🚀 This guide aims to serve as your ultimate reference for achieving any SEO-related goals using SEO technical audit tools.
The top SEO audit tools have a specific purpose within the realm of SEO, and they come with various price points, ranging from SEO audit tools for free to more costly ones. For the context of this guide, we’ve chosen to feature tools that excel functions, even if some functions might overlap in their coverage.
Every digital marketer needs to be adept at conducting a technical SEO site audit. However, manually performing such SEO technical audits can be overly time-consuming and monotonous.
Instead, digital marketers should put their trust in reliable technical SEO audit tools. These tools are crucial for identifying and resolving significant website issues that could have a negative impact on search rankings.
🔍 To assist, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 technical SEO audit tools you should be acquainted with. We’ll elaborate on the key attributes of each tool, how they contribute to enhancing the search-engine friendliness of your website, and how you can gain access to them.
Tools for Conducting Technical SEO Audits 🛠️
- Google Search Console: Google Search Console offers the capability to monitor various statistics, including clicks, impressions, positioning and click-through rates (CTRs). It also provides the option to review your performance in Google Discover and Google News.
Key Features: This is one of the best SEO audit tools that hold immense importance for most SEO professionals, allowing them to observe statistics and metrics using Google’s proprietary data, eliminating the reliance on third-party sources. Additionally, it serves as a valuable resource for gaining insights into elements such as Google algorithm updates and site-related errors.
Pricing: Available for free.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics stands as a premier tool for monitoring your website’s comprehensive performance data across a diverse array of channels, extending beyond just Google’s organic channels.
Key Features: Through its highly robust data collection mechanism and insightful reports, you can craft a narrative that is easily understandable for your clients. Google’s product presentation emphasises the ability to “unlock customer-centric measurement,” which aids in discerning how your customers engage across your websites and applications throughout their purchasing journey.
Pricing: Offered at no cost. It’s worth noting that Google Analytics 4 is slated for complete release in July 2023. Therefore, if your data is currently stored in Universal Analytics, it’s essential to ensure a proper transition before then, as relying solely on Google for this transition may not be advisable.
Google Trends
Google Trends stands as a unique tool that presents an extensive array of data, which can serve as a valuable resource for shaping your SEO strategy. It offers insights into the level of interest in a particular search term over months to years.
Key Features: This tool’s standout feature revolves around enabling you to explore keywords accompanied by data showcasing the peak popularity of these terms, rather than focusing solely on search volume. In essence, when you initiate a search on Google Trends, the graph depicting interest over time illustrates the relative significance of a term and its level of importance. The higher the numerical value, the greater the traffic it garners at that specific point in time. However, it’s important to note that Google Trends, as a data tool, should primarily guide you towards understanding the type of searches you might anticipate when targeting a specific keyword.
Pricing: Accessible without any cost.
Google Rich Results Testing Tool
The Rich Results Testing Tool by Google provides you with the capability to assess your structured data.
Key Features: Whether you input code directly or utilise a URL input, you can verify and confirm that your structured data conforms to Google’s established criteria. Failure to do so might result in complications when attempting to showcase your structured data.
Pricing: Offered at no charge.
Google Mobile-Friendly Test
By utilising this tool, you can confirm that your website is fully prepared for the mobile-friendly landscape.
Key Features: Google advises integrating this tool into a process of examining and rectifying issues related to mobile usability. However, it’s important to note that relying solely on this tool to determine your site’s mobile friendliness within Google’s index would be a misconception.
Pricing: Accessible at no cost.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog stands as the established benchmark for comprehensive technical SEO audits. From performing fundamental crawls to more intricate functions like dissecting JavaScript and addressing deep canonical problems, you can generate SEO audit reports solely using Screaming Frog.
Key Features: Beyond the spectrum of basic and advanced crawls, Screaming Frog offers the capability to delve into matters such as broken links, redirects, and duplicated content. Furthermore, it empowers you to employ XPath for extracting customised data and automatically generating XML Sitemaps. It extends its reach to include the analysis of JavaScript-based websites, seamless integration with Google Analytics and Google Search Console for even more exhaustive insights.
Pricing: The no-cost edition of the SEO spider permits users to crawl a maximum of 500 URLs, aiding in the identification of prevalent technical SEO concerns. The premium version is attainable for a yearly fee, granting unrestricted URL crawling alongside supplementary attributes.
