In today's digital landscape, having a well-optimized website is crucial for online success. But how can you ensure that your website is easily discoverable by search engines and attracts the right audience? That's where search engine optimization (SEO) tools come into play. These powerful tools not only provide valuable insights into your website's performance but also offer actionable recommendations for improvement.
In this blog, we'll introduce you to three free SEO tools that you need in your toolkit. We'll explore the functionalities of Google Search Console, Google Ads Keyword Planner, and AHREFS SEO Toolbar, and show you how each tool can empower you to enhance your website's visibility, drive organic traffic, and boost your search engine rankings. Whether you're a seasoned SEO expert or just starting out, these tools are a must-have for your optimization efforts. Let's dive in and discover the incredible potential of these free SEO tools.
1. Google Search Console - Don’t Sleep On This SEO Tool
This is a free service offered by Google that provides valuable insights and data about a website's performance in search results. By analyzing critical metrics such as impressions, clicks, and average position in search results, Google Search Console enables you to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Moreover, this tool allows you to submit sitemaps, identify and fix crawl errors, and monitor your website's indexing status.
How Do I Create a Google Search Console Account?
First, create a Google account if you don’t already have one. This is Google’s only requirement for creating a Google Search Console account. Once completed, go to Google Search Console and follow the prompts. It’s that easy! No, seriously. It is!
How Do I Connect Google Search Console To My Website?
Great question! There are several ways to verify “site ownership” as Google terms it. The best way, which provides the most comprehensive view of your website, is connecting the domain property via the DNS record. This will include all URLs in all subdomains and across HTTP and HTTPS. Watch this tutorial from a Search Advocate at Google to learn how to connect your domain property.
What Does Google Search Console Tell Me About My Website?
There are seven main types of data that Google Search Console tells you about your website. These data streams give valuable insight into your SEO efforts and where adjustments need to be made.
- Impressions: The number of times your website appeared in search results.
- Clicks: The number of times the users clicked from the search results to the website.
- Average CTR (Clickthrough Rate): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
- Average Position: The average position of your website in search results based on its highest position whenever it appeared in search results. For example, if your site's URL appeared at position 6 for one query and position 10 for another query, the average position would be 8 ((6+10)/2).
- Page Indexing Status: Shows if Google was able to discover, crawl, and index a page and serve it on Google.
- Video Indexing Status: Shows if Google was able to discover, crawl, and index a video and serve it on Google as video results.
- Volume of Traffic To Your Site through Rich Results: Rich Results are enhanced results in Google search and can include carousels, images, and videos. Test a page of your website now.
Google Search Console also allows you to upload your website’s sitemap. A sitemap is like a Table of Contents for your website. It helps Google crawl your website so it can quickly learn about it, know what is important, and the pages’ relationship to one another. Keeping your sitemap up to date is vital for SEO success!
From identifying page indexing issues to uploading sitemaps, Google Search Console is an essential tool for enhancing your website's visibility and achieving higher rankings in Google search engine results pages.
2. Google Ads Keyword Planner - The Keyword Insights You Need
You may think, “I don’t run Google Ads. Why do I need this?” Yet another great question! Google Ads Keyword Planner allows you to research and discover relevant keywords that your target audience is actively searching for. By identifying high-volume and low-competition keywords, you can strategically optimize your website's content to drive organic traffic.
How Do I Access Google Keyword Planner?
There are two requirements for accessing Keyword Planner: have a Google account and a Google Ads account. You do not need to run a Google ad to access Keyword Planner.
How Do I Use Google Keyword Planner?
After creating an account and logging in, click the icon titled “Discover New Keywords,” as seen below.
Then enter a keyword and click “Get Results.”
The three main columns of information you want to use to determine your keyword strategy for your website are: Average Monthly Searches, Three Month Change, and Competition.
- Average Monthly Searches: The average number of times people search for a keyword and similar terms based on the month range, the location and your Search Network settings. This information shows how popular your keywords are during different times of the year. This range is averaged over a 12-month period.
- Three Month Change: Shows a three month change in search trends by comparing the latest month’s data, with the data from two months prior. For example, if the latest month is August, the August data would be compared to June to show change in search volume over three months.
- Competition: Shows how competitive ad placement is for a keyword, specific to the location and Search Network targeting options that you've selected. The level of competition—low, medium, or high— is determined by the number of advertisers bidding on each keyword relative to all keywords across Google. If Google doesn’t have enough data, there will be a dash (-).
Best practice for determining which keywords to use with this data is finding keywords with a high Average Monthly Search rate and a low Competition rate. Also using a combination of short-tail and long-tail keywords in your website’s content helps widen the net for terms users are searching for.
Need help figuring out what keywords to search for in Keyword Planner? Try Google Trends! You can compare keywords or see which ones are trending higher, what regions are searching for the keywords, and related queries.
From revealing popular keywords to discovering new content ideas, Google Ads Keyword Planner empowers you to fine-tune your SEO strategy and attract the right audience to your website.
3. AHREFS SEO Toolbar - SEO Insights At The Click of a Button
This free Google Chrome browser extension provides valuable insights and data right at your fingertips. With the AHREFS SEO Toolbar, you can quickly evaluate the SEO performance of any webpage you visit. This tool offers a wealth of information to guide your optimization efforts.
How Do I Use AHREFS SEO Toolbar?
First, install the free Google Chrome browser extension into your Chrome web browser. Then navigate to your website’s homepage and click the AHREFS SEO Toolbar extension to review that specific page’s SEO data.
What Does AHREFS SEO Toolbar Tell Me About My Website?
Using AHREFS’ own website as an example, this shows what SEO data is entered and missing on their website. There are several elements you can audit including:
- Alt text
- Word count
- Content headers
- Broken links
Itching for more data? Sign up for AHREFS’ paid subscription to discover domain rating, URL rating, number of referring domains, and more! By leveraging the AHREFS SEO Toolbar, you'll gain more valuable insights and enhance your SEO efforts, propelling your website's visibility and rankings to new heights.
Improve Your SEO Today!
SEO isn’t optional. Google cares about one thing: providing relevant, accurate websites to its users. The more you can improve your website’s SEO the better! And the good news is you can! Contact Solinity Marketing today to discover how we can improve your SEO!