38 Free SEO Resources & Tools the Pros Use

I no longer believe in private content. If you search hard enough, you can almost always find what you need for free on the Internet. Of course, there are plenty of bad apples on the web, but in the SEO field, there are dozens of free SEO tools and resources at your fingertips.

Whether you’re just starting out in SEO, trying to take the next step in your SEO career, or a veteran looking to try new tools and learn more from the eyes of Google, the following 38 free SEO tools and resources will elevate your career. .

The Best Free SEO Twitter Accounts:

1. Barry Schwartz: @rustybrick

Barry is the founder of Search Engine Roundtable and news editor of Search Engine Land. Man stands for SEO news and Google updates. If Google is testing even the smallest element, like a new button color or a new symbol in search that few people would notice, Barry will report it. If you want to keep up with SEO news, Barry is a must.

2. John Mueller: @JohnMu

John is an advocate for Google searches and one of the best SEOs on Google. When people have questions about their Google traffic, an algorithm update, or want to learn SEO basics, they turn to John. John has worked at Google for over 13 years. Lately, it’s been more accessible through Twitter, podcasts, and video series. You will see his name quite a bit in this article.

3. Danny Sullivan: @dannysullivan

Danny co-founded Search Engine Land and has been in the digital reporting field for over 20 years. He joined Google in 2017 as their public link between the search engine giant and the public. Your job is to help people better understand search and Google better listen to public feedback. As you can imagine, you get a lot of negative comments when Google traffic from an SEO drops.

4. Gary Illyes: @methode

Gary’s official title is Google Webmaster Trend Analyst, but it’s the group’s comic. Together with John and Danny, Gary helps people create better websites. Before COVID, Gary was regularly on the conference scene, helping attendees with their technical SEO. Gary usually joins John on podcasts, although half the time, he just gives John a hard time.

5. Martin Splitt: @g33konaut

Martin is a Google developer and in-house JavaScript expert. JavaScript and SEO historically didn’t mix well, but modern websites require JavaScript. Martin’s job is to help webmasters create JavaScript-based websites that Googlebot can read, understand, and render. If you ever have a question about JavaScript, Martin is your man.

6. Daniel Waisberg: @danielwaisberg

Daniel is a Google search advocate and really focuses on SEO training. Whether it’s Google Search Console (GSC) training or security training, Daniel can help you understand what various SEO tools are telling you about how to fix a particular problem. Given the magnitude of the website’s security warnings, it is critical that you listen to what Daniel has to say.

7. Google Search Central: @googlesearchc

The Google Search Central account is essentially the all-in-one Google Search Twitter account. Whether it’s a new blog post, YouTube video, or Google conference, this account will let you know. If you followed just one Twitter account on this list to get the most out of your money, this would be the solution.

8. Google Search Liaison: @searchliaison

The Google search link used to cover Google search news and blog posts that Google writes, but lately, it has become the go-to source for major updates. These are big updates that Google makes to its algorithm about four or five times a year. Knowing when they hit is key to any SEO, as you need to be prepared for changes in traffic thereafter.

9. Google Trends: @GoogleTrends

Google knows what people are looking for and Google Trends tells you. Based on industry, people, location, and more, Google Trends lets you see what your users and potential users are looking for. Using Google Trends is an excellent source for content planning or for spotting the most popular SEO trends of the year.

10. Lily Ray: @lilyraynyc

Lily Ray is Senior Director of SEO and Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital, an agency in New York. Having access to so many clients and being willing to share that information online is rare, but Lily does it better than anyone else in the business. His SEO expertise is second to none and he speaks frequently at SEO conferences, alongside the Googlers mentioned above.

11. Glenn Gabe: @glenngabe

Glenn is an SEO Consultant at G-Squared Interactive. It focuses on technical SEO audits, but on Twitter it provides an incredible amount of value after Google updates. Glenn will detect which websites improved or made progress after an algorithm update and share what he thinks Google has targeted. Knowing what hurt you after an update is very difficult to diagnose, but Glenn’s analysis makes it much easier.

12. Kristina Azarenko: @azarchick

Kristina is my latest SEO consultant to follow on Twitter. She focuses on eCommerce SEO and even wrote the book about it. If you sell products on your website and you want more people to access those Google products directly, Kristina is your expert.

