As with any profession, having the right tools can make a huge difference in the final product. When it comes to executing a successful SEO or inbound marketing strategy, tools alone won’t get you the results you desire, but they sure can make your life a whole lot easier! This list is made up only of tools we have actually used ourselves and believe do what they say they do!
In today’s world, SEO & Inbound marketing are essential for any business looking to grow and reach new customers. As people search the Internet for products, reviews, insights, and advice, you have an opportunity to attract new customers every second of the day as long as the right marketing plan is put into place.
In addition to creating useful content that will grab the attention of your target audience, having and using the right set of powerful marketing tools can help ensure your success. Below we have compiled a list of 25 awesome SEO and Inbound Marketing tools you can use to get the most of of your efforts.
1. AdWords Keyword Planner Tool
With the AdWords Keyword Planner Tool, you can determine how a list of keywords will perform for a given Search Network campaign and create dynamic keyword groups by multiplying several different lists of performing keywords together. This impressive tool can be used to search for new keyword ideas using websites, categories, and phrases, and then to get historical statistics and traffic forecasts for those keywords, so you can easily determine which should be used in your campaigns. Keyword Planner can also help you choose competitive bids and budgets for the keywords that will be used within your AdWords campaigns.
2. aHrefs
aHrefs is a straight forward and easy-to-use online tool that allows you to track your brand mentions, keywords, and backlinks, so you know exactly how they’re performing at any given time. With the click of a mouse, you can get your hands on detailed backlink data for any URL of your choosing. You can also quickly analyze the search traffic of your competitors and discover what kind of content is working well within your particular niche.
3. BrightInfo
BrightInfo’s powerful algorithm can analyze your audience’s behavior based on individual and crowd actions, and then recommend your content to each visitor based on their specific preference and text-level comprehension. BrightInfo can be used as a full-service lead generation system, or you can mix and match the service options to connect specific audiences with content that most relates to them. One of the best things about this service is that you get to maintain full control over the look and feel of each page on your website that is integrated with BrightInfo’s content recommendation program.
4. Buzzsumo
Discover the kinds of content people want to engage with, and find influencers within your industry who can amplify your website’s content using Buzzsumo. By searching among the top social sites, Buzzsumo provides you with insight into how much attention a given topic is receiving and where the topic is most talked about online. This allows you to determine how well your chosen topics should perform if you decide to implement them into your own content development plans. Buzzsumo also highlights social influencers, giving you an opportunity to find collaboration opportunities that increase your overall exposure.
5. Canva
Creating eye-catching graphics and designs for your online content can get pretty pricey when working with a professional graphic designer, and super time consuming when working with design software yourself. With Canva, you can create your own stunning designs in a mater of minutes by simply dragging and dropping your favorite fonts, graphics, and photos into the program’s design tool. Canva’s design tool comes complete with a photo straightener, image cropper, speech bubble maker, and graphic enhancer that can turn any graphic into a unique design that’s all your own.
6. Citation Labs
Citation Labs is a powerful link building system that focuses on reaching your target audience through the development of authoritative content. Their full-service plan includes a team of experts who will identify your target audience and then plan, write, as well as publish intriguing content for you that builds links, attracts visitors, and ultimately earns you more profits. Citation Labs also offers self-service options that will allow you to connect with blogs, news sites, and online publishers for link collaboration.
7. Google Analytics
Using Google Analytics is one of the most effective ways to gain both customer and advertising insights, so you can execute a profitable marketing strategy that outperforms your competition on a regular basis. As the most widely used website analytics service provider, Google Analytics offers tools and resources that are second to none when it comes to tracking traffic, activity, trends, and even buying habits among your website visitors. The service is integrated with AdWords, which gives you the power to ensure that your marketing investments are worth every penny.
8. Google Mobile-Friendly Test
To ensure that your website is attractive, easy to navigate, and engaging to mobile Internet surfers, it’s a good idea to employ Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test – it will scan your website to help you determine whether or not it delivers a dynamic experience to all of your mobile visitors no matter the size or design of their device. With this test you can ensure that your website’s text is viewable on a wide range of mobile devices without having to zoom, that links are located far enough away from each other that they can be easily clicked, and that any software that’s utilized within your website design can be fully loaded by mobile users.
