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Why are you still paying for tools that Google gives you for free? Traffic analytics, keyword research, site speed, and even local SEO. Google provides it all. If you are not using them, you are burning money and missing out on traffic. So let me walk you through what they are and how you can use them right. Let's go.
Hey, it's Jack from Rank Math, the one SEO plugin that empowers millions of WordPress users. And this channel is all about helping you grow your search traffic. So if you're new to us, consider subscribing. And without further ado, let's check out the first Google SEO tool.
If you're still not using Google Gemini for your SEO, you're working way too hard. Let's start with something every beginner needs help with, which is keyword research. Say you own a small gym in Kuala Lumpur. You can go to gemini.google.com and ask Gemini, "Give me 10 local SEO keywords for a gym in Kuala Lumpur." And you will instantly get a list like "personal trainer Kuala Lumpur," "affordable gym membership KL," "ladies only gym KL," and others. Now, you only need to check their search volume.
Now, Gemini can provide you with keyword ideas, but you still need to know how to pick the right keywords to target. So if you need help with that, check out this video right here. I'm pretty sure you'll find it useful.
Anyway, there's more. Let's assume that you're managing the Google business profile for your local gym as well. You can say, "I'm running a local gym in Kuala Lumpur. Can you look through Google Trends and tell me what I should post on my Google business profile to improve my local SEO this week?" It will tell you that there is a growing interest in smart fitness and whole body vertical vibration training in Malaysia. You can focus on posting "time efficient workout that is gentle on joints." It went further to provide you with post ideas that include all the elements needed. And then this is another trend you can focus on, and another. Following these guides from Gemini, and you can improve your local SEO and productivity tremendously.
There are more than just these two use cases. So before you do something, check with Gemini to see if it can be of help.
Google Keyword Planner is one of the most accurate, reliable, and free keyword research tools available because it pulls information straight from Google's own search data. That means real numbers, real trends, and real insights. Most third-party tools use their data as well, in case you don't know.
So we are on a Google Keyword Planner. Let's say that you run a cleaning business in Manila, and this is your website. You can click on "Discover New Keywords," add seed keywords such as "house cleaning," "deep cleaning services," or "office cleaner, Manila." Then you want to change the location. Let's remove this and search for Manila right here and click "Save." Now you can add your site URL here to filter unrelated keywords and hit "Get Result." Almost instantly, you will get a long list of related keyword ideas together with their monthly search volume. If you run ads on these keywords, you will know if the competition is high, low, or medium. This is a very handy tool for keyword research.
If you want to know what keywords your competitors are ranking for, instead of the "Start with Keywords" option, you can click on the "Start with a Website" option. Let's say that this is your main competitor you want to outrank. Hit "Get Results," and it will show you all the keywords your competitor is ranking for together with the monthly search volume. If you need a complete guide on how to use Google Keyword Planner effectively, you can check out this video right here.
Anyway, I have a question for you. Are you paying for tools to do keyword research? If yes, it's time to consider if it is worth it.
Most people think of Google Trends as just a place to see what's going viral today. But if that is all that you're using it for, you are missing out on SEO opportunities, especially if you are running a blog, a local business, or create any kind of online content. Imagine this. Instead of guessing what people might be searching for, you get to see exactly what's trending in your city, in a time frame you select, in your industry, or even your niche corner of the internet in real-time. And these are the rising search topics. And the top search topics of your selected time frame. And these are the rising search queries, as well as the top search queries of your given time frame.
So if you are a hair salon promoting hair loss products on the internet, you can create content around this rising and top trending topics to capture the attention of your potential customers. Now, these are just searches on the web. If you run a YouTube channel, you can switch the data to "YouTube search," and it will tell you what people are searching for on YouTube related to your niche or industry. And if you are running an e-commerce store selling hair loss products, you can find what people are searching for related to hair loss in "Google shopping." And here you go.
Or let's say that you are a blogger deciding on topics between "home workouts" or "gym routine." Google Trends will tell you which one is more popular right now. And if you make the time frame even shorter, this will give you a clearer indication of what is trending right now. This is not just guessing. This is strategic SEO backed by real-time data. So Google Trends is not just for knowing what is trending today, but it is a gold mine for keeping your business, blog, YouTube channel, or whatever, stay relevant and up to date with your content. Remember, the trend is your friend until the end. So if you're still buying trend and SEO reports for your business, you are falling behind because Google Trends gives you real-time data.
I believe any website owner will be familiar with this tool, but if you are not, well, you are flying blind. Because with it, you will know how your site has performed on search, like what keywords your website is ranking for. You can go to the "performance report." If you want to know what keywords a specific page is ranking for, you can click on the "Pages" tab, and these are all your pages. Click on one of them, and it will tell you all the keywords this page is ranking for. You can do an analysis on the clicks to impressions ratio by switching on the "Average Click-through Rate" tab, and you will see the Average Click-through Rate of each keyword. Let's turn on the "Average Position" as well. If you see the Click-through Rate is too low, yet your page is ranking on the first page, you know there must be something that is preventing people from clicking on your page, maybe a poorly written SEO title.
