As the internet has developed and grown to a gargantuan size, competition for Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) has risen astronomically. Attempting to rank high for most keywords is no easy task due to the increased competition. Previously you may have been up against only local websites, but now, anyone from around the world can produce high quality content which draws traffic and makes it challenging to attain the search engine rank you want.
For any webmaster, SEO professional, or content producer, it is important to use tools that provide you insights into what type of web content is placed high on Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and other search engines. Google has 92% market share in the search engine space, so if you learn how to be deemed valuable by Google, you can be sure your online domain will be successful and see growing traffic.
There are several highly acclaimed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools which you can use to gain business intelligence required in order to get ahead in the digital realm. These tools have free features as well, but it is recommended that after availing the free ones for a while, you subscribe to their paid services in order to reap maximum benefits from what they offer.
Let us examine the 2019 essential-to-have SEO tools. By mastering these, you can educate yourself professionally and benefit the domains which are your responsibility to develop. It is highly likely your URLs will gain credibility through use of these SEO tools, because you will be able to create in demand high quality content, see the many outstanding technical issues that might be holding back the ranking of your website, and conduct the A/B test to see if incremental changes make a positive difference.
Ahrefs
One of the finest SEO tools to exist, Ahrefs, is an SEO analyst’s friend. The user interface consists of clean, well-designed dashboards which provide you relevant information in quickly readable formats. You get pie charts, line graphs, columned lists, and tabs to able to navigate through various sections of this SEO tool.
Organic traffic analysis of competitors is one of the most useful features. You can see how exactly they are attracting traffic, and on which pages. Business intelligence is further enhanced by allowing you to see the domains linking to your competitor sites. You would want to match the quality and niche of your competitors’ backlinks.
The feature which allows you to see your competitors’ paid activity is also a high value service, since you can either duplicate or alter their PPC strategy depending on your goals.
Keyword research on Ahrefs is decent. It shows you the keyword ranking difficulty, the CPC, as well as the traffic generated by that specific keyword.
Content research is not the greatest on Ahrefs but it does give you basic social buzz stats. Web rank tracking and competitor tracking through emails is another handy feature.
Ahrefs 1 month trial costs $7.
SEMrush
The most highly recommended tool on our list is SEMrush. It is broadly divided into 3 categories: analytics reports, tools, and projects.
The first part of the analytics reports is the organic research. You can see how competitor pages are ranking for keywords, and how their position changes over time. You can identify gaps and target those keywords which are underserved, or you can choose to battle competitors for what they’re already ranking for.
Advertising research shows how the competitor pages are writing copy and what their advertising budget is. You can even see who is competing with you for Google Ads, and the tool allows you to “localize” your ads. This analysis extends to Google Display Network (GDN) ads.
Then you have backlink analysis. SEMrush shows you not just what the backlinks are, but their domain authority, category, and geolocation.
Keyword research tool is helpful to know which long-tail and phrase match keywords must be targeted.
Traffic analysis tool is very good on SEMrush. You could type in a domain, like buytvinternetphone, to reveal its monthly traffic, and marketing activities and strategies. This handy feature also reveals customer behavior and media consumption patterns. Want qualified leads? SEMrush helps you with that too!
Among the tools, you get domain-vs-domain comparisons in an appealing visual form and you can see the keyword ranking difficulty score. The entire detailed analysis can be automatically compiled into a neat PDF report too.
Now, the thing is, SEMrush is proactive. It suggests keyword ideas through Keyword Magic tool. Whenever you’re struggling for content ideas, you can use this to get over the writer’s block. Also, it might show you keyword opportunities you were going to completely miss otherwise.
There are dozens of features that we could go on about; CPC Map, SEO writing assistant, position tracker, site audit, social media tracker, social media poster, brand monitoring, and more.
See for yourself by signing up to SEMrush today. Pricing starts at $99.95/mo.
Moz
Moz is a tool which can significantly improve your site’s backend, frontend and content.
The first feature we’ll discuss is the Site Crawl. Moz will go through your entire domain and compare it with the Google algorithm’s rules for high SERP rankings. Whatever issues are present on your site will be brought forth. You’ll be able to see new issues which were detected recently, a count of critical issues which you should immediately address, and the total number of issues. Moz also gives you tips on how to correct these problems. If you do follow the suggestions, you’ll inevitably see your domain’s SERP ranking rise. Examples of issues Moz detects are broken redirects, missing title tags, missing Meta descriptions and much more. Moz crawling is super-fast too, even on large websites.
Moz’s ranking tracker is good because it shows your site against competitors’ in terms of %age share of search results for your tracked keywords. The “search visibility” shows overall score as well as monthly ups and downs. The rankings are shown by how many keywords your site ranks from 1-3, 4-10, 11-20, and so on. The search visibility line graph shows you the trend for your keyword rankings. Mobile versus desktop visibility is also easily compared through a graph.
The link research tool helps you identify high quality backlink opportunities and decrease spam backlinks. Your link profile will be brought in line with those of the highest ranking sites in your niche. Tracking your link building efforts is also a breeze with Moz.
The keyword planner shows you keyword difficulty, search volume, organic CTR %, priority score, mentions etc.
Moz pricing starts at $99/mo. ($79/mo. per annum).
Up and Away
You will find dozens of SEO tools offering nearly identical features this year. But the three we’ve mentioned here are the most credible due to their popularity with SEO teams of large companies. You can’t go wrong with any of these if you’re serious about boosting your web domain to new heights in the search engine results pages.
Guest article written by: 
Robert James is an MIS with a vast experience and research on personal and home security tech and gadgets. He is an MMA Fighter and Technology enthusiast with a will to act. Tech Writer and Researcher with a flare to review the latest security tech and gadgets.