SEO Experts Reveal the Best Tools of 2021
Search engine optimization is a tricky field to be in, especially with the ever-changing algorithms. The best SEO tools can help you stay on top of the game and provide insights about your website's rankings and performance.
In this article we will talk about experts who have all weighed in on what their favorite SEO tools are for 2021.
The best SEO tools of 2021 will go beyond traditional keyword ranking and other things that only take place on the surface level.
This list is going to delve deeper into what's happening with your website, how it performs from a usability perspective, as well as more general performance metrics such as bounce rates and time spent on site.
Some of these tool kits may help in identifying potential competitor's weaknesses. Project management and marketing tools can definitely improve your digital marketing strategy.
Other tools may help in identifying the best time to post on social media, create content, and which networks are driving traffic for your business.
Read this article to find out about the best tools from experts for 2021.
Let's see what our experts have to say!
Contributions are listed in the order of submission.
Prasenjit Dutta Chowdhury
To choose the best tools for SEO, beginners have a limited budget to spend rather than an agency.
If you want to know my opinion on the best SEO tools so here is my quick recommendation-
WordPress:
Broken Link Checker
SEOPress
Beginners:
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
Answer The Public
Agencies:
Google Search Console
SEMRush or Ahrefs
Answer The Public
All the above-listed tools are good enough and FREE to use as a beginner except SEMrush and Ahrefs, which has limited features in FREE trials!
But the SEMrush is an all-in-one marketing tool for every serious marketer.
Pamela Weber
Classic tools like KW Finder and Ahrefs are just as relevant today for intent research and discovering new ranking opportunities. Ahrefs allows us to monitor our traffic gains and understand what impact our efforts are having. It also helps us monitor any technical SEO issues and address them quickly and comprehensively.
For audience analysis, SparkToro has been excellent. We recently got a SparkToro account, and think it would have cost $5,000 in professional fees to get the same insights without it. To produce high-quality, intent-optimized content quickly and to ensure it performs just as quickly, we rely on our INK editor. Since we use WordPress for our blog and our content initiatives, we built a WordPress plug-in to expedite the creation and publication process. All of these tools are what have and are continuing to work for us.
Alejandro Rioja
I have tried a dozen of SEO tools and found some of them absolutely essential if you want to crush your site's and content SEO. My top go to tool is SEMrush that helps to identify keywords, and recommendations about optimal content length which enables my team to create pages/blogs to address our audience. Ahrefs is another all in one SEO toolset that makes it super easy for you to analyze your competition, optimize sites, monitor your top-performing content and study your audience
Dev Sharma
I'd say it has to be SEMRush & Ahrefs. Both are fantastic tools to help you get ahead of competition and find ideas / gaps to expand your business.
Eb Gargano
I’m a strong believer that you don’t need to pay a fortune to be good at SEO. In fact, I grew my first blog (Easy Peasy Foodie) to over 1,000,000 monthly pageviews without spending a penny on SEO tools. Personally, I think some of the best and most powerful SEO tools are the free ones. My favorite free SEO tools are the Yoast SEO plugin, MozBar, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Trends and Google’s own search results.
I use Google Search Console a lot to track my SEO progress and identify and optimize results that don’t get clicks, need updating or which just fall onto page 2. I also use Google Search Console to find keywords I rank for, but don’t yet have a specific blog post on that topic. And I use it to improve my internal linking structure and identify extra keywords to add to existing blog posts. This post explains more about how I do all this >>> How to use Google Search Console to grow your blog traffic in 2021
I use both Google Trends and Google’s own search results for keyword research. I actually find the results I get from these sources more reliable and more useful for keyword research than the results I get from premium keyword research tools. The features on the Google SERP are such rich sources of high volume keywords and yet largely ignored by the SEO community. There are some real gems to be found there that get missed by premium SEO tools. I also like to use MozBar in tandem with Google’s search results to assess competition. I explain exactly how I do all this in this post >>> How to use Google Search Results for keyword research
Angelo Frisina
Our preferred SEO tool is Web CEO which is a cloud-based search optimization platform with numerous marketing tools. The tools & modules include keyword research, rank tracking, technical auditor, link building, as well as web analytics and social media analysis.
The pricing structure is very reasonable when comparing other tools on the market and the white Label Domain feature allows us to configure domains that will host SEO tools with our own logo, header, footer, and custom design.
