23 Free Google Tools to Upgrade Your SEO Strategy

Are you a startup with no budget for Premium SEO tools? 

Then you’re exactly in the right place. 

We don’t just talk about FREE tools to boost your SEO strategy in this article. We talk about free GOOGLE tools. 

If you’re reading this, you already know how important SEO is for growing your revenue. No matter what you are offering, if people cannot find it on the first page of their Google search- they’re not buying it. 

You also already know organically searching out keywords is just not going to cut it.

“But I’m just starting out as a content developer,” you might reason. “I don’t have the budget for fancy tools to upgrade my SEO right now!”

And yes, that is understandable. SEO tools from SEMrush and Ahrefs are heavily expensive. Just take a look at the pricing chart of SEMrush:

As a new business, it’s impossible to spend that much money. 

But what if I told you that you perform all of those functions for zero money?

Yes, this is where free Google tools come into the picture.

Why use Google tools in particular though?

Why not some other free apps? 

Because Google is a literal data giant. They have more data at their disposal than those other free apps can only dream of. 

Google has my data, your data, and the data of 4 billion internet users worldwide! So why not use it to your advantage? 

These free Google tools are a marketer’s best friend. After all, people can only buy what they can see.

But, how to use Google tools?” you might be wondering, “Sure, they’re free. But I’m no computer mastermind!

As you go through our list, you’ll realize that Google tries to make them as easy to use as possible. 

Do you need great technical skills to separate your read emails from your unread ones? No, right? Because Gmail is a free Google service that they want anyone and everyone to use. 

These free Google tools function similarly. All you need is a clear idea of what you want to achieve. 

Keep reading to find out some of the best Google tools that are out there. 

Where do I find the Google Tools Menu in Chrome?

These are essential extensions that you can add to your Chrome toolbar. But in case you don’t know how to do that, follow these steps: 

1. At the top right corner of your Google Chrome window, you’ll see three little vertical dots. Clicking that will lead to your Chrome menu. Search for “More tools.”
2. A sub-menu should pop open once you reach “More tools.” From here, choose “Extensions” and then head over to Chrome Extensions. 
3. Every Google tool you install is going to end up here, so essentially this is your Google tools menu. Now you need to decide which of these you need most frequently and thus need to show up on your toolbar. There’s a toggle switch at the bottom right of every extension. Turn it on or off based on whether you want it on your toolbar. 

Now let’s get started with the real list you came here for… 

Some free Google tools to rely on…

Google AdWord: Keyword Planner

If you’re a content marketer, you know before you start writing a blog it’s important to decide what your primary keyword is going to be. 

But it’s tricky to figure out the right keywords. 

If the first page of Google is dominated by big-name brands with enormous marketing budgets for your keyword of choice, then just writing one blog with that keyword is not going to move them from their top spots. 

But if you choose a highly unconventional keyword then no one’s going to search for it at all. 

So how do you solve this dilemma?

Keyword Planner to the rescue! 

Say you want your primary keyword to be “content writing.” 

Don’t just go for the ones with the highest competition. Go for the ones that best suit the kind of content you’re planning to produce that week. Of course, the competition does matter but so does the keyword’s relevance with your topic. 

Also, you know how Voice Searches are giving Text Searches a tough competition now, right? Using long-tail keywords is a trick you can employ to set yourself apart from the rest. These can help you optimize your site for Voice Searches. 

How To Use Google Keyword Planner?

You must be wondering: How to use this free Google tool? Just follow these steps: 

1. First, to get access to Keyword Planner, you need to have a Google Ads account. For this, you just need to type in your email address and your website URL. 
2. Next, click the wrench icon in the toolbar after logging into your Google Adwords account. 

3. This will lead you to a menu from where you can choose “Keyword Planner.”
4. This will lead you to two main tools: 

• The first one, “Discover new keywords”, is pretty easy to use. Not only can you search for one keyword like “weight loss” but you can also add multiple keywords (like: “fat-free, low calorie” and so on) by separating them with commas and pressing enter after each entry. Keyword Planner is going to provide you with a list of related keywords. 
• If you already have a list of keywords and just want to find out how much they are searched for, go for “Get search volume and forecast.” All you need to do is paste your keywords on this window and click “Get Started”

Not only will this tool tell you how many people have searched for these already, but the “forecast” feature can also predict how many clicks and impressions you can expect from these keywords.

