SEO tools are crucial.
There are far too many time consuming SEO tasks required to rank well in 2021, it would be impossible to do the work manually.
Thankfully, there are hundreds of software tools on the web to help you rank on Google.
These tools span a wide range of SEO use-cases, including:
- Rank Tracking
- Technical SEO and Site Crawls
- Keyword Research
- Backlink Analysis
- Content Optimization
- Local SEO
- Link Building
We know you probably can’t just drop thousands on a few SEO software tools this year, so we’re going to cover both free and paid tools.
Here are 23+ of the top Google ranking software tools you need to check out in 2021.
23+ Google Ranking Software [Free + Paid]
1. SEMRush
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Local SEO, Link Building, Content Optimization
SEMRush is an all-in-one SEO and marketing software. It grew rapidly a few years ago and has now staked its claim as a clear market leader.
You can use SEMRush to do nearly anything under the umbrella of SEO. Track your keyword rankings, run site audits, perform keyword research, get content ideas, and much more.
One of its biggest strengths lies in keyword data – both for research and rank tracking. Its keyword database is massive and updates frequently.
It also has a great suite of content marketing tools including topical research, content templates, and the SEMRush Writing Assistant.
2. Ahrefs
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Content Optimization, Technical SEO
Ahrefs is the second most active crawler after Google, crawling 5 million pages each minute, making it a clear market leader among Google ranking software.
Like other all-in-one tools, you can do nearly anything with Ahrefs from site audits to competitor analysis.
It has great keyword data, but it’s top strength is its massive link database and ability to analyze link profiles. It’s home to DR (Domain Rating), one of the most used metrics in the world to analyze a site’s link profile.
3. Moz
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Technical SEO, Keyword Research, Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Local SEO
Moz is another very powerful all-in-one tool, featuring multiple tools needed to run successful SEO campaigns. Due to being the biggest player in SEO software for years, Moz has an awesome community and excellent support.
Their best tools are their Link Explorer and Keyword Explorer, which have both undergone big improvements in recent years. And of course Moz is the creator of proprietary link analysis metrics DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority) which are widely used in the SEO community.
4. Serpstat
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis, Keyword Research, Technical SEO
Serpstat is a powerful all-in-one SEO tool that’s quickly gaining steam in the marketing community. While their data isn’t quite as expansive as some other top tools, it’s still a solid software.
Serpstat’s best feature is probably its keyword research tool which includes handy “related keywords” and additional keyword suggestions that expand further than some other top tools.
5. Ubersuggest
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Keyword Research
UberSuggest is one of the best free tools on the market for keyword research. It’s great for analyzing keywords’ search volumes over time and where clicks are allocated for certain searches (organic or paid results).
In addition to analyzing keywords, it’s also a great tool for keyword ideas and content suggestions.
6. Google Search Console
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Rank Tracking, Technical SEO
Google Search Console is often overlooked as one of the best software tools for rank tracking. Unlike many other rank tracking software tools, Google Search Console reports on impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for every search term you rank for.
Setup and verify your site, give it a little time, and start collecting valuable ranking data.
Search Console can also help you analyze how many pages Google’s crawlers are seeing and indexing, and will alert you of crawl errors.
7. Google Keyword Planner
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Keyword Research
Google’s Keyword Planner is one of the only tools that gives you keyword data directly from Google itself.
You just insert your target keywords and your location and Google Keyword Planner will give you search volume, competition, and CPC if you want to consider running ads for the terms.
8. Google PageSpeed Insights
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Technical SEO
Google PageSpeed Insights is the best software for checking your site speed, performance, and Core Web Vitals (which will become very important in May 2021).
Just insert your URL, check your score, and examine all your vitals.
9. Screaming Frog
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Technical SEO
Screaming Frog is a very powerful site crawler, free up to 500 URLs per crawl. It’s one of the best tools for getting quick crawling analysis and identifying what might be holding your site back.
Just enter your site and the crawler will give you status codes, meta data, internal linking data, headings, and much more for every page.
10. Sitebulb
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Technical SEO
Sitebulb is a website auditing software that gives you actionable and relevant insights on your site’s technical performance. It’s best and most talked about feature is its crawl maps, which give super helpful visualizations for internal links, site structure, and crawl priority.
