Built-in SEO analysis tools – types and application

Search engine optimization (abbr. SEO) is essential for businesses seeking to increase their online visibility. Embarking on this task requires using SEO analysis tools that help gather insight into the metrics that matter the most.

SEO tools for website analysis cover everything from on-page SEO checks to keyword research, backlink analysis, competitor evaluation, and in-depth analysis. This article talks about the types of built-in website analysis tools for SEO and how they can be employed to enhance your digital marketing campaigns.

Overview of search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is not one single aspect that will improve your website’s performance but a whole array of strategies to maximize visibility on search engine result pages (abbr. SERP). 

In that sense, SEO encompasses aspects like website structure, content quality, keywords, backlinks, and more. This section will detail the importance of SEO for online businesses, the various website SEO analysis tools, and their role in boosting website performance.

Importance of SEO for online businesses

As the digital marketplace becomes more crowded than ever, having your website visible in the top search engine rankings has become a serious competitive advantage. It is thanks to SEO that some businesses manage to reach many more potential customers than others.

SEO works if you have grasped an understanding of what users look up online when they need a specific product or service. When you have acquired that information, you know in what direction to take the optimization of your website to meet these needs.

Optimization, in this context, starts by creating content that appeals to both users and search engines. It enables SE bots to identify keywords within your pages and make your website more visible. Consequently, users are more likely to be engaged when they see your page in the first few search results and interact with it.

When done right, SEO can provide ongoing returns over an extended period, making it a cost-effective marketing strategy. 

Moreover, SEO builds trust and credibility. A site that ranks highly is perceived as more reliable by users because the pre-supposed thought it leads to is that of higher authority.

For optimal results, your website has to fulfill a number of requirements. One of the most important is that it provides a polished user experience when users visit your website. It translates to lower bounce rates, higher engagement, increased conversions, and, ultimately, a higher return on investment (abbr. ROI).

When coupled with SEO analytics, you can make your web pages stand out and retain users, effectively growing your business.

Role of SEO analysis tools in improving website performance

A vital set of data you need to understand to optimize your website is gathered by the cluster of built-in SEO analysis tools available at your disposal.

The kind of data you can expect to gather includes keyword performance, backlink profile, website structure, content effectiveness, and more. With these, you can more readily develop targeted strategies, focusing your efforts where they will carry the most weight.

Ongoing tracking and monitoring can also be done with the help of SEO analytics. These tools highlight issues that may impact performance, such as broken links or slow loading times, and offer recommendations for improvement.

Furthermore, the data SEO analysis tools can be used for competitive analysis, which gives you a better idea of where your business stands than other similar ones in terms of search engine ranking. Some tools can make you a free SEO report card for your and your competitors’ websites.

As long as you have an operational business, your SEO efforts should not come to an end. It can benefit you more than you imagine, but it’s also a process of adjusting, testing, failing, refining, testing, failing, refining, testing, and eventually reaching the desired result.

Types of built-in SEO analysis tools

Five main analytic SEO tool types exist, each catering to a specific aspect of the process. Know one and have a good start. Know all, and you stand a formidable chance.

Here are the 5 types of SEO analysis tools we’ll look at in this article:

• On-page analysis tools. They evaluate the performance of content, keywords, tags, URLs, and other elements by tracking SEO metrics like keyword density, readability scores, and metadata analysis.
  
• Analysis and keyword research tools. They assist in identifying relevant keywords for your website’s content, providing insight into search volume, competition, and relevance.
  
• Backlink analysis tools. They focus on your website’s backlink profile – the number and quality of links in other websites pointing to your website, where high-authority sites have a higher positive impact.
  
• Competitor analysis tools. They shine more light on the competitive landscape, highlighting keywords competitors are ranking for, their backlink profiles, and their on-page SEO strategies, among other things.
  
• Analytics and reporting tools. They monitor your website’s overall SEO performance, tracking a wide range of metrics – from organic traffic and bounce rates to conversion rates and dwell time.

Now, let’s knock out all the tools one by one, starting with…

On-page analysis tools

On-page SEO refers to the process of optimizing the content and HTML source code for individual web pages. The tools here serve to identify how the content can be better adjusted to fit the most sought-after keywords, matching the search intent of users.

Key features and functionalities

The core functionalities and key features of on-page analysis tools revolve around analyzing a web page’s elements and identifying improvement areas.

• Keyword analysis. Examining keyword usage and distribution on a page, checking keyword density, and ensuring that keywords are used appropriately in titles, meta descriptions, and content.
  
• Content analysis. Examining the quality and relevance of the content on a page based on factors such as readability, text structure, and the use of images and videos.

With on-page analysis tools, you can assess technical aspects like the URL structure, meta tags, as well as internal links, and even external ones. Reports outlining each page’s strengths and weaknesses with actionable insights also fall within the scope of their functionalities.

You can weave the feedback from these tools into your content, making it more engaging and valuable for visitors, and increase its visibility by picking the words that most often come up in searches.

Examples of popular on-page analysis tools

Several popular on-page analysis tools stand out in the market, with Google Search Console (abbr. GSC) taking the crown.

