Last Updated: March 06, 2024

A Guide to Free SEO Tools & Resources 

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Whether you’re just getting started on your search engine optimization (SEO) journey, or you want to pick up some new tips and shortcuts, the ROI Revolution SEO team is here to help. We’ve put together a list of some of our favorite free SEO tools and resources that we use daily, and we think you’ll appreciate them, too.

The Best SEO Learning Resources

If you’re new to SEO, the best way to begin is with Google’s SEO Starter Guide. While Google isn’t the only search engine, it is the most popular one. Typically, optimizations that satisfy Google will work for the other engines, too.

Google’s guide covers the basics and includes a list of old SEO “rules” that are outdated. Even if you’ve been doing SEO for a while, it’s worth reviewing to ensure your knowledge is up to date.

In the past few years, Google has emphasized the importance of creating helpful content for people, not search engines. While including keywords in your pages will help Google understand what you offer, make sure you do it in a way that the people whom your business can help will find you. Don’t just write content with the hopes of ranking on Google.

For example, if you sell outdoor sports equipment, you can certainly list the different types you sell. But listing every variation of those keywords will look spammy to Google, and it won’t be easy to read by humans, so avoid it. We recommend studying Google’s documentation on creating helpful content.

Google Analytics & Search Console

Once you’re past the basics, understanding how people find and interact with your website will help you know how to improve it.

Google has three tools for that:

  1. Google Analytics (GA4)
  2. Google Search Console (GSC)
  3. Pagespeed Insights

GA4, GSC, and Pagespeed Insights are all free SEO tools from Google. Each provides unique sets of insights, and all are highly useful for optimizing your website. Let’s dive a little bit into each.

GA4

The newest version of Google Analytics is GA4. It’s quite different from Universal Analytics. The best way to become familiar with its reporting functionalities is to study for and take the GA4 certification exam.

We realize that not everyone needs certification to use GA4, but the process can make a difference in how well you understand the tool.

Of course, if certification doesn’t interest you, you can always hire a team of experts (like us) to help! We were one of the first agencies to become GA4-certified. If you’d like to learn how we can help you get more out of your GA4 data, send a message to our team.

Google Search Console (GSC)

Google Search Console is the source of truth for how your website is performing in Google Search results. With this tool, you can learn:

  • How your site ranks for keywords
  • What pages are showing up in search
  • If there are any technical SEO issues with your site that might prevent your pages from being indexed

You can also see how your site improves over time, or where you might need to put in a little extra work.

Pagespeed Insights

Pagespeed Insights is a tool from Google to learn where your website or specific webpages can be improved from the perspective of speed.

You can enter your URL, hit “Analyze,” and see the scores and diagnostics in just a few moments. Then, you can open each diagnostic’s accordion to see how to improve the issues the tool found.

This is important because a website that loads quickly when a user clicks on it from Google Search results has an edge over one that lags or shifts its layout while users wait to view it.

Person typing on laptop searching for something.

Additional Free SEO Tools We Recommend

Many popular SEO tools have free or trial versions available to help you assess their value to your business.

Here are five that we recommend trying for yourself.

1. Moz

We use Moz for a range of purposes including understanding the strength of a domain, discovering direct competitors, and keyword research. The free competitor discovery tool allows up to 50 queries!

We also use the Moz Domain Authority (DA) Chrome extension regularly. It’s a free extension that allows you to quickly see any website’s Domain Authority score. While the score isn’t an official score used by Google, it gives a quick estimation of how likely a site is to rank well in search results.

2. SEMrush

SEMrush offers a free 14-day trial for many of its features, including keyword research, competitor analysis, technical SEO website audits, and more. So, if you want to get a taste of what its tools can do, you have enough time to dive in.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs has a selection of free SEO tools, including:

  • Keyword research
  • Keyword generator
  • Backlink checker (lets you see the top 100 backlinks to any website or page)
  • Domain Rating checker (assesses the strength of a website’s backlink profile)
  • SERP checker (lets you see the top 10 websites ranking for any keyword in any country)

4. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb can help you surface helpful competitor insights. You can use the 7-day free trial to add up to four competitors (plus your own site) to see market share, traffic engagement, ranking distribution, and more.

You can also use the tool to find competitors you might not be aware of by using the Similar Sites feature.

To get a feel for currently trending keywords or to see the history of a keyword’s popularity, Google Trends is priceless.

For example, type “charcuterie” into the search term box, choose “Past 5 years,” and see the trendline for interest in that term with its peaks and valleys.

If you sell charcuterie boards, knowing that interest in the keyword is highest around the holidays each year can help you plan your content and the promotion of your charcuterie page!

Chart showing popularity of charcuterie boards in Google Trends.

Helpful Browser Extensions for SEO

For quick assessments of websites while using the Chrome or Edge browser, try SEO META in 1 Click. This powerful, free tool shows a webpage’s meta information in one easy step. Just visit the page and click the extension icon to see the page’s title tag, meta description, header tags, URL, and more.

BuiltWith Technology Profiler is another free extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox that can give you information about a website’s backend. This information includes what platform the site is built on (WordPress, Shopify, Magento, etc.) and any tags, widgets, plugins, and APIs that the site runs on.

This information can be helpful for troubleshooting as well as for keeping an eye on your competition.

One last extension to consider is Redirect Path because it flags problematic HTTP status codes and client-side redirects that could cause problems for a website. It’s available in Chrome and Edge.

Keyword Surfer

Keyword Surfer allows you to see keyword search volume on the Google Search results page, and it also generates a list of keywords that are related to your original query, helping speed up the keyword research process.

Start With Free SEO Resources; Then Ask the Experts When You’re Ready for the Next Step!

Every SEO journey starts somewhere. These free tools and resources will help you on your way to optimizing your website for Google Search.

Read Google’s guidance, play with the tools listed here, and get comfortable with the basics of SEO.

Then, when you’re ready to dive into more advanced strategies and techniques, contact ROI Revolution for a customized SEO audit.

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