What are the best SEO tools for marketers?

There are a plethora of SEO tools available on the market. In this article I talk about 24 of the best tools I've used for clients and startups I work with, but in fact there are close to (if not more than) 1000+ tools related to SEO across content, keyword research, optimisation, brief-creation and lots more. For me personally, these are my 4 favourite SEO tools that constantly deliver for me day in, day out; Ahrefs, Semrush, ScreamingFrog and Buzzsumo.

Are SEO tools worth the cost?

My short answer is yes, especially platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush. These two platforms, in particular, are packed with features that include keyword research, competition analysis, site audits, PPC research, content optimisation, SERP analysis, rank trackers, and loads more. They do cost a bit per month, but with all these features included (and lots more), you do see the ROI in the short term. Otherwise, you will be spending a lot of time doing manual research and analysis - it all comes to opportunity cost with time and resources.

What are the best free SEO reporting tools?

Most of the tools I've mentioned in this post have a good level of analytics and reporting, depending on what you're trying to achieve. For more detailed analysis, especially if you're looking for more in-depth backlink analysis and 'rank tracking', you'll need to upgrade and pay. If you're on a lean budget, 10 great options I recommend as free reporting tools for SEO are; Google Search Console, Google Pagespeed Insights, Google Ads Keyword Planner, Answer the Public, YoastSEO, Google Trends, HARO, Keyword Surfer, Website Analytics tools (like GA, Plausible Analytics, etc), and Backlink checker by Ahrefs.

25 Best SEO Tools for Marketers & Startups (2024)

Favourite

Ahrefs

About:

Hands down my go-to SEO tool when it comes to doing KW research, backlink analysis, content analysis and so much more.

Top Features:

There's a few amazing tools compact into one platform, and can be a little confusing where to look at first if you're fairly new to SEO. Starting off with the projects dashboard, you can add your own projects or even competitors, see how they perform overtime, keywords they can rank for and so much more. If they're your own sites, you can see GSC data within the project dashboard as well.

With the site explorer tool, you can do in-depth research into any site, from backlink analysis, organic search traffic analysis, top pages by links, traffic (etc.), as well as paid traffic research. I love the backlink analysis tool in particular and have found Ahrefs to be the best for this compared to other tools on the market.

With the keyword research tool, you can find what keywords you want to rank for, as well as uncover other suggestions you may have not thought about. Find low-hanging fruit opportunities with low competition, high volume keywords. Discover trends of keyword growth over periods of time. Search keyword data across various search engines, not just Google. Find parent topics, SERP data and lots more.

All-in-one

Audit

backlinks

Pricing:

Pricing is determined by a few factors such as amount of pages you want crawled per month as part of site audits, to keywords you want to track rankings for, to keyword explorer, content explorer and more. Plans start at $99 per month for the Lite plan.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Semrush

About:

The other big player in the market which lots of SEO's, startup marketers, agencies and entrepreneurs use, which has a suite of products for SEO, is Semrush.

Top Features:

From keyword research, on-page analysis and audits, rank tranking, site audits, PPC ads tools, content optimisation and so much more, Semrush has you covered for growing your website organically fast amongst your niche and competitors.

The content optimisation tools are really awesome. Create briefs and templates for producing posts which take into account your keywords and the top 10 websites that rank for your target keyword. When creating the post, there's also an SEO writing assistant ensuring your blog post is optimised for organic performance.

Other tools I personally really like that this platform has includes the brand monitoring tools, PPC research so you can see what your competitors or other plays in your niche are bidding on (as well as see their GDN creative), content gap analysis and more.

All-in-one

competitor/market research

paid ads tracking

Pricing:

There are three primary plans available, with the cheapest plan starting at $119.95 per month, billed monthly. To unlock a lot more features, including the content marketing toolkit, the next plan is $229.95 per month. All plans are cheaper if billed annually.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Google Search Console

About:

You should know what Google Search Console is (which you need for your website to be indexed and ranked). But, do you use it enough to help you with your organic strategy?