SEMrush
SEMrush boasts an extensive array of free SEO audit tools, ranging from aids for SEO audits to link-building and content marketing. This comprehensive suite of tools not only facilitates various tasks but also significantly reduces the time required for their execution.
Key Features: In the process of conducting an SEO audit, SEMrush undertakes more than 120 assessments. It effectively identifies issues encompassing factors like page speed, crawlability, backlinks, security, and on-page elements.
Pricing: SEMrush offers a range of plans to cater to diverse needs. The Pro plan, priced at $119/month, serves as the most economical option. The Guru plan, priced at $229.95/month, not only provides benefits like a topic research tool but also expands keyword tracking and results per report. The Business plan, available at $449.95/month, suits larger agencies and enterprises.
Sitebulb
Sitebulb offers comprehensive insights, diagnosing aspects such as crawlability issues, on-page SEO, backlinks and more. Moreover, it introduces an additional layer of SEO assessment based on its interpretation of best practices. However, the responsibility of identifying and prioritising these issues in alignment with the client’s goals lies with the SEO analyst.
Key Features: Sitebulb encompasses essential features such as detailed reports for on-page SEO concerns, both internal and external links, indexability, and duplicate content. Furthermore, it provides capabilities for JavaScript crawling, prioritisation suggestions, comprehensive PDF reporting, and audit comparisons.
Pricing: Despite being one of the more cost-effective SEO software options available, Sitebulb’s value remains significant.
Raven Tools
This tool works by racking keywords and ongoing SEO performance.
Key Features: In addition to its site auditing capabilities, this tool offers integration with Google Data Studio, the provision of extensive marketing reports that can be customised to bear your agency’s branding, competitor analysis, keyword research, a backlink checker, and social media features.
Pricing:
- Small Business: $39/month.
- Starter: $79/month.
- Grow: $139/month.
- Thrive: $249/month.
- Lead: $399/month.
Each plan is associated with a specified number of domains/campaigns, users, and position checks, with these quotas increasing as you move up the pricing tiers.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs currently employs a “credits” system within its pricing structure, which might not be suitable for those with budget constraints. If you engage in extensive work, you could potentially exhaust your credits every month. It’s crucial to thoroughly evaluate if Ahrefs aligns with your needs and financial considerations before committing.
Key Features: Ahrefs stands as a counterpart to SEMrush, offering an encompassing suite of SEO tools. Its functionalities encompass comprehensive technical SEO audits, backlink audits, content gap analysis, keyword gap analysis, and more.
Pricing: Ahrefs offers the following pricing tiers:
- Lite plan starts at $99/month.
- Standard plan starts at $199/month.
- Advanced plan starting at $399/month.
- Enterprise plan starting at $999/month.
All plans incorporate tools such as site explorer, keyword explorer, site audit tool, rank tracker, and alerts. The capacity for report generation varies across plans, with additional tools becoming available as you ascend in pricing levels.
HubSpot Website Grader
HubSpot’s Website Grader, a long-standing tool with several iterations, has been a staple in the industry.
Key Features: The Website Grader evaluates your site’s performance across four primary categories: site performance, search engine optimisation, mobile compatibility, and security.
Pricing: This tool is available for free and can be used without limitations on frequency.
Oncrawl
Oncrawl is a website crawler offering significant URL allocations, reaching up to and exceeding 300 million URLs. Furthermore, it provides over 500 charts and 12 data points to enhance the insights for your SEO audits. Its crawls enable managing and monitoring site alterations and aid in keeping track of these changes.
Key Features: Oncrawl facilitates seamless integration of your crawl data with various data types, such as publishing dates, product pricing and AMP implementations. This integration permits the creation of customised reports based on these data-driven insights, enhancing the relevance of your reports. You also retain precise control over your crawl, allowing for detailed adjustments like JavaScript crawling, virtual robots.txt and staging site analysis.
Pricing: Oncrawl’s pricing details, unfortunately, aren’t readily available for its plans – Explorer, Business and Infinite. You’re required to reach out to them directly for this information.
