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15 Easy (And Free) Ways to Promote Your Website in 2022

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Free and effective promotion tactics? Yeah, right.

At the risk of sounding like a salesman, let me tell you that not only do these marketing tactics exist, but they’re also actually some of the most effective ones. We’ve been using them, other marketers use them, and most of the big websites I’ve seen to date use them. 

But that’s not all. You don’t need a degree in marketing or to be a marketing pro to start promoting your website for free and get results. Here are 15 ideas that go into the free, easy, and effective basket.

1. Prioritize easy keywords for SEO

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If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, it stands for search engine optimization, and it allows you to get free traffic from search engines like Google. 

Overview of our beginner's guide to affiliate marketing
For example, our beginner’s guide on affiliate marketing gets an estimated 24.4K visits from search engines every month.

One of the fundaments of the SEO process is to choose the right keywords to create content for. Now, a tried and tested tactic for new websites and websites without a strong backlink profile is to choose keywords with low ranking difficulty. 

You can spot those keywords by mainly looking at two things: 

  • How many backlinks from unique domains do the top-ranking pages have? 
  • Do the top-ranking pages belong to a domain with high topical authority? 

Here’s how you can do it using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. You can:

  1. Enter a seed keyword (or multiple seed keywords).
  2. Go to the Matching terms report and filter the KD (Keyword Difficulty) metric to show keywords with up to 20 KD. This will show you easy keywords based on backlink profile. 
  3. Pick a relevant keyword and open the SERP panel to see what kinds of pages rank. If you see popular brands dominating, those keywords may be hard to rank despite the low KD. SERPs without brands like that should be easier to target. 
  4. Repeat step #3 for every relevant keyword on the list. 
Keywords with KD lower than 20 based on "matcha" seed keyword
Keywords with KD lower than 20 based on the “matcha” seed keyword.
Example of a keyword with low KD and no "very strong" brands
Example of a keyword with low KD and no “very strong” brands.

Single low-competition keywords may not offer as much traffic potential. But if you pile up a number of pages targeting these keywords, you can end up with serious organic search traffic. 

Also, low-competition keywords may convert better than their more generic counterparts if they are specific enough. One of the neat tricks to find keywords that can possibly convert to sales is to check the CPC ad cost to see if people bid for those keywords. 

Keyword ideas sorted by CPC

So what to do with difficult keywords? Of course, you may target them any time you wish, but note that they will probably take more time (and backlinks) to rank. 

Position history chart for our article on keyword research
Despite many factors in favor of our article on keyword research, it reached #1 in the U.S. only after some four years of content updates and earning backlinks. Even then, it could not hold that position. KD 87 out of 100. Strong brands competing on the same keyword. Data via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

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You may also want to try out zero–search volume keywords, as they are usually low-competition too. This article will introduce you to the subject and show you the steps. Do note that this tactic doesn’t always bring results and can be a bit more complicated than what you’ve read above. Also, it may be more suitable for some areas (B2B, emerging technologies) than others.

2. Do SEO for your existing pages 

Sometimes, you don’t need to create new content to get more traffic. Your old content may just need some SEO work, including:

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  • More precise alignment with search intent to better serve the meaning of the search query.
  • Refreshing the content, making it more up to date. 
  • Introducing a unique value to show Google and searchers that you have something new to add to the table (to Google, unique content is quality content). 
  • Optimizing your title tag to get more clicks from the SERPs (search engine results pages). 
  • Filling content gaps for more topical relevancy. 
  • Adding internal links to distribute link equity. 

At Ahrefs, we do these things to get more traffic regularly. With multiple successes. 

Nailed search intent (before and after results shown in line graph)
Here’s how organic traffic to one of our articles grew after we aligned with the search intent.

You can follow our step-by-step process with this guide: Republishing Content: How to Update Old Blog Posts for SEO 

3. Create a free resource 

This tactic is all about creating valuable, unique content that’s ideally centered around your brand or product—then offering free access to the content.

Whether it’s a printable PDF guide or a tutorial series on YouTube, focus on adding value for your audience. You’ll then start seeing the magic of word of mouth at work.

Actual user feedback for “Blogging for business”
Actual user feedback for “Blogging for business,” our free video tutorial course on how to grow your blog past 100K monthly visitors.

But first, you need a proven topic for your free resource. 

You can find inspiration for topics manually by visiting social media profiles of authors and magazines in your niche and looking at the engagement signals: likes, retweets, comments, etc. Additionally, you can browse through online communities and see what resonates with your target audience. 

Sample content idea from Reddit

But there are also tools that can help you with this job. 

One tool we recommend quite often for any kind of audience research is SparkToro. Just plug in topics your target audience frequently talks about to discover related topics and hashtags (among many other things).

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SparkToro search tool

And with an all-in-one SEO toolset like Ahrefs, you can broaden your options with keyword research. 

Matching terms report with applied filters

And on top of that, you can reverse engineer what worked for your competitors. 

Top pages report in Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Top pages report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer will uncover pages with the most organic traffic. You can also filter the results, as in the example above.

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Consider creating content tailored to platforms with native distribution mechanisms. For example, you can create a course on a site like Udemy on how to, say, paint Warhammer miniatures and mention that you own a website on the topic with more cool resources.

4. Partner up for a joint course or webinar 

Look for other businesses that target a similar audience but do not compete with you directly.

Then see if they are up for a content collaboration with you. This way, you can pitch to their audience, and they get to pitch to yours.

Here’s an example: In 2018, we worked with Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, to create a webinar titled “How to Get Website Traffic With Evergreen Content and Social Media Marketing.”

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Buffer + Ahrefs joint webinar

While the audience was comprised of digital marketers, our products are different enough and do not compete with each other. 

5. Repurpose your content for other marketing channels 

Repurposing content is about using existing content and “repacking” it for other marketing channels. 

