7 SEO Tools That Google Give You For Free

You may well have realized that the marketplace and the internet are saturated with Free SEO tools and not that many of them are close to being accurate with some even being detrimental to your site over the long term.

So choosing wisely what tools you will use to put you on the right track to gauge where you are at with your online presence is crucial.  As Google is the main global search engine it’s the best place to start so let's take a look at what Google has to offer.

1. Google Analytics

We will start with the main protagonist - Google Analytics

Using this as a starting point is essential for many reasons. This is the starter tool that to base your entire SEO strategy to work with and around Google search results.

So starting with the manufactures tool makes sense. Google does not offer other paid tools to optimise your site; therefore, the best place to start to position yourself to gauge results to optimise your site is Google analytics.

2. GoogleWebmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tool is a beast for your site when trying to analyse your rankings and where they are headed. The tool gives you informative and numerous information about your link status and what is linked to your site and how this is affecting your rankings.

This tool will also give you insights in to how to take steps to improve your responsiveness to the traffic that is coming to you.

3. Google Trends

Keywords are vital to the success of your SEO strategy and the overall ranking of your website. Google Trends is one of the most reliable tools be used to analyse a particular keyword trend that you are considering.

Google Trends provide accurate graphs showcasing the popularity of the keywords and how it has fluctuated over a certain period.  With this kind of information at your disposal, you can make defining decisions on your usage of specific keywords.  In essence, Google Trends can shape your content and keyword strategy to optimise your overall performance.

4. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a unique piece of free software.

Whenever a specific keyword is used on the net, you will know about it.

First of all, you sign up for the service, then you will enter keywords that are of importance to you.  Whenever this keyword is used on the internet, you will be alerted by an email from Google with specifics as to the website and where the keywords were specified. Again another tool to assist in your decision-making process regarding your overall link building strategy.

5. Keyword Planner

The keyword planner didn't start out as an SEO tool.  Although it has now become a handy ally in helping your results. It was initially designed for complex SEO search campaigns. However, SEO professionals are now using it to spearhead their searches for their target keywords by using the suggested search words to build their content based on the results. This helps you stay one step ahead.

6. Google Advanced Search Commands

Google Advanced Search Commands is a prime example of a tool you can use to achieve long-term goals.

My favourite feature is how it helps you to search keyword data over an extended period, thus giving you an indication of how to understand the usage terms in the long run, helping you put together better search term combinations that result in better visibility for the future.

7. Google Desktop and Mobile Speed Search

To me, this tool is indispensable due to the microscope that Google now has on User Experience (UX) and User Interface Design (UI) especially load-up speeds.  We all know if our site loads up slow our SEO will suffer with Google rankings. However that is not your only problem, users are easily bored in waiting and will quickly move onto another site, thus increasing your bounce rate, double jeopardy! Using Google Desktop and Mobile Speed Search enables you to continually test your sites speed, giving you a gauge on the usefulness of your site to the users who demand fast load-up speeds.

Conclusion

The main point behind this is that these are made by the company who is the benchmark of all SEO and website rankings. Although there are more efficient and technical evaluation programs, apps and sites out there, as far as free tools are concerned these will at least give you the know-how to know where you stand alongside your competition and the insight to supersede them over time. Sometimes some of these sites go down. You can use this tool is it down or just me made by OutageAlert to verify if the site is down or up.