After the success of the post “11 Free Online Tools for Blogging and Social Media Marketing“, I decided to write another article about some other useful tools you may want to use as a blogger.
You are going to like this list of free SEO tools.
I’ll include a brief overview of the capabilities of each tool (some of the tools are freemium), with images, links to the source and tutorials.
This post will give you everything you need to begin mastering Search Engine Optimization for free.
Backlink Analysis
For years, backlinks (or else the links pointing to your site) have played a vital role in your site’s ranking on search engines.
Now, in the post- penguin, the profile of your backlinks is more important than ever.
With this in mind, the following free SEO tools will help you to investigate your backlinks profile.
1. Majestic SEO Site Explorer
Majestic SEO Site Explorer is a popular tool for checking your backlinks, and it uses a freemium model.
Without an account you are able to access only to the general information about a URL or domain name (for example, number of referring domains, the number of external backlinks, the number of IP addresses, etc.).
If you register for a free account, you will receive additional information and you will also have access to the first 5 backlinks, the top 5 referring domains and the first 100 pages (based on the number of domains reference ) for your request.
For more information you can read this great review of Majestic SEO, from Search Engine Land.
2. Ahrefs Site Explorer
Ahrefs is one of the latest tools to check backlinks, but it has already a very loyal user base.
Similar to most of its competitors, this tool uses a freemium model.
With no registration, you are allowed to run 5 requests per day, and if you register for a free account you switch to 15 requests per day.
For each request, you receive an overview of backlinks as well as specific information on individual backlinks (for free accounts, only the first 5 will display additional information).
The overview of backlinks includes information such as the total number of backlinks, the number of referring domains (and the corresponding distribution on domains) and a breakdown of the types of backlinks, such as text, image, nofollow , etc.
For a given request, free accounts receive access to the first 500 backlinks.
For the first 5 Ahrefs backlinks will show the rank of the link, the URL source, the title of the page of origin, destination URL, the anchor text, the type and date of the scan.
For the remaining links you will only see the Ahrefs rank of the link, the URL of origin, and the title of the source page.
For more information, check out this review at SEO Book : Ahrefs Review.
Server Analysis
When you have to make the diagnosis of SEO problem, it is often useful to investigate on the server side.
For example, considering the speed of a server, finding out the source of bottlenecks, or troubleshooting HTTP headers.
These free SEO tools can help in this regard.
3. Pingdom Full Page Test
Pingdom offers a free online tool that analyzes the loading time of a given URL.
Simply entering your URL, the tool will display a summary of the loading time of the page, the format and the corresponding number of HTTP requests.
The tool also has a cascading display that shows the loading time and the size of each object on the page.
4. URI Valet
URI Valet is a free online tool that allows you to view HTTP headers transferred during a request for a specific URL.
The tool also presents a synthesis of the corresponding HTML <head> tags and distribution of various objects (eg , scripts , images, etc. . ) that are downloaded when accessing the URL.
Scan of the Site
One of the best ways to identify SEO problems related to your site is to verify the scan of its pages and look for problems.
These problems can be related to the code (eg title duplicates), or there can be broken links, for instance.
Consequently, it is extremely important to optimize the content and minimize the errors in the markup language ( HTML).
5. W3C Link Checker
Link Checker is a free online tool that checks the validity of links to a particular URL .
Simply enter a URL and the tool recursively checks the connections for the presence of errors.
Keywords Research
To attract potential readers, it is important to use the correct keywords.
If your site is not using the keyword phrases that people are looking for, these people will find difficult to find you.
6. SEMRush
SEMRush is one of the biggest free SEO tools on this list and its age is a clear endorsement of its value.
The tool focuses on competitive research as well as on keyword research.
When you enter a URL or domain, you receive a report that includes the corresponding organic keywords, advertising keywords, organic competitors, advertising competitors, and more.
When you enter a keyword, the report presents summary information (CPC, the level of competition, average volume, etc. ), similar keywords, organic competitors and advertising competitors.
