Search engine optimization is designed to extend web accessibility based on HTML guidelines, and is designed to better define the purpose and content of a document. SEO optimization ensures that web pages have unique titles that properly reflect their content, as well as keywords to highlight the content of individual pages and tags with the right processing.

Web developers often focus only on properly coding, but this trend is changing, as it has become known that search engines use "signals from the page", bringing it to high rankings. Today, large search engines, such as Google, process much more information "off-page" in determining search results, not least through semantic processing, user data collection, and the use of neural networks to identify trends and personal preferences.

The basic ideals of SEO remain the same as always - providing pages with the right tags to target keywords, not only for natural search results, but also for PPC (Pay Per Click) and other marketing campaigns, where the call to action (CTA) and conversion rate are important indicators of success.

Developers can find it difficult to handle SEO optimization on their own, so most of them use special tools to facilitate the process. On the Internet you can find a large number of useful services (both paid and free) and we offer to get acquainted with the best among them.

Paid services

1. Google Search Console - the best option for beginners

Google Search Console (GSC) with free support is a great way for beginner webmasters to get started with SEO. Even if you are not SEO-oriented, regardless of the size of your website or blog, the Google search console (formerly Webmaster Central) and the many user-friendly tools included in it will be indispensable for you.

The suite of tools allows you to quickly view valuable information about a site: they can evaluate the site's performance and monitor potential issues to fix them (such as negative spam links), help ensure the site's suitability for Google, and track its indexing with Google.

The Search Console is constantly updated and offers users new and improved features, such as:

• URL verification tool
• updated sitemap report.

The service offers a handy webmaster help community to connect to and share troubleshooting and efficiency tips.

2. A set of SEO SEMrush tools with advanced features

The SEMrush SEO toolkit was developed in 2008 by SEMrush, and in 2018 the project received $ 40 million in expansion funding. The Keyword Tool has a sophisticated SEMrush dashboard that lets you view a detailed keyword analysis report, as well as a summary of any domains you manage.

Most importantly, a set of SEO tools allows you to compare the performance of multiple pages to see your ranking compared to competitors. For example, you can analyze backlinks from other websites to yours (this process is sometimes called "link building").

Traffic analytics helps you identify the main sources of your competitors' web traffic and top sites, as well as the average session duration and bounce rate on pages. In addition, a comparison of traffic sources provides an overview of digital marketing channels for a group of competitors simultaneously.

The "bounce rate" is the percentage of visitors who visit a website and then leave it without accessing other pages on the same site.

A domain review yields much more than just a summary of your competitors' SEO strategies: you can identify the specific keywords they're targeting, as well as access the relative performance of your domains on both desktop and mobile devices.

SEMrush has received many positive mentions on the Internet, but has been criticized for using SEO jargon (such as "SERP"), which can alienate inexperienced users.

3.SEO Spider is an efficient web scanner, but the free version is a bit limited
One of the most attractive features of SEO Spider is its ability to perform a quick search for URLs, as well as carefully scan your site for invalid pages. This saves you the trouble of clicking each link manually (to eliminate "404 error"). The tool also allows you to check pages with missing title tags, duplicate meta tags, tags of incorrect length and check the number of links placed on each page

There is both a free and a paid version of SEO Spider. The free version contains basic features such as redirect crawling, but it is limited to 500 URLs - this makes the "Lite" version of SEO Spider only suitable for smaller domains. After receiving a paid option, users will receive more advanced features and free technical support.

4. Majestic SEO Tools with the most features

The focus in Majestic tools is on backlinks that have a significant impact on SEO performance. One of the most popular features is the "Majestic Million", which displays a ranking of one million best websites.

The limited version of the service includes useful features such as mass backlink checking, domain registration, IP addresses and subnets, as well as Majestic's integrated Site Explorer. This feature was created to give an overview of your online store, but it has received some negative comments due to its outdated look. Majestic has a small drawback - the lack of integration of Google Analytics.

5. Moz Pro - search engine marketing tools

Moz Pro is a platform of SEO tools that aims to help you increase traffic, rankings and visibility of search results. Key tools include the ability to test your own site with Moz Pro, which should highlight potential issues and recommend practical information to resolve them. It is also possible to track a site's ranking by the hundreds or even thousands of keywords on a website. There is also a keyword research tool that helps you determine which keywords and their combinations may be best for targeting.

Moz Pro has a backlink analysis tool that combines a combination of metrics, including referenced text in links and domain authority evaluation. The service offers an affordable set of free tools, but advanced features (including for agencies and businesses) are provided for a fixed fee. There is also a huge support community that is ready to offer help, advice and guidance to solve various search marketing problems.

The best free SEO tools

Although we have selected the best paid SEO tools, a number of websites offer more limited opportunities that can be used for free.

1. SEOQuake
SEOquake is one of the most popular toolbar extensions. It allows you to view several search engine parameters, save and compare them with the results obtained for other projects. While the icons and numbers provided by SEOquake may be confusing to the uninitiated, skilled optimizers will appreciate the wealth of detail that this add-on provides.

You will be able to get detailed information about the number of visitors and their geo-location, graph of the history of site traffic and other important data. The toolbar contains the following buttons:

• update the Google index on the website;
• backlinks;
• SEMRush rating;
• Facebook preferences;
• Bing index;
• Alexa ratings;
• the age of the web archive;
• link to Whois page.

There is also a useful cheat sheet and diagnostic page to identify potential issues affecting a particular page or site.

2. Google AdWords Keyword Planner
Knowing the right keywords to target is extremely important when preparing a web page. Google's free keyword tool, which is part of Adwords, is as easy to use as possible. Connect the URL of your website to the service window and start viewing the suggested keywords.

3. Google Optimize
Another Google tool on this list that offers sophisticated optimization for experienced SEO experts. SEO is not just about rankings, and without the right balance of content that interacts with your visitors and promotes conversions, the work done can be in vain. Google's free service helps you test the content of your site: from a simple A / B test of two different pages to a comparison of a whole combination of elements on any page (personalization features are also available).

Note that you will need sufficient traffic and time to get complete results to run some of the more complex multidimensional tests.