10 Best Free SEO Tools for Small Businesses in 2026

For a good SEO (and marketing), you need to know:

1. What Google, Bing, ChatGPT, and other AI models see your website
2. What users do within your website
3. What to do next

1. Google and Bing

Most data you need for SEO is publicly available for free! You get a lot of value from just searching your (or your competitor's) brand, product, or service in Google and Bing. See what websites rank and how they rank. Check their sitemap (most of the time it's theirdomain.com/sitemap.xml), their website content, and their presence in third-party platforms (social media, blogs, forums, etc).

Wanna check backlinks (links to your domain from the other websites)? Search this in Google:
"yourdomain.com" -site:yourdomain.com
It doesn't show you all the backlinks, but it's a good start. Then you can go to Google Search Console and see more in the "Links" report there.

2. ChatGPT and Claude

Ask ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI models about your brand, product, service, or the problem you solve. Check the mentions and citations. If you are not there, see why others are mentioned. How? Just ask the AI model "Why is [other brand] mentioned here and not [your brand]?"

3. Google Search Console (GSC)

After checking public data, it's time to check your website performance data in Google Search Console. This is the essential tool available for website owners. Verify ownership of the domain and take a look into your website's performance in Google Search Console
It is the source of truth for queries, pages, clicks, impressions, position, indexing status, Generative AI performance, etc. Every other SEO product is guessing until GSC is connected.

Use it weekly for:

• Queries with high impressions but low clicks
• Pages already in positions 4–10 (faster wins than new URLs)
• Indexing and crawl problems before you publish more content
• Generative AI (Google AI Mode) performance
• Decaying pages

Google's own documentation on GSC is an essential read. Start with SEO Starter Guide, then GSC-specific sections such as Crawling and Indexing and Debugging drops in Search traffic

4. Bing Webmaster Tools

Google is not the only search engine that matters in 2026. ChatGPT and other assistants still lean on Bing for live web results. If Bing has never fetched your pages, you are invisible in a growing slice of AI answers.

Also, for some special niches and B2B markets, Bing is the main traffic driver with higher CTR.

Bing Webmaster Tools is free. If you already have a GSC account with your website(s), you can just import the website(s) from GSC. After importing, submit the sitemap, request a fetch for key URLs, and check query and page stats. For a new site this is often empty. Wait for a few days to see the data.

You can also see your AI performance in Bing Webmaster Tools. It includes Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and partner AI integrations. Read more about AI performance in Bing Webmaster Tools.

Wanna write a new blog post? Check the "Keyword Research" section in Bing Webmaster Tools to see the keywords that are performing well in organic Bing search. This is different from Google Keyword Planner which show you the keywords that are showing up for paid ads.

Similar to GSC, you can find the backlinks for your domain in Bing Webmaster Tools. Additionally, you can check the backlinks for other domains. Compare your backlinks with your competitors' backlinks.

5. Google Analytics (GA4)

GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools tell you how you appeared in Google and Bing search. GA4 tells you what happened after the click: engagement and conversions. A page can rank and still be useless if people bounce. Sometimes if users bounce too early from the page to the search results page with the same query, it means the page is not relevant to the user's search query. In that case, Google/Bing will penalize the page by reducing its ranking.

GA4 also counts the source, medium, and channel of the traffic, since Google is not the only source of traffic. Read about the difference between source, medium, and channel.

For a small site, watch:

• Landing page sessions, engagement rate, conversions
• Exit pages and why users leave
• Organic Search, Direct, and AI referrals
• Whether a traffic spike has zero engagement (that is often a bot, not a win)

Bonus: Connect GA4 and GSC/Bing to see what people search in Google/Bing to reach your page; Then, does this page satisfy the queries' intent?

6. Microsoft Clarity

You can go deeper into the user journey with session recording using Microsoft Clarity. It is a free tool that shows you a video recording of a user's session on your website. It allows you to see the mouse movements, clicked areas, dead clicks, scrolls, and other interactions. Personally, I've found many UX glitches and opportunities to improve the user experience (and conversions!) using Clarity.

It also displays basic GA4 metrics/dimensions. Less open browser tabs, better life!

7. Google Keyword Planner

You do not need a $129/month keyword suite to find opportunity keywords you can rank for. Keyword Planner is a tool in Google Ads (you do not have to run ads) gives volume ranges and related terms. Most SEO suites use Google Keyword Planner API to charge you for this free data.

For a small website, ignore competitive terms like “English teacher” (already ranked by big players). Use Planner for phrases you can actually win: “Native English teacher in Da Nang”, “free English learning course in Vietnamese”, a service + city, a 2026 problem your product/service can resolve.

8. Google Trends

Google Trends shows you the search volume and related keywords for a trending topic. It is a good way to find new hot keywords to write about.

9. PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights runs Lighthouse on a URL and shows Core Web Vitals for mobile and desktop. Slow pages degrade UX and conversions. Check GSC, GA4, and Clarity to see if you have many mobile users (especially in developing countries) and they're suffering from slow pages.

Compress network requests, remove unused JavaScript, lazy-load elements, optimize images, and follow the recommendations!

10. Google Business Profile

If you serve a city, a region, or a real-world service, maps are where your customers find you. Google Business Profile is free. Complete and verify your profile. Reply to reviews to build trust. Keep the connection between the website and the profile. Embed the Google Maps with your business location to your website.

No time for SEO? Delegate it!

The raw data is not enough! You have to learn to interpret the data and make decisions. Hire an SEO expert/agency when you don't have the time to learn and experiment by yourself.

An SEO expert/agency charge you for interpreting/configuring the tools mentioned above. Sometimes they charge you too much for some simple fixes you can do them by yourself or they give you weekly reports AI can do better and cheaper. An honest experienced SEO gives you consultation and roadmap instead.

Delegate simple SEO tasks to oohoom AI assistant and get the roadmap from oohoom human SEO consultants: Signup for free