If you want to win the organic search game, your site won’t go anywhere without a top-notch SEO plan in place. Google performs over 200 billion searches daily, and 67% of all their clicks are given to the first five organic results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). So if you can rank in the top five results for your desired niche, you can easily expect a huge influx of website traffic. All well and good, but how do you get your website to rank higher?
Getting to Know SEO
The simple answer is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
There are multiple factors that each contribute to your overall SEO performance, and each one needs to be examined and optimized to boost your site’s performance. These factors include:
- Proper keyword research
- Backlink quantity and quality
- Content relevancy
- Overall website quality
- Website performance
- Website compliance with Google's algorithms
Related: How to Measure ROI on Your SEO
This may seem like a lot, but have no fear! You don’t need to tackle SEO work alone. With the right tools and the right knowledge, you can fix up your website and see improvements in no time.
Using the Best SEO Tools to Improve Your Website SEO
Getting started with improving your SEO starts with the right tools. Here are some of the top SEO tools that Ironmark recommends.
1. SEMrush
SEMrush is a popular app and keyword research tool, and it contains one of the largest keyword databases on the internet. SEMrush provides you with a list of keywords, along with information on each, such as KD (keyword difficulty) score. This score indicates how difficult it will be for you to rank for a particular keyword. Apart from being used for keyword research, SEMrush can be used to audit your website to locate any technical issues that may be slowing your site down. You should definitely consider SEMrush as part of your SEO strategy.
2. Google Suite / Keyword Planner
For those who don’t want to pay for SEMrush, Google Suite is a great alternative. Costing nothing, it contains a variety of SEO tools that are designed to help you conduct keyword research and improve the quality of your website, particularly the Google Keyword Planner (GKP).
GKP is an excellent keyword research tool, and even though it was designed for pay-per-click marketing, the keywords can easily be used in organic SEO strategies as well. You simply type in the keywords you’re looking for and you will get all the statistics regarding the average monthly search volume, the level of competition, and a list of recommended similar keyword ideas.
The other SEO features in Google Suite include:
- Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, and Search Console for tracking and analyzing data trends
- Google My Business for visibility in local map searches
When you want to optimize organic search and get your website to rank higher, look to Google for help. With Google Suite and the tools within, you can easily discover ways to boost your website’s quality and ranking.
3. BuzzSumo
SEMrush and Google Suite are both great for helping you conduct analytic keyword research and optimize errors off your website, but BuzzSumo is the best place to go if you want to get into the mind of your potential clients. BuzzSumo allows you to search trending content for your selected niche. You can examine topics that are trending, find relevant content from across the web, and obtain critical insights on the content across the internet that can help you optimize your own.
Related: Drive Traffic With Blog Posts That Answer Questions
4. Moz
Moz is one of the most popular SEO software tools out there in the market. It offers many functions, including:
- Moz Pro for boosting online visibility
- Moz Local for improving visibility in local searches
- Moz Content for improving your content strategy
Through Moz, you can conduct website audits, track your rankings, analyze your backlinks, and conduct keyword research. You can also determine the domain authority and page authority of any website on the SERP through the Moz plugin.
5. Screaming Frog
If you want to see your website the way Google sees it, Screaming Frog is the SEO tool for you. This tool crawls a website the same way Google does and finds errors so that you can optimize the pages that need it most. There is a free version, with basic crawl features to help you with tasks like identifying errors, redirects, and broken links, and a paid version that provides more extensive features and checks for spelling and grammar. We recommend trying out the free version of this tool before paying for the full version.
6. Ahrefs
Ahrefs helps you with everything from keyword tracking to SEO audits. However, its best feature is the backlink portion. This tool allows you to audit your backlink reservoir, and find any broken links that need fixing, as well as discover any mentions that failed to link back to you. Backlinks can boost or severely hinder your SEO performance, as good backlinks can help to demonstrate the value and authority of your pages while toxic backlinks are ultimately harmful to your authority and ranking.
7. MarketMuse
If you use SpyFu (a tool that lets you see what keywords competitors are advertising on and ranking for), then you know it can be a little time-consuming to monitor movements in keywords and optimize your own content to compete for a given phrase. This is where MarketMuse comes in. This SEO tool analyzes potential keywords for you and gives you suggestions for creating popular content. The tool goes as far as creating content outlines, so your job becomes that much easier.
It All Starts With the Right SEO Services
Growing your SEO by yourself can be time-consuming and ineffective. Using these SEO tools can help you locate the right keywords and remove errors from your website more efficiently, so you enjoy increased traffic and attract more clients. If you need help boosting your site’s traffic and SEO qualities, contact Ironmark’s digital marketing team. We can help you make the improvements you need to see a real rise in traffic.
