We're always on the lookout for great tools and with a $5 billion industry, SEO is one market that has a ton of tools to help you. Whether you're researching you or your competitors' backlinks, trying to identify keywords and cocurrence terms, or simply trying to monitor how your site is ranking, here are the most popular SEO tools and platforms on the market.
Key Features of Search Engine Optimization Tools and Tracking Platforms
- Audits – SEO audits crawl your site and notify you of issues that may impact your rankings.
- Backlink Analysis – if your site is linked to on sites with poor search engine authority, you can have a terrible time ranking. Being able to analyze the volume and quality of the links that are pointing to your domains is imperative for advanced troubleshooting of ranking issues and competitive analysis.
- Competitive Research – the ability to enter or find your competitors, their rankings, and what differentiates their domain and pages from yours so you can identify gaps to fill.
- Data Mining – Strangely missing from many of these platforms is the ability to tag, categorize, aggregate, data mine, and develop reports across very large sets of keywords.
- Keyword Discovery – while many of the monitoring platforms provide you with accurate rankings, they don't allow you to discover what keywords you might be ranking on that you're unaware of.
- Keyword Grouping – monitoring a few keywords may not give as accurate a picture as grouping similar keyword combinations and reporting on how you're doing overall on a topic. Keyword grouping is a great feature of SEO rank monitoring tools.
- Keyword Research – understanding keyword related to the products and services you provide is critical to your content marketing efforts. Keyword research tools often offer co-occurrence keywords, question-related keyword combinations, long-tail keyword combinations, and the competitiveness of the keyword (so you don't waste your time trying to rank on terms you don't stand a chance gaining traction on.
- Keyword Ranking Monitoring – the ability to enter keywords and then monitor their ranking over time is a core feature of most of the platforms. Given that search results are mostly personalized, this ability is largely used for overall trending analysis to see whether the efforts you're making are improving your ranking on keywords or not.
- Local Keyword Rank Monitoring – since the location of the search user and your business can play a huge role, many of the keyword monitoring platforms provide a means to track your ranking by geographic location.
- Scraping & Internal Analysis – Tools that analyze your site hierarchy, page construction, page speed, and other associated issues are fantastic for correcting issues that might be less obvious but that could be causing you plenty of problems when ranking.
- Share of Voice – competitive intelligence reports that provide your brand with an overall tracking mechanism to show your share of the search and social conversations online ca show you if you're making headway. After all, you might be increasing your search visibility, but perhaps your competitor is doing an even better job.
- Social Influence – It's only natural that the attention you attract across social media is a great indicator of the authority you've built with search engines. Newer SEO platforms are providing insight into the correlation between search and social and it's paying off!
- Youtube Research – often ignored, Youtube is the #2 search engine in the world as more and more businesses and consumers research topics looking for video explanations, product profiles, and how-to's.
List of Search Engine Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools – improve your site's performance in search. Get access to free reports, tools and resources.
Google Webmaster Tools – provides you with detailed reports about your pages' visibility on Google.
List of SEO Tools for Links, Keywords and Rank Tracking
AccuRanker – Automate the process of looking up how your keywords rank on Google and Bing search engines with up-to-the-second updates.
Advanced Web Ranking – Fresh rankings daily, weekly and on demand. For desktop, mobile and local searches. Packed nicely into white label reports. Accessible from any device.
Ahrefs Site Explorer – The largest and the freshest index of live links. Index is updated every 15 min.
AuthorityLabs – Use our search engine ranking and keyword data to automate your SEO monitoring, track local and mobile rankings, and recover not-provided keywords.
BrightEdge SEO is the first SEO platform to deliver proven ROI – enabling marketers to increase revenue from organic search in a measurable and predictable way.
Cognitive SEO Unique SEO features that will boost your link analysis and link building results.
Colibri gives you insight into how to get more traffic and customers from SEO.
Conductor Searchlight is the most widely used SEO platform – empowering enterprise marketers to take control of their search performance.
Cuutio Inbound Marketing Platform – Know your exact positions and competitive situation on Google, keep track of the results of
search engine optimization and analyze the overall performance of your important keywords
Dragon Metrics provides the analysis and insights you need to rank above competitors and turn monthly reporting into a breeze.
Explore Keywords is a free keyword research tool including a keyword volume checker, keyword generator, question keywords generator, and Youtube keyword generator.
Ginzametrics makes enterprise SEO simple and is the only platform to help marketers effectively monetize traffic from organic search.
gShift’s SEO software system centralizes your clients’ SEO data (rank, backlinks, social signals, competitive intelligence, Google Analytics and keyword research) and provides automated, scheduled, white-labeled SEO reports leaving more time for your services team to implement the SEO tasks that will improve your clients’ web presence.
