11 Best Cheap or Free SEO Audit Tools for Small Business in 2023
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to marketing questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
Michael DeVault is a career journalist with almost 20 years’ experience in online, print, and broadcast media. He provides insights and expertise gained from more than a decade of marketing consulting, including brand launches, franchise marketing, SEO, and web development.
Search engine optimization (SEO) audit tools gauge your website’s ability to rank on search engines like Google and help you spot issues with your site. The best site audit tools provide actionable data, observations, and suggestions to improve your site’s performance. We reviewed 30-plus platforms and ranked the best SEO audit tools for small businesses below.
- Overall best SEO audit tool: Semrush
- Most beginner-friendly site audit tool: SE Ranking
- Top free website grader for SEO insights: HubSpot
- Best for pay-per-click (PPC) ad research: SpyFu
- Best free downloadable site audit software: Screaming Frog
- Best free local search simulator: Merkle
- Best rank tracking tool for multiple search engines: Moz Pro
- Ideal for previewing your listing in Google search results: SEO Scout
- Excellent free keyword density checker: SureOak
- Most affordable technical site audit tool: GTmetrix
- Most accurate data for Google rankings: Google Search Console
Semrush: Overall Best SEO Audit Tool
Pros
- Comprehensive SEO audit tools
- Free version for core web vitals
- Backlink tracking and opportunities, keyword rankings, competitors, broken links, technical site issues, and more
- Integrates with Google Data Studio, Analytics (including GA4), and Search Console
- Extensive library of free SEO video tutorials in Semrush Academy
Cons
- More expensive than other SEO tools, especially if you don’t plan to use frequently
- Historical data and domain-to-domain content and keyword rankings gaps locked behind second tier
- Fairly intuitive, but sheer number of tools could overwhelm beginners
If you’re looking for a full-featured, powerful site audit tool, Semrush is the overall best choice. The comprehensive toolkit features site auditing tools for technical issues such as site load speed and toxic backlinks, both of which can hamper your efforts to build brand presence online by suppressing web traffic and rankings.
Semrush is known for producing in-depth reports on website health, marketing, advertising, and performance. For SEO auditing, it offers a competitor keyword map to visually demonstrate how well your site is performing against top competitors. A complex artificial intelligence (AI) engine provides suggestions for improving SEO performance against key competitors, as well.
Semrush’s strength lies in its power and feature sets. That’s potentially a drawback for users new to SEO, as it can be overwhelming. To help users overcome this, Semrush offers extensive support via phone, email, and its knowledge base. Also, Semrush Academy provides free classes to teach you how to become your own SEO guru.
Semrush Pricing & Tiered Features
Semrush offers a free limited-use plan with many helpful features. Paid plans provide additional features and higher limits, including multi-domain tracking. Features like domain vs domain comparisons and historical performance data are reserved for the Guru and Business levels. Click on the tabs below to see the cost and the unique features included in Semrush plans:
Semrush is the undisputed best SEO audit tool for small businesses overall. You can use it to create deep-dive site audits and drill down into granular data. For small businesses engaged in SEO content marketing to drive web traffic for leads and sales, the best bang for your buck will be the Guru plan. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial offered by Fit Small Business to test it out today.
SE Ranking: Most Beginner-friendly SEO Site Audit Tools
Pros
- 14-day free trial gives you access to a lot of the key features you’ll nee
- Beginner-friendly tutorials
- Jargon-free actionable insights for newbies to SEO and site audits
- Cheapest all-in-one tool for SEO for light users
Cons
- Pricing is based on the frequency of data and the number of keywords tracked, which can be confusing
- Heavy users may spend less with Semrush
- Content Editor is an additional cost per month
The most affordable all-in-one SEO tool is SE Ranking. It’s also the most user-friendly of the full-featured audit tools, thanks partly to in-depth but beginner-friendly, jargon-free tutorials and support. More importantly, it has a simple, visual user interface for a great user experience.
SE Ranking provides users with an easy-to-use keyword rank tracker to help them keep track of keywords on your site. Its on-page SEO checker provides easy-to-understand insights about why pages may not perform as well as they could and gives you a plan of action to get there. It even has a content marketing module with an artificial intelligence (AI) writing coach to help you write the right copy faster.
Want insights from anywhere? SE Ranking has a convenient and user-friendly mobile app so you can stay on top of your SEO campaigns even when you’re away from your computer.
SE Ranking Pricing & Tiered Features
A 14-day free trial includes access to most of the tools offered, though for some of the more advanced features, you’ll have to step up to a paid plan. Keep in mind, you can build your own adventure, cost-wise, by increasing frequency and other limits when selecting your plan. Click on the tabs below to learn more.