The tool uses the freemium model and with a free account, you have access to 10 reports per day (and 10 results for each section of the report.
SEO Analysis
The last category includes a free SEO tool that analyze a given web page and assign a SEO score for it based on various criteria.
7. WooRank
WooRank provides an immediate review of a website.
The tool uses the freemium model, and without a premium account, it only generates a report in a week (but you can still query the searches previously generated) .
The report of the tool is currently divided into 13 sections: Top 5 priorities, Visitors, Social Control, Mobile, SEO Basics, SEO content, SEO Links, SEO Keywords, SEO Authority, Backlinks SEO, usability, security and technology.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed the list, finding something new or useful.
What do you think?
Do you like the list?
Please let me have your opinions in the comments below.
Also, if you liked the post, do not forget to share it.
Thanks!
Hi Erik,
That is a proof that sharing lists are great for getting traffic specially if this list includes tools that every blogger needs.
Thank you so much for sharing these tools, I will check them out one by one.
Hi Qasim,
people love lists!
Especially of free and useful stuff! 😉
Thanks for your visit and comment here, always much appreciated.
Well I’ve tried few of the tools mentioned above and they are really great for checking stats of blogs for free.
Thanks
Great to know that, Nithin.
Thanks for your feedback!
You shared a useful article about blogging tools. I have recently started blogging and trying to follow these awesome tips for my new blog. I will try to use some goodies and soon will you inform about it. Keep rocking and thanks for sharing such a infromative tips.
Thanks Pallavi!
Hi Erik,
Nice list of free seo tools. Majestic SEO and SEMrush are my favorite to analyze competitor’s strategies. I agree with your point that list articles are loved by readers.
Thanks for sharing this list.
Hi Kuldeep,
thanks for sharing your point of view.
Hello Erik,
Awesome list of free SEO tools and I must say those who don’t wanna use or don’t wanna afford premium tools they can easily try this free tools.
Thanks for your kind comment, Vicky.
Hi Erik Sir,
Whenever I come across such list of useful tools, I make sure that run through that list and see that whether I’m missing out something! 🙂
So, seeing this list, I decided to go through it. I came across many familiar tools. Saw some of my personal favorites like ahrefs, pingdom etc listed here.
At the same time, few of them were new to me. I’ll need to take a closer look at them and make use of them if I really need them!
Thanks for compiling this list! 🙂
Arun
Hi Arun,
glad to know you found something useful in this list!;-)
Nice. I’m getting one of these SEO tools for my site.
Good to hear that, David.
Thanks for stopping by.
These really are some great tools… quick and responsive. I really enjoyed using Majestic SEO Site Explorer, although after a few uses it’s asking for a moderate fee per month. If I did have the money, I would pay for it because I enjoyed it that much, but I guess I’m stuck with “free”.
Premium products give definitely more juicy features!
Thanks for your comment, John.
Hi Erik,
THey are really excellent tools which every blogger is in need of those useful tools.I actually use only backlink watch to check backlinks but now I have learned about some other tools too especially Magestic SEO tool I have never came across. Thanks for sharing this.I will use those definetely
Hi Vino,
glad to see you learned something new from this article.
Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
Hi Erik, Liked your list of tools however was curious that you have not mentioned opensiteexplorer. Any particular reason for it ?
Thanks
Hi Amit,
that’s easy to answer, Amit, because I’ve mentioned OpenSiteExplorer in
my previous post, which was also a list of tools article, see:
http://nopassiveincome.com/tools-blogging-social-media-marketing/
Cheers! 🙂
Once again thank you Erik for these wonderful list of tools, i love them and i believe other bloggers will do same. Keep sharing Erik.
Thanks Emebu! 🙂
Vauable list…. I mostly used Majestic SEO. These list is really helpful to those who can’t afford premium or paid tools.
Sometimes the free version of these softwares are enough for the new bloggers.
Thanks for commenting, Alex.
Hi, I’ve used some of these tools before and some were new to me. They’re very useful for checking statistics and doing keyword research for your blog.
Hi Ish,
thanks for your feedback.