Linkody – easy-to-use and affordable backlink tracker
Majestic SEO – Link intelligence tools for SEO and Internet PR and Marketing. Site Explorer shows inbound link and site summary data.
Meta Forensics – Meta Forensics is a website architecture, internal link analysis and SEO tool that helps identify unseen website problems that may be affecting your visitors, search engine crawlers and ultimately, hampering your site.
Monitor Backlinks – Keep all of your link data under one roof with our management tools.
Moz – best-in-class SEO software for every situation, from our all-in-one SEO platform to tools for local SEO, enterprise SERP analytics, and a powerful API.
mySEOTool – SEO Software Used by Thousands of Web Designers, SEO Consultants & Agencies to manage their SEO clients.
Netpeak Checker – is a multifunctional research tool for mass SEO analysis. The tool has a unique feature that allows analyzing competitors’ promotion strategy and researching backlinks profile of your competitors' websites.
Nightwatch – SEO performance tracker and analytics tool
Ontolo – Our Link Building Toolset has become one of the most-often recommended internet marketing and link building tools by the top SEO and link building experts for it's automation and link prospecting abilities.
Posirank – Our wholesale platform not only centralizes every imaginable SEO service into a single dashboard – it also supports total automation.
Positionly is powerful, user-friendly tools that make improving your website an enjoyable experience. Monitor daily changes, measure SEO performance, and improve search engine rankings with simplicity.
Pro Rank Tracker – Get the most up to date, easy to analyse ranking information on all your websites, so you can stay one step ahead of the competition and maximize your profits.
RankAbove's Drive SEO Platform and business intelligence software enables you to dig deeper into SEO information already at your fingertips.
Rankinity – Check your website positions and analyze your competitors in popular search engines in real-time.
RankRanger – daily reports and insight into your website traffic and marketing achievements.
RankScanner – Monitor your keywords' positions on Google with a free account.
Rank Tracker by SpySERP – provides SEO beginners and experts alike the inside track on their web page performance across multiple search engines.
RankSonic – Track daily changes in your rankings, get advanced site analytics, spy on your competitors and improve your search engine rankings.
RankWatch – Rank analysis, backlink watch, keyword suggestions, white labeling, reporting and website analyzer.
Raven has 30+ tools to help you get results in all of these online marketing tasks.
Rio SEO is the best SEO platform to deliver global search success across Organic, Local Search, Mobile and Social Media for Top Brands & Agencies.
Searchmetrics – Our search and social analytics software Searchmetrics Suite with data-based analysis and intelligent solutions enables marketers and SEOs to monitor and optimize national or international SEO actions and thus increase market share, revenue and profits.
SEOCHECK.io – a free keyword rank check that allows you to track up to 50 keywords.
SEOReseller – a complete white-label solution for agencies and search consultants to provide both the platform, reporting, and even the services to their clients.
Serpple – a tool to track keyword performance in SERPs. Includes competitive tracking and reporting.
Serpstat – an all-in-one SEO platform with SEO Audits, Competitor Research, Backlink Analysis, Search Analytics and Rank Tracking.
SERPtimizer – SEO tool for linkbuilding, website audit and keyword monitoring.
SerpYou – clean and easy to use interface and is both fast and accurate.
SE Ranking – a universal search engine monitoring system offering both hosted and self-hosted solutions.
Semrush is created by SEO/SEM professionals for SEO/SEM professionals. We have the knowledge, expertise, and data to help you take your projects to the next level. They collect massive amounts of SERP data for more than 120 million keywords and 50 million domains.
SEO Camel – Seo camel makes a complete analysis of the search engine optimization on your, or your competitors websites.
SEO Rank Monitor – Boost your rankings, Track your competitors, and monitor SEO performance with the most comprehensive rank tracking in the industry.
SeoSiteCheckup.com – Search Engine Optimization Made Easy. User-friendly analysis and monitoring of your site's SEO.
SERP Scan – tracks your website's search engine position for the keywords that matter to you.
SERPWoo – Monitor ALL Top 20+ Results For Your Keywords and get alerts when competitors increase their backlinks, social signals, rankings, and more.
Shortlist Metrics – a simple tool to scale your linkbuilding faster.
Siteoscope – keyword ranking, competitor tracking, social media analysis and automated reporting.
SerpStat Keyword Suggestion Tool — popular keywords and their various forms used by people who are looking for interesting products, services or information.
SpyFu exposes the search marketing secret formula of your most successful competitors. Search for any domain and see every place they've shown up on Google: every keyword they've bought on Adwords, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 6 years.
