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Google offers several free tools that greatly help your SEO strategy:
While there are hundreds of other free SEO tools, each with their own merits, we’re going to focus on five from Ahrefs.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a free tool that offers insights into your website’s performance. It provides backlink data, keyword rankings, and technical SEO health checks. Using it, you can identify and address SEO problems and explore opportunities to boost your site’s organic search performance.
Pro tip: This free SEO audit tool operates only with sites verified through Google Search Console. So, it likely won’t be useful for researching the competition, but it’s excellent for identifying potential issues on your site or revealing opportunities, such as trending keywords.
Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator is a tool for finding SEO keywords. It suggests keywords, estimates their search volume, and shows their competition level. The tool also provides related queries and questions for content inspiration. It’s tailored for specific country results.
The free version of this tool offers a more limited and literal interpretation of your input compared to the paid version (so less keyword ideas). While it requires additional legwork for generating ideas, it provides valuable search volumes for your keywords.
Additionally, while the free version of Google Keyword Planner is excellent for generating keyword ideas, it’s not so accurate at providing search volumes. Therefore, when used together with Ahrefs free Keyword Generator, they form an effective, cost-free solution for keyword research and analysis.
Pro tip: Include plural and singular searches for a keyword separately.
Ahrefs’ Website Traffic Checker estimates a site’s monthly organic traffic. It lists top keywords attracting visitors, aiding competitor analysis, SEO strategy understanding, and discovering new keyword opportunities.
To quickly locate pages on a competitor’s website, consider using Google’s site command.
Pro tip: This tool reveals the top five keywords for a specific URL, not just for a domain. So, don’t limit yourself to the homepage of a rival’s site. Try adding specific pages from their site to get more than five results.
Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker provides a quick glance at a site’s backlink profile. It shows the top 100 backlinks, along with the website’s Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR). Although limited, it’s useful for spot checks and swift analyses.
Pro tip: Compare your homepage’s overall backlink performance, including Domain Rating, Backlinks, and Linking Websites, with your competitors’ homepages. This comparison will give you a snapshot of how your site measures up from an off-page SEO perspective.
Ahrefs’ Free Rank Checker will reveal where your website ranks on Google for a specific keyword and from a range of countries.
Pro tip: While researching keywords, check your website’s current ranking for each keyword. If you’re already on the first page or close to it, so within the top ten results, this suggests careful on-page optimization on your website could quickly bring significant improvements.
Back to TopJoe Williams teaches search engine optimization at Joe Wills. He holds a degree in Computing Informatics, and he’s been an SEO specialist for over 15 years. He’s consulted and trained many large blue-chip companies including The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and Sky. He's on a mission to make SEO easy, fun, and profitable. You can catch him on X and LinkedIn.
These walkthrough videos give clear, step-by-step demonstrations and guidance on how to apply key digital marketing concepts and strategies, and use industry-standard tools. While relevant to this module, you will not be assessed on this content.
This guide draws your attention to the specific modules and lessons that you need to focus on to prepare effectively and ensure success in your recertification exam.
ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE
This module begins with the fundamentals of SEO and how search engines and SERPs (search engine results pages) work. It outlines different types of search queries, the role keywords play, and the purpose of keyword research. Next, it explains the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords and recommends best practices for implementing SEO keyword research. It addresses how to boost a website’s organic search ranking using the three pillars of SEO: technical, on-page, and off-page optimization. It also covers the benefits and advantages associated with using free and paid SEO tools and the growing impact of AI technologies and tools on the tasks and activities associated with SEO. Finally, it explains how and why to track keyword rankings, organic traffic, and website conversions to measure SEO performance.