The 16 Best On-Page SEO Tools

02 Aug 2023

The 16 Best On-Page SEO Tools

When you first start assembling your on-page SEO arsenal, you will soon realize there are dozens, sometimes even hundreds of tools that appear to do the exact same thing.

How do you choose just one in this vast sea of options? How can you tell which one is the best?

Let’s take a look at the different kinds of on-page SEO tools available, as well as the 16 tools we find to be the best ones on the market.

Types of On-Page SEO Tools

On-page optimization is a complex process that requires you to pay attention to lots of small details and do lots of research. There is a tool out there for practically every aspect of on-page SEO. You can find:

Keyword research and optimization tools
Content optimization tools
Meta element optimization tools
Ranking trackers
Internal link optimization tools
Website crawlers

You can also categorize on-page SEO tools into free and paid ones. A lot of them offer a free trial before asking you to commit to a monthly subscription. You will also often find several subscription tiers, providing access to certain features of the tool.

Most tools in the same category work in similar ways. For example, keyword and content optimization tools will analyze the top ranking pages for your keyword and provide recommendations based on them.

A lot of on-page SEO tools rely on artificial intelligence, and a lot of them also come with AI writers that can help you further automate your optimization processes.

What To Look For In An On-Page SEO Tool

When choosing your on-page SEO tool, take a moment to consider the following:

Available features
Available integrations
Pricing
Number of simultaneous users
User reviews
Support availability
Your SEO expertise

You don’t want to choose a tool that requires a high level of SEO knowledge if you are a complete beginner. If you want your entire team to be able to use the tool at the same time, check how many seats it offers, and whether you need to pay extra for them.

To save you the trouble of checking each tool’s reliability yourself, we’ve compiled a list of 16 on-page SEO tools that can help you achieve your business and marketing goals. Here they all are, in no particular order:

Google Search Console

Google Search Console, formerly known as Webmaster Tools, is a free tool every website owner should have. It’s a great way to track your rankings, stay on top of indexation and technical issues and uncover ideas for future improvements.

Search Console is arguably the most accurate tool you can use, as it does not rely on third-party data. It will tell you how many of your pages have and have not been indexed and why. It will alert you to any 404s and broken links.

You can use Search Console to request the indexing of pages, and you can also submit a sitemap through it. You can also check your Core Web Vitals scores and monitor mobile usability.

Search Console will tell you how many clicks and impressions your website gets, and will show you where you rank for which keyword. It can thus be used to identify keywords and pages to focus on. While it can’t help you find new keywords, it can teach you practically everything you need to know about your audience and how they interact with your website, in collaboration with Google Analytics.

Use your Search Console to monitor the effectiveness of other tools. For example, if you are seeing a lot of impressions for a keyword but not too many clicks, maybe you need to rethink your title and meta description. You can also spot keywords a page has not been optimized for but is ranking for well. A bit of re-optimization can boost its performance even further.

Pricing

Free

Rank Logic

Rank Logic is a WordPress plugin that automatically tracks your keywords. You will need to connect it to your Search Console to use it.

Rank Logic helps you monitor the keywords you are ranking for, how your rankings have changed over time and how each page is performing. It’s arguably easier to use than Search Console, as you can use the various filters to pinpoint the precise data you are looking for.

You will be shown keyword positions, clicks and impressions, but you can also monitor click-through rates. You can choose a date range you want to analyze data for too.

Rank Logic also lets you check how posts from a single author or a group of authors are performing. You can group posts together and see how a content cluster is ranking.

One of the best features of Rank Logic is that it automatically tracks all on-page events. If you change a title or add internal links, you will know exactly how it has impacted your rankings.

It’s a great tool for analyzing large volumes of data from a single, easy-to-use interface.

Pricing

$67 per year for 1 website
$107 per year for 3 websites
$157 per year for 10 websites
No free trial
30-day money-back guarantee

Link Whisper

Link Whisper is an internal link plugin available for both WordPress and Shopify. It can help you improve your internal linking strategy with numerous features that will save you both time and effort.

