In this digital world, search engine optimization has become every business’s utmost priority. It improves the website’s visibility, becoming the primary source of website traffic. As a result, every company wants to appear on the top results of the search engine results page (SERP). When it comes to SEO, there are no hard and fast rules to increase rankings. Marketers have to keep up with evolving algorithms and keep putting efforts to enhance user experience.

Previously, having ‘visual content’ on landing pages wasn’t a ranking factor. But when Google saw users responding positively and engaging with images and videos, it declared it a ranking factor. Now, having a video can significantly improve your webpage’s visibility. Sometimes, despite adhering to Google’s guidelines, businesses fail to secure their position on SERP. It might happen due to broken or dead links that are pointing towards your site.

Otherwise, there can be something wrong with your site’s structure – slow loading speed, unresponsive in mobile devices, etc. While practicing SEO, it is imperative to keep track of progress and performance. Therefore, conduct SEO audits to figure out glitches and fix them immediately. Unlike company audits, you don’t have to perform an SEO audit manually. Here are seven SEO audit tools for small business websites to improve their rankings.

1.    SEMrush

From keywords, backlinks, customer data to website performance – SEO requires a comprehensive research tool. SEMrush tracks every piece of information, throwing light on problems and mistakes. Similarly, it conducts a thorough backlink analysis, helping you develop a brilliant backlink strategy with high-quality links. It detects malicious websites that have a link to yours and removes them. Simultaneously, it gives you a list of all harmful backlinks that can put you into hot water in the long-term. Moreover, it provides the best organic keywords for SEO and PPC advertisement campaigns.

2.    Google Search Console

What is holding your site back from appearing in the top results of SERP? Unfortunately, many factors and algorithms can come in-between, and Google Search Console helps identify those issues. It confirms whether Google can crawl and index your site. In case of errors, it fixes indexing problems and requests re-indexing for the content. You can also view search traffic data for a site, giving an insight into how many times your brand appears in Google search. Similarly, you can identify troubleshooting issues for mobile usage and other search features.

3.    WebCEO

It is another popular auditing tool. It is a SaaS platform that explicitly tracks and monitors search engine campaigns, manages links, and optimizes keywords. It lets businesses embed lead generation widgets to the site, helping you convert prospects into customers. Moreover, it comprises a task manager, giving timely updates to your SEO team regarding the changing algorithms. In addition to this, it spreads tasks evenly amongst the team members, reducing the workload.

4.    WooRank

Amongst a plethora of options, picking one is never easy. Woorank differentiates itself by providing an in-depth analysis of on-page and off-page SEO. It locates defective webpages and offers suggestions to improve the site’s visibility and rankings. You can download the audit reports in PDF format to extensively analyze and fix the problems. These reports will also unfold the competitor’s keywords and strategies, helping you stay ahead in the market. If you are unsure about spending money on an SEO audit tool, start your 14-days trial version. If the tool’s feature impresses you, feel free to buy it.

5.    SEOptimer

It is a comprehensive website audit tool. It reviews every page and category on your site with the help of DIY SEO crawlers. They surf through the webpage, looking for glitches. Once they identify the problem, this tool will offer multiple recommendations to fix a particular error. In addition to fixing bugs, it monitors keyword rankings and gives suggestions for improvements. Above all, it will update you on every progress made by the webpage, allowing you to monitor the overall performance.

6.    SEO Checker – Seobility

Are you low on budget? With limited marketing funds, small business owners want to make the most out of their marketing strategy. In case you can’t subscribe to a paid audit tool, download SEO Site Checker. It is a free auditing tool that analyzes the entire website in six different categories. From mobile-friendliness, SEO issues, social media, active servers to security – this tool has an eye for detail. Likewise, it quickly creates editable SEO reports for every website, saving you a lot of effort and time. Lastly, don’t forget to see your overall SEO score and individual sub-scores for every category.

7.    Screaming Frog

Every tool offers some distinctive factors. With the help of a screaming frog, you can examine multiple parameters of a website – outbound links, keywords, security, etc. It identifies ALT tags, crawling up to 500 URLs without charging a penny. You can also analyze page titles and meta descriptions and get rid of duplicate ones that might exist across your site. Furthermore, extract data with XPath or regex to get a better understanding of your target audience. If you want to enjoy additional features, consider buying a license.

Final Thoughts

Unsurprisingly, SEO is not like every other marketing strategy because it is pretty complicated. In addition to familiarizing yourself with the evolving algorithms, you have to stay on top of SEO practices. You have to ensure your website’s optimal performance to land on the top results.  And this won’t be possible without help from SEO audit tools. They comprehensively examine and inspect your site, identifying and fixing numerous problems.