The Best SEO Tools to Optimize Your Website and Get More Traffic

Last Updated: 

February 2, 2025

If you are looking for the best SEO tools, it is because your website needs more traffic. Search engine optimization (SEO) can be daunting and time-consuming but is vital to any digital marketing strategy as well as a company’s success in general.

Whether you have just started blogging or run an eCommerce site with hundreds of thousands of products to offer. Finding organic visitors mean everything when trying to reach new people who might become customers one day!

SEO or search engine optimization is the process you take to optimize your website content so that search engines can show it among the top results for a search of a particular keyword. It is a process that involves you, the specific search engine (Google, Bing, or Yahoo), and the searcher.

Appearing on the front page of a search engine can be the difference between your business succeeding and failing.

SEO is a marketing technique that helps websites rank higher on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It does this by increasing the number of incoming links to your website or blog posts from other sites related to the same topic as yours.

This signals both relevance and popularity – after all, if you are linking back to a site with similar content then there must be something worthwhile about it!

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But how long will it take for SEO to begin generating traffic and sales?

There is no direct answer to this question because it depends on a variety of factors, but a concrete answer is the results should start flowing within six months, though you may start seeing results as soon as two weeks or sometimes even more than a year.

When it comes to SEO, your goal should always be long-term. This way, your site will perform better and rank at the top of the search engines for more and more keywords.

The amount of time it takes for SEO to work depends on many factors such as keywords you are targeting, content strategy, backlinks, design as well as on-page and off-page SEO among others.

Luckily, there are SEO tools –free and premium – that can help you address the above issues effortlessly.

While there are countless of these tools out there, I have picked the 10 best SEO tools that you can use to boost your website traffic.

SEMrush

When it comes to SEO tools, few can rival SEMrush. Founded in 2008, this tool has a massive user base of more than 7 million active users and is one of the top 10 popular and best SEO tools available on the market.

It is a tool that helps you optimize your site for search engines as well as evaluate your competitors and their content.

SEMrush offers robust metrics and enables you to get highly relevant keywords and content. Whether you have an eCommerce site or blog, this tool can help you fully understand the strategies your competitor uses and how you can also apply the same SEO strategies.

The tool is loved by small and medium-sized businesses because of its effectiveness and affordable pricing.

Generally, SEMrush provides features that can help you with your website’s SEO, ad campaigns, PPC, backlinks, SERP, keyword research, and many others.

Features

  • Keyword Research: Find out the value of any keyword, judge estimated value, and competition for a particular keyword, and discover how it fits your objectives. This is perhaps one of the most important tools for blog owners and ecommerce entrepreneurs.
  • Product Listing Ads: With this feature, you can see the Product Listing Ads of your competitors and product fees.
  • Advertising Research: You can use this feature to analyze the competitor’s ad budget so that you can run better, quality ad campaigns as well as localize your campaigns.
  • Traffic Analytics: One of the best things about SEMrush as an SEO tool is that it accurately informs you about your online performance and the amount of traffic your website receives. You can also use this tool to understand the activity and media consumption of leads.
  • Organic Research: You can use this feature to see all the top keywords that your competitors use.

Pricing

In terms of pricing, SEMrush has three plans:

  • The Pro plan comes at $99.95
  • Guru plan at $199.95
  • Business plan is $399.95

The quote-based plan called the Enterprise is customizable according to the needs of your business.

SEMrush is ideal for:

Pros

  • Discovering ad opportunities for CPC
  • Analyzing competitors’ strategies
  • Tracking site ranking history
  • Doing keyword research for higher search engine ranking
  • Auditing technical SEO and analyzing user experience

Cons

  • Can be overwhelming to beginners
  • There could inaccurate data on backlinks and ads
  • Advanced features are pricy

AHREFS

Ahrefs started as a link-building tool in 2011, but over the years, more features were added to make it one of the top SEO tools for bloggers and eCommerce entrepreneurs.

Today, this tool is known for being one of the fastest web crawlers, along with Google. It is mainly used for competitive analysis, backlink audits, keyword research, URL rankings, and more.

As with other SEO tools in the market, Ahrefs also allows you access to organic search reports for analyzing competitors’ traffic.

With that report, you can strategize our SEO, link building, rank tracking, keyword research, as well as content marketing.

But one of the most standout features is the keyword explorer, which shows you keyword difficulty and related keywords that “also rank” for specific phrases.

That with many other great features makes Ahrefs one of the best SEO tools on the market today.

Features

  • Keyword Tools: This SEO tool can generate millions of keywords with just a single research query.
  • Content Explorer: Ahrefs has over a billion web pages where you can do some content search for your own website.
  • Ranking History: This feature allows you to view the ranking history of all keywords used on every webpage of your site.
  • Monitor Outbound Links: You can use Ahrefs to access outbound link reports, allowing you to track the sites your guest posts linked

Pricing

The pricing of Ahrefs is almost like SEMrush, but with this tool, you can have a 7-day trial for just $7, then if you like it, you can upgrade:

  • Lowest-priced plan is the Lite $99
  • Standard is $179
  • Advanced is $399
  • Agency plan for $999, which is the highest plan

Pros

  • Finding organic opportunities
  • Finding broken backlinks and competitor backlink statistics
  • Keyword research
  • Build content strategy

Cons

  • Unsophisticated local rank tracker
  • Steep learning curve

LongTail Pro

Long Tail Pro has been around for quite some time now and is one of the go-to SEO tools for keyword research.

