Google supplies a stable set of free Web optimization instruments. From easy key phrase analysis to efficiency monitoring, you’ll be able to sew collectively a full workflow with out spending a dime.
Each Web optimization—whether or not newbie or knowledgeable—makes use of Google’s free instruments in some capability. They’re extensively accessible, they provide a glimpse into how Google’s search and promoting methods work, they usually’re usually the primary place we search for efficiency knowledge.
Right here’s what every of Google’s free Web optimization instruments does, when to make use of it, and a few Ahrefs options for whenever you outgrow the fundamentals.
Google Search Console (GSC) is your direct line to how Google sees your website—and for a lot of SEOs, it’s their solely supply of first-party Web optimization knowledge.
At its core, GSC exhibits which queries carry visitors to your pages, how these pages carry out in search, and whether or not Google is indexing them correctly.
The Efficiency report is the place most individuals begin: it helps you to analyze Web optimization metrics by web page, question, nation, gadget, and date. You’ll be able to see which pages get essentially the most natural search visitors, and monitor how your efficiency modifications over time.
Then there’s the Indexing report, which reveals which pages are in Google’s index and that are excluded—with particular the explanation why. This ought to be your first port of name for any efficiency points. It saves you from the black field of questioning why content material isn’t displaying up.
The URL Inspection instrument permits for page-level diagnostics. You’ll be able to see whether or not a web page is listed, the final time it was crawled, if cell usability handed, and whether or not enhancements like schema markup are detected.
And there’s the brand new Insights report, which goals to shortly present key traits and efficiency knowledge on your web site:
GSC additionally consists of Core Internet Vitals reporting—monitoring metrics like LCP and CLS that affect rankings—and a guide actions part, the place you’ll be notified if Google penalizes your website.
And submitting sitemaps by GSC remains to be essentially the most dependable means to make sure new content material will get found shortly.
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GSC is nice, however solely shops 16 months of historic knowledge. For those who join it to Ahrefs, we’ll retailer and backfill that knowledge indefinitely—so you’ll be able to monitor long-term traits, evaluate year-over-year efficiency, and construct extra sturdy Web optimization reviews.
Google Analytics (GA4) helps you perceive what occurs after somebody lands in your website. It’s the instrument for monitoring on-site conduct—issues like how lengthy customers keep, what pages they go to, and whether or not they convert.
Some of the helpful GA4 reviews for SEOs is the Acquisition report. This exhibits you what number of customers arrived through natural search and the way that visitors compares to different sources, like paid search or direct visits. By analyzing these patterns, you’ll be able to see which pages are pulling in visitors and which could want consideration.
You too can dig into engaged classes and conversion paths. These metrics present how lengthy customers stick round, which pages they work together with, and the way they in the end convert—supplying you with perception into which content material is driving outcomes.
Segmentation is one other GA4 superpower. You’ll be able to slice your knowledge by touchdown web page, gadget kind, nation, visitors channel, and extra. This makes it simpler to identify technical points (like poor cell expertise) or content material gaps by area.
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GA4 could be overwhelming and surprisingly tough to make use of—particularly in the event you’re simply attempting to know the place your web site visitors comes from.
If you’d like one thing just a little simpler to make use of, you’ll be able to attempt Ahrefs Internet Analytics. It’s a simple-to-use, privacy-focused GA4 different that filters out bots, makes it straightforward to identify visitors from AI assistants, and is free as much as 1 million occasions per month.
Google Key phrase Planner was initially constructed for advertisers working Google Adverts, however many SEOs use it for fundamental key phrase analysis as properly.
You’ll be able to plug in a seed key phrase to generate a whole bunch of associated key phrase concepts. The instrument additionally supplies tough estimates of month-to-month search volumes and a competitiveness score—although this score displays advert competitors, not natural rating issue.
You’ll be able to group key phrase ideas into advert teams or thematic clusters, which could be useful for early-stage content material planning. However there are a couple of essential limitations:
- Search volumes are proven in broad ranges (like 1K–10K), which makes it tough to find out which key phrases are literally price focusing on.
- The competitors metric displays paid promoting competitors, not how onerous it’s to rank organically.
- You’ll be able to’t simply assess SERP options or perceive the person intent behind key phrases with out leaving the instrument.
These gaps make it more durable to construct a really efficient natural Web optimization technique utilizing Key phrase Planner alone.
Degree up with Ahrefs Key phrases Explorer
A greater choice for Web optimization-specific analysis is Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer. It provides you exact search volumes, Key phrase Issue scores, SERP options, visitors potential, mother or father subjects, and now even development predictions—so yow will discover not simply common key phrases, however the ones more likely to develop in worth.
Google Traits helps you to see how curiosity in a subject modifications over time, primarily based on search knowledge from throughout Google’s large person base. It’s a wonderful instrument for figuring out which subjects are gaining recognition and which of them are falling off.
You need to use Google Traits to determine rising queries earlier than they hit their peak, supplying you with an opportunity to publish content material forward of the curve. It additionally permits you to evaluate the relative recognition of two or extra search phrases, serving to you determine which key phrase is perhaps extra related or well timed on your viewers.
