There is an uncomfortable truth about SEO tools that a lot of people either do not know or do not want to know. However powerful these platforms are, they are not going to work miracles. Buying Ahrefs will not send your site to page one of Google on its own. A Semrush subscription will not build the backlinks for you or lift the rankings by itself.
I am Omid Bodagh, an SEO, web design and digital marketing specialist. I have worked with these tools for more than 7 years, and I want to say it plainly: they are research, analysis and monitoring tools and nothing more. A magnifying glass shows you where you stand and what your competitors are doing, but getting from point A to point B is your job, not the magnifying glass’s.
In this article I will introduce every important SEO and backlink checker, explain what each one is really used for, and above all tell you exactly what information it hands you and what you then have to do with it yourself.
Before anything else: what an SEO tool is and what it is not
Let us settle this once and for all.
What is an SEO tool?
An SEO tool is software or an online service that collects data, analyzes it and presents it to you in a form you can read. These tools:
- show you what backlinks your competitors have
- find the most searched keywords
- identify the technical problems on your site
- display traffic and ranking trends
- point out opportunities and threats
What an SEO tool is not
Burn this into memory:
- An SEO tool does not build backlinks. It only shows where competitors got theirs. Building links is your job
- An SEO tool does not produce content. It only shows which topics people are searching for. Writing quality content is your job
- An SEO tool does not fix technical problems. It only lists them. Clearing them is your job
- An SEO tool does not raise your rankings. It only shows where you stand today. Moving up is the result of your work and effort
- An SEO tool is no substitute for knowledge and experience. If you do not know what to do with the data, the best platform in the world will not help you
A simple example: An SEO tool is like a doctor’s blood pressure monitor. The monitor tells you your pressure is high. It does not prescribe a pill, write you a diet or exercise on your behalf. The doctor sees the number and decides what happens next from knowledge and experience. This is exactly the role the software plays.
Categories of SEO tools
SEO tools divide into a few main groups. Each group has its own use, and depending on your needs you may end up working with one of them or several.
1. Google’s official tools (free)
2. Comprehensive SEO and backlink platforms (paid)
3. Specialist speed and technical tools
4. Keyword research tools
5. Rank tracking tools
Let us take each group in detail.
Google’s official tools: the required starting point
Before you even think about paying for anything, learn Google’s free tools properly and put them to work. They give you data no other product can, because it comes from Google itself.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the most important free SEO tool there is, and every webmaster should have it set up and check it regularly.
What it tells you:
- which keywords users find your site with in Google
- how many times each page appeared in the results (impressions) and how many times it was clicked
- the average position of each page for each keyword
- the click-through rate (CTR) of each page
- indexing problems on your pages
- crawl errors
- Core Web Vitals status
- the links pointing at your site (backlinks)
- your internal links
- sitemap status
What it does not do for you:
- It does not fix technical problems; it only lists them
- It does not raise your rankings; it only shows where you are now
- It does not build backlinks; it only shows the ones you already have
- It does not optimize content; it only shows which pages perform well and which perform badly
A practical example: Say Search Console shows one of your pages appearing 500 times for the keyword web design in Urmia but taking only 5 clicks. That is a 1% CTR, which is very low. The data tells you something is wrong. Maybe the title is not attractive, maybe the meta description is weak. The tool will not tell you what to write instead. That decision and that creativity are yours.
Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics is where you analyze traffic and how visitors behave on the site.
What it tells you:
- how many people visit your site
- where they come from (Google, social, direct, referral)
- which pages they view
- how long they stay
- what your bounce rate is
- conversion rate and the goals you defined
- audience demographics such as age, gender and location
- user behavior along the purchase or conversion path
What it does not do for you:
- It does not increase your traffic; it only shows the traffic you have
- It does not lift your conversion rate; it only shows the current state
- It does not say why visitors leave; it only says which page they exited from
Google Keyword Planner
This free Google tool is for keyword research and is part of Google Ads.