SE Ranking provides the most bang for the buck, is user-friendly, and offers tutorials for SEO beginners. A 14-day free trial gets you started with up to five projects and 50 keywords, and the Essential plan provides the features light users need to get started. Try SE Ranking for free today.
HubSpot: Best Free Website Grader (& SEO-friendly Site Builder
Pros
- Free website grader scores your site for content and technical SEO
- Check as many websites as you want
- Provides a list of action items for you to improve immediately
- Site builder provides on-page SEO strategy in real time
Cons
- Reports are very high level
- Doesn’t provide statistics or current performance data
- Site builder and on-page tools can be expensive for some small businesses
If you need a quick, top-down look at your site’s SEO performance, HubSpot’s 100% completely free website grader is a tool you’ll want to check out. It scores your website over 17 vital metrics, including page load speed, descriptive link text, and mobile responsiveness.
Within seconds, get a domain score from 1 to 100 with ratings for four categories:
- Performance (technical SEO elements that affect page load time, crawlability, and more)
- Optimization of your pages and content with keywords, meta tags, and so on
- Mobile-friendliness, responsiveness across device types, and speed
- Security, including whether your site encrypts site visitor data with HTTPS protocol (requires that you have an SSL certificate securing your domain)
At the bottom of your website audit report, HubSpot lists your current score and recommended rating for each category. It also briefly explains strategies to improve low scores for each issue identified.
An example of results in HubSpot’s free website grader (Source: HubSpot)
HubSpot CMS Site Builder Optimization Tools
In addition to its free website grader, HubSpot also offers HubSpot CMS. HubSpot CMS is a freemium all-in-one website and landing page builder that incorporates solid on-page SEO and enterprise-grade technical website features. Learn more and see why HubSpot made our list of the best website builders for SEO.
HubSpot CMS is excellent for marketers wanting to avoid SEO errors, improve page speed, and optimize meta tags. Plus, starting with the Professional plan, HubSpot CMS users can access a standalone website audit tool.
It takes about three hours for the SEO site audit to check:
- On-page SEO
- Mobile experience
- Google crawling and indexing
- Website security
- Performance
- User experience
- Accessibility (refers to elements that aid people with sight, hearing, or other impairments to use your website—learn more about website accessibility)
Once complete, HubSpot lists errors and recommendations. You can fix some issues from the dashboard or export a full report. In addition, HubSpot Academy is available to anyone and contains video tutorials and articles on a breadth of SEO-related topics.
HubSpot is a leader in SEO for a reason. Its free SEO website grader demonstrates why. Whether you use HubSpot CMS or just grade your website using the free tool, HubSpot is a stop on the SEO audit tools tour.
SpyFu: Best SEO Audit Tools for Paid Advertising
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface and intuitive layout
- PPC tools help improve paid advertising performance
- Backlink tracking and strategy recommendations
- Ongoing rank tracking
Cons
- Not a full SEO auditing tool
- Missing some content strategy features
If you’re just getting into the world of search engine marketing (SEM), you may be looking for a tool that provides both SEO performance and pay-per-click (PPC) support. SpyFu is an SEM tool designed with Google Ads PPC optimization in mind, but it has a host of features useful for SEO research as well.
SpyFu’s primary tool is its competitive analysis reporting. Enter your domain and the domain of a competitor, and SpyFu will tell you how you rank against that competitor. Also, the report will provide you with both organic and PPC keywords the competitor is using to rank, giving you guidance on where to focus your attention.
SpyFu offers a free-to-use version with limited functionality but loads of useful information. In fact, for many just starting out in SEO, the free version will provide you with enough useful information to make it worth the time. However, even the lowest paid plan offers hundreds of data points you can’t access from the free version.
SpyFu Pricing & Tiered Features
Pricing for the lowest SpyFu plan starts at $16 a month and includes six months of historical data and up to 5,000 weekly tracked keywords. The Professional level offers unlimited data access and more than 10 years of historical data on your site’s performance—and the performance of competitors. Click on the tabs below to see what comes in SpyFu’s plans.
Though SpyFu isn’t an SEO auditing tool per se, it’s still a powerful competitor to some of the SEO auditing tools on the market. When coupled with SpyFu’s extensive PPC research capabilities, it becomes a worthy competitor and worth trying. You can try the SpyFu free version and get an idea of the power it offers.