Top Features:

Right under "search results" under performance, you can instantly see impressions and clicks. On top of that, avg. CTR rate and avg. position. See the full list of keywords you rank for, alongside clicks and impressions. Filter date ranges to see your organic growth overtime. Additonally, see which pages, countries and devices contribute to driving traffic.

In the coverage report, see which pages are live, as well as see which pages aren't indexed, or have errors. You can view the details of the errors (e.g. server or redirect errors) and reasons behind pages that may not be indexed. Just below coverage, you can view your submitted sitemap(s) and removals.

Under "experience", you can view detailed reports around page experience, mobile usability and core vitals. Aim to have the best mobile and page experience scores for better organic results.

search results

indexing

core vitals

Pricing:

No pricing to use GSC. It's completely to use.

Web/App

Free

Learn more

Favourite

YoastSEO

About:

If you run Wordpress-based website, there's a solid chance that you've heard of Yoast SEO. In fact, if you use Wordpress, you most likely have Yoast installed.

Top Features:

The user experience of this tool and plugin for Wordpress and Shopify (yep there's a plugin for Shopify) makes it easy to ensure your pages, blog posts, headlines and more, are optimised for SEO.

See analysis of how content can be improved in real-time when you make edits or about to post a piece of content. A nice feature is the ability to see suggestions for internal linking of related posts.

Probably one of the best freatures is that schema and structured data is automatically done whenever you post a certain piece of content, helping you increase your chances of rich results. Just awesome.

internal linking

Pricing:

The Wordpress plugin is $99 per year (great value), whilst the Shopify add-on is $29 per 30 days. Highly recommend upgrading if you're on one of these platforms.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$

Learn more

Favourite

ScreamingFrog

About:

One of the most popular technical tools for experienced SEO's is Screaming Frog.

Top Features:

A lot of people know of the spider tool, but funnily enough Screaming Frog is an agency who've built a successful tool. Talk about an amazing strategy for inbound.

With the SEO spider tool, you can crawl small to large websites with ease. You can see in pretty much in real-time the results of pages and your crawl, where you can spot broken links, see site architecture, view robots, look at pages titles, schedule audits, and lots more.

Whilst it is used by many veterans of the industry, just by watching a few YouTube tutorials, any marketer, or anyone really with minimal content or SEO experience can pick up Screaming Frog. Worth the investment of your time to learn.

technical

crawls

audits

Pricing:

There's a free version available but is limited in terms of crawls and other advanced features. For only £149.00 per year, you can unlock unlimited crawls (although there's a limit on storage and memory), and unlock other awesome features.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$

Learn more

Favourite

Buzzsumo

About:

One of my personal favourites for SEO and content marketing has to be Buzzsumo.

Top Features:

Buzzsumo has amazing features around keyword research and analysis, but for me it's the features around trends, topics and questions that really makes this platform unlike most of the others.

With trends, you can view which posts or topics are going viral. Then you have topics yo give you ideas around content, identify viral marketing ideas, to then questions which helps you see what people are searching for, helping you formulate more effective content briefs.

The robust of features just doesn't stop there. With Buzzsumo, you can find influencers and find journalists, see what they share, etc. You can even find sharers of specific content links, which is really powerful. You can also setup monitoring for backlinks, publications when they post a new article, and lots, lots more. This platform is really amazing.

content research

influencers

Pricing:

You can use this platform for free, but it is limited in terms of key features. Plans then begin from $99 p/m, with bigger plans available for more volume.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SEOMinion

About:

Probably my favourite SEO chrome extension would have to be SEOMinion. It's just so good.

Top Features:

In just a click, you can analyse detailed on-page metrics. You can view a page's headings, open graph info, word count, title and description. Super valuable when doing research.

An really cool thing is that there's a link checker, which essentially highlights links that work and broken links, including internal, external and follow/no-follow.

