Introduction
While paid SEO tools offer powerful features, free software can still provide excellent value and results when it comes to search engine optimization. This guide covers 15 of the best free SEO tools for 2023 based on criteria like functionality, user experience, support for tracking multiple domains and workflows.
Methods of Evaluation
To rank the top free SEO tools, we considered conventional metrics like the types of features offered, ease of use and customization options. We also examined factors like the number of backlinks the company has according to Majestic, average monthly traffic as reported by SimilarWeb and keyword search trends covering the last twelve months from Google Trends to gauge popularity and relevance.
1. Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free SEO tool provided by Microsoft Bing to help site owners and webmasters manage their sites’ presence in Bing search results. The tool allows users to submit URLs for indexing, monitor performance in Bing search, and check for potential issues that may impact ranking.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Bing Webmaster Tools include:
– Free to use for any site owner
– Monitor how your site is performing in Bing search results
– Check indexing status and submit new URLs for crawling
– Retrieve crawl stats and indexing reports
– Ensure your site content is properly accessible to Bing bots
Cons: The main disadvantages of Bing Webmaster Tools compared to other paid SEO tools are:
– Limited functionality compared to more fully-featured paid tools
– Only supports basic SEO tasks like indexing, URL submission and performance reports
Pricing: Bing Webmaster Tools is completely free for any site owner to use. There are no paid plans or upgrades available – all key features are accessible for free directly after registering your site.
Some key stats about Bing Webmaster Tools include:
– Complimentary tool to Google Search Console for Bing indexing and rankings
– Over 15 million monthly active users visit Bing each month
– Supports basic XML sitemaps, URL submission and index status checking
2. Moz
Moz is a leading SEO software provider founded in 2004 and based in Seattle, WA. Moz offers a variety of SEO tools to help marketers, agencies, and websites optimize for search. Their flagship tool is Moz Pro, a comprehensive SEO platform that provides insights across organic search, links, technical SEO, and more.
Pros: Some key advantages of Moz include:
– Strong focus on SEO best practices and strategies supported by research
– Robust link building tools and capabilities for monitoring links
– Content analysis and opportunity finder to identify content gaps
– Limited but useful free version for basic SEO audits and keyword research
Cons: One potential disadvantage is the pricing, as Moz Pro plans start at $99/month which may be prohibitive for some smaller businesses or individuals on a budget.
Pricing: Moz Pro starts at $99/month for 1 user or $149/month for 3 users. Additional plan tiers are available for larger teams and enterprises.
Some key stats about Moz include:
– Over 50,000 paying customers worldwide
– Largest SEO tool creator community with over 500,000 members
– Founded in 2004 and remains one of the oldest and most trusted SEO software providers
3. SEMrush
SEMrush is a leading SEO, PPC, content and social media management platform founded in 2008. With over 3 million users worldwide, SEMrush provides powerful insights and automation tools for digital marketers and agencies. Some key features include keyword and competitor research, backlink analysis, website audits and a free version that provides limited functionality.
Pros: Some key advantages of SEMrush include:
– Powerful keyword and competitive research tools to surface the best opportunities
– Backlink analysis and monitoring tools to improve SEO rankings
– Automated link building and social sharing tools for increased organic reach
– Insights on monthly search volumes, CPC costs and trend analysis
Cons: The main disadvantage is that the full feature set is only available with a paid subscription. Some advanced features like live tracking may be limited in the free version.
Pricing: SEMrush offers several pricing plans starting from $99 per month for an individual plan. Discounted annual subscriptions are also available. The platform offers a free 14 day trial to test out all features before committing to a paid plan.
Some key stats about SEMrush include:
– Over 3 million users globally
– 9.2/10 Trustpilot rating
– Supports over 60 marketing channels including Google, Bing, YouTube and more
– Integrates with 300+ apps including Google Analytics, AdWords and WordPress
4. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a leading SEO tool developed by Ahrefs that helps marketers, agencies and SEO professionals optimize websites and campaigns. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Russia, Ahrefs has seen tremendous growth over the years and has become one of the top online tools for SEO professionals.
Pros: Some of the key advantages of Ahrefs include: – Excellent backlink analysis and competitor research – Wide range of SEO tools for on-page, technical and content analysis – Continuous updates and additions of new features – Helpful blog guides and online community support
Cons: The main disadvantage is that the freemium version has many restrictions on features and number of keywords/domains you can analyze in one month.