For example, you can chop a larger article into smaller pieces and use them to promote the original piece via guest blogging. Actually, it’s such a common technique that it has its own name: the “Splintering Technique.” 

Splintering technique for content repurposing

Or you can turn an article into a video and take advantage of YouTube’s search engine and content recommendation algorithms. 

Article repurposed into a video
Our article on influencer marketing was repurposed into a video and published on YouTube to reach even more people. Of course, it can work the other way around too.

Or you can take an entire post, strip it down to a tl;dr version, and publish it on Reddit

Article repurposed into a tl;dr version posted on Reddit
This is something we did with our guide on keyword research.

There are other ways to take advantage of this tactic. Check out our complete guide to content repurposing, where we share nine ideas for that. 

6. Find guest blogging opportunities 

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How can you promote your website while writing for others? 

When you publish content for other websites, a number of things happen: 

  • You get a boost to your website traffic (although it’s not the best method for consistent traffic).
  • You expose your brand to a new audience. 
  • The earned link contributes to your backlink profile. 
  • You can make new connections in the industry. 

Apart from preparing a pitch that stands out from the crowd, the key is to find the right places to publish. 

For this, you can use Google with search operators. Then you need to vet each page manually. Try our free website authority checker for that last part. 

Using Google with search operators to find guest posting opportunities
Result from screening a website with Ahrefs' free authority checker

With an Ahrefs sub and our SEO Toolbar, you can also vet the websites right inside the SERPs.

Using Google with search operators and Ahrefs' SEO Toolbar to find guest posting opportunities

Or use our Content Explorer to get additional insight to filter for results that meet specific performance criteria. 

Possible guest blogging opportunities filtered by DR and website traffic
Possible guest blogging opportunities filtered by DR and website traffic.

7. Syndicate your content 

Content syndication is a similar tactic to guest blogging. The only difference is that with content syndication, you publish the same thing in multiple places. 

Getting started with content syndication is practically the same as guest blogging. You need: 

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  • Great content. 
  • Potential syndicates (websites that can publish your content). You can use the same process and tools as described above. The only thing that changes is your search query. So you can use something like “originally appeared on” + [topic].
  • A good pitch to get your foot through the door. 

With syndication comes the option to self-syndicate. So unlike guest blogging, you can self-populate your articles to other platforms like Medium, Reddit, or LinkedIn. These platforms have a large audience and their own distribution mechanism, so you can get in front of people’s eyes for free. 

Hubspot syndicating article on Medium

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Use a backlink checking tool to see where authors of your choice syndicate their content. In Ahrefs, go to Backlinks report, set the word or phrase filter to “Anchor with surrounding text,” and type “originally appeared on” inside the input field.

Backlinks profile with Anchor filter applied

8. Engage with your audience on social media 

Social media platforms, including online communities, are places where you can likely find your target audience. You just need to figure out where exactly and how you can provide unique value to them. If you have something important to say, there will be plenty of opportunities to link to your website. 

A link to a blog post that's part of a relevant answer on Quora
Example: posting answers on Quora.

Start by learning more about your audience. Again, for this, I’ll recommend SparkToro. 

Another way to find places that mention topics related to your website (or even your website) is to use a web monitoring tool like Google Alerts or our very own Ahrefs Alerts

Sample Ahrefs Alert setup

Once you’ve zeroed in on your communities, you may want to approach them with these universal tips in mind:

  • Pay attention to what works for each audience – After joining, read the rules and dedicate some time to researching the group. Look at how the existing members interact. Also, comment on others’ posts while adding value and being helpful.
  • Post thoughtful, insightful comments – Others will begin to return the favor. Don’t be a spammer. 
  • Start referencing your own website after a while – Only do so after you’ve spent a good amount of time giving back to the community and making some friends. Even then, try to go about it in a way that doesn’t scream “blatant advertisement.” Asking for opinions or positioning your website as something that may help people out are some ways to go about it.

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You shouldn’t always expect referral traffic from your social posts. Two reasons:
  • If there’s no natural way to include a link, don’t do it. Otherwise, your content may be seen as a spam policy violation.
  • Social media platforms seem to prefer native continent, i.e., content that is to be “consumed” on the spot instead of accessed via a link. This means sometimes you will have to trade links for engagement. 

Case in point. Have you heard about Miss Excel? Her software training business can generate up to six figures per day. Not per month, per day. Even Google Docs tried to correct me on that.

Incorrect autocorrect by Google Docs

Miss Excel gets customers through social media. But you can rarely come across a direct link to her course in any of her posts. Instead, she directly shares Excel tips on TikTok and Instagram. Here’s a great interview on how she does what she does. 

Instagram intro on Miss Excel's page

9. Start a community of your own

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And how about creating your own community? 

It may work if:

  • People genuinely like to share thoughts on topics related to your website. 
  • You can offer a unique value that will attract and retain your audience. 
Marketing Solved community promoting a free course
Marketing Solved is a popular marketing community run on Facebook. Note the highlight.

Going further, we can see there are multiple benefits of having a community tied to your website. In terms of promotional aspects, the biggest benefit will likely be word of mouth. 

Word of mouth is one of the most effective marketing channels. It will start working organically when community members feel like the value inside the community will benefit others. But you can potentially influence word of mouth by giving people a reason to talk, such as a new study you just published. 

Sharing an original research study on Ahrefs Insider

This way, a community can naturally start to attract members and, as a result, promote your website. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t expect overnight success with this tactic. Treat it, rather, as a long-term investment with dividends paid as you go. 

10. Build an email list, start a newsletter 

Here’s why email marketing has been utilized by so many marketers: It allows them to build an audience and communicate with them directly and regularly. For free. An email marketing list like that can become one of your most valuable assets. 

