So your business is now taking off and you want to expand it to get more customers? You’ve definitely made the right decision by starting your own website. It’s time to explore the best AI SEO tools for small businesses.
About 73% of U.S. small businesses had a website in 2023, with another 23.5% saying they plan to get one. (Zippia, 2023) and Nearly half (46%) of U.S. sites reported generating between 1,001 and 15,000 monthly visitors in 2023. (HubSpot, 2023)
The stats speak for themselves, don’t they? So if you have just recently started your own business website and don’t know which tools are suitable for YOU and your business, you’re in the right place.
In this blog, we will cover 11+ fully tried and tested best SEO tools for small businesses as you will look into free to use tools, Google’s own tools which are also free, a list of paid tools which you can definitely use to kickstart your organic traffic and a few budget friendly tools paired our personal recommendations and One special tip for small businesses in the end alongside a bonus tool
So keep reading as we walk through the list of the tools and help you pick out the ones that work for your business.
What is the Most Effective Tool for SEO?
By far, the most effective tool for SEO that gives you the exact value for your money is Ahrefs. With its amazing Competitor Analysis Data and User-Friendly Interface, it is undoubtedly the most effective tool. Without any doubts if you have the money to go for it, you should definitely give it a try.
How do I SEO for a Small Business Website?
Here’s a small list of what you should do to get traffic to your site
- The most important thing is Keyword Research
- Your focus should be to design your website focused mainly on user experience.
- Do Competitor Research to know what other sites may be up to
- Don’t target too difficult keywords
- Conduct proper On-Page SEO to satisfy search engines
- Leverage and use local search to your own advantage
- Check in regularly on Analytics to see how your website is doing on Google
Here’s the list of 11+ Best SEO tools for Small Businesses
Free Tools that You Can Leverage without Costs
If you think that SEO for small businesses cannot be done for free, you definitely have the wrong idea. As a matter of fact, you can started only with these free tools and your website would still be doing just fine.
1. AnswerThePublic: Search tool for Content Research and Keyword Ideas
AnswerThePublic is easily one of the best tools to toggle around for ideas and related keywords to your business.
To search for a keyword, you first head to their website and create a free account which may limit you to 3 searches per day, but that alone is enough to give you a ton of keywords to select from if used correctly.
Then, you only need to type in the seed keyword in their search bar and you’ll get dozens if not thousands of related keywords according to it.
And as easy as that, you’ll get access to your desired list to choose from. As bonus, you’ll also be getting key metrics in your search such as Keyword difficulty, Search traffic and others.
Our Thoughts: Though we personally do not use this tool often as most of our keywords are handpicked from other tools. But as a new website you should definitely give this tool a try as this tool will provide you with important key metrics related to research
One downside of this tool is that this tool limits your search to only 3 per day. Be sure to make good use of it!
2. Ubersuggest: Get ideas for Related Keywords of Your Search
Ubersuggest is another tool used for a similar reason, though it is mainly an all rounded SEO tool, the best use for it according to us has been it’s easy to use Keyword Research metrics. As it originates from the same source as AnswerThePublic, it’s no surprise that most experts mainly use this tool for keyword metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty and more.
Other than that, it is also an amazing tool to get your business started with, as the prices start from around 12$/month which is certainly very low compared to other search tools. And you can also get yearly/lifetime subscriptions for cheap as well.
How to use it for Your Business: Log into their website, select your country or region you want to target, then after that you head to Keyword Research-> Keyword Ideas and from there you can type in your seed keyword or list of keywords and the tool will provide some metrics, such as
- Keyword Volume(Number of Searches Per Month)
- CPC(Cost Per Click)
- Paid Difficulty
- SEO Difficulty
This will give you a long listed of keywords as well as related keywords and ideas based on it. It is really helpful mainly because of its cheap price point,
Our Thoughts: Though an absolutely amazing tool, it also has it’s cons i.e the 3 search limit per day. So even though it is a good tool for you to just get some ideas, we would recommend you to get the paid version for maximum efficiency and proper SEO.
3. Ubersuggest Chrome Extension
If you can’t afford to buy the paid subscriptions just yet, then the Ubersuggest Chrome Extension is the go to tool for you.
This tool provides you with insights like monthly search traffic and into a domain for any keywrod that you search for in Google. Though it won’t function as an all out paid SEO tool, it is certainly a must have and one of the best AI SEO tools for small businesses and larger enterprises as well.
How to use it for Your Business: Search the tool up in Google and click on the first link that pops up, and then you’ll be 2 clicks away from easily installing it into your device.
Our Thoughts: This tool is one of the tools that we ourselves have been using for a long time. And trust me when I say, the metrics may not always be just as accurate as you’d like. However, the facilities that you’ll be getting is easy to compensate for. It’s a no brainer for any business
4. Rank Math: Amazing Free WordPress Plugin
Rank Math is a WordPress SEO plugin that has a free version you can Install. And from our own experiences, you do not need the paid version to actually do stuff. The free to use version is an all round tool that alone will provide significant value.
According to data from WP Hive, this plugin uses a significantly less amount of memory as compared to other plugins. This implies that you can use this plugin without putting much of a toll in your website.
