Ultimate Free SEO Tools for 2021 and beyond

The web is a vast place where millions of web pages keep mushrooming every now and then. In such a case, how is it possible for brands to distinguish themselves from their competitors in the digital realm? It can be done rather conveniently. Marketers resort to using SEO Tools for gaining traction. 

This article is a step-by-step guide to everything that you need to know about the Ultimate Free SEO Tools for 2021. While there are hundreds of these tools available on the web, our digital marketing experts have compiled this content, keeping in view the most imperative things proficient marketers and beginners should know about them. 

So let us gain an understanding of these tools and their significance. For that, we must start by learning about Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  

What is Search Engine Optimization? 

Search Engine Optimization, widely recognized as SEO, is the practice of generating relevant traction on a website by enhancing its visibility or ranking on a search engine result page. This digital marketing initiative does not involve any expenditure. The traffic is generated without any paid engagements, also known as Organic Results. 

If you typically use Google, its AI-enabled crawlers will index the web pages once you type your query in the search bar. The web page indexing is done through a set of predetermined Google Algorithms that rank the listings based on factors such as content, keywords, graphics, page structure (HTML), links, etc.

They are three fundamental types of SEO as follows:

• On-Page SEO:

  This method of optimization focuses on the content of a website or a webpage through keyword research and optimization. 

• Technical SEO:

  This method of optimization focuses on the technical elements of a website or a web page such as page speed, data structuring, mobile-friendliness, etc. 

• Off-Page SEO

  : This method of optimizations focuses on increasing the authority of a webpage or a website by creating backlinks. 

SEO in itself is a vast discipline of Digital Marketing. However, knowing these basic things mentioned above can definitely help one to set off on their marketing journey. 

Now we shall proceed towards learning about free SEO Tools and their significance. 

What are SEO Tools and their significance? 

SEO tools are used for optimizing the visibility or ranking of a website on the search engine result page. Enhancing visibility or ranking leads to the generation of high-quality traffic resulting in awareness, consideration, and conversion of consumers for a brand. As an outcome, brands are able to earn a higher return on investments and profits. 

In order to create high-quality content for the target audience, it is important to use the right mix of high-ranking keywords. However, identifying these keywords manually can be a tedious task.  

Free SEO tools can help marketers with keyword suggestions.  But the significance of SEO tools is not limited to just keyword ideas. Shared below are the distinctive benefits that SEO tools offer to their users:

Given the fact that there is no dearth of SEO tactics, identifying the secret of your competitor’s success in the digital space can be very challenging. Fortunately, there are ethical ways that can make the task easier. By using the Free SEO tools, you can ascertain the search engine rankings of your competitors along with their content performance, backlink origins, and traffic rate. 

• Generate high-ranking keyword suggestions: 

Generating high-ranking keyword ideas can be a challenging task even for the marketers who have been in the business for a significant time. However, there are a few keywords research tools that can  help marketers level up their content marketing strategy.

Not only is it possible to target high-ranking keywords with these tools but, they also make it possible to gauge the performing keywords on a competitor’s web page. A marketer can use these keywords or use the keyword tool to target similar keywords and expand their products or services to a new marketplace altogether. 

• Conduct Free SEO Audits:

Regular SEO audits are a pragmatic way to boost the search engine performance of a listing. However, not only these audits consume a lot of time when done manually, they also come at hefty costs. However, by using SEO tools to conduct these audits, marketers can save both time as well as money.

Issues such as long-tail keywords, missing titles or meta-description, shady links, and orphaned pages can be automatically identified using SEO tools. 

• Forecast accurate ROI:

For digital marketers, it is not only important to generate traffic for their brand, but also ensure that this traffic transforms into conversion. With SEO tools, it becomes easy to gauge the efficiency of a given digital marketing strategy.  

As a result, marketers can combine the appropriate tactics to build up on results enabling them to accurately forecast the amount of returns they would be able to earn for their clients. 

The right mix of great tools for SEO can certainly generate favorable results for brands, products, or services. 

Let us now take a look at all the tools that you can include in your SEO strategy to get the best results. 

The Best Free SEO Tools For 2021

Now that you are aligned with the use and significance of SEO tools, we are compiling a list of the best SEO tools that you can start using without any investment. We have categorized this list based on the distinctive disciplines of SEO they serve.

Free SEO Tools For Successful Content Marketing

We all know that content is considered to be the king in the digital space. A right content marketing strategy can help in generating quality as well as quantity traffic for any webpage. 

Shared below are the best and free content marketing tools that you can use.  

• Grammarly 

Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant which can help you in creating compelling content free of any grammatical mistakes or typing errors.  Besides that, it also helps writers to create plague – free content and refine their writing stance. 

