Search engines are now the source of over 60% of all traffic coming to websites, which is why search engine optimization or SEO is a must-use digital marketing instrument. By optimizing your site for search engines, you can tap into that large amount of traffic and attract thousands of potential customers.
Similar to other digital marketing instruments, SEO is not something you can do once and forget. A good SEO campaign involves constant evaluation and refinement for optimum results. To help with maintaining a successful SEO campaign, here are the top 5 tools to use.
User experience is a big aspect that determines how well your site ranks in search results. Search engines now take metrics such as time on site, loading speed, and user interface best practices to determine if your site delivers good user experience.
There is no definitive way of checking for user experience level in a quantitative way, but the Google PageSpeed Insights comes really close. As a tool made by Google, the PageSpeed Insights provide you with the necessary feedbacks that will help you fine-tune your site for better UX and enhanced SEO performance.
Another important task to tackle in SEO is choosing the keywords to target. Clayton Johnson, a digital marketer with years of experience in this field, listed the 10 best free keyword research tools you can use to discover the right keywords to target. My personal favorite tool, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, is at the top of that list.
The Keyword Planner may not be as useful as it used to be. It no longer displays the search volume for each keyword you research. However, the tool is still handy for discovering the right phrases to target based on your target audience.
Local SEO has been the highlight of search engine optimization in recent years. Instead of targeting a wide audience, businesses can now focus on people that are close to their establishments through local SEO. Moz Local Listing Score takes data from various sources and helps you determine if your local SEO campaign is reaching the right target audience.
Another tool from Google that is a must-use if you’re running an SEO campaign. Google Analytics is still one of the most comprehensive analytics tools to use. The current support for alerts, the advanced tracking tools, and the ability to scan for indexing errors are very handy nonetheless.
Google Analytics will also help you monitor your SEO performance in real-time. You get metrics such as user flow and acquisition, all of which are handy for optimizing the site for better conversion.
The last tool on this list is Open Site Explorer. Since off-site SEO now puts more emphasis on relevance and site influence, this tool is practically indispensable. Do a quick search on your site and you will be rewarded with a detailed report on backlinks, including insights on the quality of inbound links and your domain authority.
All of these 5 SEO tools are crucial for a successful SEO campaign. They provide the right insights and resources that make fine-tuning your SEO campaign – and taking your site to search engine success – a lot easier to do.