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Of course, building an email list is not that easy. But if email marketing is done in tandem with quality content marketing, a setup like that puts the process of list-building almost on autopilot. All you need to do is to put up a sign-up form next to your content. 

Email sign-up form displayed next to an article

Before you run off and start looking for the best email app, do make sure you’re on the right track:

  • You need to commit to publishing great content regularly – After all, the content should attract people to your email list. If you feel like you can use a step back to revisit your blogging strategy, check out this list of 17 blogging tips
  • What kind of newsletter will your audience like to read? For example, we recently found that Ahrefs’ audience prefers to get a short digest of each article we feature in the email instead of, say, bare links to articles. 
  • What will be unique about your newsletter? Do you plan to include some kind of added value or exclusive content for your email subscribers? Or will you keep it simple by offering people the good ol’ “never miss a post again”? 

11. Get listed in local directories (for local businesses) 

If you’re a local business owner, getting listed in local directories is a must. 

This is because people look for local services on the web all of the time. For this, they use either local service directories or simply plug in a keyword like “lawyer near me” in Google. In the latter case, Google will usually point them to a local directory. 

SERP for "lawyer near me" dominated by map pack and directories
Looking for a lawyer via Google these days? Well, you will see mostly maps and links to directories.

Creating or claiming your Google Business Profile is a good starting point. Setting up the profile is quite straightforward (and free). However, what I recommend here is going a step further and making sure your profile is optimized. Here’s how to do it in 30 minutes

Completing this step will make your business profile (hence, your website) eligible to show up in Google Map Pack (the search result with a map, as seen in the picture above), Google Maps, and a local knowledge panel when someone looks for your brand. 

Next, add your business to relevant local directories. For example, a lawyer may want to list their service for free with Thervo.com. Just make sure to keep all information consistent across platforms.

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Once you’re done with adding your business to directories, check out our guide on local SEO to take things a notch higher. Among other things, this guide will show you tactics that can improve your position in the local map pack and how to create content for keywords with local search intent.

12. Do outreach for link building 

Outreach done for link building purposes is a tactic where you get your content in front of bloggers and influencers in your industry. The aim is to get them to talk about you and link to you.

This tactic is mainly utilized to boost the “authority” of your pages in the eyes of Google so that these pages rank higher and bring more search traffic. 

Correlation between search traffic and referring domains
Our study of 1 billion pages found a strong, positive correlation between the number of websites linking to a page and search traffic from Google.

In its simplest form, outreach is the act of reaching out and asking for a link back to your website. And yet, great outreach at scale is a lot more than just asking for a backlink. The process involves:

  1. Creating content. 
  2. Finding prospects. 
  3. Segmenting your prospects. 
  4. Finding the right contact details.
  5. Crafting your pitch.
  6. Scaling your outreach. 

Sounds easy, right? But there are actually a lot of details involved that can make or break the process. Also, steps like finding prospects or finding the correct emails are too tedious or even impossible without the right tools. 

Hunter's Sheets add-on filling email addresses the tool can find

The best way to go about your outreach process is to pick up a tried and tested process you can simply follow to a T. Here’s one from us, completely free: 

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13. Get free press with digital PR 

Digital PR (public relations) can do such an amazing thing: carrying your message to your audience for you.

Link to a local lawyer's website in a magazine—a PR effort
And now you know a reputable music industry attorney. All thanks to her commentary on an article about NFTs.

Promoting your website through digital PR includes:

  • Using services like HARO or SourceBottle to monitor journalist requests – Sign up and wait for expert commentary requests related to your website or important to your audience. Try also following #journorequest on Twitter. 
  • Newsjacking – This is about monitoring news to react with expert commentary and thought leadership pieces. 
  • Pitching linkable assets to journalists and bloggers – You can use something you’ve already created or create something special for that occasion. 

All of the above tactics allow you to benefit in three ways: 

  1. Build awareness of your website
  2. Send traffic to your website when people want to learn more about you
  3. Boost SEO if the commentary includes a live link to your website 
Backlinks report showing a link from a high-DR website
Being featured in the press is usually a great opportunity for a high-DR link.

Here are two free tools from Ahrefs that can help you with your digital PR efforts. 

The first one is our aforementioned free website authority checker. Thanks to it, you will be able to quickly see the authority of the website. 

The second one is our Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. You can use it as a free way to monitor backlinks from your PR efforts. 

Backlinks report with DR, anchor, and dofollow filters
With the Backlinks report, you can easily filter your backlinks based on properties like DR, type of link, or the text inside the anchor and the surrounding text. In this example, we see links earned by a law firm from publicity around Johnny Depp’s recent trial.

14. Get featured in newsletters or podcasts

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Chances are that there is a newsletter in your niche that regularly curates content found on the web. 

And chances are, if your content is good enough, it can be featured in one of those newsletters. 

One of my articles featured in #SEOFOMO newsletter
One of my articles featured in #SEOFOMO newsletter subscribed by +20K SEOs.

Naturally, a link inside a newsletter won’t count for SEO. But it can lead to links from authors reading that newsletter. And in any case, you’re putting your name on the map and making the newsletter’s subscribers aware of you. 

What you need to do here is to find relevant newsletters and show your work in a well-thought-out outreach pitch

Using Google with search operators to find newsletters
You can use the same process as with any prospecting process explained in this article. Tip: use brackets to group multiple terms.

Two words of advice:

  • Pitch only your best articles – Remember, you’re pitching to a flesh-and-blood human, and they don’t like spamming. 
  • Don’t worry if your content doesn’t get chosen this time – Try to reforge that into a relationship with the editor. There will be other chances. 

15. Get featured in rankings or reviews 

The web is full of rankings and reviews. Chances are that some of them are related to what you do. Getting featured (and linked) is a free way to get some direct referral traffic, boost your SEO, and increase your brand awareness. 