SyCara's SEO Platform provides users with industry-leading workflow management, local search rankings, social media reporting, and SEO analysis.
Tiny Ranker – Keep track of your rankings and onpage SEO efforts.
Topvisor – Digital Marketing Products & Website Analytics Software. Try it out by tracking up to 200 keyword rankings for free.
Unamo – Gain more traffic, improve your rankings and leave the competition behind.
UpCity – Let UpCity help your small business get free traffic from search engines, social media and local directories.
WebMeUp SEO tools combine the convenience of online SEO software with the data-richness only desktop apps could provide.
What's My SERP – WhatsMySerp's free SERP checker allows you to check the top 100 Google search results for multiple keywords. You can use it to Analyze SERPs and to check your website position.
WooRank is a dynamic grade on a 100-point scale that represents your internet marketing effectiveness at a given time. (The average score is 50.) The WooRank is based on a website review of 70 factors ranging from keywords to usability and social monitoring. Far more than a number, the WooRank review provides you with valuable insights and tips to help you take the online world by storm.
Wordtracker offers Keyword Research tools for SEO and PPC, Rank Tracking and Site Analysis tools.
Note: We do have affiliate accounts with some of these platforms.
That’s a nice list. Just goes to show how much I still have to learn about SEO!
Thanks! Our SEO articles should give you what you need.
Great list, thank you. But I think webceo is missing, it’s a nice set of online seo tools to audit your website and then optimize it.
Cool! We’ll add it!
Hi Zac, I checked out WebCEO and that’s a desktop platform for Windows. We focused on online tools here. Thanks!
It sure is a cluttered marketplace – and this list is just the top of the iceberg! If you fancy doing a similar post but specific to tools for local SEO then please let us know – we’d be happy to contribute content and help with curation. Thanks Douglas
Hey, we at SERP Scan just released a local rank tracking feature. Any chance of including us Douglas? Thanks!
Updated, looks like a great toolset.
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Sent from Mailbox for iPhone
Thanks Michael! I’ve added it to the list.
Thanks for including WebMeUp, Douglas!
By the way, we have just added a Social Media module to WebMeUp. So, one can say we are not purely SEO software now. 😉
Cheers,
Thanks again!
I have used a couple of tools to track rankings for our clients but need a suggestion on a tool that can track rankings for unlimited keywords. We need one for an e-commerce portal that has tens of thousands of keywords to track.
Our clients working at that size utilize Conductor, @disqus_wFlYDncKKH:disqus . It’s not inexpensive but has some good grouping and reporting modules. You can also purchase your own rank tracking scripts – but it’s not for the faint of heart as search engines try to block these services as much as possible.
Excellent SEO Roster of Tool Douglas! WebMeUp has become one of my faves. Surprised Market Samurai didn’t make the short list?
LXR Marketplace has a long list of great tools made easy for small business owners looking to do their own SEO
Great list! Some were unfamiliar and I need to try them. From these I’ve used Searchmetrics the most, but Cuutio should be on the list, too, I think (www.cuutio.com)
Hi Douglas,
I think you might take a look at our tool – positionly.com. Take it for a spin and check by yourself 🙂 I’m sure it will meet your standards.
Besides that, I love stacks like this. All the useful tools put together. Nice!
Thanks Krystian! Added you to the list.
Hi there! great list you can also try seo rank monitor, i loved it so far..they just released new version, which (I think) looks pretty awesome.
Thanks! Added to the list.
Hello Douglas,
Can you take a quick glance at our ground-breaking solution at https://www.serpwoo.com/?
We have both free and paid accounts, as well as offer SERP intelligence tracking on several default keywords we track for all members.
Thanks for taking a look and I hope to be able to personally help you with our solution if you need it.
Great, we’ve added your tool to the list.
Hi, unfortunately not found in the list of http://rankinity.com. I use this project because it rank tracking in real time.
I hope this is helpful to you.
Thanks! I’ve added it to the list!
Great post but my favorite tool is ahrefs 🙂
Take a look at Meta Forensics too: http://metaforensics.io. It is an online tool that is similar to the desktop tools ‘Screaming Frog’ and ‘Xenu Link Sleuth’. It’s main point of difference is that is also provides detailed reports on website architecture and gives users actionable information about potential problems on their website.
Very Nice list of SEO Tools…I have never seen before..Thanks a lot Douglas Karr
Hi, Douglas!
Could you take a look at our service https://ranksonic.com and add it to your list?
We can provide every Marketingtechblog subscriber some discount 🙂
Already did!
Great list! Really awesome with all those tools, but you forgot RankScanner – using it weekly, and is pretty good for any business, maybe except enterprises I guess. Thought it deserved the mention.
