Mastering SEO optimization may seem hard, especially for beginners. Luckily, this article describes the 11 best tools that SEO experts use. And surprisingly, some, like Google Search Console, are completely free yet very useful in helping you boost your website traffic. Others like Semrush and Ahref Webmaster Tools enable you to identify and solve SEO issues. The free and paid SEO tools discussed herein save you tedious keyword research and data analysis. They will assist you in finding great and less competitive content ideas to target. And show you what part of your SEO strategy is working and which one needs some adjustments. These best SEO tools help you with a competitive analysis to understand what pages or keywords are bringing more traffic to your competitors and discover new opportunities. Others allow you to understand your search appearance and performance across countries. Of course, you don’t have to use all 11 tools; find the most suitable one for your business. 11 Best SEO Tools for Experts and Beginners Here’s the list of my top 11 tools that will take your SEO to the next level. 1. Google Search Console Made exclusively for webmasters, Google Search Console helps you submit your website to Google. And monitor how it appears and performs on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for free. But you have to submit your website’s sitemap for indexing to use it. Although having a Search Console account for your website to appear on Google is not mandatory, having it will help you solve crawlability issues and decide what pages get indexed. You can also monitor the clicks and impressions per search terms, pages, and countries. Then you can use the information during your next content update to turn impressions into clicks. Not to mention that this tool helps you check your internal and external links, top linking pages and anchor texts, and top linked pages. It also helps you monitor and solve mobile usability problems that could hurt your user experience on mobile devices and sink your SEO results. If you want to optimize your website on Google, submit it to Search Console. Remember, as of June 2022, its global search engine market share was 91.88%. 2. Bing Free Webmaster Tools According to StatCounter, Bing is the second most popular search engine, with a global market share of 3.19% of all searches in June 2022. The market share may seem small, especially given that Google dominates the market with over 90% shares in the same month. However, according to Semrush, Bing received 1.52 billion users in August 2022, an increase from 1.42 billion users in August 2022. That’s not an insignificant number. So it’s worth using Bing Webmaster SEO tools that help monitor your site performance on Bing search. This special yet free SEO tool, like Search Console, helps you with backlinks reports, keyword research, SEO report, and site scan, among other features, to help reach more users. These two tools will help audit your site, monitor rankings, and solve all SEO issues. 3. Semrush – All-in-one Marketing Toolkit Semrush marketing tool gives you all the information and tools you need to analyze your website and increase your organic and paid traffic. It overviews your website or competitor’s traffic analysis, organic research, and keyword and backlinks gap. It is one of the best SEO tools for beginners and experts, given that it has a free version to test its suitability for your business. You can free exploit features like local SEO marketing, domain analytics, position tracking, market explorer, and on-Page SEO Checker. But that’s not all. Most SEO experts love Semrush as it allows them to track how their rankings change over time, helping them make necessary adjustments to their content. So, if you want detailed and relevant data about your website or competitors’ search data and traffic, this tool is the best for you. It will assist you in discovering new keyword and backlink opportunities. 4. Ahref Free Webmaster Tools Ahref is one of the most recommended SEO tools by experts. It is the second largest website crawler after Google, with many paid tools and free tools. But the one that got my attention recently is the Webmaster Tools that help audit and improve your website. Like other webmaster tools, like Search Console and Bing, Ahref audits your website and identifies on-page, off-page, and technical SEO issues that could harm your organic traffic. With it, you can monitor your domain rating, referring domains and backlinks, organic keywords, and traffic per country. And other features like content explorers and site trackers. 5. Keyword.io – Long-trail Keyword Finder Whether you’re looking for keywords for your PPC marketing, SEO, or content writing, long-tail keywords are worth targeting. Despite receiving less search traffic, they are more specific and have higher conversion values. Keyword.io is one of the best tools to find them. This SEO tool helps you find keywords and questions to target while optimizing your content to rank on Google. It is equally relevant for finding YouTube video ideas, writing Amazon product descriptions, and finding great ideas for platforms like Fiverr, Alibaba, and eBay. So, this tool, which has a free version, is very useful for beginners who want to list ideas they can write articles on or give to freelance writers to write content for them. 6. Moz Pro: SEO Software Moz Pro is one of the best SEO software for experts and beginners. This amazing SEO tool gives fresh insights and empowers you to stay competitive. In addition to helping your website improve on search engines, Moz gives you reliable SEO ideas. Some features you enjoy while using this tool include domain authority checking, organic traffic, rankings report, and domain and backlinks report for your site. It also lets you analyze your competitors’ organic reach and monitor what pages and keywords drive them more traffic. You can use this data to optimize your website and get more traffic. 7. Ubersuggest: Keyword Suggestion Tool Developed by Neil Patel, a leader