If you’re just starting out, you may want to build some authority before you send your first pitch. Keep in mind that editors will screen your website by a number of different criteria—from website design, social media following, to even personally testing your products, recipes, strategies, and whatever you offer. Also, they may be actual experts on the topic. 

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So what may help you here is segmenting your outreach prospects based on the authority of the website you’re targeting. What you’ll do then is to start from smaller websites and move your way up. 

The backlink profile of a website can be a useful, quick proxy for this, so you can use Ahrefs’ Site Audit or the free website authority checker if you don’t own a subscription.

At all times, check your targets manually. This will help you personalize your pitch and potentially discover additional opportunities, such as a special section for “rising stars.”

"Rising stars" section in a newsletter

Another tip here is to focus on webpages that rank very specific types of websites. They can be easier to reach out to since more niche topics tend to have smaller audiences. So for example, if you’re running a blog that focuses on low FODMAP cooking, look for that kind of opportunity instead of “best food blogs.” 

Final thoughts 

These aren’t the only possible ways to promote your website for free. I do encourage you to experiment and double down on what works. If you think something may work for your audience (and even if it hasn’t been tried before), go for it. But make sure to measure the results. 

Keep in mind that your marketing tactics don’t need to be truly unique to be effective. One of the best places to find promotion ideas will always be your competition and other successful businesses—even if they operate in a different industry. 

Got questions? Ping me on Twitter

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SEO

Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content

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Marketing Calendar 2024 With Template To Plan Your Content

Setting yourself and your organization up for successful marketing means understanding the interesting dates, holidays, and events throughout the year that you can leverage for your brand.

Pulling that information together takes time and effort, so we’ve done the legwork for you.

Our complete marketing calendar for 2024 with a template gives you all the information you need to plan your content.

You can customize this easily referenceable table and pull out the relevant dates for your business to create your own 2024 marketing calendar.

For planning content and social media campaigns, using a marketing calendar gives you insights and opportunities to tie your content into well-known events in engaging ways.

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These range from big sporting events to awareness months that you can plan content around, to public holidays so you can leverage them for engagement.

Free Marketing Calendar And Template For 2024

Below, we have listed some of the major holiday highlights for 2024. We have also compiled a free spreadsheet that lists many obscure awareness days to help you plan content in any niche.

The full 2024 marketing calendar and template are available at the end of the article, with a breakdown of each month.

This calendar focuses mainly on the U.S. and Canada, with some major international and religious holidays included.

Your 2024 Holiday Marketing Calendar

January

January is a time of resolutions and fresh starts, with many picking a goal for the year or looking to make a change.

It can be a slow start, given that many people are still recovering from the end of last year, but that gives you time to plan your calendar and ease into a new year of content.

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There are plenty of broad activities to lean into, like Veganuary and National Hobby Month, to connect with audience lifestyles.

Events in January always have all eyes on them, too, like the Golden Globes and Winter X Games, so content around them can kickstart your 2024 engagement.

Monthly Observances

  • International Creativity Month
  • National Blood Donor Month
  • National Braille Literacy Month
  • National Hobby Month
  • Dry January
  • Veganuary

Weekly Observances

  • January 1-7 – New Year’s Resolutions Week
  • January 1-7 – Celebration of Life Week
  • January 1-7 – Diet Resolution Week
  • January 8-14 – Home Office and Security Week

Days

  • January 1 – New Year’s Day
  • January 1 – Mexican Independence Day
  • January 1 – Global Family Day
  • January 2 – National Science Fiction Day
  • January 4 – World Braille Day
  • January 6 – Epiphany
  • January 7 – Orthodox Christmas
  • January 10 – Golden Globes
  • January 13 – Korean American Day
  • January 13 – Stephen Foster Memorial Day
  • January 14 – Orthodox New Year
  • January 14 – Ratification Day
  • January 15 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
  • January 15 – Civil Rights Day
  • January 17 – Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day
  • January 17 – Benjamin Franklin Day
  • January 18-28 – Sundance Film Festival
  • January 20 – World Religion Day
  • January 24 – Tu BiShvat
  • January 26-29 – Winter X Games
  • January 27 – International Holocaust Remembrance Day
  • January 28 – Data Privacy Day

Popular Hashtags for January:

  • #NewYearsDay
  • #ScienceFictionDay
  • #NationalTriviaDay
  • #NationalBirdDay
  • #NationalStickerDay
  • #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
  • #CheeseLoversDay
  • #MLKDay
  • #NationalHuggingDay
  • #PieDay
  • #NationalComplimentDay
  • #PrivacyAware

February

Despite being the shortest month, February is full of interesting events you can leverage for your marketing campaigns.

The colder days can leave people looking for things to get involved with from the comfort of their homes. So, make sure your content is working in line with popular days to attract people to your organization’s content.

Spread the love on Valentine’s Day, celebrate the Lunar New Year, and embrace Black History Month as we enjoy a slightly longer February with 2024’s Leap Year.

