To do SEO, you need creative thinking, the ability to analyze data and excellent tools that can give support at every stage, from keyword research to content creation. Every professional has their own toolbox, containing a set of SEO tools adapted to their skills and specific context, because each situation could present different challenges.
The following is a personal list created by me, containing 12 of the best and most well-known SEO tools, which I consider among the best currently available. I tried to cover different phases of the activity of a professional in this field, presenting the best platforms for specific tasks. However, there are many other good SEO tools and alternatives to these amazing 12.
Semrush
Semrush is one of the most comprehensive platforms for SEO and digital marketing. It focuses primarily on SEO optimization but also includes features for content marketing, competitor analysis, PPC (Pay-Per-Click), and social media.
Semrush is a must-have for professionals and agencies looking to better manage SEO and digital marketing campaigns. Its wide range of features, such as keyword research, backlink analysis, website audit, and position tracking, makes it the landmark among the most well-known SEO tools.
- Why use it: Keyword research, competitor analysis, website audit
- Pros: User-friendly interface, lots of built-in features, detailed reports
- Cons: High prices
- Costs: From 117 €/month
- Sito web
Seozoom
Seozoom is an Italian SEO and digital marketing platform that offers a wide range of features for content optimization, traffic analysis, and keyword research. Perfect for those working in the Italian market, it offers keyword research, competitor analysis and SEO performance monitoring features.
Thanks to its deep understanding of local dynamics, it is the perfect ally to achieve concrete results in terms of visibility, traffic and conversions. With its user-friendly interface and detailed reports, it is ideal for both professionals and businesses looking to optimize digital performance.
- Why use it: Local SEO, keyword analysis and content optimization
- Pros: Beautiful and intuitive interface, specific data for the Italian market, detailed reports
- Cons: Limited for those working on international projects, high cost for advanced features
- Costs: From 47 €/month
- Sito web
Sistrix
Sistrix is a German SEO platform for monitoring the organic visibility of a website. It allows you to identify fluctuations in ranking and compare your performance of a website with that of competitors.
Thanks to its Visibility Index, it helps to understand more clearly how visible a website actually is on Google, regardless of the number of actual clicks received, and to solve problems that can affect ranking.
- Why use it: Analysis of visibility and ranking on Google, comparison with competitors
- Pros: Reliable to monitor long-term visibility, accurate historical data
- Cons: Limited features compared to other platforms, high prices
- Costs: From 119 €/month
- Sito web
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is well-known for its powerful backlink database, which is one of the largest and most up-to-date in the world. Essential for setting up structured link building campaigns, it allows you to compare the profile of a website with that of competitors.
Ahrefs also offers advanced keyword research and website audit features. This makes it a complete tool for experienced SEO professionals, but the high cost makes it less suitable for small, less organized companies.
- Why use it: Backlink analysis, keyword research, SEO audit
- Pros: Very large and up-to-date backlink database, detailed analysis
- Cons: Steep learning curve, high prices
- Costs: From 119 €/month
- Sito web
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog is an essential crawling tool for agencies and professionals who deal with technical SEO. It allows you to quickly analyze SEO issues that can affect a website’s ranking on Google, such as broken links, missing meta tags, and duplicate content.
In order to use Screaming Frog, you need to download the desktop app for your PC. There is a free version with a limit of 500 URLs per crawl and is therefore suitable for analyzing small websites. Beyond that, you need to subscribe to the annual plan.
- Why use it: Technical SEO audit and website crawling
- Pros: Detailed technical analysis, fast scanning, customizable
- Cons: Complex and not very user-friendly interface, limited to technical SEO
- Costs: Limited free version, full version at 239 €/year
- Sito web
PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights is a free tool provided by Google that analyzes the loading speed of a web page and provides suggestions to improve performance and user experience. It offers a series of technical reports and practical suggestions to take action in the proper way on individual website pages.
For each page of the website, it allows you to analyze speed, interactivity and visual stability on desktop and mobile, the Core Web Vitals that today represent one of the most important ranking factors on Google.
- Why use it: Website performance analysis and technical optimizations
- Pros: Free, specific tips, separate analysis of performance on desktop and mobile
- Cons: Variable scores due to network or server conditions, analysis limited to Google and only one page at a time
- Costs: Free
- Sito web
Google Analytics (GA4)
Google Analytics is the world’s most widely used tool for analyzing website data. It is a free tool that allows you to monitor traffic, analyze user behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and gain insights into a website’s performance.
GA4 is the latest version of Google Analytics, designed to adapt to new user behavior tracking and analytics needs, with a focus on events and interactions rather than traditional session metrics. It’s a must-have tool, but it’s time-consuming to set up and not easy to use.
- Why use it: Website traffic and performance analysis
- Pros: Free, integrated with other Google tools, custom reports
- Cons: Customization needed, complex interface
- Costs: Free, and Analytics 360 premium version for very high traffic volumes websites
- Sito web
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is an essential tool for monitoring a website’s presence on Google, identifying indexing issues, and improving site performance. it measures the phase that starts with the search query and ends with the click.
It’s not a traffic analysis tool like Google Analytics, but it’s an essential tool for SEO, as it gives you an overview of the research phase. Google Search Console provides detailed data on how Google sees the website, allows you to identify and fix technical problems, and submit the sitemap to the search engine.
