A Complete List of the Top SEO Tools for Blogging That I Use and Recommend

If you want to DIY your blog posts and are looking for the best blogging tools to create strong, SEO-friendly posts, then you are in the right place! Today I am spilling the tea on all the tools I use to write, create, and market blog posts for myself and my clients. I’m getting veryyy micro and walking you through every single tool I use. You may already use some of these tools or they may be completely new to you. Either way, feel free to take what you want and leave the rest—there’s something here for everyone!  

*Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase through them.

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Best Blogging Tools for SEO Research

A good blog starts with SEO research and choosing the best keywords and phrases so your blog post has a better chance of being seen by potential clients. Here are my favorite SEO tools for blogging.

Google Chrome

Cost: Free

I told you I was getting micro. 🙃 While this platform needs no introduction, did you know that Google Chrome is so more than an internet browser? It’s actually a powerful keyword research tool! 

Here are three ways to use Google Chrome to find keywords and phrases for your blog post:  

• Autocomplete suggestions: have you ever noticed that when you start typing in the search bar, a drop down list appears? These are other commonly searched words and phrases that you can use for potential keyword ideas.

• People also ask: once the page populates some results, scroll down a little. There you will find a “People also ask” section. This section includes FAQs related to the search term and is a gold mine for content.
  • *Pro Tip – consider including a section in your blog post with questions from the “People also ask” section as well as FAQs you receive from your audience about a certain topic. This not only helps you target more keywords, but it also answers questions your clients actually have which helps position you as the expert! 

• People also search for: not to be confused the section above, this section is located at the very bottom of a SERP (search engine results page). It highlights other common queries related to the search term and is useful for identifying other points (aka headings) to cover in your blog post. 

Google Chrome isn’t the only search engine option out there (there’s also Bing, Safari, Firefox, Yahoo, etc.), but it is the largest. Google also offers a bunch of other helpful tools which I’ll touch on throughout this post and they integrate with each other seamlessly which makes navigating them fairly simple.

Best for: initial keyword research and topic ideas

Google Trends

Cost: Free

If you want to see how popular a particular search word or phrase is over time, Google Trends can tell you. Trends lets you compare multiple keywords or phrases and even suggests related keywords which can help spark new ideas. 

Best for: understanding historical keyword relevance and current popularity

Ubersuggest

Cost: $0 – $99 / month

Ubersuggest allows you to do more comprehensive keyword research and understand which keywords you have the best chance of ranking for. It provides helpful details like keyword search volume, difficulty, and trends which are all important factors to consider when choosing a keyword. 

Their free version allows 3 keyword searches per day, so you can test how the tool works before you commit. If you want the ability to search more terms and get access to all their features, they offer monthly subscriptions or an option to pay once for a lifetime plan. 

Best for: in-depth keyword research for beginners and small businesses

Honorable Mentions: Semrush and Ahrefs are also amazing SEO research tools. While they do have a higher price point than Ubersuggest, they offer more advanced features.

*Pro Tip – Sign up for Ahrefs’ free site audit. They’ll crawl your website and send you audit results once a week letting you know your site’s overall health score as well as what pages are experiencing errors or warnings.

Google Keyword Planner

Cost: Free

Looking for a free keyword research tool? Google Keyword Planner is a great alternative to paid keyword research platforms. While the platform is primarily geared towards pay-per-click marketing (aka ads), it is a good place to start if you are looking for a free keyword research tool. However, keep in mind that Keyword Planner’s data can be very broad so you may want to use other platforms to get more detailed results.

Best for: free keyword research and PPC (pay-per-click) marketing

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Best Blogging Tools for Blog Writing

Once your blog post’s SEO foundation is set, it’s time to actually write the post. Here are some of the best blog writing tools for wedding photographers. 

Google Docs

Cost: Free

When it comes to writing your blog post content, I highly recommend writing your first draft in Google Docs, Dropbox, or a word processor (bonus points if it’s cloud based and has an auto save function).  There’s nothing worse than spending a couple of hours writing a post only to experience a technology glitch and lose all the information before it was saved. 

Best for: blog post first drafts 

Go Transcribe

Cost: $12 / hour (pay as you go) or $30 – $90 / month 

If sitting down and writing out your thoughts sounds like a nightmare to you, then this tool is for you! Go Transcribe is a transcription service that analyzes audio and converts it to text. I especially love this tool for portfolio blog posts (see the tip below for why)! 

*Pro Tip – On your way home from a wedding or elopement (or anytime you’re ready to start blogging about an event), record an audio message describing the day’s events on your phone. Then, simply upload the audio to Go Transcribe and it will convert it into text. All you need to do is make a few edits and voila—your blog post text is ready to go! 

Best for: bloggers who prefer audio recordings over writing 

Grammarly

Cost: $0 – $15 / month

If writing and grammar are not your strong points, then you may want to check out Grammarly. Grammarly not only checks your grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but it also helps improve your writing tone and style. There are a few options for how to use Grammarly. You can upload your content to the app or add the extension to your browser (my recommendation). The latter will allow Grammarly to anazlye the text on any platform or website including Google Docs, emails, etc.

