Most SEO professionals stick to the basics—keyword research, backlink checks, and rank tracking—when using popular SEO tools. But beneath the surface, these platforms hide powerful features that can save you time, uncover opportunities, and give you a competitive edge.
Let’s dive into some lesser-known features from the most-used SEO tools and how you can leverage them.
Most people use Ahrefs for backlinks and keyword research, but the Content Gap tool can show you keywords your competitors rank for that you don’t.
How to use it:
Go to Site Explorer → Content Gap, enter your competitors’ URLs, and see missing opportunities.
Why it’s valuable:
It gives you direct insight into content topics that can close ranking gaps.
Pro tip: Filter by keywords with low difficulty but decent traffic potential to grab quick wins.
This is more than just a keyword density checker. SWA evaluates your draft in real-time for readability, tone of voice, originality, and even compares it against the top-ranking pages.
How to use it:
Install the Google Docs or WordPress plugin and run SWA as you write.
Why it’s valuable:
It ensures your content is not just keyword-rich, but SEO-optimized for both Google and readers.
While many stick to basic queries, you can use regex (regular expressions) in GSC to filter search queries in incredibly precise ways.
Example:
Find all queries with “best” or “top” in them using:
best|top
Why it’s valuable:
It helps identify high-converting search terms you may be overlooking.
Beyond DA and PA, Moz’s Spam Score feature can help you detect potentially harmful backlinks before they affect your rankings.
How to use it:
Go to Link Explorer → Inbound Links, filter by high Spam Score, and disavow or remove them.
Why it’s valuable:
Keeps your backlink profile healthy and avoids future penalties.
Most people run Screaming Frog for basic audits, but Custom Extraction lets you pull specific on-page data (like schema markup, Open Graph tags, or product prices).
How to use it:
In Configuration → Custom → Extraction, set your XPath/CSS selectors.
Why it’s valuable:
This is perfect for large sites or competitor analysis where you need structured data at scale.
Many ignore GA4’s Path Exploration tool, which visually maps how users navigate your site after landing on a page.
How to use it:
Go to Explore → Path Exploration, select a starting point, and follow user journeys.
Why it’s valuable:
Helps you identify where visitors drop off and optimize conversion funnels.
Beyond keyword suggestions, Ubersuggest’s Content Ideas feature shows you pages that perform well in search and on social media.
Why it’s valuable:
You can prioritize content topics that have viral potential, not just SEO appeal.