This AI based SEO plugin will help you to optimize a number of keywords(5 keywords if you’re using the free version). However, we have just the solution to add a subtle boost to your website. Watch this video to optimize for an unlimited number of keywords with this tool.
How to use it for Your Business: Download and use this plugin from WordPress and you’re practically good to go. Make sure to add your desired keywords that you want to optimize, and the tool will do the job for you.
Our Thoughts: We will certainly recommend you to use this plugin alongside other WordPress plugins. Proper utilization of this will make your SEO a lot more easier.
5. Yoast SEO for On-Page SEO
Yoast SEO is undoubtedly the best WordPress plugin for On-Page stuff. This is arguably the most widely used plugin. Whether you are running a blog or an online business, to satisfy search engines this tool is a must for you in any given case. The tool will give you an SEO checklist which tells you if you’ve done everything correctly or not.
How to use it for Your Business: You have to first download the plugin on WordPress in your device. After that, you will go to Dashboard->Plugins->Yoast SEO-> Click “Activate” and that’s about it. From now on, you will have a Yoast checklist panel to the right side of your screen.
In this panel, you’ll have a list of things to do where it’ll show you the problems, things that need improvement, and a list of good results as part of On-Page SEO of your page. The checklist will include points like Images, Alt Attributes, Internal Links, Meta Description, Keyword Density. And most importantly, you can select your focus keyword from this panel too.
Our Thoughts: This tool is definitely the most fundamental and one of the best AI SEO tools for small businesses that you most certainly need. So if you haven’t already, install and activate the plugin and take your On-Page a huge leap ahead with it.
Yoast also has a premium version which is most certainly a bang for the buck. But as of right now, there’s no need for you to haste into things. We suggest that you focus your budget more towards other aspects. As you progress with your journey, the premium version is definitely a worthwhile investment as you’re only looking for the best SEO tools for small businesses.
Google’s Best Free SEO Tools for Small Businesses
All the tools that you’ve come across so far all have had a premium version for you to use them or some kind of limitations on them for you to use. But, here comes the best part. Google’s own software includes Google Analytics and Google Search Console, which you can fully make use of without even thinking of getting a paid subscription anytime soon.
These tools are part of the fundamentals that you need to keep track of the SEO progress and related metrics for your business. And we suggest to start using them right away.
6. Google Analytics: Best first SEO Tool for Small Businesses
Google Analytics is undoubtedly one of the first tools you should be installing in your website. This tool will provide you with a few important key metrics. Such as
- Number of visitors to your site
- Amount of Total Sessions
- Bounce Rate
- Average Engagement Time
- New Users
- Views Per User
- Engagement Rate
How to use it for Your Business: First, install and set up Google Analytics if you haven’t already. If you don’t know how to set up, read here to get a complete guide.
After you set up Google analytics, you’ll get the dashboard which will include Organic Traffic, Sessions, Bounce Rates and many other metrics. Watch a couple YouTube videos to get a good grasp of the immense value this tool provides,
Our Thoughts: Well, it is of no surprise that we ourselves have been using this tool since our very beginning. And there is nothing in the world that should say you shouldn’t either.
So even if you have a checklist of tools to get started with, Google Analytics should be at the very top of your list as it is nonetheless, one of the best SEO tools for small businesses to start with.
7. Google Search Console
Alongside Google Analytics, Search Console is another one of the best SEO tools for small businesses. Since we at aihubb also have been using this tool for as long as we can remember, here’s a few facilities that we think are the most valuable.
Performance report: Google Search Console’s performance reports will tell you everything you need to know about how your website is performing in search engines. This includes how your search traffic changed over time and what queries people are typing in before landing on your website.
Position: As the name suggests, this report will show what positions Google is ranking your site for certain keywords.
Clicks: The click report shows how often a user has clicked on your website from Google and exactly which pages they are clicking on the most.
Impressions: This figure refers to the number of searches who saw a link to your site on Google’s results page.
CTR(Click-Through Rate): Click-through rate measures the percentage of people who click on your page after seeing it on Google’s results page.
Index Coverage Report: This report shows which webpages or URLs Google is indexing. This makes it important for small business owners because if Google isn’t indexing your links, it won’t appear in search engines.
Links Report: The last report we want to cover is the links report. This shows all the external links pointing to your website, which basically indicates the number of backlinks. As well as how your webpages are interlinked. Backlinks and interlinking are certainly very crucial to your site’s SEO performance.
Our Thoughts: Combined with Google Analytics reports, Google Search Console allows you to see how your website is performing in search engines and how your visitors are interacting with your content. So don’t waste any time and set up this tool if you haven’t already.
8. Google Trends
Although it is not an all out SEO tool like the ones mentioned above, Google trends is still an amazing Tool for you to explore. As it is completely free, you can search for specific keywords and it will show you the total amount of searches for that keyword in any given time period. It makes this tool especially helpful if you want to look for content ideas or the trends of the keyword you want to target.
How to use it for Your Business: First, visit the tool website. There you will be greeted with a pretty simple dashboard interface. From there on you can search for your required keyword or query and you will get different data for that query.
