10 SEO tools compared

The Ahrefs toolset is aimed at search engine optimization for professionals. It includes five smaller tools:

• Site Explorer: provides information about the backlink profile and how your pages rank compared to the competition.
• Keywords Explorer: helps to find relevant keywords.
• Site Audit: displays all important SEO data about your pages.
• Rank Tracker: tracks the evolution of your website ranking over time.
• Content Explorer: finds good content within your sector and helps to write your own.

Ahrefs offers several SEO tools for beginners and there are plenty of free tools available to help with keyword research or small-scale analysis of your website. Don’t expect any detailed reports though. Some features require registration. The Ahrefs website boasts plenty of guidance to help learn some of the finer aspects of search engine optimization.

The Google Search Console is Google’s own tool to help with SEO. All webmasters should be using the feature because submitting a website to Google is usually the first step in SEO. You simply need to verify that you’re the owner of the domain. Using the online software is free of charge. The Google console boasts plenty of information and functions. The Search Console:

• tracks how visitors get to your content
• allows for a manual sitemap to be added
• tests your URLs
• analyzes your website performance based on Core Web Vitals

The Search console can be combined with other Google products such as Google Analytics or Google Ads.

Much like Ahrefs, Ryte is an extensive SEO suite to optimize search engine performance. Its target market is predominantly professional marketers. Ryte offers support in the following areas:

• SEO: What are SEO-relevant data?
• Quality control: Is your website error-free?
• Web performance: Is there potential to optimize your website technically?
• Sustainability: Are you using a sustainable website design?
• Accessibility: Is your website accessible?
• Compliance: Are your privacy settings GDPR-compliant?

Reports on sustainability, accessibility and privacy are rare among commonly available SEO tools. Ryte offers content creation tools including tips on which words to use more or less often to create a suitable text.

SEO agency Screaming Frog has two popular tools on offer – available both as a free version and a paid-for one.

• SEO Spider: The crawler checks your website for errors and duplicate content. In addition, the software creates a XML sitemap. The paid-for version boasts additional analytics tools and plenty of resources. Google services can be included.
• Log File Analyser: The tool adds interesting data on how the search engine crawlers perceive your website. This way you can explore any potential issues in your page structure. The Premium version provides only technical support and infinitely larger log files.

The two SEO tools need to be downloaded, but are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. The free options include all the most important functions.

The Searchmetrics Suite combines a comprehensive range of useful tools:

• Research Cloud: extensive competitive analysis and identification of potential content
• Content Experience: help with content creation including keyword research
• Search Experience: rankings and visibility in the search engines
• Site Experience: review of the technical implementation of your website

The Searchmetrics Suite is a paid service and prices are disclosed upon request. Just like Ahrefs, Searchmetrics provides tons of information, guidance and even tutorials on its website to help beginners get started with SEO.

Semrush offers more than 50 different tools. Some of them are similar, but each focuses on a different aspect of SEO. For example, there are six different features for keyword research. Broadly speaking the different tools can be categorized as follows:

• SEO: backlink analysis, keyword research, ranking analyses, etc.
• Content: help with content creation, marketing calendar, etc.
• Advertising: support with online advertising
• Social Media: scheduling posts, monitoring competition, organizing Facebook Ads.
• Ad analysis: SEO competitor reports

You only need a single license to access all the Semrush features. However, prices are fairly steep. A free option is available that includes some of the tools. But this is limited in terms of the operations you can perform. In addition, Semrush boasts plenty of educational materials.

Seobility combines plenty of useful features but overall is a little leaner in its breath of functionality compared to competitors. The main areas of support include:

• On-page optimization: the entire website is searched to reveal structures and spot errors
• Rank tracking: displays how your website is positioned in search engines
• Backlink analyses: determines the backlink profile and provides tips for new links from external websites

Seobility can be used free of charge with the basic plan. This is suitable for website owners who prefer to take care of search engine optimization themselves. The free version combines the most important features, but only a single domain can be optimized. For additional capacity, a comparatively inexpensive premium version is available.

What’s more, Seobility provides a few smaller tools on its website that are freely available and do not require registration. They include a keyword checker and a WDF*IDF tool.

Sistrix is well known for its visibility index.  The SEO tool can be used for other tasks. Sistrix focuses on the following:

• Visibility index: checks your website visibility on Google
• Competitor Analysis: checks the visibility of your competitors
• Content Assistant: helps to write SEO-optimized texts
• On-page Audit: spots errors and potential for optimized pages

Even though the visibility index is the most interesting feature (in the context of competitive analysis), the provider offers tools for keyword research, backlink analysis or Google Ads.

Given its wide range of offers, Sistrix is aimed at SEO professionals, which is why prices are higher. Much like other providers of extensive SEO suites, Sistrix offers plenty of information and resources on its website.

XOVI is an all-round solution. The suite bundles eight different tools:

• Keywords: helps with the development of keyword strategies
• Monitoring: monitors website ranking in regards to certain keywords
• Onpage: spots errors in website structure
• Links: assembles a backlink profile
• Disavow: ensures your website doesn't get any Google penalties
• Search Analytics: analyzes how visitors arrive on your website
• SEA: support Google Ads
• Reporting: lets you assemble different reports

XOVI is aimed at both webmasters and SEO professionals. Different pricing plans are available. These differ predominantly in the amount of monitorable URLs and the number of user accounts. XOVI also offers learning materials and organizes educational seminars.

Yoast is a little different. The favorite SEO plugin for WordPress is suitable for working directly from within the dashboard of the content management system (CMS). The advantage is that changes are immediately implemented. The omst important functions of the extension include:

• Help with the creation of meta data
• SEO content writing support
• Automatic creation of structured data
• Optimized page load speed
• Creation of XLM sitemap

The free version is a good start but for additional support for content creation, help with internal links and professional support you’ll need the premium plan.