5. Now you need to filter your search results based on “locations,” “languages,” “search networks,” and “date range.” 

If you have a small grocery business and can only ship your products locally, there is no point in finding out how many people are looking for groceries in a different continent.

Or, say you sell fancy diyas for Diwali. Why would you want to know how many people are searching for diyas for the rest of the year? That data is just going to dilute your seasonal search results.  

You need to take into account only the relevant searches. This is why the process of filtering out unwanted data is crucial. 

There are various other filters as well. You should sort the results according to “Avg. Monthly Searches” to single out the keywords with the most monthly hits. You can also specify whether you want keywords with “high,” “medium,” or “low” competition. (Remember, this “competition” has nothing to do with SEO but rather signifies how many advertisers are bidding on that keyword. If you are looking for a keyword with high commercial intent, do use this filter.)

After you’re done with the filtering, you should have your ideal keyword. This might not be an exact science but this is way more exact than just trying to guess which keyword is going to work out for you. At least here, you’re making a highly informed decision.

Google Analytics

This free Google tool is a complete gamechanger. 

Google Analytics lets you set certain goals regarding your content marketing strategy and then analyzes to what extent you have fulfilled them. 

Think of this Google tool as your site doctor. 

This lets you know how you’re performing based on criteria like how many visitors you’re getting and how much time they’re spending on your site. 

Not only this- you can also figure out which sections they’re spending time on so that you can focus on improving the content in those particular sections. 

You can use Google Analytics however you want, based on your personal SEO strategy. This tool simply lets you know what is and isn’t working out for you. 

Google Trends 

You might be wondering, “If I already use Keyword Planner, why do I also need Google Trends?”

Yes, they function similarly in terms of helping you figure out which keyword to use. But Keyword Planner simply points out which keywords are highly searched for in your industry, whereas Google Trends tells you which keywords are trending in general. 

Why would recent trends matter? 

• You can try to find out if any of them are related to your industry.  
• You also take one of the top trending keywords and relate it to a topic you want to write about. Why? Because talking about your content in the context of a relevant topic that everyone is presently interested in, gets you more views. 

Exhibit 1: “How to do Sponsorship Marketing as a Startup” 

Audience reaction: “Eh, I’ll probably read it tomorrow.”

Exhibit 2: 

Audience reaction: Oh! Startups can advertise through IPL? Let me give this a read. 

See? 

Also, the advanced search options of Google Trends let you streamline your search based on geographic location and even search platforms. 

So you can not only find out what’s trending in a certain state or area specifically, but you can also find out what is trending in different platforms like Google Images, YouTube, Google Shopping Search, etc. 

Also, now that Google Correlate is gone, you can use this tool to compare keywords as well. 

Google Alerts

You’ve Googled yourself at least once, right? Just to figure out what people see when they Googled you?

But once you become the owner of a startup or a content marketer, you need to know how often people are Googling you for purposes other than sheer vanity. 

You have to know how relevant you are. 

You need to know how often you, your company, or your products are being searched for. Google Alerts performs this exact function. 

Enter a keyword that you want to get notifications for and then set the notification frequency as per your preference- once a day or once a week. Google Alert will let you know how many times your keyword is being mentioned. 

This tool also lets you specify the geographical area where you want the searches to come from. 

You can also see how well you are standing against your competitors by setting their brand name as a keyword as well. 

Google My Business

This tool is one that you can’t live without if you have a local business. 

If you have a cafe on Church Street, who is your target audience? 

The millennials who are currently roaming about Church Street asking Google, “Which are the best cafes near me?” or “Best cafes on Church Street.”

Google My Business not only gets you a top spot on the first page of Google but also on Google Maps. It’s basically free advertising. 

You can also add your phone number, price range, opening hours, reviews, and menu. 

Aren’t these the essential pieces of information that we look for when we’re starving and exhausted after a long day of shopping? 

If your business is right there, front and center of the Google search results page, the chances of footfall obviously increases. 

Just remember to add plenty of photos to grab your customer’s attention. 

These were some of the free Google tools that are mostly common.

