Costs
Part of Startup SEO: A focused 90-day work plan
Lean starting checklists for startup SEO tools run from crawl diagnosis to exports
Startup SEO tools for 2027 should support demand research, crawl diagnosis, index inspection, performance analysis, testing, privacy, exports, and clean exit.
What to take away
- All twelve interfaces in this starting set have a free tier, so a lean startup can run the whole checklist before spending anything.
- Order mattersindex controls first, validation and performance second, demand and onsite behavior third.
- Give each tool one decision and one pass test. A tool that cannot export its own data fails before you pay for it.
- Paid layers begin at scalecrawling at volume, rank tracking and log analysis.
Search visibility and index controls: items 1 to 6
These six interfaces show what search engines did with your site, and all are free once you verify a property. Crawl access and index coverage are separate problems, as our breakdown of startup SEO mistakes explains at length.
Search visibility and index controls
- Google Search Console. Property performance, index reporting, links, enhancements and messages.
- Performance report. Query, page, country, device, date and search appearance, with CSV export.
- URL Inspection. Indexed-version details and a live test for pages you own.
- Page indexing report. Sitewide index patterns and the reasons behind them.
- Sitemaps report. Submission and processing feedback for verified properties.
- Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing performance, crawl stats, sitemaps and site scan.
Search visibility and index controls
- Google Search Consoleperformance, index, links
- Performance reportquery, page, country, device
- URL Inspectionindexed version and live tests
- Page indexing reportsitewide index patterns
- Sitemaps reportsubmission and processing feedback
- Bing Webmaster Toolsperformance, diagnostics, sitemaps
Validation and performance diagnostics: items 7 to 10
This group covers rendering, speed and markup. It is where tool bills usually start, and it stays free at single-site scale.
Validation and performance diagnostics
- PageSpeed Insights. Free. Field data from the Chrome UX Report plus a lab run on the URL you paste.
- Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools. Free and open source. Runs locally, including against localhost.
- Schema Markup Validator. Free. Checks syntax and vocabulary, not rich result eligibility.
- Google Rich Results Test. Free. Checks Google eligibility for supported result types.
Run all four on the same page template so the numbers compare. Markup can pass a validator and still describe content users cannot see, which is the gap our startup SEO best practices guide closes.
Validation and performance diagnostics
- Rich Results Teststructured-data validation
- PageSpeed Insightsfield data and lab diagnostics
- Lighthouseperformance, accessibility, practice, SEO
- Chrome DevToolsnetwork, rendering, markup, runtime
Demand and onsite behavior: items 11 and 12
- Google Trends. Free. Returns a normalized index from 0 to 100, not absolute search counts, so read direction rather than volume.
- Google Analytics 4. Free standard property. Data retention tops out at 14 months unless you export to BigQuery. Analytics 360 is a quoted paid tier.
Both need a written question before you open them. Trends answers seasonality. GA4 answers which pages turn visitors into customers.
What the twelve cost, and where paid layers begin
What the twelve cost
Free tier
- Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
- Free with a verified property
- PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, Rich Results Test, Schema Markup Validator
- Free, no account
- Google Trends
- Free
- Google Analytics 4
- Free, retention capped at 14 months
- Crawlers at scale, rank trackers, log analysis
- Capped trials
First paid layer
- Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
- None for the reports listed
- PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, Rich Results Test, Schema Markup Validator
- None
- Google Trends
- None
- Google Analytics 4
- Analytics 360, quoted per contract
- Crawlers at scale, rank trackers, log analysis
- Commonly low tens to low hundreds of USD per month (typical range)
The SBA marketing and sales guide treats channel economics as core small-business planning, and tool spend belongs in that line.
How to compare and rank the options
Rank overlap by decision, not by feature count. Search Console answers index questions. Analytics answers behavior questions. Lighthouse answers rendering questions.
Two tools that report the same number rarely agree, because each samples, normalizes or truncates differently. Write down which one you will trust for which decision.
A lean starting set in five steps
- Verify the domain in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Use DNS verification so access survives staff changes.
- Submit one XML sitemap of preferred URLs, then read the Sitemaps report a week later.
- Install GA4 with two or three named conversion events. Twenty events nobody reads is not measurement.
- Run Lighthouse on one page template, then PageSpeed Insights on the same URL.
- Open the CSV exports and check the columns match the decision you wrote down.
A sitemap of preferred URLs, rather than every URL you own, is the part our startup SEO checklist spends most time on.
Test the export and the exit before you commit
Run four checks on day one, while the account is still disposable.
Test the export and the exit
- Export testpull a full report to CSV or the API.
- Retention testnote how far back history goes and when it is dropped.
- Access testa second person must log in without the founder's account.
- Exit testlist what leaves with you if you cancel.
A tool that cannot export its own data is a subscription, not a source of evidence.
The GOV.UK guidance on choosing technology asks teams to weigh data control, security review and total ownership cost. Those questions transfer to SEO tooling.
The GOV.UK open standards guidance ties interoperability to reduced supplier dependence. That is the same test as a working export.
