SEO Tools – Get started with DIY SEO
What are the SEO tools that you need for a DIY approach to SEO? It used to be that search engine optimisation was a real speciality and while certain things particularly in the technical space are still a speciality, things are changing with lots of tools that make a DIY approach easy (and cost effective)!
The following are a list of SEO tools that are low-cost (the SEO tool market is very expensive) and help you get started with DIY SEO.
The basic tenets of good SEO (using SEO tools to work out which keywords)
- Have absolutely great content that matches the keywords/keyword phrases that you want to rank for
- Make sure the website has all of the factors checked so that Google won’t rank you down. Make sure your site is:
a. Be speedy and quick to load
b. Be mobile responsive
c. Make sure the important web page elements (H1 tags, description etc) feature your key word/s
d. Make sure your content reads naturally and is a good experience for your visitors. Don’t ‘keyword stuff’ – ie. don’t over do it or Google will penalise you
e. Include internal and external links on the page. Google likes when you give your visitors a chance to continue their journey
f. Great on site experience with good time on site times and acceptable bounce rates.
Keyword Research SEO Tools
To help you get started, the following are a bunch of tools that will give you a leg up with your DIY SEO efforts.
Keywords Everywhere Chrome plugin
Keywords Everywhere is a plugin that provides great information at a very cost-effective price. You need just $10 credit and you get the search volumes, competition and Cost Per Click (for advertising) within the browser as you search. It also provide related search terms. Super powerful and low cost given that most tools in the SEO Tool market are very expensive.
Google in-cognito – predictive search
If you’re using Chrome, the incognito feature will allow you to do a ‘neutral’ search without any of your preferences and information influencing the results. You can see who is ranking for what keyword but also pay attention to the drop down ‘predictive search’ at the bottom of the page, where you will see more ‘suggested search terms’.
Google also displays other ‘questions’ that people have searched for. Alas no volumes (but if you're using the above Keywords Everywhere you will be able to see volumes).
Google Adwords Keyword planner
This is probably the best tool you can use to identify the best keywords to base your search campaign on, as well as the volumes of people actively searching for it. If you’re going to do some paid search as well, this is good for giving you a high level guide on how much you will need to bid to appear in the top three, page one results. This information does not translate accurately across to the organic paid search territory.
https://www.google.com/adwords/
Technical Site SEO Tools
Yoast
Yoast is a great SEO tool for WordPress. If you have a WordPress site it will guide you through the process of making sure you have all of the right keyword information in place.
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/
Good alternatives to Yoast are RankMath and AIOSEO. The free versions go a long way.
Google’s Search Console
An essential for understanding how Google sees your site is the SEO tool Google's Search Console. The webmaster account will show how Google has indexed your website and any errors that it encountered.
https://search.google.com/search-console/
Googles developer Speed test
Another SEO tool is Google's Developer Speed test which will tell you how Google rates your site in terms of speed but also usability and other factors that will impact on how well they will rank your content in the search results.
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Google Analytics
Within your analytics under acquisition, you can display the search keyword report which will show you some of the keyword terms that people have used to arrive at your website.
https://www.google.com/analytics/
Google SERP Snippet Optimizer Tool
Another freebie from Google that allows you to see how your page will look as a 'search result'.
https://www.highervisibility.com/seo/tools/serp-snippet-optimizer
SEO Site Checkup
This website has a great range of tools that cover everything from whether your H1 / H2 tags are in place correctly, through to a broken links test. My favourite is the SEO site audit which gives you a ranking and a list of tips and to do’s to improve your ranking. They have a heap of other useful free tools to use as well!
https://seositecheckup.com/tools/seo-friendly-url-test
Local business check up
If you’re a business that is ‘local, then check out the free Moz tool that will give you a wealth information on how you rank on the local index online.
