I’m Kayla. I run SEO for small shops and a couple blogs. I test tools the same way I bake banana bread—over and over, and I keep notes. Some tools made life easy. Some wasted my time. I’ll share real wins, small fails, and the stuff I reach for each week. For an at-a-glance comparison of highly rated SEO tools for small businesses, I sometimes cross-check my notes with user reviews there.
If you’d like the long-form diary of that process, here’s the full recap of the SEO tools I put through the wringer.
You know what? SEO feels like a garden. You water, you trim, you wait, and then one day—boom—new growth. Tools help you spot where to water.
I also keep the PTools master list bookmarked as a rapid jump-off point whenever I need to explore a fresh tool I haven’t tested yet.
The quick wins I use every single day
Google Search Console (free)
I live in here. It tells me what pages show up, what breaks, and what Google thinks about my site.
- Real win: A local bakery in Boise had “Crawled – currently not indexed” on a bunch of menu pages. I fixed thin copy, added internal links, and resubmitted in Search Console. Clicks rose from 90 to 210 in four weeks. Not huge, but the owner texted me a cookie emoji. That counts.
- What I like: It’s facts, not guesses.
- What bugs me: Delay on data. I’m impatient.
Google Analytics 4 (free)
I track goals: calls, form fills, and sales. (For polished, client-facing PDFs, I pull the numbers into this SEO reporting tool I actually use.)
- Real win: For a yoga studio, we set a “Book Class” event. After new pages (you’ll see those below), bookings rose 18% that month. Seeing that made the owner tear up a bit. Same here.
Keyword tools that don’t make me guess
I’ve churned through a truck-load of platforms—here’s the no-fluff rundown of every keyword tool I tried and the one that stuck.
Ahrefs
My workhorse for keywords, links, and content gaps. When I need to zoom in on a single page’s terms, I fire up the best keyword analysis tool I actually use for a quick double-check.
- Real win: A plumber near Denver needed leads fast. I found low-difficulty terms like “water heater leaking pan” and “same day water heater repair.” We wrote two tight pages with step photos. The pages got to page 1 in three weeks and brought 8 calls the first month.
- Bonus: The Content Gap tool showed me 7 topics rivals had that we did not. Easy roadmap.
- Downside: Pricey. I cry a little when I pay it.
SEMrush
Feels like Ahrefs’ cousin. I use it for position tracking and competitor analysis tools style peeks.
- Real win: A yoga studio missed “prenatal yoga near me schedule.” It was a layup. We made a simple schedule page with real class times and FAQs. In 3 weeks, it hit #3. Class bookings went up 18% that month (yep, the same jump I saw in GA4).
- Downside: Too many features. It can feel like a big airport. Lots of gates. You can get lost.
AnswerThePublic + AlsoAsked
I use both for questions people ask. It sparks headlines and FAQ blocks.
- Real win: On my food blog, I saw “Why does banana bread sink?” I added a short section and a new post. That post hit 1,200 visits in two months and 50 comments. People care about sunken bread. Me too.
- Tip: Add 3–5 Q&A items and mark them with FAQ schema if your setup allows it. On WordPress, Rank Math or Yoast can help with that.
Side note: I had a recent project in the adult-entertainment niche where listicles dominate the SERPs. One standout example I studied was this well-structured roundup of cam sites—skim the comparison tables, jump links, and trust badges to see how tight on-page elements can push a “best-of” post up the rankings, lessons you can steal for any industry roundup.
Another useful case study came from analyzing geo-targeted classifieds. Check out the local-specific breakdown on Listcrawler Las Cruces to see how tightly focused city keywords, constant content refreshes, and clear navigation cues help a single page capture intent for an entire metro area.
Site audits that catch the ugly stuff
Screaming Frog
It crawls your site like a mini Google. Not pretty, but wow, it’s useful.
- Real win: The candle shop had 68 duplicate titles, 23 redirect chains, and missing H1s on 139 pages. We fixed them and compressed images. Mobile load time dropped from 5.8s to 2.9s. You could feel it.
- What I like: Finds weird stuff fast.
- What bugs me: The interface looks like a spreadsheet got lost.
Sitebulb
Audits with nice charts. Clients love the clear “why it matters” notes.
- Real win: A dentist with 3 locations had 47 orphan pages and one location page set to noindex by mistake. Fixed those. Impressions rose 22% in a month. Calls followed.
PageSpeed Insights + Lighthouse (free)
I use both for Core Web Vitals. They tell me what to cut or fix.
- Real win: We changed hero images to WebP, delayed third-party scripts, and set proper image sizes. LCP went from 4.6s to 2.7s. CLS from 0.25 to 0.08. The site felt less jumpy. My shoulders dropped.
Writing tools that don’t kill your voice
Surfer SEO and Clearscope
They suggest terms and help with on-page structure.
- Real win: I wrote “composting in apartments” for a green living blog. Clearscope gave me a B at first. I added 6 missing terms and a short “what to do with fruit flies” section. It hit an A. The post picked up 900 clicks in the first month. Not viral, but solid.
- Tip: Don’t stuff. Keep it human. If a tool tells you to say a weird phrase 12 times, ignore it. Please.
Yoast SEO and Rank Math (WordPress)
Both help with titles, metas, and schema. I use Rank Math more now.
- Real win: For a local events site, we added FAQ schema and fixed slugs. Rich results showed up, and CTR rose from 2.1% to 3.4% on those pages. Small change, nice lift.
Link checks and PR
Ahrefs + Majestic
I use both to check link quality. If you’re hunting for software that helps you find and pitch prospects faster, here’s my play-by-play on the best link building tools I actually use.
- Real win: A craft store got a wave of junk links from scraped sites. I flagged them and reached out where I could. I also pushed a how-to guide to a local news site, which linked back. That single link sent 230 visits the first week and some steady referral after. Good links beat many bad ones.
Connectively (the old HARO)
I pitch short expert quotes.
- Real win: I sent a 4-line tip about small business SEO to a regional magazine. They linked to my site. Leads? Three good ones that month. Worth it.
Rank tracking that doesn’t eat my week
I’ve tested a small mountain of rank checker tools, but these two keep bubbling back to the top.
SERPWatcher (Mangools) or Ahrefs Rank Tracker
I set weekly reports and move on.
- Real win: For the plumber, I watched “same day water heater repair” move from #12 to #5 over 10 days. We added one more internal link from a “prices” page. It hit #3. Sometimes one nudge helps.
Stuff I didn’t love (sorry)
- Ubersuggest: Fine for quick checks. But data felt off for low-volume local terms. I’d use it if budget is tight, but I wouldn’t bet a campaign on it.
- Moz: Clean UI. The on-page tool is friendly. But in my tests, the link index was smaller than Ahrefs. For deep link work, I kept going back to Ahrefs.
My simple tool stack by budget
Need more inspiration for no-cost helpers?
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