It has an AI-powered automated link suggestion feature, which will suggest relevant internal links as you type. It also has an automatic linking feature. Choose an anchor text and the URLs you want it to link to, and Link Whisper will add the internal links for you.

You can also use the tool to find pages that have no or few incoming internal links. This makes it super easy to add internal links to your old posts, and add links into them too. You can also find any 404 pages or broken links using Link Whisper.

The reporting feature provides an overview of your incoming and outgoing internal links, as well as incoming and outgoing external links. There’s also the option to connect Link Whisper to your Search Console. This lets you see traffic and ranking data, so you can identify pages that need a bit more effort poured into them.

Link Whisper is the only internal link tool you need. It can significantly improve the rankings and performance of your pages, and save you a lot of manual labor.

Pricing

$77 per year for 1 website
$117 per year for 3 websites
$167 per year for 10 websites
No free trial
30-day money-back guarantee

Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is an all-in-one on-page SEO tool you can use to automate your keyword research and significantly speed up your content creation processes. It relies on AI to offer the most relevant information that will have the most impact on your rankings.

One of Surfer’s main features is their Keyword Research tool. All you have to do is choose the page you want to rank for a specific keyword. It then analyzes the top ranking results in SERPs for this keyword and generates a comprehensive report. You can even choose which pages to exclude from the report.

You will get a list of keywords your page is missing or contains too many of. You will also be told how many partial or exact match keywords you need to add, whether you need more images or paragraphs or more words on your page. There’s even insight about page loading speed.

The Content Editor can be used to build an article outline. It has a very user-friendly interface that helps you keep track of the number of words, paragraphs, images, links and keywords you still need to add. It will score all of your articles too, so you can use it to upgrade your old content, not just create new pages.

Surfer also has an audit tool, and they have recently added an AI writing tool too, which can automate the entire content creation and optimization process for you.

Surfer SEO is a great all-in-one on-page solution. While it will take a couple of uses to understand how it works, it’s very easy to use and makes on-page optimization very simple.

Pricing

Starting at $89 per month for a monthly subscription
Yearly subscriptions come with significant discounts
Add-ons also available
7-day money-back guarantee

Clearscope

Clearscope is another AI-powered on-page SEO tool. It helps you optimize content by analyzing search intent, and provides recommendations for the keywords and phrases you need to include in your content to make it more engaging.

You can compare the rankings of your content with your competitors, and see what you need to change to perform better.

Clearscope will grade your writing and tell you what the minimal grade you should be aiming for is. It also provides a readability score and tells you how many words the page should have. It’s easy to integrate into WordPress or Google Docs, so you can write where you prefer to with ease.

The tool operates in real time, and it’s easy to keep track of the keywords you’ve already included and where.

Clearscope is easy to use and offers valuable on-page optimization insight. It’s not as powerful as Surfer SEO, but can be a very good alternative if you are looking for a product with fewer features.

Pricing

Starting at $170 per month
Has two higher custom pricing tiers
Easy to switch plans
Cancel any time

Frase

Frase is another AI-powered tool that can help you create better, more optimized content.

It has a SERP research feature that analyzes top-ranking results. It tells you the domain rating, word count and header count for the pages you are competing against.

You can use this research to generate an article outline with the help of AI. It will use the headings and subheadings from competing pages, but you can also ask it to generate original ones.

Frase now also has an AI Writer, which can generate content automatically, based on the outline you’ve already created. You can however use it to optimize content you have written yourself. You will get keyword recommendations and their frequency of use.

If you are looking for a tool that can automate practically all of the content generation process, Frase can be a good option. While not as powerful as Surfer, it is a good tool to start out with.

Pricing

$14.99 per month for 4 articles
$44.99 per month for 30 articles
$114.99 for unlimited articles
Unlimited AI Writer add-on available for $35 per month
5-day free trial

On-Page

On-Page is another tool that uses AI to help you optimize your content.

All you have to do is enter the keyword you are looking to rank for, add your page if you want to, and you’ll receive a list of keywords you should add to your content.

