Every day, small businesses are forced to compete for market share against giant multinational corporations. In decades past, this was almost always a losing battle since the small enterprise couldn’t muster anywhere near the massive financial resources large companies enjoyed. The Internet has changed that. Small businesses can now realize local and global visibility at scale without wielding a billion-dollar marketing budget.

It comes down to search engine optimization (SEO). That is, making sure your website and web pages appear among the first search results of relevant queries. Nevertheless, not just any SEO campaign will do. The strategy is the foundation of it all so here are some great ideas for getting started. Still, if you want to increase the odds of success, tapping into the right tools is paramount.

Here’s a look at some key SEO tools that can drive your small business growth to the next level.

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is arguably the best-known SEO tool out there apart from Google’s own suite of SEO products. It helps you better understand and use backlinks.

First, it can analyze your website and check whether your backlinks originate from genuine sites and not spammy ones. This is important because Google has over the years come down hard on sites it deems as using illegitimate tactics. Your site will be penalized which will make it difficult for your pages to appear among the first results for your preferred keywords. Before you do anything else, you should get rid of these spammy backlinks as they could render all your other SEO efforts fruitless.

Once you have that covered, you can use Ahrefs to see your competitor’s backlinks. This is a potentially huge time saver because it shows sites that would be open to your kind of guest posts. It’s also a window into the link building techniques that your rivals used to succeed and which you could borrow from.

2. Linkio

It positions itself as Linkio. Like Ahrefs, Linkio is primarily a link building application. Where Linkio stands out is its focus on perfecting anchor text. It has an anchor text profile planner where you can obtain insights on 13 categories of anchor text. Linkio will show what anchor text to use for your next backlink. It combines competitor data, your preferences and the app’s own presets to generate the ideal roadmap for your anchor text and link building targets.

Linkio actually integrates with Ahrefs and can allow you to extract data from your account to see your existing backlink profile. Once you’ve done the integration, all new backlinks are automatically imported ensuring your decision-making is based on the latest information. From here, Linkio’s algorithm automatically classifies your links into one of the 13 categories including the percentage distribution. You can then use this to know if you are on track or if need be, adjust your anchor text plans accordingly.

3. SEMRush

SEMRush is an all-in-one SEO toolkit that provides incisive competitor analytics, social media reporting, backlink analysis, and keyword research. It’s most effective for small business owners who already have some background knowledge of SEO. Nevertheless, if you are unfamiliar with SEO, you can get up to speed using SEMRush’s knowledge base, online academy, and on-line guides.

SEMRush is most effective when you start with an initial website audit that sets the stage for improving your SEO scores. From here, you can find suggestions for improving site traffic, change tracking, competitive intelligence, and analytics features.

SEMRush has ancillary capabilities that further bolster your search rankings and identify new opportunities. These include market research, social media management, paid ads planning and keyword research. Meriting special mention is the Domain vs. Domain feature that provides an in-depth comparison between your site and competitors.

SEO strategy provides the overarching guidance required for SEO success. It’s the tools though that can help you actually get there quickly, accurately and efficiently. Try out some SEO tools today to get your small business on an impressive growth trajectory.