13 Best SEO Tools For Small Businesses in 2024

Last Updated on 2 weeks by Rabin Rasaili

Let’s be honest: Search Engine Optimization is hard. Without the right SEO tools, it can be even more overwhelming and time-consuming.

A good SEO tool can streamline your work, saving time and energy. Further, it can enhance your optimization efforts, providing valuable insights and automation. 

The benefits? – Increased organic traffic, better brand recognition, and, ultimately, more sales.

In this blog post, I’ll explore the best SEO tools for small businesses and their key features, pros, and cons. And show you how you can use them to outrank big brands and achieve better rankings.

So let’s get started!

Best SEO tools and software for small business owners

1. Google Search Console–Best For SEO Performance Reports

Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google. It provides extensive reports on how a website is performing on search engines.

You can quickly analyze metrics like average ranking position, average CTR, clicks, impressions, top-performing keywords, and much more. It also helps find website issues like core web vitals, manual penalties, and indexing problems. 

By analyzing these metrics, you can easily find the gap or room for improvement and further optimize your website for better rankings.

Other things you can do with Search Console are:

• Submit your sitemap–so that Google can easily find and crawl your page or post.
• Check if your page is indexed or not, and if it is not, you can request indexing.
• Report on internal and external links to your site.
• Identifies any mobile usability issues on your pages.
• Temporarily hide pages from search results or remove outdated content.
• Find any technical issues like slow loading speed, invalid markup, or other security concerns.

Pricing

• Free to use

Note: Similar to GSC, Bing also has its own webmaster tool called "Bing Webmaster Tool." While GSC provides data for Google, BWT provides data for Bing. I recommend you set up both tools, as both are free and provide extensive SEO reports for two popular Search Engines.

2. Google Keyword Planner–Accurate Keyword Research Tool

Google Keyword Planner is another free tool offered by Google –a keyword research tool that helps marketers discover new keyword ideas. 

It provides insights into the keyword’s average search volume, competition, and potential cost for specific keywords and phrases. Most importantly, the data are very accurate, as they come directly from Google.

While primarily designed for Google advertisers, others can also use its data for their SEO strategies. However, you will only see ranges rather than exact search volumes unless you’re running active ad campaigns.

Overall, it is a pretty good tool for beginners to learn keyword research, but for the long term, you may wanna go for a paid keyword research tool.

Pricing:

• Free

3. SEMrush–Best All-In-One SEO Tool

Semrush is undoubtedly one of the best SEO solutions on the market. It is an all–in–one SEO platform with 20+ tools for various SEO needs. I have been using SEMrush for a long time(nearly two years), and I must say I am a fan of this tool.

Advance Competitive Research

The no. 1 standout feature of Semrush is its Competitive Research Tool. Just insert one of your competitor’s URLs and get all of their website data–traffic, backlinks, number of keywords they are ranking for, and many more in one place.

In the “Organic Research” section, you can see all of your competitor’s top-ranking keywords, which you can also target in your article. 

Repeat it for 2-3 more competitors, and you will have a nice list of SEO keywords you can target and potentially rank as your competitor is already ranking for them.

In-depth Keyword Research Tool 

Another feature I really liked about SEMrush is that it’s very easy to find low-KD keywords with high potential. In its “Keyword Magic Tool“, enter your seed keyword, set the KD filter to “very easy,” and see the magic.

Let’s take an example of “coffee beans”.

As you can see, these are all low-kd keywords you can target and potentially rank for. Also, these have high search volumes too.

Topic research and keyword clusters

Topic research is a handy tool for finding new topics and related keywords. Enter your seed keyword in the “Topic Research” section, and you will get hundreds of topic ideas to include in your keyword list.

If you click “show more,” it will show all keywords and questions under that specific topic, along with search volume and difficulty.

Besides these, you can also use Semrush for:

1. Link building–explore your backlink profile, evaluate the quality of your backlinks, and discover opportunities for building high-quality backlinks.
2. Local SEO–easily manage your business listings, track your map ranking, and manage and maintain your reputation across online platforms.
3. Site audit–analyzes and identifies your website’s technical issues and recommendations on how to fix them.
4. Various social media marketing tools to manage and enhance your social presence.

Free Trial

• A 7-day free trial is available.