You can use the Topical Keyword Tool to build authority and create more relevant content. When you enter your chosen keyword, you’ll get a list of topically aligned keywords you should incorporate into your page. Great for creating content clusters and matching search intent.

On-Page also has a Highly Related Words feature that will tell you what terms your competing pages have not used, but that are highly relevant to the topic and can give you an added edge.

The tool also has a new Auto-Optimizer feature that will automatically add relevant keywords to your content. Another new feature is the Stealth AI Writer, which you can use to automatically generate articles that should pass AI detection tools.

On-Page is another good option for (semi)automated on-page optimization. Its main edge is that it crawls the web as you go, so you’ll always get the freshest results for your queries.

Pricing

Starts at $129 per month with limited features
The Stealth AI Writer is included from packages of $229 per month and higher
7-day money-back guarantee

Page Optimizer Pro

Page Optimizer Pro, or POP, is a suite of on-page SEO tools. To start optimizing, you will need to add your chosen keyword, select the language and region you are targeting, and answer a few more basic questions. The tool then does its analytical magic, and you are given an optimization to-do list.

POP’s key features include the Content Brief, which creates a brief for writers to work off of; the Content Editor, that lets you edit a page and tick tasks off the to-do list; and Content Prompts, which provides topical suggestions for keywords and headings, and helps you build your topical clusters.

POP also has a Chrome extension that you can use within Google Docs, WordPress or Shopify. They also have a Watchdog feature, which will monitor your pages and alert you if there are modifications that need to be made.

The tool can also be used to increase your E-E-A-T scores, and you can also use their Schema optimization tool to generate schemas similar to what your top competitors are using.

POP is a good all-in-one tool with some unique features you should definitely check out before making your final choice.

Pricing

Starts at $27 per month with limited credits
7-day free trial for the Basic plan
The unlimited plan is $490 per year
You can also purchase additional credits for the smaller plans

Neuron Writer

Neuron Writer can help you write better content by providing relevant phrases and identifying (and overcoming) any topical knowledge gaps.

It will analyze the headlines of your competing articles, as well as the most relevant questions from Google itself. You can use it to create content outlines and can skip the research entirely, leaving all of it in Neuron Writer’s hands.

This tool also has a Content Score, based on key SEO parameters. It comes with an easy checklist to follow, and is based on the top 30 ranking pages for your keyword.

As you might have expected, Neuron Writer also has its own AI writer too, which currently uses GPT-3 to generate content. You can use templates to help you write, or you can ask the writer to help you overcome writer’s block and provide prompts.

You can use the tool for content planning and management purposes too, and it can help you streamline the publishing process as well.

A good choice if you want to get help with both content writing and planning, alongside on-page optimization.

Pricing

Starts at €19 per month with a limited amount of credits
There is currently a lifetime deal on AppSumo for just $69

Market Muse

Market Muse analyzes your website and provides personalized AI-based insights on how to improve your content. It’s not really an on-page optimization tool per se, but its content analysis can significantly aid your optimization efforts.

It can analyze your competitors and show you the structure, headings, keywords and links of the top ranking posts.

Its keyword research tool differs from the others on our list, as the results are grouped into clusters, which make it easier to select the right ones. The difficulty score you get is also personalized for your website, and will reflect how difficult it is for you to rank for a term, not how demanding the keyword is in general.

You can also use it for writing briefs and planning out your content, and it has a ChatGPT integration that can speed up your writing process.

A good choice if you are looking for something a bit different than your standard on-page optimization tool and you need help with improving the quality of your content.

Pricing

Starts at $150 per month for the standard plan
You can also create a free account and get 10 queries per month
There is a 7-day free trial

Semrush SEO Writing Assistant

If you are already using SEMRush for website audits or keyword analysis, you will want to try out their SEO Writing Assistant.

It will give you a list of must-have keywords to target, as well as recommend keywords that can help you rank even higher. It rates the readability and engagement of your content, and ensures you maintain a consistent tone of voice throughout. It also recommends a target word count.

