEMrush is also an excellent tool for competitor analysis. To discover what pages and keywords are most effective for competitors, simply plug their website into the Domain Overview and explore the wealth of details.
SEMrush can do a lot, making it a top recommendation for a DIY SEO tool.
Dan Ansaldo
SEO Consultant, Kansas City SEO Consultant
Google Search Console: Cost-Effective and Informative
A tool that’s not only easy to use, with a long list of benefits, but also free (which means zero worry about cost), is the Google Search Console tool. It’s a web service that I confidently recommend to anyone who does not have a dedicated SEO budget for now. GSC gives you all the fundamental information you need on the performance of your website. It provides insightful data that enables you to take action and introduce quick improvements.
You can submit your sitemaps, identify crawl errors, get information on indexing, and review keyword rankings and search analytics. In addition to highlighting security gaps and suggesting measures to protect your site from cybersecurity threats, GSC even provides a long list of corrective actions. It serves as an early-warning system, provides valuable insights, and helps you create an SEO roadmap that directly contributes to visibility and traffic.
Gabriele Asaro
SEO Executive, Clash.gg
SEOptimer: Affordable and User-Friendly
From a site-audit perspective, SEOptimer is usually recommended. It’s not very expensive compared to several other tools and packs a punch at a low price. It crawls the website, provides keyword recommendations, and also has keyword-rank tracking capabilities. It is not very technical and is easy for those who are not tech-savvy.
Praveen Kumar
Chief Decision Maker, Wild Creek Web Studio
Ahrefs: User-Friendly with Rich Insights
Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool that provides a wealth of information, both big and small. It’s designed to be user-friendly for all levels of experience. Users can research their competitors and gain valuable insights.
Additionally, they can monitor their own website’s growth. Ahrefs has been successful in creating a tool that is not only useful for experts but also understandable and usable for beginners. It’s a versatile tool for anyone involved in SEO.
Jason Boyd
Founder, Evolve Digital Agency
SE Ranking: Comprehensive and Actionable
If you’ve been looking for an agency to help improve your website’s visibility through SEO, but can’t find a solution within your marketing budget, one recommendation is to invest some of your own time into SEO and DIY it.
To get a return on the time you invest, you must have a comprehensive SEO tool in your corner. A tool we recommend to unqualified clients is SE Ranking, a powerful and comprehensive SEO platform that offers a suite of SEO tools designed to help you enhance your online presence. In this article, we will delve into the key tools that SE Ranking provides, each designed to cater to specific aspects of SEO and digital marketing.
What sets SE Ranking apart is its dedication to providing actionable insights. Each tool is designed with the user in mind, offering not just data but also clear guidance on how to improve. Whether you’re a business owner, marketer, or SEO professional, SE Ranking equips you with the tools for SEO success.
Jase Porter
Head of SEO, Spicy Web
Yoast SEO: On-Page Optimization and Analysis
A recommended DIY SEO tool for prospective clients with limited budgets is Yoast SEO. This popular and user-friendly WordPress plugin offers valuable on-page optimization features. It assists users in optimizing their content for target keywords, provides readability analysis, and generates XML sitemaps for improved site indexing. The plugin offers real-time content analysis, giving users actionable recommendations to improve their SEO efforts.
Andriy Shum
Head of SEO, SeoProfy
Moz: Wide Range of Affordable Features
As a content marketing director at a SaaS company, I highly recommend using Moz’s SEO suite of features for client site optimization. Moz offers a fairly wide range of robust and affordable features to improve overall website search visibility and performance.
The self-serve modules for keyword research, backlink auditing, position tracking, and site crawling are my favorites, and they make it easy to see where our website needs to improve. It’s also much easier to tell whether the areas for improvement lie primarily on the on-page side or the technical side, so we can formulate a plan for content gap improvements or need to scale our backlink efforts.
Aimie Ye
Director of Content Marketing, Centime
Keywords Everywhere: Integrated and Cost-Effective
Upon reading your question on DIY SEO tools for budget-conscious clients, my immediate recommendation would be Keywords Everywhere. Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox offering quick keyword insights like:
- Integrated Data: It works seamlessly with platforms like Google Search, YouTube, Amazon, and more, displaying keyword metrics directly in your browser.
- Essential Metrics: It shows search volume, cost-per-click, and competition data, aiding in keyword selection.
- Related Keywords: During Google searches, it provides related keyword suggestions and their stats.
- Historical Data: It highlights past keyword trends, useful for understanding seasonality.
- Cost-Effective: It transitioned from free to a credit-based paid model, but remains affordable.
- Exportable Data: It offers easy export of keyword insights for analysis.
Note: Always cross-reference data as the figures are estimates, and manage credits wisely since it’s now a paid tool.
Mahmoud Edrinba
Digital Marketer, welderbest
Screaming Frog: Free and Informative
Screaming Frog is recommended because it’s free, easy to use, and offers a lot of useful features for clients who aren’t ready to outsource their SEO work.
There are numerous tools available that can help understand what’s going on with a site from an SEO perspective—some of them are even free! However, one of the best things about Screaming Frog is that it allows users to see exactly how all the moving parts interact. It’s possible to identify issues with duplicate content or internal links, or find opportunities to improve rankings by changing some URLs.
While it’s not an agency tool, it’s a really useful tool for anyone who has a website and wants to keep their finger on the pulse of their SEO efforts without having to hire someone else.
Gert Kulla
CEO, Batlinks
Ubersuggest: Treasure Map of SEO
When faced with passionate entrepreneurs strapped for cash, I often point them to the gold mine that is Ubersuggest. Think of it as a treasure map in the vast ocean of SEO. It generously offers keyword insights, content clues, and even a glimpse into the world of backlinks. While it might not have the glitz of pricier tools, Ubersuggest is a solid compass for those navigating the SEO seas on a budget. It’s an invaluable first mate for your digital journey!
Jacob Maslow
Owner, Rest Equation
MozBar: Affordable with Insightful Data
For clients with tight budgets, using Moz’s “MozBar” as a DIY SEO solution is recommended due to its affordability. This browser add-on offers insightful data on how well a website performs in search engine results. It provides data such as domain authority, page authority, and keyword difficulty to users, assisting them in determining the level of keyword competition and assessing the potential effects of their optimizations.
Although MozBar doesn’t provide all the capabilities of a full-service SEO agency, it can give clients the information they need to make decisions and carry out simple on-page SEO adjustments on their own.
Sanket Shah
CEO, InVideo
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