Driven by the need to research, track, evaluate, do competitive analysis, discover, measure, prioritize…and then to do it all over again, we compiled a list of 34 SEO Tools (UPDATE: thanks to the great input we have over 50 tools listed).
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools Categories:
- Enterprise SEO Tools
- Keyword Research and Discovery Tools
- Search Engine Rankings Tools
- Back Link Analysis Tools
- SEO Toolkits or All-in-one Bundles
Enjoy and let us know what’s missing in the comments!
SEO Toolkits:
| Logos and Links | Keyword Tools and Links | Free or Paid? |
|---|---|---|
 | SEO Moz Tools | Some free, the bulk are paid |
 | Raven Tools | Paid with free trials available |
 | SEOBook Tools | Some free, with the more advanced tools for premium members |
 | Bruce Clay Toolset | Paid, 30 day money back guarantee |
 | Ad Gooroo | Paid; mix of SEO and Pay-per-click tools |
 | IBP - Internet Business Promoter | Software download, Optimize site, promote site on directories, track results (paid) |
 | SEO Powersuite | Software download, Rank Tracking, SEO Spyglass, Link Tools, Website Auditor, Free and paid versions |
 | Microsoft Free Toolkit | Includes Site Analysis module, Robots Exclusion module, Sitemaps and Site Indexes modules (perform analysis and offer recommendations and editing tools for managing your Robots and Sitemaps files) |
 | Search Metrics Rapid Free SEO Tools | Free set of online tools, Social bookmark links, cloaked content checking, spider view and a few more |
 | Web SEO Analytics | A nice set of free tools with ability to get upgraded info (paid), Free and paid tools |
| Bonus Tool: | ||
 | SEOlytics | Paid tool, in German |
Keyword Discovery and Research Tools:
| Logos and links | Keyword tools | Comments | Free or Paid? |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Market Samurai | Software download. One of the standby keyword tools. No subscription required. | One time payment, free trial available (and free version includes keyword research) |
 | Long Tail Pro | Software Download, new tool that includes the ability to see who is ranking for your target keywords (and how strong they are) | One time payment |
 | SEMRush | A variety of keyword tools and competitive keyword research. Unique capability - it can discover what keywords you rank for (versus you needing to input them) | Subscription; Free limited account available |
 | Google External Keyword Tool | Free and easy to use; a great starting point for anyone. Includes search volume and competitive estimates and trends over time; includes local search estimates. Easily export your keyword lists to a spreadsheet or word-processing software. | Free |
| Google Adwords Keyword Tool | The same as the Google External Keyword Tool above except this requires an Adwords account and allows you to automatically move keywords into your Adwords campaigns. | Almost free; $5 to start an Adwords account |
 | Word Tracker | Generate keywords for organic and PPC campaigns, research online markets, find niche opportunities. | Subscription; free trial available |
 | Keyword Discovery | Keyword database from over 200 search engines, keyword research tools (trends, competitors, keyword effectiveness, PPC bids), competitive analysis, options to access their API and save your data into projects. | Subscription; free trial available |
 | Word Stream | Range from keyword discovery, research and analysis to keyword organization and actual paid and natural search marketing activity. | Paid with free trial version |
 | Spy Fu | Online competitive keyword research tool, includes PPC info | Paid but you can run a free report with some limits on the site |
 | Google Search-based Keyword Tool | Generates keyword and landing page ideas relevant and specific to your website. Helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren't currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. Includes competition estimates, suggested bids and is based on actual search data for your language and geography. | Free with Adwords account |
 | Google Trends | Current keywords trending in Google's search engine | Free |
 | Google Insights for Search | Based on your search terms, plot keyword search trends by region, time period and optionally, by category (home & garden, computers & internet, etc.) | Free |
 | Microsoft Advertising Intelligence Excel Plugin | Build out lists of suggested keywords based on Bing and MSN query data, including: relevance, volume, cost history, demographic and geographic. | Free |