Monthly Observances

  • Black History Month
  • American Heart Month
  • National Heart Month
  • National Weddings Month
  • National Cancer Prevention Month
  • National Library Lovers Month
  • Celebration of Chocolate Month

Weekly Observances

  • February 7-13 – African Heritage and Health Week
  • February 9-14 – New York Fashion Week
  • February 11-17 – Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
  • February 11-17 – International Flirting Week
  • February 11-17 – Random Acts of Kindness Week
  • February 18-24 – Engineers’ Week
  • February 19-25 – National Pancake Week
  • February 28-March 5 – National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Days

  • February 1 – First Day of Black History Month
  • February 1 – National Freedom Day
  • February 1 – National Change Your Password Day
  • February 2 – Groundhog Day
  • February 4 – Rosa Parks Day
  • February 4 – World Cancer Day
  • February 4 – The Grammy Awards
  • February 7 – National Girls and Women in Sports Day
  • February 10 – Lunar New Year
  • February 11 – Super Bowl Sunday
  • February 11 – International Day of Women and Girls in Science
  • February 12 – Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday
  • February 12 – Red Hand Day
  • February 12 – Georgia Day
  • February 12 – Darwin Day
  • February 13 – Mardi Gras
  • February 13 – International Pancake Day
  • February 14 – Valentine’s Day
  • February 14 – Ash Wednesday
  • February 14 – Arizona State Day
  • February 15 – Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday
  • February 18 – NBA All-Stars
  • February 18 – Daytona 500
  • February 19 – Presidents’ Day
  • February 22 – George Washington’s Birthday
  • February 29 – Leap Day

Popular Hashtags for February

  • #GroundhogDay
  • #WorldCancerDay
  • #NationalWeatherpersonsDay
  • #SendACardToAFriendDay
  • #BoyScoutsDay
  • #NationalPizzaDay
  • #ValentinesDay
  • #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
  • #PresidentsDay
  • #LoveYourPetDay

March

March marks the beginning of spring, and the days start to get longer. Whether March Madness turns up the heat or Easter is on its way, there are plenty of exciting events to get your content involved with.

Some of the monthly observances, such as Women’s History Month or The Great American Cleanup, can serve as great causes for regular engagement this month.

Monthly Observances

  • Women’s History Month
  • Nutrition Month
  • Music in Our Schools Month
  • Craft Month
  • American Red Cross Month
  • The Great American Cleanup
  • Ramadan begins on March 10

Weekly Observances

  • March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
  • March 10-16 – National Sleep Awareness Week
  • March 17-23 – National Agriculture Week
  • March 24-30 – National Cleaning Week

Days

  • March 1 – Employee Appreciation Day
  • March 1 – Zero Discrimination Day
  • March 1 – Global Unplugging Day
  • March 3 – World Wildlife Day
  • March 3 – National Anthem Day
  • March 4 – International HPV Awareness Day
  • March 8 – International Women’s Day
  • March 10 – Daylight Savings
  • March 10 – Ramadan
  • March 12 – 96th Academy Awards Ceremony
  • March 14 – Pi Day
  • March 15 – The Ides of March
  • March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
  • March 17 – NCAA March Madness
  • March 17 – World Sleep Day
  • March 18 – Global Recycling Day
  • March 19 – Nowruz
  • March 19 – Spring Equinox
  • March 22 – World Water Day
  • March 24 – Palm Sunday
  • March 24 – Purim
  • March 26 – Epilepsy Awareness Day
  • March 27 – World Theatre Day
  • March 28 – MLB Opening Day
  • March 28 – Maundy Thursday
  • March 29 – Good Friday
  • March 30 – Holy Saturday
  • March 31 – Easter Sunday

Popular Hashtags for March

  • #PeanutButterLoversDay
  • #EmployeeAppreciationDay
  • #ReadAcrossAmerica
  • #DrSeuss
  • #WorldWildlifeDay
  • #NationalGrammarDay
  • #BeBoldForChange
  • #DaylightSavings
  • #PiDay
  • #StPatricksDay
  • #FirstDayofSpring
  • #WorldWaterDay
  • #NationalPuppyDay
  • #PurpleDay
  • #NationalDoctorsDay
  • #EarthHour

April

April is probably best known for April Fools’ Day, and a chance to get creative with parody and spoof content for your calendar that can make your customers smile.

Earth Month also means you can make more eco-friendly posts about your organization’s commitment to reducing its impact on the planet.

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You also might want to get your cape out of storage on April 28th for National Superhero Day.

Monthly Observances

  • Earth Month
  • National Autism Awareness Month
  • Parkinson’s Awareness Month
  • Celebrate Diversity Month
  • Stress Awareness Month
  • Ramadan ends on April 8

Weekly Observances

  • April 15-21 – Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week
  • April 21-27 – National Volunteer Week
  • April 21-27 – Administrative Professionals Week
  • April 22-26 – Every Kid Healthy Week

Days

  • April 1 – April Fool’s Day
  • April 1 – Easter Monday
  • April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day
  • April 2 – International Children’s Book Day
  • April 5 – Lailat al-Qadr
  • April 6 – National Walking Day
  • April 7 – National Beer Day
  • April 7 – World Health Day
  • April 8 – Total Solar Eclipse
  • April 10 – Eid-Al-Fitr
  • April 11-14 – Masters Tournament PGA
  • April 11 – National Pet Day
  • April 12-21 – Coachella Music Festival
  • April 13 – Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday
  • April 13-15 – Songkran
  • April 15 – American Sign Language Day
  • April 15 – Tax Day
  • April 15 – Boston Marathon
  • April 15 – Patriots’ Day
  • April 16 – Emancipation Day
  • April 21 – World Creativity and Innovation Day
  • April 22 – Earth Day
  • April 22 – Passover starts
  • April 26 – Arbor Day
  • April 27 – World Design Day
  • April 28 – National Superhero Day
  • April 30 – National Honesty Day
  • April 30 – Passover ends

Popular Hashtags For April:

  • #AprilFools
  • #WAAD
  • #FindARainbowDay
  • #NationalWalkingDay
  • #LetsTalk
  • #EqualPayDay
  • #TaxDay
  • #NH5D
  • #NationalLookAlikeDay
  • #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
  • #DenimDay
  • #EndMalariaForGood
  • #COUNTONME
  • #ArborDay
  • #NationalHonestyDay
  • #AdoptAShelterPetDay

May

May brings a lot of variety with it as there are plenty of good causes to raise awareness for, plus major sporting events and unique celebrations you can join in with.

Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day are just a few examples of events that will have lots of people paying attention and can make for great marketing themes.

