18 Blogging Tools You Need to Succeed in 2019

We didn’t have auto mechanic shops with tech tools when I was younger. If your car had a problem, the mechanic would check a few parts and speculate. If they fixed one issue and a second fault developed, they speculated again.

Today, we’ve got car diagnosis tools that run a full check to access the health of your car. They are accurate in their diagnosis, eliminating guesswork and increasing efficiency.

Tools make your life easier. Without blogging tools, your blog would be drab and boring. The tools we’ve mentioned make your text readable, improve SEO, check for errors, help you organise content and grow your audience.

18 Blogging Tools Every Blogger Should Have in Their Toolkit

• WordPress.org
• Buzzsumo
• Grammarly
• Hemmingway App
• Readability Test Tool
• Hubspot Blog Topic Generator
• Canva
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Analytics and Search Console
• Yoast SEO
• Moz Link Explorer
• Buffer
• Coschedule Headline Analyzer
• Hootsuite
• Constant Contact
• Google Drive
• Ahrefs
• Updraft Plus

1.      WordPress.org

The first step in blogging is building a home for your content. WordPress is the largest Content Management System in the world. WordPress stands out of for the following reasons:

• It is easy to use
• It has a simple content editor
• It includes a huge variety of templates and themes that give your blog a professional look
• There’s a built-in blogging feature
• You don’t need coding knowledge to use premium and free plugins
• It has an active support community

2.      BuzzSumo

Over 4 million pieces of content are published daily. Most people only read the headline and a smaller number read the entire article. If you want to be a successful blogger, you need to produce engaging content.

BuzzSumo is a blogging tool that shows you the best articles and topics in your niche (in terms of shares). Type in your keyword and Buzzsumo generates a list of topics that are getting lots of social shares.

This article contains more tips on writing powerful headlines people love.

3.      Grammarly

 In this post, I mentioned two UK studies centred around the importance of good grammar and how it affects sales.

Good grammar is crucial to blogging success. We all make mistakes, even top bloggers, but we don’t want our readers seeing those errors. Grammarly makes your work better. It weeds out grammatical errors and suggests replacements for certain words and phrases.

4.      Hemingway App

There is more to writing than good grammar. Your content should be fluff-free, impactful and entertaining. The Hemingway App helps you achieve this.

The app highlights areas of improvement once you run your content through it. You’ll get different suggestions through colour highlights. The highlights marks parts of the content to improve by choosing better adverbs or adjectives and remove passive voice.

5.      Readability Test Tool

Before you hit the publish button, check your blog post for readability? Your audience might bounce if they get bored or your content isn’t readable. The Readability Test Tool uses indicators to show the estimated grade level of your articles.

6.      HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator

Out of ideas? Use Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator. This blogging tool generates interesting blog ideas in seconds. Plug in a key phrase and the generator displays a week’s worth of topic suggestions. Read this article to learn how to find blog post ideas.

7.      Canva

Images elevate your copy. Create stunning graphics for your blog posts with Canva. It has a simple drag-and-drop feature that makes it easy to use. With millions of fonts and images to choose from, you’ll create stunning visuals for your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and blog posts.

8.      Google Keyword Planner

You need traffic to grow your audience. To rank on Google SERPs, you must target the right keyword and create relevant content around these keywords. Google Keyword Planner helps you accomplish this goal.

With keyword planner, you get keyword ideas, view historical statistics and traffic forecasts.  You can check the performance of a keyword and weed out ineffective keywords. This allows you to focus on high performing keywords that drive results.

9.      Google Analytics and Google Search Console

There are key metrics that show areas where you excel and areas where you need to make changes. These metrics are on Google Analytics. The tool provides data and statistics about your blog’s performance.

Google Search Console also includes information about your blog. However, the tool is focused on your performance on search rankings.

The information you get from these metric tools helps you identify areas that need tweaking for better search appearance.

10. Yoast SEO

You need Yoast SEO if your website runs on WordPress. The tool packs tons of amazing features that make your site search-friendly. With Yoast, you verify your site on Google, create XML sitemaps with image support, and get Google to crawl your content.

11. Moz Link Explorer

Many elements come together to determine where your website falls on a Google search result page. Links are a part of these elements. Every link pointing to and from your website plays a role in your organic search ranking.

Formerly known as Open Site Explorer, the Link Explorer tool from Moz is an upgrade. It provides ground-breaking, in-depth analysis of your blog’s link profile. Moz Link Explorer helps you analyse links pointing to your site and how to improve your link-building strategy.

12. Buffer

You have to promote your content if you want to expand your reach. What better way than to leverage the power of social media? Your message spreads to a diverse audience and you drive traffic to your site.

However, managing all your social media platforms is an uphill task. That’s where Buffer comes in. Buffer schedules and posts your content across different platforms. Discover trending topics in your niche and identify your best posts through powerful analytics.

13. Coschedule Headline Analyzer

Want to write better headlines for your blog posts? Use Coshudele to check if your headline is well-written. The recommended score is 70 and above. The best headlines are usually, questions, list-based and how to articles. Read this article to learn how to write a blog post title.

14. Hootsuite

This is a powerful social media tool that helps you manage your Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+ and Twitter accounts from one dashboard. Hootsuite lets you auto-tweet blog posts and add RSS feeds. You can add two RSS feeds with the free version.

15. Constant Contact

Email marketing is essential if you want to connect directly with your readers. It’s the best way to tell your subscribers you have a new post they’d find helpful. With Constant Contact, you create customisable templates. It also helps you track the performance of your emails.

16. Google Drive

Organisation is a key part of a successful blog. With thousands of files on your computer, how do you access a critical file without your pc? Google Drive syncs your files in one place. Access your files from anywhere, irrespective of device. You also share files with your team and work simultaneously wherever you are.

17. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is the best tool in the world for bloggers who want to do keyword research. Top features include backlink analysis, content planning, keyword research, SERP tracking, site audit tools and more.

A working hack is to pay for Ahrefs once or twice in a year, instead of every month. Do enough keyword research to last six months and cancel. This keyword research and content planning guide your content for the first half of the year.

One of the fastest ways to find the high volume, low competition keywords is to type in your competitor site. Go to Organic search – organic keywords, filter positions to a max of 20 and keyword difficulty to 10-15 max. You’ll find competitive keywords for your content.

18. Updraft Plus

The nightmare for every blogger is losing their website files. Sleep easy at night when you install updraft tool. It has a free and paid version. Updraft is the only backup plugin with 3^rd party backups to Dropbox, Google Drive and email. It’s all available in the free version. That’s amazing!

Conclusion

You don’t need every tool mentioned on this list. Choose blogging tools that automate processes, improve conversion and user experience. Which of these tools is your favourite? Let us know in the comment section.