The 9 Best Landing Page Builders For 2024 via @sejournal, @annabellenyst

Generating leads is crucial to boosting your sales – but if your landing pages aren’t effective, you’re going to struggle to turn visitors into customers.

Landing pages play a key role in elevating the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and differentiating, refining, and enhancing the user experience.

In this article, we’ll explore how to choose the right landing page builder for your business before highlighting the nine top landing page builders and what makes them stand out.

Let’s get into it.

Choosing The Right Landing Page Builder For Your Business

With so many options to choose from, how can you decide which landing page builder is right for you?

Here are a few things to consider when making your decision.

• Marketing objectives: Start by deciding what you want to achieve with your landing pages. Are you looking to collect email subscribers, drive sales, generate leads, or promote an event? Each platform caters to different use cases, so leading with your goals can help you refine your search.
• Ease of use: Different builders have different learning curves. If you’re a novice, you should probably opt for a tool that caters to beginners. If you have more technical experience, like coding knowledge, you might want to look to more advanced builders to get the most power.
• Integration needs: Do you want your landing pages to integrate with other software or tools you’re already using?
• Mobile optimization: It’s essential that your landing pages cater to mobile users, so make sure your builder considers that with features like responsive design.
• Budget constraints: Unfortunately, budget matters. Landing page builders come with various price tags depending on their capabilities and features. Make sure you’re working within the boundaries of what you can afford.

While this is, by no means, an exhaustive list of considerations, it’s a starting point to help you choose a landing page builder that makes sense for your business needs.

Now, let’s look at nine of the best landing page builders to choose from.

1. Carrd

• Best for: Simple projects, personal use, and small budgets.

Looking for a great landing page builder that won’t break the bank? Look no further than Carrd.

Carrd is a streamlined landing page builder that focuses on creating single-page websites quickly and easily. It’s designed for simplicity, making it ideal for anyone who wants to quickly create a webpage without needing to build a multi-page site.

Think portfolios, personal profiles, project presentations, and small business showcases.

Carrd’s user-friendly interface and selection of themes allow users to create sleek pages in the blink of an eye without even needing an account – you can just visit the website, pick a theme, and get started. However, you will need to sign up to save or publish your site.

It balances simplicity and functionality to help you craft that pages are clean, focused, and responsive across all devices. If you’re just testing the waters or working with slim budgets, this is the right tool for you.

Pros:

• Extremely affordable, with a free tier available.
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface.
• Responsive design.
• Fast and lightweight, making it ideal for quick and simple sites.

Cons:

• Limited to single-page websites.
• Restrictive layouts/themes, which limit creative freedom.
• Lacks advanced features and integrations found in more comprehensive builders.

Pricing: 

• Carrd’s free basic plan allows you to launch three sites with Carrd branding to .carrd.co domains.
• Paid plans range from $9 to $49 per year, and offer additional features like no Carrd branding, custom domains, and Google Analytics support (depending on your membership tier).

2. ConvertKit 

• Best for: Content creators, bloggers, and marketers focused on growing their audience through email.

Billing itself as “the creator marketing platform,” ConvertKit’s landing page builder is targeted at creators, bloggers, and marketers who want to expand their email subscriber base.

If your goal is to create a landing page to help you build an email list, ConvertKit might be the right option for you.

ConvertKit’s landing page builder offers a range of high-quality, customizable templates and integrates with third-party tools to help you get the most out of your site.

It also integrates with the stock photo platform Unsplash to offer access to 100,000+ free images for your landing page.

While ConvertKit’s analytics and customization options might not be as extensive as those of some of its competitors, its ease of use and focused approach make it a standout for email-driven campaigns.

Pros:

• No cost for starting (up to 1,000 subscribers).
• Access to thousands of free images.
• Robust third-party integration capabilities.

Cons:

• Limited template customization and flexibility.
• A/B testing and analytics features are less advanced.
• Priced higher than some basic landing page builders.

Pricing:

• Free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers.
• The Creator plan starts at $25/month and includes benefits like automation features and app integrations. Pricing scales are based on subscriber count.

3. Unbounce

Unbounce is a leading landing page builder renowned for its focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO). Its website promises to help you “build high-converting landing pages with ease.”

It offers a suite of advanced tools, such as A/B testing, dynamic text replacement, and the Smart Traffic system, which uses AI to optimize visitor flow to the highest-converting page variant based on user behavior and characteristics.

It also focuses on features that can help you boost your lead gen efforts, such as opt-in email popups and sticky banners.

With 100+ responsive templates, Unbound makes it easy to create landing pages that are both engaging and effective.

Compared to some other options on this list, Unbounce is a particularly robust platform with tons of customization and integrations – and the price point reflects that.

As a premium offering with a steeper learning curve, it might not be the best for beginners – but its AI-powered features and conversion-focused tools make it a formidable tool for achieving your goals.

Pros:

• Advanced A/B testing and AI-driven optimization.
• Large selection of responsive templates.
• Integrated features for enhancing lead capture.

Cons:

• Higher price point than some other builders, which might not work for those with limited budgets.
• Complex setup and steeper learning curve for new users.
• Some customization limitations.

Pricing

• The Build plan starts at $74/month and covers unlimited conversions, one root domain, and up to 20,000 monthly unique visitors.
• Other paid plans range from $112/month up to $649/month.

4. Leadpages

• Best for: Small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to generate sales.

Need a landing page that will help you generate sales? Consider taking a look at Leadpages.

Its strength lies in its user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor and an extensive collection of templates that streamline the page-building process. Plus, according to the Leadpages website, it’s a platform that converts five times better than the industry average.

Leadages offers CRO tools, real-time analytics, and A/B testing capabilities, enabling users to enhance their page performance effectively.

Its various widgets allow you to add videos, images, forms, and even payment integrations directly onto your landing pages, making it a versatile tool for businesses that want to combine content with sales functionality.

On top of all this, Leadpages now includes an AI Engine for creating headlines and images and an AI writing assistant at some membership tiers, which can help you write better content.

Pros:

• Intuitive no-code editor and easy payment integration.
• Comprehensive A/B testing and real-time analytics.
• Extensive template library with over 250 options.

Cons:

• Higher cost compared to some alternatives.
• Limited ecommerce features and potential mobile responsiveness issues.
• Some users report mobile responsiveness issues.

Pricing:

• The standard plan starts at $37/month for one custom domain, unlimited traffic and leads, and 10,000 monthly AI Engine credits.
• More advanced features are available in higher-tier plans, which start at $74/month.

5. Landingi

• Best for: Businesses seeking a versatile landing page solution with a wide range of features.

If you’re in the market for versatility, Landingi is worth investigating.

Landingi offers a flexible, comprehensive landing page builder with a robust set of features, including an advanced editor, popups, A/B testing, and a substantial library of 300+ templates.

Its unique Smart Sections feature allows you to reuse and easily update specific page elements across multiple designs, saving time and headaches.

Designed to serve businesses of all sizes, Landingi’s simple, drag-and-drop builder can help you create and optimize various types of landing pages – and if you have any HTML and CSS knowledge, it can be a pretty impressive editor.

Landingi is a particularly strong choice for small businesses looking to target different customer segments with unique landing pages. The integration capabilities with numerous apps, including payment gateways like Stripe, make it a great choice for companies looking to sell products.

While its rich feature set can be overwhelming for newcomers, and creating pages might take a bit longer compared to other platforms, the level of customization and control it offers makes Landingi one of the best landing page builders out there.

Pros:

• Extensive template library with 300+ customizable options.
• Powerful editing capabilities with Smart Sections for efficient design.
• Broad integration with various apps, including payment systems.

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve for beginners.
• Potentially longer time to create landing pages compared to simpler platforms.

Pricing:

• The Lite plan starts at $35/month and gives you 10 digital assets, unlimited conversions, 5,000 visits per month, and one custom domain.
• Landingi also offers Professional and Unlimited tiers with more advanced features and capabilities.

6. Instapage

• Best for: Large businesses, marketing teams, or agencies that require collaboration and advanced optimization features.

If you’re seeking a more high-end landing page platform, Instapage might be the one for you. It offers advanced features tailored for professional marketing teams and agencies with a need to create optimized landing pages at scale.

In addition to a drag-and-drop builder and plenty of high-quality templates, Instapage offers a bevy of features, including advanced cloud-based team collaboration tools, heatmaps for user engagement analysis, robust A/B testing capabilities, AI-generated content creation, and more.

One of its standout features is Instablocks, which allows users to create custom page components that can be easily reused across different projects.

Instapage supports advanced marketing goals with features like AdMap to align ads with page content. Plus, its mobile-friendly design ensures a fast, seamless user experience.

While Instapage offers a premium experience with its comprehensive set of tools and features, its higher price point and complex functionalities may be a barrier for smaller businesses or those new to landing page optimization.

Pros:

• Extensive customization with a library of professional templates.
• Instablocks for efficient design and asset reuse.
• Effective team collaboration features.

Cons:

• Premium pricing will be a barrier for many businesses.
• Steep learning curve for utilizing advanced features.
• Limitations in reporting and visitor tracking for lower-tier plans.

Pricing:

• The Build plan starts at $199/month, with a 14-day free trial.
• Customers will need to upgrade to a customized Convert plan to access some of the more complex features, such as AdMap, heatmaps, and more.

7. Wix 

• Best for: Individuals and small businesses seeking creative control without advanced coding.

Now for something much more accessible: Wix is renowned for its user-friendly platform, which is ideal for creating attractive landing pages with minimal effort.

Like other options on this list, Wix offers an accessible drag-and-drop editor and a range of existing templates to help users craft aesthetically pleasing and functional landing pages.

Wix’s platform has a reputation for being particularly beginner-friendly, with a low learning curve and a free plan to help new users get started without any upfront investment.

For those focused on ecommerce, Wix provides specific features to build landing pages that showcase products and promotions, supported by over 50 payment solutions and tools like heatmaps to enhance user engagement and conversion rates.

While it offers a free starter plan, accessing more advanced functionalities and removing Wix ads requires upgrading to a paid subscription.

Wix’s balance of user-friendly design tools, ecommerce support, and cost-effective pricing makes it a favorable option for those new to web design or businesses needing straightforward, visually appealing landing pages.

Pros:

• User-friendly with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
• Free plan available, making it accessible for beginners.
• Ecommerce capabilities with extensive payment integration.

Cons:

• Advanced features and ad-free experience require a paid plan.
• Potential limitations in customization for complex requirements.
• Site speed may decrease with more intricate designs.

Pricing:

• A free plan is available, but it includes Wix branding and lacks more advanced features like payments.
• Paid plans start at $17/month, offering additional features.

8. Elementor

• Best for: WordPress users looking for a powerful and intuitive landing page builder.

If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll want to know about Elementor.

It’s a WordPress page builder that has gained popularity for its flexibility, comprehensive customization capabilities, and user-friendly interface.

Elementor allows users to design dynamic and detailed landing pages within WordPress. This feature makes it the perfect choice for WordPress users who want to extend the functionality of their website with sleek landing pages that maintain a consistent look and feel with their existing content.

Its real-time editing features allow for immediate feedback on design changes without any coding.

It also offers dozens of designer-made templates to choose from. You can add custom forms and popups to your landing page, save page components for reuse, and seamlessly integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) tools to create a powerful customer experience.

While Elementor offers a ton in terms of design flexibility and integration, it’s important to note that it’s exclusively for WordPress users and can be resource-intensive – so it might impact site performance, especially on more complex websites.

Pros:

• Advanced customization and design flexibility.
• Real-time editing and instant feedback.
• Seamless WordPress integration.

Cons:

• Exclusively for WordPress users.
• Potentially impacts site performance due to resource intensity.

Pricing:

• Free version with limited functionality.
• Paid versions start at $59/year, providing advanced features and support.

9. Taplink

• Best for: Social media influencers and businesses looking to direct traffic from social platforms to other content or actions.

This one’s a little different than some of the other examples here, but it deserves highlighting.

Taplink is a specialized micro-landing page builder optimized for social media profiles. It’s perfect for businesses and influencers that want to drive traffic from social media to other content or actions. You just use Taplink to create landing pages and share them on your social profiles.

Taplink stands out for its simplicity and mobile optimization, which is crucial when targeting social media audiences.

