Anyone here who does SEO without tools?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Michael Martinez: Group expertAll the time. Tools can be a boon or a crutch.Many people needlessly crawl Websites looking for things they can easily find just by examining the source code of a few sample pages.…
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  Rajesh Mago: Michael Martinez Which free and paid SEO tool would you recommend for a new, single man army, economical budget blogger working on microniche sites?Also, if someone knows the subject matter very well, how without any paid tools, he/she will come to know about the reasons for competitors site top rankings and doing the needed stuff for his/her site to outrank them?I am going to research about how I can use source page of top rankings site to find valuable SEO information for my sites advantage?Thanks for your useful SEO tips.
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  Michael Martinez: Group expertRajesh Mago See my other answer for suggestions on free SEO tools. A lot of information is readily available."Also, if someone knows the subject matter very well, how without any paid tools, he/she will come to know about the reasons for competitors site top rankings and doing the needed stuff for his/her site to outrank them?"You don`t need to know competitors` top rankings. In fact, you CANNOT actually know what their top rankings are. SEO ranking tools make guesses.A subject-matter expert already knows what people are interested in and need to know. There`s little need for keyword research when you already know what people are interested in.Also, as you build up an audience, people will let you know what they are interested in seeing from you."I am going to research about how I can use source page of top rankings site to find valuable SEO information for my sites advantage?"No. There`s no point in doing that.Focus on creating the kind of Website you yourself would want to visit, bookmark, and recommend.
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  Abdallah Oubaki: For my website, it was never about keywords research, I had an idea about a subject that I knew well, and I started writing useful content about that subject.After less than one year, i have 100 organic visitors every day.I don`t know if 100 visitors good, but it`s good for me lolI spent some dollars to buy the theme and annual subscription for 2 plugins:- Wp-rocket to make the website fast- SeoPress because it have Schema markup that I wanted for my website.That`s it!
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  Rajesh Mago: But what about monetisation? Are you happy? Don`t you think by using more paid SEO tools, you would have made your site promotion work easier and more satisfaction by having more visitors and money also, saving time too and thus recovering the cost of …
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  Abdallah Oubaki: I`m happy with the income right now, it`s an affiliate website. And I started learning more about seo to generate more traffic.About Wp-rocket, for 7 months, I had my website speed always between 75 and 91%, using the Google speed test. after installi…
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  Oliver Harrison: Abdallah Oubaki what about backlinks? Do you spend some money on backlinks?
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  Abdallah Oubaki: No, no back links strategy at all
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  Oliver Harrison: Abdallah Oubaki then how you rank without backlinks, do they come in naturally?
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  Abdallah Oubaki: I have now about 80 domains linking to my website. They come naturally. Only 2 or 3 are relevant. Most of the other links are from websites that provides coupon codes and discounts.I had also some spammy backlinks that I disavowed on google console.
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  Jamel Benfredj: Abdallah Oubaki SEO press , Free or paid version?
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  Abdallah Oubaki: Jamel Benfredj I started using paid because I needed Schema markup, the free version has no Schema
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  Jamel Benfredj: AIOSEO versus SEO press?
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  Michael Martinez: Group expertI should also add that many SEO tools are free. Begin with the Web hosting dashboard. All modern hosting services provide you with a ton of data about the Website. Search engine Webmaster dashboards are also free and loaded with information. And if a site is using plugins or modules, glancing through their administrative settings will tell you more than a typical crawler report does - in a fraction of the time.
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  Tim Capper: Group expertYes you can do it all without tools - however you need to understand what you are looking at, visualise structure, GSC for errors etcYou could do a free 30 day tool trial - for a quick overview of a site to get you started.
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  Neil Armitage: I do everything without tools. Everyone using the tools is probably writing the same content. Be different and win the spots they overlook.
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  Jamel Benfredj: Neil Armitage what is the best free way to ameliorate SEO for E commerce website: WP WooCommerce. Thanks
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  Perry Bernard: Group expert+1All my SEO work is done without tools like those, bar one: screaming frog. And of course watching GSC data might also be considered a tool, but that’s free.
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  Jamal Parpia: You don`t need any "paid" tools to do SEO. We have roughly 65 clients now and didn`t pay for our first tool until our 5th client. All you need is Google Analytics, Search Console, Google Trends and Keywords Tools on Adwords (may have limited info if you aren`t running a campaign). You can also get a free account on Ahrefs or SEMrush for 1 site. Hope this helps!
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  Landen Melton: Sure. Tools just make it easier to find all that you need in 1 place. But there are free alternatives to most tools out there. Free tools I use are; For Keyword ResearchGoogle Keyword Planner, Google Autosuggest, Ubersuggest, Anwser the PublicFor On-Page SEOYoast, RankMathFor Site ToolsFree Version of Screaming FrogHere`s a list of free tools by MOZ. https://moz.com/blog/best-free-seo-tools
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  Rohit Chaudhary: As of right now, I do not use any such paid tool since I have not found any requirement for it.