What it tells you:
- monthly search volume for keywords
- related and suggested keywords
- how competitive each keyword is
- projected cost per click in advertising
An important limitation: It shows search volume as a range — 100 to 1,000, for example — not an exact number, unless you run an active ad campaign. Its data is also designed more for advertising than for SEO. Even so, it remains one of the best free places to start keyword research.
Google Trends
Google Trends shows how search interest in a keyword changes over time.
What it is really used for:
- comparing the popularity of several keywords
- spotting seasonality in searches — air conditioner queries peak in summer, for instance
- finding hot, trending topics
- analyzing market trends over time
Example: If you want to know whether searches for web design in Iran are growing or falling, Google Trends shows you that. Making the decision from it is still on you.
Google PageSpeed Insights
This tool analyzes your page load speed and offers suggestions for improving it.
What it reports:
- mobile and desktop speed scores out of 100
- Core Web Vitals status, covering LCP, INP and CLS
- the list of problems and improvement suggestions
- an estimate of how much each fix affects speed
Important note: It lists the problems but does not solve them. It says your images are not optimized, yet it does not compress them itself. It says you have unnecessary CSS, yet it does not delete any. Those are jobs for you or your site’s developer.
Comprehensive SEO and backlink platforms
Now let us get to the professional, paid products. They give you deeper and broader data than Google’s free tools.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the most powerful SEO platforms in the world, and in backlink analysis it has no rival.
Key Ahrefs features:
1. Site Explorer:
- shows every backlink to a site or a single page
- shows referring domains
- shows which pages hold the most backlinks
- shows organic keywords and each page’s position
- estimates the site’s organic traffic
- gives the history of backlink and traffic growth
2. Keywords Explorer:
- exact keyword search volumes
- Keyword Difficulty for each term
- related and suggested keywords
- analysis of the page-one results for each term
- the questions people ask around each keyword
3. Site Audit:
- crawls the site and flags technical problems
- finds broken links
- checks page indexing status
- detects duplicate content
- reviews the state of your meta tags
4. Content Explorer:
- finds popular content on any topic
- shows the pages that earned the most backlinks and shares
- identifies content opportunities
What Ahrefs does not do:
- it builds no backlinks. It only shows where competitors earned theirs; you have to visit those sites yourself, produce something worth linking to and win the link
- it writes no content. It only shows which topics are open opportunities; writing the quality piece is your job
- it does not raise your rankings. It only supplies what you need to make a strategic call
- it guarantees no outcome. Even if you rebuild exactly the same backlinks as a competitor, there is no promise you will take the same position, because many other factors are in play
A practical example of checking competitor backlinks with Ahrefs:
Say you want to see where your main competitor for the keyword web design in Urmia got its backlinks. You enter the rival’s address into Site Explorer and Ahrefs lists every link. You find, for example, that they picked up 3 advertorials on news sites, 5 links from reputable directories and 2 guest posts on relevant blogs.
Now you have that information. You still have to approach those news sites and order the advertorial yourself, write the guest post and pitch it to the blogs yourself, and register in the directories yourself. Ahrefs does none of it for you.
Cost: An Ahrefs subscription starts at $99 a month. The professional plan is $199 and the advanced plan is $399 a month.
Semrush
Semrush is another all-in-one platform that in some areas is even more complete than Ahrefs.
Key Semrush features:
1. Domain Overview:
- estimated organic traffic
- the number of organic keywords
- the number of backlinks
- the main organic competitors
- comparison against those competitors
2. Backlink Analytics:
- the complete backlink list
- anchor texts (the link text itself)
- link type, including Follow and Nofollow
- new and lost backlinks
- backlink profile compared with competitors
3. Backlink Gap:
This one is genuinely useful. Compare your own site with up to 4 competitors and see which sites link to them but not to you. Those are your link-building opportunities.
And let me stress the same point again: Semrush finds the opportunities; using them is on you. You have to put in the time, produce the content, build the relationship and earn the backlink.