The focus on quick, effective page creation allows users to engage with their audience without the complexities of traditional website development.

For those aiming to convert social media interest into tangible outcomes – such as lead generation, sales, or content promotion – Taplink is a winner.

While its feature set is more limited than some of the more comprehensive builders featured here, its affordability and user-friendly design make it a great tool for those looking to maximize their social engagement with minimal effort and investment.

Pros:

• Simple and quick setup.
• Mobile-optimized for social media engagement.
• Cost-effective for targeted campaigns.

Cons:

• Designed primarily for micro-landing pages, limiting the scope.
• Fewer features and customization options than extensive landing page builders.

Pricing:

• Taplink offers a free basic plan, with premium features available on paid plans starting from $3/month. The most expensive tier, the Business tier, is $6/month.

There’s A Landing Page Platform To Help You Convert Visitors

Choosing the right landing page builder for your business can significantly impact your marketing success – but the decision will depend on your specific goals and needs.

As we’ve explored, each tool has unique strengths and caters to different aspects of the landing page creation and optimization process.

Whether you’re looking for advanced design capabilities, a user-friendly interface, or specific functionalities like CRO, there’s a platform that can help you not just streamline your landing page design process, but start converting visitors into loyal customers.

More resources: 

---

Featured Image: Griboedov/Shutterstock

116 Top Free SEO Tools via @sejournal, @jonleeclark

Software makes the SEO world go round. From analyzing your website data to performing research, effective SEO relies on a series of tools to assist humans in decision-making.

Paid subscription tools can be highly effective and usually come with support. But if you don’t have a large monthly budget, they might be out of the question.

The good news is that there are plenty of free tools. With a bit of time and know-how, you can create a free stack of software that helps you achieve your SEO goals.

What Are SEO Tools?

Think of SEO tools as your digital magnifying glass and toolkit for your website. They’re not just about providing numbers and graphs; they’re about offering insights and strategies to enhance your website’s visibility and performance.

These tools are the compass and map for navigating the vast world of search engine optimization, helping you pinpoint exactly where you stand and what steps you need to take to improve and boost visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Each SEO tool has a unique function, just like how a hammer is distinct from a screwdriver in a traditional toolbox. They offer specialized assistance in various aspects of SEO:

• Analytics – Understand your website traffic and user behavior.
• Keyword Research – Discover what your audience is searching for.
• Links – Analyze your backlink profile and build quality links.
• Local SEO – Optimize your site for local search results.
• Mobile SEO – Ensure your site is optimized for mobile users.
• On-page SEO – Improve the content and structure of your website pages.
• Research – Dive deep into market trends and competitor strategies.
• Rank Checking – Monitor where your pages stand in search results.
• Site Speed – Enhance the loading speed of your pages.
• WordPress SEO – Optimize your WordPress site specifically for SEO.

SEO tools are incredibly useful, but you must understand how to use them to get the most out of them.

There are even a few toolsets that can help you in more than the areas we just mentioned, giving you more of an all-at-once glance at your SEO performance.

Do You Need SEO Tools?

The short answer is yes, you need SEO tools.

Imagine trying to build a table using only your hands.

You wouldn’t get very far, would you? No.

You will need tools – saws, a measuring tape, a drill, and screwdrivers, to name a few.

Similarly, while you can certainly create a website with basic knowledge and intuition, truly optimizing and understanding its performance requires the right tools.

Without them, you’re essentially playing a guessing game.

Without SEO tools, you’re missing out on:

• The volume of traffic reaching your site.
• Alerts on sudden drops in website visits.
• Identifying and fixing HTML errors.
• Tracking the quantity and quality of your backlinks.
• Discovering potential keywords to drive more traffic.
• And much, much more.

So, while it’s theoretically possible to manage a website without SEO tools, if you’re serious about maximizing its potential and reaching your audience effectively, leveraging these tools isn’t just recommended – it’s essential.

What Are The Best Free SEO Tools?

If you’re looking to get started with SEO or want to achieve better results for the low cost of $0, here are 110 of the best free SEO tools you should be using.

Free SEO Analytics Tools

1. Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is an invaluable resource that is virtually indispensable to any digital marketer serious about SEO.

It provides plenty of handy data about websites, such as the number of site visits, traffic sources, and location demographics.

With the detailed information from Google Analytics, digital marketers can tweak their content strategy and figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Google Analytics 4 is one of the best free SEO tools that every digital marketer should be using.

2. Looker Studio (Formerly Data Studio)

Google Looker Studio lets you merge data from varying sources, such as Google Search Console and Google Analytics, and create sharable visualizations.

If you’re just getting started with it, this beginner’s guide to Data Studio will be helpful.

More advanced users can learn how to use CASE statements for better Data Studio segments here.

3. Keyword Hero

Missing keyword data? Leave it to Keyword Hero, which uses advanced math and machine learning to fill in the blanks.

This service is free for up to 2,000 sessions per month. Keyword Hero also provides a 14-day free trial of any of its  plans.

4. Mozcast

Mozcast tracks changes big and small to Google’s search algorithm.

With Google making hundreds of changes every year, keeping abreast of the latest developments helps you ensure you’re doing everything to have the best SERPs.

5. Panguin Tool

The Panguin Tool, provided by Barracuda Digital, lines up your search traffic with known changes to the Google search algorithm.

If you see a drop that lines up with an update, you’ve likely found the culprit and can work on fixing it!

6. Google Search Console Enhancer

A Chrome extension that beefs up your Google Search Console (GSC) with additional features and insights. Google Search Console Enhancer is like putting a turbocharger on your Console, providing you with more detailed data to fine-tune your SEO approach.

7. Better Regex In Search Console

This nifty Chrome extension amps up your Google Search Console experience.

If you’re into the nitty-gritty of SEO data, this tool helps you create more sophisticated search patterns to dive deeper into your website’s search query data.

8. Lost Impressions Index Check

This tool from TameTheBots helps you uncover potential SEO opportunities by identifying where you might be losing visibility in search results.

Free Crawling & Indexing Tools

9. Redirect Path

The Redirect Path Chrome extension will flag 301, 302, 404, and 500 HTTP Status Codes.

Additionally, client-side redirects like meta and JavaScript redirects will also be flagged, ensuring any redirect issue can be uncovered immediately.

