The 7 Must-Have SEO Tools for Bloggers

Search engine optimization keeps getting more complicated and there are many tools available to help you accomplish your SEO goals. The internet is an enormous place and it’s hard to keep track of the latest changes from Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other search engine. Thankfully, there are many tools that bloggers can use to gain a better understanding of how search engines work and what they are looking for from web content.

SEO is a major part of blogging marketing strategy. In order to rank your posts on Google, you need to know how SEO works and what factors are important for SEO rankings. Some things play a bigger role in the ranking than others, such as the keywords that you use in your title tags, page content, and meta descriptions. You can also improve your SEO by optimizing your site’s content with keywords and phrases that match the related topic or niche.

Search engine optimization is critical to master, and if you have a blog, you need to be using SEO tools to help you stay ahead of your competition. Without using these tools and applying principles of SEO, it’s unlikely people will find your content online.

We’ve compiled a list of our favorite SEO tools every blogger should check out to help with content creation.

List of the 7 Must-Have SEO Tools for Bloggers:

1.  AnswerThePublic:

AnswerThePublic works by focusing on questions asked by people in Google searches, on forums (Quora, Reddit) and social media platforms.

The Answer the Public SEO Tool has changed the way that people do their search engine optimization. The answer to this tool is to provide keywords and phrases in order to receive a large list of questions that you can use for keyword research. This tool is perfect for when you’re looking for long-tail search terms. In other words, it will help you find phrases or words that are specific to your niche or product. It’s a great SEO strategy for designing content that falls under a certain topic, especially if it’s something obscure like ‘sewerless garbage disposals’. If you have an idea of what people might be searching, then this is a great place to start!

Reasons to Choose AnswerThePublic:

• AnswerThePublic provides the data in the form of visualizations, which are easy to understand. Plus, visualizations make this tool more unique than other off and on-page SEO tools.
• It has a dedicated comparison keywords section that will come in handy to rank on the first page of the search engine within a few weeks.
• SEO experts mostly use this tool to brainstorm new topics. Hence, it is an ideal tool in that regard.
• AnswerThePublic allows you to export all the data related to keywords in a CSV file.

Some Deal-Breakers About AnswerThePublic:

• Although this tool is free, it limits you to performing 500k searches per month. Hence, it is ideal for beginners, but at the same time, it won’t be suitable for organizations.
• The paid plans of AnswerThePublicare not worth using because this tool doesn’t provide essential keyword metrics, like CPC, keyword competition, keyword difficulty, keyword search volume data, etc. Hence, if you want to purchase its paid plan, we recommend looking for other tools because better alternatives are available.

2. Exploding Topics:

Finding new keywords for blogging or YouTubing is necessary but challenging because targeting an old keyword decreases the chances of ranking on the first page.

Hence, SEO experts look for newer trending keywords to get an early shoot in the search engine’s ranking because of less competition.

But finding those latest trending keywords is an issue because Google Trends only works best for confirming the trends on the already-known (main) keywords. That’s where “Exploding Topics” will come in handy.

Exploding Topics help bloggers in finding new trends and topics. This tool presents the lists of the latest trending keywords on a silver platter. Plus, users can search the trending topic in the database of Exploding Topics, as it covers several industries, such as beauty, gaming, health, software, sports, technology, travel, etc.

Exploding Topics divides the trending topics into three categories:

• Exploding – topics of this category are currently hot.
• Regular – the regular topics have expanded at a decent rate for a while.
• Peaked – as the name suggests, the topics of this category have already reached their peak point. So, now the topics of this category are on the verge of declining.

This tool correlates with the working of the first tool because it also helps SEO bloggers to find new keywords before they get super competitive.

Reasons to Pick Exploding Topics:

• This platform suggests fascinating trending and latest topics. Hence, it is better than Google Trends.
• The interface of Exploding Topics looks elegant. So, if you get attracted by the attractive and eye-catching UIs of platforms, this would be ideal for you.
• This platform categorizes the searches of different industries. Hence, it will be easier for users to find a new and trending keyword in their desired industry.
• Although it comes with a pro membership plan that allows you to discover the topics 6+ months before they take off, this tool is entirely free.
• This tool saves time because users won’t have to brainstorm ideas manually anymore.

Some Deal-Breakers About Exploding Topics:

• Despite having an advantage over Google Trends, users will have to Google the trends to gather information about entirely new topics.
• The growth metric of the trends is deceptive in a few cases. So, I would prefer to use Google Trends along with this tool.