Monthly Observances

  • ALS Awareness
  • Asthma Awareness
  • Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
  • Jewish American Heritage Month
  • National Celiac Disease Awareness Month
  • Clean Air Month
  • Better Sleep Month
  • Lupus Awareness Month

Weekly Observances

  • May 5-11 – National Pet Week
  • May 19-25 – National Travel & Tourism Week
  • May 5-11 – Drinking Water Week
  • May 6-12 – Nurse’s Week
  • May 12-18 – Food Allergy Awareness Week

Days

  • May 1 – May Day
  • May 1 – Law Day
  • May 1 – Lei Day
  • May 2 – World Password Day
  • May 4 – Star Wars Day
  • May 4 – International Firefighters Day
  • May 4 – Kentucky Derby
  • May 5 – Cinco De Mayo
  • May 5-10 – French Open
  • May 6 – National Nurses Day
  • May 6 – Yom HaShoah
  • May 8 – World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day
  • May 10 – World Lupus Day
  • May 11 – World Fair Trade Day
  • May 12 – Mother’s Day
  • May 13-19 – PGA Championship
  • May 14 – Yom Ha’atzmaut
  • May 15 – International Day of Families
  • May 17 – NASCAR Day
  • May 17 – Malcolm X Day
  • May 17 – Internet Day
  • May 19 – HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
  • May 20 – World Bee Day
  • May 20 – Victoria Day (Canada)
  • May 21 – World Meditation Day
  • May 25 – Geek Pride Day
  • May 26 – Trinity Sunday
  • May 26 – Indianapolis 500
  • May 27 – Memorial Day
  • May 28 – World Hunger Day
  • May 29 – Memorial Day

Popular Hashtags For May:

  • #RedNoseDay
  • #MayDay
  • #WorldPasswordDay
  • #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
  • #InternationalFirefightersDay
  • #CincoDeMayo
  • #MothersDay
  • #BTWD
  • #MemorialDay & #MDW

June

Once June has arrived, it’s finally starting to feel like summer. Everyone wants to make the most of the sunshine, and the positive energies are flowing.

Given that June also marks Great Outdoors Month, this is a great opportunity to make your brand a must-have companion for planning a beachside vacation or hosting a cookout.

You can also show your support for LGBTQ+ Pride, Flag Day, and Father’s Day, along with all the other events listed here.

Monthly Observances

  • LGBTQ Pride Month
  • Caribbean-American Heritage Month
  • Great Outdoors Month
  • Men’s Health Month
  • National Safety Month
  • National Zoo and Aquarium Month

Weekly Observances

  • June 2-8 – National Garden Week
  • June 2-8 – National Headache Awareness Week
  • June 10-16 – National Men’s Health Week
  • June 16-22 – National Roller Coaster Week

Days

  • June 1 – Global Parents Day
  • June 5 – Hot Air Balloon Day
  • June 5 – World Environment Day
  • June 6 – D-Day
  • June 8 – Belmont Stakes
  • June 8 – World Oceans Day
  • June 8 – National Best Friends Day
  • June 9 – Donald Duck Day
  • June 10 – Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
  • June 11 – Kamehameha Day
  • June 12 – Shavuot
  • June 13-16 – Bonnaroo Music Festival
  • June 14 – Flag Day
  • June 14 – Flag Day
  • June 16 – Father’s Day
  • June 16 – Tony Awards
  • June 13-16 – U.S. Open PGA
  • June 19 – Juneteenth
  • June 20 – Summer Solstice
  • June 23 – International Widows Day
  • June 29 – July 21 – Tour de France
  • June 30 – International Asteroid Day

Popular Hashtags For June:

  • #NationalDonutDay
  • #FathersDay
  • #NationalSelfieDay
  • #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
  • #HandshakeDay
  • #SMDay

July

July presents lots of opportunities for savvy marketers, from the 4th of July to the International Day of Friendship.

As we enter the summer slow-down period, there’s lots to celebrate that can help to feed your social media content to keep customers engaged.

So celebrate your independence, indulge in a little ice cream, and bring people together with one of the many events in July.

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Monthly Observances

  • Family Golf Month
  • Ice Cream Month
  • National Parks and Recreation Month
  • National Picnic Month
  • National Independent Retailer Month
  • National Blueberry Month

Weekly Observances

  • July 15-21 – Capture the Sunset Week

Days

  • July 1 – International Joke Day
  • July 1-11 – Wimbledon
  • July 2 – World UFO Day
  • July 4 – Independence Day
  • July 6 – International Kissing Day
  • July 7 – World Chocolate Day
  • July 8 – National Video Games Day
  • July 11 – World Population Day
  • July 12 – Pecan Pie Day
  • July 16 – Moon Landing Anniversary
  • July 16 – MLB All-Star Game
  • July 17 – World Emoji Day
  • July 17 – Ashura
  • July 18 – Nelson Mandela International Day
  • July 20 – International Chess Day
  • July 20 – National Moon Day
  • July 21 – National Junk Food Day
  • July 24 – Amelia Earhart Day
  • July 26 – Aunt and Uncle Day
  • July 26 – August 11 – Summer Olympics
  • July 28-30 – Summer X Games
  • July 28 – Parents’ Day
  • July 28 – World Hepatitis Day
  • July 30 – International Day of Friendship
  • July 31 – World Ranger Day

Popular Hashtags For July:

  • #NationalPostalWorkerDay
  • #WorldUFODay
  • #WorldEmojiDay
  • #DayOfFriendship

August

We’ve hit the hottest days by August as back-to-school looms, and we welcome the return of football.

While many are topping up their tans and making the most of the final Summer days, August still provides lots of opportunities to align your content with wider events.

Make sure you’re using your marketing calendar to the fullest extent to post any sunny seasonal content promptly before fall arrives.

