Search engine optimization can seem daunting even for startup founders, but with tons of amazing tools to help you strategize and take stock, it won’t be too long before you’re an SEO pro. Here are some of our recommendations on where to start learning by doing, tracking keywords, and building a strategy that will get your website (and your products) in front of the right people.
Hubspot Website Grader
Web platform
Free
Performance Monitoring: A free online tool that grades your site on key metrics like performance, mobile readiness, SEO, and security. Hubspot offers this service as an opportunity to upsell, but the basic review is valuable regardless, with an easy-to-follow user interface and explanations designed for SEO beginners. It’s a great place to start! (FYI: MFN members have access to Hubspot for Startups tools at a discounted rate. Here’s more info on that.)
Keywords Everywhere
Chrome/Firefox extension
Starts at $1 for 10,000 credits (credits are used when you see keyword volume)
Keyword optimization: Keywords Everywhere is useful for founders who want to research and analyze keyword trends. You can see keywords and data for everything you type into a search engine, find related keywords and more—all in your browser.
SEO Extension by Mangools
Chrome extension
Free-$400/month
SEO Analytics: Mangools’ Chrome SEO extension kicks off with a 10-day free trial, with more SEO tools and stats at different pricing tiers. Track keywords and backlinks, and analyze whether your page metadata and titles are optimized. This tool also has the ability to run competitive analysis on other sites.
Ahrefs
Web platform
$99-$999 per month (but you can do one free crawl)
Optimization: Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool that helps in website analysis, keyword research, backlink checking, and content planning—all useful functions for developing and tracking SEO strategies. There are lots of different ways to look at the wealth of data Ahrefs offers, and you can run weekly analyses of your websites to track keyword rank changes, organic search, and more.
Hotjar
Web platform
Free-$171/month
User Experience: Looking for insights on what your web visitors’ experience is like? How about a heat map so you can see where people click and how long it takes to hit “submit”? Hotjar has a free plan with up to 35 daily session recordings—a great deal for those just starting out. If you’re trying to convert tons of site visitors, though, you may want to sign up for a paid plan so you can get more data and privileges like access to Hotjar’s API.
SEMrush
Web platform
$129-$499/month
Optimization and comparison: SEMrush is a versatile tool for both organic and paid SEO strategies, with the ability to research competitors and ways to optimize your site for both local searches and general page health. It’s a classic tool for a reason.
Google Search Console
Chrome plugin/Web platform
Free
Search optimization: Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google search results. It offers basic insights about keyword ranking and site performance, and will alert you when issues arise so you can fix them before they tank your rankings.
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Optimization: Google Ads tool
Free
Search optimization: If you have a Google Ads account, you have Keyword Planner. It’s a free keyword research tool that can help you find insights on your own and related keywords, suggest new ones, and offer insights about competition, search volume, and average cost per click. You can also download keyword spreadsheets for safekeeping.
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Want more SEO insights?
Read our Q&A with SEO expert and tech CTO Adriaan Van Swieten.
Learn how air purification and detection company Zeptive made it to the front page of Google.
