13 Technical SEO Tools You Need To Be Using

Technical SEO is a fundamental aspect of search engine optimization. Without it, your other off-page and on-page efforts will be fruitless. That’s because technical SEO takes a look under the hood of your website and delves into the inner workings of your site in search of any gremlins that might be holding it back from achieving success in the SERPS (search engine results pages). Technical SEO audits look for issues with indexing, page loading speeds, linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages., and website code. If any of these elements are out of whack, you can say goodbye to those all-important rankings, visibility, and sales.

The problem with technical SEO is that – as the name suggests – it can be complex and often requires specialist knowledge to get it right. This can put a lot of website owners off from dipping their toes into technical SEO. However, there is a massive range of tools available that can help simplify the technical SEO process. With so many around, it can be difficult to know which ones are actually worth using, but don’t worry! We’ve handpicked the best technical SEO tools you should use now.

Why Are Technical SEO Tools Important?

If you don’t use the tools that are available to you, some SEO tasks just won’t be possible. Technical SEO test tools allow you to accurately measure important elements like page load speeds, which is not something you can guess.

Aspects that technical SEO tools can help with:

• SEO audits
• Page loading speeds
• Finding duplicate contentDuplicate content is content that appears more than once across a single website. Duplicate content can be a sign of poor resource management, low trust, or a lack of quality control.
• Fixing broken links
• Creating XML sitemaps
• Fix messy code
• Mobile optimization
• 301 redirectsA redirect is a web page that loads in place of another web page.

Top 13 Technical SEO Tools

With so many tools on the market, knowing which ones to use can be tricky. Here are our top picks of the best tools around and what they can be used for.

1. Google Search Console (GSC)

GSC is a helpful free tool by Google that helps you keep an eye on your website’s keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. rankings position in the SERPs and the impact of any technical SEO changes you make. In terms of technical SEO, these are the GSC features you should be focusing on:

• Index Coverage Report: This shows you which of your pages are in Google’s index and flags any indexing errors that are preventing them from being included in the search engine’s database so you can fix any issues. This is vital as without being indexed, your pages simply won’t show in the SERPs.
• The Page Experience Report: User experience is an important aspect of technical SEO, and the Page Experience Report gives you an insight into the experience visitors have when they visit your site. The Core Web Vitals test assesses your loading speed, stability, and interactivity. Another important feature is the HTTPS status, which needs to be ‘good,’ indicating that users have a safe experience when using your site.
• The XML SitemapA site map is a list of pages on your site and their relative importance. Use sitemaps to make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, and to ensure that search engines can find all the information they need. Report: Uploading your sitemap to GSC makes it easier for Google bots to crawl your website. The XML Sitemap Report tells you if Google has processed your sitemap, how many URLs were submitted and indexed, and lets you know of any issues that need fixing.

2. Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

GA4 is another free technical SEO tool that looks at your engagement metrics, including the amount of organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. you have and how visitors interact with your site in real time. Important metrics to look at when using GA4 are the bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website. and dwell time. The first refers to how often users click off your site without exploring your other pages, and the latter relates to how long users stay on your pages. If the bounce rate is high or the dwell rate is low, it might signal that your website has a page loading problem that needs fixing.

3. Google PageSpeedThe Google PageSpeed Insights Tool is a free and easy-to-use tool that provides webmasters with a score (from 0 to 100) that reflects the performance of their site on mobile devices. Insights (PSI)

Another free tool from Google that is essential for monitoring technical SEO is Google PageSpeed Insights. We’ve already mentioned that page loading speeds are an integral part of SEO, and it’s just one of the many elements Google considers when indexing and ranking. PSI uses approximations to give detailed information on mobile and desktop loading times. Although it only gives estimations, these are trusted to have high accuracy. If it finds issues with how your pages load, it will give you pointers on what you need to fix.

4. Google Lighthouse

Google takes a mobile-first approach to ranking. In other words, if your website isn’t mobile-compatible, it will struggle to rank highly in the SERPs. Enter the search engine’s Lighthouse tool to test website mobile friendliness. It looks at performance, SEO, accessibility, and progressive web apps. When you are running a report, select the categories you want feedback on to receive in-depth analysis. As well as testing how mobile friendly a website is, it also looks at the desktop version of your site.

5. Click Intelligence’s Free SEO Audit Report Tool

Now, we couldn’t compile a list of the best SEO tools out there without shouting about our own free SEO audit report tool. Our clever tool will provide an audit report of how your web pages stack up against over 50 signifiers and suggest fixes for any issues it throws up.