3. Google Search Console:

No list of the best SEO tools for bloggers would be complete without including Google Search Console. The reason for this claim is its rich set of features. Hence, I have put “Google Search Console” on the third spot of the “7 must-Have SEO tools for bloggers” list.

Google introduced Google Search Console in January 2018 as a successor of Google Webmaster Tools with advanced features and a new user interface. Most people trust this SEO software because its data comes straight from Google. Hence, no one can question the legitimacy of its data.

You can use this tool as a rank checker to check the ranking of your website in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Similarly, Google Search Console will also prove valuable for analyzing the backlinks profile of a website. But, compared to the paid tools, like Ahrefs and SEMrush, Google Search Console lacks several features. Still, it does a fine job without breaking your bank, as it shows all the indexed pages of a website on Google and identifies the technical problems that might be holding your website back.

Reasons to Select Google Search Console:

• I love this tool because it instantly shows the traffic comparison of my website between the last 30 days and six months ago. This way, I can go back to the pages that have lost clicks and impressions. Thus, I can increase their rankings by adding the latest information and removing fluff content.
• The entire user experience and user interface of Google Search Console are clean.
• It helps in identifying the technical problems of a website.
• You can analyze the backlinks profile of a website.
• The data provided by Google Search Console is legit.

Some Deal-Breakers About Google Search Console:

• Google doesn’t work on the issues users face with this tool.
• Users cannot input the HTML sitemap in Google Search Console.

4. Siteliner:

The fourth tool for the best SEO tools for beginners list is “Siteliner.” This tool is another ideal shareware SEO tool because it allows users to scan the data of 250 pages. But if you want to analyze more pages, you will have to buy its premium plan.

Siteliner is one of the best free SEO tools for technical bloggers because it scans a website for SEO problems, like blocked pages, broken links, duplicate content and wrong redirects. Once the tool has scanned your website, you can analyze each page of the website to determine if the tool has found some issues.

Websites loading speed and page size play a key role in the SEO of a website. So, you can also compare your page size and website’s loading speed with other websites, which will prove beneficial in benchmarking.

*** Pro Tip: The speed of the website’s loading page depends on the quality of the included media. For example, if you have included high-quality images, your website will take more time to load the page. So, in this situation, you can use tools like Optimizilla for image compression. Although there are different image compression tools available, I prefer “Optimizilla” because it does not affect the quality of the image ***

Reasons to Choose Siteliner:

• This tool is an excellent SEO software because it shows details, like average page size, average page loading time, duplicate content, no-indexed pages, redirected pages, etc.
• You can download the report of the website in PDF and other formats.
• You can also download the sitemap of the entered website in XML format.

Some Deal-Breakers About Siteliner:

• The tool is not entirely free because after scanning 250 pages, you will have to purchase its premium plan to use it.

5. Ubersuggest:

Ubersuggest was created by Neil Patel and is a keyword research tool that is useful for finding long-tail keywords and related keywords to your main keywords or seed keyword. It is also useful for finding new niche ideas and uncovering other trending areas.

You can run website audits and perform most of the functions you’ll find in other premium tools like ahrefs and SEMRush, but at a fraction of a cost. Unlike these premium tools that charge you a minimum of $99/month, Ubersuggest is only $29 a month or a $290 one-time payment.

Reasons to Pick Ubersuggest:

• Many tutorials showing you how to perform searches and use the software.
• Ubersuggest is an easy-to-use tool without a steep learning curve.
• It costs less than other premium tools like SEMrush, Moz and Ahrefs, but includes similar functionality.
• A Chrome extension is available
• This tool is great for discovering keywords and content ideas.
• Like most SEO tools, Ubersuggest allows users to export the files and reports.
• Its lifetime pricing plan is reasonable compared to other premium SEO tools.

Some Deal-Breakers About Ubersuggest:

• The tool works slowly while running multiple reports simultaneously.
• This tool is not entirely free. So, you will have to purchase its premium plan to take advantage of all the features.

6. Wordtracker Scout:

Another great tool you want to check out is “WordtrackerScout.”

Like AnswerThePublic, Wordtracker Scout also takes a unique approach to perform keyword research. Users don’t have to enter a keyword into this tool. Instead, Wordtracker Scout scans a page and finds the keywords that show up repeatedly. This way, you go to your competitors’ websites and grab the keywords they are using in their content. Hence, you can also rank your content based on those keywords.

Reasons to Pick Wordtracker Scout:

• It takes a unique approach for analyzing the keywords of a competitor’s website.
• The UI of the interface looks attractive.
• Like Ubersuggest, Wordtracker Scout also has a Chrome extension.
• This tool allows users to sort the list of keywords by ‘Competition,’‘Opportunity’ and ‘Services.’ So, results can be customized
• With Wordtracker Scout, users can access the keyword metrics at a glance. So, it is ideal for beginners.