Pricing:

• Pro: $139.95/month
• Guru: $249.95/month
• Business: $499.95/month

Note: Semrush offers a free account too. You will get ten free daily searches with a free Semrush account.

4. Surferseo–Best Content Optimization Tool

Surferseo really shines when it comes to content optimization. When we enter our target keyword and hit click, it analyzes the top 10 ranking pages on Google for that specific keyword using AI and machine learning.

Based on those ranking pages, it provides recommendations on how to improve, including keyword density, content length, and structure.

What I really like about Surfer SEO is that it gives suggestions on all NLP-friendly terms and LSI keywords that my article should include. Plus, it also shows how many times a term should be used in content so that the content is optimized without appearing overly stuffed or unnatural to readers.

Surferseo also has an AI content creation feature, which lets you create a fully optimized blog post with a click. Its AI-generated article is quite good, and you can also rank if you put in a little effort. 

But the thing is that you have to go for its highest plan, “Scale AI,” to get the AI articles feature. Otherwise, you have to buy it for an extra $19, which can be expensive for small businesses.

Other features:

• Keyword research and clustering–provides keyword ideas and their clusters along with search volume and difficulty.
• Automatically optimize your content with a click and suggest internal links to improve site structure and ranking.
• Check for plagiarism, detect AI content, and humanize it with ease using AI.
• Easy integration with other SEO tools like Jasper AI, SEMrush, Google Docs, and WordPress for better output.

Free Trial

• No free trial.

Pricing

• Essential: $89/month
• Scale: $129/month
• Scale AI: $219/month

Note: Surferseo also has a free Chrome extension called "Keyword Surfer." It suggests you keyword ideas with their search volumes.

5. Jasper AI–Best AI Copywriting Tool

Jasper AI is a very popular name in the digital marketing industry, and for good reason. It is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps marketers write high-quality, engaging content quickly and efficiently.

Powered by OpenAI’s GPT, Jasper AI automatically generates content for various formats such as blog posts, articles, social media posts, email newsletters, and ad copy. 

It has over 50+ pre-built templates and workflows which are very helpful in the content generation process. I have been using Jasper for almost 4 months, and I must say I am quite impressed by this tool. 

What sets Jasper apart from other writing tools is its ability to adapt its writing style to match different tones and voices. You can instruct Jasper to write in your brand voice, and it will follow it pretty accurately, maintaining consistency across all your content.

Other features:

• AI chatbot–Interactive chatbot to brainstorm ideas, ask questions, and receive real-time assistance throughout the content creation process.
• AI art–create high-quality AI images with text prompts
• Easy integration with tools like Surferseo for seamless content optimization
• Includes a built-in plagiarism detection feature.
• Support content creation in more than 30 language 

Free Trial

• A 7-day free trial is available.

Price:

• Creator: $39/month
• Pro: $59/month

6. Exploding Topics–Best For Identifying Trending Topics

As its name suggests, Exploding Topics is a tool to discover trending or, say, “exploding topics” across different industries. It analyzes millions of data across the web to find any emerging topics. 

The interesting thing is it not only analyzes search engine data but also examines various searches, conversations, or mentions across social media platforms, forum sites, and podcasts.

It provides users with a curated list of trending topics with growth metrics, search volume data, and related keywords. You can also search for your own topic and see its growth rate. If you don’t find your topic, you can always add it, and they will fetch the data for it, too.

Paid users can see trends from 15 years to below 3 months, which is very useful for spotting current trends. While free members get access to 2 years and beyond trends. It can be a little late to act on a trend, but again, it’s free access. So, I am not complaining!

Other features:

1. Track trend–Track your preferred trend and set customizable alerts for that trend.
2. Spot any trending products and startups across different industries with enriched data to act on.
3. Trend clustering–Groups related trends together, allowing its users to see the bigger picture and understand how different trends are interconnected.
4. Trend forecasting–Early prediction growth of a topic over the next 12 months. So small businesses can act on it accordingly.

Free Trial

• A 14-day trial is available for $1.

Price:

• Entrepreneur: $39/month
• Investor: $99/month
• Business: $249/month

7. Google Business Profile–Best For Local Businesses

Formerly Google My Business, Google Business Profile is a must-have tool for anyone who runs a local business. It helps to manage how your business appears in local search results, Google Shopping, and Google Maps.

