What Are the Best SEO Tools?

It’s a question we hear all the time: What are the best SEO tools?

And it’s a fair one, because the right tools can give you a huge edge. SEO success today isn’t just about having great content or strategy. It’s about having the right data, technical insight, and workflow efficiency, and that’s where your toolkit makes all the difference.

But here’s the truth: no single tool does it all. And often, the best SEO tool is the one that fits your particular goals, team, and processes, and that you’re comfortable using consistently.

”The best SEO tools are the ones you actually use.”
— Benji Carter, SEO Specialist at Zeal

The SEO landscape evolves quickly, and so do the tools that support it. From technical audits and keyword research to content optimisation and link building, each stage of SEO benefits from a different set of capabilities.

In this blog, we’ll discuss many of the best SEO tools available. So, whether you’re an in-house marketer, a content creator, or an agency professional, these tools can help you work smarter and achieve better results.

This includes tasks such as:

• Website audits and crawling
• Keyword research
• Technical SEO and performance optimisation
• SERP tracking and rank monitoring
• Content optimisation
• SEO reporting and analytics

Let’s dive in.

Website Audit & Crawling Tools

Before you can optimise a website, you need to understand how it looks to search engines, and where any technical problems may lie. That’s where website audit and crawling tools come in.

These tools simulate how search engine bots crawl your site, identifying issues that could affect indexing, usability, and performance. Whether you’re conducting a full SEO audit, preparing for a site migration, or monitoring technical health on an ongoing basis, crawlers are an essential part of your SEO toolkit.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

For many SEOs, Screaming Frog is the gold standard of crawling. It’s a desktop-based crawler that provides an incredibly detailed view of:

• Title tags and meta descriptions
• Header structure (H1, H2, etc.)
• Canonical tags
• Noindex / nofollow directives
• Redirect chains and broken links
• Image optimisation issues
• Structured data and schema markup
• Internal linking

Sitebulb

Sitebulb is another excellent website crawler, and it excels at visualising SEO data. In addition to similar crawling capabilities to Screaming Frog, Sitebulb:

• Generates intuitive reports and graphs
• Provides built-in explanations of technical issues
• Offers “Hints” to help SEOs prioritise actions
• Helps visualise internal link structure and crawl depth

Ahrefs Site Audit

Ahrefs isn’t just a backlink tool, its Site Audit feature is a very capable crawler in its own right. It’s cloud-based (so there’s no desktop software to run), and it provides excellent reporting on:

• Page health and crawlability
• Performance issues (site speed, Core Web Vitals)
• HTTPS implementation
• Duplicate content
• International SEO (hreflang errors)

Google Search Console

It’s easy to overlook Google’s free tools, but they are absolutely essential.

While it’s not a crawler in the same sense as Screaming Frog or Sitebulb, Google Search Console (GSC) provides first-party data from Google itself about:

• Indexed pages vs submitted pages
• Coverage errors (crawl anomalies, exclusions)
• Mobile usability
• Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FID)
• Security issues
• Performance by query and page

At Zeal, we always combine crawler data with GSC insights, because what matters is what Google can actually see and index.

Final Thought on Website Audit & Crawling Tools

Website audit and crawling tools are where great SEO begins. Without this visibility, even the best content and backlinks can underperform, simply because technical or structural issues are holding them back.

By using a combination of specialist crawlers and first-party data, we ensure our clients’ websites are as crawlable, indexable, and optimised as they can be, both for search engines and for users.

Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research remains one of the foundational pillars of any SEO strategy, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood. Good keyword research isn’t about chasing volume for its own sake, it’s about understanding search intent, audience needs, and opportunity gaps.

At Zeal, we use keyword research tools not only to discover what people are searching for, but to uncover:

• How they think about their problems
• What language they use at different stages of the buying journey
• Where competition is fierce vs where it’s underserved
• How to build content strategies that align with user needs

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs is one of the most powerful tools for keyword research, it provides:

• Search volume (both global and by country)
• Keyword difficulty scores
• Parent topic analysis (which helps group keywords into content hubs)
• SERP analysis, showing what currently ranks for a term and why
• Clicks data, so you can see whether searchers actually click through or get their answer in the SERP
• Question-based keyword suggestions, ideal for optimising FAQ content or capturing featured snippets

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush is another industry-leading platform, and its Keyword Magic Tool is excellent for exploratory research and content planning. It makes large-scale keyword research more intuitive, especially for building out content silos.

It offers:

• Huge databases of keyword variations
• The ability to filter by broad, phrase, exact, or related matches
• Keyword grouping, making it easier to plan content clusters
• Intent-based sorting (informational, transactional, navigational)
• Competitor comparison

Google Keyword Planner

Though originally designed for PPC, Google Keyword Planner remains a valuable SEO tool when used correctly. At Zeal, we always cross-reference Keyword Planner data with organic search data, particularly when helping ecommerce and lead gen clients align SEO with PPC.