Screaming Frog: Best Free Downloadable Software
Pros
- Free version will be enough for most small businesses
- A sleek, fast SEO auditing tool
- Audit up to 500 URLs with free version
Cons
- Free version lacks Google Analytics integration
- Interface can be challenging to beginners
Unlike the other entries here, Screaming Frog SEO Spider is not a cloud-based system. Instead, it is a site audit software you download and install on your computer. The immediate benefit of Screaming Frog is its speed. It works fast because it relies on your computer to do the heavy lifting, not a server-based process.
Screaming Frog quickly crawls your website, visiting every link and every page it can find. It examines the site for broken links, looks at on-page SEO factors such as headings and subheadings (H1s and H2s), and examines outbound links. That being said, the free version of Screaming Frog is not a full SEO audit tool because it lacks integration with Google Analytics, meaning you won’t know how you rank based on its reports.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider site audit software is available in a free version that can provide valuable information about why your site is or isn’t performing well on search engines. The paid version includes over 40 metrics, including custom code search and crawl comparisons to see how your site performance changes between revisions.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider Pricing & Tiered Features
The free version allows you to index up to check the site health of smaller sites and will crawl up to 500 individual URLs. However, some of the more essential features, such as examining JavaScript for speed and functionality or locating duplicate content, are locked behind the paid version. Click on the tabs below to see what comes in Screaming Frog SEO Spider plans.
Even though the free version of Screaming Frog SEO Spider lacks many of the features of a full SEO auditing tool, it provides enough useful data to make it the best downloadable SEO audit software available. Try SEO Spider for free today, or upgrade to the paid version for a great SEO deep dive.
Merkle: Best Local Search Results Simulator
Pros
- Free local search results simulator shows location-based SERPs Google or Bing users would see
- Schema markup generator
- Mobile-first index tool
- Mobile-friendly test
- Technical SEO testing tools
Cons
- Paid services are geared for large companies (and budgets)
- Full SEO audit requires using Google Analytics and Search Console
One of the more challenging aspects of SEO for small businesses is being able to see where their site ranks in local search results. Merkle provides the solution with a free local search simulator (along with several other free SEO-related tools), making it a worthy inclusion on any SEO audit tools list.
While Merkle’s services aren’t targeted toward small businesses, the free SEO audit tools available online give you the power to conduct local searches from any country, city, or ZIP code. Additionally, Merkle provides free tools for testing the mobile-friendliness of your site, a SERP simulator, and a full suite of other SEO auditing tools, all for free.
An example of results using Merkle’s local search tool
While you may find the local search tool the most valuable of Merkle’s free tools, don’t overlook the other resources in their arsenal. Spend time getting to know each tool, and you can build an effective SEO strategy for free using just their tools.
Moz Pro: Best for Tracking Rankings on Multiple Search Engines
Pros
- 30-day free trial
- Rankings for multiple search engines
- Free Online Presence Checker and Domain Analysis tools
- Insights for traffic changes, content trends, and site visitor behavior
- Priority score shows which keywords to focus on
- Improve backlink quality and identify link building opportunities
Cons
- No free plan, and a credit card is required to access the free trial
- Limits tracking to just three competitors
- Moz Local tools require an additional purchase
Google may be the biggest search engine, but it isn’t the only one. That’s not a lost point for Moz, an SEO audit tool that looks at data across Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and both Google International and Google Mobile.
Moz’s cloud-based tools track and compare your site to your three top competitors across all search engines. Moz also provides valuable keyword tracking, keyword insights and suggestions, and on-page optimization recommendations. The Moz interface is one of the more user-friendly interfaces for a full-featured SEO auditor.
Moz is easy to use but limits competitor tracking to just three competitors per campaign. That means you may be missing critical data on other competitors, especially if you’re in a crowded business space. Also, local search data is locked behind an additional product, so if you’re running a business that relies heavily on local search, Moz may be cost-prohibitive.
Moz Pricing & Tiered Features
Moz is free to try for 30 days, but you’ll have to enter a credit card to access the free trial. The free trial gives you access to most of the tools, though, and a month provides plenty of time to see if Moz is right for your SEO needs. Click on the tabs below to see the cost and the unique features of Moz plans.
Moz is the best SEO audit tool for those who want to improve optimization not only on Google, but also for Google International, Google Mobile, Bing, and Yahoo! searches. A free trial offers full access to the powerful suite of Moz SEO tools. With paid plans starting at $99 per month, Moz is a worthy competitor worth a close look at.
