Top 5 free Google SEO tools

 Google offers an array of free online tools to help SEOs improve their websites and increase their rankings. Here we identify the top 5 SEO tools developed by Google. 

Whether you're a seasoned SEO professional or just getting started in the world of SEO, it's likely you already use one of Google's many SEO tools and platforms.

Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) and Google Analytics are probably among the tools you use everyday, but there's a lot of other tools developed by Google to help you do your job better.

Below we've identified the top 5 Google SEO tools that are not only very useful, they're also completely free...

Chrome Lighthouse

Lighthouse is effective a site review and auditing tool, which currently analyses and reports on ten important SEO metrics.

It can also be downloaded and installed as a Chrome extension for quick access to analyse whatever website you are currently browsing.

Lighthouse is still a work-in-progress, but the metrics it currently reports on are important to your SEO success, so it's a worthwhile addition to your toolset.

Chrome Lighthouse currently reports on:

• Viewport Meta Tag
• Title Element
• Meta Description
• HTTP Status Code
• Descriptive Text on Links
• Page Status for Successful Crawling and Indexing
• Validates Hreflang
• Validates rel=canonical
• Validates font legibility for mobile devices
• Checks if document avoids browser plugins for viewing

Use the tool: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/

 

TestMySite

This is another site auditing tool that offers two metrics based on mobile performance:

• Estimated loading time on a 3G mobile network
• Estimated visitor loss due to poor loading time

TestMySite is a great starting point when analysing how quick or slow your site and pages load on mobile devices, and provides a useful quick snapshot.

TestMySite can also email you a full report with suggestions for speeding up the loading times, which is great for those who need a detailed list of action points to send to a developer.

Use the tool: https://testmysite.withgoogle.com/intl/en-gb

 

PageSpeed Insights

While TestMySite is good for a quick overview of any mobile speed issues, PageSpeed Insights allows you to dive deeper and identify issues across your site and on all devices.

It will tell you which images are too big, which style sheets and scripts are slowing down the site, and offers a whole host of other tips for improving site speed (server response times, browser caching etc.)

As well as being a useful tool to diagnose page loading problems, PageSpeed Insights also acts as a great learning resource - providing in-depth information on the issues to help you solve them.

Use the tool: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

 

Google Trends

Google Trends allows you to uncover useful information about keyword and topic popularity, segmented by time and geography.

For instance, if you really wanted to, you could see how the trend for 'fidget spinners' peaked and then dropped in Google in the UK:

Or the steep rise and then fall in interest about Bitcoin over the past five years:

These are quite extreme examples, but you get the idea. Google Trends is perhaps most useful for those who work in seasonal industries as you can analyse when the interest starts to ramp up. For example, interest in Halloween costumes begins a few months before the October peak:

Use the tool: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=GB

 

Safe Browsing Test

It may seem a bit more boring than the above, but this tool can be a lifesaver. It's a simple tool that tests if there is any malware on a site, and notifies users and webmasters if it finds anything harmful.

In Google's words, they examine "billions of URLs and software and content on those pages in its search for unsafe websites. Safe Browsing then warns users when they navigate to websites that could steal their personal information or install software designed to take over their computers. Every week, Safe Browsing protects billions of devices."

Use the tool: https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search