On top of that, with Google Search Console, you can identify any indexing issues. This report will tell you the reason why some of your pages are not being indexed by Google. Also, you get a snapshot of how your pages perform on core web vitals, the rich snippets that your pages are being awarded, and why they are not rewarded, any security and manual actions against your site, as well as knowing who is linking to your site and your internal link profile. Again, if you need a complete video walkthrough on this tool, you can check out this video right here.
Now, let's go to the next tool. So Google Search Console is mainly showing you the performance of your site on Google searches. But what about the performance of your site on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, X, Pinterest, or if people are visiting your site directly? That's the purpose of Google Analytics.
In Google Analytics, you can understand everything about your site performance, such as the number of new and returning users, where your users are coming from. If you need more detailed information, you can switch this to "first user source/medium," and you will see some users are coming from ChatGPT, YouTube, perplexity, etc. As well as knowing which town or cities your users are coming from. If you run an e-commerce store, you can see its performance here. You can understand the demographic details of your users. This is great for creating marketing avatars.
If you want to know how each of your page is performing, you can click on the "Pages and Screens," and it will provide you with all the performance stats for each page to know if people are staying or leaving your page. This can drive you to do better for your users. If you want a full tutorial on Google Analytics, we have it as well together with this to help you track specific elements on your pages, which is super helpful for A/B testing and running ads.
Most people think Google Alerts is just a boring news notification tool. But if you are not using it for SEO, you are seriously missing out. Imagine having Google work as your personal SEO assistant 24/7 scanning the internet for anything important to your business, your niche, and even you.
Let's say that you want to track new backlinks to your site. You just have to set up an alert for your business or domain name such as Rank Math. And Google will notify you whenever someone mentions or links to you. It is perfect for building relationships, responding to press, or identifying spammy backlinks early. Want to spy on your competitors? Set up alerts for their brand names, product names, or even blog titles. This can help you get a sneak peek of what your competitors are promoting, what people are saying, and where they are getting featured.
When alerts are set up, you will get emails from Google telling you that something new related to the keyword has been published. If you are a content creator or blogger, here's where it gets exciting. Let's say that you want to rank for a keyword. For example, "World Cup 2026." As you enter the keyword, you will start seeing new articles and trends emerge before they go mainstream. This will give you a chance to jump in early and create content that ranks well while it is fresh. As you visit any of the links, you will realize that they are published recently. And the best part? It is 100% free, super easy to set up, and works quietly in the background while you focus on your business.
If you want your local business to be featured on Google Maps, for example, this, where you can control all the aspects of your business information, provide updates to your customers, include menus, photos, and videos, and have your customers review your business, These are all done through the Google business profile. When a tourist or a local is looking for something around their area, they will be searching for something like "Italian restaurants near me" or "attractions near me." Businesses that have done a fantastic job with their Google business profile will be featured on those searches and this drives store visits and sales. So if you run a consumer-facing local business, but you are not using Google business profile, you are leaving money on the table for your competitors to grab.
No matter how beautiful-looking your website is, if it takes more than three seconds to load every page of your website, you are losing customers because people might be thinking, "What is this website loading behind the scenes?" So Google created this tool called the PageSpeed Insights. To let you know how your site is performing in terms of loading speed, simply add your site URL, and it will tell you how your site has performed based on real data from people visiting your site using Google Chrome over the past 28 days. This will tell you if your site has passed the Core Web vitals.
If you scroll further, you will see the test results based on a simulated environment, giving you a complete picture of how your site performs across different devices and conditions. These are the five metrics that your site is tested on. Here are all the tests that your site has failed on. As you expand them, they will provide you with solutions to solve the problems. With this, you can easily speed up your website and capture your customer's attention.
I'm pretty sure you have seen those search results before. The ones with the star ratings, recipe photos, event dates, and more. They are called rich results, and Google pulls them in from structured data on your website. So every page has some codes behind it. You can right-click and select "View Page Source," and Google analyzes this to know if a page can be awarded with the rich results. And what about Google Rich Results Test Tool? It is a tool that lets you, as a site owner, know if your page qualifies for a reach result. Simply copy the source code of your page, go to the Rich Results Test tool, click on the "Code" option, and paste the source code to test it. And in just a while, you will know if there are issues with your structured data or not. If there is, you can fix it.
Now, if you use Rank Math, it is pretty easy to add structured data to any of your pages. So if you want to learn more about them, you can watch these videos. We have left links in the description.
So these are the free Google SEO tools that you should be using to stay ahead. If this video helped, can you do us a favor and smash that thumbs up? Our channel is all about helping you grow your search traffic, and if you haven't subscribed to us yet, consider doing so. This is Jack from Rank Math. I'll see you in the next video.