Searching for On-Page SEO Audit Tools? 🔍
The importance of on-page SEO remains substantial for a well-optimised website. Prioritising on-page SEO equips your page to sustain competitiveness over the long term. Here is a list of some of the best on-page SEO audit tools:
- Frase.io: Frase.io stands as an exceptionally comprehensive cloud-based application dedicated to elevating your on-page SEO practices.
Key Features: Frase provides an intuitive workflow that allows you to simultaneously review and scroll through top search results, eliminating the need for compiling spreadsheets. Its on-page interface, akin to Surfer SEO, incorporates words strategically to contribute to an overall on-page SEO score. A higher score indicates superior optimisation in comparison to competitors.
Pricing: Frase offers Solo, Basic and Team plans.
- Solo: $14.99/month – includes around 1 article per week, 4 articles per month, and 4,000 AI-generated words per month.
- Basic: $44.99/month – comprises 30 articles and 4,000 AI-generated words per month.
- Team: $114.99/month – provides three-user seats for unlimited article writing and optimisation. However, AI-generated words are capped at 4,000 per month.
- Surfer SEO: Surfer SEO functions as the industry counterpart to Frase, offering a distinct approach. It integrates content optimisation and content audit capabilities.
Key Features: Surfer SEO encompasses a comprehensive suite of tools for on-page optimisation and content audits. Furthermore, it extends to keyword research, the AI-driven Grow Flow platform for growth management, an AI Outline generator and a Google Chrome extension.
Pricing: As of now, Surfer SEO features four plans:
- Basic: $59/month – supports 10 articles/month.
- Business: $239/month – allows 70 articles/month.
- Pro: $119/month – covers 30 articles/month.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing – requires contacting for personalised rates.
- Inlinks: Inlinks presents an entity-based internal linking tool that employs AI to facilitate linking between internal pages. Moreover, Inlinks integrates automated content briefs, akin to Frase and Surfer SEO, enhancing on-page SEO.
Key Features: Inlinks offers Schema optimisation with automated Schema markup. Its proprietary knowledge graph aids in comprehending website entities. Automated coding ensures Google’s comprehension. Automatic internal linking is Inlinks’ forte, provided you avoid excessive “entity stuffing.”
Pricing: Currently, Inlinks offers several plans:
- Free.
- Freelancer: $39/month.
- Agency: $156/month.
- Custom Enterprise: Tailored plan available.
- Page Optimiser Pro: Page Optimiser Pro, developed by SEO professional Kyle Roof, is a comprehensive cloud-based on-page optimisation application. The tool employs edge analysis based on your top 10 competitors, distinguishing itself from direct competitor analysis.
Key Features: Page Optimiser Pro facilitates editing in WordPress and Google Docs, E-A-T and Google NLP Analysis, page structure suggestions, content editing, white-label PDF reports (Agency plans), exact keyword recommendations, word variation suggestions, keyword focus recommendations, and more.
Pricing:
- Basic: $27/month.
- Premium: $38/month.
- Unlimited: $49/month.
- SEO Minion: Google Chrome Extension: SEO Minion, a valuable Google Chrome extension, greatly supports on-page SEO. The Analyse On-Page SEO feature enables thorough on-page optimisation.
Key Features: In addition to comprehensive on-page SEO analysis, SEO Minion includes an all-links feature highlighting internal and external links while checking for broken links. It also incorporates an HREFLANG validity checker.
Pricing: Available for free.
Conclusion
In the realm of SEO audits, the choice of SEO tools wields profound influence and significance.
However, not all tools possess uniform capabilities such as website traffic analysis. Ensuring that assessments align contextually with the audited website is vital for balanced evaluations. 🧐
The best SEO audit tools hold distinct attributes along with potential shortcomings that warrant familiarity. Instances of disparity between tools necessitate thorough investigation to ascertain the underlying reasons for conflicting data. Additionally, flagged issues by a Google SEO checker tool might not invariably represent genuine concerns. Comprehensive scrutiny becomes essential to differentiate such instances.
The essence of a technical SEO audit transcends reliance solely on tools; it hinges on analytical prowess.
While free SEO audit tools undeniably contribute, your expertise and acumen as an SEO professional are pivotal in interpreting and acting upon the insights provided. The value of an audit correlates directly with the competence of the auditor.
Additional Tip: Prepare a website audit checklist and SEO audit checklist to ensure you focus on the key areas and get your website and content fully optimised.