 | Rapid Keyword Software | A variety of Keyword Finders (Overture Keyword Suggestion too, meta tag parser for web pages, Yahoo related keywords, Google Suggest, typo generator, Metacrawler related keywords), Competition Analyzers, Keyword Management Tools and includes a Scratch Pad functionality. | Paid software for download; free trial available |
 | Wordze | Meta Search Tool (uses meta search data and Google data to find keywords), Wordrank Tool (uses InLink, InTitle and other metrics to profile competition), Adwords Spy and Search Trends. | Subscription; free trial available |
| SearchMetrics Rapid | Online tool, includes PPC info | Paid, free partial version available on the site |
 | Keyword Spy | Online tool, includes PPC info | Paid with some free info available |
 | Key Compete | Online keyword research tool. Identifies keywords your competitors are using in their PPC campaigns and who's bidding on your keywords. Also include keyword search estimates, Web site and keyword ratings, Web site and keyword "Watch Reports", Competition Reports and Long Tail Reports. | Update: NOT SURE IF KEYCOMPETE STILL EXISTS.. Subscription; One-day paid trial available |
| See the SEO Toolkits or Enterprise SEO Platforms (below) which can include keyword research tools | |||
| Bonus Keyword Tool: | |||
 | Keyword Eye | Shows related keywords in a word cloud - give it a try | Free |
 | YouTube Keyword Tool | See what people are searching for on YouTube | Free |
Backlink Analysis Tools:
| Logos and Links | Keyword Tools | Comments | Free or Paid? |
|---|---|---|---|
 | SEO Profiler | Backlink analysis tool; also have some other interesting tools and resources such as a list of submission databases | Free and paid tools |
 | Open Site Explorer | SEOMoz's Open Site Explorer is a great tool with using some of SEOMoz's custom metrics to help rank links, your page's value and more. The tool also allows for comparison of two sites. | Some content is available for free; see all of the content with an upgrade to SEOMoz Pro Membership |
 | Majestic SEO | Good backlink checker, including history of backlinks; requires free registration to get all of the information; not clear if you can elminate links from your own domain | Free; requires free registration to see all data (such as nofollow or not) |
 | SEO Spyglass | Software download | Free and paid editions |
 | Link Diagnosis | Great, free tool that does thorough reports including type of link (e.g. no follow), PageRank of page, how many links on the page and anchor text | Free |
 | Alexa.com | Free tools to give a variety of information about websites in it's database | Free |
 | Google Webmaster Central | Get information on backlinks to your site according to Google. Includes anchor text | Free. Requires you to register and confirm ownership of your sites (but provides valuable information if you do that) |
| See our SEO Toolkits below which can also include link tracking tools In addition, Enterprise SEO Platforms (below) also can include link analysis tools | |||
| Bonus Tools: | |||
 | Buzzstream for Link Management | Automated link management tools | Paid with free trial available |
 | Touchgraph Google Browser | A very cool tool to help you find sites related to certain keywords with a visual chart showing their interlinking relationships | Free |
Search Engine Rank Tracking Tools:
| Keyword tools/Links | Comments | Free or Paid? |
|---|---|---|
| I loved this tool but ran afoul of Google (and was cut off from the info for a day) when checking too many keywords at the same time | Free |
 | Seems to be a newer tool. Regularly checks your keyword ranks. | Paid |
 | They also have a few other tools on this site (keyword density, link popularity, etc.) | Free |
 | Pay for an overall membership with access to a variety of tools | Paid |
 | Software download | Free and Paid versions |
 | Hosted solution, first 30 days free | Paid |
 | Have a very active forum as well for all topics SEO | Free to check first 20 positions (first 2 search results pages); paid after that |
 | Software download | Free version available |
 | One of the older rank-tracking tools | Paid |
SEO Platforms for Enterprise:
| Logos/Links | Company | Info: |
|---|---|---|
 | Bright Edge | SEO Enterprise platform; customers referenced include: MySpace, vmware, trulia and symantec |
 | Conductor | SEO Enterprise Platform. Reference customers include: The Ladders, Netflix, New York Life |
 | Covario | SEM and SEO Platforms; customers referenced include RackSpace, P&G and Intel |
Search Metrics | Search Metrics | German Enterprise SEO company launched US business in 2010 |
 | Blueglass | Blueglass -Second Step platform in Beta for Enterprise and Agencies focused on Small Biz. You can request a beta invite. |
What’s missing?
