Top Digital Marketing Tools - 2019

SEO TOOLS

QUICKSPROUT WEBSITE ANALYZER

https://www.quicksprout.com/ The QuickSprout tool is an extremely helpful website analysis tool. Just connect your Google Analytics with the tool and it’ll analyze your site’s SEO visibility, social shares, web page loading speed, and more.

SEO & WEBSITE ANALYSIS

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seo-website-analysis/hlngmmdolgbdnnimbmblfhhndibdipaf?hl=en This free Chrome extension gives you important SEO info from within your browser.

Just click a button and the SEO & Website Analysis by WooRank analyzes your page’s basic SEO metrics (like title tags that are too long). But the tool also hooks you up with other helpful info (like whether your site is mobile optimized and how fast it loads).

SEMrush

http://www.semrush.com/ SEMRush is one of the few SEO tools that I couldn’t live without. Unlike most keyword research tools, SEMRush works by showing you your competitor’s top keywords.

Ahrefs

https://ahrefs.com/ The best link analysis tool on the market…by a mile.

Ahrefs has a massive index (over a trilion links) that’s updated at least once a day. It’s also super duper simply to use.

DAREBOOST

https://www.dareboost.com/en/home Dareboost is a robust website performance testing tool. Not only does the tool size up your site’s loading speed, but it tells you EXACTLY how you can fix issues that are slowing things down.

GOOGLE MOBILE-FRIENDLY TEST

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ Google recently started to downrank sites that aren’t mobile friendly. But how do you know if a page on your site is up to snuff? Just enter the URL into the Google Mobile-Friendly Test Tool…and you’ll get a simple “yes/no” answer from Big G.

GTmetrix

https://gtmetrix.com/ Google Page Speed Insights checks your site’s code. GTmetrix actually loads your site. When I want to judge my site’s real loading speed, I always defer to GTmetrix. It also gives you recommendations for getting your site up to speed (literally).

DATA, INSIGHTS AND BLOGS

GLOBAL DIGITAL STATISTICS 2015

http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/ Set of free statistics around digital usage and adoption globally produced by agency We Are Social. Has data broken down by region and country and is beautifully presented.

RF INTENT INDEX

http://www.intentindex.com/ Great visual guide to why people use the Internet updated quarterly. Note: Based on US data.

THINK WITH GOOGLE

http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/ Comprehensive collection of free case studies, reports and insights tools looks at digital marketing globally. The “Planning Tools” section is the most useful, hosting a range of brilliant tools like Google Trends and Our Mobile Planet, both of which are highlighted.

SMART INSIGHTS

http://www.smartinsights.com An excellent resource on all things digital. There is a free blog and some additional content is available for registering. There is also premium content for paying members.

ECONSULTANCY

http://www.econsultancy.com A paid membership site with lots of good quality digital resources. The free blog is very widely read and is contributed to by a wide range of writers. There are numerous posts a day and great place to ﬁnd out about the latest news and changes in the digital world.

SEARCH

GOOGLE TRENDS

http://www.google.co.uk/trends Demonstrates trends in search over time in Google. Can be interrogated by search term, location and date range. Use the “Explore in depth” option from the homepage. A free tool and no Google account required.

OPEN SITE EXPLORER

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/ Tool that analyses the quantity and quality of links to a website for SEO purposes. Part of the MOZ website that offers a range of paid for SEO tools. However Open Site Explorer can be used for free 3 times a day but requires a Moz membership for further usage.

KEYWORD PLANNER

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner Keyword research tool that is part of the Google PPC system. Tells you the volume of searches within Google for a particular search terms and shows search variations. Also shows various PPC speciﬁc data, like suggested big cost, but can also be used for SEO purposes. Requires Google Adwords account (free), but not budget spend is required.

PAGERANK CHECKER

http://www.prchecker.info/ A free tool to look up the Google PageRank for any particular website or page. PageRank is a measure of the quantity and quality of links to a website but its use is now limited for SEO purposes.