With GMB, you can easily connect with your customers, post updates, list services, respond to reviews, and more.

Along with physical storefronts, online businesses or services can also register and claim their listing on GMB. The good thing is you don’t need to have a website to register on GMB. However, having a website can enhance your online presence and provide additional credibility to your business listing. 

Plus, you also get detailed insights into how customers find and interact with the business profile, including data on search queries, profile views, and actions taken by visitors.

Other things you can do with GMB are:

• Add essential information such as your business name, address, phone number, website, and hours of operation.
• Places your business on Google Maps, making it easier for customers to find your physical location.
• Manage and monitor customer reviews easily.
• Attributes–highlight unique features of your business, such as “wheelchair accessible” or “outdoor seating.”
• Easily upload photos and videos of your products or services, giving customers a visual sense of your business.

Pricing:

• Free

8. Google Analytics–Best For User Reporting

Google Analytics is another free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. While Google Search Console reports website performance, Google Analytics reports on user metrics–how a user is interacting with our websites.

It provides website owners with detailed insights into their site’s performance and visitor behavior, like the number of visitors, their geographic location, the pages they visit, time spent on the site, bounce rates, conversion rates, and much more. 

Based on these metrics, we can easily understand our audience, make changes accordingly, and improve our rankings. You can also set custom goals, such as tracking conversions or measuring engagement rates, allowing you to tailor analytics to your specific business objectives.

Important Google Analytics features include:

• Provides live data about visitors currently on your site, including their location and actions.
• Enables segmentation of visitors into different groups based on behavior, demographics, or custom criteria, allowing for more granular analysis and targeted marketing.

Pricing:

• Free

9. Rankmath–Best SEO plugin

RankMath is a powerful and comprehensive SEO plugin for WordPress that I’ve been using on all of my sites. With rank math, you easily optimize your on-page elements like title tag, meta description, readability, URL, and more.

You can also optimize content around multiple focus keywords, and it provides suggestions for related keywords and questions.

What I really liked about Rankmath is that it automatically generates and updates XML sitemaps and a robot.txt file. Both files are critical for search engine bots to find and index your pages.

Additionally, its easy-to-follow setup guides, ease of use, and other extensive features make it a perfect SEO plugin for any beginner or website owner.

Other features include:

• Offers easy implementation of structured data to help you achieve rich snippets
• Content AI– Comes with your personal AI assistant to help you with writing.
• 404 Monitor–tracks and helps manage broken links on your site to maintain a good user experience.
• Easily set up and manage 301 redirects to preserve link equity when changing URLs.
• Connects directly with Google Search Console & Google Analytics for easy access to search performance data.
• Provides tools for improving your local SEO, including local schema markup.

Free trial:

• It is a freemium WordPress plugin and comes with a free plan, which is enough for beginners.

Pricing:

• Pro: $6.99 per month
• Business: $20.99 per month
• Agency: $49.99 per month

10. Grammarly–Best Proofreading Tool

Grammarly is a widely used AI-powered writing assistant that helps writers with various writing tasks. It offers real-time suggestions for grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation, style, and readability scores.

It analyzes text as you write, providing instant feedback on potential errors and offering suggestions for improvement. It goes beyond basic spell-checking by considering context and offering vocabulary enhancements. You can also set your writing tone to match your brand tone. 

Additionally, Grammarly also includes a plagiarism detector and can adjust its recommendations based on the type of document you’re writing, such as academic papers, business emails, or creative works.

It also comes with a Generative AI that lets you generate text or writing suggestions with a prompt. Free users get 100 AI prompts, while premium users get up to 2000 AI prompts.

Free trial:

• A 7-day free trial is available.

Pricing:

• Free: comes with minimal features
• Premium: $12 per month (billed annually)
• Business: $30 per month (billed annually)

11. Screaming Frog–Best For Identifying Technical Issues

Screaming Frog is best for scanning your websites for any technical SEO issues. It works by crawling through your website, just like search engine bots do, and provides you with valuable insights and data on different technical aspects.

It identifies issues such as broken links, duplicate content, missing meta descriptions, incorrect redirects, oversized page elements, shallow site architecture, and much more.

