Our Extremely Large List of SEO Tools & Other Useful Resources

I started working in SEO around 2009-2010, and over the past 12 years, I’ve encountered a lot of SEO tools. One of the biggest trends I’ve noticed is how there are fewer one-off tools. In the old days, you would use one tool to find all the broken links on a site, a second tool to find all of the images missing alt attributes, and a third tool to check the length of title and meta description tags. Now, Screaming Frog does all those things and more for only $209 per year, and it rocks!

While updating this blog post from its 2014 version, I checked every link to see if the tool still existed, and surprisingly, not many were still around. Tons of the tools were long retired, broken, or just plain not needed anymore.

The industry has matured a lot, and so have its tools. Instead of keeping long bookmark lists of free tools, gadgets, and browser bookmarklets, we now use a handful of go-to paid tools for most tasks. I think that’s a good thing. There are a lot of tools worth paying for these days.

So here’s our updated list of digital marketing tools for 2022. It’s based on the original list, what we use internally at Portent, and my experience with tools that have proven reliable over the years.

You’ll see some of the tools listed in multiple categories, and that’s because they do a lot. A couple of the tools included are direct competitors and basically do the same thing. For these instances, we don’t recommend using both. It’s best to look at each tool and see which one fits into your workflow or has a subjectively better interface.

Tools Save Time, Not Understanding

The best marketing tool you have is in your head. No amount of software, no matter how all-in-one it is, will perform the most important marketing task: thinking.

If you don’t understand what to do with the output of any of these tools, they won’t be very useful. The real strategy of SEO comes into play when you use the information from these tools to find the root cause of a problem and figure out a solution. This principle also holds when you’re communicating with other teams.

For example, SEO isn’t about asking a developer to fix lists of busted URLs. It’s about figuring out why there was a list of busted URLs in the first place and how you can work with a developer to prevent that from happening again in the future. If used properly, these tools will help you get to that stage of critically thinking a lot faster, which is all they can really do – save us time.

Categories of Tools & Resources

• Competition Research
• Content Strategy
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Design
• International SEO
• Keyword Research
• Off-Page SEO and Link Building
• Local SEO
• PPC
• Rank Tracking
• Technical SEO
• Social Media
• Miscellaneous

Competition Research

Ahrefs
Batch Analysis: very fast overview of backlinks for any list of URLs you enter.

BuzzSumo
Receive alerts about where your competitors receive links from their public relations and outreach efforts

Meltwater
Another outreach and public relations platform for monitoring where your competitors are receiving visibility

Mozbar
Browser toolbar – provides a wealth of metrics & data on web pages and SERP listings

Domain Authority Checker
Bulk URL checker to grab Moz stats on multiple URLs via SERPs scrape/download. Lists Domain Authority, Page Authority for a particular URL, MozRank for the URL, and the number of external links pointing to the URL

Open Link Profiler
Provides a summary of backlink information for a domain and lists the externally links pages, sorted by link quality. Free!

Moz Link Explorer
“The world’s best backlink checker with over 40 trillion links.” Has a limited free account option

Moz SEO Competitive Analysis Tool
“On-page report card” – grade a page for a Keyword

SEMrush
Use the domain vs. domain tool to see what keywords competitors rank for with associated metrics. View Competitor keywords, ad copy, organic or paid

Similar Sites
Easily find similar websites

Similar Web
See estimates of annual revenue, monthly traffic, popular demographics, and top traffic channels of your competitors

Visualping
Monitor changes for specific parts or your competitors’ pages with email and text message alerts. Has a free tier

Majestic
Backlink profile reports with an extensive historical index. Also makes it easy to see where backlinks get their backlinks from

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Content Strategy

Sparktoro
Audience research platform that combines anonymized data from 12 social networks. Know more about the audience you’re writing for by going beyond demographics

Content Gems
Quickly find and share the most valuable content in one easy-to-use platform. Has a free plan

MarketMuse
Have an “AI” write your content briefs

Contently
SaaS platform that helps with content ideation, planning, writing, analytics, and distribution

