SEO (Search Engine Optimization) software does exactly what its name implies: it optimizes your website for better search engine ranking results. SEO software is usually split into three different sections: analytic tools, link-building tools and keyword tools.
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How Does Seo Software Work
Here’s how SEO actually works: Google and other search engines crawl pages on the web, indexing and categorizing them in what would be the universe’s biggest library. When you search for something online, you’re putting in a request to the library. Google’s search crawlers then analyze your search term and spit out web pages that are most relevant to what it thinks you want.
However, search crawlers speak a different language than we do—HTML. So, they need some extra help to determine what a web page is about so they can correctly index it.
Think of it like this: You’ve gone to the world’s biggest library, but the librarian speaks Russian, and all the books are in English. By optimizing your website for search, you’re adding in extra bits of code and structuring your website a specific way that helps crawlers understand, categorize, and index each web page.
What Does SEO Software Do?
While there are many different SEO software platforms, for the most part, the software measures:
- How well your site is currently optimized for search engines based on a number of ranking factors—some tools also allow you to evaluate how well individual pages of your site are optimized for certain keywords
- How well your site ranks for your designated allotment of keywords
TYPES OF SEO TOOLS
From there, it gets more granular into the types of SEO software available, and each piece serves a different purpose:
- Keyword software – SEO was built on keywords, and it remains true today. The very basic application of SEO includes picking the right keywords and key phrases, and keyword software only monitors keyword volume and opportunity. Examples include: Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere, Google Trends, Wordtracker
- Website audit software – If you’ve got your keywords covered by one of the tools above, the next thing you might need is website audit software. This type of software looks at all the technical aspects of your website—like site speed, mobile-friendliness, robot.txt files, etc.—and spits out a summary of data that can help you pinpoint places that are hurting your SEO strategy. Examples include: Screaming Frog, Google Webmaster Tools
- Local SEO software – While regular SEO focuses on organic search results, Local SEO focuses on local search results, including the local pack and map listing. Local SEO software monitors and analyzes data relating to ranking factors for the local and map listings, including consistent NAP (name-address-phone number) across online directories, presence of reviews, etc. Examples include: Moz Local
- Content SEO software – Are people sharing your content on social media? Where are the content opportunities you’re missing? Is your website content scraped from another site? Content SEO software will tell you all the above. Examples include: BuzzSumo, Copyscape
- Full-suite SEO software – Full-suite SEO software does all the above, and there aren’t that many good ones. Examples include: Ahrefs, SEMRush, Search Console by Google, and our own proprietary SEO software
best seo tools for beginners
You can never see too many lists of free tools if you’re just starting out in SEO. Tools are crucial to practicing SEO and grasping a better understanding of how the industry works, but many of them are very expensive. As a beginner, it is not necessary to start by buying a tool that costs a lot of money. Once you know what you’re looking for and know what you’re doing, then you can move on to something advanced. For now, the free SEO tools out there will absolutely get the job done. In fact, many are surprised at just how many quality tools SEO professionals give out for free. Below are some of the top choices for beginners:
- Google Analytics. A great tool to get you started. Even the most advanced professional who make SEO a full-time job are using Google Analytics. It might be confusing at first, but it will help any beginner get a sense of what is measured (website traffic, conversions, audience, etc.) and therefore what is important.
- AdWords Keyword Tool. Completing keyword research is an incredibly important aspect of SEO (you have to know what and where to optimize, after all). This tool will show you the competition, global monthly searches, and local monthly searches for every keyword you try. Even the most advanced SEO professionals turn to this tool for their research.
- Open Site Explorer. This tool will help you find link opportunities through competitor backlink research. The tool comes from SEOmoz and helps you determine if you can earn the same links that your competitors have earned (not to mention do a little bit of snooping).
- SEO by Yoast. This is my favorite SEO plugin to install on a website. It helps walk you through the different steps of SEO to make sure that you’re optimizing each and every webpage. This works best when you’re focusing on optimizing the content on your website.
- PageRank Status. You can download a free browser extension to help you see the PageRank of every webpage you visit. This will help beginners get a sense of where the website ranks on Google (it doesn’t always mean that one website is better quality than another, but it does mean it is more established). This is a great way to find authoritative link building opportunities. You can see SEO stats, site info, page info and page speed all by just clicking on the plugin.
- Google Webmaster Tools. Every SEO professional has a Google Webmaster Tools account, so the sooner beginners get on board, the better. The tool allows you to monitor the indexing of your website, keyword clicks, sitemaps, and lists of links (external as well as internal) to you site.
- Bing Webmaster Tools. You can’t forget that Bing is still the number three search engine out there, so optimizing for it is important even if you’re a beginner. Bing has a few different features than Google Webmaster Tools, but for the most part it serves the same purpose—giving you insight as to the number of clicks, links, indexing, etc.
I highly recommend clicking on the links to learn more about the free tools and what they can offer. The above just gives a quick overview, but each individual tool is chock-full of information to learn. If there is a free tool that has helped you learn SEO in past, let us know.
Conclusion
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