7 Tools That Every Business Owner Can Use To Check Website SEO Health
Uncovering the Dirty Secrets of the SEO Industry Mini Series
SEO is always best thought of as a collaborative process between all key stakeholders in your company. It involves an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure that strategic goals are met. Even so, business owners should never feel that SEO is a dark art or something that they cannot understand. The more a business owner understands the SEO process, the better the outcome.
The following is a list of free tools that every business owner should have access to in order to check that their SEO is on the right track.
Google Analytics
This tool is where every business owner should start. Google Analytics is your radar and allows you to check how much traffic your website is receiving and whether that traffic is converting into new business leads.
Google Webmasters
Also known as Google Search Console, this tool offers as close as one could wish for, for a direct line of communication with Google. If there are any technical issues or if a manual penalty has been applied to your site, it is in Google Webmasters that you will be informed of this.
Google Mobile Friendly Check
On April 21, 2015, Google released an algorithm update known as Google Mobile Search Update or Mobilegeddon. This update was designed to favour websites that cater for smartphones. If your website does not appear correctly on mobile devices, it is quite likely that your website is seeing a decline in mobile search traffic.
Penguin Tool
The Barracuda Penguin Tool is an essential tool to determine if your website has been hit by a search engine update and which particular update may be affecting your site. To use this tool, you will need to login using your Google Analytics credentials.
Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is a good way you can keep tabs on your SEO agency to confirm what backlinks or online endorsements they have acquired for you. It is also a good way to get competitive intelligence on what endorsements your competitors have acquired.
SEMRush
SEMrush is a competitive data tool that allows you to quickly check what keywords you are coming up for on organic Google searches and for Google Adwords. The great thing about it is that you do not require login details to your Google Analytics. It is also a useful way to spy on your competitors.
Browse SEO
If you want to ensure Google understands your website, it is important that you can see your website the way search engines see you. This is where the Browse SEO tool comes in. What you will be looking for is your meta title, meta description and the heading tags.
The above list is by no means an extensive list of the tools you need to be aware of, however it is an important way that you, as a business owner can collaborate with your SEO agency.