Pricing: Ahrefs offers various paid subscription plans ranging from $99/month for the Basic plan to $199/month for the Extra plan and $299/month for the Advanced plan. All paid plans include unrestricted access to all features without any monthly limits.
Some key stats about Ahrefs include: – Used by over 500,000 SEO and marketing professionals worldwide – Tracks over 10 billion web pages – Analyzes over 8 trillion backlinks – Constantly monitors search engines and indexes billions of elements on a daily basis
5. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin developed by Yoast to help optimize websites for search engines like Google. According to BuiltWith, Yoast SEO is currently used on over 6 million websites. Launched in 2006, Yoast SEO today is one of the most popular and full-featured free SEO plugins for WordPress.
Pros: Some key advantages of Yoast SEO include:
– Most popular free SEO plugin for WordPress sites
– Helps optimize content with readability analysis and metadata templates
– Guides to write better titles, descriptions and structure pages for search engines
– Provides XML sitemaps, redirection manager and social previews
– Regular updates and a large knowledge base for support
Cons: A potential disadvantage is that some advanced features are only available in the paid Yoast SEO Premium version like multi-site support, snippet previews and full redirection management.
Pricing: Yoast SEO has a free basic version as well as a paid ‘Yoast SEO Premium’ version. Pricing for Yoast SEO Premium starts at $89 per year for a single site license or $249 for unlimited sites.
Some key stats about Yoast SEO include:
– Used on over 6 million websites
– Internationally loved SEO software
– Helps with on-page SEO, technical SEO and content marketing
– Free version and premium ‘Yoast SEO Premium’ version available
6. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a leading market intelligence platform providing comprehensive analytics and insights into websites, apps, and digital properties. Founded in 2007, SimilarWeb has over 6 million active users and customers like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Their platform provides detailed analytics and benchmarks for millions of websites to help digital marketers and analysts understand competitors, customers and global digital markets.
Pros: Key advantages of SimilarWeb include:
– Comprehensive analytics for researching competitors and digital markets
– Deep insights into traffic sources, referral domains, and popular pages
– Benchmarks to compare website performance against category and global averages
– Ability to analyze mobile usage and app store metrics
– Robust API and developer tools for integrating data
Cons: A potential disadvantage is that some basic analytics are only available for free without logging in or upgrading to a paid plan. For more detailed competitive intelligence and custom reporting, a paid subscription is required.
Pricing: SimilarWeb offers both free and paid plans. The free plan provides basic site analytics without login. Premium paid plans start at $99/month and provide access to advanced features, custom reports, unlimited users, and support.
Some key stats about SimilarWeb include:
– Over 6 million active users worldwide
– Analytics and data available for over 200 million websites
– Insights collected from over 1 billion monthly API calls
– Data collected from over 155,000 global sources including browsers, apps, and devices
7. GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a free website performance testing and optimization tool created by Catchpoint. Since 2009, GTmetrix has been helping web developers and SEOs optimize site speed by providing rich performance reports and actionable recommendations.
Pros: Some key advantages of GTmetrix include:
– Robust web performance testing and optimization reports
– Shows real-user metrics like load time and speed score
– Checks assets, headers, browser components
– Free to use for any site
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the free version only allows testing of up to 100 URLs per month. For very large sites, the paid plans may be required to test all relevant pages.
Pricing: GTmetrix offers both free and paid plans. The free plan allows testing of up to 100 URLs per month. Paid “Agency” and “Enterprise” plans start at $49/month and remove the URL testing limit.
Some key stats about GTmetrix include:
– Over 1 billion tests run to date
– 14 trillion assets analyzed
– Supports 200+ technologies that impact performance
8. BuiltWith
BuiltWith is a free tool that helps users identify the technologies used on websites. By entering a website URL, BuiltWith analyzes the site and provides a detailed technical profile of what it’s built with from the front-end framework to backend programming languages to content management systems.
Pros: Some key advantages of using BuiltWith include:
– It’s completely free to use for basic website profiling
– Quickly identifies plugins, libraries, frameworks, CMSs, e-commerce platforms and more
– Helps with technical SEO by surfacing potential issues
– Assesses website security by flagging outdated or vulnerable software
Cons: The main disadvantage is that the free version only provides basic profiling data without access to advanced features like historical profiling comparisons.
Pricing: BuiltWith offers two paid plans on top of the free basic profiling:
– Pro Plan – $99/month for advanced features like historical views, API access, customized reports.