Best for: improving writing and reducing grammatical errors 

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Best Blogging Tools for Editing and Optimization

Now that your blog post is written, the hardest part is over and all that’s left to do is polish your post and hit publish. Here are a few of my top recommendations for editing and optimizing your blog post.  

Compress JPEG

Cost: Free 

Photos can slow down your website and negatively affect your SEO score if not optimized correctly. Compress JPEG is an easy to use online tool that compresses your images resulting in improved loading speed. While you do not need to set up an account or download any software, the downside to Compress JPEG is that you can only upload 21 photos at a time so you may need to work in batches (I recommend including no more than 40 images to a page or post so this isn’t usually too much of an issue). 

Best for: image compression 

Ezgif 

Cost: Free

Just like photos, gifs too need to be optimized before they are uploaded to your website! Ezgif is an online compression tool that reduces the file size of gifs to improve your website’s page speed. 

Best for: gif optimization and compression 

Headline Studio

Cost: $0 – $4 / month

Creating a catchy title can help draw readers to click on your blog post. Not only does Headline Studio help generate blog post title ideas, but it also scores your headlines, titles, and captions and suggests improvements so they have the highest chance of grabbing your audience’s attention. This tool is available as either an extension in your browser or as a plugin through your WordPress blog. 

Best for: creating more compelling blog post titles 

WordPress

Cost: $0 – $45 / month

When it comes to choosing which platform to host your blog, I highly recommend WordPress*! The most common pairing I see for wedding photographers is a website hosted on ShowIt* with the blog hosted on WordPress. 

I recommend these platforms because they have built in features that help optimize your site and create better SEO content (not to mention they’re both highly customizable). 

While both platforms have a bit of a learning curve compared to some of their competitors, they are not complicated to use and will set you up for better success in the long run. 

Best for: website and blog hosting

*Use this link to get one free month of ShowIt

*Use this link to get a $25 account credit toward an annual WordPress plan

Yoast SEO

Cost: $0 – $99 / year

Yoast SEO might just be my favorite (not to mention one of the BEST blogging tools on this list)! While Yoast does offers a paid version, I’ve found that it isn’t necessary as the free version offers so much value! 

This WordPress plugin provides suggestions on how to improve your blog post for SEO. It tells you exactly what needs to be fixed or updated so you never have to guess if your post is optimized correctly. A green smiley face means your post is correctly optimized, whereas a red frowny face means your blog post needs improvements. 

Best for: creating strong, SEO-friendly blog posts on WordPress

Kadence Blocks – Pro Extension

Cost: $89 / year

Ok, Yoast SEO might be one of my favorite SEO tools for blogging, but Kadence Blocks Pro is one of my favorite blogging design and layout tools. This WordPress plugin allows you to add interactive features to your blog. One of my favorite is the Post/Grid Carousell, which allows you to add related blog posts in a carousel format so your readers can scroll through and read more of your content. This is just one of the many design features Kadence Blocks Pro offers. They have a whole library of tools which I highly recommend you check out.

Best for: blog post customization

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Best Blogging Tools for Marketing Your Post

Once your blog post is published, it’s time to spread the word and encourage your audience to visit your webiste. Here are a few blogging tools you can use to help share your blog posts with readers. 

Flodesk

Cost: $0 – $64 / month

After your website, your email list is your most important marketing tool as it’s one of the few that you have full control over. Flodesk* is my favorite email marketing platform because it’s both user-friendly and they provide beautiful email templates to choose from which make sharing new blog posts a breeze.

Best for: email marketing

*Use this link to get 30 days free and 50% off your first year of Flodesk

Instgram

Cost: Free (ads optional)

Another tool that needs no introduction is Instagram. Instagram is so much more than just a pretty place to showcase your photos. When used correctly, it can be a powerful tool for engaging with your community, building trust, and driving traffic to your website. Blog posts can be repurposed so many different ways through stories, reels, carousels, and posts. 

Best for: social media engagement with your community

Pinterest

Cost: Free (ads optional)

Once you have a solid backlog of blog posts on your website, you may want to consider adding Pinterest to your marketing toolkit. Pinterest helps drive traffic to your website through visually appealing pins and strong CTAs (call-to-actions). It pairs perfectly with blogging as the platform relies on fresh content and URLs—meaning the more you blog, the more content you’ll have to share on Pinterest.

Best for: driving blog traffic through visuals

Want to learn more about how Pinterest can help your business grow? Check out these resources!

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Best Blogging Tools for Tracking Metrics

After pouring all that hard work into your blog post, you’ll want to track your post’s performance to see if they are helping you meet your business goals. Here are a few SEO tools for blogging analysis. 

Google Analytics (GA4)

Cost: Free

Google Analytics is one of the most data-packed SEO tools for bloggers. This tool helps you understand how visitors are interacting with your website as well as what channels they are coming from. And the best part? It’s completely free. While the platform has a bit of a learning curve, once you understand what metrics you want to track, tracking them is pretty straightforward. 