Based on online reviews, Long Tail Pro is one of the best on the market and is recommended by many users.

It comes with great features that will help you along your SEO journey. You can use the tool to find keywords, do backlink audits, determine keyword difficulty, and track your ranking.

The best thing about this software is that there is both a free trial as well as an affordable monthly subscription option so everyone can enjoy what it has to offer without having to worry about going overboard with unnecessary spending.

You can use the tool for your current website or use it to find new micro-niche sites. The filter section of the tool is where you will access keywords based on CPC.

If you want long-tail keywords, which is the primary use of this tool, all you need to do is input the minimum number of words you want for your keyword and the tool will bring out the results.

Features

  • The Rank Tracker: This tool is for tracking your current and past keywords, though you will have to enter the keywords manually.
  • Backlinks Analysis: It is an add-on tool that is used for backlink analysis but because it is an add-on feature, it comes with separate pricing.
  • SERP Analysis: This is perhaps the best feature of this SEO tool as it lets you overview your SERP with keyword competitiveness and average search volume.

Pricing

Long Tail Pro is one of the cheapest SEO tools you can come across. The pricing is:

  • Annual Starter is $25
  • Annual Pro is $45
  • The annual Agency is $98

Pros

  • Finding high traffic keywords
  • Discovering new website-niches
  • Increasing search engine traffic
  • Increasing blog traffic

Cons

  • Not as comprehensive as other tools

GrowthBar

If you are an SEO beginner, you should consider GrowthBar as your SEO tool, because it is one of the most intuitive tools out there.

You can view millions of keyword searches as well as access Google Ads data, competitor’s backlinks, and Facebook Ads.

What we liked the most about this tool is that it can be used as a separate web app, which means you can log in, input keywords, and view all the stats.

GrowthBar is also a Chrome extension, making a completely different SEO tool from others in this list, which tends to work as standalone instead of extensions or plugins.

It is also super-quick and incredibly easy to use because it is just like using Google.

GrowthBar is slowly becoming one of the best SEO tools thanks to its robust data and intuitive user interface.

Features

  • Competitiveness Metrics: With this feature, you will get to see your competition’s organic keywords, their top backlinks, and download any data into CSV.
  • Word Count: here you can see how many works the organic listings of your competitor have so that you can design your content to outrank them.
  • Organic Research: You can access millions of keyword search results with their competitiveness score.
  • Difficult Score: With this feature, you can find out how difficult or easy a certain keyword it is to rank.

Pricing

GrowthBar has five –day free use policy after which you can upgrade to a paid plan.

  • Standard $29 a month
  • Pro $79 a month
  • Agency $129 a month

Pros

  • Quick insights for boosting rankings
  • Getting word counts and infinite keyword suggestions to create content
  • Competitive research

Cons

  • No historical data tracking
  • No technical SEO metrics

Moz

Moz is a community-supported SEO marketing tool that comes with a wide range of features to help you boost your traffic, rankings, as well as visibility across SERPs.

It has tools such as site audit using Moz Pro crawler, which highlights possible issues with your website and suggests actionable insights. You can also track the rankings of thousands of keywords.

Moreover, you can also use a keyword research feature to determine the type of keywords as well as keyword combinations that may be ideal for targeting.

There is also a tool for backlink analysis that blends a combination of metrics such as anchor text in links and estimated DA.

Features

  • Website Audit: You can crawl your website to reveal all technical SEO problems and fix them as per the recommendations.
  • Rank Tracking: Track the performance of hundreds of your traffic-driving keywords across more than 100 search engines.
  • Backlink Analysis: You can see metrics of your competition in just seconds using this feature, including DA and anchor text.
  • Keyword Research: Find thousands of keywords to target and their difficulty scores, SERP analysis, and competitor research.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing:

  • $99 per month, the Standard plan, which has all the basic tools
  • Medium plan that comes with a range of features and tools for $149 per month, though you can start with a free trial.
  • All plans feature a 20% discount if you choose to pay annually.

Pros

  • Keyword analysis
  • Backlink analysis
  • SERP rank tracking
  • Site auditing

Cons

  • No automation
  • Complicated tools

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is one of the best free SEO tools you can use to keep your website in optimum working order.

Formerly known as Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console focuses on search and optimization.

Its dashboard is easy to navigate and is where you will find all the cool and great insights for your SEO needs.

The data provided by Google Search Console is a bit straightforward and simpler compared to other SEO tools. There is less tweaking of numbers, though it is easier to access these metrics.