– Team Plan – $199/month and includes everything in Pro plus multi-user access.
Some key stats about BuiltWith include:
– Profiles over 1 billion websites annually
– Identifies over 15,000 different technologies
– Has been in business since 2007
– Provides free basic profiling and paid plans for more advanced features
9. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is a robust web crawler tool and SEO analyzer developed by SEO company Screaming Frog Ltd. Founded in 2009 and based in the UK, Screaming Frog provides SEO tools and services to help websites and businesses improve their search engine visibility and online presence. Their flagship product is the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool.
Pros: Key advantages of Screaming Frog include its robust crawling and site auditing capabilities, ability to find technical SEO issues like duplicate page content, broken links and crawled but not indexed pages, and that the basic free version offers many useful features.
Cons: A potential disadvantage is that the free version has limitations on the number of URLs it can crawl per domain. For very large sites, the paid plans may be required to audit the full site.
Pricing: Screaming Frog offers both free and paid plans. The free version allows crawling of up to 500 URLs per domain. Paid plans starting from $24.90/month provide more URLs and additional features like competitor analysis and backlink checking.
Some key stats about Screaming Frog include: crawls over 200 pages/minute on average, supports sitemaps and recursive crawling, analyzes over 200 on-page SEO factors, and has been downloaded over 2 million times.
10. majestic.com
Majestic is a website that provides SEO tools and backlink data analysis. Founded in 2008, Majestic monitors over 24 billion web pages and 150 billion backlinks to help users analyze linking strategies, discover new outreach opportunities, and benchmark against competitors. Their flagship product allows users to search and analyze backlinks and the domains linking to their site or competitors’ sites for free.
Pros: Some key advantages of using Majestic include:
– Free backlink analysis and indexing overview via Majestic API
– Discover domains linking to target sites for outreach targeting
– Benchmark links data against competitors in same industry
– Detailed reports on link profiles, referring domains, and trust flow scoring
Cons: One potential disadvantage is that the free Majestic tool only allows for limited searches and data exports each month. For unlimited functionality, an paid Majestic subscription is required starting at $99/month.
Pricing: Majestic offers three pricing tiers:
– Free Plan: Allows 500 searches and 5 exports per month
– Pro Plan: $99/month for unlimited functionality
– Agency Plan: $249/month for unlimited functionality and access for up to 5 users
Some key stats about Majestic include:
– Over 24 billion web pages indexed
– Over 150 billion backlinks cataloged
– Launched in 2008 and acquired by Semrush in 2021
– Serves over 500,000 customers globally
– Integrates with major SEO and link building tools
11. ProBlogger keyword tool
ProBlogger keyword tool is a free online keyword research tool created by ProBlogger. Since 2004, ProBlogger has focused on providing valuable content and resources to help bloggers grow their websites and businesses. Their keyword tool is one of the free services they offer to help bloggers with SEO and content ideas.
Pros: Key advantages of using the ProBlogger keyword tool include:
– It’s completely free to use with no limitations.
– Checks keywords across multiple search engines and platforms like Google, YouTube, Amazon.
– Helps identify low competition, high intent keywords that are easier to rank for.
– Provides extra keyword ideas related to the searched terms.
Cons: The main disadvantage is that as a free tool, it has limited functionality compared to paid keyword research tools. It only shows estimates and doesn’t provide the deepest level of data and analysis available from premium tools.
Pricing: The ProBlogger keyword tool is free to use for any amount of searches or keywords. There are no paid plans or upgrades available for additional features – it remains a free service provided by ProBlogger to help bloggers with keyword research and content planning.
Some key stats about the ProBlogger keyword tool include:
– Over 17 years of experience helping bloggers.
– Analyzes keyword demand and difficulty across Google, YouTube, Amazon and other major search engines.
– Checks topic saturation on search engines as well as blogs and social media to help find low competition opportunities.
12. WooRank
WooRank is a free SEO software tool that helps optimize websites for improved search engine rankings. Founded in 2012, WooRank developed easy-to-use optimization tools to help businesses analyze their websites and online presence for SEO issues.
Pros: Main advantages of using WooRank include:
– Free website audit tool scans for both technical and on-page SEO issues.
– Provides a prioritized list of recommendations to improve search performance.
– Checks things like page speed, meta tags, backlinks and more.
Cons: The main disadvantage is that WooRank’s free plan only allows for basic scans of a single domain or page at a time. For more advanced features, paid plans are required.
