Last Updated on 25th February 2024
Content Marketing & SEO Tools
If you’re just starting out on a new business venture, have just launched your own new ecommerce site, or are trying to bring your business into the digital age, an up-to-date digital strategy is your biggest online tool to get the customers rolling in.
Search engine optimisation can provide a considerable portion of this growth and focuses on driving web traffic to your website, however the growth of content strategy and local SEO combined means your search campaign can help you bring customers to the door as well, with real, live footfall offline as well as online.
It’s not all good news though, because a successful SEO strategy is time consuming and requires a broad knowledge of web technologies and marketing techniques. Worse still, SEO is constantly changing, which means you have to be on top of the latest developments, or suffer the consequences.
Luckily, there are a number of tools out there to make all this a little more manageable and we’re looking at some of the top SEO tools for both large and small businesses alike. You’ll find there is a lot of cross over between the tools available to help you to improve your organic search (otherwise known as SEO), and you’ll likely need to get your hands on a few of these, but you’re equally likely to not use all of the features which are available in each of these toolkits. Some of the tools to get started with your SEO campaign (which may well be a business as usual practice) are free, whilst others are freemium subscription models, one-off payments, or have a sliding scale of cost dependent upon either features or usage. Several will provide you with the opportunity to scale-up your subscription level as your needs grow.
The Google Toolkit
Google is the definitive search engine and it comes with some of the definitive digital marketing and SEO tools to help you make more of your online and search presence.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to pinpoint where your web traffic is coming from and what keywords or content are bringing people to your website.
Google Adwords
Google AdWords is the search provider’s paid advertisement platform, but it comes with an invaluable keyword planner that helps you determine the search volume and competitiveness of specific keywords.
Google Webmaster Tools
(just kidding, we know it’s now called Google Search Console, but we are old school) is where you check and submit important files, like your sitemap and robot.txt file, as well as detailed reports on how Googlebot accesses your website and more. There’s also now extensive search analytics in the suite which allows for filtering of real visitor clicks along with impressions, click through rate and average position. Bear in mind average position also takes into consideration personalisation too.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service offered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, designed to assist website owners in optimizing their sites for better visibility on Bing’s search results. This platform provides valuable insights into a website’s performance, indexing status, and search traffic. Users can submit sitemaps, diagnose crawl issues, and receive alerts about potential problems affecting their site’s search presence. The tool also offers keyword research, allowing webmasters to understand how their site performs for specific queries. With features like backlink analysis and SEO reports, Bing Webmaster Tools is a comprehensive resource for enhancing a website’s search engine optimization on the Bing search engine.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a powerful tool that allows users to explore the popularity of search queries over time and across various regions. This web-based service, provided by Google, offers insights into the relative interest and search volume of specific topics, keywords, or industries. Users can compare multiple search terms, identify trending topics, and analyze seasonal patterns in search behavior. With the ability to visualize data through graphs and charts, Google Trends is an invaluable resource for marketers, content creators, and researchers seeking to understand and leverage real-time shifts in online search trends to inform strategic decision-making and content development.
Social Media Tools
HootSuite
If that’s a bit rich for you then you might want to take a look at HootSuite. It’s free for up to three users, but you can add more people and advanced features from $8.99 a month. HootSuite isn’t as feature-rich as Moz Pro, form an all-round SEO perspective, but it is one of the most in-depth social media management systems around.
Again you can track brand mentions, monitor social media traffic and monitor trending keywords from across the social web. But you can take all this data much further and use it to create highly optimised content to drive more traffic to your website.
Followerwonk
So now you have your content ideas and means of making your ads, you need to find your audience – which can be a little like walking through a muddy swamp – you keep trying, but don’t really get anywhere.
If that is the case on Twitter, try Followerwonk. The app searches the profiles of Tweeters and churns out users that match your keywords. That’s a good month or two saved in audience building right there.
Keyword Research Tools
Tools to identify keyword opportunities for your projects
Ubersuggest
Ubbersuggest makes a great addition to your keyword research toolkit, giving you thousands of ideas to bolster your keyword list. If you hit a brick wall with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, or feel that you need a new angle, this is a great place to start. All you need to do is type in a single keyword phrase and this free online tool automatically searches for related keywords and alternatives to enhance your list.
KeywordTool.io
KeywordTool.io is a robust online platform designed for efficient keyword research. It helps users discover relevant and high-performing keywords by generating suggestions based on search engine algorithms, including Google, YouTube, Bing, and others. This tool provides valuable insights into long-tail keywords, trending queries, and related terms, aiding content creators, SEO professionals, and marketers in optimizing their online content. With features like search volume data and competition analysis, KeywordTool.io empowers users to enhance their website’s visibility and reach a wider audience by tailoring their content strategy to align with popular and impactful search terms in their respective niches.
Traffic Travis
Traffic Travis is a comprehensive SEO and online marketing tool designed to empower website owners and digital marketers. This software offers a range of features, including keyword research, competitive analysis, and website health monitoring. Users can track their search engine rankings, analyze backlinks, and identify opportunities for optimization. With a user-friendly interface, Traffic Travis provides actionable insights to improve on-page SEO, boost organic traffic, and stay ahead of competitors. It also includes tools for PPC (Pay-Per-Click) analysis and social media metrics, making it a valuable all-in-one solution for those seeking to enhance their online presence and drive targeted traffic.
