The Best Free SEO Tools of 2012

SEO never stops changing. Fortunately for SEO specialists, new tools, and updated older tools, pop up on a regular basis. There are hundreds of tools available on the web created just to make SEO a little easier. All you need to know is where to look.

SEO tools are designed to do one or more of several things, including checking for website malfunctions (broken links, bad code, ect.), analyzing content, tracking backlinks, monitoring rank, and conducting keyword research. There are also tools that give to overall insight on a single page or website, useful for keeping up with your competitors. If you’re serious about SEO, having the right tools at your disposal is priceless.

If you want to make the best use of SEO tools, you need to know what your options are, and which tools are best at which tasks. Because these tools are always changing, there’s a new “best” list every year or so. So, which SEO tools are hot right now?

Google’s SEO Tools

If you want the best free SEO tools, Google is the place to go. Between their keyword tools, webmaster tools, analytics program, and insights finder, Google has the basics covered. These tools give you almost anything you need to measure how effective your site’s SEO is and what keywords you should be targeting.

SEMRush.com

This site has a paid option, but the free version of SEMRush is fully functional and allows up to 10 queries a day, which is just enough for small-use SEOs. Just type in the domain you want to analyze, and SEMRush will give you a listing of organic keywords, potential competitors, ad suggestions, and more.

Microsoft’s SEO Toolkit

Microsoft’s SEO Toolkit is Bing’s answer to all of the free Google SEO tools. Although this tool offers several benefits, it really excels in measuring how fast your website is. Speed is important, and this easily downloaded tool provides an excellent resource for making sure that your site is performing the way it should. This tool also analyzes websites based on Bing’s search engine algorithm, useful when you want your onsite SEO to go beyond just what Google is looking for.

SEO Doctor

If you need a quick overview of your site’s overall SEO set-up, SEO Doctor might be just what you’re looking for. It’s a Firefox extension that analyzes a website and shows you exactly where improvements need to be made, based on current algorithm requirements.

Browseo

Search engines are simple. They don’t see websites the same way we do. To make the most of your SEO, you need to make sure that search engines are seeing all of the important elements of your site. Browseo helps with that. Just enter in the URL that you want to check, and Browseo creates a search engine version, showing you exactly what Google does (and does not) see.

What are your favorite free (or paid) SEO tools? Do you use any of the tools we listed?