Search engine optimisation is a lengthy process of making a website as friendly as possible both for search engines and users. One potential way marketers can assess what needs to be done comes in the form of an SEO tool.
But what are these tools, and how exactly can they help website owners get a better rank in Google’s search result pages? Let’s discuss this.
SEO Tools: What They Are, and How They Work
SEO tools analyse a website’s potential for earning a high placement on search engine result pages. They look into various nooks and crannies of a website, from broken links to how effective your targeted keywords are.
In essence, it is a piece of software someone programs to run a few tests and identify key aspects in a website’s performance. SEO tools can be free, in which case you can simply paste a link and run a diagnostics, or they can come as paid services and bring a more in-depth analysis.
What this piece of software tests and finds generally depends on which one you choose, though most of them will combine different tests to give you an overall performance view. Some will focus just on one specific component, such as the Keyword Explorer, which helps you find keyword ideas.
Here are some crucial SEO aspects these tools may look into:
Keywords
A keyword analysis is a staple process for many SEO tools, as it finds the common search terms that relate to your site, and must be added within your content to improve SEO results. This is an essential stage for any business’ keyword research efforts, which can then be expended using other keyword-specific tools such as the Google Search Console or even the Keyword Planner from Google Ads.
Backlinks
Link building is the process of earning links from high-quality websites, and this practice matters a lot for SEO. Sites with high amounts of traffic can help drive high-quality traffic to yours, and if you don’t have a good overview of your backlinks, these tools can help with that.
Content
A website’s success is highly dependant on the quality of its content. It’s why content marketing is at the forefront of many businesses’ online marketing efforts, in hopes of getting more visitors to come to their websites time and time again.
SEO tools can look at a website’s content and analyse a few key issues it must address, such as:
● Using the right keywords
● Keyword placements in titles, headings, etc.
● Leveraging meta tags and descriptions
These tools will analyse your web pages and will usually assign a quality score to them so that you know how they each hold up to the search engine’s standards.
Traffic
Some SEO tools will measure your traffic, such as where the users are coming from, and what pages they are visiting. Most of this information is already available to you in your Google Analytics, however, and you generally do not need a third SEO tool for traffic alone.
Social Media
Social media links are also commonly analysed by SEO tools and some may even provide more details in regards to social trends that may be worth leveraging.
Technical Aspects
Additionally, SEO tools may also take a look at what is commonly known as “technical SEO,” which are the technical aspects of a website and on-page SEO methods that search engines care about quite a lot. These can include:
● How mobile-friendly the site is
● Page loading time
● Preferred domain
● Optimising 404 pages
● Site structure
● Broken links, etc.
A lot of these elements tie with the idea of user experience, which most search engines care about greatly. In a nutshell, your website should provide the best user experience possible. So while your SEO strategy is done to make your site rank better, all your efforts have to be focused on improving user experience.
Are SEO Tools Worth It?
SEO tools can be quite valuable because they help you identify your website’s weak points, and even suggest ideas for improvement. This eliminates any guessing games when it comes to SEO, and allows you to go into the process a lot more targeted, focused on the key aspects your website needs to rank better.
Let’s look at some pros and cons of SEO tools.
Pros:
● Most of them are free, and can give you a good overview of site performance;
● Most are very easy to use, and can even more as Chrome extensions to allow you to quickly see your SEO metrics;
● They can allow you to stay on top of the trends and optimise your website for them. For instance, many SEO tools will also tet a website’s voice search capabilities to ensure the site ranks in voice searches (when people use a digital assistant to search on Google);
Cons:
● There may be some accuracy issues with SEO tools, especially when it comes to the free ones;
● Most tend to focus on very specific SEO aspects, so you may need to combine data from multiple tools to get a better overview of your site;
● SEO tools may make you get lost in the details if you do not know how to interpret the data.
The Verdict on SEO Tools
SEO tools work as promised: they analyze a website or web page’s ability to rank on Google search results. What they look into, and how accurate their findings are, however, greatly depends on the type of tool you end up using.
For example, if you need to find new blog post ideas you can easily turn to one of these keyword research tools to find topics people are interested in, but these keyword ideas won’t guarantee your blog post will actually get the results you want. And your research may even bring about some topics that don’t really relate to your business per se. In the end, it’s the digital marketer’s job to know how to interpret the date these tools deliver.
Over to You
If you need some help designed an effective SEO strategy for your Australian business, we’d be happy to provide some assistance. Australian Internet Advertising is the SEO expert you need to analyse your website performance and identify the key elements it needs to improve its rank.
Book a 30-minute strategy session with us now!
