17 Free SEO Tools Every Business Leader Should Check Out

Surprisingly, Google offers a wide range of free SEO tools. That’s because, as the world’s biggest search engine, the company wants to make sure it’s always offering users the best results possible, meaning it gives webmasters and business leaders the chance to share their insights and get valuable SEO data. Google Search Console is probably the most useful of all the tools the search engine offers. Google Search Console helps you to see all the data about your website’s rankings in one place, making it a valuable site audit tool. It also provides technical information to help you identify and fix technical SEO issues.

Even if you don’t use Google Ads, their keyword planner is worth exploring. Part of the advert package, it’s a free tool that’s easy to use. Just set up a Google Ads account- at this point, there’s no need to spend anything- and access the planner to find related keywords that could help boost your reach. You can then include these keywords in your content to boost your search engine rankings. You could also explore using Local Service Ads or Google Ads as a low-cost way to reach your target audience.

Formerly Google Analytics, GA4 is the latest version that allows website owners to review where visitors are arriving from, where they click on their website and whether or not they’re converting. When used in conjunction with Google Tag Manager, it can be an incredibly valuable tool to show you how people navigate your website and what can be done to improve conversions and generate more leads for your business. Both tools are free to use, but as with Google Search Console, you’ll need to be able to prove ownership of a website to access its data.

If you’re looking for topics for social media content or blog posts, then Google Trends is perfect for finding relevant, trending topics. Google Trends shows you what’s being searched the most right now and helps you find popular topics in your market. Whether you’re making short social media posts or a long article about the current state of the market, Google Trends is a useful way to find out what everyone’s searching for quickly.

Similar to Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools is another free solution used to see how search engines see your website. While Bing is a much smaller search engine, it still offers you the chance to see what users are doing and find SEO improvements that could benefit your site. While the tool is mainly for technical SEO, there is also the chance to make amendments, such as changing structured data to improve your site’s Click Through Rate or see how each web page performs and what key terms it ranks for.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that smartphones are the new black- practically everyone has one. As such, Google now operates a mobile-first indexing policy, meaning it focuses on sites that are optimised for phones and prioritises them above those that aren’t. So, if you want to reach your target audience, you need to make sure your website works on mobile devices. Previously, Google offered a Mobile-Friendly Test, but this was retired in 2023. Thankfully, there is a free alternative in the form of MobileTest.me. Just choose a device to emulate and then insert your URL, and you can see how your site functions and if there are any technical changes you need to make to improve its mobile functionality.

One of the best selections of free SEO tools on the market comes from Ahrefs. The company’s free webmaster tools have long been a staple of the SEO arsenal for business owners of all shapes and sizes for years. They include keyword research tools, checkers to search for broken links and a toolbar to quickly assess sites and check for issues. These free tools are limited, but there is the option to upgrade if required to access more checks and additional solutions that could be useful if you decide to carry out more SEO work in-house.

While its selection is smaller than that of Ahrefs, SEMrush also offers a free keyword research tool known as the Keyword Magic Tool, a SERP checker, and a site authority checker. These tools are free but come with limitations, meaning if you want additional access, you will have to upgrade to a paid plan. These free solutions are easy to use and can help you build an understanding of SEO. Whether you need keyword ideas or help understanding your competitors, these solutions offer a good start. Also, SEMrush offers an extensive knowledge library to help you learn more about digital marketing for your business.

Another great basic SEO toolkit is the range of free SEO tools from Moz. While the company does provide paid tools as well, its free selection is designed to offer you the chance to carry out keyword research, link building and SEO audits. You can also make the most of its chrome extension, the Moz Bar, and understand your domain rating through its exclusive Brand Authority™ metric. This solution provides you with an SEO score, which you can use to understand how your site is performing and identify web pages that might need adjustments.

When you’re doing a technical SEO audit or making major changes to your site’s URL structure, you need to quickly crawl your website and find internal linking structures and other important details. Doing this work manually can take hours and be highly ineffective, which is why most SEO experts use Screaming Frog. For small websites with fewer than 500 URLs, you can use the tool for free, but for larger sites, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium package to access all the data.

If you’re searching for topics for an article or want to know what questions your audience is asking, then AlsoAsked has the answer. There are three free searches a day, which can be customised to cover different regions and languages. You can also export the data as a PNG for free, although for CSVs and other document types you’ll need to upgrade to a paid package. The tool is free to use and you don’t need an account- just put your keywords in and get started.

When you run out of AlsoAsked credits, or if you want to look for questions on specific search engines or social media platforms, then AnswerThePublic could help. Unlike AlsoAsked, it gives you the option to check for keywords being searched on Amazon, TikTok, YouTube and other major selling and social platforms. You get 3 daily searches for free with an account, and you can keep your search history.

For those using a WordPress Site, Rank Math offers a free plugin to help you manage redirections and update your structured data quickly and easily. It also offers suggestions for SEO improvements if you provide it with a target keyword. The free version has some limitations, but there is the option to choose the Pro plan in the future.

Similar to Rank Math, Yoast offers a WordPress and Shopify plugin option to allow ecommerce stores and WordPress site managers the chance to make the most of its SEO solution. It can help you to optimise structured data, set featured images, change URL structures and more. There’s a limited free version or yearly plans available.

A contentious choice for a list of free SEO tools, ChatGPT has its uses in digital marketing. As long as you don’t ask it to generate all your content or spin up your entire site, you’ll be fine. While it can’t write like a human or create informative content, what it can do is take over small tasks, such as writing meta descriptions, alternative texts for images and even short social media posts. It can also help to summarise large amounts of text to help you understand it faster, which can be useful if you’re doing research on a topic for your website. It’s important to remember that ChatGPT is only as good as the person behind it: if you have no knowledge of a subject, you’ll never know if ChatGPT is helping or hindering you. However, if you use it to save yourself time and effort, it can be an incredibly valuable free SEO tool.

SEO isn’t all about written content: images play a major role as well. Every piece should include relevant images that will break up the text and make it stand out. While original pictures are best, they’re not always possible, so having access to a free stock image library is always helpful. There are several stock image platforms out there, but Pexels is one of the few that isn’t constantly trying to upsell you premium images and makes it easy to find free stock photos for your website.

Another useful media is video, which can be used on websites and is particularly effective on social media. Adobe Express offers a free video editor that’s easy to use. All you do is upload your video and get started: you don’t even need to provide credit card details. It’s quick and easy to use, meaning you can enhance your videos and make them suitable for a range of social media platforms.