Social Media Marketing (SMM) uses social media — internet-based platforms used to create and share information — to build a brand, increase sales and drive traffic to a website or landing page. Such platforms include but are not limited to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Social media is shifting from its traditional meaning, as platforms like Facebook and TikTok are no longer used just for entertainment and interactions. They have become their search engines, allowing people to share creative content, showcase their merchandise, and earn. In the digital world, social platforms have expanded the window for brands to learn, discover new opportunities, and grow their reach. As a result, many people have become social media experts, some selling their digital courses and others becoming highly-paid influencers. Thus, marketers can engage their audience with a strong promotion strategy and the ability to create interesting content. And for this reason, this article helps you discover how to create an effective social media strategy, review some statistics, and then reflect on its importance. Creating a Social Media Marketing Strategy Here are my 10 steps to help you create an outstanding and sustainable social media marketing strategy. Ensure you don’t skip any of them, and you’ll thank me later. 1. Define your SMART Goals A sustainable marketing strategy must aim to meet Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Time-bound goals. These five features will help you keep your digital marketing, not just social media, in check. So I want you to brainstorm what you intend to achieve. Answer questions like, why are you doing it? Do you want to increase sales? Are you seeking to increase brand awareness and followers? Are you targeting new customers or existing ones? What is their age group? These questions will help you create the right content for your audience. 2. Assess your Resources Who will help you create or redesign your social media content? Which social media platforms are you going to use? Are the majority of your customers found on those platforms? Who will manage your social media accounts? Do you have a technical team, or you’re a DIY expert? Also, define who will help you answer the questions or inquiries should they arise. Can you write or hire someone to write great content for you? Answering these questions will help you plan and implement your marketing campaign effectively, boosting its ultimate success. 3. Who is your audience? Here’s where most marketers go wrong – creating content for everyone. By now, you should already know your audience’s demographics before even creating the product/service in the first place. Your intentions should be to solve a certain problem your target audience faces. In this stage, understand where your target audience spends time online. What type of content are they interested in the most? What kind of information do they already know? Any knowledge gap? Understanding your audience helps you create helpful content for them that converts. 4. Get Inspiration Before creating your social media content, I want you to seek inspiration. And learn one thing or two about what your competitors are doing. Check their most popular posts, do not copy their content or marketing strategies, but try to understand why they outperformed the others. Then you can know what your target audience is interested in. Remember, learning is a continuous process, and you have to keep getting inspiration once in a while. Don’t get obsessed with it and try to copy-paste ideas or techniques, but share relatable content with your audience. 5. Create Great Content The right type of content depends on your audience and the platform you’re using. Content is the foundation of your marketing campaign. So, you should take enough time to understand what your target population is interested in. Do they prefer images, shorts or long videos, or articles? Remember, when it comes to content, consistency matters. So, I’d suggest you create a weekly, biweekly, or monthly plan. The intention is to keep the conversations about your brand going. In marketing, more engagement means more exposure and, eventually, more following and leads. 6. Create a Schedule Now that you have the content and know your target, creating a schedule is time. How many posts will you create per day? How much time would you allocate daily to respond to customers’ inquiries? It’s preferred to share a post or two days and focus on quality. A schedule will ensure you don’t skip any social media marketing activity daily. But most importantly, it keeps your audience informed on when to expect activity on your page. Platforms like TikTok/Facebook tell you when most of your followers are online – the best time to post. As with many social media platforms, you can schedule your posts to go public on a specific day and time. The feature is available on Twitter, YouTube, and Meta Business. Scheduling posts could help save time and plan your posts a week or month before. 7. Choose Quality over Quantity When it comes to social media marketing, it is easy to get caught up in the numbers. But I insist that the number of followers, subscribers, or likes should not determine the success of your marketing strategy. Focus on sharing content with your audience and interacting with them. And, of course, don’t even think of buying followers/subscribers or likes. It won’t help you boost your numbers. But if it does, such numbers rarely add value to your brand’s success. Remember, you’re not creating or sharing content for everyone but your niche. You better have 1000 followers that engage with your content than have 1M followers who are not even interested in your content in the first place. After all, the 1000 active followers would be easier to turn into customers, as opposed to having a large audience you cant turn into buyers. 8. Advertise your Posts The good thing with digital marketing strategies, including social media and email marketing, is that you can monitor your posts’ engagements and organic reach. This feature is available across