Content Harmony
Web-based tool for generating content briefs that relies on machine learning to suggest topics and find search intent

Copyscape
Serves both as a plagiarism checker and a duplicate-content checker. Great to use if your content has been distributed across the web

Siteliner
A duplicate content finder made by the same people as Copyscape, but looks for instances of duplicated content within a single website

Google Public Data
Drawing on vast public databases, Google public data offers a great starting point for content research, infographics, and more

Headline Analyzer
Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer

Similar Page Checker
Use this tool to check for duplicate content issues. The Similar Page Checker will give you a score of how closely the content of two pages resembles each other

Speechpad
Transcription service. Handy for generating transcriptions of video and audio content

Triberr
A community of bloggers and influencers come together to read and share great content

Content & Headline Idea Generator
Enter a subject (or topic or keywords) and get all kinds of titles and ideas

Grammarly
Eliminate typographical and grammatical errors on Gmail, Google Docs, and in desktop applications

Polish
Rewrite text in your browser to generate mockups and evaluate potential changes. Easier than using the developer console

Fonts Ninja
Get font information from any web page including the name, size, and other CSS properties

Word Counter Plus
Right-click text on a page to get the word count in a simple menu

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Conversion Rate Optimization

FullStory
Anonymized and complete user data capture. Get analytics of user interactions on any element in addition to funnel and conversion analytics, user journey mapping, and session replays

Hotjar
Heatmaps, session recordings, user feedback forms, and surveys

Contentsquare
More than heatmaps: user journeys, session replays, mobile app analytics, and friction analysis

Zoku
Form analytics

Inspectlet
Session recording, heatmaps, A/B testing, surveys, form analytics, and error logging

Mouseflow
Enterprise-grade data handling for the most strictly regulated websites. Session replays, heatmaps, funnel analytics, form analytics, user feedback, with app integrations and an API

Optimizely
More than A/B testing. A SaaS platform with marketing management features and an enterprise CMS that also manages feature releases and eCommerce

Google Optimize
A/B testing platform that’s free and easy to integrate with analytics platforms

Survey Monkey
Get visitor feedback in a variety of forms for multiple marketing purposes

VWO Testing Calculator
Determine the appropriate length of an A/B test

CXL AB+ Test Calculator
Pre-test and post-test analysis for A/B/n tests

AB Testguide Significance Calculator
User-friendly calculator for statistical power, p values, and Z-scores

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Design

Canva
“Amazingly simple graphic design for blogs, presentations, Facebook covers, flyers and so much more”

HTML Color Picker
Upload an image to receive a color palette and hex values of individual pixels

WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
Identify accessibility and WCAG errors, with a focus on end-user impact

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International SEO

Flang
Hreflang testing tool. See if a page’s hreflang alternates point back to it

Hfreflang Tag Generator
Hreflang tag generator from Aleyda Solis

Location Guard
Change your browser’s reported location to a specific spot on a map. Handy for emulating local and international search results

I Search From
Simulate using Google Search from different locations or devices or perform a search with custom search settings – useful for one-off SERP checks

Word Reference
Online translating dictionary for single words and phrases

Google Translate
Translate passages of text

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Keyword Research

Google Search Console
Look for striking distance keywords. Export for further analysis in Excel or other tools. Find keywords with search volume other tools will report as zero volume

Google Ads Keyword Planner
Generate keywords from a seed keyword or enter a list to obtain search volume and other data points

Google Search
Look at related and suggested queries. Look at search results to determine user intent

Google Trends
Get idea of up or down trend & also look at hot trends for new ideas

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Get keyword suggestions and search volume from multiple search engines and countries

SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool
Get organized and filterable keyword suggestions. Requires an account

Moz
Get keyword suggestions and search volume from multiple language-country combinations. Groups keywords by lexical similarity

Keywords Everywhere
Browser plugin that displays search suggestions and search volume right in the SERP