SEO Scout: Best Google SERP Simulator for SEO Site Audits
Pros
- See what searchers see when your URLs are displayed in Google search
- Free SERP simulator, content analyzer, and AI keyword intent categorizer
- Seven-day free trial
Cons
- No live chat support on weekends
- Lacks listings management for local SEO and ad management tools
- Useful testing features reserved for most expensive plan
When users are searching for products and services, they’re browsing search engine results pages (SERPs) full of links. How your link will stand out in the crowd impacts whether you get the clicks. That’s the impetus behind SEO Scout’s SERP simulator, a cornerstone of its SEO audit tool.
SEO Scout lets you see how your site will appear on Google SERPs before indexing. Additionally, the online software allows you to A/B test versions of pages, project the performance of different versions, and even preview how one title will perform vs another title for the same content.
SEO Scout Pricing & Tiered Features
Though there is no free version, SEO Scout offers a seven-day free trial packed with features. The Starter package includes up to 10 reports per month and 250 tracked keywords. A powerful keyword explorer makes SEO Scout a worthy competitor to other, pricier entries in the space.
Click on the tabs below to see the cost and the unique features included in SEO Scout plans:
If you’re looking for some robust testing data, SEO Scout is a great way to see how your website will stand out on Google’s SERPs. You can try any version of SEO Scout risk-free for seven days.
SureOak: Best Keyword Density Analyzer
Pros
- Free keyword density analyzer to ensure good page optimization for keywords
- Free website SEO test and report
- Sitemap generator
- Domain authority checker
- Keyword rank checker
Cons
- No pricing for paid services is published on the site
Being able to analyze keyword density makes it easy for small businesses wanting to see if a page or piece of content is properly optimized. SureOak is an agency that sells SEO services to businesses, but it’s made many of its SEO tools free, including its keyword density analyzer.
SureOak’s keyword density analyzer allows you to assess any page on your website in terms of how you are using your target keywords. It produces a report that shows how well the page performs based on the keywords it detects. The report provides guidance on keyword stuffing—using a keyword too many times—which can negatively impact search results.
An example report using SureOak’s keyword density analyzer (Source: SureOak)
Other free tools include an SEO test and report, a sitemap generator, and a domain authority checker. All are available for free.
For small business owners just getting started with SEO, SureOak’s free SEO audit tools provide plenty of actionable information in an easily accessible format at no cost. The company provides no information about paid plans on its website. Try the SureOak tools to see if they’re a good fit for your needs.
GTmetrix: Most Affordable Technical SEO Audit Tools
Pros
- Free URL performance test shows technical aspects of your site or page (e.g., speed, image size, scripts, and so on) that impact rankings
- Free plan including on-demand tests and 3-month data retention
- Low cost paid plans to increase limits and add more features
Cons
- Technical SEO tasks needed to improve may be beyond the ability to do yourself
- Learning curve to understand the various aspects of technical SEO
If you’re already familiar with the SEO audit landscape and are looking for the most affordable technical SEO audit tools, GTmetrix could be just what you’re looking for. This technical SEO audit suite provides ample data at an affordable price.
GTmetrix allows users to track performance changes historically with its performance monitor. The system reports provide guidance on website performance and page load times. The most valuable tool is the website vitals score, which tells you how long it takes to load the page, for the page to become interactive, and how the page behaves while loading.
An example of a free technical SEO audit report from GTmetrix (Source: GTmetrix)
The free version includes many of the most valuable features, but you can only track one individual page on the free version. Additionally, the free version does not include mobile performance testing or global monitoring. For that, you’ll have to step up to the paid plan, which starts at $10.67 per month.
GTmetrix Pricing & Tiered Features
Though pricing is low, the biggest limitation of GTmetrix is scalability. Even the most expensive plan tops out at monitoring 12 pages, which may limit usefulness to many small businesses with larger sites. Click the tabs below to learn more about paid plans:
GTmetrix is a powerful, affordable system that’s best for smaller sites looking for a technical SEO audit tool that fits a budget. Starting at just $10.67 a month, GTmetrix is the most affordable SEO technical audit tool we’ve found. You’ll have a bit of a learning curve to apply the knowledge you gain, but with a free version tracking a host of metrics, it’s worth checking out.
Google Search Console: Most Accurate Keyword Ranking Data
Pros
- Free to use all features
- Connect it to Google Analytics (also free) to see all your data in the GA interface
- Most accurate data for how your site is ranking on Google
Cons
- Can be hard to connect and verify your website
- No competitor data
- Only minimal technical SEO data is provided (e.g., crawl or mobile errors)
Arguably, the best source for information when it comes to ranking on Google is Google itself. That’s why Google’s Search Console is considered the most accurate keyword ranking tool available.