Past that, the instrument helps you to drill down by area, timeframe, and class, which is beneficial for understanding seasonal or regional variations in curiosity. As an example, a key phrase is perhaps trending within the US however flat within the UK, or it would peak each December.
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Google Alerts screens the net for mentions of a model, competitor, or key phrase. It’s a easy instrument that permits you to arrange alerts for particular phrases and obtain electronic mail notifications at any time when new content material matches your standards.
You’ll be able to customise alerts by language, area, and content material kind (similar to blogs, information, or boards), which makes it pretty versatile for Web optimization and PR use circumstances. This instrument is particularly helpful for monitoring press mentions, discovering unlinked model citations chances are you’ll wish to reclaim, or conserving tabs on what opponents are saying or doing.
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For those who function an area enterprise, your Google Enterprise Profile (GBP) is among the most essential property in your Web optimization toolkit. It determines how your enterprise seems in Google Maps and native search outcomes, together with the coveted native pack—the highest three map listings that present up for location-based queries.
Your GBP helps you to show important info like opening hours, enterprise classes, companies provided, and phone particulars. You too can add images, publish updates, reply questions, and interact with clients through messaging or evaluate responses. All of those interactions affect how your itemizing performs and the way reliable it seems to potential clients.
Importantly, Google will robotically change components of your GBP itemizing (just like the companies you provide) primarily based on critiques, so it’s essential to watch which modifications Google has made.
Google can change
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Managing your Google Enterprise Profile manually could be tedious—particularly in the event you’re overseeing a number of areas.
PageSpeed Insights assesses your web site’s loading efficiency and supplies an in depth evaluation of what’s slowing it down.
It focuses on Core Internet Vitals—particularly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Structure Shift (CLS), and First Contentful Paint (FCP)—that are key efficiency metrics that affect each person expertise and search rankings.
PageSpeed Insights suggests helpful actions to hurry up web page efficiency, like compressing giant photographs, minimizing JavaScript and CSS, leveraging browser caching, or lowering server response instances. This makes it a sensible useful resource for enhancing website pace even in the event you’re not a developer.
What units PageSpeed Insights aside is that it pulls in real-world discipline knowledge from the Chrome UX Report (CrUX), displaying how your website performs for precise customers on completely different units and community situations—not simply lab simulations.
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For a extra streamlined workflow, you’ll be able to allow PageSpeed Insights immediately inside Ahrefs’ Website Audit. This integration helps you to audit and resolve web page pace points alongside different technical Web optimization issues like crawl errors, damaged hyperlinks, and duplicate content material—all in a single dashboard.
For those who’re utilizing structured knowledge in your web site, the Wealthy Outcomes Take a look at is your go-to instrument for validating that markup.
Structured knowledge helps Google perceive your content material higher and permits enhanced search options like wealthy snippets—these attention-grabbing listings with stars, photographs, or FAQs. Structured knowledge may enhance how your content material is surfaced and interpreted by giant language fashions (LLMs), growing the probabilities of your content material being referenced in AI-generated solutions and instruments like Google’s AI Overviews or Bing Copilot
With the Wealthy Outcomes Take a look at, you’ll be able to enter any dwell URL or paste in a code snippet to see in case your markup is eligible for wealthy outcomes. The instrument will examine for numerous enhancements similar to evaluate rankings, recipe info, product particulars, FAQs, and extra.
It additionally highlights whether or not your structured knowledge is accurately applied, flagging any warnings or errors that will stop your content material from showing in enhanced codecs.
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To transcend particular person URL checks, Ahrefs’ Website Audit helps you to flag any pages with structured knowledge points. This function crawls your whole web site and flags issues at scale—like lacking fields, invalid schema sorts, or unsupported wealthy consequence sorts. 
However what about AI Web optimization?
Google provides a variety of free instruments for conventional Web optimization, but it surely hasn’t but launched something that helps SEOs measure or handle their visibility in AI-powered search experiences—like AI Overviews or AI Mode.
This creates a blind spot. If extra individuals are turning to AI to purchase merchandise and reply questions, how do you reply, and get your model featured?
That’s why we’ve constructed Ahrefs’ Model Radar, our new AI search instrument constructed to trace how your model exhibits up in AI-driven search—and allow you to flip it right into a progress channel.
Model Radar helps you to see how giant language fashions (LLMs) point out your model, merchandise, and opponents throughout main AI search platforms, together with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and AI Overviews.
You’ll be able to benchmark your visibility in opposition to opponents, determine key subjects and prompts driving AI visitors to your website, and monitor the quantity and sentiment of AI mentions over time.
AI-powered assistants are altering how individuals search. Model Radar helps guarantee your model is the one they discover first.
Last ideas
Google provides a stable (and free) basis of Web optimization instruments. You need to use them to trace web site efficiency, brainstorm easy key phrase concepts, and even get notified when your model or opponents are talked about on-line.
However in the event you’re utilizing Google’s free Web optimization instruments and working into a few of their limitations, it is perhaps price trying out Ahrefs. You’ll discover extra knowledge, deeper insights, less complicated workflows, and instruments that will help you enhance your visibility in AI search.
Bought questions? Let me know on LinkedIn.