GOOGLE WEBMASTERS

https://www.google.com/webmasters/ A set of free resources from Google on search optimisation that includes Webmaster Tools. Webmaster Tools offers a range of options for improving your website and includes many fathers that can help with SEO. Once Webmaster Tools is setup, you can connect it to your Google Analytics account and get increases visibility of search terms that people are using to ﬁnd your website (a current limitation of Google Analytics due to the “not provided” issue on the keywords report). You can ﬁnd more detail on getting Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools working together here: https://support.google.com/ webmasters/answer/1120006?hl=en

SERANKING

http://seranking.com/ Great rank checking tool that is very easy to use. Allows you to monitor your ranking positions across all major search engines ands has a range of useful features like an API, white labelling of reports and a PHP version. It also offers website auditing and backlink monitoring. Free trial and then monthly fee (with a very low cost individual version).

SOCIAL MEDIA

KLOUT

http://www.klout.com Klout is a free tool that gives social media accounts a score out of 100 to judge their level of inﬂuence. It also now suggest content that may be of interest to your social audience and allows you to post and schedule this content.

TWTRLAND

http://www.twtrland.com Twtrland is a Twitter analysis told that allows you search by account, location or other keyword and analyse Twitter accounts to understand followers, levels of engagement and most popular Tweets. Free with paid for options to extend functionality.

HOOTSUITE

http://www.hootsuite.com Hootsuite allows you to manage multiple social media platforms from one interface. It also provides functionality like scheduling and team task assignment. There is a free version, a low cost version and an ‘enterprise’ edition for larger teams.

SOCIAL MENTION

http://www.socialmetion.com A free social media monitoring tool. There are a wide range of commercially available social media monitoring tools but very few free ones. Social Mention is limit din the results it provides but does demonstrate how these tools work.

BRANDWATCH

http://www.brandwatch.com Although there are a wide range of commercial social media monitoring tools, BrandWatch is one of the best and most effective at carry out effective sentiment analysis. This kind of service is suitable for brands or topics that have thousands of mentions per month and pricing starts at £500 per month.

FEEDLY

http://www.feedly.com Feedly is a blog syndication tool - that means it allows you to ﬁnd blogs on a topic and bring the latest blog posts into once easy to use interface. There is also an app that means you can stay up to date on any mobile device. You can also share any interesting blog posts to your social media channels. It is a free tool with premium version that offers some extended functionality, including an incredibly useful “Share to Hootsuite” button. Used in combination with Hootsuite’s “Autoschedule” feature, this can make curating Tweets very quick and easy.

THE INTERNET IN REALTIME

http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time/ A realtime representation of activity on social media websites.

WORDPRESS

http://www.wordpress.org The downloadable version of the free open source blogging platform. It should not just be seen as a blogging platform but as a very effective Content Management System.

THEMEFOREST

http://www.themeforest.net Fantatsic source of WordPress themes to change the look and feel of any WordPress website. Themes cost around US$40-US$60.

LIBSYN

http://www.libsyn.com Podcast hosting and publishing service that provides full management and reporting.

SOCIAL MEDIA GOVERNANCE

http://socialmediagovernance.com/ Hundreds of example social media policies and guidelines.

SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARK

http://www.cim.co.uk/Research/ SocialMediaBenchmark.aspx Regularly updated research from the CIM on the use and adoption of social media and surrounding issues.

QWITTER

http://www.useqwitter.com Sends you a weekly email letting you know how many users have unfollower you on Twitter. Depressing but useful to judge if you Tweeting too much or not on the appropriate topics for your audience.

TWERIOD

http://www.tweriod.com Free tool (with low cost payment option for repeat usage) that analyses your Twitter audience and works out the most impactful time of day for you to Tweet. 

EMAIL

LITMUS

http://www.litmus.com A set of email tools that, amongst other things, allow you to preview your emails in arrange of different email clients and check for any issues with spam ﬁlters. Paid for service but they offer a free preview of their inbox preview.

