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129+ SEO Tools (2023)

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Seo tools for website audit, content optimization, and research

129 SEO Tools to Audit, Research, and Optimize Your Website in 2023

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic, leads, and sales from organic search. However, it requires using the right tools for research, audits, tracking and optimization.

With hundreds of SEO tools on the market, figuring out which ones you need in your toolkit can be overwhelming.

That’s why I’ve compiled this complete list of 129 essential SEO tools to use in 2023.

SEO Tools

SEO tools optimize on-page elements, conduct site audits, and analyze backlinks. Here are the best of the best:

  • Ahrefs – All-in-one SEO toolkit for backlinks, site audits, rank tracking, and content research.

  • Moz – Robust SEO platform with site crawler, rank tracking, link analysis, and keyword research tools.

  • SEMRush – SEO, PPC, and marketing analytics platform for audits, rank tracking, keywords, and content strategy.

  • RankMath – The most popular WordPress SEO plugin for optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, alt text, and more.

  • RankActive – Optimize your website effortlessly with an all-inclusive SEO tool that provides all the essential features in a single package.

  • Screaming Frog – Crawl website to analyze broken links, robots.txt, page titles, hreflang tags, and more.

  • SEO Minion – Chrome extension with tons of SEO tools for analyzing any page.

  • SERP Checker – Check your current Google search rankings for target keywords.

  • SEOquake – Browser extension to analyze page elements like meta tags, links, images, speed, etc.

  • Woorank – Review website SEO elements like tags, structured data, page speed, links, and accessibility.

  • Link Miner – Backlink analysis tool to monitor new links pointing to your site.

  • Redirect Path – Analyze HTTP redirects from any URL to understand redirect chains.

  • Keyword Explorer – Generate semantic keyword grouping ideas for comprehensive research.

This is just a sample of the robust SEO tools available to make technical optimizations and identify issues holding your rankings back.

Keyword Research Tools

Thorough keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Here are some top keyword tools SEO professionals use:

  • SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool – Generate keyword ideas based on seed keywords, questions, and URLs.

  • Ahrefs Keyword Generator – Get keyword suggestions based on seed keywords and questions.

  • UberSuggest – Free keyword research tool that surfaces semantic keyword ideas, questions, and long-tail variants.

  • KeywordChef – Find easy-to-rank keywords with low competition.

  • Keyworddit – Keyworddit is a tool that extracts long-tail and seed keywords from Reddit’s subreddits.

  • Soovle – A keyword research tool that shows search volume, CPC data, and keyword trends.

  • Google Keyword Planner – Free keyword planner with impression and average CPC data (part of Google Ads).

Robust keyword research gives you insights into topics and questions your audience is asking so you can create high-value content that ranks.

Competitor Analysis Tools

Spying on competitors’ SEO and content strategies is crucial for staying on top of your niche. Here are the best competitor analysis tools:

  • SEMrush Site Audit – Crawl competitor websites to analyze backlinks, keyword rankings, traffic sources, meta data, and more.

  • Ahrefs Site Explorer – See competitors’ backlinks and analyze their anchor text distribution and link sources.

  • SimilarWeb – Understand competitors’ social media traffic, referral sources, geography stats, and visits over time.

  • BuzzSumo – Discover your competitor’s most shared content to inform your content strategy.

Gleaning insights from competitors helps you identify gaps in your strategy to improve and outrank them.

Content Optimization Tool

  • NeuronWriter– NeuronWriter, under CONTADU, offers AI-driven content intelligence, providing optimization tools, real-time insights, and templates for enhanced content creation and improved search visibility.
  • PageOptimizerPro – PageOptimizerPro is a versatile SEO tool offering detailed analysis and optimization features to improve search rankings.
  • SurferSEO – SurferSEO is a cloud-based tool providing content strategy and optimization to boost SEO, organic traffic, and revenue.
  • SurgeGraph – SurgeGraph delivers advanced SEO tools and AI-driven solutions for enhanced content creation and organic traffic growth.

Link Building Tools

Link building remains one of the most powerful SEO strategies for rankings. Here are the go-to tools for managing outreach and tracking links:

  • BuzzStream – Manage outreach to build links, including email tracking, link monitoring, and pitch management.

