Running a business comes with plenty of challenges, and search engine optimisation (SEO) shouldn’t be one of them. It also shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive, as it’s integral to every successful digital marketing strategy.
Fortunately, there are plenty of free SEO tools and affordable paid options that can help you improve your rankings, boost traffic, and grow your brand, all without blowing your budget.
To get you going, we’ve rounded up some of the best small business SEO tools that will help you improve your online presence.
Affordable SEO Tools
These free and cheap SEO tools all get top marks in our books, but it’s important to remember that not every tool will suit every business. The secret is to focus on what aligns with your goals, and if a tool doesn’t work for you, you can simply move on to another option without facing a major financial loss.
Google Tools: The starting point for SEO
Google offers a suite of free SEO tools that provide essential insights into your website’s performance. These tools provide the foundation for an effective SEO strategy and are the perfect starting point for business owners who need to learn digital marketing.
- Google Analytics helps track website traffic, showing where visitors come from and what pages they engage with.
- Google Search Console helps identify indexing issues and keyword rankings, giving you insights into how Google views your site.
- Google Keyword Planner highlights relevant search terms, helping you target keywords that potential customers are actively searching for.
Whether you’re troubleshooting site performance, discovering new keyword opportunities, or tracking visitor behaviour, these tools give you direct insights from the search engine giant. This makes them one of the most reliable sources for understanding how your site appears in search results and what you can do to improve your rankings.
While all these small business SEO tools are free, a paid version of Google Analytics called Google Analytics 360 starts at $50,000 a year. This is a major investment, and as far as SEO for small business owners goes, it’s certainly not a necessity.
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool: Find the right keywords
Keyword research is at the heart of any strong SEO strategy. Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool makes finding search terms that drive traffic easier and is one of the most effective SEO tools for startups looking to establish an online presence.
- It generates thousands of keyword suggestions based on real-time search data.
- You can assess keyword difficulty, competition, and search volume to target the best opportunities.
- Organises keywords into categories, helping you structure your content more effectively.
Since keywords determine how search engines match your content to user queries, choosing the right ones can be the difference between ranking on page one of the SERPs or being invisible online. The Keyword Magic Tool has a limited free version, and full access starts at $139.95/month.
SERPWatcher from Mangools: Track your rankings
- Once you optimise your website, you’ll want to track how your rankings improve. SERPWatcher provides real-time updates on where your site appears in search results.
- It tracks keyword rankings over time and alerts you to major changes.
- You get clear, easy-to-read reports on your SEO performance.
- It provides actionable insights to help you adjust your strategy when rankings fluctuate.
Consistent rank tracking is key to understanding which SEO tactics work and where you can fine-tune your content and SEO strategy to climb higher in the SERPs. With the reports provided by SERPWatcher, you can make data-driven decisions and track your SEO metrics easily.
Unlike some high-cost rank-tracking tools, SERPWatcher starts at just $29.90/month, making it one of the more affordable SEO tools for monitoring progress.
Screaming Frog: Get SEO insights
Screaming Frog is a powerful SEO tool that helps you audit your website by crawling it like search engines. This tool is especially useful for identifying technical SEO issues that may be preventing your site from achieving higher rankings.
- It finds broken links, duplicate content, and missing meta descriptions.
- It analyses page titles and metadata for SEO optimisation.
- Helps with site structure analysis to improve internal linking.
This tool stands out for its ability to perform in-depth audits quickly and efficiently, making it invaluable for businesses of all sizes. Its SEO Spider simplifies exporting essential on-page elements such as URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, headings, links, and images to a spreadsheet, which can then be used as a foundation for SEO recommendations.
The free version allows you to crawl up to 500 URLs, while the paid version starts at £199 per year, making it an affordable yet reliable option for website audits.
Ahrefs Backlink Checker: Understand your site’s authority
Backlinks—links from other websites to yours—are a major ranking factor in SEO. Ahrefs Backlink Checker helps you track and analyse these links to improve your site’s authority.
- It shows the top 100 backlinks for any URL, helping you understand where your site stands.
- It provides domain authority scores so you can assess link quality.
- You can also analyse competitor backlinks to find new link-building opportunities.
This tool is essential if your business is focused on improving its online credibility. High-quality backlinks can significantly boost search rankings, helping your business stand out in competitive markets. They also have longevity and continue to drive traffic and authority to your site over time, making them a valuable long-term investment in your SEO strategy.
Ahrefs free SEO tool provides limited data, while full access to more in-depth backlink data starts at $129/month.
Yoast SEO: Optimise your content for search
Yoast SEO is a must-have plugin for improving content quality and search performance if you run a WordPress site. There’s also a free web-based real-time content analysis tool you can use to check any content, regardless of whether your site is powered by WordPress.
- It analyses content readability and keyword optimisation to improve rankings.
- It helps structure meta descriptions, headings, and internal links for better SEO.
- Generates XML sitemaps, making it easier for search engines to crawl your site.
Yoast offers a free version, while the premium plan costs $99 annually. This makes it one of the most affordable SEO tools, perfect for small business owners looking to optimise their content without technical expertise. It’s also one of the most user-friendly SEO tools for beginners. With Yoast, you can ensure every page is fully optimised, improving your chances of ranking higher in search results.
Alternatives to Yoast SEO: More integrated SEO options
While Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress plugin, there are other excellent alternatives available:
All in One SEO (AIOSEO): This plugin is trusted by over three million users and offers an easy-to-use interface and SEO features like schema markup and XML sitemaps. The free version helps you to analyse your website to improve your rankings, while the paid-for plans with added features start at $49.60 a year.
RankMath: Known for its advanced SEO analysis, content AI, and built-in redirection management, this tool helps you optimise your content with built-in suggestions based on widely accepted best practices. The free version is adequate for enhancing your SEO, but pricing starts at just $5.75 a month for additional features.
SEOPress: This comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin provides built-in content analysis to help optimise pages and posts for search engines. It also generates XML and HTML sitemaps to improve site indexing, enables schema markup implementation for better search result visibility, and includes redirection and broken link management to maintain site health. It has a free no ads version with essential features, while the Pro version ($49 a year) unlocks advanced capabilities.
Free SEO Browser Extensions: Quick and easy SEO checks
If you’re looking for an alternative to SEO tools, free browser plugins are a great option because they provide instant insights without requiring a full software setup. They’re lightweight, easy to use, and accessible, making them ideal for quick on-the-go checks.
Some popular options include:
- MozBar: Provides instant metrics on domain authority, page authority, and keyword difficulty. Great for quickly assessing the SEO strength of any webpage you visit.
- SEO Minion: This tool helps check on-page SEO elements, detect broken links, and verify geographical tags for international SEO efforts.
- Keywords Everywhere: Displays keyword search volume, competition, and CPC directly in your browser, making keyword research more efficient.
- Check My Links: A handy tool for detecting broken links on any page, useful for link-building outreach and ensuring your website maintains strong internal linking.
- SEOquake: Offers a comprehensive SEO analysis of any webpage, including keyword density, backlink information, and mobile compatibility insights.
These browser extensions can be used on their own or alongside other SEO tools for a comprehensive strategy, helping you to make real-time improvements to your site.
Give your business a boost
SEO for small business owners doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. With the right mix of free and cheap SEO tools, you can boost your online presence, attract more customers, and compete effectively in search rankings.
If you don’t have the time but still want to improve your website’s search rankings without overspending, we can help! Our free SEO audit identifies how your website is performing and what opportunities there are for improvements. Get in touch to book yours today.
