Top 5 Tools To Use To Become An Awesome SEO Professional
SEO might as well be the most famous acronym in the digital universe. After all, it’s hard to imagine a single Internet user who does not understand the importance of website ranking and search engine optimization.
In the world where 93% of all traffic comes from a search engine – Google in particular – ranking outside the top 10 results makes a website practically invisible. The power of SEO is obviously immense, but how can you improve the position of your site and attract more visitors?
It’s definitely not something you can do single-handedly because Google changes its search engine algorithm 500 to 600 times per year. In such circumstances, using the right SEO automation tools is critical to the success of your optimization strategy.
Since the Internet is crowded with all sorts of platforms, we want to help you out and discuss the five best tools to use to become an awesome SEO professional. Let’s take a look!
1. Google Analytics
You should not start a single SEO operation without Google and its native SEO platforms like Google Analytics. We actually had a hard time deciding which tool to present here because Google offers you a wide range of other useful solutions such as Webmasters Tools or Keyword Planner, but Google Analytics is definitely our favorite.
You can’t find a better (and cheaper) website data source. The platform is free, but it gives you pretty much everything you need to understand the performance of the site. You just need to create an account, follow instructions, and choose a few features based on your time zone, industry, etc.
Our suggestion is to determine goals immediately and instruct Google Analytics to closely monitor parameters critical to the success of your online business. Generally speaking, the platform is famous for its four report groups:
- Audience: This type of report reveals all you need to know about the people who visit your website, from demographic traits to location and technology.
- Acquisition: It’s a highly practical feature that tells you where the audience comes from. For example, Australian writings use Google Analytics with such a purpose quite often.
- Behavior: If you want to learn more about the content on your website, use Behavior reports to high and low-performing pages.
- Conversions: You can also track specific conversions and see how they were realized.
2. Ahrefs SEO Toolbar
Ahrefs SEO Toolbar is an all-encompassing optimization platform that offers you a plethora of possibilities. However, it does come with a price tag and you’ll need to pay $99 a month for the Lite version or $179 a month for the Standard package.
Ahrefs SEO Toolbar gives you an instant preview of the targeted webpage, which means that the fundamental optimization indicators are in the palm of your hand. The platform shows you the status of your domain and URL ratings, estimation of organic search traffic, keyword quantity, backlink information, and the number of referring domains.
Ahrefs pays special attention to search engine results pages (SERP), so it provides users with a clear overview of the most important optimization metrics for the top 10 pages. Just as SEO specialist from Assignment Holic Service informs, “this is a great way to analyze both your own best posts and your biggest competitors”. There is also a dedicated keyword analysis section with features such as Keyword Difficulty, CPC, search volume on a global and local scale, and so on.
3. MozBar Pro
MozBar Pro is one of the most comprehensive SEO platforms currently available. It covers almost every aspect of website optimization, which is worth $99 a month in the Standard format or $179 monthly for the Medium package.
MozBar is located in your browser toolbar and all you need to do is make one click to activate the program. Whenever you do it, MozBar will show you an overview of the site you are currently browsing through. The platform divides website analytics into three segments:
- Page Elements: Includes information about URLs, titles, meta elements, and descriptions.
- Page Attributes: This segment focuses on technical aspects of onsite optimization, giving you a preview of page load speed, meta robots, Google Cache URL, and rel=”canonical”.
- Link Data: Just like the name suggests, this unit is all about the link of your webpage and how it ranks in terms of authority, trust, and similar.
Jake Hudson, a digital marketer at Edubirdie, believes that MozBar Pro is definitely a valuable SEO tool for skilled webmasters who want to keep an eye on every single aspect of website performance: “If you are already familiar with the basics of optimization, this is going to be a big leap forward.”
4. Woorank
Woorank is another powerful tool in the SEO arsenal. The platform enables you to create in-depth website evaluation and determine how it performs in terms of ranking, keyword placement, usability, and so on. A Pro version of Woorank starts at $59 a month, while the Professional package costs $179 on a monthly basis.
Woorank handles pretty much everything you need to know about website optimization, but it offers a number of bonus features that make it extremely useful in the hands of SEO professionals.
First of all, the platform gives you the possibility to download analysis in a branded PDF version. This is a nice solution when you want to organize presentations and explain to your colleagues or business partners how the website functions.
Secondly, Woorank has a Competitive Analysis tool that reveals how your biggest rivals perform and shows the keywords they use to improve search engine ranking. Besides that, you can use a Marketing Checklist with more than 70 suggestions on how to prioritize tasks and strengthen the quality of your digital content.
5. Yoast SEO
WordPress is the largest content management system in the world that powers over 30% of the entire Internet. In such circumstances, we must not forget to mention Yoast SEO, a plugin that successfully handles optimization activities of WordPress-based sites. It’s an open source platform that you can use for free, but the premium version offers a bunch of additional features that cost $89.
Yoast SEO conducts thorough analyses to give you a broad scope of tips and suggestions on how to improve your optimization efforts. The plugin creates a snippet preview, which means you can see how a specific page looks in SERP.
The Insights feature is a valuable tool that evaluates your keyword plan and tells you how to upgrade and improve it. Besides that, you will receive suggestions about possible synonyms and alternative key phrases that can improve webpage ranking.
What we love about Yoast SEO is the fact that it comes with a full set of tutorials and “Know How” sources. That way, you can learn everything about the plugin. But even if you fail to figure something out, you can immediately get in touch with customer service agents who are available 365 days a year.
6. Linkio
Linkio is the anchor text generator, a valuable tool for every SEO expert and specialist from around the world. This tool is powerful because it lets webmasters automate their backlink building efforts with complete confidence. Most anchor text generator software provides you with valuable data, but Linkio provides its users with an effective plan of action based on the data it discovers. This is very important because it saves you time and you’ll know which anchor text is the best for use so you could improve your link building campaign.
This tool is ideal for both agencies and brands as it recommends the next set of links you should be ranking for. Linkio platform works like this:
1. you enter a few keywords and URL into the system
2. the system calculates existing backlinks for your URL page and after that calculates the percentage of ideal anchor texts,
3. then you get the list of what type of links you should be building next by modeling top-ranking sites against your current backlink profile.
Conclusion
Creating and deploying an SEO strategy is impossible without a full set of optimization platforms. In this article, we showed you five SEO tools that could make you a genuine optimization wizard. Make sure to check them out and let us know in comments which ones turned out to be best for your website!
Michael Gorman is the Internet of Things expert and a content creator. Michael loves writing about all tech-related topics, but he is no stranger to psychology, self-improvement, and personal development. Michael is a father of two kids and an amateur long-distance runner.