4. Keyword Magic Tool:
- the largest keyword database
- smart keyword grouping
- advanced filters by search volume, difficulty and search intent
- the questions tied to each keyword
5. Site Audit:
- a comprehensive crawl of the site
- detection of more than 140 types of technical error
- issues prioritized by impact
- suggestions for fixing them
6. Position Tracking:
- daily tracking of keyword rankings
- comparison with competitors
- rank tracking across devices and locations
7. Content Marketing Toolkit:
- analysis of trending topics
- an SEO check of your content
- suggestions for improving it
Cost: The Pro subscription starts at $129.95 a month. Guru is $249.95 a month and Business is $499.95 a month.
Moz Pro
Moz is one of the oldest names in the SEO industry and offers solid tools for backlink checking and search optimization.
Key Moz features:
- Domain Authority (DA): Moz’s own metric for scoring domain authority from 1 to 100. Keep in mind that DA is not a Google metric; it is a Moz metric, an estimate of domain strength
- Link Explorer: backlinks, referring domains and anchor texts
- Keyword Explorer: keyword research with Moz’s own priority metric
- Site Crawl: technical site review and problem detection
- Rank Tracking: rank tracking for your keywords
An important note on DA: Plenty of people assume Domain Authority is a Google ranking factor. That is wrong. DA is only an estimate from Moz, and Google never uses it. So do not obsess over pushing it up. A high DA is a good signal, but your end goal should not be a bigger DA — it should be real growth in organic traffic and in the business.
Cost: A Moz Pro subscription starts at $99 a month.
Majestic
Majestic is a specialist backlink checker and one of the best at precisely that job.
Majestic’s unique capabilities:
- Trust Flow: measures backlink quality based on the credibility of the linking sites
- Citation Flow: measures the number and volume of backlinks
- Topical Trust Flow: shows which topics the site holds the most link authority in
- Backlink History: a historical chart of backlink growth across the years
- Clique Hunter: finds sites that link to several of your competitors but not to you
The Trust Flow to Citation Flow ratio: One of Majestic’s most useful tricks is reading the TF/CF ratio. If Citation Flow sits far above Trust Flow, the site carries a lot of low-quality backlinks. If the two are close together, the profile is healthier.
Cost: A Majestic subscription starts at $49.99 a month.
Comparing the main backlink checkers
Let us put those four head to head so you know which one suits your needs.
Ahrefs vs Semrush
These two are each other’s biggest rivals, and each has its own strengths.
- Backlink analysis: Ahrefs holds the largest backlink index and leads on this point
- Keyword research: Semrush has the larger database, and its Keyword Magic Tool is very strong
- Technical site audit: both perform well, but Semrush gives more detail
- Competitor analysis: Semrush has more tools for it
- Interface: Ahrefs is simpler and faster. Semrush does more but is also more complex
- Cost: Ahrefs starts a little cheaper, but the higher packages are priced similarly
My recommendation: If your focus is link building and analyzing competitor backlinks, Ahrefs is the better choice. If you need a broader platform that also covers keyword research, competitor analysis and content marketing, Semrush is.
Moz vs Majestic
- Moz is the broader platform: alongside backlinks it carries keyword research and technical audit tools
- Majestic is the specialist: it concentrates on backlinks alone, but works deeper and more precisely in that lane
- If your budget is tight and all you need is backlink checking, Majestic is cheaper and the better fit
Free and freemium backlink checkers
When there is no budget for a paid platform, there are still free and freemium options.
Ubersuggest
Neil Patel’s tool, which has a limited free version.
- backlink checking with a cap on the number of links
- keyword research
- technical site audit
- competitor traffic analysis
Free version limits: The number of daily searches is capped and the data is not as complete as the paid platforms. It is still good for starting out and getting familiar with the concepts.
Paid version cost: It starts at $29 a month, which is far cheaper than Ahrefs or Semrush.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free)
Ahrefs also ships a free version that lets webmasters check their own site, not their competitors’.
- backlink review of your own site
- technical audit of your own site
- the organic keywords of your own site
Limit: It works on your own site only; you cannot research competitors with it. Still, it is an excellent place to start.
OpenLinkProfiler
A free tool for checking backlinks:
- shows live backlinks
- filters by link type
- shows the anchor texts
Limit: Its database is smaller than the paid tools’, so the data may not be complete.