HTTP Headers, such as server types and caching headers, as well as the server IP address, can also be displayed with the click of a button.

Furthermore, all of these details can be copied to your clipboard for easy sharing or addition to a technical audit document.

10. Link Redirect Trace

Use this Chrome plugin to make sure all your link redirects are directing people and crawlers to where you want them to go.

11. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Crawl your website for SEO errors.

Discover HTTP header errors, JavaScript rendering hiccups, excess HTML, crawl mistakes, duplicate content, and more with Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

12. Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer

Upload your log files to Screaming Frog’s Log File Analyzer to confirm search engine bots, check which URLs have been crawled, and study search bot data.

13. SEOlyzer

Another SEO log analysis tool that provides data in real-time and page categorization.

14. Xenu

One of the original free SEO tools, Xenu is a crawler that provides basic site audits, looks for broken links, and the other usual suspects.

15. Where Goes?

Track where redirection URLs and shortened links go with Where Goes?

16. Check My Links

Check My Links is a nifty Chrome Extension that crawls through your webpage and identifies the status code for each link on the page – including broken links.

Each status code is color-coded with 200 status codes returning dark green, 300 status codes returning light green, and 400 status codes returning red.

Once identified, you can copy all bad links to your clipboard with one click.

17. Robots.txt Generator

Create a correct robots.txt file instantly so search engines know how to crawl your website.

Advanced users can customize their files with Robots.txt Generator as well.

18. HEADMaster SEO

Checks URLs in bulk for status code, redirect status, response time, response headers, and HTTP header fields with HEADMaster SEO.

Get results in real-time, sort and study your findings, and export your work to CSV.

19. Keep-Alive Validation SEO Tool

Check URLs in bulk – or one by one – to see if their servers support persistent connection, which makes your website load faster.

Check what version of HTTP your server is on and whether there are any external connections on your URL with this tool.

20. Hreflang Tag Generator

Generate hreflang tags so that Google knows which language particular pages on your website are in.

This will allow Google to search those pages in that language.

21. XML Sitemaps

Create a site map of up to 500 pages for free without registration.

Download your sitemap as an XML file or get it via email.

22. SERP Checker

Determine the potential ranking difficulty of a keyword with Ahrefs’ free SERP Checker tool.

You can check the top 10 search ranking results from any location without using proxies or location-specific IP addresses.

23. SFAIK Screaming Frog Analyzer

A robust visualization of Screaming Frog crawl data using Google Data Studio.

24. SEOWL Google Title Rewrite Checker

This Google Title Rewrite Checker will allow you to check if Google is rewriting the title of a list of pages, allowing for deeper Title Tag structure analysis.

Free Keyword Research Tools

25. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is a nifty tool that provides content marketers with valuable data about the questions people ask online.

Once you input a keyword, it fetches popular queries based on that keyword and generates a cool graphic with the questions and phrases people use when they search for that keyword.

This data gives content creators insight into potential customers’ concerns and desires, and enables them to craft highly targeted content that addresses those needs.

AnswerThePublic also provides keyword suggestions using prepositions such as “versus,” “like,” and “with.”

It is an excellent research tool that can help you create better content that people will enjoy and be more likely to share.

26. Keyword Explorer

This keyword research tool will give you up to 1,000 keyword suggestions, a keyword difficulty score, a click-through rate date, and SERP analysis.

You get three free searches per day.

27. Keyword Planner

Google’s Keyword Planner is designed for ad campaigns, but you can use it for keyword research by seeing how keywords perform in ads.

28. Keyword Sheeter

Get keyword volume, cost per click, and competition data with this free keyword tool.

29. Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a must-use keyword research tool due to the massive list of sites that it provides free search volume, CPC, and competition data for:

• Google Search.
• Google Trends.
• eBay.
• AnswerThePublic.
• Google Keyword Planner.
• Bing.
• Etsy.
• Soovle.
• Google Search Console.
• YouTube.
• Ubersuggest.
• Majestic.
• Google Analytics 4.
• Amazon.
• Keyword Sheeter.
• Moz Open Site Explorer.

It’s available for Chrome and Firefox.

30. Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty

This tool lets you discover how difficult it will be to rank in the top 10 search results for any keyword.

Simply enter your term and choose your location, and Ahrefs will give you a score, with 0 being easy and 100 being extremely difficult.

31. Also Asked

Find out what questions people are asking about particular keywords so that you can write content that answers those questions with Also Asked.

Conduct searches by country and in different languages. You can claim three free searches to start.

32. Google Trends

With Google Trends, you can see the interest in a particular term from as recently as an hour to as far back as 2004.

Sort by categories, country, and type of search. See related topics, popularity by region, latest most frequently searched-for terms, and compare to other terms.

33. Glimpse – Google Trends Search Extension

This Chrome extension brings Google Trends right to your browser, offering instant insights into trending topics.

It’s a goldmine for SEO strategists looking to tap into current interests and emerging searches.

34.  Keyword Surfer

This Chrome extension shows you the search volume in your Google search results. You can also see the word count and the number of keywords for top-ranking pages.

35. CanIRank

As the name implies, CanIRank helps you determine if you can rank on the first page of search engines for a particular keyword.

Unlike other tools that merely provide data about how competitive keywords are, CanIRank lets you know the probability that you’ll rank for a search term and uses AI to give you suggestions on how to better target keywords.

CanIRank provides great competitive analysis data and actionable steps to get your site ranking higher with better SEO.

36. Seed Keywords

Come up with a question or topic you want to research, send it to your contacts, and have them select the keywords they would search for to get the information you want with Seed Keywords.

37. Exploding Topics

Similar to Google Trends, Exploding Topics will help uncover topics that are about to become popularly searched before they become popularly searched!

38. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a simple keyword research tool that scrapes data from Google’s Keyword Planner for keyword ideas based on a keyword you provide.

The tool also returns handy data for each keyword, including the search volume, CPC, and level of competition.

An excellent feature of Ubersuggest is its ability to filter out keywords you’re not interested in from search results.

The tool has recently added a feature where you can type in a competitor’s domain to get better keyword ideas.

39. Keys4Up

Get the related keywords, also known as semantically linked keywords, for any search with Keys4Up.