Keyword Shitter
Continuously scraped search suggestions. Lives up to the name

Keyword Tool
Paid tool. Provides keyword suggestions for Google, Bing, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, and Instagram

Lexipedia
Displays a handy little chart with every definition of a word and synonyms. It’s a lexicon builder’s dream

AnswerThePublic
Get keywords formed as questions

Merge Words
Create keyword lists through concatenation. Great for keywords based on location lists, synonyms, or need to follow similar structures

Meta Glossary
Get definitions of words that frequently appear in the same documents as your keyword

Moz On-page Grader
Grade a page for a keyword

Wordtracker
Generate keywords – paid tool

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Off-Page SEO and Link Building

BuzzStream
Research outreach lists, email pitches, manage responses, and report on placements

BuzzSumo
Find influencers and writers to send pitches to

Streak
Add a CRM to Gmail for keeping track of outreach email and pitches

RocketReach
Get contact information for anyone with a browser extension and bulk inquiries

Hunter
Get email addresses for millions of professionals

Cision
Distribute press releases, connect to writers and influencers, and get analytics on your outreach

HARO
Help a reporter find sources for a story. With luck, you’ll get a link and a mention

Boomerang
Get better email scheduling and reminders in Gmail

Ahrefs
Find your competitors linking domains and top-performing content

SimilarWeb
Checkout the websites you’re pitching content to

Broken Link Check
Crawls a site and finds broken links

Bulk Doman Authority Checker
Check DA of up to 200 domains at once

Buzzstream tools
Various tools & uses

Easel.ly
Free tools for creating and sharing infographics. The templates allow anyone to create a professional-looking graphic

Infogr.am
A great free Infographics resource that allows you to easily create graphics and data visualizations

Email Format
Find email address via domain name entry

Free Email Verifier
Verify email addresses

Image Raider
Automated reverse image search! Search who’s using your image, and request a link from them

MailTester.com
Need to send an email to an untested address, but you don’t want to spam them? Check it first with this mail tester to verify

Majestic
See competitor’s link profile

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Local SEO

BrightLocal
An all-in-one solution for NAP consistency, Google Business Profile audits, reporting, rank tracking, citation building, and review monitoring

Generate local AdWords and Keyword Lists Tool
Generate keyword lists based on city and zip code

Local Keyword Tool
Local SEO keyword research tool – enter zip code & keywords, and get a list of keywords for each location

Moz Local
Manage and sync business listings on directories in the US, Canada, and UK

Google Business Profile Categories
Keep up to date with the categories you can use in your Google Business Profiles

Google Rich Results Test
Have Google validate the structured data on your website

Schema Generator & Structured Data Testing Tool
Validate your JSON-LD, microdata, and RDFa structured data markup

Schema Markup Generator
Generate JSON-LD structured data markup for various rich snippet types

USPS ZIP Code Tool
Get the correct official address for your locations

SEMRush Listing Management
Get consistent listings on 70+ top web directories

Census.gov Tools
US Census tools for audience demographics.

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PPC

Adthena
A landscape intelligence platform that leverages machine learning to help marketers understand their competitive landscape. Provides information about where PPC keywords and organic keywords overlap

Unbounce
Landing page creator and testing platform

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Rank Tracking

STAT Search Analytics
Designed for marketers who need to track lots of keywords, like enterprises and agencies. It provides location-based keyword tracking and organic share of voice

Ahrefs
Integrates well with their keyword research tool

Advanced Web Ranking
Does much more than just rank tracking and is definitely worth checking out

LocalFalcon
Rank tracking for Google maps. Displays rankings as a grid over a region

PlacesScout
Local rank tracking in organic results and maps. Also does reporting for Google Business Profiles, NAP consistency, and reputation monitoring

LocalViking
Grid-based Google Maps rank tracking. Also does automated posting for Google Business Profiles

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Technical SEO

Google Search Console
What does Google see on your website? Lots of reporting for various aspects of a website, including which URLs aren’t indexed, which ones have structured data markup problems, Core Web Vitals issues, and much more. Our first stop for Technical SEO audits

