Search engine optimization (SEO). Chances are if you run a business or are in marketing you have heard this before.
There are over 40,000 searches performed on Google every second, with many users finding their answers on the first results page. Ranking highly on the search engine results pages is key to getting more website traffic and business overall. But, how do you get those high rankings?
Step 1: SEO research.
Luckily, you don’t have to take on SEO research yourself. The internet is chock full of valuable SEO tools that can do the work for you. In fact, by using SEO tools, you can cut down the time you have to research SEO factors like keywords, backlinks, and content ideas. You can rest assured that you are getting the most accurate and efficient data. Even better, you can find opportunities to make your site better and figure out what could use a little work.
Sounds pretty amazing, right?
The only trouble you might have is picking the right SEO tool. After all, there are hundreds out there to choose from. To help you out, this guide will narrow it down to the top five SEO tools to get started with. While each offers its own unique advantages, they are all guaranteed to make the SEO process much easier for you.
What Makes a Top SEO Tool?
The best SEO tools do much more than just provide data; they help create more content opportunities for your site.
Before getting down to the most useful tools, it’s helpful to know what makes a good one. The top tools give you the ability to:
- Undergo keyword research
- Check your site for its performance
- See what’s helping and harming competitors
- Look at backlinks
- Track important metrics
- Come up with great content ideas
- Identify areas to improve
Most importantly, a high-performing SEO tool will be easy-to-use and have help ready if you need it.
Best SEO Tools for 2022
Below are the top five tools that meet all the essential SEO tool marks. To further assist, this list is divided up by each tool’s most notable feature.
1. Best for Backlinks: Ahrefs
If you look up SEO tools, you are bound to come across Ahsrefs. It’s understandable why — the SEO tool is only second to Google in terms of the number of backlinks. In fact, Ahrefs has a database of over 29 trillion links! Such a big number is great as backlinks help make your site more authoritative and credible.
Ahsrefs does much more than help you with links, however. SEO marketers also love it for its keyword research tool. Here, you can not only find thousands of keyword suggestions but also see other important keyword factors like search volume, keyword seasonality, and keyword difficulty. Instead of spending time trying to rank for keywords that won’t up your rankings, you can focus on creating content around keywords that will bring you success.
But that’s not all. You can also analyze and track your own performance as well as that of competing sites. Ahsrefs will crawl (or review) your site to let you know what you can improve, such as content quality, incoming and outgoing links, and social and HTML tags.
As for competitors, you can see a competing site’s linking patterns, paid vs. unpaid keyword success, and organic traffic success. Knowing all of these things can help to push you ahead of other ranking sites and create top-performing website content.
2. Most In-Depth: Moz Pro
Many brands worldwide use Moz Pro to greatly improve their SEO strategy. What it can do for your site is pretty incredible. Specifically, the software is split into several categories:
- Keyword Research: Like Ahrefs, you can uncover thousands of keyword suggestions and further information on keyword data. However, with Moz Pro, keywords are refreshed every two weeks to ensure you have the most up-to-date keyword insights.
- Rank Tracking: Get real-time reports on you and your competitors’ rankings. You can choose specific time ranges, including rankings over a week, month, or a customized period.
- Site Crawl: Moz Pro breaks down potential issues of your website using colorful graph reports. The system also sends you weekly alerts of any changes, so you never miss out on a possible problem.
- On-Page Optimization: Say you receive notifications from Moz Pro about improvements you can make. Instead of having to figure out what to do on your own, the SEO tool will provide detailed SEO and content recommendations. Even better, a handy “optimization score” will tally up your progress.
- Link Research: As for linking, Moz Pro provides a very useful link profile. You’ll get a full summary of your current backlink efforts, including what’s helping and what’s harming your website’s performance. As you make linking changes, you can easily track your actions.
- Custom Reports: This is probably Moz Pro’s best feature. With the tool’s “custom reports,” you can receive weekly, completely customized reports that detail all of your progress and impact over time. You can easily export these reports and send them over to your team to let them know what’s been going on.
3. Easiest for Google: Google Search Console
Google search is an SEO marketer’s greatest friend — and occasional enemy. The search engine powerhouse remains the top choice for many, and, in response, its algorithm is continuously updating. Keeping up with Google algorithm changes might seem a little tricky, but luckily, there’s an SEO tool to help you out: Google’s own Google Search Console.
Completely free for anyone who owns a website, Google Search Console is one of the most accurate SEO tools as the data comes from Google itself. You get to view your site’s impressions, clicks, and ranking position over time by keyword or webpage. It’s just as insightful as Google Analytics, but without its complexities.
You can also make use of the URL Inspection Tool, which is all about Google indexing. You can understand how Google accesses and displays your website. If your site hasn’t been indexed, you can submit a request to do so. After all, your site needs to be properly indexed to be shown to users!
4. Best for SEO Tools Partnerships: Scorpion
Best for SEO tool guidance, we have Scorpion. Scorpion is the first SEO software built for small businesses to use artificial intelligence (AI) in bettering your SEO endeavors. You receive 100% data-driven results that are proven to work in getting higher rankings on both Google and Bing. Best of all, by using Scorpion, you develop a partnership. Rather than using SEO tools and features on your own, you receive 100% tailored guidance to your specific needs.
Scorpion is especially useful for local businesses that would like to improve their local SEO efforts. Specialized fields include home services, legal, medical, franchise, and more.
Of course, you get reports on all the important numbers, too. With Scorpion, you can look into your keyword usage, performance ranking over time, and web traffic reports. Using this information, you can learn how to drive organic and paid traffic to your website. Overall, you get an in-depth learning experience on building a website unlike any other.
Using SEO Tools to Rock Your Website
Using any of the above SEO tools will help put you ahead of the competition on Google.
And there you have it — the best SEO tools to rock your website in 2022. With search engines like Google changing every day and SEO strategies getting more in-depth, using an SEO tool can make a difference in finding site success.
To work your way up on search engine result rankings, look at what you’d like to improve SEO-wise. Think you’d benefit from stronger keywords? Need a refresher on the best backlinks? Or do you just want to know what’s making competitors seize the top spots?
Once you’ve settled on a goal or two, you can pick a tool that you think would best benefit you. If you’d like help getting started, you can get in touch with Scorpion today. It’s time to start getting the search engine ranking results you deserve, and Scorpion was made to get you there.
Let’s talk about SEO.