SEO software is a valuable tool for small businesses.
If you’re not familiar with SEO, it stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s a way of marketing your business to potential customers by making sure the right keywords are used in your website and that your website is designed in such a way that search engines will be able to find it quickly. If a customer types in a specific word or phrase, your website should come up first on Google—or at least near the top of the list.
SEO software helps you do this by giving you access to tools like keyword research and analytics. It can also help you create content like blog posts and social media updates that help drive traffic to your site by giving people what they want: information about what makes your business unique or interesting.
Seo Software For Small Businesses
Here are some factors to consider for choosing the best SEO software for your business:
- Capabilities for researching and tracking keywords based on the locations you serve.
- Tools for auditing and analyzing competitor site rankings and backlink profiles.
- Features for managing and updating business listings and local citations.
- Features for monitoring online reputation and reviews.
- Ability to analyze website traffic and content performance.
- Ability to create reports to track your SEO performance.
Note: There are many SEO tools on the market that are useful for businesses; some are more specialized, niche tools, while others are more complete software platforms. The use of several tools may be required depending on your SEO needs.
What Are the Best SEO Tools for Small Businesses?
Below are 20 of the best SEO tools for small businesses in 2022 including their key features related to SEO.
1. SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an affordable all-in-one SEO platform that provides a keyword rank tracker, website auditing, keyword research tools, backlink monitoring, competition analysis, and more.
SE Ranking is a popular Semrush alternative due to its flexible pricing plans and similar all-in-one features for tracking keywords, researching keywords and competitors, auditing websites, and creating reports.
SE Ranking Features
- Perform deep research and competitive analysis for keyword opportunities and backlink sources with the help of a large updated database.
- Helpful website auditing of on-page and off-page SEO issues and suggestions for fixes.
- The SEO tool provides unique page changes monitoring, where you can set up alerts about any modifications that happen to your business website or competitor sites.
- Create and schedule detailed SEO reports for you and/or your team.
- Check social media analytics and post to Facebook and Twitter from within the platform.
- The SEO software provides flexible plan options related to the number of keywords to track, rank check frequency, and subscription period, which is great for scaling with the growth of your business.
SE Ranking is the best SEO software for small businesses looking for a complete toolkit and an affordable alternative to Semrush. More about SE ranking pricing plans here.
Check out my SE Ranking review for an in-depth look at its features in 2022.
Pricing
SE Ranking provides 3 fixed monthly or annual plans with several options to adjust the price of each plan based on the number of keywords to track, how frequently to update ranking data, and the subscription period. Save up to 20% with annual billing.
- Essential: Starts at $23.40 per month – For new marketers and freelancers.
- Pro: Starts at $53.40 per month – For businesses and marketing teams.
- Business: Starts at $113.40 per month – For large agencies and enterprises.
SE Ranking Offer: 14-Day Free TrialTry SE Ranking Free
2. Google Analytics
Every small business owner should ensure a Google Analytics (GA) tag is applied to their website. Google Analytics is a free website traffic analytics tool.
Google Analytics is an essential free tool for better understanding your website visitors. Find out where your visitors come from, how they’re navigating your site, the most popular pages, how long an average session lasts, and more.
You can create up to 100 Analytics accounts and add 1 to 50 properties to each account. In GA, a property is a website, mobile application, or device.
Google Analytics Features
- With Google Analytics, you can see which channels visitors come from, such as organic traffic from Google and other major search engines, social media platforms, and other sites. You can also view physical location data like city and state, which can help assess traffic quality and relevance for local or service-area businesses.
- Google Analytics makes it easy to explore how visitors are using your site, including which web pages are viewed, in what order, and how long they’re on your site.
- You can connect Google Search Console (GSC) to Google Analytics, which lets you conveniently view insights for pages and keywords from GSC in Google Analytics.
- You can set up Goals in Google Analytics to track your desired conversion actions, such as website form submissions, and if a certain page or set of landing pages was viewed, a link was clicked, or a phone call occurred (call tracking software required).
Pricing
Google Analytics is a freemium service. For most businesses, a free Google Analytics account is all you need. However, Google also provides a paid version called Analytics 360 with more advanced features like unlimited data and reporting for large enterprises.Try Google Analytics
3. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) formerly Google Webmaster Tools is another free SEO tool small businesses should be using to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot site presence in Google Search results.
Google Search Console helps you manage your website presence in Google Search and detect potential issues. To use Search Console, just sign in to your Google account, create a new website property, and verify your site with one of the provided methods.
Use GSC to submit sitemaps, submit updated pages to Google, see which of your pages are correctly indexed in Google Search, ensure pages are mobile-friendly, analyze keyword positions, clicks, and impressions identified by Google, and more.
You can add up to 1,000 properties to a Google account. Google recommends creating separate Search Console properties for each domain or folder you wish to track separately.
Google Search Console Features
- You can submit your website’s XML sitemap file (usually auto-generated by your website platform or a plugin like RankMath or Yoast if using WordPress) and new website pages to request quick indexing of your site content into Google Search.
