It’s no surprise that SEO, also known as search engine optimization, has become an integral part of marketing in this digital age. After all, search engines were designed to scan, make sense of, and index information to give users the most relevant content, and they do it so successfully that most consumers don’t look past the first couple of results, let alone the first page. Good SEO is the key to optimizing your own website and improving search visibility, in turn boosting your trust and credibility with audiences and generating exponential. Here are eight of the most popular SEO tools.

Google Search Console

This free tool from Google is a type of search engine results pages (SERP) tracking software, meaning it analyzes your site’s performance, security issues, and errors. With the detailed information you garner from this performance report, you can actively improve your rankings and maintain your site by troubleshooting issues. And you know your changes will have an impact because you’re getting data straight from the source (Google).

Google Analytics

This tool reveals how users are interacting with your content by tracking and analyzing website traffic. You can also use it to monitor mobile app traffic, track social media activity, determine trends, and integrate other sources to help you assess and improve your site. These reports are incredibly detailed, allowing you to see exactly what location and device the website traffic is coming from.

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that allows you to crawl up to 500 pages a session with its free version. It is perfect for an initial audit as it offers a comprehensive report that can be easily exported. Use it to identify pages with missing or incorrect canonical tags, incomplete meta tags, misplaced redirects, and pages with unnecessarily large images. You can also crawl as another user-agent, such as Googlebot. You can also analyze a competitor site to view their internal linking structure.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a software suite that helps businesses and individuals track their website’s performance and improve their online presence. Use this program to identify your target audience, optimize your content, and, ultimately, increase your Google rankings. It contains tools for keyword research, backlink checking, finding link-building opportunities, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and site audits.

Semrush

Semrush excels in keyword research, competitor analysis, and Google ad campaign improvement. One of the coolest features it offers is the ability to see a site’s traffic cost, which gauges how much the site’s organic traffic is worth. It will also show you the keywords that are bringing the most traffic to a competitor’s site. Semrush has some of the best data accuracy for metrics on backlinks and organic keywords and traffic.

Moz

Moz is a software suite of tools with features that include their Link Explorer, Rank Tracker, and Keyword Explorer. Its novice-friendly interface enables users to regularly monitor keyword rankings. Influencer Marketing Hub describes Moz as “the software version of a growth hacking consultant, guiding you through tweaks and changes to your site that will result in better SEO and increased traffic to your corner of the internet.”

Majestic

This web-based software tool specializes in link analysis. Unlike Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz, it is 100 percent focused on backlinks. Backlinks, or incoming links, are crucial to good SEO because algorithms use them to evaluate and rank pages appropriately in search results. If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry: Majestic also offers one-on-one training sessions with a product specialist.

Ubersuggest

Keyword research is a crucial part of a high-authority and high-traffic website, and Ubersuggest, a free keyword research tool, can offer actionable insight and analysis for any marketing professional. Its comprehensive keyword coverage includes long-tail keyword suggestions and a wide range of keyword metrics. It also boasts a more affordable pricing structure.

SEO tools are savvy and accessible making it easy to track changes in rankings, conversions, and website traffic. As more and more businesses go digital, tools like the ones listed become essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Consider which of these tools would work best for your business and start experimenting to achieve better results from your content marketing.