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27-Aug-2024
With well over 200 SEO tools available globally, how do you determine which ones are worth exploring?
We have tested over 100 tools and continuously monitor new releases, potentially saving you around 200 hours of research.
Below, I review the top 20 tools. This significant 2024 update shares my experiences since last year’s review.
By the way, if you’re seeking the simplest tools, we’ve also compiled a list of the easiest SEO tools for beginners.
Which SEO tools are best in 2024? In 2024, you can find over 200 free and paid SEO tools on the market.
🆓= Free Seo Tool
💰= Paid Seo Tool
🆕= New Seo Tool On The List
Here are the Free SEO tools that stand out the most in 2024
Review of the 20 SEO tools The table shows the categories I have divided the tools into. The price shown is for the smallest plan you can buy
|
Category |
Explanation |
|
🏆 |
Rank tracker tool |
|
🤖 |
Technical SEO (Onpage) |
|
🔍 |
Keyword research |
| ✍️ |
Help to write content |
| 🔗 |
Backlink tool |
1) Google Search Console
Price: Free
Google Search Console has become one of the best SEO tools. It has improved significantly over the last couple of years. As it is Google’s own tool, it offers some unique advantages. For instance, no other tool can match the size of their keyword list or the accuracy of traffic and visibility data.
However, there is one limitation that affects all features: you can only get information on a website you own (or are invited to), making this tool useless for competitor analysis or finding new keywords or links. There are many cool features inside Google Search Console that are unique to it.
2024 update: The UX could be better. Most beginners I have shown it to over the last year get lost right away, and it takes time for them to learn how to use it properly. So, proceed carefully.
2) Ahrefs
Price: $99 per Month
Ahrefs boasts some of the highest data quality on the market and is particularly favored for tracking backlinks and researching keywords. It also enables you to analyze your competitors’ SEO strategies. If you know what you’re looking for, Ahrefs is an excellent database. However, it doesn’t provide guidance, so you need to be an expert to fully utilize its potential. For those who are, Ahrefs stands out as one of the best SEO tools available.
2024 update: Ahrefs has significantly altered their pricing, leading to dissatisfaction among many users. It is claimed that to fully utilize the tool, you now need to subscribe to the $129 per month plan. While this isn’t an unreasonable price for such a comprehensive database, it does stretch some budgets.
3) Copilot
Price: $20.00/month
Copilot is a conversational AI model designed to assist users with a wide range of tasks. It can synthesize information from the web, offer support, and help with productivity-related activities. Copilot adapts its responses to suit the user’s needs, providing concise answers to simple questions and thorough responses to more complex queries. It maintains a friendly, engaging, and respectful tone, making interactions feel natural and supportive.
2024 Update: The Copilot Pro plan in 2024 offers a range of enhanced features for $20 per user per month. Subscribers get access to advanced AI capabilities across various Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel (currently in preview), PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote1. The plan also includes priority access to faster performance with GPT-4 Turbo, the ability to generate and edit images with DALL-E 3, and 100 daily boosts with Designer21. This plan is designed to provide more power, speed, and creativity for users looking to maximize their productivity.
4) Semrush
Price: $139.95/Month (Free Trial for 7 days)
SEMrush offers a comprehensive SEO tool that provides both an overview and detailed insights into all your keywords and links. Personally, I never ranked SEMrush among the top SEO tools. The user experience feels fragmented, with nearly 50 different sub-sections (refer to the left side in the image below). However, their data is robust, and they are arguably the largest SEO tool on the market, so I must include SEMrush in this list.
2024 update: Like Ahrefs, SEMrush has significantly altered their pricing, causing dissatisfaction among many users (as seen on Reddit). Users claim that to fully utilize the tool, one must subscribe to the $139.95 monthly plan. While this is not an unreasonable price for a vast database with extensive historical data, it is not affordable for everyone.
5) Surfer SEO
Price: $89 per month
I have only used Surfer SEO briefly, but I can confirm it is intuitive and widely praised online. It compares your content to the top-ranking pages on Google and highlights where your content falls short. Although it is a simple concept, it is challenging to execute, and the Polish developers behind the tool have done an excellent job. If you work with content daily, this tool is definitely worth exploring.
2024 update: 2023 saw significant price increases for SEO tools. When I reviewed this tool last year, it cost $29 per month. Now, the starting price has nearly tripled to $89 per month. While this is still a fair price for those deeply invested in their SEO content strategy, I no longer recommend Surfer SEO for small business owners with simpler needs.
6) Moz Pro
Price: $99 per month
Moz provides an all-in-one tool for backlink analysis, keyword research, and onsite optimisation. Since 2002, they have built a strong reputation. Although I find their tools less intuitive, the data they offer is reliable. If this is important to you, I recommend giving them a try. Additionally, I can only commend their culture and transparency in an industry that can often be somewhat opaque. Moz excels in link data, often surpassing Ahrefs, which is why we also incorporate their data into our own SEO tool.
