Driving organic search traffic through effective search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial component of success for any business online today.
However, with 60% of marketers admitting SEO feels overwhelming given its complexities, many struggle with executing it properly. Another 36% have limited time for the deep analysis SEO requires across several site components.
The end result? Losses of 30%, 50% or even 70% of site traffic when algorithms shift or competitors optimize better.
Thankfully, online SEO analysis tools provide replicable frameworks to properly audit all aspects of on-page and off-page optimization. Rather than guesswork, they empower you to diagnose technical problems, benchmark your rankings and traffic against competitors and unlock new growth opportunities.
This comprehensive guide will explore the top 18 website analyzer tools across key SEO categories:
Table of Contents
- On-Page Optimization
- Backlink Analysis
- Keyword Research
- Competitor Benchmarking
- Conclusion
Properly leveraging these tools also requires understanding what effective SEO encompasses, including:
- Quality content optimized with keywords that ranks well and converts
- A fast and mobile-friendly technical site infrastructure
- Authoritative backlinks from relevant external sites
- Monitor rankings for visibility tracking and gains
Now let‘s explore the tools that will help analyze all of these components…
The Best Tools for On-Page SEO Audits
Your website‘s on-page signals – content, site speed, metadata etc. – account for roughly 20-30% of search ranking success.
But a majority of site owners fail to optimize them properly, hindering their visibility.
Online SEO crawlers and grader tools analyze these pages to spotlight issues and opportunities.
1. SEMrush Site Audit
I recommend SEMrush as the #1 starting point for comprehensive SEO and marketing analysis.
Its intuitive site audit tool crawls every inch of your site evaluating 100+ parameters including:
- Content – Readability, word count, keyword usage
- HTML tags – Optimized titles, alt text, headers
- Site speed – Resources blocking page load
- Mobile friendliness – Responsiveness, legible text
- Security – HTTPS implementation, SSL issues
It condenses technical problems and on-page factors limiting performance into an actionable list. By systematically optimizing them, sites have increased organic traffic by 213% over 6-12 months.
SEMrush also provides robust rank tracking, competitor research and backlink analysis tools to give site owners a 360-degree view of opportunities.
2. Screaming Frog Spider
Over half of sites have technical SEO problems hindering their crawlability and indexation for search engines.
This is what makes Screaming Frog‘s SEO Spider tool so valuable. It crawls every page like Google evaluating:
- Indexability – Noindex tags, page fetch errors
- Duplicate content issues
- Redirect chains – Efficient or problematic
- Page speeds – Time to first byte, total load time
The visual crawl maps and flags for detected issues easily spotlight problems. Pages with fixes for duplicate content and blocking tags increased rankings by 7-15 positions over 3-6 months.
3. Google Lighthouse
As the pioneer of search, Google‘s Lighthouse brings automated insight into improving page experience and conversions.
It audits for elements impacting:
- Site speed – Time to First Byte, Time to Interactive
- Mobile friendliness – Tap targets, font sizes
- Accessibility – Aria attributes, color contrast
- SEO – Canonical tags, metadata
Lighthouse gives each section a score from 1-100 along with tips to reach higher thresholds correlated with increased user engagement and conversions.
PageSpeed and mobile-friendliness fixes led to 35% more organic traffic in 9 months for one national retail site.
4. PageSpeed Insights
Complementing Lighthouse, Google‘s PageSpeed Insights focuses specifically on site loading speeds that drastically impact user experience.
It analyzes submitted pages based on key metrics like:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Meet Google‘s recommended thresholds for each and pages load 2-3x faster. Slow sites increase bounce rates by 123% on mobile and 105% on desktop.
Page speed‘s impact on bounce rates Image source
This directly hurts organic rankings, which PageSpeed helps address through actionable speed optimization tips.
5. Seobility
Seobility‘s free website audit tool crawls sites evaluating 100+ parameters spread across key elements:
- Content quality – Readability, word count, keyword density
- Social – Account verification, meta data
- Mobile – Responsiveness, speed, formatting
- Indexing – Noindex tags, canonical issues
It condenses this analysis into an overall SEO score from 1-100. Scores above 85 indicate sites well-optimized for search visibility.
Seobility also estimates traffic and conversions lost due to unoptimized pages. Fixing the surfaced issues can often double non-paid search traffic and revenue within 6-9 months.
The section-by-section breakdown simplifies identifying the highest return optimization areas for organic growth.
Backlink Analysis for Optimizing Search Rankings
Backlinks make up one of the highest correlated search ranking signals, accounting for up to 35% of algorithmic outcomes.
Using backlink analyzers spotlights issues around link equity and authority hindering performance.
6. Ahrefs Site Explorer
Driving over $12 million in revenue for one client, Ahrefs Site Explorer offers unparalleled backlink data.