Our colleagues and clients are able to log on and collaborate on projects or use the SEO tools for their own projects. One of my favorite tools included with WebCEO are the backlink quality checkers and disavow generator. It generates a txt file which you can upload to Google's disavow module.
Tory Gray
The best new SEO tools for 2021 are focused on some key niche areas:
ML/AI tools for content planning, creation & optimization. SurferSEO, Frase, and Clearscope seem to be the front runners here in planning & creating higher-quality content, faster. I'm also told that the new AWS translation tool is a gamechanger (e.g. for website copy internationalization.)
Simple SaaS solutions to classic but hard-to-solve SEO issues. Here I'll focus on Site Speed / Core Vitals. Improving site performance is, and has always been, really hard, custom to each site, and usually incredibly time-consuming. Nitropack (right now available for WordPress & Opencart) appears to be a dramatic step forward. It's super easy to implement, and the results we've seen have been heads and tails better than what we've seen with other WP plugins.
George Pavlopoulos
There's plenty of software to choose from when it comes to SEO tools, but during the last couple of years, I saw great success with Keysearch. Sure the data and the depth analysis can't compare to the big players like Ahrefs or Semrush, but the truth is that Keysearch is valuable for local businesses and bloggers. Apart from being extremely affordable, Keysearch will help you find keywords to rank for, analyze your direct competitors and guide you in writing your blog posts/pages via its Content Assistant.
I can highly recommend Keysearch to local businesses looking to grow their online presence via SEO. It's actually the tool I use to help small local companies increase their website traffic and online visibility -and I, of course, use it to run my websites. If you're tight on budget and a beginner to SEO, look no further: Keysearch will optimize your workflow, and it'll help you grow your business.
Matt Calik
Follow one rule when deciding on which tools to invest in. Remember - the tool should address your needs, not the other way around. Working with SEO for over 10 years now and managing the whole team of SEO professionals I encountered a massive amount of different SEO tools. After years, I’m sure that utility is the most important criterion to focus on :)
Personally, I enjoy tools that give a whole spectrum of features and allow me to conduct vast analyses. It’s always great to have most of the features you need, gathered in one place. Luckily, SEO tools focus on a specific area and usually can provide that value.
My ultimate best tools in 2021 are SEMrush and Ahrefs. SEMrush offers me an almost full spectrum of SEO analytics that allows me to monitor and improve SEO/SEM campaigns. With SEMrush you can conduct on-page SEO analysis (crawls the site, provides technical SEO audit, etc.), thorough SEO research, link building research (checks best linking domains, also among the competitors’ link base), local SEO management, and rank tracking. As you see, pretty much everything is there.
Ahrefs is similar to SEMrush, but in addition, it provides site explorer (including basic information about the site’s link profile, parameters, and organic traffic) and content explorer (you can research your content and compare it to the competitors). With these two tools combined with Google Analytics data, I got covered all necessary information about websites allowing me to come up with an effective SEO strategy.
Abdullah Prem
My main all-in-one SEO tool is Ahref and I confidently vouch to anyone who is looking for the best tool for their website SEO.
Moreover, every webmaster knows about Ahrefs tools so I don't need to explain it.
But for on-page SEO I'm using Frase.io for content optimization to optimize my content to get more traffic and leads.
The above tools are my favorite ones and I'm using KeywordChef, a free tool to find trending topics and keywords, and a Detailed SEO chrome extension by detailed.com to find other website schema markup, Titles, word count, images, links, etc.
Jake Phillips
Pitchbox is a tool that I would recommend for anyone doing large-scale link building. My favorite feature of the platform is its ability to allow for the segmentation of each stage of the outreach process. This allows for team members to really drill down and own one specific area.
Pitchbox also has an automated follow-up feature which has helped save time and ensures every prospect is being contacted regularly. The platform additionally has an array of built-in reporting options which should satisfy the needs of most teams. If you are looking to scale your current outreach efforts, I would highly recommend looking into Pitchbox.
Joanne Pimanova
In 2021, a year when remote work is more popular than ever, it's a good idea to use a universal SEO platform like WebCEO which includes all must-have SEO tools (for keyword research, rank tracking, SEO audits and backlink analysis, competitor research and more) and also offers team collaboration features, including the popular Task Manager and White Label interface on your own domain.
WebCEO can be used by an unlimited number of your team members at no extra cost, so check it out if you want your marketing team to be productive, no matter the lockdown or crisis.