Read more Great SEO Secrets from Jacob HurwithLinkpacks – A Winning Internal Linking Strategy for Both Googlebot and Users

The Best Free SEO YouTube Playlists

13. Google Search Central: Google Search Console Training

Google Search Console is the way that Google sends you messages about your website. GSC gives you site analytics, speed analytics, security updates, sitemap access, structured data updates, and the most important coverage update. Fortunately, Daniel Waisberg (from above) presents a GSC training series on YouTube to get you started using GSC and details each of the tools it contains.

14. Google Search Central: #AskGooglebot

John Mueller answers specific SEO questions ranging from sitemaps and GSC reports to redirects and subdomains. Most videos are less than two minutes long, and given access to one of Google’s best SEOs, following this playlist is a no-brainer. Also, you can submit your own SEO questions.

15. Google Search Central: JavaScript SEO Office Hours

Martin Splitt, our SEO JavaScript expert, used to host office hours through YouTube. While this playlist still has tons of useful information for anyone doing SEO on a JavaScript website (almost all of it), it hasn’t been updated recently. However, Martin does submit live JavaScript SEO Q&A via his Twitter and Google Search Central YouTube channel quite frequently. See how to join office hours.

16. Google Search Central: English Google SEO Office Hours

SEO English office hours are your chance to ask the pros what you want. Just like in the JavaScript office hours above, you can question John and other SEOs on Google. Fortunately for all of us with busy schedules, all office hours are logged and viewable through this playlist. Of course, you can also join one yourself.

17. Google Search Central: Google Search News

Every few weeks, John summarizes the news on Google. It really takes their new reporting to the next level with this as they try to mimic a real news broadcast. From conference recaps and algorithm updates to upcoming Google changes and link building, John covers the essentials every SEO should know.

18. Google Search Central: Search Central Lightning Talks

Google holds a lot of in-person conferences, but when COVID came along, like much of the events industry, it all went digital. In a big twist, Google created these lecture-style talks that make you forget you’re home in your pajamas. The Google search team covered mobile indexing, HTTP, JavaScript, and much more. Even better, they are still releasing these videos, which are free. Congratulations, you just saved your business hundreds of dollars by not attending another SEO conference.

19. Google Search Central: Sustainable Monetized Websites

If you are trying to make money from your articles online, this is the YouTube series for you. It focuses on monetizing sites that rely on posting articles. They explain how thin content, duplicate content, and user-generated content should and should not be used to increase your site’s traffic and bottom line.

20. Perficient, Inc.: Eric Enge’s ‘Here’s Why’

Eric Enge is one of the best known SEOs in the country. He frequently lectures on SEO and is the director of digital marketing for Perfficient. Every Monday, discover the “why” behind the “what” in a video series he presents with other SEO and digital experts. It focuses heavily on what webmasters should do to not only rank higher in search engines, but also provide the best user experience for their readers.

The Best Free SEO Podcasts

21. Search Off the Record

This is my favorite SEO podcast, featuring Google’s big dogs. John, Gary, and Martin joke about running behind the scenes on Google search, why some decisions are made, conference highlights, and more. Also, Gary tends to argue with all the other members, which adds a comic touch to it.

22. Duct Tape Marketing

The Duct Tape podcast extends beyond SEO and covers all marketing topics. They interview top marketers like Seth Godin and Ben Shapiro, and they always focus on the users. Remember, what’s good for the user is good for Google, so you’ll likely learn a few SEO tricks with every episode.

23. Search Engine Journal Show

SEJ goes beyond SEO too, but as a PPC and SEO leader in news, reporting, and analytics, what they say matters. In addition to these topics, they also discuss social media, content marketing, and digital marketing with the best experts in the industry. Any digital marketer is doing themselves a disservice by not listening to this podcast.

The Best Free SEO Help Docs

24. Quick Guide to SEO

If you’re running a site but don’t have time to learn SEO basics, this guide from Google will set you up for success. From learning how Google search works to measuring performance using GSC, this short video guide will give you the basics to get started.

25. Beginner’s Guide to SEO

If you are new to SEO but really want to learn the basics and have a good SEO foundation, check out this beginner’s guide. From setting up GSC to learning how crawling, indexing, and optimization work, this is a must for anyone just getting started in the world of SEO.

