Search Engine Optimization

SEO tools for small businesses: free tools first, paid suites later

8 min readBy Davinder Kumar Meen

A tool roll of screwdrivers beside two laptops and a notepad

Most small businesses can run good SEO on free tools: Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for search data from the engines themselves, PageSpeed Insights for speed, a crawler such as the free version of Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs) for site checks, and Google Keyword Planner for keyword ideas. A paid suite such as Semrush or Ahrefs is worth its monthly price when you need competitor research, backlink data for other sites or rank tracking at scale. Start free, learn what questions you keep asking, then pay for the tool that answers them.

Key takeaways

  • Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are the only tools that show data from the search engines themselves (queries, clicks, impressions, indexing). Set up both before anything else.
  • Bing Webmaster Tools can import sites already verified in Search Console, and since February 2026 it has an AI Performance report (public preview) that counts citations of your pages in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI answers.
  • PageSpeed Insights combines Lighthouse lab tests with real-user field data from the Chrome User Experience Report, where your site has enough traffic.
  • As of October 2026, Screaming Frog's paid licence is £199 a year; Semrush's SEO plans start at $139 a month and Ahrefs' Lite plan at $129 a month on monthly billing. Both suites have free tiers with limits.
  • Third-party traffic and keyword numbers are estimates. Your own Search Console data is the reference.

Which free SEO tools should every small business set up?

Five tools cover most needs. Our 2020 version of this post listed Google Analytics, Moz, "Bing and Google", Screaming Frog and Keyword Planner; the list below keeps what still holds and swaps in the engines' own webmaster tools.

Tool What it answers Cost (as of October 2026)
Google Search Console Which queries and pages get impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed and why others are not, links to your site, alerts about indexing and spam problems Free
Bing Webmaster Tools The same for Bing, plus an AI Performance report for Copilot and Bing AI answers, backlink data and IndexNow support No charge to use
PageSpeed Insights How fast a page loads in a lab test and, if data exists, for real Chrome users Free
Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version) Broken links, redirects, missing titles and descriptions, duplicate pages, across up to 500 URLs Free up to 500 URLs; £199 per year for the licence
Google Keyword Planner Keyword ideas and monthly search estimates Needs a Google Ads account with billing set up

Google Search Console

Google describes it as "a free service offered by Google" that "helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results". It is where you confirm Google can crawl and index your pages, see which queries show your site, request indexing after a fix and receive alerts. If you only set up one tool, set up this one. Our Search Console guide walks through the reports, including how AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic is counted.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing's own comparison post lists Search Performance, URL Inspection, Sitemaps, Site Explorer, backlinks "for any sites" and IndexNow. Two reasons to bother even if most of your traffic comes from Google:

  1. Setup takes minutes. You can import sites already verified in Search Console instead of verifying again (up to 100 per batch).
  2. AI citation data. Bing announced the AI Performance report as a public preview on 10 February 2026. It shows total citations, cited pages, a sample of "grounding queries" and page-level citation counts across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and selected partners. It is one of the few places a search engine reports AI citations directly; it does not show clicks. For the wider method, see measuring AI search traffic.

IndexNow, which Bing supports, is "a free, open-source protocol" for telling search engines when a URL changes. The IndexNow FAQ lists Amazon, Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yandex and Yep as participating engines; Google is not on that list.

PageSpeed Insights

PSI "uses Lighthouse to analyze the given URL in a simulated environment", and its real-user data comes from the Chrome User Experience Report over a trailing 28 days. The two often disagree: the lab test is a single simulated load, the field data is what visitors actually experienced. Small sites often have no field data at all. For WordPress fixes, see speeding up a WordPress site.

A crawler

A crawler visits your site the way a search engine does and lists technical problems: broken links, redirect chains, missing or duplicate titles, pages blocked by robots rules. Screaming Frog's free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which covers most small-business sites. The paid licence costs £199 per licence per year as of October 2026 and removes the 500-URL limit.