Small SEO Tools
A bundle of free utilities covering backlink checks, DA and PA analysis and site speed checks. Fine for a quick, shallow look, but not enough for serious analysis.
Other specialist tools you should know
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
A desktop crawler for technical site audits, very popular among SEO specialists.
What it does:
- crawls every page of the site
- finds broken links
- checks title and meta tags
- shows the redirects
- detects duplicate content
- visualizes the site structure
Free version: Up to 500 URLs are free. The paid version is $259 a year.
Note: Screaming Frog finds problems but does not fix them. You have to know what each problem is worth and how to resolve it. It may surface 500 issues and only 10 of them will genuinely matter. Deciding which ones do is the SEO specialist’s work, not the tool’s.
Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft’s free tool for analyzing user behavior:
- heatmaps
- session recordings
- rage click detection
- scroll analysis of pages
It shows how people actually interact with your site. Deciding and acting on that information is still your job.
GTmetrix
A site speed and performance analysis tool:
- performance and structure scores
- a waterfall chart of the page load
- optimization recommendations
- performance compared across devices and locations
Schema Markup Validator
Google’s tool for checking the correctness of a site’s schema markup. If you use schema, verify the implementation with it.
How to use competitor backlink checkers properly
Now say you have bought one of these, or you are working on a free tier. The main question is what to do with the data in front of you.
Step 1: identify the real competitors
First you need to know who you actually compete with in Google. An SEO competitor is not necessarily a business competitor. Your SEO competitors are the sites ranking on page one for your target keywords.
Example: If you are a web designer in Urmia, your SEO competitors include other web design sites in Urmia and also large national sites that rank for the keyword web design.
Step 2: analyze the competitor’s backlink profile
Enter each competitor’s site into the tool and review:
- Backlink count: how many backlinks does it have?
- Referring domains: how many different sites link to it? The number of unique domains matters more than the total link count
- Link quality: are the links from reputable sites or from low-quality ones?
- Link type: advertorial, guest post, directory, comment, profile or natural link?
- Anchor texts: what text do those links use? Is there natural variety, or is every link on the same anchor?
- Link growth speed: did the backlinks accumulate gradually or all at once?
Step 3: identify the opportunities
After the analysis, work out the link-building opportunities:
- Sites that link to several competitors but not to you: you can probably win a link from them too
- The content that attracted the most backlinks: what kind of content earns natural links? You can produce something similar but better
- Link sources your competitors have not used: you may find new sources they never thought of
Step 4: take practical action
And this is where the tool stops and the real work begins:
- write an action plan for every link opportunity
- reach out to the site owners
- produce quality content that is worth linking to
- order advertorials
- write guest posts
- join reputable forums and directories
- wait and keep watching the results
No tool performs any of these actions. It gave you the roadmap; the driving is yours.
Common mistakes in using SEO tools
Years of working with all kinds of people and companies have shown me the same repeated mistakes with these platforms. Let us go through the important ones.
1. Obsessing over tool numbers
A lot of people become obsessed with their site’s DA, its DR or its Semrush score. These are third-party estimates, each vendor calculating them differently, and Google uses none of them to rank anything.
Your DA might be 30 while a site with DA 15 outranks you, because Google’s ranking factors are far more complicated than one simple number.
2. Blindly copying competitors
Some people look at a competitor’s backlinks and rebuild exactly those. This approach has several problems:
- the site that linked to the competitor may have fallen in quality since then
- the competitor’s link may have been built years ago and carry a different value today
- the competitor may rank because of content, site speed or user experience rather than links alone
- rebuilding exactly the same links can produce an unnatural pattern
3. Focusing too much on backlink count
Quality matters far more than quantity. 10 links from reputable, relevant sites beat 1,000 links from low-quality, irrelevant ones. Tools show the count, but judging the real quality of each link is the SEO specialist’s job.
4. Ignoring the context
Tools display numbers and data, but they do not understand context. For example:
- a tool shows a competitor gained 100 new backlinks in one month. Is that good? Maybe they published something viral, maybe they bought spam links. The tool cannot tell the two apart
- a tool shows a site with high DA, but that site may be in the middle of a Google penalty and its DA may not have refreshed yet
5. Buying a tool without knowing how to use it
One of the most common mistakes is buying an expensive tool without knowing how to use it. The money goes to waste, nothing comes of it, and then people say the tool is worthless.