The data will include different statistics. For example-
Interest over time: Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term.
As well as trending topics, related topics, related queries etc.
Our thoughts: You may not necessarily need this tool in all cases. However, if you’re in a shortage of ideas or just need to check if your target keyword has interest in recent times, this is a great tool to leverage.
Paid Tools to Maximize SEO
So you’ve read a lot so far about free tools that you can use right now. However, to maximize your site SEO and perform a lot more complex tasks like site audit, competitor research, domain overview, backlink analysis and many others, paid tools are the way to go.
Since you are most likely a small business owner, it’s probably that you really don’t have that much of an extra budget lying around. So we’ll have a look at just two paid tools that you can get. These tools may cost you a bit. But if you play your cards right, nothing is going to stop you from top rankings. Even if you can’t afford it, we have a solution for you that may work if you’re willing to sacrifice a little. We will look into this in a little bit.
9. Ahrefs: Our Personal Choice
If we had to choose just one paid tool from this list, we’d go with Ahrefs. It’s a crucial part of our SEO process, and we strongly suggest it for small business owners. Ahrefs offers a detailed analysis of your competitors’ strategies and insights into what your audience is searching for.
For example, if you were to search for a query, Ahrefs would give you a list of broad matches, as well as a ton of related keywords which you can filter out based on your preferences. This works very well particularly for this tool because it is a lot more user friendly and easy to get familiar with.
How to use it for Your Business: The most notable facilities Ahrefs gives you are-
- Detailed SEO Dashboard – High-level view of your SEO campaigns with the most important metrics.
- Site Explorer – Powerful competitor research tool.
- Keywords Explorer – Keyword research tools that help you find quality keywords fast.
- Site Audit – Complete technical and on-page SEO website auditor.
- Rank Tracker – Track all your target keyword rankings in different search engines.
- Content Explorer – Research new content ideas and find link-building opportunities.
Our Thoughts: Though a little bit expensive for new businesses, Ahrefs is an amazing all rounded tool. This tool will make your job much more easier. Not to mention, you’ll also be getting a leap ahead of your competitors.
10. Semrush
Similar to Ahrefs, Semrush is also an amazing SEO tool that you can use. Both Ahrefs and Semrush are somewhat similar and both have their pros and cons. Nonetheless, there’s hardly any user out there that would deny that these tools are some of the best SEO tools for small businesses.
For example, Ahrefs may have the upper hand for keyword research and backlink analysis, but nothing comes close to Semrush’s ability for site audits. All we can do is include a list of the facilities you’ll be getting from these tools. The rest is up to you to decide.
How to use it for Your Business: Semrush’s top SEO features include:
- Keyword Magic tool – Powerful keyword research tool that finds thousands of keyword combinations for your SEO campaigns.
- Site Audit – Get a comprehensive analysis of your website and actionable steps to fix any issues.
- Position Rank Tracker – Track your site (or competitor’s) keyword rankings in Google.
- Backlink Analysis – Monitor your backlink profile and find link-building opportunities.
- Competitor SEO Analysis – Uncover your competitor’s SEO strategies with everything you need to run a complete competitor analysis.
Our Thoughts: As you can see, Semrush also has a powerful suite of SEO tools to effectively execute SEO campaigns. If you’re unsure about which tool to use if you have the cash ready, read here for a detailed comparison amongst two of the best SEO tools for small businesses
11. Budget Friendly Tools
Some budget friendly tools which are a great bang for your buck include-
- Screaming frog: To crawl up to 500 URLs at a time for free
- KWfinder: For Keyword Reseach
- Brightlocal SEO: For Local SEO
Special Tip
You’ve done a great job if you’ve come this far. So our personal recommendation/ tip is to try out group buy SEO Tools.
What this does is that, you can access these tools for a fraction of the price, while still getting almost the same benefits.
If you want to try these out, DigitaVision is an amazing platform to start. You can keep using these tools for a few months or at least until you can afford to buy the main tools. We at aihubb have also used group buy services for about 6 months since the start of our journey. And trust me when I say, we do not regret a single bit.
So all that concludes the main body of the blog. Now let’s give you a summary of what we presented
- Free tools that you can leverage without costs- AnswerThePublic
- Ubersuggest to get ideas for related keywords of your search
- Ubersuggest Chrome Extension
- Rankmath is all rounded and has free version
- Yoast seo for on-page SEO
- Google’s own free tools for every business- Google Analytics
- Google search console
- Google Trends
- Paid tools to maximize SEO- Ahrefs
- Semrush
- Budget friendly tools- Screaming Frog, KWfinder, BrightLocal SEO
Conclusion
In this post, I’ve mostly tried to include tools that are free or cost a low amount of money. Of course, if you have the budget and are willing to spend, don’t forget that you can always buy paid traffic from platforms like Google, Facebook, X etc.
If you want to have a look at some easy solutions for your business, read this post
Or, if you want to look at some other completely free SEO options, you can check out this blog post
And if you didn’t know, we provide services to many different businesses who reach out to us. Contact us to learn more about our services
