Top SEO tools that businesses should use in 2022

For any business looking to take their brand online, SEO is key for generating visibility and engaging consumers. To capture the attention of your target audience, you’ll need to become familiar with the art of search engine optimisation. Only then will you experience more traffic and conversions on your website. 

When starting from scratch, optimising your website can be challenging. Fortunately, there is a selection of professional SEO software on the market which provides the tools to effectively implement a new strategy.

Within this article, you’ll discover our top picks for SEO tools that businesses should be using in 2022. 

Top SEO tools

Best for: SEO 

  • SEMrush

As an all-in-one SEO platform, SEMrush presents an arsenal of tools for business owners and SEO professionals to get stuck into. Compared to some of the other tools mentioned within this list, SEMrush offers the largest variety of features.

Keyword research, backlink management and competitor analysis. These are just some of the core features that are included within this multifaceted platform. With a range of features that implement all aspects of digital marketing, your team can focus on SEO, content marketing and competitor research all within one platform. 

Whether you’re an SEO professional or a complete beginner, SEMrush features a well-organised and straightforward user interface. The software isn’t overwhelming for first-time users and presents an extensive library of data to be implemented within your strategy. Offering detailed training materials, this all-in-one SEO tool can be utilised by individuals with any level of expertise.

Top SEO tools that businesses should use in 2022

Our favourite feature: Position Tracking tool

To monitor your rankings and track their changes, SEMrush’s position tracking tool offers a wealth of information. Tag your keywords and track their position in Google and Bing’s top 100 search results. The most valuable function within this tool is its ability to compare your keyword positions with your competitors. By analysing their domain, you can identify their highest ranking keywords, generating new ideas for your SEO strategy. 

  • Ahrefs

Whilst slightly more complex for beginners, Ahrefs is an SEO platform with added depth. The tool and its features encourage you to focus on setting goals and taking action to achieve them. Ahrefs provides all the resources to optimise your website and increase traffic. 

Originally launched as a backlink analysis tool, Ahrefs is now equipped with a full SEO toolset. This platform allows businesses to analyse their competitor’s success. It also allows them to implement new strategies within their websites and track their effectiveness in real-time. 

Most unique feature: Keyword Research

There is a huge variety of keyword research tools available on the market. It is no surprise that Ahrefs have integrated their own within their comprehensive SEO platform. Whilst many tools tend to offer similar metrics and features, Ahrefs’ keyword research tool provides something unique. 

There are currently 10 different search engines that you can view the traffic of any keyword for. The two significant ones to mention include amazon and youtube. No other SEO tool currently offers this much detail within its keyword research features.

top SEO tools

Best for: Data measurement

  • Google Analytics

Every online user generates a trail of breadcrumbs as they navigate the internet. By coding page tags that track user demographics and behaviour, Google is able to gather a vast amount of information from users that visit your website.

The Google Analytics dashboard presents several reports on metrics such as the number of users, bounce rate, average session duration, traffic source, page views, goal completions and more. 

Using this information, you can enhance your SEO strategy with data-driven interventions. Rather than taking a shot in the dark with tactics that can’t be tracked, Google Analytics provides a visual outcome of the changes you’ve made. 

top SEO tools

Most unique feature: Behaviour Flow Report

Once you have allowed Google Analytics to track events on your website, you will be provided with a report disclosing your visitors’ step-by-step navigation throughout your website. This tool is highly useful for understanding users’ experiences on your website and tracking their behaviour relating to particular goals and events.

Using the behaviour flow report you can analyse specific pathways that are most popular and assess why your preferred paths aren’t being taken. This information, amongst plenty more, will help you to analyse the structure of your website as well as your calls to action and content that directs clients’ attention. 

  • Google Search Console

Whilst Google Analytics presents data based on your user’s behaviour, Google Search Console provides an insight into the quality of your website or app. Its function is to help you monitor your position on the search engine results page and resolve maintenance issues to sustain your website’s health.

For SEO specialists and business owners, the tool is incredibly useful for technically optimising your website to improve its rankings. The tool can even be used in conjunction with other Google services such as Analytics. This provides a holistic assessment of the quality of your website and its traffic. 

Our favourite feature: Mobile Usability testing

Anyone with current knowledge of search engine optimisation will be aware of the importance of mobile-first indexing. As the increased usage of smartphones has come to influence how most searches are conducted, Google has consequently changed the way pages are indexed and thus ranked within its results. 