The tool is not worthless. What is missing is the knowledge and experience to interpret the data and act on it.
6. Expecting instant results
Some assume that because they bought a tool and analyzed the competitors, results should come quickly. SEO is a long-term process. Even with the best analysis run on the best tools, real results usually take 3 to 6 months.
Which tool should you pick? Choosing by need and budget
Depending on your business situation and your budget, different combinations of these tools make sense.
For beginners and tight budgets (free)
- Google Search Console (required)
- Google Analytics 4 (required)
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Microsoft Clarity
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free version)
- Ubersuggest (free version)
This combination is free and completely enough to start with. Many SEO specialists began with exactly these free tools.
For freelancers and small businesses
- All the free tools above
- Paid Ubersuggest ($29 a month) or Ahrefs Lite ($99 a month)
- Free Screaming Frog
For SEO agencies and mid-sized businesses
- All the free tools
- Ahrefs Standard ($199 a month) or Semrush Guru ($249.95 a month)
- Paid Screaming Frog
- Majestic for deeper backlink analysis (optional)
For large companies
- All the free tools
- Ahrefs Advanced or Enterprise
- Semrush Business
- Paid Screaming Frog
- Majestic
- Dedicated rank tracking tools
An honest word about SEO tools
I want to say one thing very plainly. I have worked with these tools for years and I value them. But their real value only appears when:
- You have SEO knowledge: if you do not know the difference between a Follow and a Nofollow backlink, Ahrefs cannot help you
- You have a strategy: if you do not know which keywords to target, no tool can help
- You take action: the best analysis with no action behind it is useless
- You are patient: SEO takes time and no tool changes that fact
- You produce quality content: no tool replaces excellent content
I use a mix of these tools on my own projects, but I always tell my clients the same thing: the tools are 10% of the job. The other 90% is knowledge, experience, creativity, patience and hard work.
The real SEO process: where the tool fits
Let us see exactly where a tool is used in a real SEO process, and where human work is required.
Step 1: research and initial analysis
Tool: keyword research in Semrush or Ahrefs, competitor analysis and a read of the site’s current state
Human work: interpreting the data, choosing the target keywords, setting the strategy and prioritizing
Step 2: technical optimization
Tool: identifying technical problems with Screaming Frog and PageSpeed Insights
Human work: fixing those problems, optimizing speed, correcting site structure and clearing errors
Step 3: content production
Tool: finding related topics and keywords
Human work: writing quality, practical, original content that solves a real problem for the user
Step 4: link building
Tool: identifying backlink opportunities from competitor analysis
Human work: reaching out to sites, producing valuable content, negotiating, and writing the advertorial and the guest post
Step 5: ongoing monitoring and optimization
Tool: tracking rankings, traffic and backlinks
Human work: analyzing the results, adjusting the strategy, updating content and continuing to build links
As you can see, at every stage the tool does only a small part of the work, and the larger and more important part is human.
Conclusion
SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Majestic and Google’s free products are all excellent. They put data and insight in your hands. Without them, doing SEO would be like driving at night with no headlights.
But never forget this: These tools are only the headlights, not the driver. They light up the road, but driving it is still yours. They do not build backlinks, write content, solve technical problems or raise your rankings.
You get the most from them when:
- you learn the SEO fundamentals first
- you have a clear strategy
- you use the tool for research and analysis
- you take practical action based on the data
- you stay patient and monitor the results
- you adjust the strategy based on those results
If you need consulting or professional help with SEO, competitor analysis and link building, I can help. With more than 7 years of experience and 74 successful projects, I know how to use these tools correctly and turn them into real results for your business.
Get in touch through my website or my social networks.
Omid Bodagh | SEO, web design and digital marketing specialist
Omid Bodagh
I am an SEO specialist who likes helping businesses get seen on Google. From WordPress to SEO, whatever an online business needs to grow, I can help with it.