- Use Search Console to identify pages that are indexed and visible in the Google SERPs, and which search queries or Google searches are generating search impressions for your website pages and driving clicks to your website.
- Search Console detects pages that might be blocked from being indexed in Google, and any website penalties based on issues like link spam or low-quality content stuffed with keywords.
- Google Search Console identifies if your site pages are mobile-friendly and includes features to help you detect loading or performance issues.
- Use Search Console to check external links (backlinks) pointing to your site that Google has detected, as well as internal links between your pages.
Pricing
Google Search Console is a free service.Try Google Search Console
4. Google My Business
For local businesses with a physical location and service-area businesses, creating a free Google My Business (GMB) profile is recommended to increase your visibility on Google Search and Maps for the locations you serve.
Create a Google Business Profile to ensure more people find your business when using Google Search and Google Maps. This could be when people search your company name or search locally for products or services you offer.
Google My Business Features
- Having a GMB profile lets customers leave reviews of your business on Google, which can help improve your local search presence versus competitors, build trust and reputation, and gain new leads and sales.
- A GMB profile is an effective way to display public business info for local searchers and potential customers, including a business description, business hours, photos, a link back to your website, and other useful features depending on your type of business.
- GMB provides insights such as how often your business listing is shown in local search and Google Maps results and for which search queries, as well as business direction requests, phone calls (when the profile call button is clicked), photo views, and other visitor actions.
Pricing
Creating a Business Profile on Google is free.Try Google My Business
5. Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights provides a quick way to check the page load speed of individual website pages and any performance issues.
Since page speed affects user experience and is a direct ranking factor for both Google Search and Ads, it’s important to check how Google views your page performance.
Google PageSpeed Insights Features
- Get suggestions for ways to help your website pages load faster, such as resizing or compressing images found on the page, page caching recommendations and other suggestions for optimizing CSS or Javascript code.
- See any third-party code that’s processed as your page loads, such as WordPress plugins, which can slow down site speed.
Pricing
Google PageSpeed Insights is free to use.Try Google PageSpeed Insights
6. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool website owners can use to do simple keyword trend research and check out trends of search queries in their local areas.
Use Google Trends to get an idea of search demand trends and interest for a particular search query in a given location. You can check keyword trends in Google Web Search, Image Search, News Search, Google Shopping, and YouTube Search.
For more advanced keyword research with monthly search volumes and other helpful metrics, check out complete tools for search engine optimization efforts like Semrush or SE Ranking. More about these popular all-in-one SEO tools are shared below.
Google Trends Features
- Compare multiple search queries and see a chart of their interest (usage) over time.
- Gain insight into seasonal demand for search queries related to your business and locations served.
- Discover related topics and search queries that are most used and rising in popularity, which can help you plan out keywords and topics to analyze further and create content for.
Pricing
Google Trends is free to use.Try Google Trends
7. SEOquake
SEOquake is a free Google Chrome browser extension by Semrush, a leading all-in-one SEO software platform.
SEOquake provides free tools for checking website SEO metrics on the fly.
While not nearly as deep and feature-rich as the full Semrush platform, SEOquake is a useful free way to get high-level domain insights for sites that appear in Google’s search results and perform basic web page audits.
SEOquake Features
- SEO quake provides a free basic SEO audit to diagnose any website page including some brief tips next to the completed page analysis, which can help you make sure there are no critical issues on your business’s website.
- Get an idea of the size and prominence of a website based on the number of pages indexed and estimates on the number of backlinks pointing to the site.
- Check the keyword density of a website page to analyze keyword phrases you are using on your site pages and the words used by competitors that you might want to include.
- You can use the SEO quake browser extension to scan competitor pages for all the above SEO insights.
Pricing
SEOquake is a free plugin for your browser.Try SEOquake Free
8. Semrush
Semrush is a complete SEO platform with keyword research tools, backlink analysis, competitor analysis, site auditing, keyword rank tracking, and more.
Semrush is currently the market leader of all-in-one SEO tools in regards to the number of features and the amount of SEM, SEO, and PPC data provided.
Semrush Features
- Semrush provides an excellent database for researching new keywords related to your business and industry, including local estimated search volumes and how competitive keywords are to rank.
- Detailed on-page website audit to make sure your website pages are optimized for ranking.
- Search, analyze, and compare competing sites in your niche or industry in regards to keyword rankings, backlinks, and estimated site traffic to uncover new opportunities.
- Gap analysis features can help you discover the topics and keywords you can improve upon or add content about on your site based on competing sites and their content.
- Create automatically scheduled SEO reports for yourself and/or employees.
- Semrush provides a unique listing management add-on feature that distributes your public business information to directory sites, lets you manage your Google and Facebook listings from inside the software, and monitors reviews and customer suggestions received.
