In the world of search engine supremacy, quality content is not enough to appear in search results and get traffic to your website. Content optimization is critical to rank in search engine results. From content, headlines, and images to keywords and content outlines, you must optimize everything to encourage Google to propel your content to the top. These tasks can be very draining when done manually. That’s where paid and free content optimization tools come into play to do their magic.
This article briefly tells you what is content optimization, followed by insights into top tools for SEO content optimization and how to choose the right free content optimization tool.
What is Content Optimization?
Content optimization refines the quality of your content to rank in search engine results to reach a wider audience. The process includes refining content from every aspect, like keywords, images, meta descriptions, internal and external linking, and improving content readability and quality.
It ensures that your content gets to the top in search engine rankings and reaches the ideal audience. Using free content optimization tools help seamless content optimization without breaking your pocket.
Why Use Content Optimizer Tools?
You might wonder, “Why content optimization tools are important? I can do it manually!”
Top content optimization tools not only improve your content quality but also help you mold it to rank better. Content optimizer tools polish your content in many ways, including image optimization, quality keywords, and making it user-friendly. However, these two primary benefits sum up every use of free content optimization tools:
Enhanced Content Quality
While creating content, consistent quality is most important. It’s because the reader loses interest with a drop in content. Content optimization tools like Grammarly, Yoast, and others mentioned in the article help you maintain quality and improve readability.
Improved Search Engine Ranking
Using content optimization tools always comes down to getting a better ranking in SERPs. The higher the ranking in SERPs, the greater the chances of getting more audience on your site. Tools like SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Thruuu, help you comply with Google ranking factors.
Now that you know what is content optimization and why content optimization tools are important, let’s quickly tell you all the useful content optimization tools.
17 Free Content Optimization Tools
1. Small SEO Tools
The first on our list of free content optimization tools, Small SEO Tools is a content optimization platform that provides a variety of 120 small but handy tools. These free tools will help you with tasks like keyword research and checking plagiarism. You can also find tools to analyze your website’s performance, backlinks, and meta tags. It is a one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs.
2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the most effective free content optimization tools, as it helps improve search engine rankings. You just have to verify your site with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, and you’ll get a detailed audit of your site’s technical issues. Not only does it identify the SEO concerns of your website, but it also suggests solutions to resolve them.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools help improve keyword ranking and internal linking and detect and solve SEO issues. And the best thing to know is that Ahrefs offers all these features for free.
3. Google Keyword Planner
Google Ads offers a free tool, i.e., Google Keyword Planner that helps in optimizing your content with keywords. It’s the easiest way to find the most relevant keywords for your niche. You only need to put in your target keywords and the countries you’re targeting the audience from, and it instantly shows related keywords.
In addition, Google Keyword Planner also shows search traffic for each keyword. However, its search traffic details might not be very accurate, but you’ll get an idea of a keyword’s monthly searches. This way, you can add the keywords with more searches to get more organic traffic.
4. Grammarly
The next among free content optimization tools, Grammarly is undoubtedly the go-to choice for most writers. It offers a free Chrome extension and a free app version for both iOS and Android. The free Chrome extension of Grammarly makes a writer’s life easier by suggesting corrections while they’re writing. It points out spelling, punctuation, and grammar corrections.
Grammarly has key features of top content optimization tools, and most users appreciate its easy-to-use interface. It also has a paid version that assists in improving sentence structures and identifying plagiarism. Plus, it shows more precise grammar and punctuation issues in your text.
5. Yoast
If you’re still wondering, “I am good with grammar, so, why use content optimizer tools,” Yoast is the answer to all your queries.
Yoast is one of those free content optimization tools that help with both SEO and improving content quality. If you’re using WordPress to publish your website content, you can add the Yoast SEO plugin. It improves the SEO optimization of your content to help in search engine rankings by working on both on-page and on-site SEO. Plus, it helps in social media optimization by helping you select an optimized image, title, and description.
Yoast Real-Time Content Analysis is another free module that ensures your content is well-optimized. It tells you if you’ve used the target keywords enough times in your content. Moreover, its Flesch reading score shows whether the content is accessible for the audience to read. And thus, Yoast helps improve content readability.
6. SEMrush
SEMrush is another widely accepted SEO tool that needs no introduction. It has various modules which help optimize content in different ways. For instance, SEMrush suggests keywords, average word count, readability score of ranking articles, and other such things to optimize your content. Moreover, it also helps with on-page SEO and content marketing.
SEMrush is available both as a WordPress plugin and as a website. It has a free version that offers limited searches per month. However, SEMrush also provides a free 14-day trial for its paid plans.
