7 Free and Beginner-Cordial SEO Tools for Miniature Businesses

SEO often seems more complicated than it actually is. As a tiny business owner, you can get started for free using some of the best tools in the industry.

These tiny business SEO tools are free, beginner-friendly, and have all your DIY SEO needs covered.

Ahrefs is an vital SEO platform used by over 50,000 businesses worldwide.

Many tiny business owners are starting to apply Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for free, which gives them access to Site Explorer and Site Audit.

With these tools you can:

• Monitor the health of your website
• Know your backlinks
• See what keywords generate traffic
• Track any raise or decrease in SEO performance

If you’re working with an agency or freelancer for SEO, this is also one of the best ways to monitor what they’re doing and verify the results they’re reporting to you.

First steps

The easiest way to set up Ahrefs is through your Google Search Console account (more on that in a moment).

You can also simply go to their website, press the “start free” button and follow the instructions to fill in the rest of your information.

If you want to see what your competitors are doing and learn their SEO strategy, you can also try the Starter plan for just $29 per month.

It allows you to spy on your competitors and find fresh keywords to improve your own SEO at little cost.

2. Google Search Console

Google offers a number of free tools that you can apply for SEO. The most essential tool for monitoring search visibility is Google Search Console (GSC for low).

It provides data directly from Google about how your site is performing in search results. This data can show you:

• What keywords do you rank for
• If there are any technical problems
• How many people click on your website

While this data appears to be in line with what you can access on Ahrefs, there are some limitations. This means you can’t see all your data on the GSC platform.

Here’s a comparison of the two:

Despite its limitations, GSC is the only tool that offers data from Google on your website’s SEO visibility, so it’s worth having in your toolkit.

First steps

To set up a Google Search Console account, you must have an existing Google or Gmail account.

If you’re using WordPress, the easiest way to set up GSC is to apply Google Site Kit plugin. This plugin can automatically connect your website to the following Google services:

If your site doesn’t apply WordPress, simply follow the instructions on the page GSC landing page: :

After clicking the “Get Started Now” button, you will be asked to sign in to your Google account. You will then be instructed on how to connect your website.

3. Company profile on Google

A Google business profile (also known as a Google business listing or Google My Business profile) is vital for local tiny business owners.

Here’s what your profile might look like if you’ve already set it up:

Without one of them, your business will not be apparent on Google Maps…

…and people can’t leave you a review on Google.

It also allows you to display multiple local keywords in Google search results, in your map pack, and in your local service ads.

Fortunately, setup is very effortless. Here’s how to do it.

First steps

Start by visiting this page: :

Follow the instructions to set up your business listing. You will be asked to fill in information such as:

• Your company name
• Your company category
• Your contact details
• Your location (for customers to visit)
• Your address where your business is located (even if you don’t have a store)
• Your products or services
• Your opening hours
• General description of your company
• Photos of your company and its headquarters

Please make sure you fill out everything completely. Don’t take shortcuts. This is your chance to show people searching on Google everything they need to know about your business.

Google Analytics is another free tool that is very useful for tiny business owners. It allows you to monitor who visits your website and how they interact with your content.

You can see:

• What marketing channels do they apply to find you?
• What sites do they visit most often?
• On which websites do they convert the most?
• How they navigate your website

For SEO specifically, you’ll need to filter your reports to view data from organic channels:

First steps

The easiest way to get started with a WordPress site is to apply Google SiteKit plugin. You can configure Google Analytics and Google Search Console at the same time.

Alternatively, you can follow the detailed steps in our guide to using Google Analytics.

5. Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is like the love child between Google Search Console and Ahrefs.

It offers all search data directly from Bing along with juicy SEO data that can otherwise only be accessed through an SEO tool.

It’s not as detailed as Ahrefs, but also much more detailed than Google.

While you may think that Bing isn’t that popular compared to Google, there are two reasons why I still recommend setting up this free tool.

1. You get access to Microsoft Clarity, a free tool for measuring conversion data and user experience on your website. It offers heat maps, click statistics and data on typical user behavior.

2. The Bing index powers the ChatGPT search engine results. Sites in the Bing index will also appear in ChatGPT responses. Although this is not the only source of data, OpenAI management has confirmed that this is important: :

First steps

Fortunately, the challenging work has already been done. You can configure Bing Webmaster Tools by connecting it to Google Search Console:

Otherwise, just follow the instructions. This will be a very similar process to configuring GSC.

Unlike the other tools on this list, ChatGPT’s advantages as an SEO tool for tiny businesses do not lie in providing data.

On the contrary, it helps you implement SEO recommendations, create content, and even understand SEO data.

Here are some of my favorite examples of elementary apply cases that will assist you personalize your SEO with ChatGPT:

• Write click-worthy titles
• Complete missing subtopics in existing content
• Create search-optimized outlines of your content
• Identify search intent for any keyword
• Find a list of keyword ideas
• Translate keywords
• Create, update or improve page titles and descriptions

For example, here’s a elementary prompt to assist you brainstorm article titles:

If you want to change the tone, you can instead ask the question like this:

If you want to find detailed keyword and content ideas for any topic, you can try tips like:

First steps

The easiest way to get started is to visit chatgpt.com and apply the free version or create an account to unlock more features.

7. SEO plugins of your choice

SEO plugins and apps make implementing SEO on your website much easier. What’s best for your website depends on:

• What website builder does your website apply?
• What functionality do you need
• What budget do you want to spend

If your site is built on WordPress, you can access free SEO plugins like Yoast or RankMath to implement SEO basics like page titles and descriptions.

Many website builders already include basic elements such as adding page titles and descriptions. However, SEO plugins often allow you to go further and configure or change things like:

• The structure of your URL
• Robots.txt file
• Sitemap file
• Schema markup

You can also check out SEO plugins with other, more targeted features. For example, the Ahrefs plugin is designed to assist you control and monitor the performance of your content.

First steps

There are many great SEO plugins and apps that will assist you improve your website’s optimization and search engine performance.

Final thoughts

There are many SEO tools for tiny businesses. Some of them are all-in-one platforms like Ahrefs; others are specialized tools that assist meet a specific apply case.

Overall, you can personalize your SEO with just the tools above, which are both free and beginner-friendly. They will serve you for a long time!

If you want to improve your SEO, you can upgrade to the Ahrefs Starter plan for just $29 per month to do more keyword and competitor research.