Blogging is more than just SEO and post format. At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do to change your site for the better. However, don’t make the mistake I did in thinking that once I had checked all the SEO boxes, I was fine. This is wrong.

Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong with SEO. Websites devolve, mistakes are made, and habits aren’t developed. And so, to combat this yet again, we must learn to use tools.

What are tools? Well, they are internet-based apps or websites that will help your site for the better, one way or the other. Some may be able to actually help your SEO (although these require plugins which, in turn, require you to be operating on WordPress’ Business Plan), while others will prevent you from making crucial mistakes. These are the tools we will be focusing on today. And the best part? They’re all free and you can start using them right now. And so, without further ado, here are three fantastic tools that you can start using right now.

3: Ping-O-Matic. I talked about this a bit last week in my post on blogging habits to get into, found here, but I didn’t go into detail on this wonderful tool. So, if you didn’t read my post (which you should have), you get a free pass. Ping-O-Matic is a tool that will almost immediately boost your SEO involvement. You see, one of the keys to ranking on Google is simply getting Google to notice you. Pinging is the internet equivalent of waiving a flag and saying, “Hey! Over here!” So, if you want to attract Google’s attention and get them to crawl your website quickly, thus helping you rank higher and faster, you should begin pinging your site immediately. Now wait, hold on. Before you go and start pinging Google dozens of times, you need to know something. Google hates spammers, and unnecessary pinging will actually hurt your SEO. You should only ping your website when you’ve either changed something about it or added new content, such as a blog post. Want to know something fantastic? You really just need to do this once. Go to Ping-O-Matic’s website, found here, and enter your site’s information. Once Ping-O-Matic pings it, WordPRess will automatically tell it to ping again every single time you release a new post. Cool, right? Of course, this method isn’t foolproof and you will need to occasionally ping your site when you’ve made a change to the homepage. However, this saves a lot of time and effort, and helps you rank higher on Google very, very quickly.

2: Moz. Moz is possibly the most invaluable free tool on the internet simply because of one function- you can download it as a Google Chrome extension and it will immediately tell you the site authority of nearly any website you come across. If I were to read your blog, I could see your Domain Authority (also called DA) and Private Authority (called PA), then see how you stack up against my website. Both authorities are one of the biggest factors behind your Google rankings, and they are affected by your backlinks, site quality, and visitor traffic. The DA is slightly more important and is measured on a scale of 1 to 100, with 40-50 being average, 60-80 being good, and 80+ being fantastic. Currently, my site has a DA of 72, which is well above average. I can check that authority at a glance simply by looking at the Moz extension in the upper right-hand corner of my screen. You can sign up for Moz here, then download the Mozbar extension here.

1: Ubersuggest. Created by SEO God Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is my personal favorite when it comes to tools. Ubersuggest can, among other things, crawl your website and find both major and minor problems. Then, it will tell you exactly where they are found and how to fix them. Absolutely invaluable in finding those SEO mistakes that somehow slip through the cracks. Whether it’s an identical category and tag, or something big like a 504 Gateway Timeout, Ubersuggest finds it and tells you how to fix it. Ubersuggest can also help you target specific keywords to help you rank higher on Google, and gives you fairly accurate statistics about your site and its backlinks. It can be found by clicking here.

Hopefully, you already knew about all of these tools. If you did, you’re pretty much set. If you haven’t tried any of these tools, I strongly urge you to do so- they are very helpful and you will not regret it.

Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks so much for reading, guys. I really appreciate your support. If you haven’t already, be sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side), then the Like button a bit further down. Thanks again, and I hope you have a great day!

Last Post: Cultural Differences Within the Church

Featured Post: Africa: Expectations vs. Reality

Related Post: : 5 Crucial Mistakes Most Bloggers Make