Monthly Observances

  • Back to School Month
  • National Breastfeeding Month
  • Family Fun Month
  • Peach Month

Weekly Observances

  • August 1-7 – International Clown Week
  • August 4-10 – National Farmers’ Market Week
  • August 25-31 – Be Kind to Humankind Week

Days

  • August 1 – National Girlfriends Day
  • August 1 – NFL Hall of Fame Game & Preseason
  • August 2 – International Beer Day
  • August 4 – National Friendship Day
  • August 7 – Purple Heart Day
  • August 8 – International Cat Day
  • August 9 – Book Lover’s Day
  • August 11 – National Son and Daughter Day
  • August 12 – Victory Day
  • August 13 – Left Hander’s Day
  • August 15 – Assumption of Mary
  • August 17 – National Honey Bee Day
  • August 19 – World Humanitarian Day
  • August 19 – Raksha Bandhan
  • August 20 – National Radio Day
  • August 21 – Senior Citizens Day
  • August 26 – Women’s Equality Day
  • August 30 – Frankenstein Day
  • August 30 – National Beach Day

Popular Hashtags For August:

  • #InternationalCatDay
  • #NationalBookLoversDay
  • #WorldElephantDay
  • #LefthandersDay
  • #WorldPhotoDay
  • #WorldHumanitarianDay
  • #NationalLemonadeDay
  • #NationalDogDay
  • #WomensEqualityDay

September

As fall begins, some of the bigger events happening in September are Hispanic Heritage Month, Grandparents Day, and, of course, Labor Day.

There are also plenty of other events to inspire you, from Oktoberfest to National Yoga Month. Plus, a National Coffee Day for those who struggle to start their day without a caffeine fix.

Monthly Observances

  • Wilderness Month
  • National Food Safety Education Month
  • National Yoga Month
  • Whole Grains Month
  • Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)

Weekly Observances

  • September 8-14 – National Suicide Prevention Week
  • September 15-21 – National Indoor Plant Week
  • September 16-22 – Pollution Prevention Week
  • September 24-30 – National Dog Week

Days

  • September 2 – VJ Day
  • September 2 – Labor Day
  • September 4 – National Wildlife Day
  • September 5 – International Day of Charity
  • September 6 – National Fight Procrastination Day
  • September 8 – Pardon Day
  • September 8 – National Grandparents Day
  • September 11 – 9/11
  • September 11 – Patriot Day
  • September 12 – Video Games Day
  • September 13 – Uncle Sam Day
  • September 15 – Greenpeace Day
  • September 17 – Constitution Day
  • September 21 – Oktoberfest Begins
  • September 21 – International Day of Peace
  • September 22 – World Car-Free Day
  • September 22 – September Equinox
  • September 24 – World Bollywood Day
  • September 24–29 – Presidents Cup PGA
  • September 27 – Native American Day
  • September 27 – World Tourism Day
  • September 29 – National Coffee Day (US)
  • September 29 – Confucius Day
  • September 29 – World Heart Day

Popular Hashtags For September:

  • #LaborDay
  • #NationalWildlifeDay
  • #CharityDay
  • #ReadABookDay
  • #911Day
  • #NationalVideoGamesDay
  • #TalkLikeAPirateDay
  • #PeaceDay
  • #CarFreeDay
  • #WorldRabiesDay
  • #GoodNeighborDay
  • #InternationalPodcastDay

October

It’s that time of year when pumpkin spice lattes roll around again.

While October is known as the spooky season to many, there’s much more to this month than just Halloween – there’s Teacher’s Day, World Mental Health Day, and Spirit Day, to name a few, around which your organization can look to create content.

Monthly Observances

  • Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • Bully Prevention Month
  • Halloween Safety Month
  • Financial Planning Month
  • National Pizza Month

Weekly Observances

  • October 8-14 – Fire Prevention Week
  • October 13-19 – Earth Science Week
  • October 20-26 – National Business Women’s Week

Days

  • October 1 – International Coffee Day
  • October 1 – World Vegetarian Day
  • October 3 – National Techies Day
  • October 5 – World Teacher’s Day
  • October 6 – Oktoberfest Ends
  • October 7 – Child Health Day
  • October 10 – World Mental Health Day
  • October 11 – National Coming Out Day
  • October 12 – Yom Kippur
  • October 14 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day
  • October 14 – Columbus Day
  • October 14 – Thanksgiving Day (Canada)
  • October 16 – World Food Day
  • October 19 – Sweetest Day
  • October 20 – Spirit Day (Anti-bullying)
  • October 22 – Make a Difference Day
  • October 24 – United Nations Day
  • October 30 – Mischief Night
  • October 31 – Halloween

Popular Hashtags For October:

  • #InternationalCoffeeDay
  • #TechiesDay
  • #NationalTacoDay
  • #WorldSmileDay
  • #WorldTeachersDay
  • #WorldHabitatDay
  • #WorldMentalHealthDay
  • #BossesDay
  • #UNDay
  • #ChecklistDay
  • #Halloween

November

During the month in which we all give thanks, there is also a wide range of causes you can help out with or raise awareness for, like Movember and America Recycles Day.

You should also mark your marketing calendar for arguably the biggest sales events of the year – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Dec. 2) – which are sure to be on everyone’s radar.

