Free Tools to Increase SEO in 2022

Are you trying to increase website visibility in 2022? Search engine optimization is vital to increasing website visibility. But how can you be sure that your website follows best practices for SEO? Google offers several free SEO tools to test the health, speed, and content of your website. Here are some of our favorites:

Lighthouse:

Lighthouse is an open-source website auditing tool that provides performance feedback. It audits one page at a time. So, it is best to test multiple pages on the site, by identifying all major page types and conversion points.

Lighthouse audits within five categories:

  • Performance: Most of the performance metrics, like speed index and contentful paint, focus on load speed.
  • Progressive Web App: These metrics tests things like responsiveness to ensure that your website is usable for everyone.
  • Best Practices: These metrics check your website’s use of standard tools to create the optimal website and user experience.
  • Accessibility: These metrics analyze aspects of your website’s compliance with ADA standards, this is not a comprehensive audit.
  • SEO: SEO metrics test how your website follows basic search engine optimization advice; this is also not comprehensive.

Lighthouse is built into the Google Chrome browser. To access Lighthouse click the three-dot menu on the top right corner of an open Chrome browser, then More Tools > Developer Tools.

Step by Step Guide to Accessing Lighthouse

Google Analytics:

The Google Analytics tool uses the Google Search Engine to collect data about your website and website traffic. This data allows website owners to gain insight about things like: website traffic, demographics, conversion rates, bounce rates, and more. You can use this information to increase SEO and improve visibility.

With Google Analytics you can see how much organic traffic each page on your website is getting. Plus, you can not only track pages views, but also track when users interact with your website by filling out forms, or adding products to their cart. This data helps you understand what your audience responds to, so you can increase audience engagement and organic traffic to your website.

Google Trends:

Google Trends is a tool that provides information about keyword popularity. This tool gives insight into what is trending at a certain time, in a specific industry, and in a certain geographic area. This information can then be used to optimize your website content.

To research keywords using Google Trends, simply enter a search term in the box on the homepage. This will yield data regarding the term’s popularity over the last year, related keywords, and geographic locations where that term is most popular.

Test My Site and Page Speed Insights:

Website load speed has a direct impact on your search rankings and how users interact with the site. Test My Site by Think with Google tests website load time on a 4G network. This tool is especially helpful for non-technical staff looking to understand mobile site performance. However, for a more in-depth understanding of what needs fixed on your website try Page Speed Insights.

Google’s Page Speed Insights tool provides specifics about what is causing slowdowns on your website. It details what images are too large, and which style sheets and scripts are slowing down the site. Plus, each issue links to a Google Developers page that offers detailed background information and an explanation of possible solutions.

Safe Browsing:

If your website is not secure, it can negatively affect search visibility. This is because if your site is hacked, Google will drop your URL from its index. However, Google’s Safe Browsing tool can help identify any security problems on your website.

Google crawls web page everyday scanning for malware. The Safe Browsing tool lets you know if any malware was detected on your website. Plus, since some sites are scanned more than others, this tool will also let you know the last time your website was scanned.

Use of these tools will help you better understand what Google values in terms of website quality and content. Although they are not necessarily comprehensive, these free tools are a great starting point if you are looking to make your website more SEO-friendly.

Finding an SEO Consultant:

For help optimizing your website in the new year contact the GovUnity team today. Our SEO professionals will help ensure that your website is fast and secure. Plus, our content writers can help you create and post optimized web content to increase organic traffic.