In digital marketing, SEO refers to strategies to improve a website or web page’s appearance and positioning in organic search results. And in this step-by-step guide, let’s unveil its actual meaning, importance, how it works, and more. To be precise, you’ll learn the following: Without wasting any time, let’s dive in, shall we? What’s SEO Marketing? SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is a multiple-elements process to help a website or web content rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. A good SEO strategy should increase your visibility online and help you reap the fruits of it. For instance, organic search traffic, brand recognition, sales, and free backlinks. It differs from paid advertising since it targets ‘organic’ ranking, meaning you don’t have to spend a penny to be in that space. Not unless you’re considering hiring a marketing expert to do the hard work for you. Though, you’ll be paying for the services and not rank high on the search results. Look at it this way, if you have written an article about ‘how to write a blog‘, you’d like to optimize it to appear on the top searches when someone is looking for materials or guides on how to start blogging, right? But remember, tons of other websites have already covered the topic, and you’ll need to outrank them to increase your chances of getting more clicks. So, that’s what SEO marketing is all about – finding a target keyword (search query) that people are seeking to answer for, writing a compelling article that addresses all their concerns, and taking measures to outrank those already ranking for it. To better understand how you can rank your content higher in the search engines, you need to understand how search works – and this article has everything you need to know. Before classifying SEO into 6 types, let’s understand why it is essential for business success. Is SEO Important for Business? Despite being a ‘complicated’ process, though manageable, SEO is very important for your business’s success. First, it enables you to answer potential customers’ questions, create authority and increase traffic to your website. And in marketing, authority translates to brand loyalty and thus positively impacts brand awareness and growth. In addition to saving you money, as the strategies are completely free, SEO marketing increases your site navigation and helps you remain competitive. It opens the door for business growth and success. Simply put, SEO gives you more organic traffic to your site, and the visitors can buy your products and services. For instance, you can promote your ebooks and online courses to your readers and make a lot of money online. And if you have monetized your website or blog using Google Adsense, your pages will record more page views. This means you get to earn more from ad impressions, and higher are possibilities that some audiences may click on some of the ads and make you even more money. Again, if you have affiliate links on your blog, more traffic means more affiliate link clicks and more income opportunities for you. So, you see, optimizing your web pages for search engine visibility is very crucial. Types of SEO & their Elements SEO is a multi-element process that can be further clarified into the following elements (types): 1. On-Page SEO Marketing On-page search engine optimization (or internal SEO) is optimizing web pages to improve rankings and user experience. Simply put, it is the things that you can do within your site to make it friendlier to search engines and users. Therefore, optimising your website at the page level is important – that’s where ranking is performed. Here’s a quick yet complete, on-page SEO checklist (guidelines): Set Target (Focus) Keyword Before writing any web page, understand your target keyword or search term. To do this, master keyword research. You should also understand what audience you desire to target, their search intent, and behaviors. Gather as much information about the target audience as possible. Then you can find some related keywords or synonyms and their long-tail versions and include them in your page content systematically (rather than annoying way) and headings. Optimize your Page Title Title (H1 heading) is a very important SEO factor. A good title should have the target keyword and give search engines and users a clue about the page content. Check out these pages ranking for the keyword ‘SEO Marketing.’ The title clearly stated that these pages are extensive guides on SEO, right? So, place a target keyword in the title, and be creative about it. Or you can use free title generators online or even install a plugin called MonsterInsights if you’re a WordPress user. Optimize your Headings You should use H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 headings while writing your blogs; it helps search engine bots to understand your content. They also allows you to use more related keywords in your posts. Not forgetting that, for long content, subtopics help users navigate tough content more easily. So, make sure you mention the target keywords in your headings, of course, in a natural way. Optimize your Page Url Make sure your links contain the target keyword or its synonym. For instance, if your article is about ‘stock trading’, you can format the URL to Example.com/what-is-stock-trading/. Also, try to make your page URLs as short as possible. If you’re a WordPress user, install a Yoast SEO plugin to help you customize your page slug. Keywords in Meta Description As seen above, Yoast SEO also helps you set a meta description for your page – which is a sentence explaining what the page is about. The description should contain the focus keyword. For instance, the following pages have ‘start (create) a blog‘ in both the page title and meta description. And while search engines pick page descriptions based on the user’s searches, it won’t take long to fix it. So, why not? Optimize Images for SEO At least 90% of information transmitted to the human brain is visual,

