SEO agencies need a variety of tools for different monitoring and analytical purposes. Luckily there are a number of tools that suit the different needs. But what if you just want to have the essentials? Well, this is a list of 10 essentials as recommended by top SEO agencies. These are the tools they cannot do without.
Google Analytics
When talking organic search, Google is the leading search engine and so it is only appropriate that its analytical tool is top of an SEO tool list. This is a free tool but offers expansive analytical reports about SEO and general performance of a site. You can provide a client with monthly reports that are generated automatically. Many agencies say if there is one tool they cannot do without, this is it.
Google Mobile-Friendly
Tool Mobile devices are everywhere and a lot of focus is being put on getting a site optimized for mobile. This tool will enable an agency test on how well the website works on mobile devices. You can get direct information telling you if the site is mobile friendly or not.
Screaming Frog
This tool gives you a diagnosis of the health of a website. It can provide reports on basic issues as well as complex ones. When it comes to checking links, this is a top tool for that. Screaming Frog will crawl and find broken links, duplicate URLs, server errors and more. Some of the advanced issues it can help with include: international SEO implementation issues, pagination problems and problems with a website structure. It can also help identify missing page titles, meta keyword issues, and images that may be too big.
WebPage Test
One of the most common reasons people will leave a website is its page speed. So many agencies are focusing on ensuring they help their clients have sites with faster speeds. With WebPage Test, it is a lot easier to achieve that. You can identify what is slowing the web page, measure how fast it is, as well as check on competitors’ website speed as well so that you are either better or at least on a par with the competition. With this tool, you can check a combination of features that lead to the final efficiency of a page.
Siteliner
Another issue you need to keep track of is content duplication. You do not want to have a lot of pages with duplicate content. Use this tool to find duplicate content on any of the pages on the site and then you can remove the duplicate. Duplicate content is considered a black hat technique by Google and websites that have it will be penalized. This tool can also be used to monitor your links internally and externally, you can also use it to spy on the competition to find out how fast their pages take to load.
Google Search Console
This tool has undergone an upgrade to make it even more efficient. Agencies can best use this tool for reporting. It has a really good reporting feature that can help you provide a client as much information they need about the SEO campaign. You can even compile reports for months and ensure that nothing is lost so when you need to show the client any data, you can find it easily in one place. Agencies can also use this data to evaluate their performance and figure out what they need to improve or put more effort into. Google Search Console is a tool you cannot do without.
Linkody
It is next to impossible to successfully carry out SEO without building links, so there has to be a link tool you can depend on. Linkody gives you analysis on backlinks that you create. You can find out if other sites are creating links back to you and what is causing loss of links. The tool sends periodic email reports on your backlinks. As you create backlinks you also need to keep an eye on the competition, this tool will give you information about your competitors ranking and any new links they may have created. This insight puts you in a favorable position to compete.
Web Developer Toolbar
Use Web Developer Toolbar to solve code problems with JavaScript and CSS. A site can be slowed down by code problems and it can affect the entire user experience. You need to be able to identify these problems and solve them. With JavaScript and CSS turned off, it becomes easier to pinpoint what issues are affecting the browser. There are also other issues that can be identified in this audit like broken images, alt text as well as meta tags. You can get a comprehensive audit report with this tool.
WordStream
Keywords play a pivotal role in SEO success and you need to be able to know which keywords are performing well and which are a waste of time. WordStream is a refined tool that could be compared to Google AdWords. With this, you can find high volume keywords that have low competition. There is really a great amount of information about keywords that you can get from this tool. It keeps track of keyword usage online and shares that date with you and effect you can choose the best keywords to reach the right audience.
Excel
Yes, this is the common Excel that you know and it is an essential tool for agencies. Think of the amount of data you deal with, where would you place that data and manage it best? Excel is the best option. Excel provides a number of tricks, for example, you can compare data from different tools. There is a lot you can learn about using excel for SEO analysis.
These are essential tools that agencies can use to perform their work better. They are not the only tools though, there are probably hundreds of other tools but these 10 have come highly recommended and they are used more often. If there are a few you have not been using, you should start now.
Ritu Sharma, https://www.business2community.com