
When it comes to building a website, developers often focus on the technical aspects: code, structure, performance. But there’s another layer that’s equally important search engine optimization (SEO). While SEO might seem like a task for marketers, it’s crucial for developers to have a solid understanding of SEO tools and how to use them. The good news is that you don’t have to break the bank on expensive SEO tools. There are many free options available that can help you improve your website’s visibility and performance on search engines.
Here are 5 free SEO tools every developer should know about:
What it does: Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the most powerful free tools for monitoring and improving your website’s performance on Google search results. It helps developers track indexing, identify search traffic trends, and resolve site issues that might affect SEO.
Why it’s useful:
Site performance insights: See how your site is performing on Google Search, with detailed reports about clicks, impressions, and average search positions.
Identify issues: If Google can't crawl your pages, GSC will let you know so you can fix it.
Indexing control: You can submit sitemaps and individual URLs for Google to crawl and index.
How to use it: After setting up your site on GSC, you can use its tools to check your website’s overall health, see which keywords are driving traffic, and fix any potential errors affecting your SEO performance.
What it does: Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop based crawler that helps you analyze your website’s SEO performance. It scans websites for broken links, missing metadata, duplicate content, and other important on-page SEO factors.
Why it’s useful:
Technical SEO audit: Screaming Frog crawls your website’s structure and points out issues like 404 errors, redirects, and missing tags.
Analyze metadata: You can view title tags, meta descriptions, and other on-page elements to ensure they’re optimized for SEO.
Crawl your entire site: It’s especially useful for large websites or e-commerce sites, as it gives you a complete picture of your site’s structure.
How to use it: Download the free version (which allows crawling up to 500 pages) and enter your website URL. Screaming Frog will crawl your site and generate a comprehensive report you can use to fix any issues.
What it does: Moz’s Link Explorer is a tool designed to help developers understand the backlink profile of a website. Backlinks are an important SEO factor because they signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.
Why it’s useful:
Backlink analysis: Moz Link Explorer shows you the backlinks pointing to your site and allows you to check their quality.
Domain authority insights: It also provides domain authority scores (a Moz metric for ranking potential) so you can understand how competitive your site is in its niche.
Competitor analysis: You can use Moz to check out the backlinks of competitors and figure out potential link building opportunities.
How to use it: You can search for your website in Moz Link Explorer to get a snapshot of your backlink profile. You can also check individual pages to see how strong their backlinks are.
What it does: If you’re dealing with JSON data (which is common in web development, especially when working with APIs), a JSON Formatter is essential. TaskTool JSON Formatter tool helps you quickly and cleanly format and validate JSON data.
Why it’s useful:
Improves readability: It converts messy JSON code into a neat, easily readable format, which makes debugging and editing much easier.
Validates JSON: You can use the tool to check if your JSON data is valid or not, which is crucial when working with APIs or dynamic content.
No sign-up required: It’s a free tool that doesn’t require any signup or installation, making it fast and convenient for developers on the go.
How to use it: Simply paste your raw JSON code into the tool, and it will format it for you. If there are any errors in your JSON structure, the tool will highlight them so you can quickly fix them.
What it does: Ubersuggest, created by Neil Patel, is a free SEO tool that helps you track keyword performance, research keyword ideas, and analyze the SEO strategies of your competitors.
Why it’s useful:
Keyword research: Ubersuggest generates keyword suggestions based on your initial search, showing you search volume, competition level, and cost per click (CPC) data.
Competitor insights: You can use Ubersuggest to analyze your competitors’ websites and find gaps in their content that you can target with your own SEO efforts.
Track keyword rankings: It allows you to monitor how your keywords are performing in search results over time.
How to use it: Enter a keyword or URL into Ubersuggest, and the tool will generate reports with keyword ideas, SEO analysis, and other relevant insights to help you improve your site’s SEO.
As a developer, SEO might not be your primary focus, but it’s still an essential part of creating successful websites. These free tools can help you ensure your site is optimized for search engines, making it more likely to rank well and attract organic traffic. By using these tools regularly, you can save time and effort while improving your website’s overall performance. Whether it’s fixing broken links, analyzing your backlinks, or formatting your code, these tools are simple, effective, and powerful allies in your web development journey.