In addition to these amazing features mentioned, you can preview SERPs and even check SERPs of different locations globally, which is super cool.

on-page

highlights links

serp checker

Pricing:

Install for free - yep I know. You will love it.

Chrome extension (only)

Free

Learn more

Favourite

SEO Testing

About:

For more experienced search engine marketers or growth marketers, SEO Testing is a platform you will love using.

Top Features:

The purpose of this tool is to help you run tests and experiments of your website search data, whether it be for split testing, URL structures, long-tail reporting, CTR opportunities and more.

By integrating your GSC, you will be able to see all your organic data in one place. Using the chrome extension, you can explore your pages and see on-page fixes and ways to further to optimise the page. The reporting features are extensive - there's lots that you can do with this tool.

With the testing capabilities, you can run time-based experiments, group tests, URL switch tests, and more.

testing tool

Pricing:

Pricing works based on number of websites. For one website, it will cost you $30 per month. For 5, it's $75 per month, and for 20 websites, $225 per month.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Majestic

About:

If you're looking for a robust tool to help with your backlink and website auditing efforts, Majestic is a solid option.

Top Features:

When you're doing website research, Majestic can help you find out about the link quality of a website. You can find out the top backlinks, explore and analyse the quality of the content, discover link opportunities, as well as other key metrics.

This platform also have their own scoring system around link quality and link context. Definitely read more into the various scores such as trust flow, citation flow, topical trust flow, etc.

For me personally, this platform is definitely in my top 3 favourites for backlink analysis. I recommend testing out the site explorer tool which is one of the main capabilities. The amount of detailed metrics you recieve can really help you evaluate competitors and assist in your content strategy.

link quality

website research

profiling

Pricing:

You can start with this tool with the lite plan, which is $49 per month. To unlock more advanced features, you will need to upgrade.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SiteGuru

About:

A strong SEO auditing tool worth testing out is SiteGuru.

Top Features:

As you know by now, it's important to run regular website crawls to see where there are errors and imporvements to be made to website/page performance. This tool makes it easy.

The UX of this tool is good for those with minimal experience. Easily find broken links, page title/meat description fixes and improvements, canonical URL's, page speed, sitemaps, and more.

With all the changes you make, they will be automatically logged. Really useful for reviewing past changes.

crawler

track changes

Pricing:

You can signup and try Siteguru on the freemium plan. For more websites and unlimited users, plans start from $29 per month (billed monthly).

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

HARO

About:

For those who have been in marketing for a while, good chance you've heard of HARO.

Top Features:

HARO connects journalists and sources together, through requests by journalists wanting to get expert opinions and thoughts on whatever they're writing about at the time.

It's been around for a long time and is still used by many of the largest publications in the world, including the likes of Forbes, Business Insider, Time, Wall Street Journal and many others.

It can be an effective backlink strategy for your business. Respond to queiries in a timely fashion with good answers, and there's a chance a journalist may reach out or get your thoughts on the topic.

journalists

publications

marketplace

Pricing:

You can sign up for free with HARO. The free version is pretty good, but for text alerts, search media opportunities relevant to you more easily, you can upgrade with plans starting from $19 per month.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Mangools

About:

Mangools has been getting a lot of traction from what I can see in the SEO world. Quite a few friends use this platform and rate it highly.

Top Features:

As part of the product suite, you can do keyword research, track keywords, features around SERP tracking and rankings, backlink reports, site analysis (e.g. competitors or yours), and many more tools.

The platform user experience is really good. Compared to the larger, more established players, I'd say Mangools is perfect for those fairly new to SEO. Having said that, it's still valuable for those who are experienced. They have some impressive brands using the tool, including the likes of Adidas, Skyscanner, RetailMeNot and more.

They also have a free chrome extension, SERP simulator and volatility checker, which is perfect if you're wanting to test it out. The extension is beautiful.

serp checker

affordable

easy ux

Pricing:

A good reason why this tool has become popular is because of the pricing. Great features and value with monthly pricing starting at $49 p/m (billed monthly) 100 keyword lookups and 100 SERP lookups per 24 hours. There are also premium and agency plans available.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

UberSuggest

About:

Another affordable tool available for entrepreneurs and creators who want something simple is Ubersuggest, founded by Neil Patel.

