Successful on the web: The best content is useless if your website can't be found on Google and other search engines.

When visitor numbers just won't go up, website owners sit in front of the search engine results pages (SERPs) with a puzzled look on their face, wondering why their articles, landing pages and subpages don't rank higher.

Now you can guess and turn various screws until a positive result is achieved at some point - or you can consult an SEO tool. But which one do you really need?

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What can an SEO check tool help with?

If one wants to operate successful search engine optimization (SEO), one must consider various aspects.

In order to be well positioned in online search engines - first and foremost with the Internet giant Google - both content and technical points are important. High on the list of priorities is (understandably) the quality of the content. What people like is often clicked on.

Everything that goes beyond this can be analyzed with appropriate tools and thus the SEO work can be carried out in a more targeted manner. Decisive factors are, for example, the implementation of the right search words (keywords). On the technical side, on the other hand, the loading speed plays an increasingly important role. If the website loads too slowly, Google does not react very positively to it.

What you need to know to be successful in search engines:

• The biggest goal is to be visible on the web.
• In addition, it makes sense to have many reputable websites linking to your own site.
• The content must be relevant and also contain keywords relevant to the topic.
• If page speed and layout are poor, visitors and search engines will penalize the website.

Without technical help, it is often almost impossible to determine what is standing in the way of online success. With the right SEO tools, however, you can quickly find out what is wrong with your own site, where there is potential for improvement and how to improve your ranking on Google and Co.

Visibility: SISTRIX Smart

How does your website compare to the competition? Online success has a lot to do with how easily you can be found on the World Wide Web.

To enable an assessment of this, the company SISTRIX has developed a so-called visibility index. For this indicator, SISTRIX looks at 250,000 keywords and their first 100 ranking results. Based on this data, SISTRIX can now examine a domain and provides a result value for it. This alone does not provide much information.

The search index becomes interesting when you put it into perspective in two ways: Keep an eye on the search index over time to see how your SEO efforts are paying off. Or compare yourself with the competition to check your position in direct competition.

The company has several products on offer. Recommended for beginners is SISTRIX Smart. The free tool gives beginners the opportunity to check a project with up to 1,000 subpages.

The Smart variant is also well suited to try out the functions of SISTRIX. Especially bloggers who want a little more visibility on the net, the tool is a good help. Those who then want to grow further or manage multiple websites will find the right tool for increasing visibility with the paid toolbox from SISTRIX.

Backlink Check: LinkResearchTools (LRT)

For Google and other search engines, the online reputation of your website also plays a major role. To measure this, search engines evaluate the so-called backlinks.

How many websites link to your own? Many links are good, but it is also becoming increasingly important: Who links to your own site? The higher the reputation of the linking website, the better it is for your own ranking.

For example, if you receive a backlink from a well-known news site, this has a very positive influence on the search engine ranking. But on the other hand, a link that Google classifies as purchased, for example, can significantly disrupt the backlink profile.

With the LinkResearchTools (LRT) you always have an overview of who is linking to your site. Which links have been added, which have been dropped?

This way, the backlink profile always remains in view and one has a better basis to search for suitable websites that link to one's own page. LTR even helps directly: The tool provides suggestions for links and points out current trends.

Keyword research: AnswerThePublic

Search engines help web surfers find information. Users enter search terms into the mask, and Google and Co. try to deliver the most helpful results. To ensure that your website can help users, you need to know what they are looking for.

Integrating the right keywords into the content is therefore of utmost relevance. Intuition is often a good guide when searching for keywords, but you don't have to rely on gut feeling alone. Tools provide insight into the search terms that are really often used.

With the Keywordhunter from contentbird you get, in addition to the search volume, also the CPC of a keyword and the SEO competition. And here you can test it for free!

A particularly prominent tool is AnswerThePublic. The site is very easy to use: You enter a relatively broad term that has to do with your own main topic. AnswerThePublic then displays the most frequent search entries on this topic - and does so graphically. In this way, the tool manages both to help with concrete data and to inspire one's own creativity.

Onsite Analysis: Screaming Frog

The structure of the website has a great influence on the effect on search engines. Besides the content, meta data, page structure or page speed also play a major role.

If users can only use the website with difficulty, they are unlikely to come back - no matter how interesting the content is. Google knows this too, and that's why websites that are poorly constructed are penalized significantly in the rankings. But it is often difficult to keep track of technical problems that happen in the background.

Thereby can Screaming Frog help. The tool looks at the website the same way Google's algorithms do. However, unlike the search engine, the SEO tool gives important hints on how to build your website better. With the free version, you already have many helpful functions at your disposal. However, only the paid version really goes into depth.

Rumdumcheck: SEO Checker from IONOS

Tools with a specific focus are a good way to target problems. If you have the feeling that a certain area is lacking, you can achieve a lot with such tools.

But if you want to do everything right from the start, you should choose an all-rounder. With such a tool you can evaluate every step in the design of the website for search engine optimization and thus achieve the best possible result.

The SEO Check from IONOS provides interesting input on all crucial points. The free tool analyzes your online presence in just a few seconds. On the results page, webmasters learn almost everything they need for search engine optimization - in a clear and visually appealing form. The following areas are covered by the check:

• Visibility on Google and Bing
• Onpage construction
• Backlink profile
• mobile accessibility
• Social media presence

This tool from IONOS already offers a lot of support. Those who need even more software-supported help can, for example, reach for the rankingCoach, which is subject to a fee. This extended toolbox is even suitable for professional SEO agencies.

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Free alternatives directly from Google

The search engine giant itself also offers tools with which you can examine your website from an SEO point of view.

• With the Search Console you can examine the meta data of the website.
• PageSpeed Insights shows the loading speed and puts it in relation.
• The Mobile Friendly Check examines the website for its mobile display.
• If you are looking for suitable keywords, you will find first-hand information at Google Trends first-hand information.

For some services, however, you need a Google account. For Search Console, you also need to place a key on your own website to confirm that you are indeed the owner of the website under investigation.

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Conclusion

Those who choose the right tool for their SEO efforts can improve rankings in a targeted manner and do not have to rely on guessing games.

Since all the presented SEO tools are very easy to use, you don't even have to spend a lot of time learning how to use them. So you have more resources free to put into good content, communication with your visitors and website design.

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