  • Pitchbox – Build and manage blogger outreach campaigns to gain backlinks from relevant websites.

  • Ahrefs Alerts – Get notified when competitors acquire new backlinks so you can aim to replicate their link-building strategies.

  • Link Miner – Monitor links pointing to your site so you can proactively build links from new domains.

Link-building tools help streamline and organize your outreach efforts to build natural links at scale.

Website Crawling & Indexation Tools

Understanding what Google can see and index your site is critical for good SEO. Here are essential website crawling tools:

  • Google Search Console – Review index status, crawl errors, sitemaps, and keywords sending traffic.

  • Bing Webmaster Tools – Like Search Console, but for visibility into how Bing bots crawl and index your site.

  • Screaming Frog – Spider site to identify crawl errors, broken links, and issues blocking pages from being indexed.

  • Sitebulb – View crawl data and spot issues preventing search engines from indexing pages.

  • Lumar – Advanced site crawler scans pages for SEO issues and provides recommendations for fixes.

Site crawling reveals tangible problems costing you search traffic that you can immediately rectify.

Page Speed Tools

Optimizing page speed improves user experience, conversions, and SEO. Test site speed with these tools:

  • Google PageSpeed Insights – See your mobile and desktop site speed scores and suggestions to improve them.

  • WebPageTest – Test page load times from different locations on mobile and desktop.

  • GTmetrix – Analyze page speed and get actionable recommendations to optimize site performance.

  • Pingdom – Easy website speed test from multiple geographic locations on mobile, desktop and more.

Fast page speed equals happy search engines and users. These tools help spot speed bottlenecks.

Technical SEO Tools

Technical website issues can seriously hurt SEO and user experience. Find problems with these tools:

  • Woorank Technical Audit – Scan the site for issues like broken links, crawl errors, structured data, page speed, etc.

  • Moz Link Explorer – Analyze your internal link structure to identify orphaned or broken pages.

  • Google Search Console – See index and crawl errors that affect site visibility and traffic.

  • Mobile-Friendly Test – Quickly test if Google sees your site as mobile-friendly, which is critical for mobile SEO.

  • Fetch and Render – Enter a URL to see how Googlebot fetches and renders the page HTML code.

  • Structured Data Testing Tool – Test schema markup to ensure search engines can understand it.

Technical SEO creates the foundation for search visibility. These tools surface actual problems to fix.

Rank Tracking Tools

You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Track keyword ranks with:

  • SEMrush Rank Tracking – Monitor keyword positions across Google, Bing, and YouTube.

  • Ahrefs Rank Tracker – Check keyword ranks and spot competitors gaining on you.

  • MozBar – Firefox and Chrome extension shows keyword ranks in search results.

  • Serpstat – Track keyword rankings plus in-depth analytics on competitors’ visibility.

  • Advanced Web Rankings – Desktop and mobile rank checker with competitors’ intelligence.

Rank tracking enables you to gauge SEO progress and catch declines before they cost you traffic.

Local SEO Tools

Ranking in local pack search results requires optimization. Essential local SEO tools include:

Dominating local SEO leads to massive foot traffic to physical stores. These tools get your location ranking.

Analytics Tools

Website analytics provide critical conversion and visitor data to shape your SEO and content strategies. The top analytics platforms are:

  • Google Analytics – The gold standard free platform with powerful behavioral insights.

  • Google Tag Manager – Manage marketing and analytics tags on your site through one interface.

  • Hotjar – To optimize pages, see heatmaps of user clicks, scroll depth, and form drop-offs.

  • Matomo – Open source analytics alternative to GA with data ownership and user privacy controls.

Analytics insights help you optimize pages for better conversions and value per visitor.

Schema Markup Tools

Schema markup enables search engines to understand your content and display rich results. Helpful schema tools:

  • Schema Creator – Build schema markup for free with an easy point-and-click tool.

  • Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool – Preview how your schema will appear in search and find markup errors.

  • Schema Markup Validator – Validate your schema code is error-free and ready for search indexing.

Proper schema implementation can get your site featured in rich result searches, driving more clicks.

Accessibility Tools

Ensuring your website is accessible to all users is ethical and beneficial for SEO. Test accessibility with:

Accessibility helps search engines better understand your content and improves real user experience.