Top Features:

If you head to the pricing page, he brings up why his platform is a good alternative to some others. Ubersuggest isn't as comprehensive as some of the others in terms of features and historical data options, but nonetheless it's great value for those who want something simple.

Get analytics for specific domains and competitors, do deeper keyword analysis and see which sites rank for specific terms, get suggestions of what content you should do next, get backlink data on domains, and more.

There's also a nice chrome extension available for you to do further analysis.

good value

beginners

suggestions

Pricing:

Pricing starts at $12 per month. There are larger plans for more websites at $20 p/m (4-7 websites) and $40 p/m (8+ websites). At the time I write this, there's also lifetime plans available which are great value.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Freemium

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

WooRank

About:

Woorank is a cool platform which has a simpler user experience and nice UI to many others mentioned.

Top Features:

Analyse competitors, do technical audits of your website and pages, use the keyword tool to find opportunities and gaps, and more.

What is different about Woorank to some of the others is the technology stack functionality, where you can see what software technologies specific websites are using. Great for sales teams and marketers doing outreach.

Speaking of outreach, there are also outreach and leg gen tools. You can share reports, for example, site audits of a propsect's website. There are also great features for small businesses and agencies.

off-page analysis

agency reports

Pricing:

Plans kick off from $79.99 per month for one project. Upgrade for more websites, pages that you can crawl, and more.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Moz

About:

At the very least, if you've been involved in tech startups or digital marketing for a period of time, you've probably heard of Moz.

Top Features:

Similar to some of the 'all-in-one' platforms I've mentioned already, Moz has a suite of features for experienced marketers including keyword research, backlinks reports, competitive intelligence, SERPs, rankings and more. They also have some awesome free SEO tools available too.

What's really awesome about Moz is their local SEO suite of features, perfect for any digital marketing consultant or small business owners who want to improve their rankings in specific geo-locations. Also reasonably priced.

There's also the ability to crawl your website and see which pages can improve with optimisation. Additionally, they've released (as I write this) more options around link analysis and opportunities.

local seo

Pricing:

There are three primary plans available - Local, Pro and Stat, which are $14 p/m, $99 p/m and $720 p/m respectively. Each plan caters for different stages and types of businesses. As mentioned earlier, there are free tools which you can use as well.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SEOQuake

About:

SEOquake (owned by SEMRush) is a free chrome extension to help you conduct on-page analysis, SERP data, plus much more.

Top Features:

With the extension, you can see important data about websites and specific pages you want analyse. You can see internal and external links, view Google and Bing index, social media shares/likes, plus SEMRush rank.

You can examime links, including types of links and anchor texts, real-time health score of pages, compare domains and URLs, as well as keyword analysis.

There's also a free CSV export based on the data you collect on pages you explore, which is awesome and efficient when researching. Even more awesome as it's free.

toolbar

examine links

Pricing:

It's free to install. Have fun. :)

Chrome extension (only)

Free

Learn more

Favourite

SurferSEO

About:

A content optimisation tool which has skyrocketed in popularity amongst the SEO world, as well as caught the attention of content writers, marketers and entrepreneurs is Surfer.

Top Features:

With Surfer, you can plan content through keyword clustering. Having tried this myself, this tools has done a really great job with the user experience. Really handy as well as you can spot hidden opportunities which you may have not thought about.

A really powerful section of the platform though is the content AI outline and editor. The UX and UI is superb, and quite easy to pick up for any writer, blogger or marketer. With the content editor, you can write or hire writers to follow the outline you build. In real-time, you can view yout 'score', which guides you around which keywords you should include, what your competitor talk about and more. I recommend watching the YouTube tutorials to see how it works. You'll pick it up quickly.

