We understand as marketers, we are expected to know how to do everything. Though Search Engine Optimization is a highly specialized skill, the pressure to bump up site rankings can often fall on the shoulders of an organization’s internal marketing guy or gal. If you’re not an SEO expert, never fear. There are a few easy-to-use SEO tools that you can use to get started and improve your SEO – or at least fake it till you make it.

Google Webmaster Tools

The truth is Google is the godfather of web search. They create the algorithm that every other search engine follows. This algorithm is like Coca-Cola’s secret recipe. No one knows exactly what is the most important and what is scanned, so the fact that Google gives you a tool and says “here’s what we found” means that you should listen to what they are saying.

Google’s tools crawl your site with the same crawlers that Google search does. These crawlers determine what your site is about and if it worth a person’s time by sifting through every aspect of your site from the code to the content. They then display for you what those crawlers have found and give you suggestions on how to fix them.

One of the most important aspects of Google Webmaster Tools is the site configuration section that allows you to submit sitemaps, test robots.txt files and adjust sitelinks.

Quicksprout

Quicksprout, in my opinion, is one of the best tools around paid or free for SEO. Your site will be analyzed and given a grade of A-F, A of course being the best. Highlighting the important aspects of SEO like load time, page size, speed, social interactions and keyword analysis gives you a great overview of how you are doing. You can even compare your site against up to three competitors.

Site Analyzer

Along the lines of QuickSprout, SiteAnalyzer is a great broad view of your site with tips and suggestions for SEO, content, design, performance and accessibility. Looking at each critical part of your site, you can see exactly how your site is performing and what you need to improve. One simple feature I love is that as you go through your site making the suggested fixes, there is a “Refresh” button on the page that will rescan your site so that you can find out if your fix worked.

Hubspot Website Grader

Just want the quick essentials? Hubspot’s Website Grader is perfect for you! Trimming your stats down to performance, mobile, SEO and security, your site will be given an overall score. Not quite as detailed as some other reports this tool covers the important basics. So if you aren’t scoring very high on this report, you should probably get to work.

Internet Marketing Ninja’s Keyword Tool

This tool is not only helpful but it’s fun too! The Ninja's keyword tool is simple and saves you hours of time. Essentially here’s how it works.

There are two boxes. In one you put one a main list of phrases, this could be an item or object. The second box would be another set of phrases or words you would like to add to the first box. So for example:

First Box

Internet Marketing
Internet Advertising
Online Advertising
Online Marketing
SEO

Second Box

Services
Company
Consulting
Strategies

The results would be every combination of those two boxes combined! The best part is, you can copy and paste those keyword combinations into your site!

So that’s it, the best free SEO tools we use everyday at The A Group! So let us know what you think and if we missed any.