It features a built-in plagiarism checker, so you won’t need to use another tool to ensure originality. It can also be integrated with Google Docs, WordPress and MS Word, in case you prefer to write there.

Definitely check it out if you are an SEMRush user. If not, this feature alone is not enough to justify the cost of the entire suite, but if you need an all-in-one SEO tool that comes with an optimization assistant, this is a good option.

Notable Mentions

While the above 11 tools should cover all of your on-page SEO bases, here are 5 more you can consider:

Screaming Frog

Screaming Frog is considered the best technical SEO tool, but you can also use it for on-page optimization. It’s an SEO spider that will crawl your website and provide a vast amount of information about its pages.

You can use it to check for redirects, redirect chains and redirect loops, broken links, page titles and other meta elements. It can also identify missing elements.

While the sheer amount of data may be confusing for beginners, it’s easy to get the hang of the tool’s interface. It doesn’t offer any automation or analysis features, so you will need to do the legwork yourself.

Pricing

$256 per year
There is also a free option available with a 500-URL crawl limit and fewer features

Yoast

Yoast is a plugin you can use on both WordPress and Shopify websites.

It lets you easily manage meta and title elements, but you can also use it for redirects, canonicals, uploading your sitemap and managing your robots.txt file.

Yoast will also let you know if the page is well optimized for the target keyword you selected, and it will also score its readability.

Pricing

€99 EUR per year (ex. VAT) for the Premium version
There is also a free version available that we highly recommend

Rank Math

Rank Math is another WordPress plugin that offers numerous on-page optimization features.

It is famous for helping you track rankings, but you can also use it for SEO audits, generating Schema, generating sitemaps, bulk editing page elements, etc. There are literally hundreds of features in total.

If you are looking for an all-in-one SEO plugin, and not just an on-page optimization tool, check out Rank Math.

Pricing

Starts at $59 for the first year, plus VAT (renews at $69)
Comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee

Schema Markup Validator

The Schema Markup Validator does just one thing: it lets you check the Schema of any page and shows you where the errors are (if any). It’s the best tool for this one purpose, and you can easily access it online – no installation or downloads required.

Pricing

Free

WooRank

WooRank is another more-in-one SEO tool that has both an on-page SEO checker, a keyword research and tracking feature, and the option to do technical audits.

It ticks all the most important SEO boxes, like keyword density, keyword trends and rankings fluctuations, but it also helps you manage your robots.txt file, sitemap and page speed.

A good tool to have, especially if you are looking for a solid multitasker.

Pricing

Starts at €89.99 per month
If you choose a yearly subscription, you get 4 months for free
3-day free trial

How To Choose The Best On-Page SEO Tool

Now that you know what’s available, sit down and consider your needs. Write down the features that matter to you the most. Also consider how much you can spend on SEO tools per month.

Ideally, you want to try out several tools before you commit to one in the long term. Use the free trial opportunities and actually spend some time exploring the features and getting to know the interface. How satisfied are you with the workflow and the results you are getting? If you find the tool difficult to use, read and watch any tutorials the company has provided.

If your budget is tight, consider getting a lower subscription plan. It may mean you aren’t able to use the higher-tier features, but you may not need them to begin with.

Don’t commit to a yearly subscription right away. Give yourself a month or two to make certain you have chosen the right tool. If you end up changing your mind, you will easily be able to switch to a different solution.

Note that building a reliable and versatile SEO tool arsenal takes time, often several years. Stay on top of any developments in the industry, and check out the new solutions that keep popping up.

Take advantage of free trials and discounts (like our $10 off!) and cross-reference data. Make a note which tool you have used to optimize which page. If one tool keeps getting you the best results, your choice is an obvious one.

Key Takeaways

Getting on-page optimization right is crucial for ranking well and attracting qualified traffic. The tools on our list can help you save time and effort, and make the process easier. Carefully consider your on-page needs, and pick a tool that you like using. You don’t want to turn SEO into a tedious process you hate.