Content marketing is a strategy that focuses on creating and distributing relevant, targeted, and consistent content. It helps businesses attract and retain a well-targeted audience that easily converts to customers. And also enables you to reach an audience organically. Besides enabling your brand to reach a large audience, this marketing technique increases conversions, loyalty, and revenue. And helps you establish your brand as an industry leader. This ultimate guide helps you create an effective strategy, showing you how and where to get content ideas. It also contains content creation tools and presents common types of content. What is a Content Marketing Strategy? Content marketing is a process that involves planning, distributing, sharing, and publishing content through digital channels like social media, podcasts, blogs, press releases, and print publications. So, content means the information contained within communication media. Today, outbound marketing does not resonate and convert as it used to. It is a form of traditional marketing where a business first contacts the audience or potential clients. Outbound marketing includes print media, billboards, cold calling, TV, and radio ads. Instead, firms have shifted to inbound marketing, which focuses on creating and distributing content that draws people to a website or landing page. Inbound marketing strategies include sharing videos on YouTube and social media, blogs or courses, and opt-in emails. Remember, don’t attempt to create content for everyone. Instead, pick a niche, identify your audience, find their problems, do keyword research, and find information gaps. Then prepare interesting and educative content with solutions to your audience’s problems. Why is Content Marketing Strategy Important? It’s not a secret that digital content marketing is essential for your business. Content is the most critical pillar of digital marketing, without which your marketing efforts will almost be useless. Here’re some of the reasons you need it today: As you can see, content marketing is essential. So, if you haven’t dived into it, there is no better time than now. Here’re some types of content you can start sharing as early as now. Types of Content in Digital Marketing There are many types of content you can incorporate into your strategy, some of which include: Which of these ten types of content would you rather share with your audience? Well, I’d advise you to incorporate as many as possible. For instance, if you have a website, you can write blogs and guides, embed YouTube videos, and share images, infographics, and videos on social media. Formulating a Content Marketing Strategy (Plan) With content creation, you must plan how to allocate resources effectively and deal with potential challenges. More so, you should document your plan to make sure you are always on track. And you can do so with tools like Google docs, spreadsheets, or any other format you choose. Here’re the seven steps you can follow to create a successful content marketing strategy. #1 Set Smart Goals The first stage of any marketing strategy is planning. How do you intend to achieve? Maybe to sell a product or service? Find new customers or communicate with existing ones? Your goals should follow the SMART model. Be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. For a new blogger, the first step would be to plan on the topics they want to write articles on, let’s say, for the next 30 days. Planning also helps you get organized and consistent. #2 Find an Audience As mentioned earlier, you ought not to create content for everyone. Instead, target a specific audience, depending on the nature of your brand. Think of a specific population that may be interested in your content and can be potential customers or business partners. In my case, my target audience can be college students or fresh graduates willing to be self-employed through content creation. This audience may be experiencing challenges starting a blog or online business or marketing their website, and I can create blogs like this one to guide them. Specify you’re creating content for who and where they are (online or in a specific location). And your audience will most likely be interested in the content format (videos, images, etc.). #3 Pick a Channel(s) There are many content creation channels, including, but not limited to, social media (Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, etc.), your website or blog, and free blogging sites like Weebly. I suggest you pick one main channel, preferably your website, and make other channels direct people to it. Your channel choice will majorly influence the content you want to share. For instance, YouTube and websites are best for videos, and TikTok for shorts. #4 Find a Topic (s) Just a recap, you already have a niche and specific goals and have identified your target audience. Then, you need to research to identify what keywords or phrases your audience is searching on the web and the questions they are seeking answers for. And many websites help you with keyword research, including Semrush, Ahref, and Ubersuggest. Here’re more tools. Find the most appropriate questions or topics to address in your niche based on the search volume, level of competition, country your audience is, and the type of channel or platform selected. #5 Find Inspiration One more step before preparing your content; find the creators who have published content on the same topic. But, of course, not to copy, but to get inspiration and identify knowledge gaps. Try and make a better version of the content already out there, and add your styles and features. If it’s a blog, you want to write, read at least two articles on your topic, watch videos, listen to postcards, and the like. And then, create a plan or outline for your content, not forgetting the keywords you unidentified to be the most relevant in connecting you with your target audience. #6 Prepare, Polish and Publish With the target audience, topic, and keyword in mind and your outline, create awesome content that your audience will find interesting and relevant. If it is an article, write in a conversational tone and add visuals;