No matter how deep you’ve gone into SEO, it cannot be done manual completely without using SEO tools. Whether you are an amateur or an expert, you will need some important SEO tools to find new opportunities, get works done, save time, and even keep track of your SEO.

In fact, without SEO tools, some of the important SEO tasks cannot be done or it would take 100x longer and harder to complete them. Without mincing words, you need those tools whether you are just beginning or not.

But wait…. Just before you jump into the opportunity of purchasing the next available SEO tools that claim to be the best in the industry, note that you don’t need all of them. In fact, you don’t even need 6 out of 10 SEO tools that marketers are advertising.

You know why? Because they won’t help you achieve anything. In fact, some of them just repeat the task other tools you already have can do better. Moreover, you can even get some of the best SEO tools free. When I was getting started, I wasted a lot of my time and money on useless SEO tools before settling for the best ones.

airplane flying success

 

In this article, we will give you 8 best SEO tools you must have. Note that all of them are not free. In fact, most of them are premium tools. No doubt, when it comes to SEO, you need to spend money to get the best results.

 

8 Best SEO Tools You Must Have in 2018 and Beyond:

 

1. Google Keyword Planner Tool

It is not surprising that we started with this tool. It has been and remains one of the best and most popular SEO tool available in the industry.

In fact, any so-called SEO expert that hasn’t make use of this tool is not serious. The best part is that you can use it forever absolutely for free. All you need is open a Google account and it’s yours to use as you please.

What Does it Do: Google Keyword Planner allows you to know how competitive a particular keyword is. When you type in a keyword, it will give you a very useful insight on such keyword. You will get stats such as:

  • Monthly search volume
  • Competition
  • Suggested terms
  • Suggested bid price (for Adwords users)

It doesn’t matter how heavy or low your budget is, you need to have this tool in your SEO toolbox.

analytics

 

2. Google Analytics

This is another awesome product from Google. Google Analytics is a very useful tool that will help you maintain and improve your website. This tool, just like most of Google’s Products, is free. What is funny is that most programmers will replicate the functionality of this tool and will sell it to gullible marketers and webmasters as SEO tool.

What Does it Do? Google Analytics allows you to track every bit of traffic coming to your site. You will know where your visitors are coming from, which search term brought them to your site and which page they are visiting the most.

 

3. Keywordtool.io

This is another very useful SEO tool that has been around for years. Fortunately, it is completely free and you can start making use of it today.

What Does it Do? Keywordtool.io provides you with a list of long-tail keyword opportunities. You can get up to 700+ keyword ideas based on a single keyword when you are using this tool.

keywords

 

4. PageSpeed Insight by Google

Here comes another great tool from Google. If you have been following SEO trends, you will notice that Google, along with other Search Engines have always emphasized the need to have a responsive website with good speed.

What Does it Do? PageSpeed gives you insight on how long it takes your website to load (speed) just by plugging the URL of your website. It will also give you suggestions on how you can improve the overall score of your website.

 

5. SEMrush

SEMrush is a paid tool, mostly used by big boys and experienced players in the game. However, you can absolutely make use of this tool if you are just getting started. Some functionalities in this tool are free, you can upgrade anytime you like.

What Does it Do? SEMrush does a lot of things but becomes very useful when you want to outrank your competitor. This tool will provide you an insight into the keywords your competitors are ranking for. It will even go ahead to show you the landing page for each keyword and the value of the keyword for running a paid ads. Isn’t it awesome? If you have the budget, I will suggest you get this tool.

yoast plugin screenshot

 

6. Yoast WordPress Plugin

There are basically hundreds of thousands of SEO plugins available online. But guess what? You don’t even need half of them. That said, one of the best WordPress SEO plugins you should be using is Yoast WordPress plugin.

What Does it Do? Yoast ensures that your content is SEO-Friendly. Once you enter the content you want to publish, this plugin will automatically suggest how you can make them SEO-friendly. It works in a pretty awesome way. You need to check it out right away.

 

7. Ahrefs

You can’t have a good SEO without backlinking. When you talk about off-page SEO, you are basically talking about backlinks. You need to be getting backlinks from quality websites and sources if you want to rank high and that where this tool comes in.

What Does it Do? Ahrefs allows you to discover backlinks building opportunities. It can tell you where to get links and even help you spread your links to various online sources for a better ranking.

ahrefs homepage screenshot

 

8. Disavow Tool

When we talk about backlinks, you must ensure that you are getting them from reliable sources; else, it will hurt your ranking. Your competitor can even add your link to un-trusted sources just to ruin your site ranking, that’s why you need disavow tool.

What Does it Do? This tool enables you to remove links from bad sources. It is free and you can use it to ensure that all your backlinks are coming from credible sources.

 

Conclusion

No doubt, with this 8 SEO tools listed above, you will see a great improvement in your ranking. There are other tools you will need to use in the future, but for now, you can get started with these ones.

 

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