Google’s free product line aims to solve many problems marketing, and SEO experts may face, with GSC being the go-to option for on-page analysis. It shows exactly how Google views a website, and it helps you find and fix any technical issues that could be hindering your performance, offering data on search traffic, keyword performance, and crawl errors, among others.

If you want the best free SEO tools but would also be willing to invest in bots specializing in crawling, you can go for Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider tool. It allows you to make a site audit by crawling, analyzing, and reviewing content. It also has functionalities that help you identify broken links, discover duplicate content, generate XML sitemaps, and more.

Keyword research and analysis tools

Early in your SEO strategy, you will need to perform keyword research to gather data on relevant keywords that potential customers are likely to use when searching for products or services similar to those in your business offering. 

You will need to know several things about the main features of tools that help you in that endeavor.

Key features and functionalities

Before you work on your on-page stats, you will likely first visit the keyword research and analysis tools that you will use in your content creation plan. 

You will see they come with the following:

• Keyword suggestions. Your business starts from a seed before it eventually grows into a tree, and the keywords that form a tree of suggestions are the basis you step on – that’s why they are called seed keywords. For instance, a seed keyword for online stores could be “e-commerce,” though you can narrow it down further, depending on your niche.
  
  When you enter a seed keyword within a tool, it generates a list of related keywords, uncovering a whole new world of potential keywords to target in your content.
  
• Keyword metrics. Once you have a library of keywords, you can begin tracking their metrics, such as search volume, competition level, difficulty score, and in some cases, trend data.
  
  Your website’s overall SEO score relies on all SEO factors, including keywords, user experience, content quality, backlinks, technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, mobile optimization, and security.

Almost each keyword research tool includes a SERP analysis tool as well. This feature delves down into the search results for a specific keyword, highlighting the top-ranking pages, their content, and the backlinks they have earned, helping you understand what it takes to outrank competitors.

An advanced SEO tool for keyword research could also be coupled with keyword grouping and keyword mapping features. Those are the manila folders of keywords, with which you can organize keywords and develop a structured keyword strategy.

Examples of popular keyword research and analysis tools

The most popular free keyword research and analysis tool is Google Keyword Planner (abbr. GKP). This free SEO tool provides data on average bid prices for each keyword, in addition to the standard search volume and competition level.

With GKP, you can build new Google Ads campaigns or expand existing ones around historical statistics and custom suggestions. When you combine it with Google Trends, you can see how the search trends evolve over time with visual representations of the keyword trends over certain periods. 

Another option with a number of possibilities is Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, which comes with features like keyword data, click-through rates, search volume, and keyword difficulty. Its specificity in establishing keyword difficulty makes it stand out, which is how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 results for a given keyword.

Backlink analysis SEO tools

Backlinks serve as a signal of trust to search engines, indicating that a website is a reliable source of information. 

For example, if Site-A links an article of Site-B on one of their pages, it would be a sign of trust towards the latter. There is additional weight to that signal if Site-A is of high authority – meaning, it is considered trusted and credible because of its high visibility in SERPs

As such, backlink analysis tools make it more transparent for websites to know their backlink profile (or how many websites have links pointing to it). That way, the link-building strategy is reflected and can be readjusted if necessary.

Key features and functionalities

Your website’s backlink profile and link-building strategies function best when you use the following features and functionalities:

• Backlink checker. It identifies the number of backlinks pointing to your website and the sources of these links.
  
  Websites that have found your web pages valuable enough to link them to their own pages open up an opportunity for discussions on various forms of collaboration. One such event could be the writing of guest articles on each others’ blogs.
  
• Backlink quality analysis. To repurpose a famous quote – all backlinks are equal, but some are more equal than others.
  
  Some are made from websites with high authority, sure, but there are also those that may even harm your website’s SEO performance. For instance, websites of very low authority may also be lacking in other aspects like accessibility, security of the e-commerce platform, etc.

Many backlink analysis tools offer alerts for new backlinks – real-time notifications whenever a new backlink is detected, allowing you to stay up-to-date with the progression of your efforts in building a solid backlink profile.

Examples of popular backlink analysis tools

Among the dozens of tools for backlink analysis, several have more to give for their price than others.

Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker provides extensive data on backlinks, including the total number of backlinks and the number of referring domains. It is the only tool that puts a Domain Rating – a score of the strength of a website’s backlink profile. It also offers a detailed backlink quality analysis, considering factors like the linking website’s authority and the context of the backlink.

SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics tool is similar, giving insight into a website’s backlink profile and allowing for competitor comparisons. It also has a backlink SEO audit feature to identify harmful backlinks and offer remediation methods.

Competitor analysis tools

By evaluating the SEO strategies of your competitors, you see where their strengths and weaknesses are. That way, you can make a much better-informed tactical decision on how to outrank them on SERPs.

Key features and functionalities

Keeping your competitors as close as you can is executed most efficiently when you know what your tools offer. Let’s explore that below.

• Competitor keyword analysis. What keywords are your competitors ranking for? See how they outrun you and use the most relevant keywords in your original content.
  