We've talked about a tools that have on-page auditing capabilities, but I believe Surfer is one of the best for this. With the audit, you can view keywords you may lack in comparison to competitors, view which headings you should include, FAQs, links you're missing, plus more.

ai outline

NLP

content editor

Pricing:

Monthly pricing starts at $59 per month for 10 content editors and 20 audits. The $119 per month (Pro) plan allows for 30 editors, 60 audits, and ability to invite 3 teammates.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Marketmuse

About:

For larger organisations and fast-growing startups looking to leverage the power of AI as part of their content strategy, then check out MarketMuse.

Top Features:

With MarketMuse, marketers and teams can create seo-powered briefs, do keyword analysis, optimise written content and give scores on quality of content (and whether or not it will rank against your competitors).

Compared to some of the other content optimisation tools, the keyword and content metrics data goes into more detail, helping you and your team to identify opportunities for content creation. You can even calculate the potential ROI of content areas you focus on.

Additionally, whilst the content briefs and outlines are awesome with some of the platforms I've talked about already, MarketMuse does take it to the next level with clusters, topics/subtopics and much more.

detailed metrics

ROI calculation

Pricing:

Plans are more skewed for organisations who take content marketing seriously. There's a freemium option but is quite limited. Then there are two larger annual plans.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Frase

About:

Frase has become another popular content optimisation platform for growth marketers that is packed with awesome features.

Top Features:

Create briefs and outlines that are backed with thorough research and data. This includes seeing what competitors rank for what keywords, backlink profiles, SERP analysis, and other important information. Then from there, you can generate outlines in just seconds. The outline builder UX is really good.

As you develop/write content, you will see a score illustrating how seo-optimised your blog post is, and what areas of opportunities you can work on. This can include incorporating more applicable keywords, headings and subheadings, FAQs, and more.

Another epic feature is the content analytics suite. Simply connect your Google Search Console account, and Frase will highlight areas where you can optimise, particularly pages that may be sitting on page 2 which have a good opportunity to go to page 1. Or including keywords that you could possibly rank for, and posts where with some fresh updates can help improve your rankings.

auto clusters

share docs

Pricing:

Pricing starts at $19.99 per month for limited document credits. The real value is in the higher-tiered plans. There's good value with the team plan which is $119 p/m for unlimited documents credits and sharing.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Clearscope

About:

Clearscope was one of the original platforms available for optimising content and doing content strategy using AI-powered technology.

Top Features:

Clearscope has some really impressive customers including the likes of Webflow, Intuit, Hubspot, Shopify and even YouTube. The platform is really slick and friendly for content marketers.

It has a lot of the features I've mentioned with some of the other platforms, including briefs, real-time data around optimisation, and more.

They also have integrations with Google Docs and Wordpress, making it easier to optimise as part of your content production workflow.

big customers

guides

Pricing:

Pricing kicks off at $170 per month for 3 users and 20 document credits. Upgrade for more.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

SE Ranking

About:

Another 'all-in-one' SEO platform on the market which is affordable for many early-stage startups and entrepreneurs is SE Ranking.

Top Features:

With SE Ranking, you can run website audits, tracking backlink rankings, do keyword groupings/clustering, do on-page analysis for over 100+ pages per day, and much more.

The platform UX is pretty good and easy to navigate around, particularly with the amount of features available. Perfect for SMB's, solo entrepreneurs, small teams or anyone who doesn't have strong SEO experience.

They also have a really nice mobile app to keep an eye on your rankings.

Mobile app

ux friendly

Pricing:

The pricing model is interesting. You can choose from 3 main plans, but then can be cheaper or more expensive depending on your rankings check frequency, which can be daily, every 3 days or weekly. Visit the pricing page to see which combination works best for you.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Keyword Hero

About:

For those who use GA for organic analytics (which is many of us), Keyword Hero helps you understand the top queiries that drive website traffic.

