Why a free stack covers most of what you need
The most useful data about your business in search comes straight from Google and Bing, and both give it away free. That is not an accident. The companies that run search want sites to be found and to work well. So the tools that tell you how you appear, what is broken and who clicked are free, and no paid tool can show you the same first-hand numbers.
Paid tools add things the free ones do not: competitor views, bulk crawling, estimated search volumes, convenience across many sites. Those matter at scale. For one business with one site, the free set does the job, and starting there means you learn what you actually want before you pay for it.
This page names the tools and shows how to use each. For the bigger picture of tool categories, including the paid kinds, read SEO tools for a small business. And if you want to know what the tools are for in a plan, start with where tools fit in a small business SEO plan.
The free stack, tool by tool
Google Search Console
The core tool. Connect your site and it begins recording how often your pages appear in Google, which searches triggered them, which pages got clicks and where there are problems, such as pages Google could not read. It is free, it comes from Google itself, and it is the thing every report about your SEO should be built on. Start with the Performance report, which lists queries and pages with impressions and clicks. Our glossary entry on Google Search Console explains each report.
What to look for: pages with many impressions and few clicks (the title or opening may be weak), and searches you appear for that you have no page about (a chance to write one).
Google Business Profile
For any business with a location or a service area, the profile is both a listing and a measuring tool. Its insights report how people found you and what they did next: called, asked for directions, visited the site. It also holds your reviews. It is the free tool most likely to bring you a phone call. See Google Business Profile for a small business for what to fill in.
What to look for: unanswered reviews, hours that are out of date, and the categories and services Google shows people.
PageSpeed Insights
Paste in a page address and Google reports how fast it loads on a phone and what slows it down, such as oversized photos. Phones matter because that is where many local searches happen. You do not need a perfect score. You need to find the one or two things that make a page feel slow, and fix those.
What to look for: large images, which are the most common cause, and anything that loads after the page appears and pushes the text around.
Rich Results Test
If your site uses structured data, which is extra code that tells search systems what a page is, such as a local business, a product or a list of questions, this free Google tool checks that it is valid. Paste a page address and it tells you what it found and flags errors. If you have a plugin that adds this automatically, it is how you check it works. The glossary page on schema markup explains what it is for.
What to look for: errors, which prevent the data from being used, and warnings, which are optional.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing's version of Search Console. It takes a few clicks to import your site from Google Search Console. Bing matters partly for its own results and partly because other products, including some AI assistants, draw on Bing's index. A site that Bing can read and has been told about is better placed than one it has never seen.
What to look for: that your sitemap has been received and that your pages are indexed.
Google's own free extras
Google Trends shows whether interest in a phrase is rising or falling and when it peaks in the year, handy for seasonal services. Google Keyword Planner, inside Google Ads, shows rough search volumes. Google Analytics counts visits and form completions. Each is free, and each answers one question well.
Setting them up in the right order
The order matters a little, because each step makes the next more useful.
- Google Business Profile first, if you serve a local area. It takes the longest to verify, since Google may send a postcard or ask for a video, so start it before anything else.
- Search Console second. Verify the site, then submit your sitemap. If your website platform makes a sitemap automatically, the address is usually the site address followed by /sitemap.xml.
- Bing Webmaster Tools third. Import from Search Console and you are done.
- An analytics tool fourth, set to count the actions that matter to you: a phone tap, a form submission, a booking.
- PageSpeed Insights and the Rich Results Test last. They are checks you run, not things you set up.
Allow an afternoon for the lot, plus waiting for verification. Then leave it a few weeks. Search Console only shows data from the day you connect it, so the sooner you start the sooner you have a record.
What the free tools do not do
Be clear about what you are not getting, so you do not conclude that a tool is broken.
They do not show competitors. Search Console is about your own site. To see who else appears for your searches, you search yourself, look at the map, and check what those businesses have that you do not.
They do not give exact search volumes. Keyword Planner gives ranges. Search Console gives your actual impressions, but only for searches you already appear for.
They do not tell you what to do. They report. A list of pages with high impressions and low clicks is a starting point. Deciding what the title should say is your job.
They do not do the work. No tool writes the page, asks for the review or corrects the old listing. That is covered in doing SEO yourself versus hiring help.
They take time. Data in Search Console is slow to build and may lag by a day or two. A new page may take weeks to appear.