• Competitor backlink analysis. What backlinks are pointing to your competitors? Find that out and create your own opportunities for successful link-building.

You will often also come upon an on-page SEO analysis feature in competitor analysis tools, breaking down the build behind competitors’ meta descriptions, title tags, URL structure, etc. 

Advanced features that some tools have include social media analysis, which is helpful when you want to see how competitors engage with audiences and what type of content gets the most attention.

Finally, there’s a functionality called a competitive positioning map. It visualizes your competitive landscape, showing you where your website stands concerning your competitors.

Examples of popular competitor analysis tools

You can get instant SEO metrics on your competitors with most tools on the market. Here are some of them.

Moz’s Domain Analysis tool provides an overview of your website’s key metrics, including:

• Domain authority;
• Linking domains;
• Top pages;
• Keyword rankings.

A spam score also comes with it – quite handy if you want to understand the risk of penalties associated with a particular website.

SpyFu’s SEO software is similar in functionality. Still, it has gained popularity around its capabilities, allowing you to see what keywords your competitors are targeting in paid and organic search campaigns. This in-depth ad history shows competitor ad copy and ad spend as well.

Analytics and reporting tools

Every type of tool until now has some analytics and reporting function knit into it. Still, the tools specializing in this tend to organize all the information more neatly and give you clear visibility over the most critical aspects of your SEO strategy.

Key features and functionalities

For a detailed picture of your website’s SEO performance, you will have to utilize these core features and functionalities of analytics tools:

• Traffic analysis. The number of visitors on your website, their location, and the devices they are using gives you a view into the general user behavior – what pages they visit, how much time they spend on each one, and what actions they take.
  
  Keep in mind that when you gather any data about users, you need to follow the General Data Privacy Regulation (abbr. GDPR). Otherwise, your website may be making an infringement on digital privacy regulations.
  
• Ranking tracking. Different keywords yield different ranking results. The functionality of this key feature is that it provides you with insight into how your website ranks over time for specific keywords, making it easier to rework the parts of your pages that yield weak results.
  
• Backlink analysis. That shows your website’s backlink profile – the number and quality of backlinks and their impact on SEO performance.
  
• Conversion tracking. Your bottom line is determined by the number of conversions your website makes; these tools give you all the juicy details.
  
• Customizable reporting. Your business needs can be very specific, and for that purpose, you need to be able to customize the analysis and reporting tools to focus your efforts on the metrics that matter most to you.
  

Examples of popular analytics and reporting tools

The king of free SEO analysis report tools is Google Analytics. It has data on website traffic, user behavior, conversions, and much more. 

A benefit it has compared to others is that it works very well with other Google services, such as Google Ads, Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, and so on.

There’s also Adobe Analytics – it’s like a powered-up version of GA in some regards. It has more options for performing a deep-dive analysis and can be considered more customizable regarding reports. 

It also utilizes AI and machine learning to predict future trends based on historical data and works great with the rest of the Adobe Suite for marketing experts.

How to use built-in SEO analysis tools to improve website performance

Once you know how important the data that SEO analysis tools provide you is to build an effective SEO strategy, the next question is how to go about it. Let’s take a look.

1. Conduct an SEO audit of your website. It will bring your attention to any technical issues, content gaps, internal and external links, and other areas you may have to improve on.
   
2. Identify relevant keywords. It is so that you know any content you create will be aligned with what users are searching for, increasing your chances of ranking high on SERPs.
   
3. Evaluate your website’s backlink profile. With this, you will see sight link-building opportunities and will be able to aim for high-quality links from reputable websites.
   
4. Know thy competitors. Your competition’s SEO strategies may be more refined than your own, allowing you to fill in any gaps preventing you from outranking others.
   
5. Track your overall SEO performance. When all is said and done, all you have left to do is to be sure you’re on the right path. Consistency is key, so you should never stop monitoring and tracking how you are doing in SERPs and how you can grow.

Best practices for using SEO analysis tools

Best practices are about the mindset you have and the discipline you execute – it’s no different with SEO analysis tools.

1. Be consistent. SEO is a long-term game. Track your performance, see where your efforts pay off the most, and continue experimenting.
   
2. Don’t focus on vanity metrics. Rankings and traffic matter, but there are also conversions and revenue, which may be influencing your decisions more than you think.
   
3. Use a diverse range of tools. One tool can only do so much. Use the full artillery of tools you need for maximum results, and if you can’t afford them all, use the free options Google offers.
   
4. Keep learning. SEO is a beast that doesn’t shy away from change – neither should you. Follow the latest developments and regularly check in with blogs, webinars, and training courses to keep your skills sharp.

The SEO tasks never end. If you want to stay on top of things, you will need a faithful team. And in case you don’t have one yet, NEXT BASKET could help you.

NEXT BASKET is an e-commerce platform provider aiming towards assisting online stores that lack warehouse space, a strong online presence, or that just need a helping hand in going to the next level of their business journey. 
If you need an SEO writing assistant to lessen your burden, NB can provide one for you. Or, if you prefer a whole team who will work with you towards your goal of ranking as high as possible in any SERP, just contact us.