Here's a list of tools we have used for search engine optimization. It contains some golden nuggets and we are sure a few of you will find it useful.
LOCAL SEO
Local Viking - We know there are a few tools out there that do similar things but this is the one I'm using. "Schedule GMB Posts, Track Snack Pack Rankings and Manage All Of Your Google My Business Properties From One Easy To Use Dashboard." It's paid.
One Up App. IO - This tool lets you schedule posts for Google My Business too! It's cheaper than Local Viking if you're only looking for the posting element of Local Viking. You could also use One Up to share your new content to social media. It's paid.
OUTREACH / LINK BUILDING TOOLS
Surfer SEO - This is a data-driven SEO tool which could help you with scaling your traffic in 2020. The tool can analyze more than 500 ranking factors and shows you the correlation between the importance of factor and position in SERP. We make an analysis based on keyword and we crawl the first 50 results from Google. This costs.
AuthoritySpy - This tool is great for automating the ability to find authoritative influencers and bloggers in a chosen niche. You simply put in a keyword or niche that you're interested in and it will return hundreds or thousands of people that you can use for your campaigns. This costs.
Guest Post Tracker - Big database containing 1500+ domains that accept guest posts.
Just Reach Out .io - This tool helps you get press without the need for a PR team. "Our software allows you to find the most relevant journalists, publications, press opportunities, podcasts, and broken links so you can pitch with confidence." This costs.
Marie Haynes Blacklist - I've not had to create a disavow file in a while and to be honest most of you shouldn't have to unless you're SEO's. But in case you do, please check out this tool. IF there's anyone to follow for more information on Google Penalties and algorithm changes its Marie. This is free.
Buzzstream - Buzzstream is an outreach platform you can use to store data you gather on your influencers. You can send emails within the platform too so you'll be able to see if your colleague has contacted them too. It's got a sweet analytics section too. This costs.
Detailed - This tool is pretty cool it generates updated website rankings within your niche that is sorted out by Twitter mentions. You can see who's talking about the biggest sites online. Ahrefs - You can check lots of data with this tool. Broken links, competitors backlink profiles, anchor texts used, referring domains for your own website, get keyword volumes and more. This costs.
SEO Jet - I use this to check my anchor text usage on my URLs. It splits your anchor text into three groups (Blended, exact match,and Natural) and gives you a gauge that allows you to see what types of anchor text you need in order to stay fully optimized. This costs.
Majestic SEO - Looking at your referring domains is great but topical trust flow is a big thing. Having relevant domains linking to you from your topical niche is vital to higher rankings and this is exactly what Majestic shows you. I use this in combination with Ahrefs. This costs.
Dibs - This tool is designed to save you time and simplify the link building process. You enter a bunch of advanced search operators and it goes and returns all the results for you. You can then export this data or filter them in the app. It also displays a bunch of spam metrics that will help you decide on what sites to avoid. Once done you can import all your data straight into Pitchbox or export the data and import it into Buzzstream. (We prefer Buzzstream). There's more but you should check it out. This Costs.
HARO - Right, this stands for Help A Reporter Out. Basically, if a reporter needs sources to provide a statement on a topic, you have the option to comment. In return, you will get a link or a mention. The problem? You will get a lot of requests, it can be annoying to dig out what's worth your while or not. We remember listening to a podcast and someone was creating a tool to help filter out the requests. If anyone knows who's doing this, please drop me a msg or comment below.
SCRAPERS / SCANNERS
Domain Hunter Plus - If you're creating PBNs this tool is great. It's similar to Check My Links as it scans the page your on but this one checks to see if the links mentioned are available to register. It's free.
Check My Links - This is a chrome extension that lets you scan for broken links on a page. It's free.
URL Profiler - This is a great tool for link builders. You can stick a bunch of domains in and pull data from places like Majestic, Moz, Ahrefs etc for those domains. You can also scrape for emails, check if the domains are indexed and loads more. This costs but is worth it!
This is a great tool for link builders. You can stick a bunch of domains in and pull data from places like Majestic, Moz, Ahrefs, etc for those domains. You can also scrape for emails, check if the domains are indexed and loads more.
Screaming Frog - Another necessity for me, this tool is vital for all your onsite tweaks. It crawls your websites' links, images, CSS, script, and apps and gives you data like inlinks, word count, Missing H1s, Title tags that are too long, Time to first byte, etc. This costs but is worth it!