Pros:

• First-party data directly from Google
• Reliable for broader trends and commercial-intent keywords
• Useful for validating opportunities found in other tools
• Excellent for understanding seasonality and regional differences

Limitations:

• Less detailed than Ahrefs or Semrush
• Grouped keyword volumes can be misleading without careful interpretation

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is a unique and incredibly useful tool for generating question-led keyword ideas. It’s an excellent complement to more traditional keyword tools, helping us map out how users frame their queries in natural language.

It visualises:

• Questions people ask (who, what, where, why, how)
• Comparisons (vs, best, alternatives)
• Prepositions (with, without, for, near, etc.)

How We Use Keyword Research Tools at Zeal

We believe keyword research should always be:

• Intent-led, focused on what users need, not just what they search
• Commercially relevant, aligned to your business goals
• Content-driven, helping structure content plans and link architecture
• Competitive, informed by what’s already working (and what’s not)

Keyword research isn’t about finding “magic” terms. It’s about deeply understanding your audience, your competitive space, and how to structure your content accordingly. The right tools, used strategically, make that possible.

Technical SEO & Performance Tools

No matter how good your content or backlink profile is, your site’s technical health can make or break your SEO performance.

If Googlebot struggles to crawl your pages, if your site takes too long to load, or if you’re sending mixed signals about which pages should be indexed, your rankings will suffer. That’s why a robust technical SEO toolkit is absolutely essential.

Google Search Console

This is the single most important technical SEO tool, because it provides data straight from Google.

We use Google Search Console (GSC) for:

• Index coverage reports, seeing which pages are indexed and why others aren’t
• Crawl errors, identifying server errors, redirects, and soft 404s
• Core Web Vitals, tracking site speed and usability (LCP, CLS, FID)
• Mobile usability, checking for responsive design issues
• Manual actions and security issues, ensuring no penalties or malware issues

It’s the best way to understand exactly how Google sees and interprets your site, and where any critical technical problems lie.

PageSpeed Insights

Site speed and performance are ranking factors, and they directly impact user experience and conversion rates. PageSpeed Insights can help you to:

• Test page load speeds on mobile and desktop
• Measure Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, FID)
• Identify performance bottlenecks (render-blocking JS, large images, etc.)
• Assess accessibility and best practice compliance

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

While we covered Screaming Frog in the Crawling Tools section, it also plays a vital role in our technical SEO audits.

You can use it to:

• Find broken links (404 errors)
• Check redirect chains
• Audit canonical tags
• Verify structured data implementation
• Detect duplicate content and thin pages
• Analyse hreflang implementation (for multilingual sites)

Semrush Site Audit

Semrush has powerful cloud-based site audit tools that supplement our technical SEO process. These cloud-based tools complement deep crawls and provide a higher-level view of site health, this is great for ongoing SEO retainers.

• Run scheduled crawls, keeping an eye on technical health over time
• Identify emerging issues post-deployment or after site changes
• Get quick visual dashboards for client reporting
• Cross-check findings from Screaming Frog

How We Use Technical SEO Tools at Zeal

Our philosophy is simple: we aim to make every website we work on as:

• Crawlable, Googlebot should find, access, and index the right content
• Fast, Pages should load in under 2.5 seconds across devices
• Structured, Metadata, schema, and internal linking should be crystal-clear
• Mobile-friendly, Sites must perform flawlessly across all modern devices
• Error-free, No broken links, duplicate content, or unnecessary redirects

Technical SEO tools are critical for ensuring your content and link efforts aren’t wasted. At Zeal, we see technical SEO as a core competitive advantage, and our toolkit reflects that.

SERP Tracking & Rank Monitoring Tools

Tracking how your pages rank in Google is one of the most visible ways to measure SEO performance, but it’s not just about vanity metrics. The goal of rank tracking is to:

• Identify what’s working (and where to double down)
• Spot drops or volatility early
• Understand how SERP features (AI Overviews, featured snippets, etc.) are impacting visibility
• Guide optimisation and content strategy decisions

At Zeal, we use SERP tracking tools to give us a clear, ongoing picture of how our SEO efforts translate into actual visibility, across desktop, mobile, and local results.

Semrush Position Tracking

It fits seamlessly into the broader Semrush ecosystem, great for tying rankings to content, site audits, and backlink progress.

• Project-level tracking by campaign or content silo
• Competitor tracking (so you can see who’s gaining or losing visibility)
• Tracking at both national and local levels
• Visibility trends across SERP features

Ahrefs Rank Tracker

Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker gives another view of performance and is particularly useful when combined with Ahrefs’ backlink and keyword tools.

• Monitor ranking trends (helpful for clients targeting multiple markets)
• Correlate ranking gains with link acquisition efforts

How We Use SERP Tracking Tools at Zeal

It’s important to note that we don’t obsess over individual keyword movements on a day-to-day basis. Google’s algorithms introduce normal fluctuations, and rankings can vary by user, location, and device.

Instead, we track rankings as part of a bigger picture:

1. Are top-priority pages seeing sustainable growth?
2. Are we winning or retaining key SERP features?
3. Are content clusters lifting together, improving site-wide topical authority?
4. Is visibility improving in AI Overviews (which are harder to track, but increasingly important)?