40. Wordtracker Scout

Wordtracker Scout will help discover what keywords people search for when they’re ready to make a purchase.

41. KWFinder

With KWFinder, you can discover long-tail keywords – those more specific, less frequently used keywords that yield higher results because of how specific they are.

42. Keywords People Use

Get into the minds of your audience by discovering the exact phrases and questions they use.

This tool helps you align your content with real user searches, making your site more visible and relevant.

Free Link Tools

43. Disavow Tool

Use Google’s Disavow Tool to free yourself from toxic backlinks.

44. Moz Link Explorer

See the backlink profile and domain authority of any URL with Link Explorer.

45. Link Miner

Discover if a given URL has any broken links and discover the metrics of those links, including both search and social data with the Link Miner extension.

46. Backlink Checker

Use this Backlink Checker to discover all the backlink data about a particular URL.

See the number of referring domains, the number of backlinks, the domain and URL rating, and its Ahrefs Rank, a domain’s position in Ahrefs’s list of most powerful sites.

47. The Anchor Text Suggestion Tool By Outreach Labs

Discover the best anchor text to use for any URL with this Anchor Text Suggestion Tool.

48. SendPulse

SendPulse allows for the configuration of chains of emails, notifications, and SMS messages based on user actions, variables, or events.

49. Scraper

This Chrome extension lets you scrape data from any URL and export the info into a spreadsheet.

50. Help A Reporter (HARO)

Help A Reporter is a resource that connects journalists and experts who act as sources for stories.

51. Streak

Convert your Gmail inbox into customer relationship management (CRM) software with this free extension.

Local SEO

52. Google Business Profile

Connect with customers across Google Search and Google Maps using a free Google Business Profile.

53. Whitespark Google Review Link Generator

Use this tool to find your Google Review listing and generate a shortened link to your page.

54. Local Search Results Checker

Conduct local searches using Google Search or Google Maps with Brightlocal’s Local Search Results Checker.

55. Moz Local Check Business Listing

Confirm that your company’s details appear correctly on various directories with Moz’s Local Business Checker.

56. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

Track your citations, discover new opportunities, and get the citations your competitors have with this Local Citation Finder.

57. Review Handout Generator

Print instructions on how to leave a Google review via desktop or mobile device for your business with Whitespark’s Review Handout Generator.

58. Fakespot Review Checker

This Chrome extension lets you know if the product you’re about to buy comes from a reputable seller and, if not, provides an alternative.

59. Mobile SERP Test

See your local SERPS on various mobile devices with Mobile SERP Test from Mobile Moxie.

Mobile SEO Tools

60. WebPageTest

Get visual insights for Core Web Vitals, including the primary image responsible for low LCP scores, scripts responsible for render-blocking, and .gif examples of cumulative layout shifts from the WebPageTest.

61. Merkle Mobile-First Index Checker

See how your website stacks up relative to SEO best practices, depending on whether it’s your desktop or mobile version, with Mobile-First Index Checker.

62. Google Page Speed Insights

Test your website’s mobile-friendliness with Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.

63. GTMetrix

See how quickly your website loads with GTMetrix.

Discover what’s keeping it from loading as fast as possible, and see what steps to take to optimize load speed.

64. Cloudflare

A free content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that speeds up content loading by using the server closest to the person doing the loading.

65. Reddico SERP Speed Test

Reddico’s SERP Speed Test tool allows you to compare your page speed at keyword level with the rest of the pages ranking on page 1.

The best part? Most countries are supported – simply choose your local from the drop-down.

Free Multi-Tools

66. Semrush Free Account

Semrush is an excellent keyword research SEO tool that, among other things, makes it easy to find out what keywords any page on the web is ranking for.

It provides detailed information about those keywords, including their position in SERPs, the URLs to which they drive traffic, and the traffic trends over the past 12 months.

With this feature-packed tool, you can easily find out what keywords your competitors are ranking for and craft great content around those terms and phrases.

Semrush also offers more features and unlimited access with various paid plans.

While they’re not cheap, you can get started with a 14-day free trial to test the premium features. Or follow the company’s guide on how to use features with a free account.

67. Chrome DevTools

Edit pages in real-time using tools that are built into Google Chrome DevTools.

Diagnose problems as you encounter them.

68. Marketing Miner

Get SERP data, ranking, tool reports, and competitive analysis all in the form of convenient reports with Marketing Miner.

69. MozBar

MozBar is a free SEO toolbar that works with the Chrome browser. It provides easy access to advanced metrics on webpages and SERPs.

With MozBar and a free Moz account, you can easily access the Page and Domain Authority scores of any page or site.

The Page Analysis feature lets you explore elements on any page (e.g., markup, page title, general attributes, link metrics).

You can find keywords on the page you’re viewing, highlight and differentiate links, and compare the link metrics of different sites in SERPs.

If you need to do detailed SEO research on the go, MozBar is one of the best options.

You can unlock even more advanced features, such as Page Optimization and Keyword Difficulty, with a MozPro subscription.

70. SEO Minion

Conduct on-page SEO analysis, check for broken links, get a SERP preview, and more with this Chrome extension.

71. SEOquake

See SEO metrics and conduct an SEO audit with this Chrome extension.

72. Sheets For Marketers

Learn how to automate tasks in Google Sheets and discover the best automation templates and tools via this curated list.

73. Sheet Consolidator

Create workbooks using CSV exports with a table of contents and enabled hyperlinks using this simple Excel Sheet Consolidator tool.

74. Google Search Console

This list wouldn’t be complete without a mention of Google Search Console.

Aside from the fact that the data comes from Google, Google Search Console is rich with insights related to:

• Keyword and URL performance.
• Indexation issues.
• Mobile usability.
• Sitemap status.
• And much more!

75. Small SEO Tools

A suite of tools to make it easier to create content, including a plagiarism checker, article rewriter, grammar check, word counter, spell checker, paraphrasing tool, and more.

76. Internet Marketing Ninjas

From social tools and schema generator tools to webmaster tools and web design tools, check out the free suite of tools from Internet Marketing Ninjas.

77. Ahref’s SEO Toolbar

Get SEO metrics and SERP details from Ahrefs free Chrome or Firefox extension.

78. Bing Webmaster Tools

Featuring keyword reports, keyword research, crawling dates, and more.