Google Results Bookmarklet by Liam Delahunty of Online Sales - We stuck all that in there so you guys can find it, this is a google applet that will give you the URLs for everything in SERPS for a chosen keyword. Very useful to grab 20-40 urls for let's say "whey protein" then stick them in Screaming Frog or URL Profiler. It's free.
Netpeak Spider - Alternative to Screaming Frog
KEYWORD TOOLS
Keyword Shitter 2 - Pop in a keyword and it will spit out a ridiculous amount of variations! It's free.
Keywords Everywhere - This is a good tool for getting volumes if you don't have access to keyword tool, accuranker, ahrefs etc. If you put a keyword in Google search it will give you the volume for it. You can also analyze pages with this tool and it will give you frequently mentioned keywords, density, etc. It's GREAT! and very, very cheap!
You Auto Complete Me .IO - Good little tool for spitting out a bunch of keywords. It's free! You will need to run these through a KW tool for the volume though.
Ubersuggest - Another tool for keyword suggestions. This will help you find long-tail keywords + it gives you volume.
Answer The Public - Find out what questions and queries your consumers have by getting a free report of what they're searching for in Google.
FREEFAQ Fox - This tool is actually pretty awesome. Enter some sites and it will spit out all the links where someones asking a question about your subject. I.e I can put in SEO and get the tool to scrape /r/ entrepreneur.
ANALYTICS
Google PageSpeed Insights - This allows you to see how fast your website loads on mobile and Desktop.
Google Mobile Friendly Test - Another free tool by Google. This helps you test your web pages to see if they look okay on Mobile.It's free.
GT Metrix - This tool tells you how fast your site loads and gives you lots of recommendations. It's free
Bright Local - SEO reporting, lead generation, reputation management, citation management... It does everything you need for local search. It costs.
Accuranker - Everyone needs a keyword tracking tool. It's not the cheapest but it's great. It costs
Google Analytics - It provides you with web analytics. It tracks and reports the traffic from websites. It's free.
Google Search Console - This is another necessity for SEO, I'm sure you all use it already but if you don't this will allow you to submit your sitemaps, disavow spammy links, view your pages as Google Bot sees it and much more. It's free.
Barracudas Algorithm Tool - This tool allows you to see the latest updates by Google alongside your analytics. It's great for analyzing the effects an update has had on your domain. They just released a new version where you can purchase SEO Visibility data for your domain. It's called seocompare. It costs.
Siteliner - This tool does a lot but I use it to check common content on my site. It costs.
Copyscape - Copyscape is great for checking duplicate content you have on your site that's also elsewhere on the web. It costs.
OTHER
Questiondb - Stuck for questions? you'll get some good ideas here. Free with paid verison too.
Disavow .it - This tool helps you create a disavow list. Just paste in your URLS and it will spit out a nice disavow list.
Google Location Changer (SERPs) - This lets you google from another location. I.e if we want to see the results from New York but we stay in Glasgow. Free.
Google Trends - a Nice tool to watch out for upcoming trends. It can help you decide if you want to double down on something or not.
WORDPRESS PLUGINS
Yoast - We are sure everyone has more than 200 features that you can use to maximize your SEO efforts. Easily add t has a readability checker, allows you to set meta descriptions & title tags with ease and much more. It will automatically generate a sitemap for you plus so much more. It's a great tool. (We just use the free version).
SEO Plugin By Squirrly - Has more than 200 features that you can use to maximize your SEO efforts. Easily add JSON-LD structured data etc.
STACKS TO USE
The Best FREE Stack (Beginners tools to get started)
Screaming Frog (Free for small sites)
Google Search Console
Google Analytics
GT Metrixs
Link Builders Stack (Paid)
Buzzstream (You can use Gmail & streak & google sheets but it gets very messy as you scale. You're better investing as it will save you time down the line) Costs.
URL Profiler (We use this to pull metrics for a tonne of domains. It uses the api from a few tools.)
SEO Jet (Again you could just do this manually using google sheets but if you're building links to scale to a bunch of different pages it can get hard to manage.) Costs.Intermediate SEO Tools (As you get more serious)
Accuranker (or something to track your keywords) Costs.
Ahrefs or Semrush (I Prefer Ahrefs) Costs.
Screaming Frog
Google Search Console
Google Analytics
GT Metrixs
The rest are just nice little things to have when you need them. Try not over complicate everything by adding in multiple tools. Stay clear of full site audit tools. Instead, use the scraping tools that are out there and learn to read the raw data. However, if time is of the essence and you're seriously grinding it out, go look at Ryte. It's the best one we've seen.
Comments