Best for: understanding website traffic and user behavior 

Google Search Console

Cost: Free 

Google Search Console goes hand in hand with Google Analytics. While both of these tools help provide insight to your website and blog pages, they have distinct functions. 

While Google Analytics focuses more on a user’s journey throughout your website, Google Search Console (GSC for short) helps you understand how your website appears in search results. It provides data like what search terms bring traffic to your site and alerts you about indexing issues with your site. These are just a few of the (many) capabilities that GSC offers.

*Pro Tip – instead of waiting for Google to index your blog post (which can take weeks or months), you can manually submit an indexing request on GSC immediately after publishing your post.

Best for: monitoring search performance

Google Structured Data Markup Helper 

Cost: Free

In order for search engines to properly categorize your post, they need to understand it’s structure (ie – title, publish date, author, etc.). Tools like Yoast SEO do this automatically, however, if you aren’t using this plugin, Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper allows you to categorize the post manually. Their online tool allows you to enter your post’s url then click on sections of your post and assign them a category. The process takes less than 5 minutes but does require a tiny bit of coding, so I recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin as it marks up your post for you.

Best for: adding structured data to blog posts manually

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Other Helpful Blogging Tools for Wedding Photographers

While the following tools are not SEO specific, they are tools you can use to share blog posts with your clients, communicate about team projects, and plan and design content. 

Dubsado

Cost: free for 3 clients, then $20 – $40 / month

Did you know that Dubsado* (or your CRM of choice) is a great place to share blog posts? Adding blog post links to your workflow emails is a great way to provide value to your clients. You can share resource blogs that answer FAQs or share portfolio blog posts for inspiration about particular locations. Not only does this help you serve your clients well, but it also helps drive more traffic to your website—win, win!

Best for: client communication and organization

*Use this link to get 20% off your first month or year of Dubsado

Asana

Cost: $0 – $25 / month 

Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or you work with a team, Asana can help you keep track of your projects and meet your deadlines. This project management system is the main tool I use to keep track of project details, due dates, and any other tasks related to running the business. Outside of email, Asana is also the primary way I communicate with my clients about their individual projects. It allows you to stay organized and share notes and files all in one easy-to-access location.

Best for: blog organization and communication

Google Sheets

Cost: Free

If you struggle with starting blogging at all or find yourself blogging sporatically, then you need to create a plan! Creating a blogging content plan is one of the most powerful steps to ensuring the blogs you intend to write actually get written. Your content calendar can be as simple as a Google Sheet with a title/topic and a due date. Or, you can get more detailed and include keywords, content description, and CTAs. No matter what your content plan looks like, you want to make sure it’s one that works for you.

Best for: content planning

Want access to the exact content calendar I use to plan out my client’s blog posts? Click below to snag the template!

Canva

Cost: $0 – $120 / year

Canva is an easy-to-use design tool that allows you to create and share beautiful graphics. You can create custom designs for your blog posts, Instagram, and Pinterest. They have a free version, which offers a lot of options, however, if you want access to their complete library of designs, they also offer a pro version.

Best for: custrom graphics and designs

Pic-Time

Cost: $0 – $42 / month

While Pic-Time is primarily a photo management system, they have begun expanding and now offer blogging functionality. In general, I recommend blogging within your website whenever possible as it keeps your content on a platform that you own. However, I’m also a fan of trying new things and evaluating how they work for each person. There is no one size fits all when it comes to marketing—you simply have to do what works for you.  

Best for: photo management system

Storytailor / Narrative Publish

Cost: Varies by platform

Similar to PicTime blogging, Storytailor and Narrative Publish are third party blogging platforms that allow you create a blog post and push to your site. While they both offer SEO guidance to ensure your blog post is properly optimized, I recommend keeping your blog content within WordPress (or on whatever platform your blog is hosted) whenever possible. This ensures you have complete control over your website rather than handing a portion of it off to another company.

However, one feature that can be useful is photo collages / layouts. I recommend using a plugin like Kadence Blocks Pro for a more seamless blogging experience, but if you don’t have a WordPress site or don’t want to purchase the plugin, Storytailor or Narrative Publisher can allow you to create custom photo layouts to share on your blog.

Best for: photo layout customization

Chat GPT

Cost: Free

There are lots of ways to use Chat GPT for blogging. From blog post ideas, brand voice analysis, outline creation, competitor analysis, or editing and reviewing for errors there are so many ways to use this platform.

But, one thing you do not want to ask ChatGPT to do is write your blog post for you. The knowledge and expertise you have to offer based on your personal experiences has SO much more value than anything AI can produce. You are the secret sauce to your business—Chat GPT is just a tool.

Best for: brand analysis and generating topic ideas

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And there you have it—the best blogging tools for wedding photographers! These 25 tools are tools that I use for my clients on a daily basis. They help streamline the writing process, improve SEO, spread the word, track metrics, and so much more!

Whether you’re just getting started with blogging or are looking to add a new tool to your toolkit and refine your blogging process, having the right tools makes all the difference!

What are your favorite SEO blogging tools? Let me know in the comments or let me know if there are any blogging tools I missed.

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Check out some of our other Blogging Tips and SEO Resources