9. HootSuite
With Hootsuite, you can create a winning social media strategy that makes your brand shine in the eyes of potential customers around the world. Hootsuite also helps you safeguard your social media reputation by identifying and minimizing fraudulent account interactions. The company will even train your social media team on your products and services, as well as teach them how to properly manage PR crises and media escalations. You’ll find a variety of apps to integrate into your Hootsuite service plan, such as Hootlet, which is a browser plugin that lets you post your content to several social media outlets at the same time.
10. HubSpot
The beauty of HubSpot is that it features the combined power of an inbound marketing platform with dynamic sales software to make your overall job of attracting browsers and turning them into customers an easy one. Forget about completing tasks manually – use HubSpot to schedule content publications, effectively manage email accounts, track contacts, and monitor your team’s progress all with the click of a few buttons. With HubSpot, you’ll find that everything from creating landing pages and managing leads to incorporating calls-to-action and keeping up with your blog is a cinch.
11. Moz Local
Quickly deliver rich and consistent business listings to your favorite apps, search engines, maps, and directories using Moz Local. The service enables you to instantly identify duplicate listings, so they can be deleted as necessary, and you don’t get penalized. And with the help of Google My Business Data formatting, Moz Local automatically syncs all of your listings and ensures that they are always up to date with your latest business information.
12. Open Site Explorer
Discovering backlinks that are potentially damaging to your website’s search engine performance is essential, and Open Site Explorer is a simple tool that’s designed to help you do just that. After looking a website up using Open Site Explorer, you’ll gain access to information such as domain and page authority, tweet statistics, as well as Facebook shares and likes. Open Site Explorer can even be used to find new linking opportunities by leveraging both the Fresh Web Explorer and Mozscape indexes.
13. PanguinTool
One of the most effective ways to keep track of how Google’s algorithms affect your organic website traffic is to put Barracuda’s free Panguin Tool to work for you. After logging into your Panguin account, you can view up to 12 months worth of traffic history along with an overlay of graphs that show you when Google algorithm updates were made. These algorithm graphs are designed to show you how each update may have affected your traffic and whether or not it is still being affected. By hovering your mouse over each algorithm update on the graph, you can gain insight into what Google was looking for or targeting on your site so you can make needed fixes and quickly regain your expected traffic acquirement.
14. Piktochart
Piktochart offers the opportunity to create vibrant infographics within a straight-forward editing tool, featuring thousands of icons and images that you can use as you please. Piktochart incorporates a point-and-click application that gives you full control over the background colors, font types, banners, and graphics of your infographics. Create your infographics from scratch, or choose from more than 400 templates as the base for your design. There are also a variety of ready-to-use graphics that can be incorporated into your infographic designs. You can even download your own charts and maps right into the application during the creation process.
15. Ping-O-Matic
Utilizing Ping-O-Matic is a simple and effective way to automatically let search engines know when updates have been made to your website. Ping-O-Matic is diligent in scouring the downstream services they use (including Technorati and Feed Burner) to ensure legitimacy and proper performance, so you can be sure that every submission made on your behalf is of quality. To use the tool, you only need to input a website name and link then choose which search engines you would like the site to be submitted to. The rest is done for you on the backend, and a confirmation of the submissions should arrive in your email inbox shortly thereafter.
16. Raven
It’s always a good idea to complete a full audit on your website before beginning any serious marketing efforts, and Raven makes the process an easy one – especially if your time is limited. The Raven system enables you to catch SEO issues and track their fixes to ensure a successful outcome. Raven also allows you to create dynamic social media campaign reports in a matter of minutes, track multiple social media accounts at the same time, and generate in-depth reports on social metrics that matter the most for your business. Link building tools and online marketing reports are other aspects to take advantage of when working with Raven.
