Successful online: Even the best content is useless if your website cannot be found via Google and other search engines.
When visitor numbers simply refuse to rise, website operators sit in front of the search results (SERPs) with a puzzled look on their faces and wonder why their articles, landing pages, and subpages are not ranked higher.
Now you can guess and tweak various settings until you eventually achieve a positive result—or you can consult an SEO tool. But which one do you really need?
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How can an SEO check tool help?
If you want to do successful search engine optimization (SEO), you have to consider various aspects.
To rank well in online search engines—especially the internet giant Google—both content and technical aspects are important. At the top of the priority list (understandably) is the quality of the content. People often click on what they like.
Anything beyond that can be analyzed using appropriate tools, allowing SEO work to be carried out in a more targeted manner. Decisive factors include, for example, the implementation of the right search terms (keywords). On the technical side, however, loading speed is playing an increasingly important role. If the website loads too slowly, Google will not respond particularly positively.
What you need to know to be successful in search engines:
- The main goal is to be visible on the internet.
- In addition, it is beneficial if many reputable websites link to your own site.
- The content must be relevant and also contain keywords relevant to the topic.
- If page speed and structure are poor, visitors and search engines will penalize the website.
Without technical assistance, it is often nearly impossible to determine what is hindering online success. However, with the right SEO tools, you can quickly find out what is wrong with your website, where there is room for improvement, and how to improve your ranking on Google and other search engines.
Visibility: SISTRIX Smart
How does your website compare to the competition? Online success has a lot to do with how easy it is to find you on the World Wide Web.
To enable an assessment of this, the company SISTRIX has developed a so-called visibility index. For this metric, SISTRIX looks at 250,000 keywords and their respective top 100 ranking results. Based on this data, SISTRIX can now examine a domain and provide a result value for it. This alone does not provide a great deal of information.
The search index becomes interesting when you compare it in two ways: Keep an eye on the search index over a longer period of time to see how effective your SEO efforts are. Or compare yourself with the competition to check your position in direct competition.
The company offers several products. Recommended for beginners is SISTRIX Smart. This free tool gives beginners the opportunity to review a project with up to 1,000 subpages.
The Smart version is also well suited for trying out the functions of SISTRIX. The tool is particularly helpful for bloggers who want to increase their visibility on the internet. Those who want to continue growing or manage multiple websites will find the right tool for increasing visibility in the paid toolbox from SISTRIX.
Backlink check: LinkResearchTools (LRT)
For Google and other search engines, your website's online reputation also plays a major role. To measure this, search engines evaluate what are known as backlinks.
How many websites link to your own? Lots of links are good, but it's also becoming increasingly important to consider who is linking to your site. The higher the reputation of the linking website, the better it is for your own ranking.
For example, if you receive a backlink from a well-known news site, this has a very positive effect on your search engine ranking. On the other hand, a link that Google classifies as purchased, for example, can significantly disrupt your backlink profile.
With LinkResearchTools (LRT) , you always have an overview of who links to your site. Which links have been added, and which have been removed?
This allows you to keep an eye on your backlink profile at all times and provides you with a better basis for searching for suitable websites that link to your own site. LTR even helps you directly: the tool provides suggestions for links and points out current trends.
Keyword research: AnswerThePublic
Search engines help web surfers find information. Users enter search terms into the search box, and Google and other search engines try to deliver the most helpful results. In order for your website to help users, you need to know what they are actually searching for.
Integrating the right keywords into your content is therefore extremely important. Intuition is often a good guide when searching for keywords, but you shouldn't rely solely on your gut feeling. Tools provide insight into the search terms that are actually used frequently.
With contentbird's Keyword Hunter, you get not only the search volume but also the CPC of a keyword and the SEO competition.
One particularly prominent tool is AnswerThePublic. The website is very easy to use: you enter a relatively broad term that is related to your own topic. AnswerThePublic then displays the most frequent search entries on this topic – in graphical form. In this way, the tool manages to help with concrete data and inspire your own creativity.
Onsite analysis: Screaming Frog
The structure of the website has a major impact on its performance in search engines. In addition to content , metadata, page structure, and page speed also play an important role.
If users find it difficult to use a website, they are unlikely to return—no matter how interesting the content is. Google knows this too, which is why poorly designed websites are significantly penalized in their rankings. However, it is often difficult to keep track of technical issues that occur in the background.
In doing so, Screaming Frog can help. The tool views the website in the same way as Google's algorithms do. Unlike the search engine , however , the SEO tool provides important tips on how to improve your website. The free version already offers many helpful features. However, only the paid version goes into real depth.
Rumdumcheck: SEO checker from IONOS
Tools with a specific focus are a good way to tackle problems in a targeted manner. If you feel that there is a problem in a particular area, you can achieve a lot with such tools.
However, if you want to do everything right from the start, you should opt for an all-round talent. With such a tool, you can evaluate every step in the design of your website in terms of search engine optimization and thus achieve the best possible result.
The SEO check from IONOS provides interesting input on all the key points. The free tool analyzes your online presence in just a few seconds. On the results page, webmasters can find out almost everything they need to know about search engine optimization – in a clear and visually appealing format. The check covers the following areas:
- Visibility on Google and Bing
- On-page structure
- backlink profile
- mobile accessibility
- Social media presence
This tool from IONOS already offers a great deal of support. If you need additional software-based assistance, you can use the paid rankingCoach, for example. This advanced toolkit is even suitable for professional SEO agencies.
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Free alternatives directly from Google
The search engine giant itself also offers tools that can be used to analyze your website from an SEO perspective.
- With Search Console , you can examine the website's metadata.
- PageSpeed Insights shows the loading speed and puts it into context.
- The Mobile Friendly Check examines the website for its mobile display.
- If you are looking for suitable keywords, you will find them at Google Trends .
However, some services require a Google account. For Search Console, you also need to place a key on your website to confirm that you are indeed the owner of the website being analyzed.
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Conclusion
Those who choose the right tools for their SEO efforts can improve their ranking in a targeted manner and do not have to rely on guesswork.
Since all of the SEO tools presented are very easy to use, you don't even have to spend much time learning how to use them. This frees up more resources that you can invest in good content, communication with your visitors, and website design.
