September 8, 2025
Setting up an SEO strategy takes time, and there are lots of details to go over, but sometimes you just need a fast and effective solution. Granted, big complex tools like Ahrefs give you tons of in-depth information, but they also cost a lot and require you to log in and go through a lengthy process if you want to check something.
An SEO extension for Chrome, on the other hand, can offer a lot more convenience by allowing you to instantly analyze different parameters while you are browsing the web.
It’s a much more organic and fast-paced way of finding out the specific things you need, make changes on the fly, and continue to optimize your website. These tools are also often free or fairly reasonably priced, which is great for anyone on a tight budget.
With that in mind, I’ve created a list of 90 different extensions and delved into some basics on how best to use them to help marketers, bloggers, SEOs, and YouTubers find an efficient way to track important metrics and use these unique insights to improve their content.
First of all, you need to define your goals and decide which metrics are the most important for your website or YouTube channel. You can then pick one or two useful extensions, add them to Chrome, and start performing regular check-ups directly from your browser. They don’t require a lengthy setup or several days or weeks to master—literally anyone can install them within seconds and get the basic information they need at a glance.
The main benefits are definitely the speed and ease of use, but there are also some notable downsides. Primarily, you don’t get nearly as much detailed data as with a dedicated SEO tool, with different metrics, visualizations, etc. Another thing to consider is that running several of these can seriously slow down your browser and clutter up your SERPs.
The best way to use an SEO Chrome extension is for a quick overview of what the rankings look like currently, info on keyword volumes, and light backlink research, and some useful information on a specific web page you are looking at. They are quick and useful for checking up on things day-to-day.
However, if you need a thorough site audit, precise competitor analysis, advanced keyword suggestions, and reports, then you will need a dedicated platform.
To make things a bit more manageable, I’m going to group these extensions into several different categories, so feel free to jump straight to the one that best describes your needs. There will be plenty of tools to choose from, both free and paid.
Sometimes you don’t want to switch from one tool to another while doing research, or you simply might not want to clutter up your screen. That’s where the jack-of-all-trades tools come into play. They can give you all the essential features, from keyword volume data to on-page analysis, so you can just open the web pages you want and find out everything you need to know within seconds.
Of course, all these extensions will shine in some areas and be a little less precise in others, e.g., a tool may be excellent at showing high authority backlinks from competitors’ sites, but lack information on keyword density or offer limited keyword suggestions.
These are the best available options:
You can choose any of the full-stack SEO extensions on this list, and you won’t be disappointed, but experiment to find what works best for you.
Bloggers who want to build their personal brand and marketers who want to put their client on the map through well-written and perfectly optimized content can always use a bit of extra help. You need a good idea about the meta titles and descriptions, header structure, internal links, length, and the proper keywords that can add visibility to your articles or service pages.
Well, an on-page SEO Chrome extension from the following list can give you all the most important insights and help you make the right changes:
These typically pair well with keyword and backlink tools to give you the full picture of where you need to spend most of your time and energy if you want to really shake things up.
Arguably, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds when you mention SEO is someone hunched over a computer screen looking at endless rows of keywords. It’s definitely a very important piece of the puzzle, and since several other practices hinge on the fact that you’ve already chosen the proper keywords, you really want to get this one right.
To cut down on the detective work and be able to quickly notice trends and find rewarding opportunities, you can use one of these extensions:
You can get the most important volume, PCP, and ranking difficulty data right on each SERP, and generate tons of useful suggestions that you can use in your content. However, if you want more accurate information, with access to additional metrics, you’ll have to turn to a tool like Rankioz.
Once you’ve gotten your hands on a few good keywords with not a lot of competition, fine-tuned your pages, and started publishing fully SEO-optimized articles on your blog, you’ll start to get some attention. If you have a few fairly insightful posts that address a popular topic or offer a unique point of view, other sites will start to link to you as a credible source of information.
Now, you want to make sure that the links are not coming from spammy sites, and you also want to see which platforms are linking to similar brands or bloggers from your niche to find new backlink opportunities. These are the tools that will help you get the information you need:
You should keep in mind that the databases these extensions are working with are not as large and regularly updated as the ones the full paid tools use, but they can still give you a solid base to work with.
Aspiring content creators already know just how fickle the YouTube algorithm can be, with constant rule changes and the looming threat of demonetization or having your channel blocked adding even more stress. And that’s if you can even make it big enough to be worried by any of these issues.
With the right YouTube SEO Chrome extension at your side, though, you can quickly start to optimize your titles, tags, and video descriptions, and even identify high-volume keywords and trends that can shape your new content. Take your pick from this list:
These options will give you a good running start, but if you invest just a bit extra and combine them with a capable, specialized tool for more precise keyword research, you’ll help your channel grow much faster.
For those who want to focus on ironing out the kinks in their website performance and address the technical side of things first, a convenient extension can be a true lifesaver. You can get access to the most important metrics and determine exactly what you need to fix with a quick glance, even with no prior SEO or programming experience.
Some will require a bit of technical knowledge, though, but they are generally quite easy to get the hang of—all it takes is a bit of practice, and there are plenty of useful learning resources available.