Readability Tools

Creating readable content keeps users engaged while pleasing search engines. Boost readability with:

  • Hemingway App – Analyze content for hard-to-read sentences and passive voice to improve clarity.

  • Grammarly – Check writing for grammar and spelling mistakes as well as clarity.

  • Readable.com – Test readability grade level and improve clarity.

Readable content is consumable content. These tools help perfect readability.

HTML/CSS Tools

Clean, valid HTML/CSS improves accessibility, security, and SEO. Validate your markup with:

  • W3C HTML Validator – Check HTML documents are free of errors.

  • W3C CSS Validator – Test CSS code, and files have no errors.

  • Html5Validator – One-click HTML5 validation testing.

Valid markup helps avoid technical headaches that can impact rankings and conversions.

Website Testing Tools

Testing how your site looks and functions across locations, browsers, and devices is essential. Functional testing tools include:

  • LambdaTest – Test website on thousands of browsers, operating systems, and device combinations.

  • Browserling – Cross-browser test site on all major browsers in different versions.

  • CrossBrowserTesting – Automated website testing across browsers, devices, and resolutions.

A seamless site experience, regardless of how visitors access it equals happy visitors. Robust testing is key.

Security Tools

Site security is vital for protecting users and maintaining search engine credibility. Security tools include:

  • Sucuri SiteCheck – Scan websites for malware, spam, blacklisting, and other security issues.

  • SSL Labs – Analyze SSL configuration and certificates to identify vulnerabilities.

  • SecurityHeaders.com – Check HTTP response headers related to security, like CORS, CSP, and HSTS.

  • Quttera – Website malware and blacklist checker to detect potential threats.

Security is a pillar of user trust. These tools help identify vulnerabilities to address.

Website Performance Tools

Fast-loading, glitch-free sites keep visitors engaged. Check performance with:

  • WebPageTest – See detailed website speed test results, including page load times, request metrics, and visual comparison.

  • Lighthouse – Google tool that audits page speed, accessibility, SEO, best practices, and more.

  • GTmetrix – Test site against performance metrics like page load time, YSlow score, page size, and requests.

Site speed and uptime are imperative for a positive user experience. These tools help monitor and improve performance.

All-in-One SEO Tools

Robust all-in-one SEO tools combine auditing, research, tracking, and analysis features. Top options:

  • Ahrefs – Backlink analysis, rank tracking, site auditing, keyword research, and content analytics.

  • SEMrush – Keyword research, rank tracking, site audits, link analysis, SERP features, etc.

  • Moz – SERP tracking, keyword research, backlink analysis, site crawling, plus beginner SEO guides.

  • Serpstat – rank tracking, keyword research, competitor analysis, site auditing, and link-building tools.

  • Onpage.org – SEO tool that analyzes on-page elements, page speed, social media, and link building.

All-in-one SEO tools enable managing every aspect of optimization from one platform.

The 129 Essential SEO Tools to Use

This covers the best SEO tools available in 2023 for conducting thorough website audits, research, and ongoing optimization.

To recap, the list of 129+ top SEO tools across 19 categories includes:

  • 34 SEO Tools
  • 10 Keyword Research Tools
  • 4 Competitor Analysis Tools
  • 4 Content Optimization Tools
  • 4 Link Building Tools
  • 6 Website Crawling & Indexation Tools
  • 4 Page Speed Tools
  • 7 Technical SEO Tools
  • 5 Rank Tracking Tools
  • 3 Local SEO Tools
  • 4 Analytics Tools
  • 3 Schema Markup Tools
  • 3 Accessibility Tools
  • 3 Readability Tools
  • 2 HTML/CSS Tools
  • 3 Website Testing Tools
  • 4 Security Tools
  • 3 Website Performance Tools
  • 5 All-in-One SEO Tools

Each tool serves a unique purpose and fills gaps in your optimization efforts.

Having the right toolkit makes executing technical SEO audits, optimizing content, researching competitors, and tracking your success more efficient.

Hopefully, this guide helps you identify new SEO tools to implement or optimize your use of current ones. Mastering both on-page and off-page optimization factors will enable your site to start ranking higher and attracting more organic search traffic.

What SEO tools have you found most helpful or want to start using? Let me know in the comments!

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