11. DeepCrawl
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Technical SEO
DeepCrawl is another powerful technical SEO tool, capable of crawling millions of pages and giving you a comprehensive report on everything from how long your title tags are to whether or not your JS files are being crawled.
DeepCrawl has a great UI and its reports are really easy to digest.
12. KWFinder
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Keyword Research
KWFinder is a fantastic keyword research and analysis tool. Enter a keyword and get search volume, keyword difficulty, and SERP analysis. You can also input a domain and find out all of its ranking keywords.
Its SERP analysis is really top notch, providing insight on ranking domains including popular metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority, Citation Flow, and Trust Flow.
13. Keywords Everywhere
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Keyword Research
Keywords Everywhere gives you keyword data directly on your search results pages while you’re searching, making it a really unique software.
It’s available as a Chrome and Firefox extension. Download the extension, buy some credits (1 credit = 1 keyword; 100,000 credits = $10), get your API key, and plug the key into your browser extension. Your next search will give you volume data, related keywords, and a fully scraped “People Also Search For” panel.
14. Majestic
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Backlink Analysis
Majestic holds one of the largest backlink databases on the web, having crawled trillions of URLs. Its software isn’t the most beautiful, but Majestic’s metrics are some of the most reliable.
Insert a URL and find its trust flow, citation flow, topical trust flow scores, and a number of other link metrics. You can also do a link-by-link analysis to find your most relevant and highest quality links.
15. Yoast
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Content Optimization, Technical SEO
There’s a reason Yoast is one of the most downloaded WordPress plugins of all time. Most SEOs use Yoast as a tool to optimize their content around target keywords, easily update title tags and meta descriptions, and sitemap creation.
But Yoast can also help your site with canonical tags, open graph protocols (for optimizing how your pages show in social posts), and schema markup for your organization.
16. RankMath
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Content Optimization
Rankmath is a popular WordPress plugin primarily used for content optimization. As you’re publishing content within WordPress, RankMath will give you insights and suggestions to make sure your on-page SEO is in check.
Their premium paid version offers all kinds of additional features like knowledge graph optimization, image SEO, and schema markup implementation.
17. Whitespark
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Local SEO, Rank Tracking
Whitespark is a local SEO software leader, providing just about everything you need for successful local SEO. Whitespark’s local rank tracking is probably its best feature, making it incredibly easy to keep up with local visibility across multiple locations.
In addition to their rank tracking, they offer a host of other local SEO tools to help you with citations, reviews, Google My Business, and more.
You're just getting started with local SEO, and you're not sure what steps to take? Our Local SEO Checklist will guide you through the process step-by-step!
18. BrightLocal
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Local SEO, Rank Tracking, Backlink Analysis
BrightLocal is a powerful local SEO software, offering local keyword tracking, backlink analysis, NAP analysis, and much more.
It’s greatest feature might be its rank tracking depth, letting you know how you’re doing across Google Desktop, Mobile, Maps, and Yahoo.
19. BuzzSumo
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Keyword Research, Content Optimization
BuzzSumo helps you find top performing content – for competitor analysis, content inspiration, and analysis of your own content.
Insert a topic, keyword, or domain and find its top performing content broken down by social engagement, shares, and links. You can also use BuzzSumo to find top influencers based on topic or keyword.
20. BuzzStream
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Link Building
Buzzstream is a must have tool for link building or PR outreach at scale. It can streamline the entire process of prospecting to find quality link targets, grabbing email addresses, sending bulk personalized emails, and following up with targets.
It has absolutely everything you need to perform successful link outreach without spending hundreds of hours doing it.
21. Clearscope
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Content Optimization
Clearscope is a content optimization software that does far more than remind you to place your keyword in your title tag. It offers the kind of insight that will actually improve your rankings. It helps you establish topical authority with your content.
You can even download their WordPress plugin or Google Docs add-on to analyze your content while you’re writing it.
22. Surfer
Pricing: Paid
Use-Case: Content Optimization
Surfer is a powerful content optimization tool that helps you dial in your on-page SEO. It analyzes all other ranking posts for your target keyword in order to give you suggestions to beat your competitors. Just insert your URL and get competitive insight.