I’ve boiled it down to these ten options:
As technical SEO is crucial, and not many other extensions deal with this aspect, it would be best to combine one of these tools with one or two more from some of the other categories for the best results.
It’s always a good idea to go over your old content and find ways to improve it. You can play around with the word count, structure, and try to improve readability to keep visitors on your pages longer and secure a few more conversions. This will also involve finding new keyword opportunities, especially looking at long tail variations with a more precise search intent.
Having a simple extension that lets you quickly switch tabs and go from analysing your content to scouring the SERPs for a potential content gap is a godsend. To keep an eye on the competition and make sure your pages are keeping people engaged, try out one of these tools:
The features on some of them may overlap a bit with tools from other categories, making it easier for you to whittle down your selection to just two or three useful extensions.
While a lot of the options from the previous sections will definitely be useful for a small business owner, you will have some specific needs that bloggers or YouTubers don’t really have to worry about. Yes, fixing your site so that the pages load faster, focusing on better keywords, and patching up holes in your content will all help bump you up in searches.
However, you also have to think about your Google Business Profile, because that’s literally the first thing that is going to pop up and grab your potential customers’ attention when they search for a particular product or service, or at least it should be. It’s worth mentioning that a lot of tools still have the old GMB (Google My Business) moniker in their titles, despite the change to GBP a few years back.
You can use one of these useful extensions to help you find issues that are holding you back and get suggestions on how to improve:
When you nail the categories and descriptions, and steal a few good ideas from the competition, you can also use another tool to identify the best local SEO keywords and sprinkle them in.
I’ve said a lot about all the different things you need to optimize your website, and mentioned that the paid options give you more accuracy and a wider range of features, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any great options that won’t cost you a single dime.
It’s no secret that the best free SEO Chrome extension you can get is any of the ones offered directly by Google. You get the most up-to-date and accurate information straight from the source, so you can quickly find out if whatever you are doing is affecting your clicks and impressions.
You’ll also learn all about your Core Web Vitals, any crawling or indexing issues, and see where your traffic is coming from and what your visitors are doing once they land on your site, with these tools:
It literally costs nothing to give any of these a try, and you will find that they can be quite useful when paired with other extensions of full paid tools.
Now, that’s a lot of tools. I know it would take you ages to go over all of them to sniff out the best options for your specific goals, so I’ll make it a bit easier for you. In this handy table, you’ll find the standout features for the top few tools in each category, how well they perform in a couple of the most widely used scenarios, and who they are best suited for.
| Extension | Free? | Feature Focus | Keyword Research | On-Page Checker | Ideal User |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEOquake | Yes | SEO metrics overlay and audit | Basic | Yes | SEOs wanting quick SERP and page analysis |
| Detailed | Yes | On-page SEO highlights | No | Yes | Bloggers and SEOs needing fast content checks |
| Mangools | Yes, but limited. 10-day free trial available | Keyword and SERP analysis | Yes | Limited | Mangools subscribers and KW researchers |
| Serpstat Plugin | Yes, but limited and requires an account | SEO audit and basic KW metrics | Yes | Yes | Serpstat users who need in-browser insights |
| Meta SEO Inspector | Yes | Metadata and schema details | No | Yes | Developers and SEOs fixing tags |
| SEO Pro Extension | Yes | Page metadata and headings review | No | Yes | Technical SEOs and auditors |
| Hreflang Tag Checker | Yes | Hreflang implementation check | No | No | International SEO specialists |
| Keywords Everywhere | No | KW search volume and CPC | Yes | No | KW researchers and PPC specialists |
| Keyword Surfer | Yes | SERP KW metrics and content ideas | Yes | Limited | Bloggers and KW planners |
| SEO Minion | Yes | On-page and SERP utilities | Limited | Yes | SEOs who need quick bulk tasks |
| Ahrefs Toolbar | Yes, but you need the paid subscription for keyword metrics | Content structure, broken or redirected links, and KW metrics | Yes | Yes | Ahrefs subscribers and link builders |
| MozBar | Yes | Domain/Page Authority metrics | Basic | Yes | Moz uzers and authority checkers |
| LinkMiner | No | Broken link finding | No | No | Link builders and outreach specialists |
| TubeBuddy | Limited, need the paid version for more depth | YouTube SEO and video analytics | Yes (video tags) | No | YouTubers and video marketers |
| VidIQ | Yes, with just the essentials | YouTube KW and performance insights | Yes (video tags) | No | YouTubers optimizing video reach |
| Tags for YouTube | Yes | Displays video tags | Yes (video tags) | No | Creators who need competitor tag info |
| Lighthouse | Yes | Performance, accessibility, SEO audit | No | Yes | Developers and technical SEOs |
| Web Vitals Extension | Yes | Core Web Vitals metrics | No | Limited | SEOs and developers improving UX |
| GTmetrix plugin | Yes | Page speed analysis | No | No | Performance-focused web developers |
| SEOInfo | Yes | Page SEO issues and errors | No | Yes | Technical SEOs and QA testers |
| SERP Preview Tool | Yes | Search snippet preview | No | Limited | Content creators and copywriters |
| GMB Everywhere | Yes | Google Business Insights | No | No | Local SEO specialists and small business owners |
| BrightLocal GBP Audit | No, 14-day free trial with no credit card | Google Business Profile audit | No | No | Agencies managing local SEO |
| GeoPeeker | Yes | Website appearance by location | No | No | SEOs checking geo-specific rendering |
| PageSpeed Insights | Yes | Google page speed scoring | No | No | Developers and performance optimizers |
| Tag Assistant | Yes | Google Tag Managers/Analytics validation | No | No | Marketers and tracking specialists |
| Structured Data Testing Tool | Yes | Schema validation | No | No | SEOs implementing rich snippets |
There is quite a bit of competition on YouTube these days, so if you want to grow your channel reliably, you will need some keyword research, the right tags, and some good video optimization tips.
