The 8 Best SEO Tools for Any Business

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If you thought 2014 was big for SEO, just wait until 2015, which looks to bring content marketing and SEO into the limelight even more. But even if Google updates its search algorithms monthly, you can ensure that your content is always at the top of results with the best SEO tools out there.

  1. SEO Toolbar

If you haven’t visited SEOBook, I highly recommend you do (after you finish reading this post, of course). There are ample articles and resources to help you improve your SEO skills. One tool (and there are many others) is the SEO Toolbar. This extension, once installed, will give you valuable data on any website, including yours and your competitors’.

You can learn a site’s Google PageRank, number of links, monthly visits, site age, and more — all valuable information when you’re tweaking your SEO strategy.

Cost: the toolbar extension is free!

  1. Moz Open Site Explorer

Another fantastic SEO resource is Moz. The site offers a few handy free tools (like this one), and subscribers get even more in-depth SEO tools. Open Site Explorer takes your URL and gives you information on its ranking, as well as lists the most influential sites that link to it. This is useful in seeing what content is resonating with your audience. There’s also an amazing blog and community where other SEOers are sharing strategies and answering questions.

Cost: the basic version is free. Moz Pro subscriptions start at $99 a month.

  1. Ubersuggest

If you’re looking for a simplified keyword research tool,  Übersuggest fits the bill. Enter a keyword or phrase, and you’ll get dozens of suggested other keywords. Click on one you like to get even more drilled down keyword suggestions.

Cost: totally free.

  1. Google Analytics

I’d be remiss if I overlooked the obvious. While there are so many other SEO tools on the market, you really need to be using Analytics in conjunction with them. Digging into your website data, you can find out which pages people are spending time on, which they’re exiting from, and which keywords they typed in to get to your site. You can also see which sites people clicked from to land on your page, as well as measure the success of your PPC campaigns.

Cost: totally free.

  1. Social Crawlytics

Want to know what your competitors are writing about and using SEO-wise? Social Crawlytics provides insight into which content your competition published is getting shared on social media. This gives you ideas about what you should be producing on your own site and blog.

Cost: totally free.

  1. SpyFu

Beat your competitors at their own game on pay-per-click ads and SEO with SpyFu. You can find out the keywords that your competitors are using for their campaigns and outbid them. Knowing these keywords can also help you craft your content using them.

Cost: subscriptions start at $79 a month.

  1. WordStream’s Negative Keyword Tool

Are there keywords you shouldn’t use in your campaigns? Find out with WordStream’s Negative Keyword Tool. With the list you generate, you can make sure that your pay-per-click campaigns and SEO efforts don’t end up targeting the wrong people.

Cost: the first 30 searches are free. WordStream subscriptions start at $249 a month.

  1. Copyscape

If you accept guest posts from others on your blog, you need to ensure they’re unique so Google doesn’t ping you for having duplicate content on your site. Copyscape is a free plagiarism checker, and will quickly tell you if content is original.

Cost: totally free.

There are countless other SEO tools out there, so find what fits your needs best. The main point here is to pay more attention to your SEO in 2015 to ensure you beat out the competition for search ranking.

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