Metrics provided for a domain include:
- Total referring domains
- Number of dofollow backlinks
- Anchor text diversity
- Pages and domains driving links
- Linking root domain ratio
It complements this with tools to understand link equity impacts:
- Domain Rating – Estimated authority score
- Link Intersect – Sites competitors have earned links from
- Toxic backlink checking
Optimizing toxic links and building links from stronger domains increased organic traffic by 152% over 8 months for one Ahrefs client.
The actionable link opportunity data accelerates earning the quality backlinks Google‘s algorithm rewards.
7. Moz Open Site Explorer
Moz invented the concept of Domain Authority which estimates the ranking capability of sites based on links.
Its Open Site Explorer provides authoritative metrics like:
- Domain and URL authority scores
- Spam score – Low quality links
- Linking root domains and pages
- Follow vs nofollow links
Seeing 80-90+ authority and minimal spam scores are strong indicators of sites poised to rank well. Moz makes it easy to diagnose sites failing to meet those benchmarks and build links from stronger domains.
8. Majestic Backlink Index
Boasting the world‘s largest link index at over 1 trillion URLs, Majestic offers clear historical backlink data.
Metrics spotlighted include:
- Referring IP addresses – Identify private networks
- Categories driving links – Spot contextual opportunities
- Link velocity – Monitor growth
- C class subnets – Type of sites linking
Majestic provides tiered plans based on needed data history – monthly, yearly or historic. The deeper the time horizon, the better optimization opportunities can be uncovered.
Keyword Research for Targeting Relevant Search Terms
Gaining visibility requires optimizing pages around terms users actively search for. Keyword research underpins discovering this search demand.
9. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
Beyond backlink and site analysis, SEMrush provides one of the most powerful keyword research toolkits.
It enables filtering keywords by key elements:
- Search volume – Monthly interest
- Keyword Difficulty – SEO viability
- CPC – Ad competition
- Trends – Seasonality effects
Grouping keywords by category and subtopics allows targeted topic expansion and optimization planning. This data lays the framework for SEO success.
10. Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz invented many keyword metrics now seen as industry standard today. Their Keyword Explorer helps identify terms aligned to business goals.
Data points include:
- Keyword Difficulty – Optimizability
- SERP Analysis – Ad density
- Monthly volume – Interest
- Optimization Opportunities – Unoptimized pages
Keyword groupings also enable better understanding of user intent for topics to create content around. Many have achieved first page rankings boosts within 3-6 months after optimizing new pages for Moz suggested keywords.
Competitor Benchmarking for Accelerated SEO Gains
Your competitors likely invest heavily into their SEO strategies and content. Leveraging tools analyzing why their sites perform well provides an easy framework for your own success.
11. Ahrefs
We‘ve already covered Ahrefs‘ unparalleled backlink and site audit capabilities. Their analytics also enable reverse engineering aspects of competitors‘ strategies:
- Top pages by organic traffic
- Total estimated site visitors
- Most common anchor texts
- Link building patterns – Site-wide links
A clear picture forms identifying SEO and content gaps to pursue for accelerated growth based on what already resonates in your space.
12. SEMrush Traffic Analytics
Offering 70 million keywords tracked each day globally, SEMrush showcases how competitors rank and their site‘s estimated traffic.
Analyzing domains spotlights:
- Top organic landing pages
- Total traffic value
- Paid keywords being targeted
- Referral traffic sources
SEMrush makes it easy to segment competitors by locale and vertical to understand true performance benchmarks to emulate.
13. BuzzSumo Content Research
As content drives the majority of early stage website growth, analyzing competitors‘ top-performing content offers tactical optimization opportunities.
This is where BuzzSumo‘s impresses through revealing:
- Specific content format preferences – List posts, long-form articles etc.
- Highest engaging themes and topics
- Content promotion channels driving shares
The beauty is then modeling what already resonates with their audience based on interests and consumption habits.
Conclusion
As top SEO consultant Eric Enge states:
"SEO is the process of achieving top visibility in unpaid/organic search results by ranking highly in search engines for valuable keywords and phrases."
The online tools covered in this guide break down every component influencing those critical rankings – content, site speed, user experience, backlink profiles and more.
Without continuously analyzing these elements, sites face up to 70% declines in organic traffic when Google updates algorithms or competitors outpace them.
Thankfully, leveraging tools featured around:
- On-page optimization – SEMrush, Screaming Frog, Lighthouse
- Backlink audits – Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz
- Keyword research – SEMrush, Moz, Google Keyword Planner
- Competitor analysis – SEMrush, Ahrefs, BuzzSumo
offers a framework for staying on top of your website‘s health and unlocking new opportunities.
Rather than guesswork, sites have achieved up to 152% more organic traffic and 213% increases in revenue over 6-12 month periods after fixes and optimizations based on these tools‘ recommendations.
They provide the visibility into user intent, technical infrastructure, link equity and gaps hindering growth that empower data-driven search gains.
Now dive in armed with this guide to dramatically expand your website‘s visibility and conversion impact through organic search!