The next few, however, are the ones that are either overlooked or underutilized. We’ll tell you exactly how you can use these to upgrade your SEO strategy. 

Rising Retail Categories

If you own an e-commerce site, this one is going to blow your mind. 

This tool is a bit like Google Trends, except here you can search for trending product categories. 

You must be wondering: Well, I sell what I sell. Why would I bother figuring out if my product is trending or not?

Well, if people aren’t searching for it, who’s going to buy it?

Not only this, you need to figure out exactly where people are looking for your product the most. 

Say you sell swim caps. It seems like something that has a very niche market. But does it? 

You can easily check this with Rising Retail Categories.

See, swim caps are 4th on the list. And people are actively searching for it. So, you’re good to go. 

And now you know where exactly to sell your swim caps: California should be your target market, not Illinois or New Jersey. 

All thanks to the Great Data Giant, Google.

Grow My Store

Google has multiple site doctors similar to Google Analytics that tell you how your site is performing.

Among these, Grow My Store is specifically meant for online businesses. 

You need to answer three simple questions: 

• What is your domain?
• The type of business you have?
• What industry are you in?

That’s all the information that you’ll need to supply to Grow My Store to give you a result. 

(You’ll receive a preview of this result initially. You need to create an account to access the entire result.)

What is this result based on? 

Criteria like: Product Information, Store Details, Personalization, Customer Service, and Security.

This tool basically tests whether you have some must-haves that are needed for a successful online business, like product reviews, profiles for shoppers, live chat, and HTTPS. 

This tool tells you exactly what you are doing right and what you’re doing wrong so that you can make corrections. 

The report that you receive at the end also contains an extremely valuable section on data around your industry. Imagine how difficult it would be to get access to consolidated data like this without this Google tool at your service. 

Test My Site

This does exactly what Grow My Site does but for any kind of site, not just e-commerce ones. 

This measures the performance of your site based on three criteria: Speed, Personalization, and Experience. 

Without paying a dime, you can get a highly detailed 17-page report on what you should and shouldn’t change about your website. 

They also let you know where you stand in your industry.

Since this tool tests your page speed, it also lets you know how much your ROI would increase if you optimized your website loading time. 

And if that’s not enough to convince you to make a change- they’re not afraid to show you exactly what percentage of visitors you are losing because of your slow loading time. 

 Google Mobile-Friendly Test

We don’t need to hit you over the head to convince you that 60% of the searches come from mobile devices. 

This is just common knowledge. In fact, you’re probably reading this on your phone right now. 

Ask yourself: Would you be reading this if only half of this sentence was visible on your screen? 

No, right? 

What Google Mobile-Friendly Test does is evident from its name itself. 

The best part of this tool is that it’s super easy to take the test. Just put in your URL, click “Analyze” and that’s it!

The result is instantaneous: 

It doesn’t seem like much but this is an essential step to ensure that you’re not losing out on valuable traffic. 

Google PageSpeed Insights

Unlike Test My Site, this tool is singularly focused on your page speed. 

How important is page speed? 

Take a quick look at this: 

If your page load time stretches to 2 seconds, no big deal. But 3 more seconds shoots your bounce rate up to 38%. 

Think about that for a second. 

That’s how essential it is for your page to load as quickly as possible. 

But how to optimize your website loading time? 

PageSpeed Insights has you covered. 

Not only will they give you a detailed report on what’s slowing down your website, but they will also immediately offer solutions on “how to fix it”.

Told you, you don’t need to be a computer science genius for this. 

Google Chrome 

Don’t roll your eyes at us yet. 

Yes, of course, you use Google Chrome already. And if you don’t, what difference does it make? One browser is as good as the other, right? 

Not exactly. 

If you’re trying to look up Nicky Minaj’s greatest hits- yeah, one browser is as good as the other. 

But not if you are trying to upgrade your SEO strategy. 

Google Chrome stands out because of its extremely useful extensions like: 

SEO & Website Analysis extension 

Not only can this tool help you track the impact of your own SEO strategy but also lets you spy on how well your competitor is doing. 

Sneaky, I know. But it helps to greatly improve your own performance and stay at the top of Google search results. 

They also provide a performance review and help you optimize your social media presence. Along with this, they analyze your performance on sites like Facebook. 

