21 Best Free SEO Tools to Boost Your Rankings

Looking for the best free SEO tools for checking backlinks, keywords, and on-page optimization?

You can save resources and improve workflow with the best free SEO tools.

In this article, we’ve reviewed and tested the best free SEO tools to save you time. Here’s what we found.

Types of Free SEO Tools

We’ve categorized our best free SEO tools into website SEO, keyword research, backlink analysis and link-building, speed tools, and analytics tools.

Keep in mind that the tools we’ve reviewed come in 1 of 3 forms:

• Chrome extensions
• Web-based tools
• Downloadable plugins

We’ll start with website SEO tools.

Best Free SEO Tools for Website SEO

1. AIOSEO Analyzer: Fast SEO Checks

Speed up SEO checks with this free Chrome extension from the All in One SEO team. It works on both unpublished and published web pages.

SEO checks include:

• Title and meta description
• Internal and external links
• Headings
• Image SEO
• Schema markup
• Social media OG tags
• Canonical URLs
• Sitemap and Robots.txt

The compact display of headings (h-tags) provides a fast way to check for logical structure.

And you can easily find out if images on a page are missing alt tags.

The Analyzer also provides a quick schema check. If schema is on your page, the associated types and properties will be displayed in a scrollable list.

All of these checks are important to ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and can be easily found by potential customers.

2. SEO Analyzer by All in One SEO: Web-Based Tool

Add a URL and get a detailed site audit with this free SEO Analyzer.

The overall site score gives you an idea of how much improvement is needed. Analyzed items are grouped by

• Critical issues
• Recommended fixes
• Good Results

Click on any of those items to get details.

The report covers basic SEO, advanced SEO issues, and performance and security checks.

There’s a satisfying amount of detail here. Marketers could use it to prepare for sales meetings or discovery meetings.

You’ll also get the option to download the report as a PDF.

3. All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Plugin: Everything You Need to Rank Higher

Want to improve your SEO without hiring a marketer? All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is a 5-star plugin over 3 million people use to optimize their WordPress websites.

This plugin analyzes your web pages and provides a checklist (and guidance) for improvement. Readability recommendations are included too.

The price for the premium AIOSEO plugins starts at $49.50/year. But you can get the Lite version for free on WordPress.org. This is one of the best free SEO tools available.

Try it out, then upgrade at any time.

Here are some of the benefits of the free version.

• Improve SEO with an action checklist for each web page
• Get found by search engines with auto-generated RSS and XML sitemaps
• Increase click-throughs by using the title tag and meta description checkers.
• Control how your pages appear on social media.
• Maximize click-throughs from search engines with rich snippets
• SEO analysis tool for global, national, or local site audits and recommendations
• ChatGPT integration to generate titles and descriptions

Upgrade to the Basic or Pro version to get local SEO tools, the ChatGPT integration, Redirection Manager, and Link Assistant.

Best Free Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research is the starting point for content that ranks high. And these free tools will help you pick relevant keywords or find out who’s already ranking for them.

4. Free Google Keyword Research Tools

Google provides some excellent ways to get keyword and ranking data, and some of it is hidden in plain sight.

Here are our picks.

• Chrome Incognito and Google Search: It’s possible to plan content that ranks using these 2 resources. Here’s how.
• Google Keyword Planner: Create a Google Ads account to use this tool. Check out Google’s instructions for the planner.
• Google Trends: Get ideas from trending topics. Interest is displayed on a relative scale.

5. Ahrefs Keyword Generator: Get Keyword Ideas

Enter a keyword into the Ahrefs Keyword Generator to get 100 related keyword ideas.

Ten of the 100 will display a related Keyword Difficulty score. These scores make it possible to pick keywords that are easy to rank for.

You’ll need to sign up for Ahrefs to access more than 10 Keyword Difficulty scores per search. But you’ll get search volume numbers for all 100/per search keywords.

Ahrefs pricing for the paid version starts at $99/month. It’s well worth it, and you can cancel at any time.

6. AnswerSocrates: Discover Questions People Are Asking

Enter a topic into AnswerSocrates, and you’ll get organized lists of questions searchers have.

It pulls some of this data from People Also Ask questions in Google Search. The rest of the data comes from Google Suggest and Google Trends.

The homepage of AnswerSocrates also displays data on trending topics.

7. AnswerThePublic: Find Topics and Related Questions

Add 1 or 2 words to AnswerThePublic, and it’ll generate a series of related topics and questions searchers have.

This information is pulled from Google’s autocomplete data.

The circular display of the data is novel but hard to read on laptop screens.

AnswerThePublic has turned this into a sales pitch for their paid version: “Our visualization is nice. But prolonged use may lead to neck injury if you need to analyse data for more than 5 mins.”

The paid version allows you to export data to a CSV file.

AnswerThePublic provides 3 searches a day for free, but you’ll need to sign up for more data. Plans start at $9/month.

8. Exploding Topics: Get in on Trends Early

This exciting project, launched by Brian Dean of Backlinko, provides keywords that are spiking exponentially in traffic or are on the cusp of doing so.

The goal is to unearth long-term growth trends, not temporary fads.

You’ll need a paid plan to get access to all exploding topics. Pricing starts at $39/month.

9. AlsoAsked: Discover Relevant Questions

AlsoAsked is a unique tool that lets you explore People Also Ask questions by geography.

Enter a keyword, and results are displayed in an interactive mind map.

The free version provides a handful of searches a day. Paid plans begin at $15/month.