7. Hemingway Editor
Hemingway Editor offers both a free website and a paid desktop app for content optimization. Copy and paste content on the free web app, and it will suggest changes to improve content for better optimization. The suggestions may include shortening sentences, removing abundant adverbs, and replacing words with simpler synonyms.
It also identifies issues by highlighting them with different colors. For instance, the yellow highlight indicates a lengthy sentence that is difficult to read. Meanwhile, a red highlight means the sentence is verbose, too dull, and complicated for the reader to understand. It also scores your content on a readability scale to show where it stands for the reader.
8. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is recent addition to free content optimization tools. It is a free AI chatbot that helps write optimized content for every possible niche. You can use it for topic suggestions, creating blog outlines, generating catchy headlines, writing, and paraphrasing content. All you have to do is to be creative and give effective prompts to get the desired results.
The key is to use the tool wisely and not wholly rely on it. Rather than copy-pasting its content, you can take ideas from it and modify your content accordingly. ChatGPT also has a paid version, GPT-4, with more advanced features and faster speed.
9. ShortPixel
Readers love it when a webpage loads faster and are likely to leave web pages that take longer than 5 seconds to load. Heavy images are the real culprit behind the slow loading of websites. ShortPixel minimizes image size without compromising image quality.
It is an image optimization tool with a free WordPress plugin that automatically optimizes your content images. With its help, you can optimize both new and existing images on your website.
10.Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another one of Google’s free content optimization tools that helps optimize content in many ways. It helps with the keywords and shows keyword performance in search engines. Once you sign your site into Google Search Console, it detects and shows which keywords bring the most audience to your website. Additionally, it ensures that your content and website are optimized for mobile phones.
11.Similar Content
Similar Content analyzes existing Google Search content on keywords and helps you optimize content in a similar way. It single-handedly offers a great deal of features, including creating similar types of content ideas, generating headlines, and rewriting content. It also has a keyword density feature to help you analyze your content’s keyword optimization.
12.Canva
When you understand what is content optimization, you must also know how graphics can help optimize your website content. Canva is a free graphic designing tool that can help create different graphics, including website logos and social media-friendly images. You can also create images to explain complicated things through infographics to make your audience understand them easily.
13.MarketMuse
MarketMuse is a tool that ensures content optimization by working as a keyword planner and content research tool. It analyzes the content of top-ranking competitors in your niche to suggest changes accordingly for content improvements. It has a free plan with no time limit but limited queries per month. You can always subscribe to any of their paid plans for more features.
MarketMuse also offers a text editor that scores your content in real-time and suggests changes to improve quality. With every change you make, the content optimizes, and the score will get better.
14.SparkToro
SparkToro is one of the top tools for SEO content optimization that helps optimize content by better understanding your target audience. You can give a keyword to SparkToro, and it will provide you with details about what interests your audience, their online activities, and more. It also suggests how you can use this data in your content and thus assists in creating what your audience prefers.
15.Easy-Peazy
Catchy and interesting headlines are the first thing that attracts your readers after your content lands on their search page. For that, Easy-Peasy helps you create unique headlines for your content. Apart from generating headline ideas, it also offers some other features for content optimization.
16.Thruuu
There are many free modules of Thruuu that you can use for different tasks. For instance, analyze the average word count for a topic, compare the SEO performance of keywords, and check keyword density. It also offers a free trial for its pro version.
17.Google Search
Did you know you can use Google Search as a tool to create your content outlines?
You only have to search for your target keywords and look for how top-ranking competitors have written their blogs. This will help you understand which writing pattern ranks better for any specific keyword.
How to Choose the Right Free Content Optimization Tools?
Suitability
The first thing to ensure while choosing a content optimization tool is that it matches your content needs. For instance, if you want to improve the keyword search for your website content, you must look for tools that are ideal for that purpose.
User-friendly
Before you choose a content optimizer tool, it is crucial that it must be user-friendly. There are high chances of wasting a lot of time if the tools are too complicated to use. That’s why we ensured that the above list only includes free content optimization tools that are user-friendly.
Comparison with Competitors
Using the tools that compare the performance between your and your competitor’s sites is very beneficial. It helps identify mistakes and improve your site for better results. It is a plus if the tools provide suggestions for improvement.
Content Scores
It is easier to use tools that not only suggest changes but also score your content in real-time. For instance, Grammarly, Yoast, and Hemingway Editor score content readability. In addition, the scores keep improving as you make suggested changes to improve quality.
Final Words
As we take on the challenge of optimizing content for better SERP rankings, it is evident that free content optimization tools can significantly affect the results. These tools are beneficial for SEO optimization, from refining keywords and optimizing images to increasing readability and analyzing performance. You can use any tools from an array of options; be sure to select the best combination of tools for your site’s requirements.