Want to measure the quality and quantity of backlinks you’re getting? This tool will do it for you. 

SimilarWeb

What’s the whole point of SEO? Increasing site traffic, right? Which results in increased revenue. 

SimilarWeb is a tool that measures your site traffic accurately. 

But that’s not all. 

You can also figure out the bounce rate and the duration per visit. 

But other tools on this list already do that, what’s so special about SimilarWeb?

Well, it also lets you know where most of your views are coming from. 

We’re not just talking about geographical location (though it also does have that feature), we’re also talking about whether your visitors are headed to your site from direct searches, email promotional content, social media ads, referrals, or display ads. 

Think about just how useful this feature is. 

You can figure out exactly which channels of marketing are working out best for you and focus on those specifically instead of beating around the bush. 

Did you ever imagine you could do all this with just Google Chrome?

 Screaming Frog

This one should ideally have been named Screaming Spider but okay. Its job is to crawl through your website. Why?

Because this Google tool tells you exactly what technical SEO problems your site is facing. 

If you’re not a computer genius, these problems are really difficult to identify. But they do cause you significant losses in revenue because they hamper the audience’s experience. 

Screaming Frog lets you know about problems like crawl errors, javascript rendering issues, bloated HTML, and HTTP header errors. 

Another great feature of Screaming Frog is that you can also use it to check for duplicate content. Duplicate content might not be as much of a deal-breaker as plagiarism is in other industries but Google really does despise it. Duplicate content might not matter if used sporadically but in bulk? It will start affecting your SERP rankings. 

Doesn’t make sense to needlessly let your SEO suffer because of stuff you can easily fix, does it?

Answer the Public

This free Google tool borrows its name from the platforms it picks its keywords from: forums, blogs, and social media. 

People often don’t go to Google when they have really specific questions. Especially because the predictive keywords don’t turn up promising results. Instead, they head over to forums and blogs. 

Since most people primarily depend on the Google Keyword Planner, using Answer the Public can give you a real edge over them. 

Answer the Public turns those questions into some very interesting keywords which you might not have thought of.

For example, a lot of people make searches like “white rice vs brown rice” or “green tea vs black tea.” If you’re someone who sells black tea, you might not immediately think of comparing it to green tea in order to get a larger audience. 

However, people out there are indeed searching for these comparisons continuously. As a marketer, Vs. keywords can and should be your new best friend. 

CanIRank? 

This tool gets straight to the point. Can I rank for this keyword? 

We all want to ask this question but we seldom get a straight answer. With this tool, you can.

This tool doesn’t dilly-dally by telling you whether a keyword has high, medium, or low competition. No. Generic advice is not CanIRank’s cup of tea. 

It only cares about whether you, specifically, can rank for that keyword. 

CanIRank doesn’t just give you a “Yes” or “No” answer though. It gives you a “ranking probability” and also tells you how you can better target the keyword. 

It takes an incredibly difficult task and makes it seem extremely easy. Without this tool, you’d still be at sea. 

Exploding Topics

This is the magic crystal ball of tools. 

While Google Trends lets you know which keyword is trending already, wouldn’t it be a neat trick to know exactly which keyword is going to blow up next? 

But how on earth would you predict the future? 

You can’t. But Exploding Topics can. It is a legit fortune teller. 

Its database collects keywords that are just starting to trend. Presently it has around 2000 such keywords. You can filter these available keywords based on your required categories. 

This tool lets you stay ahead of the curve. You can produce quality content before the marketing giants catch up.  

Seobility

This is another crawler like Screaming Frog that lets you know the SEO problems in your site. It does look for technical SEO issues but that’s not all. 

It also looks for slow-loading pages, blocked pages, and sitemap problems. 

Besides duplicate content, this tool also lets you figure out where you have thin content (that is, content that has zero to no use to the user) so that you can change it. 

As you can see, their report is extremely detailed. 

It’s hard to believe this is a completely free Google tool but it is.

BROWSEO

Every child is beautiful in their own parents’ eyes. I’m sure your site seems beautiful to you too. 

But how does it look like through the eyes of the Search Engine? 

That’s the real question. Because that’s how everyone else is going to see your website. And it needs to look beautiful to them. 

