10 free Google SEO tools everyone should use
Back in 2009 the ever-informative Tad Chef took a look for us at the most helpful tools out there. Unfortunately, Google has a habit of retiring many of its tools, or starting to charge for them (Google Shopping anyone?), so it was high time for an update.
So, here’s our revised list of ten free
Google tools you should consider; You’ll know many, no doubt regularly
use a few, but, in this industry, there’s always something new to try.
1. Google Search Console
If you only make use of one tool from this list, Google Search Console (formally known as Webmaster Tools)
is the plum choice. Just as the logo demonstrates it’s intent with a
spanner, using Search Console is akin to giving your site a regular
service; use it to keep everything running smoothly, and spot bigger
issues quickly.
Find out if your site has a manual penalty,
identify crawling issues and broken links, see how many pages are
indexed, download links, test your robots.txt file or structured data,
and plenty more, all for free. It’s a peek into how Google regards
elements of your site.
Oh, and while you’re at it, check out Bing Webmaster Tools; as Sam points out, there’s lots to be gained from this free tool as well!
2. Google Analytics
Ok, we all know about the frustration of
(not provided) keyword data, taking away some of our most helpful
analysis. But, there’s still a HUGE advantage is having analytics data
for your site in order to analyse content, user experience,
the success of campaigns and more. In fact, if you’re not using
analytics in your digital marketing, you’re behind the competition, no
matter what.
Google Analytics remains a popular, and
constantly evolving tool, though there is increasing competition from
alternatives such as Clicky, Open Web Analytics, WebTrends, Omniture and
more. Want some extra help? Check out the Solutions Gallery for great ways to slice your data, and the URL builder to add custom tracking to your links.
3. Google Adwords Keyword Planner
Another tool that’s been through significant, and often much-lamented, change in the last year, the Adwords Keyword Planner
remains the de-facto source for many when it comes to ascertaining
keyword volumes (though don’t rely on it for exact numbers), even if
other tools are used for generating seed lists.
It feels that the new Planner is much more PPC
focussed than the Keyword Tool it superseded, and the suggested
keywords are often so broad as to be useless initially. However, there
are ways to still use the Keyword Planner to get excellent data – this article by Dan Shure is a superb place to start.
4. Google Trends
And whilst we are on the topic of keywords
and topics for your website, Google Trends is still a great tool for
comparing traffic for different search terms, including historic,
geographic and related terms (in Google’s mind) data. Understanding if a
term is a rising or falling element of your topic’s vocabulary is
highly valuable for creating enticing content, and available for free!
There’s extra data within the Google Zeitgeist section, detailing 2013’s most popular searches. Also worth checking out is the Hot Trends list, to see the most popular searches right now, perfect inspiration for timely content.
5. Google Consumer Surveys
We all know that understanding our audience
is key to making a great website that serves their needs. Whilst
surveys can cost a lot of money, Google’s Consumer Surveys have a free
option for measuring site satisfaction – you can’t deviate from the four
default questions without paying, but you can still get valuable data
on how users perceive your site and their experience of it. This can be
especially helpful when testing a new site design or content category.
6. PageSpeed Insights
Back in 2010 Google announced that site speed had become a signal in their search ranking algorithms. Subsequent studies have also shown that site speed does have an effect on your site’s visibility.
Fortunately, there is a way to create a
list of suggestions for your client or development team without having
to be an expert coder (though that never hurts). Google’s PageSpeed
Tools includes a PageSpeed Insights broswer extension for Chrome and
Firefox (as an extension to Firebug), and an in-browser version that offers even further detail. Either option will give you some actionable data to get your site literally up to speed.
7. Content Experiments
What was known as Google’s Website
Optimizer has evolved into Google Analytics Content Experiments. As the
name suggests, it now lives within Google Analytics rather than as a
stand-alone product, but still offers an excellent, and free, way to
test, measure and optimise your site.
Content Experiments ties in with the goals
you have created in Google Analytics, and lets you show several
different variations of a page to users. This means you can test
layouts, headlines, content, colours and more to find the optimum
layout. As conversion rate optimisation becomes a more common part of
the digital marketing landscape, this is a great way to dip your toes in
the water before making an investment in an agency or ine of the range
of potent user testing tools, all while getting actionable results.
8. Google Places for Business
Want another free method for extra search
visibility that’s been shown to generate traffic? Get yourself a local
listings result by using Google’s Local facilities, Places for Business
and Google+ Local. Multiple tools? Well, yes, somewhat confusingly,
there’s two different ways to claim a local presence.
Essentially, your Google Places listing
gives you control over the information that is shown in Google’s Maps,
which local results make use of. Google+ Business pages look similar,
but allow you to engage with other local businesses, post news and so
on.
Which one should you go for first? Google Places for Business – as this article
by local search expert David Mihm points out, it has a superior
interface, and it controls the listing that appears in Google Maps, and
thus most relevant search results. The differences between the two, and
how to combine them are detailed by Amanda DiSilvestro. To get you going here are some excellent reads on getting started with Places for Business and local search ranking factors.
9. Google Alerts
Ah, good old Google Alerts. Whilst it’s reliability has been called into question in recent times, there’s no doubt this still holds an important place in many online marketer and content creator’s hearts.
Using Google Alerts you can keep an eye on a
topic of your choice with regular updates from Google themselves on the
latest index updates. Common uses include finding non-linking citations
of your brand, or to keep an eye on the latest news on a topic or
company of interest.
Ross Hudgens shows some of the inventive ways to use the service here.
A great function of Google Alerts is the option to it as an RSS feed,
perfect for keeping tabs on multiple alerts and combining with other
sources. While Google Reader has sadly departed, there are plenty of
other RSS readers out there that can do a great job in its place.
Whilst on the topic, there are some good
alternatives to Google Alerts for monitoring brand mentions, such as
Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer and the appropriately named Mention (which has a free option).
10. Tag Manager
One of the most common frustrations
in digital marketing can be the delay caused by waiting in a queue for
development time. Google’s Tag Manager neatly gets round this, letting
you update many of the most common site tags without having to ask for
dev support.
This is a more advanced tool, but the
benefits can be outsize. Once the code is installed on the site, a
decent array of common marketing tags can be edited without a further
code update. There’s support for URL, referrer and event based tags,
custom macros and more, plus a debug console. There’s also planned
further integration with third party tools to even more flexibility, and
it’s possible to use tags from third-party tools such as Optimizely
now.
Wrap-up
So, that’s it – ten tools you can use for
free from Google, from keyword research to on-page optimisation and
content creation. While Google’s attitude to online marketers is
increasingly questioned, there’s still plenty we can do with these free
pieces of kit.
What are your favourite tools from Google?
And what interesting uses do you make of them? Have we missed out a real
gem? Let us know in the comments!
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