Some of the signifiers our tool measures your pages against include:

• Page speed
• Internal linking
• Backlink quality
• Page structure
• Domain analysis
• Image optimization

To use it, simply enter your chosen URL and get a report with helpful recommendations emailed straight to you.

6. Screaming Frog

One of the best SEO crawling tools out there is Screaming Frog. In particular, this tool is great for spotting duplicate content and any issues relating to your URL structure that could hinder Google and other search engines from crawling and indexing your pages. Other technical problems it can spot include:

• Images that affect loading speed
• URL errors
• Missing metadataPut simply, metadata is data that describes data. It’s a labelling system designed to help machines and humans understand what is contained within a packet of data.
• Canonical tagThe canonical tag is used to designate a single page as the original page, or the page that should be indexed by search engines. issues
• Missing page titles
• Pagination issues
• Response error codes
• International SEO issues

7. Ahrefs

Next up is Ahrefs. Now, this isn’t a cheap option, with its pricing starting at $99 per month for the most basic package, but it’s certainly worth it. In a nutshell, Ahrefs is one of the best tools around for technical SEO. It’s great for keyword researchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here., backlink analysis, and SEO audits. It can consistently monitor your site for issues and flags them to you as it finds them.

8. Semrush

Semrush is another one of the most popular technical SEO tools out there. However, its sole purpose isn’t just technical SEO, it’s designed to assist with many other types of digital marketing. If you only want to concentrate on the technical side of SEO, then it’s probably best not to invest in this tool because you wouldn’t get the most value out of it. Semrush has information on your website traffic and keyword rankings.

9. GTMetrix Page Speed Report

This handy tool will help you test your website’s loading speed and performance for user experience. It gives you information on performance metrics such as load times and visual stability. Allows you to test your website’s speed from different locations under device and connection settings. It gives you a waterfall analysis in a chart to help you pinpoint specific elements that are slowing down your pages.

10. MozBar

MozBar is a Google Chrome browser extension that gives you real-time SEO insights when browsing websites and the SERPS. When on any website, you’ll be able to click on the MozBar to see:

• Page Authority (PA) score
• Domain Authority (DA) score
• Keywords on the page
• Number of backlinks
• Information on on-page SEO elements like title and header tags and meta descriptions.

It’s a great tool to use on your pages and your competitors.

11. W3C Validator

With the W3C Validator, you can check your website’s code. It’s a bit like a spellchecker but for code. When you enter your URL into the tool, it scans the HTML, CSS, and other elements of your code. When it finds issues, it tells you how to fix them so you can benefit from easier crawling and indexing, better user experience, better technical SEO with issues like broken links and incorrect header tags being found, and improved accessibility.

12. Web Developer Toolbar

This tool is an extension available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera. It’s a helpful free tool that helps SEO and web professionals analyze elements of your web pages that can impact your technical SEO.

Some of the things it can help with:

• Meta Information: It checks your meta information to ensure it’s fully SEO-optimized and includes the relevant keywords – this all helps search engine crawlers understand your content better.
• HTML: It looks at your HTML structure for any mistakes that could be holding your web pages back from being indexed. For example, a misplaced noindexThe noindex meta tag tells search engines not to index the page and show it in search results. tag could prevent your pages from appearing in the SERPs.
• Image Analysis: Evaluates every image on your website for load speed and alt text and allows you to change image dimensions to enhance SEO.
• Internal and External Link Examination: With the view link details tool, you can look at your internal and external links to detect broken links and follow and nofollowThe nofollow attribute is an HTML tag that tells search engine crawlers not to follow a link. tags for backlinks.

13. Barracuda Panguin

Those pesky Google algorithm updates are the bane of every digital marketer’s life. Yes, Google announces its official updates, but it also does a lot of work in the background, making tweaks to algorithms that it doesn’t announce. So, how do you know that your website is up to speed? That’s where the Barracuda Panguin tool comes in. It tells you whether your site has had its rankings affected by an algorithm change by using your website’s GA4 data.

To Round Things Up

If you want to make carrying out technical SEO tasks a whole lot easier, these tools will help. Each tool helps to make your site easier to crawl for search engine bots, which is more likely to give you success in the SERPs. If technical SEO is still leaving you scratching your head, then our Technical SEO Service and wider SEO Services are here to help – reach out to our friendly team today.