Search engine optimization is something you need to do to help people find your business online. To help you ace those SEO efforts, we’ve got 8 awesome tools you should use. We’ll cover both free and paid options that are efficient and easy to use, even for beginners. So let’s get our SEO tools on!

Free Tools

Who doesn’t love a free tool, especially when it also happens to be awesome?

1. Google Analytics: The gold standard for analytics tools. Odds are, your business is already using this tool to monitor your site’s traffic, but if you’re not, it’s a great tool to start with and we have a killer guide for beginners. You can see what pages are driving organic traffic for your site, traffic numbers and tons more.

2. Google Page Speed Insights:  A quick page load time can impact search rankings as evidenced in this post from Moz. But many businesses have no idea where to start when looking to improve their site load times. This is what makes Page Speed Insights from Google so awesome; it tells you what to fix on your website, why to fix it and how to do it for a speedier and friendlier website.

3. Google Webmaster Tools: We love talking about Google Webmaster Tools, as you can see in this blog post, beginner’s guide, and video. This free tool unlocks powerful website data such as keyword data, impressions, clicks, click through rates and more. Check out our Google Webmaster Tools beginner’s guide for more in-depth info and help.

4. Google Trends: Curious about the latest buzzwords? Google Trends is the perfect tool for you. We often use this tool to make sure we’re keeping up with different industry trends. Remember when “e-mail” morphed into “email”? In this example below, Google Trends shows you the decay of “e-mail” over the years. Use this tool for keyword research to use in your blog posts, new webpages and more.

5. Moz SEO Toolbar: This tool gives you the lowdown on the basics of any webpage on the Internet. With a quick look, you can see the Page Authority, Domain Authority and even backlink information. This is a tool most SEO experts use daily, as it gives you a glance at a site’s stats quickly.

6. Screaming Frog: This tool is more technical, but powerful. It searches a site’s links, images, scripts and more, and gives you all of this data in a nice .CSV file for you to slice and dice how you want. Find 404 errors on your website, missing meta descriptions and all sorts of useful info with the Frog!

Paid Tools

We know the best things in life are free, but sometimes you get good value for what you pay for. The following two tools, both by Moz, are some of the best around for businesses large and small.

7. Moz: Starting at $99/month, Moz packs a lot of bang for your buck. You get keyword tracking, landing page tracking, analytic data and on page SEO suggestions. This tool is perfect for small businesses because it’s easy to use and the provides a wealth of data and information.

8. Moz Local: For anyone looking for a nice, local SEO setup in the form of online listings (no matter how easy we make it for you), Moz Local is the perfect tool for you. It does all the local citations for you, and makes sure the data is accurate and the consistent across the board.

There you have it! 8 easy to use SEO tools that will rock all your search engine optimization needs. If you have any tools we didn’t mention, please share in the comments!

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