Some Deal-Breakers About Wordtracker Scout:

• It is not suitable for handling big projects because the tool can’t handle customization of larger data.
• It’s somewhat expensive
• The users will need some training before using this tool.

7.  PrepostSEO.com:

If you’re looking for software with a wide range of SEO tools, you need to check the PrePostSEO.com

PrePostSEO contains tools from various categories including website Management, Domain Tools, and Writing and Education Tools.

So out of 95+ tools that are offered, there is something for everyone.

Reasons to Prefer PrePostSEO:

• Its ‘Plagiarism Checker’ allows the users to check the authenticity of their content of up to 1500 words for free.
• You can also compare the plagiarism report of the original document and the plagiarized content.
• Users can check their content for grammatical and punctuation errors. Hence, there is no need to use additional grammar checkers with this tool.
• Users can also summarize their content using the ‘Small Text Generator.’ So, this feature will come in pretty handy to create an overview of the content.
• Backlinking is a great strategy to make an article SEO-friendly. But it is also necessary to use SEO-friendly backlinks. So, this platform allows the users to check whether the used backlinks are SEO-friendly or not.
• Sometimes, users need to search for something on the internet through an image. So, they can use the ‘Reverse Image Search’ module of PrePostSEO to search for that image on the internet.
• If this tool has detected some plagiarism in the content, users can use its ‘Paraphrasing Tool’ to create unique content.
• After paraphrasing, users can use the ‘Readability Checker’ module of this tool to check the readability of their content.
• Users can also use the ‘Similar Page Checker’ module to check the internet for similar content.
• This tool also includes a ‘Keyword Density Checker’ module that allows the users to check the density of used SEO keywords in the content.
• Users can use the ‘DA PA Checker’ module of this tool to check the domain authority score of any website.
• This tool has a collection of useful SEO tools, like ‘Alexa Rank Checker,’ ‘Broken Links Checker,’ ‘Google PR Checker’ and ‘Moz Rank Checker.’ So, the aforementioned tools will prove beneficial in checking a website from SEO’s perspective.
• Users can use its free ‘Credit Card Generator’ to generate valid credit card numbers randomly. This way, they can use those numbers to bypass credit cards authentication and claim free trials.
• If you want to extract the text from an image, users can use the image extraction tool of PrePostSEO.
• Apart from this, PrePostSEO has several other features. But among those features, its chrome extension is a worth-mentioning forte because users can use its facilities on the go.

Some Deal-Breakers About PrePostSEO.com:

• The content will need some modification after rewriting and paraphrasing.
• Its plagiarism checker doesn’t provide any support for PDF downloading.
• Its image extraction tool doesn’t care about the format of the image.

Bonus: SEO WP Plugins (Yoast, RankMath, All in One SEO)

Unlike the other tools on this list that were mainly for keyword research, These WordPress plugins are mainly for optimizing the blog content you already created.

These WordPress SEO plugins will help you optimize your blogs so that it’s more likely to rank higher on Google. They offer a variety of features including generating META tags, automatically adding keywords to URLs, and more. This blog post will give you all the information you need about WordPress SEO plugins so that you can be sure to choose the one that’s right for your specific needs.

This tool makes on-page SEO a lot simpler, even for beginners. But let’s see the features of this tool concerning the reasons for using it.

Reasons to Prefer Yoast SEO:

• Yoast SEO plugin optimizes the title tags, meta description and even the code of your webpage. So, it brings a lot of optimizations.
• It also checks whether the readability of a blog’s content is good or bad.
• Like the Siteliner, you can create an XML sitemap of your website. So, you can put that into Google Search Console. This way, whenever you release new content, it will inform Google through the sitemap. Hence, Google can index that content, grab it and rank it in a better way.
• It pays attention to the optimization of both the text and media.
• It provides access to free courses to teach the users about the better ranking of their websites.

Some Deal-Breakers About Yoast SEO:

• Users will need proper training sessions before using it.
• The color combination and visual outlook of the tool could have been better.
• Sometimes, it gives irrelevant text recommendations.
• It is not entirely free. So, you can check their pricing plan to get more details about its paid version.

Conclusion:

There are plenty of different SEO tools that you can use to optimize your blog content and help get more traffic. However, there’s a big difference between just knowing about the SEO tools and actually using them to get results. On this list, we included the most popular SEO tools that are easy to learn and use.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been blogging for years, you’ll find great value when you use any of these tools for growing traffic to your blog.