We also focus heavily on traffic impact and conversion potential, because ranking #1 means little if it doesn’t translate to business outcomes.

Content Optimisation Tools

Content optimisation is no longer about simply inserting keywords, it’s about creating comprehensive, helpful, trustworthy content that aligns with user intent and performs well in search.

In 2025 and beyond, with Google’s Helpful Content system and AI-driven Overviews influencing search results, your content needs to be:

• Well-structured and clear
• Authored by real experts (showing E-E-A-T)
• Thorough and trustworthy
• Optimised to surface in AI summaries, featured snippets, and other SERP features

At Zeal, content optimisation is a core part of our SEO process, and there is a plethora of tools that can help in its delivery.

Grammarly

Even experienced writers can overlook small errors. Grammarly provides an extra layer of polish that improves user trust and content quality.

• Ensure writing is clear, grammatically correct, and professional
• Maintain an appropriate tone of voice (aligned with brand guidelines)
• Spot potential ambiguities, inconsistencies, or stylistic issues
• Double-check punctuation, spelling, and flow, especially in long-form content

Copyscape (or Originality.ai)

Original content is a non-negotiable for modern SEO, and for building authoritativeness and trustworthiness in the eyes of both users and Google. As such Copyscape can help you to:

• Verify that all new content is 100% original
• Identify and resolve accidental duplicate content issues (especially on ecommerce sites)
• Check for plagiarism risks when working with third-party writers

Manual Content Reviews Based on EEAT & Google Guidelines

Perhaps most importantly, every key content piece we publish for SEO goes through internal manual review by an SEO Specialist based on:

• Google’s Helpful Content guidelines
• The latest Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines
• Zeal’s own EEAT-focused checklist, developed in-house

Our manual review asks:

1. Does the content demonstrate first-hand experience where appropriate?
2. Is the author credible, and is that credibility transparent to users?
3. Does the content fully answer the user’s likely questions on this topic?
4. Does it avoid empty fluff and instead provide depth and genuine value?
5. Are trust signals clearly presented (accurate sourcing, about the author, transparency, fact-checking)?
6. Is the content aligned with Google’s expectations of high-quality, people-first content?

Tools can guide and support, but no tool can replace expert judgment on trustworthiness and helpfulness. That’s where our internal editorial standards come in.

SEO Reporting & Analytics Tools

One of the biggest challenges in SEO is proving the value of the work, especially when the results often compound gradually over time.

At Zeal, we believe reporting is about more than tracking rankings. It’s about telling a story:

1. Where are we now?
2. Where have we improved?
3. What impact is SEO having on real business goals?
4. Where should we focus next?

Google Analytics (GA4)

Google Analytics is still the backbone of SEO performance measurement, but with GA4, it requires a more strategic approach.

• Track organic sessions and user behaviour
• Understand engagement metrics (bounce rate, engagement time, conversion paths)
• Analyse traffic quality, are we attracting the right audience?
• Monitor assisted conversions, showing SEO’s impact across multi-touch journeys
• Segment traffic by landing page, device, location, or audience

Google Search Console

Combining GA4 data with insights from Google Search Console (GSC) shows us:

• Which queries are driving impressions and clicks
• Which pages are getting traction in search
• How visibility is changing post-algorithm updates
• Performance in AI Overviews, featured snippets, and People Also Ask boxes (via query data trends)

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio)

For client-facing reports, we use Looker Studio to build custom dashboards that:

• Combine data from GA4, GSC, Semrush, Ahrefs, and AccuRanker
• Visualise performance trends clearly and intuitively
• Align reporting with business KPIs, not just SEO vanity metrics
• Provide context, showing why certain trends occur (algorithm updates, site changes, content launches)

[h4] How We Use Reporting at Zeal

Our reporting philosophy:

1. Honest, transparent, we don’t hide behind metrics or cherry-pick data
2. Business-focused, rankings are important, but traffic quality and conversions matter more
3. Actionable, every report includes clear next steps and priorities
4. Client-first, we adapt reporting to suit each client’s level of SEO maturity and interest

Reporting is where SEO work turns into business intelligence. At Zeal, we treat reporting not as a chore, but as a vital part of how we deliver value, helping clients see clearly where their SEO investment is paying off, and where the biggest opportunities lie next.

The Best SEO Tools Are Only as Good as the Team Using Them

With hundreds of SEO tools on the market, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But remember, tools are just that: tools. They support decision-making, they surface insights, and they help us work more efficiently. But they don’t replace the need for experience, strategic thinking, and creativity.

At Zeal, we use many of the best SEO tools available, but more importantly, we know how to interpret the data they provide, and how to turn that insight into action. It’s this combination of:

• Trusted, best-in-class platforms
• A clear, tested SEO process
• An experienced team who live and breathe SEO
• Transparency and communication every step of the way

— that helps us drive sustainable, long-term growth for our clients.

If you’re looking for an agency that knows how to combine cutting-edge SEO tools with strategic expertise and a genuine passion for delivering results, we’d love to help.

Get in touch with Zeal today, let’s chat about how we can help you unlock the full potential of your SEO.