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Good list, but there are a few obvious ones missing, like:
Market Samurai (Keyword Research)
SEO Spyglass (Backlink Research)
IBP (All round)
Those are off the top of my head….
Thanks Jeff. I’ll definitely take a look!
IBP isn’t very good, the information it can provide is not very advanced.
SEO spyglass is quite good, however I haven’t got a chance to use the premium version.
Haven’t used Market Samurai before, so no comments.
I personally love seomoz and raven, although i’d bet premium membership of SEObook is even better.
Market Samuri was great for keyword research, until the changes in Google Adwords reducing the amount of long tail search synonyms they provide. Even with the upgrade it is not the same keyword search tool as before. I am back to using the rank tracking program from Link-assistant for long tail suggestions by using their ‘Suggest’ function which gives you the ability to query about 10 different search tools for alternate keywords. It will also give you raw search numbers and competition. I then take these keywords and feed it into Market Samuri.
You can test this out by doing simple test of words like facebook or iPad idirectly into the google adwords research tool or the Market Samuri one and you will get virtually no synonyms or long tail keyword suggestions, put the same words in the Link-assistant Rank tracker suggestion area and use all the options you will get 100s
Thanks for all the info and tools. I find a cool way to get backlink info is also through Alexa.com. It seems to provide the links that have a bit of value. (Nice for finding out who is linking to your competitors!) See what you think
Glynn – thanks for the add
Have a dig around on here for loads of seo tools http://www.markrushworth.com/category/seo-tools/
What about Alexa and Bing?
Bookmarked this list :) Have you tried Keyword Eye? http://www.keywordeye.co.uk (Keyword Discovery and Research Tools). It visualizes keyword data from the Google search based keyword tool… where keyword size reflects search volume and competitiveness by colour. It’s quite cool! Would be cool if you could add it to your list for others to use too.
I’ll give it a try Matt
Thanks for the list. I read through them all, but am most interested in the Link Diagnosis, which was the first on the list. I use a handful of these, but of all the non-Google tools, SEM Rush is my favorite.
Thanks for the list.
Nice list! I agree Market Samurai should be there as well as Advanced Web Ranking for rank tracking!
One candidate for teh List “SEO Toolkits” is the German Tool-Kit SEOlytics with Modules for backlink-analysis, seo-ranking analysis and monitoring, web visibility monitoring (seolytics visibilty rank), sem analysis, and more. Here ist teh link: http://www.suchmaschinenoptimierung.de
Thanks, greetings, binstins
One candidate for the list “SEO Toolkits” is the German tool-lit SEOlytics with modules for backlink-analysis, seo-ranking analysis and monitoring, web visibility monitoring (seolytics visibilty rank), sem analysis, and more. Here ist teh link: http://www.suchmaschinenoptimierung.de
Thanks, greetings, binstins
No SEO Toolset is complete without Xenu:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
Can I recommend our new free site comparison tool:
http://www.scotiasystems.com/seo-checker/runcheck.html
Very nice list, I would also include SEO Power Suite.
Great list, thank you!!!
