The 11 Best SEO Tools to Improve Your Rankings in 2021
By Melissa | Mar 4, 2022 (8 min read)
What does a master carpenter, and a digital marketer have in common?
Even though they are very different in their crafts, both only create amazing things with the right tools in their possession.
While digital marketers don’t need hammers, wrenches, or buzzsaws, they do need the right resources to help their clients succeed and outperform competitors.
For most digital marketers, SEO tools are essential to their success.
What is an SEO Tool?
SEO tools provide an in-depth look at the nuts and bolts (pun intended) of a website, including features that can be used to improve visibility and improve rankings on search engines.
The best website ranking tools online today cover most of the following (or what can be considered the bread and butter):
- What keywords the site ranks for
- Backlinks
- Site traffic
- Ranking amongst competitors
- Overall site health
- Site audits
While these are just a few great features, many platforms are equipped with their own specialties that help users achieve their goals.
It’s important to understand what SEO tool does what, in order to have the best chance at improving your rankings for your specific needs.
Free SEO analysis can get you decent results, but, as with most things, you’ll get the best results from their paid services. Many services offer free trials so you can test them out before you decide to buy.
The sheer number of marketing platforms available on the web might seem a bit overwhelming, so we wanted to provide a nice list to go off of when researching the right ones for you.
So here is a list of the best SEO tools online to use for your digital marketing efforts, both free and paid. Let’s dig in.
The 11 Best SEO Tools in 2021
1) Ahrefs
There are a couple of unique ways the name of this platform gets pronounced (H-refs, A-H-refs, Ay-Refs) but only one thing is certain. This tool is awesome.
Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tool that provides users with high-quality data and analytics for any website. From the upgraded Site Explorer, the intuitive Keywords Explorer, and an in-depth Domain Comparison, using this tool to improve your SEO rankings is a great choice. The reporting feature also helps to showcase your data in a streamlined, easy to understand layout.
This SEO tool has a lot of great features and is one of the easiest to navigate of the bunch. It is an excellent keyword research and can help with keyword suggestion, and can be useful for a site audit, or to track the SEO ranking of your competitors. If you are interested in link building, or understanding detailed SEO metrics, Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tools out there.
Pros: User-friendly navigation, informative SEO blog, Content explorer.
Cons: Pricing, learning curve.
Price: There are 4 paid options to choose from. Check out the plans and pricing.
- Lite – $99/mo
- Standard – $179/mo
- Advanced – $399/mo
- Agency – $999/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
Ahrefs also offers a 7-day trial for $7.
Best For: Medium to Large Businesses
2) BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a great SEO tool that specializes in the social media side of digital marketing.
This industry-leading platform is able to identify industry trends, topics, and influencers, with helpful and easy to interpret data.
With other features including their content research tool and real-time updates with backlink monitoring, BuzzSumo is worth a look if social media is a part of your strategy.
Pros: Content analyzer, curated content, competitor research, media monitoring
Cons: Price, not suited for beginners, the learning curve
Price: There are 4 paid options to choose from. Check out the Pricing and Plans page for more information.
- Pro – $99/mo
- Plus – $179/mo
- Large – $299/mo
- Enterprise – $499+/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
BuzzSumo offers a 7-day free trial. Access the trial page from Pricing and Plans
Best For: Medium to Large Businesses
3) Keyword Finder by Mangools
While not an SEO suite or all in one platform, Keyword Finder almost seems like it should be when it comes to the area of keyword research.
This easy to navigate SEO keyword tool comes full of great features and also has the most accurate keyword difficulty around.
With features including local keyword research, SERP analysis, and finding hidden long tail keywords, KW Finder has what businesses’ need to get their keyword strategy on point.
Pros: Ease of use, affordability, keyword management
Cons: Capability of some features are shallow,
Price: There are 3 paid options to choose from. Check out the Plans and Pricing page for more information.
- Mangools Basic – $29.90/mo
- Mangools Premium – $39.90/mo
- Mangools Agency – 79.90/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
KW Finder offers a 10-day free trial to try out the service.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses
4) Majestic
Majestic is a great SEO analysis tool that prides itself on having one of the most elite level site explorers in the game.
Their focus is strictly on backlink analysis so they lack features like other SEO tools have which limits their functionality.
But rest assured, you’ll be hard-pressed to find richer data when it comes from analyzing websites from both a macro and micro level.
Pros: Exceptional site explorer, backlink analysis, & link prospecting capabilities, easy to navigate.
Cons: Lack of features, difficult to generate reports.
Price: There are 3 paid options to choose from. Check out the Plans and Pricing page.
- Lite – $49.99/mo
- Pro – $99.99/mo
- API – $399.99/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
Majestic does not offer a free trial at this time.
Best For: Small to large-sized companies, needing this niche service.
5) Moz Pro
Moz Pro is a premier, all-in-one SEO suite that helps your business grow your traffic and enhance your visibility.
This SEO tool checks all the necessary boxes when it comes to available features including their Keyword Explorer, campaign management, and Link Explorer.
Where they separate themselves from most is their affordability and years of experience in developing their tools.
Their parent company, Moz, has been around since 2004. Alongside their amazing SEO monitoring software, they provide a wealth of marketing resources and certification courses
Pros: Easy to navigate, enlightening insights, full of features
Cons: Features are complicated to some, the learning curve
Price: There are 4 paid options to choose from. Check out the Moz Pro Pricing page
- Standard – $99/mo
- Medium – $179/mo
- Large – $249/mo
- Premium – $599/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
Moz Pro offers a 30-day free trial.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses
6) ProRank Tracker
ProRank Tracker is a professional SEO tool that comes equipped with the most accurate rank tracker on the market.