Unlike Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster Tools only focuses on organic search. It’s a must-have for anyone who wants to be ranked on Bing.

79. Woorank

Woorank is a handy website analyzer that provides useful insights that can help you improve your site’s SEO.

It generates an SEO score for your site and an actionable “Marketing Checklist,” which outlines steps you can take to fix any problems with your site’s SEO.

Another cool feature of this free tool is the social shareability pane. This section provides social network data such as the number of likes, shares, comments, backlinks, and bookmarks across popular social networks.

Woorank also has a great mobile section where you can find information on how your pages render on mobile devices and how quickly they load.

80. SEObility

Find a suite of SEO tools that includes a site auditor, a SERP tracker, a backlink tracker, and more with SEObility.

81. Dareboost

This tool will provide you with an audit of your technical SEO, content, and website’s popularity.

You can also find out which keywords you should add to your pages.

82. Siteliner

Discover duplicate content, broken links, and page authority, and get both an XML sitemap and a detailed report of key site information with Siteliner.

83. InLinks

InLinks is about enhancing your content’s SEO by understanding and optimizing for the context of your topics, not just keywords.

It’s like having an SEO coach who helps you make your content more relevant and engaging through internal linking recommendations, AI content generation, content brief automation, and more.

On-Page SEO

84. Named Entities Indexing Checker

Part of InLinks, this indexing checker tool checks how well search engines understand the named entities (people, places, things) in your content.

Ensuring your content’s context is spot-on for better SEO performance is crucial.

85. JSON Crack

While more technical, this online JSON tool can help SEO professionals work with JSON, a common data format, making it easier to analyze and utilize structured data for SEO purposes.

86. Counting Characters Google SERP Tool

While counting characters has been a long-standing approach to evaluating meta description and title tag length, the reality is Google doesn’t count the meta title and description in the number of characters. It uses pixels instead.

The Counting Characters tool will provide both the character count and the pixel count to ensure you are creating meta tags that are not cut off by an ellipsis – represented by (…).

87. Natural Language API Demo

Use machine learning to determine the sentiment of text with the Natural Language API Demo.

New customers get $300 in free credits to spend on Natural Language. Use this data to improve your product or site design.

88. Rich Results Test

The Rich Results Test will discover if your website can support rich results, which is when your Google result includes non-textual elements like images.

89. Structured Markup Validator

Google’s structured data tool no longer exists. The Schema Markup Validator is the recommended alternative.

90. Ryte Structured Data Helper

The Ryte Structured Data Helper will provide you with a handy overview, showing you how to quickly and clearly validate your page’s Schema markup.

91. Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager allows you to manage your website tags without editing any code!

92. View Rendered Source

See how your browser renders a page with this Chrome extension, including modifications made by JavaScript.

Differences between raw and rendered versions are shown line-by-line.

93. Higher Visibility Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool

Find out what your SERP snippet will look like with Higher Visibility’s Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool.

94. Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator

Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator tool will help create JSON-LD markups for articles, breadcrumbs, events, FAQ pages, and how-to guides.

95. Animalz Revive

Find out which of your pages needs an update or an upgrade with Animalz Revive.

You can see the traffic for your pages, including the percentage of traffic your page lost since its peak.

96. Copyscape Free Comparison Tool

Copyscape’s Comparison Tool will help you check the percentage of shared text between two different pages to weed out plagiarism.

97. Internal Linking Tool

An internal linking tool to help you weave a web of internal links on your website, boosting your SEO by making your site more navigable and interconnected. Think of it as laying down a network of roads within your website, guiding visitors and search engines alike.

SEO Research Tools

98. Hunter

Hunter will help find all the important email addresses associated with a given domain.

99. SimilarWeb

Conduct competitor analysis with SimilarWeb that shows you a given domain’s traffic, top pages, engagement, marketing channels, and more.

100. Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer will help you determine if a given website is using a CMS, CRM, ecommerce platform, advertising networks, marketing tools, or analytics.

101. Wayback Machine

See a website throughout time, including pages that are no longer on the web with the Wayback Machine.

Bonus* check out the Compare tool to visualize how a page has changed based on specific timestamps.

102. SEO Explorer

SEO Explorer is a free tool for keyword and link research.

103. RedditInsights.ai

This is a cool tool for peering into the vast world of Reddit to uncover trends and topics.

Understanding what’s buzzing on Reddit can guide content creation, helping you tap into what your audience is interested in to inform your keyword and content strategy.

104. Thruuu Page Comparison Tool

Dive into side-by-side SEO comparisons of different web pages with the Thruuu Page Comparison Tool.

You can use this to help you understand how to optimize your own content.

Free Rank Checking Tools

105. Ahref’s SERP Checker

See the domains that place in the top 10 for any given keyword in 243 countries, and get robust analytics from Ahref’s SERP Checker.

106. SERPROBOT

Find a dedicated SERP tracking tool with the appropriately named SERPROBOT.

Set up automatic alerts, choose the frequency with which your SERP is checked, and get visual representations of changes.

107. Bulk Google Rank Checker

See your website’s SERPs for various keywords en mass with the Bulk Google Rank Checker.

Free Site Speed Tools

108. Lighthouse

This is Google’s open-source site speed utility. Lighthouse provides audits of performance, accessibility, web apps, SEO, and more.

109. WebpageTest

WebpageTest conducts site speed tests from different locations using different browsers.

110. Web Vitals

This GitHub extension measures Core Web Vitals, providing instant feedback on loading, interactivity, and layout shift metrics.

Here is an additional list of plugins to improve site speed.

WordPress SEO Tools

WordPress is a robust SEO-friendly CMS platform with numerous plugin options available to improve SEO.

While this post isn’t a WordPress-specific list of plugins, it is worth mentioning a handful of key plugins worth considering.

111. RankMath

A newer SEO suite for WordPress, RankMath has 15 modules and provides SEO guidance using 30 different types of improvements.

112. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most installed SEO suite for WordPress, with regular updates and new tools.

113. Ahrefs WordPress SEO Plugin

The Ahrefs WordPress SEO plugin will provide you with content audits, backlink checking, and tools to monitor and grow your organic traffic.

Here are additional lists of Google Analytics plugins and plugins to improve site speed.

Free AI SEO Tools

Last but not least, we cannot ignore AI.