One of the most crucial datasets in GSC is the link data, which helps you stay updated on the toxic backlinks to your site.

Google Search Console is a must-use with all the data and the power it provides you for your website.

Features

  • Search Analytics Report: GSC analytics reports provide a wide range of key insights into your site’s search performance on search engines.
  • Data Highlighter: This easy-to-use feature allows you to include structured data to your site in case you already don’t have it within your website.
  • HTML Improvements Tool: If your website needs some improvements SEO-wise, the HTML Improvement tool will come in handy with the issues and recommendations.

Pricing

GSC is completely free!

Pros

  • Troubleshooting website’s presence in Google search results
  • Monitoring sites and solving site loading issues
  • Finding out code or markup issues or data structure problems

Cons

  • HTML tool not up to date
  • Page grader needs upgrading
  • Does not have advanced data analytics on competitors like other software

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is another SEO tool that has a free and paid plan. It is one of the most popular digital marketing tools created by SEO specialist Neil Patel and as such, it carries quite a stellar status in the field of SEO.

It helps you find hundreds of long-tail keywords to enrich your content’s outreach.

Features

  • Competitions Analysis: As the name suggests, this feature allows you to analyze your competition’s website and find what makes them rank higher.
  • Content Optimization: This feature helps you optimize your blog or website content by offering niche-based keywords.
  • Keyword Analysis and Suggestion: Use this feature for discovering keywords users are using to search in Google.

Pricing

Ubersuggest has a free option and then if you want more searches and information you will have to pay.

  • Individual $29 a month
  • Business $49 a month
  • Enterprise $99 a month

Pros

  • Competitive analysis
  • Discovering keywords for promoting your site ranking

Cons

  • The free tool only allows a few searches a day

SpyFu

SpyFu is among the most popular SEO tools due to its comprehensive range of features, incredible reporting, and great support for advertising and digital marketing.

However, this tool can be a bit complex for beginners but all in all; it is a great tool to have for any marketer or website owner.

Its SEO tools are quite complex and may require some learning time for novices. But it is an excellent SEO toolset.

SpyFu will fulfill your needs for average SEO users as well as advanced SEO specialists, and along with its competitive pricing, it is ideal for midsized business users.

In terms of interface, SpyFu has an elegantly laid out dashboard with very intuitive features and tools including Backlink analysis Tracking, Reports, PPC Research, SEO Research, and List Builder.

There are lots of things this tool can do for you, especially when you are looking for the best SERP to target with an optimization strategy.

Features

  • Keyword Grouping: Indicates your competitor’s AdWords keyword groups so you can use them in your SEO strategy.
  • AdWord Advisor: This feature recommends highly valuable keywords by analyzing your competitor’s ad campaign.
  • PPC Ad Rank Tracking: It allows you to track ads and recommends expansion keywords.
  • Keyword Spy Tool: With this feature, you can search your competition’s keywords as well as the number of clicks they receive from them.

Pricing

SpyFu comes with three different subscription plans, each with unlimited search results access. The lowest cost is $33 monthly and the highly $199 monthly if choose annual payment.

Pros

  • Keyword group examination
  • Spying on competition
  • Track keyword ranking

Cons

  • Complicated user interface

WooRank

Unlike most SEO tools in this list, WooRank is an automatic SEO strategy analysis and site review tool that offers numerous useful metrics that you can use to boost your site traffic, increase leads, and boost sales.

Perhaps the best feature of this tool is its inclusive website review. WooRank crawls your website and provides actionable insights on how to fix the issues found.

Features

  • Site Crawl: You can use this feature to crawl your site and fix any issues and track security problems.
  • Sales Tools: A sales suite to help you design sales pitches.
  • Keyword Tool: Used for a keyword tracking as well as analyzing competition’s keywords.

Pricing

You can have a 14-day free trial after which you can upgrade to the Pro plan for $59.99 monthly and then the Premium plan for $179.99. The Enterprise plan costs $249.99 monthly.

Pros

  • Social media metrics
  • Mobile rendering
  • Site crawling

Cons

  • Pricier

SerpStat

From running your campaign ads to optimizing your search engine optimization and content marketing, SerpStat is one of the best tools for digital marketing.

Since its inception many years ago, SerpStat has evolved into an efficient growth hacking tool that is packed with wide-ranging features including technical SEO, link building, and PPC among others.

If you are familiar with SEMrush and Moz, you will feel right at home with this tool since it has many similar features and even a similar user interface.

Features

  • Backlink Analysis: Helps gather full backlink data from up to two years ago while keeping track of competition’s backline strategies.
  • Keyword Research: Including search suggestions, cluster research, content marketing, search volume as well as SERP analysis.

Pricing

The Lite plan is $69, the Standard costs $149 while the Advanced plan costs $299. The Enterprise plan costs $499. All plans are billed monthly.

Pros

  • Analyzing webpages
  • Tracking search results
  • Gathering international data

Cons

  • Sometimes it provides inaccurate keywords

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