Thanks Thomas, we’ve added it.
RankSonic gives impressive results in a short time frame for any business and you can track a huge number of keywords. Sounds nice for me. And that’s a deal for my website. Also they have A LOT of cool features.
Hi Douglas, we would love to have our tool on this list as well – http://www.siteoscope.com
Thanks!
Added! Looks like a nice package.
it definitely is, if you are ever interested in the dashboard I can walk you through it 🙂
Great Information ….Very Helpful for the beginners…..Thanks for providing it…
Excellent, let me extend your liste with a free seo audit tool. http://seocamel.com
Added Larry! Thanks.
Very interesting, didn’t know that so many tools are on the market… Now I will go one by one to check what they offers.
Great list Douglas! Do you think that number of SEO tools will reduce as market becomes saturated? It seems as if everyone is making tools nowadays.
The entry costs to building your own tool are incredibly low, so I don’t believe so. In fact, we’re working on our own right now. The problem, though, is that many of these tools haven’t kept up with the algorithms so they’re giving FALSE information that could either produce no results or even hurt a company using them. My advice would be to always seek the expertise of an SEO consultant with a solid background.
Saved to my bookmarks list. Thanks. But i have a question, if you talk about google webmaster tool, why not mentioned the bind WMT and yandex WMT? ya, i know that for some people google = all Internet, but not for everybody. I know a lot of people who use bing as a default search engine.
Olesya, it’s a valid point.
Very useful list for seo tools. I have use almost these.
Thanks
Dear all brother and sister, would you like to describing about baclink in alexa.com?
this is my web:
http://www.pclink.co.id
when i check on alexa, there is only 2 website linking to my website office. even though, I’ve a lot to create an account in discussion forums. so how long it can be linking to my wesite office. thank you for you kindness.
So many great tools. SEM Rush is my favorite when it comes to sales and Majestic/Ahrefs are the best link aggregaters. Another one that I really like is Mozcast. Not technically a tool, but it’s great to be reassured when you are seeing too much movement in the SERPs and you find out it’s not just you and there’s a major update going on – like there was a few weeks ago
SEO is so vast and I am just started to be one. Really there is so much to learn. I am feeling overwhelmed now, too much to digest. How did you get started? Do you ever feel like crying to your sleep because you are not certain that you will succeed or not?
Thanks for sharing!
Start with producing great content for your audience. Search is a channel, not a strategy. Your strategy should be to continue providing value to your prospects and customers.
I can recommend unamo, previously it was called positionly. Very useful and quite cheap compared with the competitors.
Great list Douglas, SERPtimizer is all-round seo tool with unique link prospecting and competitor analyzes. Would it be something for addition?
Thanks Erich, added!
This is a brilliant list- all great tools listed together!
Is the tool Cocolyze.com something that could be added? It’s a rank tracking tool with a good interface and reliable data. Would be interesting to see what you or others think about it too.
I noticed Moz isn’t on the list…? Also, I use a paid version of BuzzSumo for checking backlinks.
Wow, sorry I left those out. Thanks Frank – I’ll get these updated. Both platforms have been extremely useful.
i need seo tool pls guide me which tool is best?
Hello Mazhar, that’s really dependent on what you’re trying to achieve. Are you trying to optimize your site for organic ranking? Are you trying to compete on paid search? Are you trying to speed up your site? Are you trying to do competitor research? What are your objectives?
want to rank my site
My recommendation would be to start with Google Search Console (free) where you can register the site and monitor any issues, use Pagespeed Insights to improve your site’s performance (free) then you may wish to do an SEO audit, after which you should do direct competitor analysis and work on making your page content better than your competitors. For that, I use SEMrush.
I have been using ahrefs and Moz Free SEO Tools and I think those are must-have SEO tools everybody should be giving a try to. Thanks for the wonderful article. I would love to get it as I intend to introduce a new hub of information to our website ( Doodle Digital ). Thanks!
Hello Douglas,
That was an informative post.For the past few weeks, I was searching for an ideal SEO tool to track my SEOperformance. Most of the tools you mentioned were totally new to me. Thanks for sharing the awesome keyword tracking tools. I recently used a SERP checker tool, Serpple. You can also explore the tool to track the keyword ranking data. In addition, can you write an article explaining the benefits of using SERP Checker tool for SEO in the coming days. This might help digital marketers like me.
Thanks Rachael, I’ve added Serpple to the list!
Thanks for your consideration.
Hi
Almost each and everyone in your list. But i love google own tool GWM. One of best. Bit the best for me
Thank’s for list.
It’s a bit clunky, but I think it’s improving!