Best SEO Tools for Beginners
What are SEO tools and why do you need them? What do SEO tools do, which one is right for me and when should I use them? As an SEO newbie, it can be incredibly confusing and overwhelming to have to add another SEO task. We've put together a short guide which explains what SEO tools are, why you should use them, how to choose the best SEO tools to meet your needs and examples of both paid and free tool options.
What Are SEO Tools & Why Should I Use Them?
SEO tools are (mostly) online software platforms that help you with improving a website's search engine visibility and ranking. There are both paid and free tools available. Every SEO tool has its own specialisation, such as creating optimised website content, researching keywords, improving technical SEO, and analysing your competitor's websites, with some doing multiple tasks.
The benefits of using SEO tools include:
- gaining an advantage over your competitors
- finding keyword phrases and variations that you had not thought of
- identify what your competitors' SEO strategies are
- tracking your website's SEO progress and key performance indicators
- finding areas of your website which need improving to meet best SEO practices
Next you will need to select the right SEO tools to meet your needs.
How to Choose the Right SEO Tool for My Website
As an SEO newbie, it is understandably confusing to be presented with a large number of search engine optimisation tools all fighting for your attention and stating they are the must use tool. The best place to start is to identify what exactly you want to achieve with your website's SEO.
Make a list of your specific goals, what SEO tool features you need and your budget. Undertake a full SEO tool comparision, where you identify the key features of each tool, what they offer, ease of use, price, available support and how much data they will provide you with. To help you get started, we've created a table comparing some of the best SEO tools for beginners below.
Best SEO Tools for Beginners
Here is our list of the top SEO tools for beginners, both free and paid options:
| SEO Tool | Key Features | Ease of Use | Price |
| Papatohu Rapu Google | Shows your website's indexing status, crawl errors, how your pages are performing in Google search, lists the traffic search keywords | Beginner–Intermediate | Kore utu |
| Google Search Trends | shows search interest over time and related topics | Beginner | Kore utu |
| Google Keyword Planner | offers search volume, competition and CPC data in support of keyword discovery and ads planning | Beginner–Intermediate | Kore utu |
| Google PageSpeed Insights | analyses mobile and desktop performance, gives optimisation suggestions | Beginner–Intermediate | Kore utu |
| Ubersuggest | provides keyword suggestions, basic backlink tracking, site audits and content ideas. It also gives overviews of your competition | Beginner–Intermediate | Paid |
| Ahrefs | finds backlinks, provides keyword research and page ranking data | Intermediate–Advanced | Paid |
| Moz Pro | keyword research, single page grading/audits and backlink identification | Intermediate | Paid |
| SEMrush | keyword research, site audits, competitor analysis | Intermediate–Advanced | Paid |
| AnswerThePublic | a tool that shows what questions people are asking and helps generate keyword lists and topic ideas. | Beginner | Paid |
Search engine optimisation can seem overwhelming and technical. But it is doable. Make sure you head over and check out our comprehensive free DIY SEO resources to learn more about how it works and what you can do to grow your website's online presence.
Posted: Thursday 12 February 2026
