13 Best Blogging Tools for SEO and Content Writing

If you haven’t started a blog for your business, you might think it’s as simple as adding a blog page to your website and writing. But it’s more complex. Your blog is meant to entertain, inform, or engage current and potential customers while improving your performance in search engines. There is a lot to consider when drafting and posting website content. These blogging tools will make your job easier. They offer everything you need to launch a successful blog that drives traffic to your website.

The Best Blogging Tools for SEO and Content Writing

These blog writing tools will help you focus, organize, and even generate potential topics.

1. Trello

If you’re the type of person who takes notes and color-codes your calendar, Trello is the platform for you. Among blogging tools, Trello is great for keeping track of your ideas, taking notes, and planning your content marketing strategy.

When multiple people are working on your blog, Trello helps everyone stay on task. It’s great for tracking content across platforms from your blog to social media. You can see what you’ve published in various places, which helps you keep content fresh.

Trello lays out like a board with categories on top with task lists underneath. If you’re not sure how you want your board organized, use one of the many templates at your disposal.

Trello offers a free and paid premium version. The paid version lets you manage multiple projects simultaneously, and it’s more functional for large teams. If you have a smaller marketing and content department, the free version should work for your needs.

2. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress plugin that many people use when creating blog content. The plugin quickly analyzes your content to make sure it's optimized for your focus keyword. You can also input the meta description, create your URL, and title of your page to make sure it follows SEO best practices. The Yoast SEO plugin has a number of additional features, such as identifying the readability of your content.

3. Grammarly

When creating high-quality content, it's important to have some editing tools to help you. If you can't afford an editor, consider using Grammarly. This tool identifies common problems with writing and sentence structure.

While Grammarly is free, the premium version does offer a list of advanced features. Use it, not just for your blog content, but email, and social media accounts as well.

4. Sumo

This platform offers most of the blogging tools and resources you’ll need to up your game, and they’re all in one place. Use it to add opt-in forms to your website and social media share buttons to each blog post.

Sumo offers customizable email designs if you’re not interested in marketing content through your email list. The platform also offers analytics so you can see which of your posts are getting the best results. The heat mapping tool is a fun way to see how people are interacting with your blog.

Sumo’s interface is easy to navigate, and the platform offers tutorials to help you use it for best results. The free version offers a lot more than other free tools. You can also pay for a premium that offers more features.

5. Moz Explorer

Moz’s keyword explorer will evaluate your website and blog and generate a list with keyword suggestions. It's great for creating blog topic ideas.

The tool also lets you look up various target keywords to determine what type of search engine traffic you'll get from them. Use it to stay on top of SEO and to generate topic ideas for your blog. Once you’ve published a few posts, use it to see how your rank has improved and how you stack up against your competitors.

Moz gives you 10 free searches per month, or you can purchase a premium version for a wider range of SEO tools.

6. Google Trends

Find out what your target audience is searching for through google trends. This free blogging tool allows you to see what the interest is for a given topic. If you're brainstorming new blog post ideas, Google Trends is a great way to start. Use it to identify what keywords to target and develop a content strategy around what people are interested in.

7. Google Analytics

Google Analytics elevates your blog because it runs more robust reports than any other analytics platform. Google Analytics offers the full picture of your blog and its impact on your website. You can see the effectiveness of your personal blog through a number of reports, such as:

• New Users
• Pageviews
• Pages per session
• Number of sessions per user

You can also set up these reports for the blog portion of your website to track them separately from other pages on your site.

Google Analytics is free. You just need to create an account and walk through the various prompts. Once it’s set up, you can see who is interacting with your website, where they are from, and how they are engaging with your blog.

8. Unsplash

Unsplash is a database of free images for your blog. Unsplash has a robust database with thousands of pictures. Simply search for images related to your topic, download them, and add them to the post.

Once you’ve entered your search terms, you can scroll through the results or click the categories at the top of the page to find related images.

Unsplash isn’t a good resource for highly specialized topics. If you’re looking for a picture in a specific location or photos in a niche industry, you’re better off getting a paid account with a stock photo database or just hiring a photographer to take the pictures for you.

9. Creative Commons

This is another database of free images that you already have permission to use in your blog. Creative Commons lets people license their work for personal and commercial use, so the database is constantly evolving.

Creative Commons offers different licensing levels depending on how many people will see the post and whether you’re using the post for commercial purposes. With this tool, you can filter results only to show the pictures licensed for commercial use.

Check the license conditions on each picture before adding it to your blog. Some photographers require you to credit them and link back to their website, while others will just let you use the photos without credit.

10. Shutterstock

When you stick to the free image sites, you usually run out of options faster than you would if you were paying for photos. Since these pictures are free, they also tend to pop up on multiple websites.

One way to stand out is to buy images to use on your blog. Shutterstock offers a variety of plans at various price points with limits to the number of photos you can use in a given month. Plans start at $29 a month for 10 images.

If you’re not publishing a lot of blogs, this tool gives you access to a much broader database of stock images. You can also access illustrations and stock videos. Adding video to your blog can make it much more engaging.

11. Canva

Canva makes graphic design accessible to people who don’t consider themselves designers. This tool has hundreds of templates you can use to create social media posts, infographics, and much more.

Infographics offer a sophisticated way to pull out important data from your blog post. Since these graphics are visual, use them to get your point across to people who are skimming your page. They don’t have to be complicated. Even a simple graphic with important text will help break up your post.

Canva’s platform is very user-friendly. You can create most posts by dragging and dropping elements into the design platform. Use a template to take the guesswork out of design.

If you’re only interested in creating simple graphics on occasion, Canva offers a free tier. Or you can pay for the pro version for more templates and in-depth tools.

12. Hootsuite

Hootsuite lets you manage multiple social media platforms from Instagram to Pinterest. Use it to schedule posts that promote your blog across your social media.

Once you’ve promoted your blog through social media, use Hootsuite to track comments and user engagement. This tool will help you see which platforms best promote your blog. When you see posts that aren’t doing as well, use them to refine your social media strategy.

Hootsuite’s free platform doesn’t have the full range of features. If you’re using social media heavily to promote your blog, opt for the paid version.

13. Sendible

This social media management platform is more affordable and offers many similar features. You can use it to tailor your posts for each social media platform adjusting it for the specific marketing channel.

Sendible has multiple templates and resources you can use to promote your blog through social media and drive more traffic to your site. The dashboard is easy to use, with prominent features that help you add attachments or format your posts.

Use Blogging Tools to Create Content More Efficiently

The key to creating great content on any blogging platform is consistency and quality. Whether you're using Google Docs or writing directly into your site, use whatever tools and add-ons are at your disposal.

As the above list shows, the best blogging tools aren't just about writing. With keyword research tools, you can create a definitive plan of what long-tail keywords to target with your content. Productivity tools can help you with focusing to ensure your content is written correctly.

It takes time to rank and blog traffic, but by using these tools and focusing on your goals, you can reach the top of search engines and start seeing blog visitors in no time.