Grammarly can be used online, as a Chrome Extension on your Google browser, or as a plug-in on MS Word or Outlook. 

It can be used by writers of all proficiency levels, whether beginners, intermediate, or advanced. You can either write directly on the tool, copy/paste your text on it, or even upload documents. The application will instantly underline the mistakes in your text and suggest the corrections which can be implemented with the click of a mouse button. 

• Animalz Revive

Animalz Revive is a tool that gets clubbed with  Google Analytics. It can help writers in identifying the piece of content that is growing obsolete. It shows the growth as well as the decline of content over time in the form of a graph. 

Through this tool, it becomes easy for writers or marketers to keep a track of the pieces of content that have been performing well. As for the ones that are not performing can be easily identified with the help of the  graph and can be tweaked for performance optimization. 

• Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a web-based service that helps in ascertaining the efficiency of keywords used in the content. However, before using this service, owners have to add and verify their website on the platform. 

Besides determining keyword quality, Google Search Console can also help users with identifying other significant issues on a web-page such as broken links and malware presence. Since marketers are able to profile keywords in content, it automatically becomes easier for them to attract relevant audiences towards their marketing material. 

For moderating the performance of the content, keywords in titles, meta-descriptions, and body of the content can be tweaked accordingly.  

Using all the above free SEO tools, marketers can optimize their content marketing strategy to get the best results.  

We shall now progress to look at some of the top link building tools and learn how they work: 

Free SEO Tools for powerful Link Building

Link Building on a site helps in improving the domain authority. The higher the credibility of the link source, the more authority one can command. 

Shared below is a list of free Link Building SEO Tools which marketers swear by: 

• Link Miner:

 Link Miner is used for identifying the faulty links on a webpage. However, there is definitely more to it. If you come across a link on your competitor’s web page which is generating powerful traction, Link Miner can help you dig out similar links from its huge database. This tool can also help marketers in determining the metrics of every link that they have linked to their marketing material. 

This tool can be added to the Google Browser as a Chrome Extension. 

• BackLinko: 

The BackLinko SEO tool can be used to view each of your backlinks on a single platform. Besides viewing the anchor text of a link, it also shows the owner whether their links are dofollow or nofollow. 

Additionally, marketers can also explore the potential backlinking opportunities and fetch details such as link data, sub-data, or even specific URLs.

They can also determine the authority of each backlink utilizing this tool. 

• MozBar: 

MozBar which can be used as a Chrome Extension is a tool that offers users with insightful data in order to optimize their listings for the search engines. 

It appears in the form of a bar on a web page and can be easily hovered in any direction on the webpage. Marketers can utilize this tool to compare the domain authority of their website with their competitors. 

By using this tool, you can conveniently determine factors that affect SEO, including domain ranking, page authority, link metrics, and much more.  This compact tool is a compact solution to most of the SEO related requirements for marketers.  

Through Link Building, marketers can help brands and businesses in establishing credibility for their products and services in the digital world.

Moving on, we are going to discuss the best crawling related SEO tools for digital marketing: 

Free SEO Tools for effective crawling:

• Screaming Frog 

Screaming Frog is an optimization tool that helps marketers to improve website rankings by crawling a website or a web page. It helps them in determining the shortcomings due to which optimizations a said listing could be hampered. 

It is one of the most sought after indexing tools used by marketers. It can help website owners in optimizing page speed, identifying faulty links, discerning duplicate content, analyzing meta-titles, and improving the overall technical SEO of their site. 

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Disney are some of the brands that vouch for Screaming Frog.  

• HTTrack

HTTrack is another free website crawling tool that allows marketers to download sites from the web along with building directories, HTML graphics, and other resources to your desktop. This tool is supported by Windows, Sun Solarix, and Linux OS and is suitable for both personal as well as business usage. 

It also offers its users the possibility of mirroring more than a single site, updating them, and even resuming interrupted downloads. This tool also has an in-built support system that users can refer for assistance.

By leveraging on the above-mentioned free crawling SEO tools, marketers can enhance the ranking and visibility of their websites on the Search Engine Result Page. Besides this, they can also save a considerable amount of the marketing budget by opting to use these tools. 

These SEO tools are the perfect way for startups and mid-sized companies to make their brand known and leave a mark on their audience.  

These were our recommendations of the best free SEO tools, which even the top-most digital marketers swear by. By including all these tools in your marketing strategy, you will definitely be able to level up your SEO initiatives. Make the best use of your time by trying out these free SEO tools and let us know about your experience. Also, let us know which one of them did you find the best for search engine optimization.  If you find these tools useful, do not forget to recommend them to your colleagues and peers.