You can’t just wing it when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – especially not if you belong to a competitive niche such as TMS clinics. While SEO tools won’t guarantee success, they can certainly make the job a lot easier.

In fact, some of them are necessary.

In this post, we’ll list the must-have SEO tools (ones that won’t break the bank) that can help you find keywords, craft your campaigns, analyze your efforts, and much more.

To make things easier, we’ve broken them down into the following categories:

• The basics
• For keyword and topic research
• For complete hands-on technical SEO (full-fledged SEO suites)
• Content optimization
• For conversion rate optimization (after all, the end-goal is to get more patients and make those efforts count)

Let’s have a look.

The Basics

These include some of the best free SEO tools that everyone should use, regardless of their niche or SEO strategy.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the go-to tool for analyzing website traffic and optimizing landing pages according to data, such as the page(s) visitors are spending the most time on, the pages with the most traffic, how your visitors are interacting with your website, and more.

It comes in two versions – Analytics (free version) and Analytics 360 (premium version).

Some of the key features include:

• Traffic Reporting
• eCommerce Tracking
• Keyword Referrals
• Third-Party Referrals
• Custom Dashboards

All in all, Google Analytics is a must-have tool for any marketer or marketing team that takes their web traffic seriously.

2. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (previously Google Webmaster tools) is a free service that allows you to monitor and optimize your website’s presence on Google.

It enables you understand how Google sees your website, which helps you with:

• Content optimization
• XML sitemap submissions
• Robots.txt file submissions
• Specify structured data
• Tracking site errors (broken links, load speed, etc.)

And more.

Google Search Console is also the best way to make sure that your website pages are indexed. This allows them to show up in search results for targeted and relevant keywords.

You should also use the Bing Webmaster tools for more coverage.

3. Google PageSpeed Insights

The speed at which your web pages is crucial for two reasons:

1. It’s a direct ranking factor
2. Users want super-fast websites

Thankfully, there’s a tool that can help with that.

With Google PageSpeed Insights, you can find out how fast your web pages load, along with a list of culprits that might be bringing down the performance.

It also suggests smart fixes for each problem.

For Keyword and Topic Research

Here are some SEO tools that can help you find the best keywords in your niche.

4. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a popular keyword research tool that delivers important SEO metrics on a keyword/topic of your choice, including keyword difficulty and monthly search volume.

It can also:

• Provide keyword suggestions
• Provide a domain overview of any website
• Suggest content ideas with ranking potential

Additionally, it lets you discover link building opportunities.

5. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics lets you discover trending topics and their trajectory over the years (it can provide data from 15 years ago) in different categories. It’s a mix between Google Trends (a platform to check trending topics) and Answer The Public (a platform that provides the most frequently asked questions on a given keyword).

It also tells you how many searches a topic gets per month (i.e. the search volume) in the US.

All in all, if you want to discover new hot topics before they take off, Exploding Topics is how you do it.

For Complete Hands-On SEO

For the long-run, you need a complete suite – packed with analytics, research, and content optimization features – to stay on top of things.

Here are the top 3 platforms (any one of the following should suffice):

6. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular suite of premium SEO tools.

It has everything you need, packaged in a single platform, including:

• Site explorer – provides a quick overview of a website/web page, paid and organic traffic, and number of backlinks and their quality.
• Content Explorer – helps discover new content opportunities.
• Keywords Explorer – trusted by SEO professionals around the globe, Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer is one of the best keyword research tools in the market at the moment.
• Rank Tracker – a competitive analysis and tracking tool that monitors your desktop and mobile rankings.
• Site Audit – native crawlers analyze your SEO performance and provide feedback on potential SEO issues.

7. SEMrush

SEMrush is another complete digital marketing suite, packed with SEO, content marketing, social media, and PPC tools.

Here are the main sets of features included in SEMrush’s SEO toolkit:

• Competitive Research – track your website’s performance (and compare with your competitors).
• Keyword Research – get important metrics and new keyword ideas/related keywords.
• On-Page SEO – includes a powerful SEO audit tool, an SEO checker that provides smart suggestions, and ready-to-use templates for content.
• Rank Tracking – shows you where you stand for different keywords in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Link Building – discovers new link opportunities, provides a backlink checker/link analysis feature, and helps get in touch with webmasters of other domains.

8. Moz Pro

Moz is another SaaS company that offers a complete set of SEO tools that are just as good, if not better, than those offered by Ahrefs and SEMrush.

For Content Optimization

Here are a few tools that increase your chances of ranking higher:

9. Clearscope

Clearscope allows you to make your content highly relevant to what people are searching for.

It analyzes top-ranking organic search content on Google’s SERPs and gives you real-time suggestions on relevant terms, word count, readability, and content grade.

10. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a WordPress Plugin that allows you to optimize your page’s content according to best-practices.

It also lets you add HTML meta tags without any coding.

For Conversion Rate Optimization

While not considered a core part of SEO, with CRO, you can convert a decent percentage of your website visitors into actual paying customers (or patients for your TMS clinic).

The following are some tools that can help with that.

11. Hello Bar

Hello Bar is a call-to-action tool that allows you to display popups or page takeovers on your website.

With this tool, you can have users fill out forms or take other desired actions.

12. Hotjar

Hotjar is an analysis tool that allows you to make use of the qualitative data from your website.

It captures what visitors do on your website through heat maps and other useful features, such as recording, conversion funnels, etc.

Ending Note

The aforementioned platforms will enable you to flawlessly execute your SEO strategy.

Before investing in any tool, consider your requirements, budgets, and the preferences of your SEO experts.

But remember: At the end of the day, it’s your skillset and experience that matters – not the tool you’re using.