After looking at keywords in depth during the last two articles, it’s worth discussing what are the best SEO tools for ecommerce. Every company has a slightly different tool stack for their ecommerce marketing, but there are some common tools.
If you’re just launching your store, you might not have a large budget to invest in SEO tools. Don’t worry, you’ll find a few free options within this list. Of course, we’ll cover paid options for when you’re ready to upgrade.
Regardless of what SEO tools you decide on, focus on understanding how they help you reach your ecommerce marketing KPIs. Don’t for one second get bogged down in endless amounts of data or meaningless metrics.
As your SEO processes, knowledge, and experience grow, you’ll find how you use your tool stack develops. So if you haven’t built a keyword map, I’d recommend you start there.
Why Use SEO Tools?
Before we dive into the best SEO tools for ecommerce websites, let me briefly explain why you should invest both time and money in a few key pieces of software.
SEO tools allow you to collect, view and sort a range of data into an actionable plan in minutes. Gathering this data manually would take hours, time you could better use on 101 other tasks.
With the data you collect from the tools, you can measure your KPIs, set your marketing strategy, and see your best-performing pages and those that need work. Also, you can find any errors with your website.
You can easily find hundreds of new keyword ideas to target. Using this list, you can ensure you have content that maps to every step of the buyer’s journey, allowing you to convert more visitors to customers.
SEO tools also allow you to spy on your competition and companies you admire. Easily see what keywords they’re targeting, where they get backlinks from, and if their website has any errors. You can learn a lot about ecommerce SEO by looking at other websites.
Google Search Console (Swiss Army Knife)
If you already have plenty of pages on your Shopify or WooCommerce store, linking your website and Google Analytics to Google Search Console is a smart move. It only takes a few minutes. Similarly, if you’re just getting started, add this free tool as soon as possible!
Google Search Console shows a ton of data, most of which is highly useful. If you want an in-depth look at the program, I wrote an article on how to use Google Search Console for better SEO.
Short on time? Don’t worry! Here’s what you need to know.
Keywords
The performance tab shows you a selection of the keywords your site is showing up for on Google, along with the average position, impressions, and click-through rate (CTR). You can easily filter this report by keyword or URL.
You can see what keywords each page ranks for. But you can also gather keyword ideas using this data that you can use to tweak your page and rank better for more words and phrases.
URL Inspection Tool
Before a page can rank, Google needs to find it. You can build the best-looking page on earth, but if it’s blocked from the crawlers, it’ll never get much search traffic. The URL Inspection Tool allows you to input a URL and see if Google has found it or not.
Links
A major part of ecommerce SEO is earning and building backlinks. You might be able to rank without some, but they will help drive traffic, increase rankings, and help Google understand the context of your store.
While the Link report in Google Search Console is lacking, it does give you a basic overview, which is better than nothing.
Going Deeper
That’s a few of the tools available as part of Google Search Console. So it’s best to experiment and take a deep dive into the tool as it provides a ton of highly actionable data you can use to improve your SEO results.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (Google Search Console Alternative)
If you’ve been reading up on SEO, within a few minutes, you’ll hear the name Ahrefs. They provide a range of agency-level SEO tools, with pricing to match! So, unless you have a sizeable budget for tech, it’s best to use other software, especially at the start.
While Google Search Console is great, a few years ago, Ahrefs decided to offer a similar and FREE product, just with many more features. Enter, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
I use both and recommend doing the same as you’ll find more errors, opportunities, and data. So you’ll want to link your Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento store with their software.
It’s worth starting with Google Search Console and adding Ahref Webmaster Tools when you’re comfortable and ready to handle more actionable data. Don’t rush into both programs!
Instead, take your time, experiment, and see what elements you prefer from each tool. From there, you can build a more robust strategy.
Rank Tracker by SEO Powersuite (Keyword Research)
I’ve been using Rank Tracker for a few years. Mainly for keyword research and position tracking. Google Search Console, while fantastic, doesn’t show any keyword data (average monthly search and difficulty). So, we need another program.
Rank Tracker offers a ton of features, and I’ve detailed 6 ways you can use it for better SEO in a previous article. Here’s what you need to know to improve your SEO result using this tool.
It’s worth noting that all the tools in SEO Powersuite are desktop programs, they don’t offer an online portal. That said, it’s highly affordable, versatile, and the customer support is excellent!
Keyword research
Offering 10 different keyword research tools, Rank Tracker is powerful. You can gather data for keywords you’ve thought of, see what competing pages are ranking for, and even produce a list of keywords using related questions to your seed phrase.
You can easily find hundreds or thousands of keywords using this tool.