Search Console allows users to track a site’s indexing status, search queries, crawling errors, and more. More importantly, it provides accurate and up-to-the-minute information on where your site is performing for keywords you’re tracking.
That’s not to say Google Search Console is the most user-friendly. You’ll have to manually provide some information that paid services help you gather, such as an XML sitemap. However, once added to Search Console, Google’s system will periodically re-crawl your site to check for new pages that need to be indexed.
Among the most valuable data you’ll find in Google’s reports are:
- Error pages for both mobile and desktop
- Total impressions (number of times your website appeared in organic search engine results pages, or SERPs)
- Number of times your search placements got clicked
- Exact search queries that landed your pages in SERPs or received clicks
- Ability to compare stats for different time periods to track and measure progress
More Free Tools in the Google Ecosphere
It simply wouldn’t be fair to Google (or you) if we didn’t give an honorable mention to the Google ecosphere of free products and services. Google provides an amazing array of search optimization tools, resources, and instructions for any business that needs them, all for free.
Here are some worth adding to your SEO and site auditing toolkits:
- PageSpeed Insights: Check to see if slow site load time could be hurting your website’s SEO
- Google Trends: See if searches for your keywords are on the uptick and find out what the next big thing will be
- Think with Google: Find out what Google thinks in terms of best practices for SEO, including data-based strategies to help your site rank better on PC and mobile
- Google Analytics: Get 100% accurate data about your website’s performance, connect Analytics to Search Console, and see all of your data in one place
- Google Search Central: Google explains what to do to make your site rank in online search, in plain language anyone can understand
- Google Business Profile: Formerly called Google My Business, this free and essential business listing includes reviews that can help your site rank higher in online search
- Google Optimize: This handy little corner of the Google ecosphere literally exists to help you better optimize your online content for site visitor experience and conversions—A/B test, set up multivariate tests, run redirects, add pop-up banners, and personalize your content for visitors
Connecting your site to Google Search Console makes a lot of sense and, even if you opt to use one of the other services, it’s worth the learning curve to get your site registered. All Google tools in Search Console, Google Trends, and more are free to use, and Google provides ample education on how to use its products through a rich knowledge base and hundreds of video tutorials.
How We Evaluated the Best SEO Audit Tools
Whether you need a free SEO audit tool or a cheap all-in-one solution, the best SEO audit tools allow you to identify site issues you need to address and the best practices to apply. To assess the best of the best, we looked at more than 30 leading products emphasizing the most affordable and effective tools to improve SEO while you’re building a small business website.
Here are the factors we took into consideration:
- Cost: We looked for tools that offer well-rounded features that justify the price, offer a free plan or trial, or that are free to use.
- General features: To be considered, a tool has to offer features that can increase your website’s traffic and improve the quality of that traffic. We also evaluated which tools deliver the most accurate and meaningful data.
- Niche features: We also considered niche features such as insights or instructions to fix issues, keyword planning, and compatibility with other marketing software.
- Usability: Search optimization doesn’t have to be daunting. We evaluated each SEO audit tool based on ease of use and whether beginners can use it.
- Expert opinion: With many SEO audit tools available, we recommended those that we know provide a high level of value and potential return on investment for small businesses, based on our own firsthand experience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How can I rank higher on Google?
There are several ways to rank higher on Google. One of the more effective long-term strategies is content marketing, which is the tactic of using search-optimized copy to drive more traffic and exposure to your website. Creating web content, from web copy to blog posts, and optimizing said content with the right keywords and design can help you rank higher in Google search results.
How can I find the right keywords for my website?
Using keyword research tools like SE Ranking and Semrush can help you find high-value keywords (e.g., high monthly volume plus low competition) for your website’s content. These tools enable you to determine keyword difficulty (how hard it will be to rank for a given keyword based on competition), the search volume, and potential traffic for each keyword and help you generate content ideas.
How can I make my site more visible to people in my area?
Implementing a local SEO strategy will help boost your online presence and increase in-person sales. In addition to basics like incorporating locale-based keywords and making a Google Business Profile, encourage customer reviews and add listings on directories that point back to your site. Then leverage cheap and free local SEO tools to increase online visibility.
Bottom Line
Auditing your website and SEO efforts regularly is vital to ensuring the health of your website and its ability to attract site visitors. For the most comprehensive tools, Semrush is our top recommended platform. Besides Google itself, Semrush is the most accurate and feature-rich SEO platform for everything from SEO site audits to content marketing, keyword research, competitor benchmarking, and more.
