There are so many free blogging tools in the world that promise to help grow your blog, increase engagement, and take you closer to blog monetisation. Here’s the reality – without posting quality content consistently, your blog isn’t going to grow.

It’s easier said than done, which is where these blogging tools come in. They might not be the secret to a successful blog, but they can certainly help you along the way.

In eight months of consistent posting, I’ve grown my blog to almost 2k views per month and hoping to hit 5k before the one-year mark. These are the 14 free blogging tools that I actually use to help write, edit, post, and share my posts to maximise my potential audience.

1. Free Blog SEO Tools
   1. Google Keywords Planner
   2. Ahrefs
   3. SEMrush
2. Free Blog Title Tools
   1. Headline Studio
   2. AIO SEO
3. Free Blog Tools to Track Growth
   1. Jetpack
   2. Google Search Console
   3. MOZ
4. Free Blog Editing Tools
   1. Grammarly
   2. Hemingway Editor
   3. Speechify
5. Free Tools for Sharing Your Blog
   1. Canva
   2. Pinterest
   3. LinkedIn
6. Starting Your Blog

Free Blog SEO Tools

Google Keywords Planner

Who better to help navigate search-engine optimisation than the keepers to the mysterious algorithm themself: Google. Luckily, Google offers a bunch of useful (and free) tools to navigate and optimise your blog for their algorithm. The Keywords Planner is my first port of call when looking for new blog post ideas as it provides a general idea of a keyword’s search volume and ranking difficulty as well as related words to consider.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a site all about content marketing and SEO. Pricing for the full suite of services is not cheap, but luckily Ahrefs offers eight free SEO tools that make optimizing your blog so easy. My go-tos are the Keyword Difficulty Checker, Keyword Rank Checker, and Keyword Generator. These are great when you’re in the content generation phase and trying to come up with new blog post ideas that can reach as broad an audience as possible.

SEMrush

Like Ahrefs, SEMrush plans are super expensive but there’s a way to use the site without investing any money at all. You can make an account for free to access the SEO dashboard to learn about and monitor your site’s SEO stats. Every day you get 10 free analytics searches to get keywords and backlink info which I use for competitor research and link building.

Free Blog Title Tools

Headline Studio

Coschedule’s Headline Studio is a great resource for analysing blog titles and tweaking them to be just right. You get 10 free credits with every new account and can use them to get a headline rating and insights on what to improve.

AIO SEO

Similar to Headline Studio, AIO SEO analyses headlines for word and character count, sentiment, and word balance but with slightly different rating parameters. I like to check a title with both sites to edit it down to the perfect wording. Top tip: AIO SEO can interrupt your searches with annoying CAPTCHA tests, but if you click outside the pop-up they disappear without you actually needing to complete them.

Free Blog Tools to Track Growth

Jetpack

Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin and app that provides you with a toolkit for growth management. Not only can you track blog visitors and views, but you can see where they were referred from as well as details like countries and posts. It’s a super easy-to-use piece of software that I check daily to keep an eye on my blog’s growth.

Google Search Console

Like most blogs, Google is my biggest source of views. I get more clicks from Google than anywhere else and maintaining a high Google search ranking is super important for my blog’s engagement and growth. I track my Google clicks and impressions through the search console and also make sure every new post gets listed by inspecting the new URL as soon as the post goes live.

MOZ

Moz is another expensive SEO suite with some really helpful free tools that I use on a daily basis. The most important of these free tools is Moz’s Domain Analysis. Their DA rankings are seen as the industry standard and keeping track of yours is a great way to assess the general growth and reach of the blog.

Free Blog Editing Tools

Grammarly

Grammarly is the absolute GOAT when it comes to writing blog posts. It automatically finds and corrects spelling and grammar mistakes saving me so much time in proofreading. I use the Chrome extension online and the downloadable app on my desktop to have every method of writing covered. I find Grammarly particularly useful for switching between British and American English to make sure I don’t let any minor errors sneak past.

Hemingway Editor

I have a love/hate relationship with Hemingway Editor. What it does, it does amazingly, but it should only really be used for one specific purpose: checking readability. Trying to make every sentence fit Hemingway’s standard for ‘readable’ feels like dumbing down writing to the level of a small child’s bedtime story, but, using it to see your mix of simple, complex, and way-too-complex sentences can be a lifesaver. It’s also great for spotting any accidental use of the passive voice.

Speechify

Speechify is my secret weapon for avoiding mistakes. When I proofread, my eyes seem to glaze over what are otherwise glaringly obvious mistakes that I just can’t seem to see. When I hear my words read aloud, however, I instantly know the issues and can change a piece to sound exactly how I want it. That’s where Speechify comes in: it reads your text out loud to make proofreading 100x better and easier.

Free Tools for Sharing Your Blog

Canva

If you’ve spent more than 5 minutes on the creative side of the internet, then you know about Canva. It’s a free design app that lets you arrange text, images, shapes, you name it, on a template of whatever size you want. I use it for every one of my blog cover images as well as for making Pinterest pins and other social media assets.

Pinterest

If you’re not sharing your posts on Pinterest then you’re missing out. Big time. Pinterest is a great platform for growth that’s free and doesn’t require you to share with people you actually know on social media. You can use Canva to make pins out of your cover image or, even easier, download the ‘Save to Pinterest’ web extension to share the images from your post directly to Pinterest.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great place to share your posts in a professional manner and reach a huge potential audience. Write a few sentences on what the post is about, paste the link, and hit share. If you’re like me and hate posting to social media, try scheduling the post to go up in the middle of the night so you can’t back out of it!

Starting Your Blog

The first few months of blogging can be slow, frustrating, and a lot of hard work. Building a consistent audience is not easy, but, if you stay with it, the payoff is amazing. I love watching my audience grow and I feel so much pride in every new like, comment, and subscriber.

This blog is full of resources to help you on your way to a successful blog. Why not check out: