In today’s world, almost all businesses need to operate online to some degree to stay competitive. About 65.7% of the global population uses the internet, so if your brand isn’t online, you’ll be missing out on a lot of potential business.
With that in mind, just being online isn’t quite enough. You need to make your company stand out from your competitors, and this takes some work. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important strategies when it comes to establishing a strong online presence.
In this guide, we’ll look at some of the best SEO tools for small businesses so you can get an idea of what you have at your disposal. Keep reading for more.
Google Analytics (GA)
GA is well known as one of the most important SEO tools available. It’s great for monitoring and analyzing website traffic so you can get a detailed overview of how your website is performing.
Beyond just seeing how many visits your site is getting, you can also determine things like who is visiting your site, how they’re finding it, and what they do while on your site.
It’s the most widely used website analytics tool in the world, and it’s easier to set up and customize than most other options. On top of this, it’s completely free.
The latest version is GA4, so if you want to get started with it, this is the version you’ll use. Straight out of the box, it’s very powerful, but you can create detailed custom reports to get insights that will be more important to you.
Some of the metrics you can monitor are acquisitions, demographics, engagement, and conversions. It’s arguably the best way to see how effective your marketing strategies are as well as how effective your site is in converting these visitors.
The only downside to GA4 is that it’s not as user-friendly as some would like. There’s a steep learning curve, so it can be beneficial to work alongside a professional SEO company.
Google Search Console (GSC)
Another tool from Google, GSC focuses on the performance of your site in organic search results. The importance of SEO can’t be understated here, as it has a huge impact on where your website appears in SERPs (search engine results pages).
It can show you what queries your site appears for, which specific pages show up, the number of clicks they get, and more. It works well alongside GA4; GSC shows you how users find your site when searching and GA4 provides in-depth details about how they’re engaging with your site.
GSC is one of the most important SEO tools for small businesses. The insights it provides will help you build better SEO strategies moving forward. It can take a while to see the benefits of SEO, and you need to constantly be making improvements to maintain good results.
Bear in mind that it has some limitations. For example, data collection usually has a delay of a day or two. It also doesn’t offer any form of competitor research, so it won’t give you any insights into SEO for companies other than your own.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
Semrush has a range of tools that can help with SEO, and this is one of the most effective. It can search through a database of 24 billion keywords to find the ones that will help you the most. Just enter a keyword into the search bar, and it will find you other relevant keyword ideas.
For each result, it will also show you how many searches they get, how many results they return, and how difficult it is to rank for them. You can filter your results using parameters such as:
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty
- Search intent
You can also add modifiers that could help inspire your web content.
Semrush Organic Research
Analysis of your own business is vital, but you can also benefit greatly from competitor analysis. Knowing what’s working well for similar businesses (as well as what isn’t) can help you make improvements and may even offer some inspiration. Semrush Organic Research is a great tool for this.
The main dashboard shows how many keywords a specific website ranks for as well as an organic traffic estimate. You can get more detail on any dashboard element by clicking on it. This will show you things like a website’s ranking keywords and its top pages; you can compare this with other similar sites.
You can filter keyword ranking lists by parameters such as ranking position and search volume. If needed, you can export data into a .CSV or .XLS file. For the best keyword research, this is one of the most useful tools out there.
PageSpeed Insights
A key element of SEO that’s often forgotten is website load speed. Google favours faster websites, so this can have a sizable impact on SEO. On top of that, a faster site means a better UX (user experience), which can help with conversion rates.
PageSpped Insights will look at your website and determine what elements of it are reducing the load speed. It will then give you guidance on how you can make improvements. It’s another tool from Google, so you know that the information it gives you will prove very useful when it comes to organic traffic.
You just need to enter your website URL, and it will give you a detailed Core Web Vitals assessment. This will show you a range of metrics so you can see what areas of your site need further optimization.
Making Use of the Best SEO Tools for Small Businesses
Even with all of the best SEO tools for small businesses at your disposal, things can still be difficult. They can all support your SEO and website rankings, but it still takes a lot of work and a high level of expertise to establish a strong online presence.
Working with professionals is often the best move. SelexWeb is a leading web design and development agency based in Edmonton.
We offer a range of services such as SEO, web maintenance, marketing, and more. Book a free 15-minute call with us today and we’ll see how we can help your business.