Businesses are able to track rankings on all major search engines, including international keywords.
This SEO keyword tool is a web-based application, which allows for remote availability anywhere and eliminating the need to download a program.
ProRank Tracker comes with features including multi-lingual rank tracking, powerful reporting capabilities, local and mobile tracking, and 24/7 support.
Pros: Daily automatic keyword updates, comprehensive site auditing, mobile apps, UI
Cons: Total terms able to be tracked (based on plan), dedicated account manager only available for most expensive plan, no Google Analytics integration
Price: There are 5 paid options to choose from. Check out the Plans and Pricing page for more information.
- Basic – $25/mo
- Starter – $49/mo
- Standard – $89/mo
- Advanced – $129/mo
- Business – $180/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
ProRank Tracker offers a free trial plan. Visit the Plans and Pricing page to get started.
Best For: Small to large-sized businesses
7) SEMRush
Ask any digital marketer if they’re heard of or used SEMRush, and their response is usually the same. It’s “yes”.
SEMRush is a powerful online visibility platform and essential part of any online marketing strategy due to the number of baked-in tools at your disposal.
This software provides a vast number of features including keyword research, site audits, and backlink analytics to help improve your SEO rankings and to do an SEO audit.
Pros: SEMRush academy courses with certification, keyword magic tool, in-depth competitor audits
Cons: Pricing, the complexity of features and tools, not a very user-friendly UI.
Price: There are 4 paid options to choose from. Check out the feature comparison of each plan.
- Pro – $99.95/mo
- Guru – $199.95/mo
- Business -$399.95/mo
- Enterprise – Contact for more information
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
SEMRush offers a 7-Day free trial to test out this tool.
Best For Small to Large companies, depending on needs.
8) Screaming Frog
This SEO tool is a prime example of a company starting with humble beginnings, and then becoming a powerhouse in the industry.
Screaming Frog provides users with a website crawler, more specifically called their “SEO Spider”.
The SEO spider crawls around the website and provides some of the most in-depth analysis and data around.
From boasting impressive features including finding broken links, discovering duplicate content and generating XML sitemaps, this product is a staple in the SEO industry. They offer SEO tools that can help with an SEO audit.
Pros: Powerful website crawling capabilities, Log File Analyser, easy to use.
Cons: Issues with crawling large websites, lack of recommendations for fixing issues, outdated UX.
Price: There is 1 paid option to choose from. Check out the Pricing page for more information.
- Free – $0/mo
- Paid – Around $165/mo
Best For: Small to large-sized businesses
9) Serpstat
This all in one SEO platform seemingly does it all. Tracking search volume, keyword ideas, and other metrics to help boost your search engine optimization.
Alongside being an SEO tool, Serpstat calls itself a growth hacking tool, providing users with not only a great interface, but a ton of great features that can be utilized to improve a website’s rankings.
From conducting backlink analysis, researching competitors, providing content marketing ideation and on-page audits, this tool is up there with the best of them.
Pros: Affordability, easy to navigate UI, in-depth Website Audit Tool
Cons: Daily query limit
Price: There are 4 paid options to choose from. Check out the Plans and Pricing page for more information.
- Lite – $69/mo
- Standard – $149/mo
- Advanced – 299/mo
- Enterprise – $499/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
Serpstat offers a free trial run, but with a limited number of search queries.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses
10) SpyFu
Formally named GoogSpy, SpyFu is a handy SEO tool that focuses on providing both organic and paid keywords of any business’s competitors. Any SEO professional who wants to know what their competition is up to will value this tool.
Having insights on your competitors is extremely helpful in knowing what terms target and how to stay ahead.
This SEO monitoring software is equipped with quality features including an SEO competitor analysis, Adwords competitors, domain comparison, backlink checker, and unlimited searches. It is an easy-to-use keyword suggestion tool that can help you see where you can rank well against competitors.
While not comparable in terms of the total volume features offered by other competitors, SpyFu is a quality platform with solid reporting and allows for quick access to data without having to jump through too many hoops.
Pros: In-depth competitor keyword research for organic and paid, clean interface, member perks.
Cons: Fewer features than other SEO suites, price, the accuracy of data is sometimes in question.
Price: There are 3 paid options to choose from. Check out the Plans page for more information.
- Basic – $33/mo
- Professional – $58/mo
- Team – $199/mo
These plans have the option of being billed monthly, or annually with a discount.
SpyFu offers a free trial run on its website but has a daily search limit.
Best For: Small to large-sized businesses
11) Google Search Console
Not surprisingly, Google has its own set of SEO tools that can be used to beef up your research and improve rankings.
And just like Google itself, they’re all free.
One of these is Google Search Console, where this service provides an in-depth view of your website and allows users to monitor site performance.
Some other features of GSC include the ability to inspect URLs, validate schema markups, and review any security issues or manual actions that might be impacting a site.
Pros: Free, lots of great features, user experience
Cons: Removal of some features after GSC update
Price: Free
Best For: Small to large-sized businesses
This is not a complete list, but these are some of the best SEO tools available on the market today.
Which SEO tools are best for your business ultimately comes down to what your business needs are.
Make sure to conduct your own research and trial the different tools to truly understand which website ranking tools do what, so you can position your business with the highest potential to succeed.