Brendan Tully
Since site speed is the talk of the town in the SEO space right now and we run a business that specializes in site speed (https://WPSpeedFix.com), I'll share some SEO and site speed tools most SEOs aren't aware of that are a great place to get started with improving core web vitals.
Our own website speed test tool
This will test your site speed similar to GTMetrix and PageSpeed Insights BUT it will give you different insights and in many cases much more actionable advice around improving your site speed. It's free and takes about 60 seconds so absolutely worth giving it a go! It also does some basic SEO tests around title tag, meta description and open graph images.
The Pagespeed test feature of Screaming Frog is one of the easiest ways to test site speed AND page sizes sitewide. Screaming Frog is free for up to 500 URLs so you can test drive this feature without laying down any $$$.
I recently wrote a ridiculously HUGE post for Matt Diggity on site speed optimization where I explain some core concepts around how site speed ACTUALLY impacts SEO, how the speed of all pages matters and how page sizes can dramatically impact SEO, outside of core web vitals. Screaming Frog is one of the tools we use to dig into core web vitals at a deeper level.
This is an amazing Google Data Studio Report that will give you detailed core web vitals data on your site or any site. It's a great way to look under the bonnet, see trends over time etc. and also spy on competitors. Here's the report for chasereiner.com where you can immediately see there's some CLS issues to work on in relation to core web vitals.
Brett Melville
Google S.E.R.P. + Keywords Everywhere
The best and simplest SEO tool in 2021 is the tried and tested Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), with a side of the Keywords Everywhere browser extension for added punch! This is because both of these tools are necessary to complete super accurate OnPage SEO, which continues to be the backbone for ranking optimization.
The clues to what you should include in your OnPage are really ‘hidden’ in plain sight of current Google search results for the Keyword you want to rank for. Start by searching for your Target Keyword in Google and manually scan through the SERP to find recurring keywords used in the meta title, URL and meta description of the top ten search results. Then target these keywords in your content for better rankings.
Once you’ve observed the SERP, then pair this information with Keywords Everywhere chrome extension. This will assist with content ideation by providing related keywords, additional searches and long tail keywords to include in your content. The ‘volume’ and ‘cost per click’ metrics from Keyword Everywhere can also help you understand what related keywords are the most popular amongst searchers in Google.
Joy Hawkins
As someone who works in local SEO, the tool I use the most is Places Scout. Their tool contains a lot of data and tracks rankings in both the local results and organic. One of the things I love about the tool is that it stores all the data it grabs.
So if you see massive changes in the SERPs you can actually look back to see who was there before and see a screenshot of what the SERP used to look like. This is insanely helpful when diagnosing traffic drops or increases. They also have grid tracking which is essential for knowing how well you rank in a local market.
Ever since the Possum algorithm update in 2016, the searcher's location has a drastic impact on what they see so it's important to make sure you aren't simply looking at the search results from a single point. Their competitors tab is also a great high-level overview of who your biggest competition is both in the local results and organically.
Jim Oborny
We love Morphio. They have done a great job in creating a powerful toolbox that does what you want it to do without being overly complex. We particularly love the organic SEO features including being able to automate our process of checking our client’s Google organic ranks and comparing them to their competitors. Additionally we use the “Anomalies” monitoring to help us keep an eye on our competitors, any changes that they make, as well as how these changes affect the rankings.
The absolute best feature of Morphio is their integration with Google Data Studio. We can create data visualizations which allow us to be more efficient in working with our clients and we’ve created data visualizations which make it easier for our clients to understand how effective our strategies and tactics are working.
Pedro Okoro
I absolutely love Semrush (formerly SEMrush). And it’s our go-to tool for everything SEO, at Astute Copy Blogging.
Here’s the thing though.
The Jumpshot shutdown in January 2020 really strengthened my view that Semrush is currently the best SEO tool.
In a nutshell, Jumpshot was a company that provided “digital intelligence” to businesses including many SEO tool providers. As an example, following the demise of Jumpshot, Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz described Jumpshot as “one of the best and only sources for collecting high quality, aggregated, fully anonymized data about how people use the web.”
About 6 months after the Jumpshot debacle, I analyzed the data of three of the leading SEO tools – Ahrefs, Moz and Semrush. These three SEO tools provide keyword overview data with search volume numbers and historical trends, keyword difficulty, and other metrics.
One interesting but crucial feature of this research was that all the three keywords which I analyzed had to post-date the Jumpshot shut down. This was vital to the integrity of the findings.
The conclusion?
Semrush was shown to be the only SEO tool with the most up to date keywords research data, in spite of the demise of Jumpshot.