Ranking checker… advanced web ranking (caphyon.com)
I have to agree with Jeff about Market Samurai. Should be on the list…this is one slick Keyword Research/competitive analysis tool. Not only is the keyword research customizable ie: set it to show only keywords that get a certain number of searches a day etc. but also find out whether or not the top ten sites for the term(s) have the keyword in title, description, how many backlinks they have, are they dot gov or edu backlinks etc. Totally keyword research tool.
you could also add firefox & chrome plugins. here are some i use:
SEO for Firefox
SEOQuake
Firebug
Web Developer
Alexa Sparky
SEOMoz Toolbar
Google Toolbar
SEOpen
YSlow
User Agent Switcher
Thanks George. I had a couple of the tool bars queued up next but that looks like a great set there
Loving this list – thanks everyone!
Excellent initial list, but the reason this post is bookmarkable is for the crowdsourcing that follows. Thanks to everyone.
I agree – thanks everyone for all the great additions
New backlink analysis tool: http://www.seoprofiler.com
Thank you for the list with some new tools. BTW: IBP works
We left off KeywordSpy and Spyfu?
Wicked list, thanks! http://www.buzzstream.com is also a huge asset to any link builder out there.
What about Spyfu or Keywordspy. They are great tools.
Great list. I’ll add this tool : http://www.woorank.com
Bookmarked, it’s a good list :)
Xenu is a good tool, like LinkExaminer : http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/Network/lnkexam/Freeware.htm
Just a remark : your canonical URL is different from your permalink… which makes http://www.directionseo.com/seo-tools/34-seo-tools-the-ultimate-tools-list/ and http://www.directionseo.com/seo-tools/ultimate-seo-tools-list/ coexist. They are not really differents (just date and comments make the difference), is it volitional ?
What about Syntryx? Using it for backlink-reserach to have a data source beside Yahoo Link Explorer.
You also need a sitemapper tool? Maybe A1 Sitemap Generator? It can create image, video, mobile, news etc. XML sitemaps
Thanks for the list! I’ve been using WebCEO for most of my clients. Raven is awesome too but I haven’t got in depth with it. Thx again!
I just love tools, such excellent feed back from everyone and no spam. I am never without SEOquake on my screen just a click and incredible info.
Another tool I use extensively, especially when looking at a new client’s website and after making changes to a website is Microsoft’s Free SEO Toolkit. Lots of great information about any website. http://www.microsoft.com/web/seo/
Thanks everyone for the great input and additions. I’ve added tools to all of the sections and added an Enterprise SEO category with some new tools as well. As always feedback is welcome. I still have a couple of other sections I want to get in there but will add those in later.
Great list – many I’d not heard of, but wondering why Krakken is not listed under enterprise? It has to be the top tool in the bunch.
The list is extensive, I wish for a more concrete assessment of each service, also as recommendations. It certainly takes weeks to test all services. I thank for the successful Zusammenfassung.Tipps. I will recommend the article!
A nice tool list for seo. This can make a further more. http://www.seohocasi.com/seo/ completely free.
FYI: SEOlytics is both, a SEO Toolkit plus a scalable Enterprise Solution – there is a starter and a pro version. It’s not in beta but rather has a beta for a large update running in the background at the moment. With the current live version, which features a UI also in english, you can eg. already track positions in 18 different countries, including US & Uk, etc. Towards the end of the year, when the current beta features go live, it will become international for all available functions.
Hey there,
maybe SEO Elite from Brad Callen should be on the list also. It’s not the best piece of software that’s available but is still pretty good. He has also Keyword Elite but i don’t have any experience with that program.
I like your list, might want to include the one in my name?
Hey to everyone who’s commented. I appreciate the great dialogue and additions. Some of you (and other people I’ve talked to) mentioned how it would be great to have more assessment or ratings of tools. With that in mind I created a site called Search Tools Review – http://www.searchtoolsreview.com/. I’ve put a lot more tools in and added in PPC and Social Media tools as well (so the list is over 100 now). Take a look and rate what you’ve used. I suggest you go to the Tools Logo page to find the ones you know. Thanks!
thanks admin.very nice post