Free SEO tools every beginner should use
You do not need expensive software to start doing good SEO. Google’s own free tools give the most reliable data about your site, and several other free tools fill the gaps. Here are the ones worth learning first.
Google’s own tools
Google Search Console
The most important SEO tool. It shows which searches your site appears for, clicks and positions, indexing status, sitemap processing, mobile and page experience issues, links and any manual actions. Set it up first.
Google Analytics 4
Shows what visitors do after they arrive: which pages they view, how engaged they are and which channels lead to enquiries or sales.
PageSpeed Insights
Tests a page’s speed on mobile and desktop, shows Core Web Vitals from real users where available, and lists improvements.
Rich Results Test
Checks whether your structured data is valid and eligible for rich results in Google Search.
Google Trends
Shows how interest in a topic changes over time and by region, and compares search terms. Useful for seasonal planning.
Google Keyword Planner
Part of Google Ads. Gives keyword ideas and search volume ranges. You need a Google Ads account, but you do not have to run ads to use it.
Google Business Profile
Free and essential for local SEO, with its own performance insights.
Other free tools
- Bing Webmaster Tools: similar to Search Console for Bing, with useful site scans.
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version): crawls up to 500 URLs to find broken links, redirects, missing titles and duplicate content.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: free site audit and backlink data for websites you own and verify.
- Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools: audits performance, accessibility and SEO basics right in the browser.
- Schema Markup Validator: checks any schema.org structured data.
- Google’s search results themselves: “People also ask”, related searches and autocomplete are free sources of real questions.
How to use them together
- Start with Search Console to find indexing problems and the searches you already appear for.
- Crawl the site with a free crawler to find technical issues.
- Check key pages with PageSpeed Insights.
- Use Keyword Planner, Trends and search results to plan content.
- Track results in Search Console and GA4 every month.
Paid tools add convenience and competitor data, which helps once you manage many sites, but these free tools cover the fundamentals well.
Learn to use these tools on a live website in our SEO Course.