2024 update: Moz Pro has remained stable with minimal changes. I haven’t had much time to use it this year, but I haven’t noticed any significant updates. Their pricing has also stayed the same (thank you, Moz!). They continue to provide solid SEO data and remain among the best.
7) Rich results test
Price: Free
If you are new to SEO, this is not the best starting point. One of the challenging aspects of SEO is Schema, also known as structured data. This tool assists with Schema, which is an additional “invisible layer” on your website that provides Google with more information, potentially improving your rankings. The Rich Results Test can indicate whether your website can achieve these enhanced positions on Google.
2024 update: Some people believe Schema will become increasingly important in the era of AI. Therefore, this tool remains relevant. However, do not worry if you are unfamiliar with Schema; it is not something to be concerned about when you are just starting with SEO.
8) Pagespeed insights Now LightHouse
Price: Free
The speed of your website is now crucial for SEO, and Google’s speed requirements have increased. Use this tool to test your website speed and receive a score from 0-100. You will get separate scores for both mobile and desktop speed, both of which are important. This remains significant in 2024 Now you can use LightHouse.
9) Compress PNG
Price: Free
Use this compact Compress PNG tool to compress images, reducing their size and speeding up your website, which will please Google. It supports not only PNG files but also JPG, GIF, and even PDF formats. You can often reduce file sizes by over 50%! If your website is on wordpress then you can use Tiny PNG.
10) Answer The Public
Price: Free
Use Answer The Public, a fantastic free tool, to find more “question keywords”. For example, if you enter the keyword “digital marketing courses”, the tool will provide numerous suggestions for questions related to that keyword, which it believes people are searching for. Although it doesn’t show the monthly search volume for the suggested keywords, you can input them into another tool, such as Leaning 360 Bytes, to see the search volume there.
11) ChatGPT
Price: Free/Paid
This leading AI chat tool helps with various tasks, including brainstorming content. For example, you can ask the bot to generate five headlines from a keyword you want to rank for. Just refer to the example in the image. It’s that simple. Ask the bot SEO questions, and you’ll get immediate assistance. You need to create a free user account. Be sure not to copy content exactly; customize it to make it personal. This way, Google won’t have issues with your AI-generated content.
2024 update: Over the past year, I’ve primarily used ChatGPT for translations and ideas. It has been particularly useful for translating content and cleaning up HTML code, saving me a lot of time. I’ve also used DALL-E, the image generation tool, for blog post images. It’s great for some uses, but the hallucination can still be problematic in certain cases. The new GPT store is impressive, and I’ve already used it for various tasks. However, it only works with a Pro subscription, which I upgraded to for £20/month. It’s a good price!
12) SEO.ai
Price: $49 per month/ 7 day free trial
This Danish-developed tool is backed by a team I know and trust for their quality software. They offer a 7-day free trial, which requires a credit card. Although I haven’t tested it myself yet, I’ve heard from several sources that it works well, which is why it’s included here.
2024 update: In my opinion, $49/month is a bit high for an AI content tool. I’ve also tested Frase, which currently starts at $15/month. However, if your needs are substantial, $49 is a reasonable price for the value you receive. I recommend testing both SEO.ai tools.
13) Frase
Price: $15 per month
Frase helps you create better SEO content, which is the main activity we perform in SEO to gain more traffic from Google. It suggests text and keywords you could add, and also recommends adding more headlines, bullet points, or other elements.
Frase is similar to Surfer SEO and SEO.ai, which are also on this top list. While it’s not the easiest tool to use, it’s robust and still one of the simpler tools to get started with, especially compared to the many competitors out there. Personally, I find all these content tools a bit confusing because they have so many buttons and tasks they want me to do. So, I don’t use them much as they tend to block my writing creativity. However, if you struggle with what to write and need help ranking your content for keywords, this is a great and very reasonably priced tool.
14) Screaming Frog
Price: $259 per year. Limited free version too.
Screaming Frog is an expert tool that you download to your computer to check the onsite health of your website. It allows you to crawl your website just like Google’s web crawlers do. By analyzing your onsite SEO – the quality of your website in the eyes of search engines – you can identify common errors and problems, analyze metadata, and generate XML sitemaps. The free version allows you to scan 500 landing pages. Use Screaming Frog if you really want to delve into on-page SEO. There are many alternatives that make the job easier, such as SEObility, Ahrefs, and Learning 360 Bytes.
2024 update: I have used it quite a bit over the last year. This tool is far from perfect, with many false positives, but that’s because the internet is so complex. Don’t hold it against these cool Brits. It’s a super nerdy tool, and I don’t particularly enjoy using it. However, one thing I do enjoy is its speed! It’s so fast that Screaming Frog actually ignores the robots.txt on people’s websites, which tells crawlers to slow down… Hmm, Screaming Frog, from the biggest health crawler, I expected a little more.
15) Seobility
Price: $50 per month
SEObility began as a technical SEO tool designed to scan websites and identify improvements. They excel in this area, and I’ve been a customer in the past. Today, they offer a comprehensive range of features, making them an “all-in-one” SEO tool. However, their user experience isn’t to my taste; it feels a bit too gray. A German team developed it, and personally, I don’t find it inspiring. This is, of course, a personal preference. The data is solid, the pricing is competitive, and they offer a free version. This is why they’ve earned a spot on this prestigious list.