It's Wednesday My Dudes Podcast
In researching podcasting marketing and SEO this year. One big one that people always seem to suggest that would specifically be to boost SEO for podcasts is to get a transcript of your podcast on your website/blog. There are tools online that help transcribe each episode or if you are a scripted show you already have it written out and can just post it online.
It will drive more traffic to your website and allows your site to be found through search engines significantly easier due to the larger amount of data on the site.
Jim Liberi
If you are looking for just a few of my top choices: SEMrush | MOZ Pro Keyword Explorer |Google PageSpeed Insights
Michel Fortin
My new favorite tool is Surfer SEO. It comes with a built-in set of research tools, like keyword research, competitive analysis, SERP similarity (for search intent), SERP analysis (common on-page factors of the top competitors), and a content planner with shareable content briefs.
As an SEO who specializes in plastic surgery, it's important to create good, authoritative content to rank well. It's also a super-competitive field and medical information is highly scrutinized in these days of COVID.
With Surfer SEO, I can compare SERPs and choose the right search intent to pull ideas from. It looks at the top-ranking competitors for the specific keyword you're writing about and creates an suggested outline with the most common keywords, questions asked, number of images, total word counts, number and type of headings, etc.
Unlike a tool or plugin that rates your content according to a set of arbitrary metrics, Surfer SEO actually scores your content against those top competitors. It can even validate your content using NLP (i.e., entities and not just keywords) for context. It also has a scoring tool you can share with writers.
When I create a content planner for my clients, it takes me 15-20 minutes for each content brief. But SurferSEO saves me so much time and allows me to manage everything in one central place. Each content editor is also shareable, allowing external writers to use the editor and the built-in scoring system.
Jamie Turner
The best SEO tool I’m using at the moment is TubeBuddy. It’s a tool designed specifically for video SEO, so it’s not a traditional tool. Instead, it helps me rank in searches on YouTube. It’s pretty obvious that video is the future. More and more people are watching videos rather than reading blog posts. SO, getting on YouTube and staying on YouTube is essential for an author/speaker like myself.
What makes TubeBuddy so valuable is that it helps me sort through which topics I should create videos around. Their Keyword Planner tool is essential and includes a grading system for keywords based on search volume, competition, and relevancy. But that’s not all – TubeBuddy is constantly being updated and improved, so every time I turn around there’s a new feature that helps me improve my video SEO.
Bottom line: If you’re doing video (which you should be), then an essential tool for you is TubeBuddy. And, no, they didn’t pay me to say that. 😊
Jon Anderson
My recommendations are still pretty consistent with this article.
Ahrefs - it is easy to use, has a comprehensive set of backlink resources, and is reasonably priced.
SEMRush - it is a fantastic option when you're doing paid search campaigns. If you're just doing SEO, you may find that there are more functions than you need.
Moz - it is a feasible and comprehensive SEO software choice for B2B tech marketing, but it's a little pricey, particularly if you want to track keywords.
SERanking - Use this to keep track of keywords at a reasonable amount.
AccuRanker - This is a decent option if you want simple and fast keyword tracking.
Venkatesh C.R.
SEO has certainly entered the realm of specialization where you need analytical tools to help you improve your search engine rankings and reach the coveted top five positions.
What are the SEO tools used by the reputed SEO and digital marketing services like DCI?
It depends on what you are trying to achieve. Do you want to analyze your content? Do you want to study meta tags? Do you want to know how your content is faring on social media platforms because it can have a bearing on your SEO? Do you want to discover which topics are popular? Are you running a link building campaign?
SEMRush analyzes what content your competitors are publishing and how they are succeeding. The Google Search Console gives you metrics on what search term people are using, from which region they’re coming to your website and even KPI-based statistics. The Yoast SEO plug-in for WordPress and other CMS platforms is the indisputable SEO tool in this arena. Ahref checks backlinks. Ubersuggest works as a browser add-on to tell you for what keywords the website you are browsing is optimized for.
For better SEO, you need to use a judicious combination of different SEO tools.
To sum it up…
It doesn't matter if it's a free tool or a paid tool, they all have their own benefits. It can be as basic as Google Sheets and Google Docs or as complex as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.
The best way to succeed in SEO is by using the right tools and strategies that work for your business. The wrong SEO strategy can hurt your site rather than help it rank well.
We hope this article has given you some of the insight on what our experts think as a great tool or SEO software to use this 2021.