If you are completely new to this, TubeBuddy is quite simple to use and provides you with plenty of useful recommendations for fine-tuning your titles, tags, and video descriptions. You get competitor scorecards as well, but they are not overly detailed.
If you are interested in volume research and comprehensive competitor analysis, then VidIQ is the best choice, as you can get far more in-depth keyword metrics, including competition and trend data. It also allows you to track your competitors’ engagement and historical growth, and you can perform a channel audit to see the holes in your current strategy.
I should also mention that tags have a limited use and are not a strong signal that will lead to growth, but they can be a good addition to your metadata. You should focus more on keywords and getting your descriptions and thumbnails just right.
Use these tools with Rankioz to uncover YouTube keyword gaps.
The good news is that you can get most of these extensions for free, but they will also have a paid version. The bad news is that, while somewhat useful, the free options don’t provide a lot of SERP data, which means you will have limited insights and might miss out on some opportunities to improve.
The keyword volume estimates are also a lot less accurate, so you will be playing a bit of a guessing game, even with their help. Luckily, a lot of the paid options are still quite affordable, and they are a massive jump up in terms of the precision and sheer amount of data that you can get.
These are just some of the things you’ll need to consider when choosing the best SEO Chrome extension for your needs, and it all boils down to balancing your budget and the overall performance. If you are in this for the long run and want reliable results, an affordable paid tool is definitely a good investment.
Ok, so now that I’ve gone over all the different options you can choose from, let’s look at some real-world examples of how different people can use an SEO extension for Chrome to get some tangible results.
By opening up a few articles on their own site, a blogger can use tools like the MozBar or Keywords Everywhere to quickly go over their header structure and meta titles and descriptions to see if they need to make any adjustments.
They can also get volume data and suggestions on similar keywords as they scan through the material and quickly rewrite a few sentences to help improve visibility.
A local business owner can install the Bright Local or Phantom GBP Audit tool and get tons of information on keyword rankings and competitors’ profiles, as well as category suggestions based on the best-performing company listings.
They can then incorporate some of these into their own Google Business Profile to create better descriptions and attract more attention from local customers.
A content creator can go over some of their old videos with the TubeBuddy extension on, or use it on a new video they are about to upload, to get some suggestions about their metadata.
The SEO scorecard can help them make minor adjustments, and they can even get suggestions on titles and tags. If the creator also uses Rankioz, they can get access to fairly high-volume keywords without too much competition and sprinkle these in their video descriptions.
Professional teams can make great use of more robust extensions like the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to get basic data about the SERPs as they browse the web and do some quick competitor analysis.
Each result that comes up on screen for a given keyword will have information about the number of backlinks and their URL, and Domain Rating attached to them. It’s a good addition to a full-stack tool that lets the team find interesting keyword opportunities on the fly.
I’ve broken down the tools on this list into nine different categories, each one addressing a particular set of needs. Depending on which one you are most interested in, the perfect tool for you may be Keywords Everywhere or perhaps the MozBar if you want to tweak your on-page SEO.
VidIQ is the best choice for YouTubers, while the Ahrefs Toolbar works wonders for marketers who need more thorough research.
While you can get plenty of useful data and identify trends, you’ll find extensions a bit lacking compared to full tools. For instance, they will only provide a broad search volume estimate for a keyword or backlink data based on a limited database.
It’s always best to see these tools as just that—an extension of your more powerful primary tools. When used properly, they can make your life a lot easier and speed up your keyword research or competitor analysis, but you need a more precise option with deeper insights to form the backbone of your SEO strategy.
You want to avoid breaking the camel’s back, so to speak, so look for two or three options at most, as you don’t want Chrome to start lagging too badly or have your SERPs looking like the code in Matrix. You can cover all your bases with a couple of solid choices that help with keyword and competitor research, and on-page SEO.
An SEO extension for Chrome can be an invaluable addition to your broader toolbox. There are dozens of options available, and many of them perform quite well, but they all have limits.
Essentially, you get a super-efficient way of doing some basic research from your browser, either for free or at a low cost, but you have to combine it with more powerful SEO tools to get the best results. Once all the heavy lifting is done, you can rely on an extension for quick, regular check-ups and tweaks.
As long as you use an accurate all-in-one tool like Rankioz to perform site audits, find the right primary keywords, and examine your backlinks, you’ll be on the right track.
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