Keyword research for free

Google Keyword Planner gives keyword ideas and monthly search estimates. Google's help page says you must complete Google Ads account setup, including billing information, to use it; you do not need to run ads. Search Console's own query data is often more useful: it shows the searches you already appear for.

When is a paid SEO suite worth it?

Pay when a free tool cannot answer a question you ask every month. The common ones:

Question Free answer Paid suite answer
What do people search for, and how often? Keyword Planner estimates; Search Console for your own queries Larger keyword databases with difficulty estimates and question variants
Who links to my competitors? Not available (Search Console and Bing show your own links; Bing shows some for other sites) Backlink indexes for any domain
Which keywords do competitors rank for? Not available Estimated rankings and traffic for any domain
How do my rankings move across many keywords? Search Console average position (by query and page) Daily rank tracking by location and device
Is my site technically healthy? Free crawler up to 500 URLs Scheduled site audits with history

Prices as of October 2026, from the vendors' own pricing pages (monthly billing; annual billing is cheaper):

  • Semrush: SEO plans from $139 a month. A free plan allows one demo project and 10 reports per day.
  • Ahrefs: the Lite plan is $129 a month. "Ahrefs Free" (formerly Ahrefs Webmaster Tools) gives a site audit and backlink and keyword data for websites you verify, with limits such as 5,000 crawl credits per project per month.
  • Moz Pro is another established suite; check Moz's pricing page for current plans, as we could not retrieve it for this article.

All three are good products, and each has strengths the others lack; the right one is the one whose data you will actually open. Try the free tiers on your own site first, then buy one month of the paid plan for a specific project, such as a competitor review before a redesign.

What do SEO tools not tell you?

Three limits matter for small businesses:

  1. Third-party numbers are estimates. Traffic and keyword volumes in paid suites are modelled by each vendor, not taken from Google. Treat them as direction, not fact. Your Search Console and analytics data is the reference for your own site.
  2. Scores are not rankings. "Authority" scores and site-health percentages are each vendor's own metric. Google does not use them.
  3. Tools find problems; people fix them. A crawl report with 300 warnings is only useful once someone decides which ten matter. Our free website audit explains what an automated check can and cannot judge.

What does a sensible small-business tool stack look like?

For a site under a few hundred pages:

  1. Week one: verify the site in Search Console, import it into Bing Webmaster Tools, submit the sitemap in both.
  2. Monthly: review Search Console's performance and page-indexing reports, check the Bing AI Performance report, run PageSpeed Insights on the home page and the key landing pages, and crawl the site with the free crawler.
  3. Quarterly or before a redesign: a one-month paid suite for competitor and backlink research.
  4. Ongoing: GA4 (or another analytics tool) for what visitors do after they arrive. It is an analytics tool, not an SEO tool, but you need it to see which search visits turn into enquiries.

If you would rather have someone run this for you, our SEO services use the same free tools first and add paid data only where it changes a decision.

FAQ

Is Google Search Console enough on its own?

For many small sites, it covers most needs: indexing, queries, clicks and links. Add Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing and AI citation data, and a crawler for technical checks.

Do I need to pay for Keyword Planner?

No payment is needed to use it, but Google requires a Google Ads account with billing information completed before you can access its keyword ideas.

Is Bing worth the effort for a small business?

Setup is quick if you import from Search Console, and Bing's AI Performance report shows how often Copilot and Bing AI answers cite your pages.

Which paid suite is best: Semrush or Ahrefs?

Both are strong for keyword, competitor and backlink research. Try both free tiers on your own site and compare the data you actually use; the price difference matters less than the fit.

How accurate are traffic estimates in SEO tools?

They are modelled estimates and can differ a lot from real numbers. Use your own Search Console and analytics data for your site.

Does Google use Moz, Semrush or Ahrefs scores?

No. Domain and authority scores are each vendor's own metrics, not Google signals.

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