There are a number of SEO tools that are useful to an SEO Agency, SEO Manager or SEO Expert.
These help research, track, and measure the performance and success of an SEO or Search Marketing campaign, including those provided by search engines (like Google Search Console), free tools, tools included in a CMS, or third-party SEO and SERP Tools creators like SEMrush. Ahrefs and Moz. There are also tools built into Bing Webmaster’s SEO Tools.
What are the main categories of SEO Tools?
SEO Tools fall into the following categories:
- SEO Analytics Tools
- Google Analytics
- Search Engine Rank Position tools
- SEMRush
- AHrefs
- Moz
- Site Health
- Bing Site Scan
- Backlink Analysis
- Toxic Backlink Analysis (Legacy)
- Writing Tools
- AI SEO Analysis Tools
- Analysis Tools
- Website Architecture
What are the most popular SEO Tools?
We’ve made a list of the top tools and costs (unless its a free SEO Tool).
| SEO Tool Name | Platform (SE) | Entry Cost | Notes |
| Google Search Console (GSC) | Free | GSC is the number 1 tool for managing your relationship with Google. GSC can integrate with Google Analytics, Data Studio, and other data integration tools as well as SEOMoz and SEMrush. GSC also has an API but features a very basic UI (compared to Google Analytics). However, its is the golden repository of keyword and page performance within the Google Search eco-sphere. | |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | Bing | Free | Bing is the equivalent of GSC with some differences. Bing has a site explorer tool that maps out your site and sub-domains in an explorer-style format, which is very handy – especially if you want to envisage how a search engine sees your site/domain architecture at a sub-domain and file/folder point of view. Bing also has a site health checker tool |
| SEMRush | Google, YouTube | From $150 pm | SEMRush is a SERP tool primarily focused on Google (and recently Youtube) with support for local SEO websites (e.g. Yelp). SEMrush also has a backlink checker, keyword planning tool, and site health checker. It also features a basic social media posting tool and a beta “share of voice feature”. SEMRush is very popular but features are becoming more and more expensive. |
| Moz | Google, Yahoo & Bing | $99 | Similar to SEMrush, Moz was founded by Rand Fishkin but is a little more clunky with a lot less detail (IMHO) |
| AHrefs | $99 | Ahrefs is well known for its backlink hunting tools but now offers SERP, Healthcheck, and keywords explorer | |
| Google Analytics | All | Free | Google Analytics is the grandfather of Web Analytics tools and is well-integrated. The most popular is Google Universal, with GA4 being the next albeit incomplete version. GA integrates well with GSC and Google Ads and can import some information from Bing Ads (mainly as Source/Medium or UTM). |
| Google Looker (formerly Data Studio) | All | Free | Looker Studio is a data reporting & integration tool that integrates with multiple data sources like GSC, SEMrush, Ads, Bing, etc. Looker is similar to tools like Databox, Domo etc. |