- Why use itr: Monitoring indexing and SEO issues, sitemap submission
- Pros: Free and essential, integration with GA4, email alerts on indexing problems
- Cons: Limited to Google, historical data limited to the last 16 months
- Costs: Free
- Sito web
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a tool that helps you find out what people are searching for on Google and other online platforms, providing insights for creating optimized content. It generates a wide range of questions and phrases related to a keyword, presenting correlations in a visual and organized way.
AnswerThePublic is the ally of the web editor who is creating an SEO editorial plan, as it allows you to semantically expand a topic starting from a keyword. In this way, it offers valid suggestions for long-tail search keywords.
- Why use it: Generating content ideas based on user questions
- Pros: Intuitive visual interface, specific data for different languages and localizations
- Cons: Data not always up to date, does not provide numerical values of search volumes
- Costs: from 11 €/month or from 119 €/life
- Sito web
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to analyze Google search trends over time. It is used to find out what people are searching for on the internet, measure interest in specific topics, and compare the popularity of keywords or topics in different geographical regions.
Google Trends lets SEO and content marketers intercept emerging trends and topics related to seasonality. It is based on the Popularity Index, a metric that measures a keyword’s search interest relative to its maximum search volume on a scale from 1 to 100.
- Why use it: Trend research and emerging keyword analysis
- Pros: Free, real-time and historical data, clear and easily to understand graphs
- Cons: Relative and non-absolute data, limited to Google
- Costs: Free
- Sito web
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence model developed by OpenAI, designed to understand and generate written text in a natural way. Based on advanced language models, it has become a versatile and powerful tool used in different industries.
When correctly questioned, it can be used to automate various SEO and content marketing tasks, generating optimized content, assisting in keyword research, and improving operational efficiency. However, it’s essential to use it with human oversight to ensure that the content is accurate, original, and consistent with the tone of the brand.
- Why use it: Content creation, keyword research, process automation
- Pros: Versatile and easy to use, capable of generating creative ideas and reducing work time
- Cons: Requires specific inputs to achieve quality results and human supervision over outputs, information that is not always accurate and consistent
- Costs: Free basic version, plans starting at €20/month for the pro version
- Sito web
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress (recently also for Shopify), designed to help online article writers optimize their content for search engines. The tool allows you to optimize pages, posts, and other kinds of content directly from the WordPress editor.
Con le sue funzionalità di analisi in tempo reale, ottimizzazione delle parole chiave, e suggerimenti sulla leggibilità, è una soluzione ideale sia per principianti che per professionisti SEO.
- Why use it: On-page SEO optimization for WordPress
- Pros: Very easy to use even for beginners, feature-rich, integrated with WordPress and Shopify
- Cons: Limited to WordPress and Shopify, broad and sometimes unnecessary suggestions
- Costs: Free, premium version at 99 €/year
- Sito web
Best SEO tools: Features, Pros & Cons, Cost
| SEO tool | Why use it | Pros | Costs | Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush | Keyword research, competitor analysis, website audit | User-friendly interface, lots of built-in features | High prices | From 117 €/month |
| Seozoom | Local SEO, keyword analysis, content optimization | Specific data for the Italian market, detailed reports | Limited for international projects | From 47 €/month |
| Sistrix | Analysis of visibility and ranking on Google | Accurate historical data, reliable for monitoring | Limited functionality compared to other tools | From 119 €/month |
| Ahrefs | Backlink analysis, keyword research, SEO audit | Wide backlink database, detailed analysis | Steep learning curve, high prices | From 119 €/month |
| Screaming Frog | Technical SEO audit, website crawling | Fast scanning, customizable | Complex interface, limited to technical SEO | Free (500 URLs limit), 239 €/year |
| PageSpeed Insights | Website performance analysis, technical optimizations | Gratuito, suggerimenti specifici | Variable scores, analysis limited to Google | Free |
| Google Analytics (GA4) | Webssite traffic and performance analysis | Free, integrated with other Google tools | Customization required, complex interface | Free, and Analytics 360 premium version |
| Google Search Console | Indexing monitoring, SEO troubleshooting | Free, essential, email alert | Limited to Google, historical data limited to 16 months | Free |
| AnswerThePublic | Content ideas based on user searches | Intuitive visual interface, multi-language support | Data not always up-to-date, no search volumes | From €11/month, €119/lifetime |
| Google Trends | Trend research, analysis of emerging keywords | Free, real-time data | Related data, limited to Google | Free |
| ChatGPT | Content creation, keyword research, process automation | Versatile, easy to use | Requires specific input, human supervision | Free, pro version from 20 €/month |
| Yoast SEO | On-Page SEO Optimization for WordPress | Easy to use, feature-rich | Limited to WordPress and Shopify | Free, premium at 99 €/year |
Which SEO tools to choose
This list of SEO tools is indicative, should be related to the specific context and should be considered as a starting point to be further explored and adapted to specific needs.
Semrush is, in my opinion, the best complete platform for doing SEO, capable of covering different activities. However, there are very good and cheaper alternatives, such as Seozoom, and others that analyze positioning from a different perspective, such as Sistrix.
SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, AnswerThePublic and many others allow you to analyze some specific aspects in detail. The choice of these platforms depends on the budget available and how the related activities are carried out.
The essential SEO tools are those of Google that allow you to collect a lot of data on what happens while browsing the search engine and the website. They are free and very useful, so it would be illogical not to use them.
Finally, there are SEO tools for content creation. CMS plugins (Yoast SEO and all alternatives) allow you to follow the guidelines for an optimized website, while artificial intelligence (ChatGPT and its alternatives) helps you find great ideas and speed up creative processes.