Semrush is a recommended set of SEO tools for small businesses who want a complete set of tools and features with leading keyword research, rank tracking, and competitor data. See more details about the Semrush pricing plans here.
Check out my Semrush review for a detailed look at the SEO platform’s features.
Pricing
Semrush provides 3 fixed monthly or annual plans. Save up to 17% with annual billing.
- Pro: $119.95 per month – For new marketers and small in-house teams.
- Guru: $229.95 per month – For businesses and marketing consultants.
- Business: $449.95 per month – For large agencies and enterprises.
Semrush Offer: 7-Day Free TrialTry Semrush Free
9. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that provides a strong site explorer tool for competitor website analysis, backlink research, keyword research, rank tracking, and site audit features.
Ahrefs Features
- Ahrefs is a top tool for gaining insights into where competitors are getting backlinks from and seeing estimated organic search traffic for sites and individual pages using their site explorer tool.
- The keywords explorer tool offers a large updated database of search terms to explore based on your business or competitors, with estimated monthly search volumes, keyword difficulty levels for ranking, search demand trends, and more.
- The rank tracking tool provides a nice interface for tracking keywords and comparing keyword positions with competing websites over time.
- You can analyze the top-performing content in your niche with the Ahrefs content explorer tool to find link-building prospects and low-competition topics for content ideas.
- Ahrefs provides a free version that lets you use their site explorer tool on your website, while the paid plans unlock exploring competitor sites.
Ahrefs is worth checking to analyze competitor backlinks, search rankings, and estimated search traffic competitor pages are generating.
If you have the budget, I recommend using Ahrefs for competition analysis alongside other local SEO and rank tracker tools.
Pricing
Ahrefs provides 4 fixed monthly or annual plans. Get 2 months free with annual billing.
- Lite: $99 per month – For new digital marketers and freelancers.
- Standard: $179 per month – For small businesses and marketing teams.
- Advanced: $399 per month – For growing businesses and marketing teams.
- Agency: $999 per month – For large agencies and enterprises.
Ahrefs Offer: 7-Day Trial for $7Try Ahrefs
10. Nightwatch
Nightwatch is an affordable yet powerful keyword rank tracker tool that provides accurate rank tracking down to the zip code level and other features including backlink monitoring, site audits, and scheduled reports.
Nightwatch Features
- Nightwatch provides daily updates for tracked keyword positions across a variety of search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo, and convenient ways to tag, organize, and filter keywords.
- The rank tracker tool lets you access any Google Data Center in the world, resulting in super-accurate keyword ranking data down to state, city, town, and zip code levels.
- One of the top SEO rank tracking tools for multi-location and service-area businesses, since you can track keywords across many local areas and across many competitor websites for comparing keyword rankings over time.
- You can integrate Google Analytics and Google Search Console for unique visually appealing ways to see your website data in one place.
- Nightwatch provides up to 500 daily keywords tracked, 50 websites tracked, and 5,000 pages for site auditing in their $39/mo starter plan.
Nightwatch is recommended for affordably and accurately tracking many keywords for your business site and optionally for competitor sites with daily rank updates. Track keywords for more than one business location or service area.
Powerful segmenting options make it easy to view ranking performance for groups of keywords, individual pages, locations, devices, and search engines.
Check out my Nightwatch SEO review for an in-depth look at its features.
Pricing
Nightwatch provides 3 fixed monthly or annual plans. Save up to 20% with annual billing.
- Starter: $39 per month – For freelancers, SMBs, and marketers with a limited budget.
- Optimize: $99 per month – For growing SMBs and marketing agencies.
- Agency: $369 per month – For large agencies and enterprise businesses.
Nightwatch Offer: 14-Day Free Trial
google search console
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. You don’t have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but Search Console helps you understand and improve how Google sees your site.
Search Console offers tools and reports for the following actions:
- Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.
- Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.
- View Google Search traffic data for your site: how often your site appears in Google Search, which search queries show your site, how often searchers click through for those queries, and more.
- Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.
- Show you which sites link to your website.
- Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.
Who should use Search Console?
Anyone with a website! From generalist to specialist, from newbie to advanced, Search Console can help you.
- Business owners: Even if you won’t be using Search Console yourself, you should be aware of it, become familiar with the basics of optimizing your site for search engines, and know what features are available in Google Search.
- SEO specialists or marketers: As someone focused on online marketing, Search Console will help you monitor your website traffic, optimize your ranking, and make informed decisions about the appearance of your site’s search results. You can use the information in Search Console to influence technical decisions for the website and do sophisticated marketing analysis in conjunction with other Google tools like Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Ads.
- Site administrators: As a site admin, you care about the healthy operation of your site. Search Console lets you easily monitor and in some cases resolve server errors, site load issues, and security issues like hacking and malware. You can also use it to ensure any site maintenance or adjustments you make happen smoothly with respect to search performance.
- Web developers: If you are creating the actual markup and/or code for your site, Search Console helps you monitor and resolve common issues with markup, such as errors in structured data
Conclusion
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