Not only does it look at length and keyword density, Surfer also dives into entity sentiment to make sure Google fully understands the topic you want to rank for.
23. Exploding Topics
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Keyword Research
Exploding Topics is a handy software from Brian Dean that analyzes up and coming topics. It’s helpful for finding topic ideas that are quickly gaining popularity on search engines. Create content around a newly popular topic and stake your claim at the top of the SERPs.
24. Structured Data Markup Helper
Pricing: Free
Use-Case: Technical SEO
Structured data markup can be complex. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper assists you with adding proper structured data to your pages in just a few clicks. It makes a complicated implementation quick and easy.
Our SEO Software Stack
These are only 24 SEO software tools. There are hundreds of other software out there that can help you improve your Google ranking. The endless options make it nearly impossible to pick the few you really need.
Apollo Digital has been in the SEO industry for years. We’ve helped numerous clients grow their organic traffic through a combination of sound strategy and some of the tools listed above.
Some of our top achievements include:
- Growing a BPM SaaS from 0 to 200,000 monthly organic traffic.
- Taking an HR tech company from 1 to 1.9 million monthly organic traffic within a year.
- Growing our own SEO presence from scratch, ranking for competitive keywords like “SEO case study” and “digital marketing case studies.”
...And funny enough, we don’t actually use that many tools. Here’s our EXACT SEO stack that allows us to get amazing results for us and our clients:
Our all-in-one tool of choice is SEMRush. It helps us with everything from rank tracking to backlink analysis. You need a powerful, general tool like SEMRush to give you a diverse SEO toolset.
For technical SEO and site crawls, we utilize Screaming Frog.
Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner help us with keyword research.
And Google PageSpeed Insights is our go-to for analyzing website speed and performance.
We aren’t saying this is the only stack of software that will work, but it has certainly worked for us.
SEO Tool FAQ
Have some questions on Google ranking software tools? We’ll answer them here.
#1. Do I have to use SEO software?
No, you don’t have to use SEO tools, but neglecting them will wind up costing you a lot more money than the monthly subscription fee.
SEO software makes your life so much easier and saves you and your team loads of time.
For example, Screaming Frog crawls hundreds of URLs in a couple of minutes. Imagine manually pulling the title tag, H1, and internal links of your entire site, one page at a time.
Your time is worth money and SEO tools can help you spend your time doing the things that matter most.
#2. Which SEO Tools Should I Use?
The answer to this question really depends on your industry, role, skills, and goals. An all-in-one tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs can be really beneficial no matter what your goals are.
From there, consider your budget and which areas of SEO you need to focus on most.
Our personal stack is SEMRush, ScreamingFrog, UberSuggest, Google Keyword Planner, and Google PageSpeed Insights.
#3. Should I Pay for SEO Tools?
There’s a reason the best tools cost money: because they’re worth it. Sure, some developers make their tools free out of the kindness of their hearts or as a marketing tactic, but most of the good tools will cost.
But what you need to consider is ROI. Some tools will save you time, while others will provide you insights you couldn’t gather on your own – both leading to a return on your investment.
Consider your budget and which areas of your SEO need the most work to help you decide which tools might be worth digging into the bank to buy.
#4. How Can I Learn SEO?
Our blog is a great place to start.
Read about our SEO process article to learn about our EXACT process for growing our client websites to 200,000+ monthly organic traffic (and how you can copy it).
Also check our guide to SEO content for a deep dive into the content creation process – all the way from keyword research to interlinking.
And if you’re interested in more industry-specific SEO, check out our guides to:
Finally, check out some of our favorite industry-leading SEO blogs:
#5. Which Is the Best Software to Check Website Ranking?
If you ask around in the SEO community you might receive a few different answers.
Our personal favorite is SEMrush, as it also offers dozens of other features. A few other great rank tracking software tools are Ahrefs and Serpstat.
You can also use Google Search Console to find your average ranking for all search terms that have shown up in Google.
Work With Apollo Digital
Looking for an experienced organic SEO consultant team to help with your SEO? We can help!
Sometimes, working with an SEO agency can get you results much faster than you can yourself.
At Apollo Digital, we’ve helped clients in several industries get amazing SEO results, and we can do the same for you.