Reading your first month of data without panic
New users of Search Console often react to numbers that are normal. A few points keep you calm.
Impressions will be larger than clicks, by a lot. That is how search works. An impression means your page was shown, not seen. A click rate of a few percent is not a failure for most pages.
Impressions can rise while clicks stay still. That often means Google has started to show you for more searches, and the clicks follow later. It is a good early sign, not a bad one.
Weeks move around. Compare a month to the same month a year ago if you can, and a recent month to the one before it, not day to day.
Odd phrases show up. Searches that include a name or oddly specific words are real people. They tell you what people expect to find on your site.
Write down two numbers a month: total clicks from Search Console and the calls from your profile. After three months, you have a trend, which is worth more than any single reading.
A free check for AI assistants too
The same free-first approach works for assistants. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini the questions a customer would ask, in your area, and note who is named. Repeat it monthly in the same words so you can compare. The free AI visibility check gives you a ready-made starting point, and reviews and AI recommendations explains why your review text matters so much to what assistants say.
It is not a precise measure. Assistants can give different answers to the same question. But a few repeated checks show you which businesses are named and gradually how that changes.
Common setup problems and how to fix them
Free tools are simple, but a few snags catch most people.
Search Console will not verify your site. The usual cause is adding the code to the wrong place or the wrong version of the address. Choose the domain-level option if you can, since it covers every version of your address, with and without www. If your site builder offers a built-in connection, use it.
It says "no data yet". Normal for the first days. Data starts collecting from the day you connect. Check again in a week.
A page you expect is missing from Google. Use the URL inspection box to see if Google can read it. A common cause is a setting left on from when the site was being built, which tells search systems to stay away. Ask whoever built the site to check it.
The profile verification is stuck. Google may ask for a postcard, a phone call or a short video. Follow the method offered and give it a few days. Do not create a second profile.
PageSpeed Insights shows a poor score. Look at the specific recommendations, not the number. Large photos are the usual cause and the easiest fix.
The Rich Results Test shows errors. Fix errors, which block the data. Warnings are optional. If a plugin produces the code, check its settings before editing anything by hand.
Where each free tool matters most, by business type
All five tools are free, so use them all. But the one that deserves your first hour depends on the business.
Service businesses such as plumbers, electricians and cleaners should begin with the Business Profile. Calls from the map are the main source of work.
Shops and restaurants should begin with the profile too, then PageSpeed Insights on the menu or product pages, because phone visitors leave slow pages.
Professional services such as accountants, lawyers and consultants should begin with Search Console. Their customers search detailed questions, and Search Console shows which ones already lead to the site.
Businesses with a blog or many pages get the most from the Rich Results Test, once they use structured data, and from Bing Webmaster Tools, to make sure the whole site is known.
Whichever you start with, the next step is the routine in the diagram. And for a fuller list of jobs in order of impact, see the small business SEO checklist.
When to add something paid on top of the free stack
The free stack is a base, not a ceiling. Add a paid tool when you can name a question the free ones cannot answer, and when the answer would change what you do.
"Who is appearing above me on the map, and for what?" is one such question. "Which of my four hundred pages have no title?" is another. "Are my listings correct at twelve locations?" is a third. Each has a paid tool that does the job faster.
Until then, a notebook helps. Search your own main phrases yourself once a month, in a private window, and note the first five businesses on the map and the first five results below it. After three months you will have a real picture of your competitors at no cost. The overview of tool categories covers the paid options when you are ready.
How RunOctopus uses these same sources
The free tools show you where you stand. RunOctopus does the work those numbers point to.
RunOctopus is a done-for-you service. Its AI, Ollie, researches your business, then writes and publishes pages directly on your own website. A team plans, writes, reviews and publishes alongside Ollie. It works with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and Wix, and you install, approve, upload and schedule nothing.
The first week brings 8 long-form articles, 6 pages and a custom interactive tool built for your niche. After that it is 175+ pieces of content a month, written, published and linked. You also get reports on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business. The promise is more visibility on Google and in AI answers within 90 days, measured against the 90 days before you joined, or every dollar back.
For scale, an agency doing this work charges about $3,209 a month (2026 average, 439 providers) and publishes 4 to 12 pieces. Paste your address into the free site read. Ollie reads the site and shows the plan. No account, no call.