SEMRush
This all-in-one platform offers features such as keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink auditing, and rank tracking. With a user-friendly interface, SEMrush provides actionable data to enhance search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and advertising strategies. It also includes tools for social media management and advertising analytics, making it a go-to solution for professionals aiming to boost their online visibility, understand market trends, and stay competitive in the dynamic digital landscape.
Seranking
AlsoAsked
Answer The Public
Spyfu
Wordstream
SEO Monitor
Small SEO Tools Keyword Position
Website Visibility & Ranking Checker Tools
Tools to check your website‘s keyword rankings and overall organic search and paid search visibility in search engine listings
WooRank
WooRank helps you take a broader look at the overall performance of your website with metrics for SEO, social media, usability and mobile optimisation. You can sign up with a single website for free or start adding multiple sites for plans that start from $49.99 a month. Which means you can automatically monitor and track analytics, search ranking, backlinks and other essential factors that impact your overall online performance.
SEMRush
Conversion Rate Optimization CRO Tools
Qualitative, quantitative, testing, usability and workflow tools for conversion rate optimization
Unbounce
Create and test landing pages with this tool
Google Analytics
Google Search Console – Search Analytics
Optimizely
Optimizely takes a more focused approach to SEO by offering an A/B testing platform to help you improve your website‘s conversion rate. Traffic is great, but visitors only improve your profit margins when they stick around long enough to make an inquiry, subscribe to your newsletter or make a purchase. There are in fact a number of other actions that visitors can take to increase your conversion rate, but the focus is on turning more traffic into paying customers – and this is where Optimizely comes in.
Qualaroo
Surveys, lead generation forms, integration with API to email, analytics and questionnaires live on your site to understand the why of your site visitor behaviour.
Clicky
Provides real time web analytics, heat maps, up-time monitoring, no referrer spam or bots (supposedly).
Woopra
Designed to help you understand the levels of engagement of visitors to your site.
Mixpanel
Deeply understand every user’s journey with instant insights for everyone on mobile and web is their tagline which says it all really.
Content Marketing Tools
ClearVoice
Outbrain
HubSpot
BuzzSumo
Enter a topic or category and find the most shared pieces of content around that subject. Great for generating ideas and sky-scraping or even simply for sharing with your own audience if they’ll benefit from it (share the love).
Copify
Soovle
Pitch Box
Pearltrees
InboundWriter
Newsle
Readability Test Tool
Portent’s Content Idea Generator
YouZign
Canva
Piktochart
Pitching Notes
A content marketing strategy should start with a list of content ideas. Brain storming sessions can easily devour an afternoon and leave you with a headache. Ditch the aspirin and reach for InboundWriter instead.
This clever tool gives you an insight into what type of content your target audience is lapping up. Get knee-deep into some topic profiles before you start typing your masterpiece and article titles will bounce off the top of your head like a football.
ContentGems
Social media protocol dictates that in order to earn respect from followers and engage your audience, you should be sharing content from other users as well as your own.
Fishing for suitable content that is actually worth sharing is a full-time job in itself, but you can cut the hours by using ContentGems to help you find shareable stuff.
This handy tool allows you to search criteria on dozens of topics from trusted sources that you are familiar with and like, otherwise, it introduces you to sites that publish content worth sharing. So everyone’s a winner!
Spredfast
It depends on how large and complex your content marketing strategy is, but if it is confusing, get a tool that can help you plan, measure and execute. And Spredfast in the Spanish Inquisition of the content marketing.
The beauty of Spredfast is that you can work in real-time and understand the impact of your content on social media networks. This then enables you to better target your audience with the right type of content. Other planning tools do not give you all this in one package.
If you are feeling bogged down with your content marketing strategy, a small investment to a useful tool or two will help you sharpen your virtual pencil and get to the core of your answers far more quickly than manually designing it with the rudimentary tool of yesterday’s digital world. We hope our 5 tools to improve content marketing results help you to achieve the outcome you’re after.
Scoop.it
As content marketing plays a larger role in search engine optimisation, Scoop.it becomes an increasingly powerful tool to boost your marketing campaign. Scoop.it makes your content strategy that little bit easier by making content curation a smoother process – ideal for businesses that don’t have the time to create a constant stream of original content.
A word of warning though: Scoop.it isn’t a content strategy replacement and you still need to devote as much time as possible to creating fresh content if you want to climb the Google ranks. Content curation is a legitimate part of any strategy that uses existing content to inspire something original – but not a full strategy in itself.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public’s pensive character on the home page has become widely recognised in the digital marketing community. The tool provides a whole range of ideas for content marketing based on real questions which people ask of search engines around a subject matter. Simply enter the topic you’re looking to gain visibility for and the tool spits out a host of who, what, where, when, why questions asked by real people. The data can be either exported as a spreadsheet or as an attractive image to add to presentation decks to show to decision makers with your topic at the centre.
Video Content Marketing Tools
Directr
The importance video will play in online advertising over the coming years cannot be stressed enough. It will be THE number one content format. It catches the eye of consumers and leads to conversions. It’s a no-brainer! Therefore, you should be hopping on to the video content making bandwagon asap. But isn’t that expensive? I hear you say. Yes, it is – ordinarily. But not with Directr.
This content app allows you to make videos on your phone and comes complete with hundreds of storyboard ideas to get you started. Registration is free, and although you do have access to some basic video making tools, it is worthwhile paying the annual subscription and learning how to be the Speilberg of online marketing.
