Top 5 free SEO tools – 2021

Check out our list of the best free SEO tools that can boost your organic rankings on Google and can lead to immediate gains in your marketing today.

I’ve collected a big sampling of the best free SEO tools on the market—tools with a wide variety of uses and covering a number of common needs. These tools are fast, free, and easy-to-use. I hope you find one or two you can put to good use, today.

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

Check the speed and usability of your site on multiple devices

Limitations: None

Enter a URL and this tool will test the loading time and performance for that URL on desktop and mobile. It then grades your site’s performance on a score from 0 – 100. It tells you exactly how fast it takes to load the site according to different metrics, and also suggests areas for improvements.

 

2. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Run a technical audit of your site

Limitations: 5,000 crawl credits per project per month

Sign up for Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, verify your website and you’ll be able to audit your website for over 100+ technical SEO issues. The tool also gives suggestions on how to fix them.

After running an audit, it also suggests areas where you can improve your internal linking, which is helpful in boosting your rankings in search engines.

This tool also allows you to see your site’s organic keyword rankings as well as who’s linking to you.

 

3. Answer the Public

Hundreds of keyword ideas based on a single keyword

Limitations: Two free searches per day

Enter any relevant keyword, and Answer the Public will provide a huge list of long-tail keyword opportunities, plus common questions asked.

 

4. Google Analytics

Complete web stats and search insights

Limitations: No limitations for its usage, but queries that are sending you organic traffic are hidden

Quite possibly the most powerful free analytics tool available, Google Analytics tracks pretty much every bit of traffic you can imagine on your website—where it comes from, which page is receiving it and so on.

While it’s not purely for SEO, it’s still a helpful tool to track if you’re getting traffic from organic search.

However, Google Analytics has since stopped showing which keywords are sending you those traffic. You’ll have to pair it with a tool like Keyword Hero to uncover what’s behind “(not provided).”

 

5. Google Search Console

Constant website analysis, alerts, and error reports

Limitations: Only shows a handful of technical SEO issues, the top 1,000 backlinks and top 1,000 organic keywords

Google Search Console gives you a taste of what the most used search engine thinks of your website. You can use it to check and fix technical issues on your website, see important SEO data like clicks, impressions and average ranking position, submit sitemaps and more.

If ranking in search engines like Bing and Yandex are important to you, then take note that they have their own “search console” too.

Further resources

Putting together a list of free SEO tools can be a daunting task. There are hundreds out there! I aimed to grab the ones that we’ve found valuable here at Buffer and the ones you can use via the web within minutes to get some amazing insights.

If you’re interested in even more tools—here are a few places to start:

• The 60 Best Free SEO Tools [100% Free] — an interactive tools list, curated by Moz
• 45 Best Free SEO Tools (Tried & Tested) — a curated list of tried and tested free SEO tools by Ahrefs