If your page isn’t optimised for smartphone users, Google will penalise your website with lower rankings. Within Google Search Console, you can generate a mobile usability rating for your URL. This is incredibly useful for identifying and fixing issues relating to users’ experiences on mobile devices. With various issues such as viewport settings and text size being highlighted, the tool gives an achievable way to improve the mobile usability of your website. 

Top SEO tools for: Keyword Research

  • Answer The Public

Answer the Public is a creative keyword research tool that can be accessed for free. Entering your seed keyword will retrieve a list of questions that online users are currently asking. This data is based on raw search insights and the current popularity of certain search queries.

As Google refines its algorithm to focus on satisfying user intent, enhancing your content with search insights will boost your SEO efforts. Using Answer The Public, you can generate clear, concise answers to your target audience’s questions. This will encourage Google to select your content within featured snippets, placing your website at the top of the search result page. As a result, you will drive high-quality traffic to your site, leading to increased conversions. 

  • Allintitle

Allintitle is an SEO platform and search engine command that can efficiently direct your keyword research. The Google command allows website owners to identify how their competitors are utilising long-tail keywords. With this information, you can take suggestions on how you could improve your content strategy. The platform also offers a host of keyword research tools, allowing you to develop content focused on precise metrics. 

Most unique feature: Keyword Golden Ratio calculator

Keyword golden ratio is an SEO tactic based on targeting ‘low hanging fruit,’ or keywords that have traffic but are under-served with content online. Allintitle’s bulk checker presents the opportunity to import lists of keywords and filter the results by KGR. Along with other key metrics, the tool offers suggestions to generate SEO optimised content for the most effective keywords. 

Top SEO tools for: Website Audits

  • Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is a crawler tool that will identify SEO issues on your website. The crawling bot extracts data and analyses the structure of your site to provide a strategy to optimise your website for search engines and users. 

The reports offer a variety of information within an accessible user interface. You can filter this information to display results that are most relevant to your SEO strategy. Recommendations relating to your metadata, broken links, redirect errors and duplicate content are highlighted so you can manage these problems and improve your rankings.  

Whether you are a complete SEO beginner or have optimised websites in the past, it is important to occasionally assess the technical health of your website. Auditing tools such as Screaming Frog are useful for bringing these issues to your attention and highlighting actionable opportunities to enhance your technical SEO. 

top SEO tools

Top SEO tools for: Content Optimisation

  • Surfer SEO

Surfer’s core goal is to assist you in optimising your on-page SEO efforts. It does this by auditing your website or analysing your content and comparing it to high ranking results for your target keyword. 

SEO professionals will appreciate the value of high-quality content that is keyword targeted and optimised for search engines and their users. Many marketers face challenges creating content that is unique, relevant and useful for its target audience. Surfer helps you to achieve high-quality content which will rank well and attract traffic. 

Surfer’s editing suite

Our favourite feature: Content Editor

Surfer’s editing suite will rate your content based on its quality and relevance to your target keyword. It will then offer suggestions for optimising your text based on the content of your top-ranking competitors. 

This will include recommendations such as an average word count and the number of headings and images you should aim to include. You will also discover a list of keywords and phrases related to your target keyword which should be incorporated to enrich your text. 

How to choose SEO tools

SEO tools are ideal for business owners and digital marketers that want to plan and implement effective SEO strategies. There are some incredible benefits to each of the tools which are highlighted in this article. Straight out of the box, you will be able to target the appropriate leads, optimise your content strategy and keep tabs on your competition.

Each tool offers effective functionality and various features for different purposes. Deciding which tool you should use can become overwhelming.  When selecting an SEO tool to implement for your business, consider what currently needs improvement within your existing strategy.

Another factor that might influence your decision is cost. Whilst some of these tools are free, others offer discounted trials or require upfront membership payments. Take some time with each tool to get a taste of its functionality. For a complete beginner, the user interfaces or terminology might seem daunting at first. We recommend taking some time to get used to each system. Once you feel comfortable, you can make the most informed decision on which tool is best for you.

Final Thoughts

SEO is an ever-changing industry, which is why it is important to engage and evolve with trends as they come and go. SEO has long since changed from keyword stuffing and filling your website with low-quality content. It takes recent data and precision to maintain an SEO strategy that generates high rankings and traffic. 

Each of the tools within this article offers unique features that provide a boost towards optimising your SEO practices. Depending on your business’ needs, you might find that one of the comprehensive SEO platforms provides more than enough data to get started. Alternatively, for a thorough approach to digital marketing, consider implementing a handful of different tools to ensure that you achieve the highest rankings. 

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