17. Schema Organization
Schema.org provides an opportunity to take part in a collaborative community with the goal of developing and making use of various schemas for structured data that can be used on web pages, emails, and just about any other types of online publication. Schemas make it easy to aggregate product ratings, special offers, addresses, and affiliations. Sponsored by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, Schema.org is one of the most effective resources for marking up your website and email templates.
18. Search Console
An awesome way to optimize and maintain your presence in Google search results is to make use of Search Console. This free service allows you to submit new content for the search engine to crawl, as well as remove old content you no longer want cataloged. You can also monitor and address spam issues, which effectively keeps your site clean and ready for crawling. With Search Console, you’re even able to learn what sites are linking to you at any given time, determine which queries result in your presence in the search engines, and monitor mobile site performance.
19. SEMrush
You’ll find a large suite of tools to take advantage of at SEMrush including the ability to collect data on competitor websites, check the health of your own site, and gain insight into profitable keyword rankings all in one place. You can expect SEMrush to provide you with expert keyword and backlink strategy recommendations as well as monitor your local, regional, and national SERP positions for any keyword you’re concerned about. SEMrush also offers an in-depth social media tool that will keep you up-to-date about what your competition is up to.
20. Structured Data Markup Helper
You can annotate your website’s content, so it’s easier for machines to understand by utilizing Structured Data Markup Helper on a consistent basis. Structured data enables search engines like Google and Bing to easily index your content and present it to prospective visitors more prominently in the search results. When your content is structured with data markup, you qualify for two cool Google perks – enhanced presentation opportunities in the search results and publication in their knowledge graph.
21. The Hoth
With help from The Hoth, you can take advantage of managed SEO services without having to hire your own in-house or virtual team. Each Hoth package includes press release production, profile diversification, homepage link building, and audience outreach content creation. The Hoth even sets you up with a complete consultation and a dedicated manager who will align your objectives and help you put together an effective SEO plan. You’ll be provided with white label reports and rank tracking information, so you’re always aware of how effective your campaigns are.
22. WhiteSpark
Local SEO management is a piece of cake with the help of WhiteSpark, as their local search experts do all the legwork for you. The WhiteSpark team can optimize your website with key terms and content as well as help you get positive reviews, so you can build a strong reputation online. They can also build valuable local citations to help put you a step ahead of your competition. And they’ll even track your ranking across organic listings, so you can better understand how customers find.
23. Wincher
With Wincher you can get daily rank updates to stay up-to-date on search engine positions for your websites as well as your competitors. There’s no need to log in every day in order to get the information you need, as Wincher alerts you anytime important changes are made to your rankings. And when your rankings are impressive, you can share the results on social media with just a couple clicks on your keyboard. What’s more is that you’re able to have all your ranking reports delivered via email in .cvs or .pdf format in daily, weekly, or monthly.
24. Yext
As a location management platform, Yext provides you with the tools and resources you need to grow and manage your online presence, effectively engage with your customers, and maximize visits to your brick-and-mortar store or website. Yext’s analytics system provides page reporting, keyword insight, and review monitoring services. And you can use the Yext platform to manage local employee workflows, making it easy to optimize your digital presence and protect your brand reputation.
25. Zerys
Every successful online marketer relies on quality content to drive traffic to their products and services, which is where Zerys comes in. This content marketing software is packed with features that make it easy to establish an authoritative presence within your industry, increase brand recognition among your target audience, and improve your overall conversion rates. Zerys provides the tools you need to plan an effective content strategy, create high performance topics and titles, as well as plan your editorial calendar months in advance if you want to. In addition, Zerys gives you access to literally thousands of high quality writers who are sure to help make your online presence shine.
Considering the vast variety of inbound marketing and SEO tools available online today, it can be hard to know which ones will work for you. While we only covered a small sample in this post, take you time, go over them, do your own research and find out which ones are going to work best for you! Putting together a personal arsenal of resources that makes marketing your online business easy, effective, and most importantly, profitable is something every business owner needs to do!
