8 SEO Tools Marketers Should Master in 2021

SEO / February 12, 2020

Article updated on January 12, 2021.

Earlier this year, Microsoft identified SEO as the top marketing skill marketers should have in the 2020s. To develop their SEO skills, marketers need to understand the main factors influencing search engine ranking and master the most popular SEO tools.

We’ll focus on the latter in this article.

There are obviously hundreds of SEO tools out there, but here are 8 tried-and-true softwares that our digital marketing agency uses on a daily basis. We believe that every marketer looking to improve their site’s SEO should learn how to master these reliable tools.

Let’s jump right in!

Boost Your SEO Efforts With These Free Digital Marketing Tools

Google rules the SEO kingdom and offers free, extremely insightful tools to help marketers get a better understanding of their digital performance.

1. Google Analytics: The Tool That No Longer Needs an Introduction 

All digital marketers agree: Google Analytics is the most powerful reporting tool available right now. In short, when installed on your website, Google Analytics collects and reports data about your website and its users. In terms of SEO, Google Analytics is the perfect place for marketers to get insights on their organic traffic: where are users coming from, who are these users, what action did they take on the website, etc. 

2. Google Search Console: A Data Source Like No Other 

Marketers should see Google Search Console as a look into how Google understands your website. GSC looks into technical aspects of your website (elements that are often overlooked by Google Analytics) such as security, site speed, performance, etc. And, unlike Google Analytics, Google Search Console focuses only on organic traffic from its search engine. 

Here’s how Google Search Console can be useful to digital marketers: 

1. Find out on which search queries users are typing in order to find your website
2. Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.
3. Troubleshoot issues related to AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.
4. Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.

Learn more on Google Search Console here. Our Search Engine Optimization experts recommend using both Google Analytics and Google Search Console as they do not serve the same purpose and they both offer different data. 

3. Google My Business: Dominate Your Local Market 

Google My Business is another free Google tool, but this one focuses on local information only. Any businesses (whether it is B2B or B2C) should have a Google My Business profile. In fact, Google favors search results with a GMB account when users are looking for local-specific information. 

Best Free SEO Tools for WordPress

WordPress is, by far, the most popular content management system (CMS) available on the market right now. Here are two essential plugins for website optimization:

4. Yoast SEO: User-Friendly SEO Plugin for WordPress

Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin available in over 40 languages for savvy marketers around the globe. Yoast SEO is perfect for marketers trying to optimize their SEO foundations. It’s user-friendly interface lets WordPress users optimize their meta-tags, meta-descriptions, sitemaps, schema, robot.txt file, breadcrumbs, canonical URLs, etc. 

All in one SEO is another very good SEO plugin for WordPress, and it’s very similar to Yoast SEO.

5. Wordfence: Keep Your Site Secure

Wordfence is a very powerful (it might even be a little too powerful) security plugin for WordPress users. This plugin includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner to protect your WordPress site against malicious IP addresses and brute force attacks. Do not underestimate the necessity of protecting your WordPress site: data leaks and stolen passwords are way more common than you think. 

But, be careful, if you forget your WordPress password a little too often, it might completely block your IP address. You’ll have to go through your web-hosting service to regain access to your site. 

Paid SEO Tools That Are 100% Worth It

Not every business can afford paid SEO tools. But, as a digital marketing agency, we are lucky enough to have access to the following amazing resources. And, we would recommend them to anyone looking to invest in the SEO efforts.

6. Sweet IQ: Be Seen In Every Web Directory

The Web is full of directories and other platforms (such as Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.) showing information about your business like phone numbers, postal addresses, reviews, photos, etc. In terms of SEO and user experience, keeping this information up to date is essential. That being said, it can also be quite time-consuming and complex. 

Sweet IQ is a local listing management software that helps bulk update all the information about your brand, in one centralized hub. 

7. SEMRush: the Holy Grail of SEO

Although the next tool is called “SEM”Rush, it’s, in our opinion, one of the most versatile SEO tools available on the market. Our SEO team uses it daily for keyword tracking, website audits, content marketing ideas, link building, competitive analysis, etc. Millions of marketers and tech-savvy SEO specialists worldwide use SEMRush to keep track of their SEO efforts and discover optimizations opportunities.

Learn more about SEMRush here.

8. OnCrawl: Best Search Engine Tool in the U.S.

OnCrawl has been named “Best Search Engine Tool” by Search Engine Land, and they really deserve it. OnCrawl is an SEO tool that easily crawls your site looking for errors, issues, and other insightful data. This software is incredibly useful when conducting audits on websites with a large number of URLs. 

For free alternatives (most free alternatives can only crawl up to 500 URLs): Screaming Frog or CheckBot.

As mentioned previously, this list could go on-and-on. Let us know in the comments which SEO tool is your favorite and why. If you are looking for SEO experts to help you increase organic traffic coming to your website, get a proposal here.

Want to learn more about SEO? Join our webinar “An Introduction to Technical SEO” in partnership with Oncrawl, March 12th at 11 am. Register now!