Article last updated in April 2026
GA4/Analytics
This is a tool I use to analyse user behaviour and how users are navigating around a site. Which pages are they landing on and clicking through to before they convert, for example (behaviour flow). Can be installed via adding tracking code to a site. Great for helping to recover lost website traffic.
Difficulty Level - 8/10 - much more difficult than it's predecessor Universal Analytics
Main Use - User behaviour and cross platform tracking
Standout Feature - Enhanced measurement
Last Update - February 2026
Free compared to Paid - Paid GA4 360 offers larger data limits and faster processing - unnecessary unless you're a huge enterprise
Integrations - Ads, BigQuery, Search Console and more
Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs)
This is used for website crawling and is developing to become more comprehensive all of the time. Get an overview of your site's data and structure.
Difficulty Level - 3/10 - relatively easy to use even with a more traditional interface
Main Use - Crawling websites and finding issues
Standout Feature - Checking site structure and getting an overview of a website's crawl depth
Last Update - Version release in October 2025
Free compared to Paid - Paid version allows you to crawl more than 500 URLs, see previous crawls and has much better functionality - I pay for this every year
Google Search Console
As an SEO, I use this tool more than any other. It provides raw search data, revealing how well pages are performing organically and for which search queries. It's a goldmine, even if the data is limited.
Difficulty Level - 5/10
Main Use - Analysing SEO performance at search query and page level
Standout Feature - Filtering for search queries with regex
Last Update - This month (April 2026)! Branded query analysis
Free compared to Paid - No paid version
Answer the public
This is a tool to gather relevant topical questions.
For example if you're a chef and searched the word 'cooking' then Answer the public would deliver the most frequently asked questions around this topic - and it uses the hub and spoke model.
Difficulty Level - 2/10
Main Use - Gathering topical data
Standout Feature - Visualisation of questions
Last Update - AI integration (unsure of date)
Free compared to Paid - Higher limits for number of searches per day
Google Trends
This tool shows how popular a topic is. These statistics, although broad, can be used to put together content for link building.
Difficulty Level - 2/10
Main Use - Analysing trends and rising search intent
Standout Feature - Real time geographic data
Last Update - August 2024
Free compared to Paid - Completely free!
Google's Keyword Planner
An auxiliary to Google Ads, keyword planner allows you to gather search volume data, ppc and ads data and it can help with keyword clustering.
Difficulty Level - 4/10
Main Use - Keyword research
Standout Feature - Raw search volume data
Last Update - November 2025
Free compared to Paid - Full data increases with active ads spend
Ahrefs (if you have Search Console access)
You can run site audits for free!
Difficulty Level - 7/10
Main Use - SEO Analysis - technical issues
Standout Feature - Prioritisation of tech issues
Last Update - Last month
Free compared to Paid - Limited access to features - paid has different levels
Also Asked (up to 3 searches per day)
This is a tool developed by Mark Williams Cook which allows you to gather people also asked question data in an easy format for download.
Difficulty Level - 4/10
Main Use - Topical authority research questions
Standout Feature - Visual question maps
Last Update - Last month
Free compared to Paid - Higher usage and more detailed question exports
Page Speed Insights
Run this free tool to gather data around site speed performance and rendering. It can help to identify which elements on a page are slowing down the rendering process and affecting mobile speed.
Meta Inspector
This chrome extension allows you to see metadata at the click of a button without browsing the SERPs or sifting through html
Honourable Mentions
- Elements of SEMrush
- Elements of Moz
- Ubersuggest
- Keyword Insights
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- SEO Gets
- SEO Stack
*Disclaimer - These tools are subject to change and some may no longer offer free trials or versions