How you see your website and how a Search Engine sees your website is very different and you need to keep this difference in mind when designing your site.

Through BROWSEO you can also see how your site appears on the Search Results page. You can easily see if your title and description are SEO-friendly or not. If either is too long, trim them till they appear perfect in the SERP preview. 

Google Search Console

That’s how it defines itself. 

As you can pretty much understand- this is the swiss-knife of free Google tools. An all-in-one combo pack that you can’t do without. 

Plus since it lets you track where you rank in the SERPs based on Google’s own data, you can be pretty sure this information is genuine. 

When we say it can do anything, it really can do anything and everything. 

Mobile-friendliness test? Check. 

Shows how Google sees your page? Check.

Crawler that picks out bugs from your page? Check. 

And the best part? You get tons of Search Control Training videos that teach you how to use this Google tool. 

Wordtracker Scout

This tool introduces itself like this: 

…which is a very polite way to say: “Steal your competitor’s keywords.” 

That’s basically what this tool allows you to do. 

Go to a competitor’s page and Wordtracker Scout will show you something like this: 

Go to the “Keywords” section and the tool will show you which keywords have the highest amount of searches and competition. 

We’ll trust you to take it from here, capiche?  

Siteliner

This might seem like just another free Google tool that finds out the SEO problems in your website but this one comes with a twist. 

The “Comparison with Other Sites” feature lets you compare the loading time and page size of your website with that of other sites in their database. 

This also lets you know what percentage of your content is duplicate, common or unique. 

People Also Ask

You’ve seen the “People also ask” section during your Google searches, right?

We all use this section to pick out related keywords but with this tool, you don’t have to do this manually. Plus it offers you a great load of keywords.

This might not seem very useful initially but think about all the time that you’d be saving. 

Plus, it’s great for finding question keywords. 

Animalz Revive

I know this sounds like an emo band from the 2000s trying to make a comeback for the Gen Z audience but… Actually, that’s exactly what this tool does. 

It shows you which of your older content needs an upgrade and an update to keep up with the times. 

Why bother with the older content? Why not just keep churning out shiny new content and leave out all the rest? 

Because visitors, who stumble across that older content with outdated information, might leave. 

You want to avoid visitor loss, right?

Animalz Revive also shows you “Traffic Loss Since Peak (Views and %)”.

I might have some good news for you though. 

Green Day fans might actually commit murders if the band made any changes to “Jesus of Suburbia” but your viewers are going to love you for moving on from the 2010s. 

Seems like an easy enough change to make to upgrade your SEO strategy, right?

Google AdSense 

You probably don’t want to run ads because you think they’re too expensive, right?

What if we told you that you can get paid for your ads?

Yeah, you heard right. The more people click on your ad- the more you get paid. 

We all know ads are meant to draw in customers who are supposed to give you money by buying your product. But through AdSense, you can get money even if the customers don’t buy you stuff. It lets you make money even if you’re not making money.

Not only does AdSense let you customize your ads to fit the general vibe of your website, but it also allows you to run ads across several websites through one AdWords account. 

You can run these ads on mobile devices, RSS feed, anything! 

Google will pay you on a monthly basis. 

One catch: If you’re planning to run these on YouTube to generate revenue, you’re gonna need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.

The whole thing sounds great, I know. Just remember one not-so-little detail, Google is not a forgiving master. Even if you break one teensy rule, your account can be terminated. 

But there’s definitely a reason why Google AdSense is so popular. Everyone is making a quick buck out of it. Makes no sense why you shouldn’t reap its benefits as well. Go ahead and monetize your website ASAP. 

In Conclusion

Now all you need to do is decide which of these tools are best suited to your SEO needs. The above list contains 24 of the best free Google tools for marketers and developers. 

“How to upgrade my SEO strategy?” is an everyday headache. It’s an uphill battle that never truly ends because you need to keep upgrading to stay at the top of the game. 

Thankfully, Google strives to make this struggle easier for you. It opens up to you its immense data bank for free. 

Did any of the above tools feel difficult to use? No, right? Exactly why you should start using these absolutely free tools from today itself. 

Which one are you going to use first? Don’t forget to let us know in the comment section below.

Frequently Asked Questions