Position checking
You can easily track your keyword list and even schedule the software to update your positions. Knowing where keywords rank and what page shows up allows you to tweak your plan. You can also use the data to invest time into pages that don’t rank.
Rankings Summary
I think this is the most unused report in the tool. You can see how your website’s search visibility has changed over time. If it’s improved, you know your SEO strategy is working as you have more keyword rankings within the top 50 results.
Otherwise, it can motivate you to keep testing and measuring different SEO tactics.
Google Analytics (Tracking Visitors Behavior)
Like Search Console, Google Analytics is free and shows a truckload of data. However, I have one super simple tip to share. It works with any web analytics package.
You want to optimize your pages so that the visitor stays on them for at least 2 minutes. Also, it’s best to aim for a time on website of 3 plus minutes.
But, Why?
The longer a visitor sticks on your website, the more likely they are to convert. They move from seeing you as a solution, to seeing you the only solution. Big difference.
So use Google Analytics to check which pages pass the 2-minute test and create a list of those that don’t. From there, dig into why some pages are more sticky than others. Next, use these insights to optimize underperforming pages.
Website Auditor by SEO Powersuite (Build A Strong Healthy Website)
An element of SEO we’ve yet to cover is technical SEO. All this means is making sure your website is error-free and easy for users and search engines to crawl.
If your store has lots of missing images, broken links, and isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll be at a disadvantage. It’ll be fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
A popular tool for ensuring your website’s health is Screaming Frog (free and paid). I prefer using Website Auditor by SEO Powersuite (paid) especially with small WooCommerce or Shopify store.
For larger Shopify or Magento stores, Screaming Frog will be faster than Website Auditor as it’s less RAM intensive. Both are desktop software rather than online platforms.
You can read my review of Website Auditor or get started with the following advice.
Site audit tab
If this is the only report you look at and action the advice it gives, your website health will be strong, and you’ll be pretty much error-free. Of course, you’ll want to run this report monthly and act quickly on its advice.
So what does the Site Audit Report show?
You’ll be able to see how many broken links, dead pages (404s), missing meta descriptions, HTML issues, and so much more.
My best advice is not to panic when you first load this report. It’ll show you a ton of issues. You might be tempted to fix them all at once. Don’t. Pick one or two items, fix them fully and move on to the next issue.
Pages tab
Again this report shows a lot of data. I use it to optimize internal links and update ones that are pointing to old URLS that have moved (301/302 redirects).
Rescan often
Staying on top of your website’s technical health is an ongoing task. You can’t do it once and think it’s done. You need to regularly scan your website and take action to fix any issues it finds.
As you get used to Website Auditor, you can experiment with its features and discover more ways it can help you with your SEO efforts.
SEO SpyGlass by SEO Powersuite (Backlinks)
You can see some of your backlinks using Google Search Console and even more data using Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Using these two programs together might deliver enough backlink data for you to check what’s happening to your website.
However, if you want to compare how your website is performing compared to the competition, you need a tool that will allow you to run multiple reports. SEO SpyGlass by SEO Powersuite is such a tool.
Before I briefly explain why. It’s worth trying their Free Backlink Checker. This tool allows you free access to the SEO Powersuite link database of nearly 3 trillion backlinks!
View your backlinks
You can easily see who links to you, any new backlinks and if a website has removed a link to your site. You can also see the anchor text they have used. And a load of other data.
Using this data, you can block harmful websites in Google Search Console, contact websites that might have linked to you but now don’t and ask for a new link, and see which pages have the most backlinks.
Spy on your competitor’s backlinks
Anything you can view for your website, you can run a similar report for your competitors. So you can see who links to them but not you and go ask for a link. You might be able to spot patterns in terms of the type of links they are building.
Backlinks are important and so it’s worth having SEO tools that show you the data you need without requiring you to spend hours hunting it down.
Choosing SEO Tools For Ecommerce
If you’re unsure what are the ideal SEO tools for ecommerce, here are the essentials. All of the tools I’ve shown work with the major ecommerce platform (such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, etc.). So you can use them no matter what software powers your store.
First, a keyword research tool. It will help you find and track opportunities, such as Rank Tracker by SEO Powersuite.
Similarly, you need backlink software to track who links to you and your competitors. SEO SpyGlass by SEO Powersuite is ideal.
Finally, software that will find errors on your ecommerce store, allowing you to correct them and maintain a healthy website. Again, I use a mix of Google Search Console and Website Auditor by SEO Powersuite. The weekly email updates from Ahref Webmaster Tools are super helpful too.
You now have a clear idea of the basic SEO tools you need in your arsenal and how each helps you build a strong foundation that is ideal for growth.
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