26. Advanced SEO Techniques and Strategies

Once you graduate from the above, it’s time to really get your hands dirty. This advanced SEO guide covers topics like robots.txt files, XML sitemaps, site migrations, international SEO, structured data, and more. It also focuses on SEO content such as videos, images, and news. There’s a lot here, but if you master it all, consider yourself an SEO expert.

The Best Free SEO Help Forum

27. Google Search Central Help Community

If you ever have a question about your site, SEO, or Google, but can’t find it in the help documents above, I highly recommend this help forum. The respondents are trained professionals who are Google-appointed experts (even if they don’t work for Google). I have used this forum hundreds of times in my career and 90 percent of the time they have the answer I needed. Do not be shy; to ask.

The Best Free SEO Newsletters

28. Search Engine Roundtable

As mentioned above, Barry Schwartz is synonymous with SEO news and updates from Google. If you don’t want to miss an update, A / B test, or a bug, you should subscribe to Barry’s weekday newsletter. Recap all the published stories, no matter how minuscule the update is. This newsletter can save you hours by searching Twitter or the Google Search Central blog.

29. Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land delves into updates and changes on Google, Bing, and social media. Those of you who run organic and paid channels need to receive this newsletter to make sure you stay ahead of your competition. It is published several times a week and focuses on many of the same topics as the Search Engine Roundtable.

30. #SEOFOMO

#SEOFOMO is a weekly newsletter that goes beyond Google updates. They also cover SEO resources, guides, tips, jobs, and events. This newsletter covers Google and SEO news, but goes deeper into its analysis and also helps SEOs to switch jobs and networks.

31. #SEOForLunch

This weekly newsletter addresses all of the above, but also focuses on content strategy, link building, reviews, and giveaways. I would consider this newsletter more for SEO beginners, but SEO of any level is sure to find value. It’s a simple read that anyone, regardless of experience, can understand.

32. Google Search Central

If you want to hear straight from the search giant’s mouth, you can also see what Google is saying. The Search Central blog is Google’s way of communicating in a scalable way with webmasters. Here, Google’s product managers essentially share their release notes with the world. While almost all of your blog posts will be covered by the previous newsletters, it’s nice to see how Google shares what they share so you can understand for yourself.

The Best Free SEO Tools

33. Google Search Console (GSC)

If you are an SEO or are just entering the field, you had better learn and gain access to your company’s GSC account. This is Google’s way of communicating your site’s search performance. From coverage and performance to speed and security issues, GSC is theoretically the only SEO tool or resource you need. As such, it’s vital to set it up and review it on a daily basis.

34. Google Analytics (GA)

GSC provides search analytics, but if you want to see how people are accessing your site from Bing, email, payments, social media, and other channels, you must also set up a GA account. Like GSC, you may need help from the developer to get started, but once you’re in, there will be mountains of data to analyze. GA has a paid version that doesn’t provide sampling, but many big brands get away with using the free version.

35. Bing Webmaster Tools

I haven’t talked much about Bing because almost everything you do for Google also works for Bing. (Also, how many users do you know who use Bing over Google?) However, you can’t completely ignore the second-largest search engine. As such, set up a Bing webmaster account and review it weekly to make sure there are no security, indexing, crawling, or traffic issues. It acts very similar to GSC, but for Bing.

36. Screaming Frog

If you need to audit a website, both from a technical and content point of view, then you need a crawler to extract the most important information. Screaming Frog does just that and has a free version that can crawl up to 500 URLs. If you have just created a site or are running a smaller site, the free version will do wonders as you can crawl and find internal links, external links, title tags, goals, robots.txt files, images, alt text, outline, etc. much more. However, Screaming Frog doesn’t tell you what’s up with anything. It just spits out all the information onto sheets that it can export. Then you need to analyze the data and know what errors to look for.

37. Semrush

My keyword tracking tool of choice has always been Semrush. Whether you’re planning content, analyzing the competition, or seeing how your website currently ranks in Google and beyond, Semrush is the best out there. They offer free accounts where you can track only 10 keywords. However, with this account, you can still see how your website ranks 10 times a month. That may be enough for many, but if you’re serious about SEO, you’ll need more access to keywords. Their premium plans start at $ 99.95 / month.

38. Moz

Moz has a 30-day free trial before they force you to upgrade to their Pro campaign. Moz, like Semrush, can help tremendously with content planning, content strategy, keyword research, optimization of content and link research. Moz may also crawl your site for technical help. Moz’s standard plans start at $ 99 / month.