Monthly Observances

  • Native American Heritage Month
  • Movember
  • World Vegan Month
  • Novel Writing Month
  • National Gratitude Month

Weekly Observances

  • November 11-16 – World Kindness Week (second week: Monday – Sunday)
  • November 18-22 – American Education Week
  • November 18-24 – Game and Puzzle Week

Days

  • November 1 – Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos
  • November 1 – All Saint’s Day
  • November 1 – World Vegan Day
  • November 2 – Melbourne Cup
  • November 3 – Daylight Savings Time Ends
  • November 5 – Election Day
  • November 8 – STEM Day
  • November 9 – World Freedom Day
  • November 10 – Marine Corps Birthday
  • November 11 – Veterans Day
  • November 13 – World Kindness Day
  • November 14 – World Diabetes Day
  • November 15 – National Entrepreneurs Day
  • November 24 – Evolution Day
  • November 28 – Thanksgiving Day
  • November 29 – Native American Heritage Day
  • November 29 – Black Friday

Popular Hashtags For November:

  • #WorldVeganDay
  • #NationalSandwichDay
  • #DaylightSavings
  • #CappuccinoDay
  • #STEMDay
  • #VeteransDay
  • #WKD
  • #WDD
  • #BeRecycled
  • #EntrepreneursDay
  • #Thanksgiving
  • #ShopSmall

December

December is here, and the end of the year is in sight.

Although 2025 is right around the corner, and you might want to start planning your content calendar for next year, don’t neglect your content in the run-up to the holidays.

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Send your year off in style with marketing campaigns dedicated to events like Nobel Prize Day, Rosa Parks Day, Green Monday, and more.

You can even do a content wrap-up of your best moments from the year – and make sure to get your 2025 marketing calendar sorted early before the post-Christmas wind-down.

Monthly Observances

  • Human Rights Month
  • Operation Santa Paws
  • Safe Toys and Gifts Month
  • World Food Service Safety Month

Weekly Observances

  • December 9-15 – Human Rights Week
  • December 25 – January 2 – Hanukkah (Chanukah)
  • December 26 – January 1 – Kwanzaa

Days

  • December 1 – World AIDS Day
  • December 1 – Rosa Parks Day
  • December 2 – Cyber Monday
  • December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
  • December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
  • December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
  • December 7 – National Letter Writing Day
  • December 8 – Feast of the Immaculate Conception
  • December 9 – Green Monday
  • December 10 – Nobel Prize Day
  • December 10 – Human Rights Day
  • December 11 – UNICEF Anniversary
  • December 15 – Bill of Rights Day
  • December 18 – National Twin Day
  • December 21 – Winter Solstice
  • December 22 – Forefathers Day
  • December 23 – Festivus
  • December 24 – Christmas Eve
  • December 25 – Christmas Day
  • December 25 – Hanukkah
  • December 26 – Kwanzaa
  • December 26 – Boxing Day
  • December 31 – New Year’s Eve

Popular Hashtags For December:

  • #IDPWD
  • #NationalCookieDay
  • #NobelPrize
  • #WinterSolstice
  • #NYE

The Complete Marketing Calendar And Template To Plan 2024

You can find the link to our complete marketing calendar and template for 2024 right here.

By having a content plan set out months in advance, you can rest assured that you’ll have great ideas to work with throughout the year.

And just because you have a plan doesn’t mean you can’t adapt if something interesting happens later in the year.

Simply rearrange your calendar and work your trending content around key dates.

Keep track of what ideas work throughout the year and use them to help guide your marketing calendar for 2025, so you can double down on successful content ideas.

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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

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Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It

Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

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8 Free SEO Reporting Tools

There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?

In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.

Price: Free

Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.

Most common reporting use case

GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.

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As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:

  • Total Impressions
  • Average CTR
  • Average Position
gsc-performance-overviewgsc-performance-overview

Tip

If you’ve signed up for AWT using Google Search Console, you can view your GSC performance data in Ahrefs by clicking “GSC Performance” from the main dashboard.

But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.

organic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-yearorganic-traffic-graph-showing-clicks-year-over-year

Favorite feature

One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.

google-search-console-indexed-pages-reportgoogle-search-console-indexed-pages-report

If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.

Price: Free

Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.

Most common reporting use case

Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.

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Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.

Such as:

  • Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
  • Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
  • Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
  • Social media platformsFacebook, Reddit, and Twitter
  • Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage

Sidenote.

If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks

google-looker-studio-partner-connectorsgoogle-looker-studio-partner-connectors

Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:

ahrefs-seo-audit-dashboardahrefs-seo-audit-dashboard
Ahrefs Google Looker Studio integration

With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.

Favorite feature

The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.

Price: Free for 500 URLs

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.

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Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.

screaming-frog-user-interface-screenshotscreaming-frog-user-interface-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.

Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.

Favorite feature

Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs. 

If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.

screaming-frog-api-accessscreaming-frog-api-access

Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.

Price: Free

Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.

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when-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustrationwhen-to-use-ahrefs-free-tools-across-the-seo-process-illustration

For example, you could use our:

Most common reporting use case

One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.

With AWT, you can:

  • Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
  • See the performance of your website
  • Check all known backlinks for your website
ahrefs-overviewahrefs-overview

Favorite feature

Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.

If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).

Price: Free

Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.

Most common reporting use case

For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.

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ahrefs-seo-toolbar-overviewahrefs-seo-toolbar-overview

With the free version, you get the following features:

  • On-page SEO report
  • Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
  • Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
  • SERP positions
  • Country changer for SERP

The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.

If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.

severity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbarseverity-highlight-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Favorite feature

The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.

indexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbarindexability-tab-ahrefs-seo-toolbar

Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.

Price: Free

Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.

google-analytics-screenshotgoogle-analytics-screenshot

Most common reporting use case

GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.

Favorite feature

You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.

Price: Free

Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.

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Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.

google-slides-screenshotgoogle-slides-screenshot

Most common reporting use cases

The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.

Favorite feature

One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.

share-video-chat-google-slidesshare-video-chat-google-slides

This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.

Price: Free

Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.

Most common reporting use cases

Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.

Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.

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Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.

bbq-google-trends-graphbbq-google-trends-graph

Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.

Favorite feature

Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.

google-trends-comparison-examplegoogle-trends-comparison-example

Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.

You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.

regional-trends-via-google-trendsregional-trends-via-google-trends

Final thoughts

These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.

The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.

Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂

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