20+ Best SEO Software & Tools for Small Businesses - SEOptimer

20+ Best SEO Software & Tools for Small Businesses

28 Apr 2021 Tim Hill in SEO Concepts

Small businesses need to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). According to recent research from BrightLocal, more than 98% of consumers use the internet to find a local business in their area.

Of that 98%, the vast majority start their search on Google. Google is basically the doorway to the web’s content.

Image source: BrightLocal

When you think about what small business owners care about – leads, sales, conversions – all of these valuable actions start with website traffic.

For many small businesses, their success in generating online leads and sales is dependent on traffic landing on their website from a Google search.

As we know from several industry studies into user behavior on Google, including this one from Sistrix, over half of all Google users click the first 3 results on Google (a combined 55.2% CTR).

That’s why the position in search results is so important.

Why do Small Businesses Need SEO Software?

If improving your position in search results is your goal, you absolutely need to invest energy, time, and resources into SEO.

The practice of SEO encompasses several aspects including on-page SEO, content production, and link building. SEO Software can help you with all of these.

These tools help automate otherwise time-consuming or complex tasks and output reports, actions, or insights.

Few small businesses rely on just one SEO tool and generally need to curate their own stack of go-to SEO tools to help increase their SEO performance.

What are the Benefits of SEO Software for Small Businesses?

Save Time

This is probably the biggest benefit because your time = money. SEO isn’t easy and it’s most definitely not a short-term game.

Instead, it’s a long-term commitment with ongoing effort needed to continually improve search engine visibility and increased ranking position.

Save Money

Most of the SEO software we cover can be replaced with manual work but some tasks require in-demand skill sets due to the complex and evolving nature of SEO.

Follow a Process

Most all-in-one SEO software tools provide a workflow process for you to guide you through the steps of setting up, identifying the ‘low hanging fruit’, and optimizing your activity.

Fill a Knowledge Gap

Most small business owners don’t know where to start when it comes to SEO and that’s perfectly normal. SEO tools can help small businesses with SEO issues they don’t even know about.

Increase Performance

The tangible business value of using SEO software is to increase your search rankings which therefore increases your organic traffic and in turn increases your ability to generate more leads, sales, or conversions.

Best SEO Software for Small Businesses

Now that we know the value these tools provide and why you should use SEO software, let’s run through some of the best and most popular options utilized by small business owners around the world.

1. SEOptimer

SEOptimer’s DIY Plan is designed for small businesses. It includes:

2. Local Ranking

Local Ranking is a local SEO and GMB management tool. Notable features include:

3. TubeRanker

TubeRanker is a YouTube SEO and channel auditing tool ideal for businesses looking to improve their YouTube performance. Features include:

4. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is a vital tool that lets you see the performance of your content on Google including:

5. Yoast

Yoast is a popular SEO Plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce, helping you adhere to SEO best practices while writing.

6. Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) tracks all traffic to your site and focuses on the user instead of the session with new features.

7. Answer The Public

Answer The Public is a ‘search listening tool for customer and content research’ that surfaces insights about how people search.

8. Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is used to crawl websites to identify ranking issues and analyze metadata, discover duplicate content, etc.

9. Site Speed Bot

Site Speed Bot helps you analyze website speed which is a major ranking factor.

10. SpyFu

SpyFu lists all the websites that link to your site and helps increase your position in search results.

11. QuestionDB

QuestionDB indexes 3rd party sites to provide questions asked around keywords which can inform content ideas.

12. Wordtracker

Wordtracker is a keyword research tool combining Google search and Ads keyword data to find new keywords.

13. Surfer

Surfer helps identify pages and posts that need optimization based on their content scores.

14. Google Trends

Google Trends compares search behavior for different keywords and helps inform content ideas.

15. Hunter

Hunter helps discover the email addresses associated with a website for link outreach campaigns.

16. INK

INK helps you author search optimized content in real-time with suggestions for SEO improvements.

17. Backlink Watch

Backlink Watch lists all the backlinks of any website to help understand link strength.

18. Pitchbox

Pitchbox is an outreach tool that manages and automates the outreach process for content pitching.

19. HARO

HARO connects journalists with sources allowing for valuable backlinks from authoritative sources.

20. Schema Generator

Schema Generator helps create structured data for your site using Schema.org markup.

21. SEO Content Analysis

SEO Content Analysis helps craft content on the fly while assessing the SEO score against your target keyword.

22. Copyscape

Copyscape checks for duplicate content to ensure originality before publication.

23. Lemlist

Lemlist is a cold email and link outreach software that automates outreach campaigns.

Common Features of SEO Software that Small Businesses Need

Website Audit

A website audit identifies issues that hold your site back from ranking higher which may include keyword-related, link-related, or site speed-related issues.

Rank Tracking

Rank tracking automates the monitoring of your SEO performance across keywords and target regions.

Keyword Research

Keyword research tools help identify long-tail keywords that have decent search volume but low competition.

How Should Small Businesses Use SEO Software?

Most small businesses use multiple SEO tools to help achieve outcomes important to the business. Trial various tools to understand their value.

How to Decide Which SEO Tool is Right for Your Business?

Experiment with different tools to find what provides the most value, as many offer free trials or are reasonably priced.