10. UberSuggest: Keyword Research Tool

Like AlsoAsked, Ubersuggest imposes a tight limit on free searches: you only get 3 daily. So treat this tool more like a free trial with no time limit.

Like Semrush and Ahrefs, this tool provides keyword ideas, content ideas, keyword difficulty score, CPC, backlinks data, and more.

Pricing starts at $29/month for 1 domain.

11. Ahrefs SERP Checker: Ranking Research

Enter a keyword into the Ahrefs SERP Checker and see who ranks in the top 4 positions in Google Search.

Sign up for a $99/month account to get more data. Or use Chrome Incognito as a completely free (and approximate) alternative.

12. Semrush SImple Sign Up Account: Keyword and Ranking Research

Semrush and Ahrefs are the industry standard for keyword, backlink, and ranking research.

You can create a simple sign-up account that gives you access to a limited set of Semrush’s keyword research, PPC, and content marketing tools. Note: this differs from their 7-day free trial: the simple sign-up account has no time limit.

Ahrefs offers a similar free plan for 1 domain.

Backlink Checkers and Link Building

The following tools support backlink analysis and outreach for guest posting.

13. Hunter.io: Find Hidden Contact Emails

Hunter.io helps you find verified email addresses associated with a website, including for upper management. It’s notoriously good at this and a must-have for outreach.

For quick searches, use the free Hunter Email Finder Chrome extension.

14. Backlink Checker from Neil Patel

To use the free backlink checker at NeilPatel.com, enter a domain.

Youll be redirected to Ubersuggest: his full-featured keyword research tool.

There you’ll see a graph of backlink growth, total number of referring domains and backlinks, and a thorough analysis.

Note: You’ll get 3 searches a day on the free plan.

Paid plans start at $29/month. And Ubersuggest is offering new Lifetime deals, that offer significant savings over all competitors.

15. Ahrefs: Free Backlink Checker

Ahrefs also has a free backlink checker.

Enter your domain and you’ll get basic stats and a limited list of backlinks.

To view all the backlinks pointed to your domain you’ll need to sign up for an Ahrefs plan.

Best Free Site Speed Checkers

Site loading speed can impact your ranking. Here we share 2 of the best free speed analysis tools.

Keep in mind that the recommendations that these tools make are technical, and you’ll need a developer to act on them.

16. Google PageSpeed Insights: Measure and Improve

Google PageSpeed Insights provides everything a coder needs to improve website performance.

With its trademark circular scores, PageSpeed Insights provides overall speed, performance, SEO, and accessibility ratings.

You can toggle between mobile and desktop reports.

Scroll down to the audit section to get detailed guidance on improvements.

17. GTmetrix: Detailed Performance and Speed Reports

Add a URL to GTmetrix for a performance and structure grade and “Web Vitals” numbers.

Below those numbers is a wealth of information, including a waterfall chart and tabbed report with details.

The free version of GTmetrix offers 25 weekly tests. Paid plans start at $8.54/month.

Best Free Analytics Tools

Our last category of best free SEO tools are analytics software platforms.

Any of these tools can be used at the beginner or advanced level.

18. Google Search Console: See Your Rankings

Wondering how you’re ranking in Google Search for various keywords? You can find out with Google Search Console.

In addition to ranking data and trends, you’ll get informed of any indexing issues or manual penalties. (As long as you protect your site from hacks and don’t do any black hat SEO, you shouldn’t worry about penalties from Google.)

Good to know: All in One SEO (AIOSEO) includes Google Search Console data in its Search Statistics feature. This feature is available in the Elite version of the plugin.

19. Google Analytics: Website Results

Google Analytics provides an amazing amount of data. In addition to the standard page views and traffic information, you can use it to track sales funnels and e-commerce data so you know which pages and marketing tactics are working best.

Good to know: MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that pulls Google Analytics data into simple visual displays in the WordPress editor.

20. Looker Studio: Data Visualization and Reports

Looker Studio is Google’s rebrand of Data Studio. It’s used to create dashboards and custom reports from website data.

Above: This is a closeup of a Looker Studio report, presenting data from Google Search Console.

21. Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Detailed Link Analysis

Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a site audit tool popular with web developers, designers, and marketers.

It thoroughly analyzes every single link in a website and highlights problems like duplicate content and broken links.

Bonus Tools

• Bing Webmaster Tools is Bing’s version of Google Search Console. It’s a good idea to create an account for it to get insights into your performance in Bing search results.
• Mozbar from Moz.com is an SEO toolbar available for free from the Chrome web store.
• While you’re working on SEO, get ready to maximize conversions. Our favorite tools for this are OptinMonster and WPForms.

Q&A on Best Free SEO Tools

Resources on SEO Tools

• Yoast vs Rank Math vs All in One SEO: Which Is Better?
• Yoast SEO vs All in One SEO: Which Is the Best SEO Plugin?
• Migrating From Yoast SEO to All in One SEO (2 Simple Steps)
• The 9 Best AI SEO Tools for WordPress
• Best On-Page SEO Tools for WordPress (Tested and Reviewed)
• 9 Best SEO Keyword Analysis Tools
• The Best SEO Rank Tracker: 6 Fantastic Tools to Help You Dominate the SERPs
• 6 Best WordPress Schema Generator Plugins

What’s Next?

We hope this post helped you find some of the best free SEO tools to rank higher.

Next, explore our review of the best WordPress SEO plugins and the best on-page SEO tools.

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