After all the keyword research and website optimization, you’re probably wondering what else you can do to enhance your SEO. After implementation, improving your SEO strategy relies on analyzing metrics and monitoring performance. Many SEO tips for beginners fail to mention how critical tracking your metrics is. 

There are tons of user-friendly SEO tools and insight platforms that make it easy for you to understand what’s working in your strategy and what isn’t. I’ve compiled some of the best (and some of my favorite) tools you can use to monitor your SEO performance. The goal is to provide you with enough information to make decisions about what platforms best serve your SEO strategy direction and business goals.

Why SEO is Important to Focus on 

If you have not implemented SEO into your content strategy or you’re just gathering information, I recommend reading this article that encourages every business to invest in SEO. 

Why is SEO important for business? SEO boosts your organic growth by directing online traffic to your website, showing your content to your target audience, and improving your content engagement rates. Basic SEO principles optimize your website to fit your audience’s search inquiry and reward optimized websites with a higher index rating on search engines. Websites with a solid SEO strategy gain more traffic and content engagement when compared to websites with no SEO strategy.

While more website traffic and better content performance are fantastic, SEO is integral for competing in the market. Many SEO analytics platforms offer competitive analysis tools that examine other businesses’ SEO strategies. Digital marketing strategies integrating SEO are essential for long-term success and growing your business over time. If you are still unsure about SEO or how to incorporate an SEO strategy into your business, complete a contact form for a discovery call!

Just implementing SEO does not ensure instant business growth. Like anything in your business, SEO takes time and energy. You will have to cultivate and refine your strategy many times. Luckily, several valuable tools and resources are made for perfecting your approach and making analytics a little less scary.

4 Tools to Monitor SEO Performance

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the tried-and-true SEO analytics platform that provides primary SEO services beginners and experts find helpful. I recommend using this platform in conjunction with Google Search Console to see the complete picture of the analytics you are analyzing. 

Google Analytics offers basic SEO tools like tracking organic traffic from Google’s search engine, following index ratings from your keywords, website engagement and page insights, and broken-link alerts. Additionally, Google Analytics shares the mobile-friendliness of your website and suggests improvements. You can also get reports on page-specific SEO performance! 

I like that Google Analytics is a free and reliable option for those beginning their SEO strategy. Whether you aren’t ready to commit to a paid SEO platform or enjoy Google Analytics’ interface, it’s a great resource for tracking your essential SEO metrics. While you’ll have the best experience using Google Analytics with Google Search Console together, some people dislike that you need two platforms to use the same tools available in one.

2. Yoast

Yoast differentiates itself from the other SEO platforms on this list because it’s a plugin service, not an analytical platform. Yoast sells SEO plugins for other platforms you already use, like Showit or WordPress. Plugins are distinct from SEO service platforms (like SEMRush or Ahrefs) because they are extension modules for websites, not separate platforms for viewing SEO metrics. 

Basically, a plugin adds to the capacities of source software and adds features to websites you’re using. For example, if you already use WordPress, an SEO plugin for WordPress would report SEO metrics and web optimization tips for the website instead of having to visit another platform for the same information. 

Yoast’s service focuses on highlighting and prioritizing your best-performing SEO content. It will provide keyword recommendations, grade your content by readability and keyword use, and offer post and website page optimization suggestions. 

Unlike other platforms, Yoast charges based on the plugin you purchase. The main features of a WordPress plugin are distinct from those you would receive from a Shopify plugin. Most of these plugins include features like previewing posts and page displays, rating content length and keyword use, meta description rates, and other factors that strengthen your SEO. 

Yoast is my go-to plugin platform because it offers real-time solutions and suggestions for optimizing your content. This platform is convenient when you’re making changes to your website or updating your content to be more SEO friendly. However, keep in mind that Yoast does not offer the same type of analytical metrics other SEO platforms do and focuses on enhancing content instead of a holistic approach to improving your SEO. 

3. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free option that I recommend using with Google Analytics for the entire picture of your strategy’s performance. Many users have stated the interface is a bit difficult to navigate, but Google Search Console offers free training resources that go in-depth on how to understand and use the platform. 

Google Search Console fills in the holes from Google Analytics and provides more context about how your strategy is performing along with your website. Some insightful features include which queries brought users to your website, search engine rankings, and how these factors have changed over time. 

What I like about Google Search Console is it implements alerts on your analytics to provide insights on addressing these alerts and assists you in revision. A performance report details what you can do to optimize your website’s functionality, a URL inspection tool, and a user experience report describing how navigable your website is for users. 

Google Search Console hosts the best internet crawler, which is very helpful for users often requesting website crawls. After a crawl request, you’ll receive an index coverage review and what to do if your page cannot be indexed by Google. 

While Google Analytics will handle keywords and research parts of SEO, Google Search Console will handle the technical aspects of SEO. This free tool is very informative and has all the SEO basics. I like Google Search Console because it guides on improving your SEO and the platform’s integration with Google Suite. 

4. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the most detail-oriented SEO analytics tools I have used to obtain insights. The platform is organized, colorful, and isn’t scared to get into the nitty-gritty of your SEO strategy. Ahrefs offers several services other SEO platforms do not, like advanced keyword research for international search engines!

Ahrefs includes standard SEO analytic tools like keywords, search engine results page (SERP), and website traffic. The platform has the second-best internet crawler behind Google, so it’s very effective for finding new links. Ahrefs updates your website’s backlink growth daily and details how your website traffic has changed over time. This metric makes it easy to know when your strategy went into effect and how different days impact the effectiveness of your SEO. 

The platform will analyze click distribution for individual keywords in your strategy, so you can discover the amount of traffic you receive for a specific keyword. This metric offers a practical approach to rooting out keywords that don’t serve your business. You can also see the ranking history for any keyword! 

I recommend Ahrefs for finding highly detailed information about your website insights and the effectiveness of your keywords. Overall, Ahrefs is a worthwhile and information-packed platform well-suited for formulating new strategies or analyzing past campaign performance. 

These SEO tools offer helpful and invaluable perspectives on optimizing your strategy. Analytics platforms make it easier to understand why SEO is vital for growing your business and defines actionable steps to achieve your goals.

Navigating SEO analytics and knowing the steps to adjust your strategy can be super hard. You don’t have to do it alone! Take the guesswork out of your SEO strategy, and contact me today. Together, we can create an SEO campaign for your business and make sense of the analytics. 

About Ame Creatives

I’m a ShowIt Design Partner and SEO expert who specializes in crafting websites and branding for you: the successful female entrepreneur who is crushing business goals…but doesn’t have the branding or website to match. I’m an expert at being able to create a beautiful brand that fully represents YOU. Ready to work together? Send me a message!