SEO
SEO tools are for researching keywords and fixing technical SEO — the kind of work every indie hacker eventually hits and would rather not build from scratch. 6 tools are listed here, each picked and written up individually rather than pulled from an affiliate feed. Ahrefs is usually the first one people try: the backlink and keyword data most SEOs trust first — expensive, but the crawl index is hard to beat. Google Search Console takes a different angle — free and non-negotiable — it's the only place you see how Google actually sees, indexes, and ranks your site. And Screaming Frog SEO Spider is worth a look too: the desktop crawler for finding broken links, redirect chains, and metadata mess a dashboard tool would miss. Every listing below includes the actual tradeoff, not marketing copy, so you can pick based on what you're building instead of what ranks highest in a sponsored roundup elsewhere.
The backlink and keyword data most SEOs trust first — expensive, but the crawl index is hard to beat.
Free and non-negotiable — it's the only place you see how Google actually sees, indexes, and ranks your site.
The desktop crawler for finding broken links, redirect chains, and metadata mess a dashboard tool would miss.
An all-in-one competitor research and keyword suite — great for spying on what's actually working for rivals.
Scores your draft against what's actually ranking so you stop guessing at keyword density and headings.
A budget keyword and site-audit tool that covers the basics without the Ahrefs-sized monthly bill.