Using this information, you can make sure that search engine bots can find, crawl, and index your website easily. You can also integrate it with Google Analytics and Search Console for deeper insights.

Other features include:

• Scans and catalogs all internal and external links, pinpointing any broken or improperly redirecting.
• Automatically generates XML sitemaps from crawl data, ensuring search engines can efficiently index your site.
• Offers visual representations of site structure and presents data through customizable charts and graphs for easy analysis.
• Detects mobile usability problems like small text, content overflow, and closely spaced tap targets to improve mobile user experience.

Pricing:

• Free version (crawls up to 500 URLs)
• Paid version ( $259/year, billed annually)

12. Keywordspeopleuse–Best For Discovering PAA Questions

KeywordsPeopleuse is a keyword research tool that helps people discover the actual search terms they use online. Similar to the Google PAA section, it also suggests a bunch of questions people are asking in a structured format.

Enter your seed keyword…

…and you will get a hierarchy of questions related to your main topic. You can also download it in a CSV file for further analysis.

These questions are super helpful in understanding your audience’s interests and commonly asked questions, which allows you to create content addressing their needs and intent.

Other features include:

• Other than the PAA section, it also extracts questions from Google autosuggestions, Quora, and Reddit.
• Generates semantic keywords with a seed keyword or question using ai.
• Generates a cluster of keywords based on seed keywords or organizes the given keywords into clusters.
• It also has an AI assistant that assists you in creating topical maps, content outlines, content briefs, and even article generation.

Free Trial:

• No free trial, but it comes with a free version with 15 initial credits.

Pricing

• Lite: $15 per month
• Standard: $39 per month
• Pro: $79 per month
• Unlimited: $299 per month

13. Brightlocal–Best Local SEO Tool

BrightLocal is a comprehensive SEO solution designed specifically for local businesses. It offers a range of tools to help improve local search visibility and manage online reputations. 

Key features include:

• Local search rank tracking
• Citation building and management
• Google Business Profile audits
• Review generation and monitoring

With Brightocal, it’s very easy to track rankings across multiple locations, analyze competitor performance, and generate detailed SEO reports. Its citation builder is very useful in creating and maintaining consistent business listings across various online directories like Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.

Additionally, it provides white-label reporting options, making it attractive for agencies serving multiple clients.

With its focus on local SEO and user-friendly interface, BrightLocal has become a popular choice for small businesses looking to enhance their presence in local search results and manage their online reputation effectively.

Free Trial

• A 14-day free trial is available.

Pricing

• Track: $39/month
• Manage: $49/month
• Grow: $59/month

Start Using These Small Business SEO Software

So, there you have it! These are the best SEO tools for small businesses in 2024. As you can see, I have listed a range of SEO software to help you improve your website’s ranking in search results.

Free tools can be a good start, but they are definitely not the best. They come with limitations, which can be a little frustrating and not suitable for long-term SEO. 

Ultimately, premium tools are the best and provide all the features(if you choose wisely) that are needed to skyrocket your blog or business. 

Now, which of the above SEO tools are you going to try first?

Let me know in the comments!

FAQs

Are SEO tools worth it?

Yes, SEO tools are definitely worth it. They provide valuable insights into keyword performance, competitor analysis, backlink analysis, and site health. These tools can save time, improve decision-making, and help optimize your online presence. However, their value depends on your specific needs, budget, and how effectively you use the data they provide.

What is the most effective tool for SEO?

I have been using Semrush for 2 years and it has really helped me with my various SEO tasks. For me, Semrush has been the most effective.

But it can vary from person to person and the good thing is there are other bunch of SEO tools to try and see for yourself.

Which is the best free SEO tool for beginners?

Google SEO tools are the best free SEO tools for beginners. It includes Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Keyword Planner, Pagespeed Insights, and Google Business Profile.

Does Google have a free SEO tool?

Yes, Google has free SEO tools. They are Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Keyword Planner, Pagespeed Insights, and Google Business Profile.

Rabin Rasaili

Rabin is an enthusiastic SEO and a content creator who is also a BCA graduate. He shares easy-to-follow hacks and tips to help you make smart choices for SEO tools and strategies through his blog. Passionate about learning and sharing, Rabin’s goal is to help you navigate your SEO and blogging journey with confidence.