MAILCHIMP

http://www.mailchimp.com Low cost and highly versatile Email Service Provider (ESP) that also offers a free version if you have a limited size email list. They also have a range of free email research and email templates that anyone can use.

INBOX VISION EMAIL GALLERY

http://www.inboxvision.com/email-gallery/ Free collection of emails from a very wide range of organisations categorised by industry and topic. Also offer paid services.

UNROLL ME

http://www.unroll.me Fantastic free tool that allows you to easily unsubscribe for email newsletters and manage those newsletters you do want into a daily summary.

CAMPAIGN MONITOR RESOURCES

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/ A group of free email marketing resources including a HTML template builder that allows you design and export email designs. Campaign Monitor is a paid for email service but all the resources are free.

HUBSPOT MARKETING LIBRARY

https://library.hubspot.com/email-marketing Part of Hubspots marketing library focussed on email marketing. Hubspot is also an email marketing automation provider.

BLACKLIST CHECKER

http://www.mxtoolbox.com Free service that allows you to check if an IP address has been blacklisted on a wide range of services.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS TRACKING CODE BUILDER

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867 Builds tracking code that can be added to links in your emails to allow you to track them effectively in Google Analytics and prevent your email trafﬁc from showing as direct trafﬁc.

RESPONSIVE EMAIL DESIGN GUIDELINES

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/mobile/ Another great free resource from Campaign Monitor that gives guidelines on how to build email templates that will adjust to different size screens.

ONLINE ADVERTISING

DISPLAY BENCHMARKS

http://www.richmediagallery.com/resources/benchmarks/ Part of the Google owned ad platform DoubleClick. Offers free access to average response rates for different types of online advertising.

IAB AD GUIDELINES

http://www.iab.net/guidelines Guidelines set out by the Internet Advertising Bureau for the standard dimensions,load times and ﬁle sizes of display advertising.

DATA IN ADVERTISING ECOSYSTEM

https://www.iab.net/data/ecosystem.html Visual representation of the different technologies used within the online advertising world.

GOOGLE CASE STUDIES

http://www.google.co.uk/think/ad-types/display.html Part of Think Google, a regularly updated library of display advertising reports and case studies.

MOAT

http://www.moat.com/ Monitor the ads that brands are running online and review the creative.

MOBILE

MOBILE PHONE EMULATOR

http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/ Simulate what your website will look like on various movie devices for free.

RESPONSINATOR

http://www.responsinator.com/ Another free tool for testing websites on various mobile devices.

MOBILE PLANET

http://think.withgoogle.com/mobileplanet/en/ Lots of free data from Google that proﬁles how mobile devices are used in different ways acres the globe. Allows you to interrogate and chart the data easily.

APP STORE OPTIMISATION

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/app-store-optimization/ Straightforward guide to app store optimisation from the KissMetrics blog.

GOO.GL FOR QR CODE GENERATION

http://goo.gl If you are going to use a QR code (users will only use them if you give them a very good reason to) then you can use Google’s URL shortener to generate them for free.

ANALYTICS

GOOGLE ANALYTICS TRACKING CODE BUILDER AND SPREADSHEET

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867 Builds tracking code that can be added to links in any channel to allow you to track them effectively in Google Analytics. You can also use this Google Docs version to build and track multiple URL’s over time: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtEJOHRy-eEEcDdjX0hLY21zcFNVZkVZU08wZ3NrS3c&hl=en#gid=0

GOOGLE ANALYTICS YOUTUBE CHANNEL

https://www.youtube.com/user/googleanalytics Hundreds of videos on every Analytics topic.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS HELP CENTER

https://support.google.com/analytics Detailed guide to the Google Analytics platform.

OCCAM’S RAZOR

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ The blog of Avinash Kaushik covering many in-depth analytics discussions and guides.
 
ANALYTICS ACADEMY

https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/course02, https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/course01 Two self study courses from Google that guide you through the fundamentals of analytics.