Semalt Recommends Top 5 SEO Tools Created By Google 



SEO isn't some magic trick experts learn. It also isn't guesswork. The decisions we make and the advice we give relies on SEO tools, experience, and research. 

When this article was written, Google was the most influential and used search engine, which means it dictates a lot of the rules governing search engine optimization. 

Luckily for SEO experts, Google also creates tools to help us analyze the website and see areas to improve. 

To do better in SERP and SEO, you need to exceed your search performance goals, and we will be showing you some tools which can help you achieve that. 

We use these tools to diagnose problems, figure out solutions that ultimately lead to better ranking. 

Google's Role In SEO

Google constantly offers updates on its suite of tools which helps web experts as we try to improve our SEO. Publishers and SEO experts rely on these tools to understand what goes on in a website. 

It guides us on what to improve, and it helps us figure out why a page may be underperforming. It is fair to say that Google recommends these tools for helping websites rank better. 

Here are Google's top Five SEO tools: 

Lighthouse



This is one of the most popular web performance improvement tools. Fortunately for us, it is free and easy to access. All you have to do is find it on your Chrome-based browser.

Multiple ways to access Google Lighthouse Tool

On your Windows OS, press the F12 key at the top right-hand side of your keyboard. 

On A Mac, press the commant+Option+C keys. 

On Windows or Mac, you can right-click on the page and choose to inspect. Then you will see a lighthouse tab; click on it. 

On Windows, Chrome, and Linux OS, press Control+Shift+C. 

On Chrome OS, you can click the 3-dot menu on the top right corner. A drop-down menu will appear, and you should follow this sequence accordingly: 

More Tools - Developer Tools. 

Lighthouse performs up to 5 different analyses

With Lighthouse, you can track up to 5 SEO performance feedback. They are:
  1. Progressive Web App 
  2. Accessibility
  3. Best Practices 
  4. SEO 
  5. Performance
While accessibility isn't strictly an SEO-related metric, it has been noticed to influence the experience disabled users experience on a page.

Using the information all five categories provide, it becomes easier for web developers and web managers to improve the search visibility of most of their web pages which previously performed poorly. 

The SEO section of Lighthouse proves up to 10 subcategories of SEO factors that matter to Google. With such a wealth of information, we know exactly what needs fixing or improvement, saving time and resources. 

Here is a list of the metrics Chrome Lighthouse reports on:
  • Title element
  • HTTP Status Code
  • Viewport Meta Tag
  • Validates Hreflang 
  • Meta Description 
  • Validates rel+canonical 
  • Checks the Robot.txt.
  • Checks mobile tab targets
  • Analysis of whether or not a site is mobile-friendly. 
  • Check legibility of fonts on mobile devices

Benefits of using Google Lighthouse SEO Tool

It will be wise that we start by saying Lighthouse is a lightweight tool for reviewing sites. Considering that it is free, there really isn't much it has to compare with other advanced paid analysis tools. 

Nevertheless, it is an essential tool for every SEO expert to have. We say this because Lighthouse is a window into the mind of Google. It represents Google's opinion of 10 important metrics you should be considering. Having these metrics check for on Lighthouse shows us that those metrics are very important, and we should take note. 

To make the most of the results you get from this tool, you should consult a professional. 

Test My Site

Google's Test My Site auditing tool analyzes a site for two main metrics: 
  • The recommendations for speeding up the website. 
  • The estimated loading time on a 4G mobile network. 
This tool is like a quick X-ray. It displays a quick overview of the speed health of a website. We use it at the beginning of our Mobile Optimization process. The analysis report also comes with an email detailing the best ways to solve the issues found on the report. 

Benefits of Using Test My Site

You can obtain relevant information on your Page Speed. Unlike many other Page Speed Insight tools, Test My Site provides a simpler version of the same insight. This way, it is no longer difficult to understand for everyone. Nondeveloper stakeholders can now follow the conversation and explain why you need certain resources. They also understand what's wrong with the site better and can take notes or even offer contributions. 

Advanced developers can also take a quick overview and recognize what's wrong. For granular details about what's broken, you will have to use Google's Page Speed Insight. And that takes us to the next point.

Page Speed Insight 


Page Speed Insight is one of the most important tools to use when you plan on improving any of your Core Web Vitals performance scores. At this point, Core Web Vitals or CVW has become a common term. These Core Web Vitals are important metrics created by Google to show websites what influences user experiences the most. 

Both users and Google are concerned about how a page or website treats its visitors, so improving the CWVs means you stand a better chance at ranking higher. Fixing these problems will also lead to improved SEO performance, Sales / conversions, and higher ad clicks. 

This analysis tool gives the specifics on what is causing the slow down or poor user experience on a site. It also gives suggestions on how they can be fixed. It goes as far as telling you which images are too big, which fonts are illegible, and so on. 

Benefits of Page Speed Insight

Page speed insight doesn't just offer solutions for the hidden technical issues that affect your page speed, but it also serves as a learning resource. 

For every highlighted issue on the report, there is a link to a Google Developers page that offers a more in-depth analysis of what the report means and explanations on how that problem can be fixed. 

Safe Browsing Test


A search engine like Google crawls billions of pages every day, checking for malware. The Safe Browsing Test is a tool that tells you when last your site was scanned for malware. Since some sites are tested more often than others, there is no fixed date or time. 

Benefits of the Safe Browsing Test Tool

Website security is a serious issue. Sadly, many websites do not protect their site until they notice that their URL is falling in Google's index because the site is hacked. 

Website security should be considered as an important part of SEO. Not only will protecting your site safeguard your visitors and assets, but failure to do so can have severe side effects. 

Google Trends


When we need insight on the Keywords population, this is the tool we use. Google trends keep us updated on Keyword popularity while considering the time and geography. 

The time segment is important as it gives us an idea of how changes in seasons affect keywords. It also helps us track when a keyword is losing popularity. 

A downward trend of any keyword's popularity could mean that a product or trend has caused users to lose interest in that search, or there is a more common keyword being used. 

Benefits of Google Trends

Google Trends provides useful insights for competitive research. It shows you how often Google users search for your competitor's brand name versus yours. 

There is also a trend line by the time that tracks how steady your keyword searches are over a period. It shows when it rises, falls, and remains steady. When a competitor's trend line is declining, this is a good sign. When a competitor is trending steady, it shows that they are doing something right. In that case, we look deeper and identify a weakness to put you above your competition. 

Making good Use Of These Tools

As we've mentioned, having google create these tools has its advantages. While many SEO experts take what Google says about its ranking factors with a bit of skepticism, it will be unwise to ignore these tools. 

In these tools, we see exactly what Google is looking for in a site. We understand their expectation of page speed, user experience, security, and keywords. 

These tools can be used to our advantage, and there is no rule saying we shouldn't use other tools. The biggest advantage of using these tools is that they are free, and they point us in the right direction. Now that we know what we're looking for, it is easier to use other more advanced SEO tools to improve our site. 

Nevertheless, if you need to learn more about the subject of SEO and website promotion, we invite you to visit our Semalt blog.