What Are SEO Tools? The 5 We Use for Small Business SEO
SEO tools are apps that show how your website does in search, and what to fix to do better. They find the words people search for, track where you rank, check your site for problems and show who links to you. The free ones from Google cover the basics. Paid tools add competitor data, map rankings and deeper reports. If you would rather have someone use them for you, see our SEO services.
You have heard that you "need SEO tools," but when you look, there are hundreds of them, each with a monthly fee and a dashboard full of charts. It is hard to know which ones matter for a small business.
We use these tools every week to run SEO for our clients. Here is what SEO tools do, the ones we use, the other popular ones, and which you can get for free.
What do SEO tools do?
SEO tools do six main jobs, and the types of SEO tools are named after them. Most tools do a few of these jobs well, and none does all of them best.
- Keyword research tools: find what people type into Google, and how often.
- Rank trackers: see where your pages show up for those searches over time.
- Site audit tools (crawlers): find broken links, missing titles, slow pages and other problems.
- Backlink tools: see which other websites link to you, and to your competitors.
- Speed tools: measure how fast your pages load, and what slows them down.
- On-page plugins: set page titles, descriptions and schema inside your website.
Which SEO tools do we use?
These are the five tools we use for our clients' SEO. We picked them because together they cover all six jobs.
1. Google Search Console (free)
Search Console is Google's own report on your site. It shows the searches you appear for, your clicks, your average position and any pages Google cannot index. If you set up only one SEO tool, make it this one. Every monthly SEO report we send starts with these numbers.
2. Google Analytics 4 (free)
Search Console shows what happens in Google, while Analytics shows what happens after the click: which pages people visit, how long they stay, and whether they call, book or buy. Together they show whether your search traffic turns into customers.
3. Traffic Yeti (our own platform)
Full disclosure: Traffic Yeti is ours. We built it to replace two paid tools we used to rely on, Semrush and Local Falcon. It finds keyword chances, tracks rankings and shows where a business shows up on the map in each part of town. It also checks what AI tools say about you. Every client report we send is built on it.
4. Rank Math (free, with a paid version)
Rank Math is a WordPress plugin. It is where the fixes happen: page titles, descriptions, schema, redirects and sitemaps, all set inside your site. The free version covers what most small business sites need.
5. GTmetrix (free, with paid plans)
GTmetrix tests how fast your pages load on desktop and on phones. We do not stop at the grade. We read the waterfall, the list of every file your page loads, to find what is actually slow.
Want someone to run the tools for you?
You did not start your business to read SEO reports. Our monthly SEO uses these tools for you and sends you a plain-English report every month. Not ready for monthly work? Our one-time SEO audit shows why competitors rank first and what to fix, in order.
1. Talk to us about your site and your goals. 2. We find what is holding you back. 3. You get a plan, and the work to match.
What are other popular SEO tools?
These tools are well known and worth a look, depending on what you need most.
- Semrush: keyword research, competitor checks and site audits in one place. Paid, with a limited free account.
- Local Falcon: shows where you rank on Google Maps across a grid of points around your business. Paid.
- Ahrefs: best known for backlink data, plus keyword and site audit tools. Paid, with some free tools like a backlink checker and keyword generator.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: a site crawler that finds broken links, missing titles and redirect problems. Free for up to 500 pages, with a paid license for bigger sites.
- Moz Pro: keyword research, rank tracking and site audits, with a well-known link score. Paid, with some free tools.
- SpyFu: shows the keywords your competitors rank for and the ads they buy. Paid, with limited free searches.
- Google Keyword Planner: keyword ideas and search volume ranges from Google. Free with a Google Ads account.
- SEO PowerSuite: desktop software with four tools for rank tracking, site audits, backlinks and link building. It has a free version with limits, and paid licenses.
- Bing Webmaster Tools: the Bing version of Search Console. Free.
How do you choose an SEO tool?
Start with what you need to know, not the longest feature list. These four questions narrow it down fast.
- What can you spend? If the answer is nothing yet, Search Console and Google Analytics cover a lot.
- Local or national? Local businesses need map rankings by area. National sites need bigger keyword data.
- How big is your site? A 10-page site does not need an enterprise crawler.
- Who will use it? A tool nobody opens is wasted money, so pick one you or your team will check.
Our advice: start with the free Google tools, then add one paid tool when you are ready to study your competitors.
Free vs paid SEO tools: which do you need?
Most small businesses can start with the free tools. Paid tools help most when you want to see what competitors are doing.
| Job | Free tool | Paid tool |
|---|---|---|
| See your searches and clicks | Google Search Console | Not needed |
| See what visitors do | Google Analytics 4 | Not needed |
| Find keywords | Google Keyword Planner (ranges only) | Traffic Yeti, Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz |
| Spy on competitors | Very limited | Traffic Yeti, Semrush, SpyFu, Ahrefs |
| Track map rankings | Very limited | Traffic Yeti, Local Falcon |
| Fix titles and schema | Rank Math (free version) | Rank Math Pro |
| Test speed | GTmetrix | GTmetrix paid plans for monitoring |
Can SEO tools do SEO for you?
No. SEO tools show you what is wrong and where the chances are. Someone still has to fix the pages, write the content and earn the links.
Here is what that looks like for one online store we run SEO for. Using Search Console to track the work, its Google impressions went from 19,706 a month in July 2025 to 106,040 a month in April 2026. Clicks went from 2,550 to 4,781 a month. Its average position improved from 12.7 in October 2025 to 6.4 in April 2026. The tools measured the results, but the work behind them is what moved the numbers.
Do SEO tools track AI answers?
Some do, and it now matters. People ask ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews for recommendations, and those answers do not show up in Search Console. Traffic Yeti checks what AI tools say about a business, and we review those answers for our clients every month.
Not sure where your site stands?
We will look at your site's speed, forms, tracking and setup, then send you a free report with a recorded video walkthrough.
Sources
- Screaming Frog, SEO Spider (checked November 2026)
- Ahrefs, Free SEO tools (checked November 2026)
- Google, SEO Starter Guide (checked November 2026)
What to do next
Start with Google Search Console and Google Analytics, because they are free and they show where you stand today. Add a paid tool when you are ready to study your competitors. And if you want your website to be your hardest-working employee without learning every tool yourself, we can help.
Talk to a WordPress expert about your SEO.
Keep reading: What is keyword research? | The top ways to build links to your website | What is SEO?