For better or worse, artificial intelligence has completely shaken up the digital world. While it should never replace your current SEO activities, it can certainly enhance them.

Here are some free AI SEO tools; we’ll also explain how to use them.

114. OpenAI Chat (ChatGPT)

Perhaps the most famous AI tool out there, ChatGPT can be a great help in your SEO efforts.

You can ask for advice, generate content ideas, and even get help with keyword research. It’s like having an SEO buddy you can brainstorm with anytime.

While the Premium ChatGPT, i.e., ChatGPT 4, is paid, ChatGPT 3.5 is free of charge.

115. AIRPM for ChatGPT

Think of AIPRM as your personal assistant to supercharge ChatGPT’s capabilities.

It helps you craft prompts that get straight to the point, whether you’re looking for keyword suggestions, content ideas, or SEO strategies, making your interactions with ChatGPT even more fruitful.

116. SEO.AI

This innovative tool leverages AI to analyze your content’s alignment with SEO best practices and offers suggestions for improvement.

It can provide insights into keyword optimization, readability, and other on-page SEO factors, helping you refine your content to better match search engine algorithms and user expectations.

You can get 10 content audits free!

Time to Take Your SEO Efforts To New Heights

In today’s digital landscape, standing out is not just about having a great website; it’s about making sure it’s seen.

With well over 100 free SEO tools at your disposal, the power to elevate your online presence is literally at your fingertips.

We’ll leave you with some parting tips to help you while using these free SEO tools:

• Start with a goal – Have a clear objective before diving into the sea of tools. Are you looking to increase traffic, enhance user engagement, or improve your search engine rankings? Knowing your goal will help you select the right tools and focus your efforts effectively.
• Experiment and explore – Don’t hesitate to try different tools to see which ones resonate with your workflow and provide the most valuable insights. What works for one site might not work for another, so exploration is key.
• Integrate SEO into your routine – Make SEO a regular part of your content creation and website maintenance routine. It’s not a one-off task but a continuous effort that pays dividends over time.
• Stay updated – The world of SEO is dynamic, with search engines constantly updating their algorithms. Keep abreast of the latest trends and adjust your strategies accordingly to maintain and enhance your site’s visibility.
• Use data wisely – Leverage the data and insights from these tools to make informed decisions. But remember, data is most powerful when combined with creativity and a deep understanding of your audience.
• Patience is key – SEO results don’t happen overnight. Be patient, keep refining your strategies, and the results will come.

So, whether you’re a seasoned SEO strategist or just starting, the wealth of free tools available means there’s no excuse not to optimize your site.

Dive in, explore, and watch as your website climbs the ranks, attracting more visitors and turning clicks into customers.

More Resources:

---

Featured Image: EtiAmmos/Shutterstock

Google Keyword Planner: How To Use The Free Tool For SEO via @sejournal, @tessabonacci

With all the options on the market, deciding which SEO tools you want to use can be a bit overwhelming.

There are many tools for keyword research, competitive analysis, keyword rankings, and all the other tasks we complete as SEO pros.

The number of SEO tools available continues to grow, and it can be challenging to determine which is best for you.

That answer depends on many factors, including budget, team size, and the structure of your business and website.

Do you run a blog or an ecommerce store? Are you at an agency or in-house?

The list goes on, and you don’t want all those options to give you analysis paralysis.

Google Keyword Planner is one of the most common keyword research tools and has been around for quite a long time.

The benefit of using Google Keyword Planner for keyword research is that it is free and uses Google data.

If you don’t know what to use, Keyword Planner is a safe pick that can provide value to just about anyone.

This article will walk you through how to leverage Keyword Planner for your keyword research needs.

What Is Google Keyword Planner?

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that assists digital marketers in their research efforts, most commonly for search campaigns, both paid and organic.

It highlights various types of “keywords” or “search phrases and terms” related to your business.

Keyword Planner estimates the monthly search volume for specific keywords and the cost of targeting them with a paid campaign.

While Keyword Planner’s original intent was for paid search campaigns, the tool is valuable beyond search engine marketing (SEM).

SEO pros have been dipping into this free tool for years as a free resource for keyword research.

Why Use Google Keyword Planner For SEO?

Google Keyword Planner offers the ability to look for keyword insights for free.

Many tools require a paid subscription, but Keyword Planner is a free alternative that allows you to conduct keyword research.

Keyword Planner has many benefits, including finding new keywords related to your objective and determining how many times consumers search for these each month.

Suppose you don’t have access to any paid tools yet. In that case, Keyword Planner can help you identify what is essential in a keyword research tool so you know what features to look for when shopping around later.

How To Get Started With Google Keyword Planner For SEO

Now, let’s walk through the steps to getting Keyword Planner set up – and getting you one step closer to your keyword research goals.

1. Create An Account

First and foremost, you need to have a Google account to leverage Google Keyword Planner.

If you already have an account, you will need to log in.

2. Log In

Once you have created your new account, log into Keyword Planner.

3. Choose A Task

Upon logging into Keyword Planner, you will be presented with two options: “Discover new keywords” and “Get search volume and forecasts.”

If you are unsure which option you are looking for, jump in and try one!

Mining The Data For Strategies

Discovering new keywords is a great option when you want to expand the keywords, phrases, or topics you cover for your domain.

You can also use a domain’s URL to help filter out suggestions that don’t match your business well. This means that the domain you use will filter out any keywords that are a service/product you don’t offer.

This will provide you with ideas for related keywords, the monthly search volume, how much demand has changed year-over-year, the level of competition, and the cost per click (CPC).

You have the option to broaden your search to include other keywords to give you more diverse keyword ideas.

You can also narrow it down to the desired criteria for location, language, and time frames.

If you want to get even more granular, depending on your search topics, you will be given the option to refine based on options like brand or non-brand, new or used.

1. Discovering New Keywords

Let’s walk through an example.

You are looking for new opportunities to target for Xbox.com in terms of gaming. You start with products or services closely related to your business, such as “Xbox games” and “gaming.”

You will then use xbox.com as the site to filter out unrelated keywords and run the results.

2. Location

Now, let’s take your results and narrow them down even further.

By default, it is filtered to the United States and the last 12 month’s timeframe.