Pricing: WooRank offers both free and paid plans. The free plan allows a basic website audit. Paid ‘Agency’ plans start at $99/month and unlocked advanced reporting and monitoring tools.
Some key stats about WooRank include:
– Audit tool checks hundreds of factors that impact organic search rankings.
– Over 3 million website audits have been conducted on the platform.
– Used by digital marketing agencies and individual businesses worldwide.
13. Small SEO Tools
Small SEO Tools provides a wide range of free SEO tools to help optimize websites and track search engine rankings. The company was founded in 2021 with the goal of creating useful SEO tools that anyone can access for free.
Pros: Some of the key advantages of Small SEO Tools include:
– Wide collection of individual SEO tools in one place for comprehensive analytics
– Powerful yet simple to use interfaces designed for SEO professionals and beginners alike
– Fully functional tools without limitations unlike many other free SEO tools
Cons: As a free tool, Small SEO Tools does have some limitations compared to paid solutions. The main disadvantages include:
– Limited data and results for some tools compared to premium accounts
– No direct customer support beyond online help documents
Pricing: Small SEO Tools offers all of its SEO tools completely free of charge. There are no limitations, trials or upgraded paid plans – every feature and tool can be used without spending a dime.
Some key stats about Small SEO Tools include:
– Over 15 individual SEO tools covering areas like keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking and more
– Serves over 10,000 users per month
– All tools are completely free to use with no limitations or upselling
14. SEO Powersuite
SEO Powersuite is a comprehensive SEO toolkit that helps users analyze, optimize, and monitor websites to improve SEO performance. Developed by Link-Assistant, SEO Powersuite provides an all-in-one solution for SEO professionals and digital marketers to manage SEO efforts.
Pros: The main advantages of SEO Powersuite include its free SEO toolkit with capabilities for link analysis, website audits, keyword research and more. It helps identify issues on web pages preventing better rankings and provides actionable reports to prioritize technical and on-page optimizations.
Cons: As a free tool, SEO Powersuite has some limitations compared to the paid pro version. The free version only allows analyzing 50 links and has limited functionality for more advanced SEO tasks.
Pricing: SEO Powersuite offers both free and paid premium plans. The free version provides basic SEO tools and analysis capabilities. Premium plans start at $97/month and provide expanded features and support.
Some key features of SEO Powersuite include link analysis, website audits, keyword research tools and daily site monitoring. It checks web pages for technical issues like broken links, slow page speed and duplicate content that could impact search engine rankings and traffic.
15. SERanking
SERanking is a leading SEO software developed by SERanking, an independent web-based SEO platform company founded in 2020. The platform provides tools to track website rankings, monitor keywords, and analyze backlinks – all aimed at helping users improve their search engine rankings and visibility. Some key features of SERanking include tracking rankings across search engines like Google, Bing, and YouTube; monitoring hundreds of keywords and their monthly fluctuations; and free basic functionality for users just getting started with SEO.
Pros: Some of the key advantages of the SERanking platform include:
– Intuitive interface and customizable dashboards for tracking SEO data
– Competitor analysis feature to track rankings of competitors’ keywords
– Affordable paid plans without long term commitments
– Hassle-free automated reports on rankings, backlinks and more
– Integrations with major analytics tools like Google Analytics
Cons: While SERanking is a full-featured SEO tool, one potential disadvantage is that it lacks some advanced technical features found in higher-tier competitors like Ahrefs or SEMrush. For example, it has limited keyword research capabilities and backlink auditing tools compared to some alternatives.
Pricing: SERanking offers three pricing tiers for its platform:
– Free Plan: Includes basic keyword tracking, rankings and reports. Limited to 3 keywords and 3 projects.
– Premium Plan: $29/month billed annually. Adds priority support and tracking for unlimited keywords and competitions in 25 projects.
– Agency Plan: $79/month billed annually. Includes all Premium features plus dedicated account manager and multi-user sharing.
Some key stats about SERanking include:
– Over 50,000 active users globally
– Tracks rankings for over 5 million keywords
– Supports monitoring websites hosted on any platform (WordPress, Shopify, custom sites etc)
– Integrates directly with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and other major tools
Conclusion
Whether you’re an experienced SEO practitioner or just starting out, this list covers a variety of free tools that can help optimize websites, research keywords, analyze links and competitors, audit technical SEO issues and more. While paid solutions provide extra analytics and scale, these freely available options should help boost your optimization efforts without costing anything out of pocket.