16) SE Ranking
Price: $55
SE Ranking offers a comprehensive set of SEO tools, making it an all-in-one solution. I was a customer for two years and found their rank tracker to be particularly effective. However, I found their link tools confusing and the data less impressive. The technical SEO features were average. This may have changed since I was a customer. The price-to-quality ratio is competitive, which likely contributed to SE Rankings significant growth in recent years.
2024 update: Prices and plans have changed, now starting at $55. I haven’t had much time to test the latest features, so I’m not sure what new additions have been made.
17) AccuRanker
Price: $140 per month
AccuRanker is a rank-tracking tool developed in Denmark, focusing on tracking keywords and their rankings on Google. They excel in this area, assisting large companies and agencies in tracking thousands of keywords. I was a customer for a year, and if you have extensive rank-tracking needs and want to filter deeply into that data, AccuRanker is worth considering.
Several new clients have mentioned Learning 360 Bytes as a good alternative to AccuRanker. Of course, this depends on your specific needs. AccuRanker excels in handling large and complex keyword tracking requirements, with deep filtering and tagging capabilities.
18) Yoast SEO (WordPress plugin)
Price: Free and paid upgrade
Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress. You can use it to optimize the technical aspects of your SEO, and the tool also guides you in the right direction for keyword optimizing your written content. If you have a WordPress website, Yoast is a fantastic extension that will automatically make your website more SEO-friendly.
19) Rank Math (WordPress plugin)
Price: $5 per month
We switched from Yoast to Rank Math in 2023, as many are hyping Rank Math these days. The tool assists with migration, though it wasn’t entirely painless, and the hype doesn’t quite hold up in my opinion. The free version isn’t very useful, so we upgraded. It’s inexpensive, though. Rank Math Pro has many neat features that save time, such as automatic alt tags on images, automatically finding videos on the page and informing Google about them (Schema), Schema templates, and showing the number of internal and external links on pages (though very basic). Overall, I’m satisfied. But if you’re happy with Yoast, stay with it.
2024 update: Rank Math has a free plan, but it’s so limited that I wouldn’t recommend it. We’ve been happy using it for a year, but I still think Yoast SEO does a better job for the WordPress community and is an excellent tool. I have a feeling their design and code are cleaner too, but I wouldn’t know for sure.
Our experience over the last year: Rank Math had several issues, and much of their added functionality, like website traffic analytics and the AI content helper, does not work on our site. However, the core features worked well.
20) Schemantra (structured data)
Price: Free
If you’re an SEO enthusiast and need to create your own Schema data but can’t remember all the details, I recommend this tool. I’ve used it myself to generate Schemas for Learning 360 Bytes. There are many generators out there, but most have a very limited selection. Here, you get the complete list. It’s extensive.
In the list of SEO tools above, I used icons to categorize them. Here’s an explanation:
SEO tools for links Link tools help you check the number of links from other websites and examine their quality. Terms like “Link building” and “Backlinks” are common here. If you want to learn more about backlinks and their importance for your rankings, you can read this beginner’s guide: How do backlinks work?
SEO tools to help you with content These tools assist you in creating content for your website, such as writing texts and headlines. Many are enhanced by AI, which is incredibly smart. However, be cautious not to rely on them too heavily. Use your common sense when creating content and ask yourself: would you read your own content?
SEO tools for keyword research These tools help you find the best keywords and typically provide information on how many searches per month a keyword receives, along with additional data.
SEO tools for keyword rank tracking These tools measure the position of the keywords on which your website ranks in search engines. Tracking your website and keyword rankings is an essential part of the SEO process, helping you make informed decisions about your content.
Technical SEO tools Technical SEO encompasses everything other than your written content. It involves optimizing your website so that search engines can access, crawl, and index it.
In essence, technical SEO covers everything you can do to help Google understand the content and structure of your website. It can be challenging to master, which is why we recommend trying one of the following tools.
Choosing the right SEO tools in 2024 depends on your specific needs, budget, and level of expertise. This comprehensive guide covers a range of both free and paid tools, each with unique features that cater to different aspects of SEO, from keyword research and content cre ation to technical SEO and backlink analysis.
For beginners, tools like Google Search Console, Answer The Public, and Rich Results Test provide a solid starting point without any cost. Those with more advanced needs might find value in premium tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz Pro, which offer in-depth data and insights to enhance SEO strategies. Meanwhile, versatile options like Copilot and ChatGPT serve dual purposes, aiding both SEO and content creation tasks.
It’s important to evaluate the pros and cons of each tool, considering their updates, pricing changes, and ease of use. The right combination of tools can significantly boost your SEO efforts, improve website performance, and drive organic traffic in 2024 and beyond. Remember to stay updated with the latest trends and continue experimenting with new tools to find what best suits your digital marketing strategy.
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