Top Features:

As I'm sure many GA users know, you most likely experience results in GA under search console with '(not provided)'. Well, this tool can help you uncover much of that data. Not all of it, but it can be a good amount.

Whilst you can always use GSC for your organic analysis, it's this tool which marries up all the data within GA, helping you see which keywords and what intent searches are doing in order to land on your site. This can help with your content marketing efforts and on-page optimisation to help drive more conversions.

It's really easy to setup and just takes minutes. Recommended by a lot of top folk in the industry.

unlock queries

GA integration

good pricing

Pricing:

Plans are affordable for all levels, with pricing starting from $9 per month for up to 10,000 sessions. You will need to upgrade to a higher plan for more session analysis. There's also an awesome free trial period of 90 days.

Web/App

Freemium

$-$$

Learn more

Favourite

ContentKing

About:

A platform that can provides real-time auditing capabilities, alerts, monitoring and more, is ContentKing.

Top Features:

With the auditing suite, ContentKing can provide you with real-time, and up-to-date optimisation opportunities and key metrics you need to monitor in order to maximise your content and organic efforts. Everything from XML, links, headings, meta descriptions, images, open graph, and more.

Keep on top of your website health with alerts and any changes that occur, you will be notified. Thanks to alerts, you can quickly fix any technical issues, non-indexed pages, error detections and lots more.

The reporting section of the platform is easy to understand for any non-experienced content marketers. There's also many integrations available including Slack, GA and others.

Real-time

Pricing:

To find out more about pricing, sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo.

Web/App + Chrome extension

Demo

$-$$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Storybase

About:

For doing long-tail keyword research, then Storybase is your answer.

Top Features:

Get content ideas fast for your next articles. Find untapped areas of low competition that you can prioritise for content production pipeline.

A really nice feature I like is the CTR tool. Find out how you can improve your title tags and meta descriptions for more clicks. As you know, increasing your CTR rate and also help with rankings.

Storybase is used by some of the world's top marketers and brands. Certainly worth doing a free trial to see how you go.

ctr

long-tail

Pricing:

For solo marketers and consultants, you can try out the $49 per month plan which lets you do 1-3 websites. For more users and websites, you will need to get a higher plan.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$

Learn more

Favourite

Serpstat

About:

Another end-to-end SEO marketing platform for all skill levels is Serpstat.

Top Features:

This platform has a suite of 30 epic tools to help with your organic and content marketing efforts. It includes site audits, rank trackers, PPC research, keyword clustering, and many more.

I find the tool personally to have some sections which have amazing UX, and some others a bit harder to use. Once you get used to the platform, it's really useful but for beginners, I'd recommend watching some videos to get the most out of it.

I think value for money is really good, considering the amount of capabilities. This also makes quite a few other silo tools redundant, so the investment is worth considering.

end to end

700k+ users

kw clustering

Pricing:

Plans start from $69 per month. There are four higher-tiered plans available. Save on annuals plans.

Web/App

Paid

$-$$$$

Learn more

No results found.

25 Best SEO Tools for Marketers & Startups that I love (2024)

Ahrefs

Top Features:

Semrush

Top Features:

Google Search Console

Top Features:

YoastSEO

Top Features:

ScreamingFrog

Top Features:

Buzzsumo

Top Features:

SEOMinion

Top Features:

SEO Testing

Top Features:

Majestic

Top Features:

SiteGuru

Top Features:

HARO

Top Features:

Mangools

Top Features:

UberSuggest

Top Features:

WooRank

Top Features:

Moz

Top Features:

SEOQuake

Top Features:

SurferSEO

Top Features:

Marketmuse

Top Features:

Frase

Top Features:

Clearscope

Top Features:

SE Ranking

Top Features:

Keyword Hero

Top Features:

ContentKing

Top Features:

Storybase

Top Features:

Serpstat

Top Features:

Platform

Pricing

Plans

⚡ Frequently Asked Questions ⚡

What are the best SEO tools for marketers?

Are SEO tools worth the cost?

What are the best free SEO reporting tools?