Bing Webmaster Tools
Often overlooked, but it’s a very helpful complement to Google Search Console

Builtwith.com
See what the tech stack of a website is. Handy for identifying the CMS, front-end framework, or cloud platform a website runs on

Chrome DevTools
It’s come a long way over the years. DOM inspection, Lighthouse reports, device viewport emulation, JavaScript console, and more all in the browser

Robots.txt Tester
A hidden Search Console feature. See how Google really interprets your robots.txt to see if a URL is disallowed or not

Google Page Speed Insights
Quick check to see if a domain passes Core Vital Vitals benchmarks. Provides some recommendations for improving page load speed

WebPageTest
Our go-to for digging into page speed issues and Core Web Vitals problems

Gtmetrix
Another page load waterfall report like WebPageTest

HTML Markup Validator
W3C HTML markup validator

ScreamingFrog
Our desktop web crawler of choice. Reasonably priced and full of features. It even renders JavaScript! Turn on database storage to crawl the larger sites

Portent’s SEO Page Review
Our easy Chrome extension for quickly getting titles, meta descriptions, robots meta tags, heading tags, links, images, and HTTP headers of any web page

Portent’s SERP Snippet Preview Tool
Check to see if your titles and meta descriptions are fully displayable in Google

Pingdom
Pingdom offers an entire suite of speed tools to help analyze page load, DNS issues, and connectivity

Qualys SSL Labs
Enter domain to test SSL certs and get a report

SSL Server Test
Analysis of the configuration of any SSL web server on the public Internet

Sprite Me
Create CSS Sprites out of background image using bookmarklet

Spy On Web
Check to see which others websites are using the same Google Analytics ID

Wayback Machine
Want to see the history of your website or your competitor’s site? The Wayback Machine allows you to step back in time and track important changes

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Social Media

Hootsuite
All-in-one social media marketing platform. Manage publishing and advertising for multiple networks in one place

Sprout Social
Another all-in-one social media management platform

Facebook Sharing Debugger
Debug your OpenGraph markup to make sure your URLs will display correctly on Facebook

TwitterCard Validator
Check to see how your URLs will display on Twitter

Followerwonk
Twitter profile analytics and reporting

Hashtagify
Search and find the trending Twitter hashtags

Know Your Meme
Internet Meme Database

Pinterest Rich Pin Validator
Test structured markup and get approval in same process

SharedCount
Want to know how any piece of content was shared socially across the major services? This is the tool to use

SharedCount API
Harnessing the combined statistics of Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and more, the SharedCount API puts a ton of social data at your fingertips.

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Miscellaneous Tools & Toolsets

GoDaddy WHOIS
Check to see who owns a top-level domain

ARIN
See who manages IP addresses and ASNs

Htaccess Redirect Generator
This tool will generate directives you can copy and paste into your htaccess file to handle various types of redirections, like non-www to www

IFTTT (If This Then That)
If this then that – automate web services by sticking them together

Page2RSS
Turn any URL into an RSS feed – use with IFTTT

MozCast
Look at SERPs volatility

SEMRush Sensor
SERP volatility segmented by industry

Algoroo
SERP volatility with a long historical lookup

RankRanger Google SERP Features
How is the visibility of various Google SERP features changing over time?

Search Engine Roundtable
Stay up to date on Google updates and happenings with the best damn coverage out there

Nerdy Data
FInd websites using a particular service in their tech stack

Feedly
RSS feed reader. Get the news before Twitter does

Pixabay
Free stock photos

User Agent String.Com
Shows your user agent string

What’s My Info
Get your complete browser information

Screencast-O-Matic
Free screen capture and recording software

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Conclusion

I hope you found something useful! This list definitely isn’t the final word on the matter. Every day there is a new product launch or clever dashboard generated by the digital marketing community.

One way to keep track of those developments is the last tool of this post: Sparktoro’s Trending report. It’s an aggregator of what the digital marketing world is talking about on Twitter. I check it at least once a day to see what’s going on.