You are going to narrow down your location, which also allows you to see the “reach” in different locations.

Reach is defined as the estimate of how many people are interested in the topics you choose on specific sites. It is based on the number of signed-in users visiting Google sites, so keep in mind that demand could be much higher.

You will change your location to California, giving you opportunities to reach your California audience.

Using location could show significant shifts in keywords, but it also may not. This depends on your product or service.

There are other filters available, but for this scenario, I will mention the dropdown where it defaults to “Google.” You can change this to Google and Search Partners.

These sites partner with Google to show advertisements and free products, such as YouTube.

Expanding your research to partner sites can be a great opportunity if you are wondering about overall reach or planning to pursue topics from angles other than just written content – like video.

When you look at the keyword ideas, they are sorted by relevance. Keep in mind the top keywords might not be your greatest opportunity.

In this example, you can take a look at the average monthly searches, the three-month change, year-over-year changes, and competition to get you started for SEO strategy purposes.

The first set of keyword ideas is very broad, or head terms, with a lot of volume, pretty flat YoY, and high-medium competition.

So, as you scroll down and keep an eye on the fields we outlined above, some opportunities stick out here.

3. High Volume Broad Vs. Narrowing

First, Fortnite.

Fortnite is a popular video game played across many gaming consoles.

Remember, it filters results based on Xbox.com and its products and services. This could be an excellent opportunity to pursue if you haven’t maximized it yet.

It shows an average demand of 1-10 million per month for California alone, stable demand over the last year, and low competition!

From here, you would dive deeper into Fortnite to decide what strategy and tactics would allow us to perform well in the space.

4. Seasonal Opportunities

The second stand-out opportunity is for another game on the list, “Madden 23.”

Pretend that, for the sake of this exercise, you are not familiar with this popular game franchise. Seeing the monthly demand of 10,000 to 100,000, a year-over-year decline in interest of ~90%, and high competition.

These data points could lead you to look into Madden 24 and preparing a strategy around this topic, year after year.

Remember, keyword and topic research doesn’t have to yield net new ideas every time. There are events, products, services, etc., that occur on a cadence, so leverage that knowledge and those reoccurring opportunities.

5. Refine Even Further: Brand, Game, And Others

You can also leverage the “refine keywords” to add another layer.

For this use case, you can filter opportunities by brand or non-brand, game, food, and others. You will filter by brand and choose “Lego.”

As you can see, your results get even more granular and present you with specific opportunities around “lego.”

Leveraging the logic we discussed in example two, we see a trend for the “Star Wars Lego game,” which has increased by 900% in the last three months. This indicates that this is a hot topic and an opportunity for you to capitalize on.

You can also leverage the “game” filter in this example, similar to “brand.” The filtering opportunities aren’t perfect, but they can definitely help form strategies when appropriately leveraged.

Bonus Strategies & Tips

1. Save Money!

Everyone likes to save money, so why not use that data point to help form a strategy?

One of the columns we can leverage for this in Discover Keywords is the “top of page bid (high range).” Sort by this column to view the most expensive keywords first.

You can then evaluate this list in partnership with your partners in SEM for any costly keywords that are a priority for the brand.

Once you identify these, you can decide how to better capitalize on these keywords in the organic search landscape, whether to improve ranking, gain a featured snippet, drive higher click-through rates, etc.

2. Export Your Data

While there are many ways to expand and filter the data, there is also a way to export it to share with your team or manipulate it in an Excel file in a way that benefits you.

Select “download keyword ideas” and choose Google Sheets or CSV file format.

3. Unlock The Exact Data

If you have used Google Keyword Planner over the years, you know Google hasn’t been open to sharing exact search volumes, which can be frustrating, as a range might be from 1,000 to 10,000 searches per month.

This can be a bit too broad, especially when looking at long-tail keyword opportunities.

There is a new “trick” to unlock the exact search volume when you need it in Keyword Planner. Leveraging the “Get search volume and forecasts,” we used “discover new keywords” for the example above, so we’re changing gears.

From there:

1. Enter your keyword in square brackets.
2. Navigate to the Forecast tab.
3. Click the arrow to show the graph.
4. Look for the highest cost on the graph and click on it.
5. Look at the impressions column.

Knowing you selected the highest cost, your impression volume should directionally show search volume per month.

This may seem like a lengthy process and can be a bit tricky, so if you have access to other tools for exact search volume, that would be great. However, if you don’t, this can be very helpful.

4. Understand Your Audience

For international and national brands, don’t rule out the value that exists in localization strategies. I am not referring to just having a Google Business Profile for your brand; what I mean is knowing your audience and crafting strategies for them.

Go to the saved keywords tab and select the keyword you would like to use. If you don’t have any saved keywords, add one and name the group.

Once this is saved, navigate to the forecast tab and scroll down to the locations module. You can view this by region, state, county, etc.

Continuing with our example above, for the term “Fortnite,” the top city is New York City. But Miami is in the top 5; you may consider targeting Miami as one of your opportunities to grow.

That could be a variety of things, but if your goals are to increase awareness and bring people to your website, you may explore written content about Fortnite with contextual information relevant to Miami.

Outside of SEO, you may decide to connect with an influencer with a high presence in Miami. The list can go on forever.

You can also leverage the Device section to adjust or optimize strategies you have in place.

For the term Fortnite, we see that most impressions may happen on mobile phones. Still, actual clicks and conversions happen at a higher rate on desktops.

Does that change your strategy in terms of how you create SEO content? Maybe not. Could it change how you align your calls to action on your experience? It could.

Both are great examples of ways to leverage Keyword Planner for SEO, but they should be taken to the next level to drive results.

Final Thoughts

There are many ways to leverage Keyword Planner for various marketing channels besides its initial creation, which focused on the PPC space.

The opportunity to leverage the tool lies in the “how” you use it and the data it provides. We reviewed how to get started, use the functionalities, and leverage that data for strategy.

As an SEO professional, I always recommend using tools to complement each other rather than using only one. However, not everyone has access to various tools.

You can form an entire SEO strategy by leveraging only Google Keyword Planner and maybe some other acquisition strategies as well.

If you are in a position where you can leverage different tools, I recommend reading about these keyword research tools.

More resources:

---

Featured Image: Monster Ztudio/Shutterstock