Third-party SEO tools: Ahrefs, Screaming Frog and GTmetrix

While Google tools provide the most accurate data about your own site, third-party SEO tools fill critical gaps. They let you analyse competitor websites, audit your site technically at a depth Google tools cannot match, and monitor your backlink profile over time. The combination of official Google tools plus targeted third-party tools gives you a comprehensive SEO toolkit that leaves no blind spots. This lesson covers the most valuable third-party tools for Wix users, what each one does that other tools cannot, and how to integrate them into your Wix SEO workflow.

Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker

Ahrefs maintains one of the largest backlink databases on the internet, crawling over 8 billion pages daily. The free Backlink Checker tool shows the top 100 backlinks to any domain or URL, along with Domain Rating (DR), the number of referring domains, and the total number of backlinks. For Wix users, this is invaluable for understanding your current backlink profile, monitoring new and lost links, and researching competitor link building strategies.

• Domain Rating (DR): A 0-100 score indicating the overall strength of your backlink profile. Useful for tracking progress over time and benchmarking against competitors.
• Referring domains: The number of unique websites linking to your site. More important than total backlinks because 10 links from 10 different sites is more valuable than 10 links from 1 site.
• Top backlinks: Shows your highest-authority inbound links. Verify these links are still active and pointing to the correct pages.
• Anchor text distribution: Shows what text other sites use when linking to you. Healthy profiles have diverse anchor text including brand name, URL, and natural phrases.
• New and lost backlinks: Track which links you gained and lost over time. Investigate lost high-authority links to determine if they can be recovered.
• Competitor analysis: Paste a competitor URL to see where their links come from. Identify link opportunities they have that you are missing.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog is a desktop application that crawls your website exactly like Google does, identifying technical SEO issues at scale. The free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which is sufficient for most Wix sites. It finds broken links, missing meta tags, duplicate content, redirect chains, orphaned pages, and dozens of other technical issues that manual checking would never catch. For Wix users managing sites with more than 20 pages, Screaming Frog is the most efficient way to conduct a comprehensive technical audit.

• Crawl your entire Wix site and see every URL, status code, title tag, meta description, and heading in a spreadsheet view
• Find all broken internal and external links across your site with the specific source page and anchor text
• Identify duplicate title tags and meta descriptions that dilute your SEO effectiveness
• Map your internal linking structure to find orphaned pages with no internal links pointing to them
• Detect redirect chains where multiple redirects in sequence waste crawl budget and link equity
• Export all data to CSV for analysis in spreadsheets or sharing with team members
• Free version covers up to 500 URLs, sufficient for most Wix sites

GTmetrix

GTmetrix provides detailed performance testing with waterfall charts that show exactly what loads, in what order, and how long each resource takes. While PageSpeed Insights focuses on Core Web Vitals scores, GTmetrix shows the complete loading timeline so you can identify specific bottlenecks. This is particularly useful for Wix sites where multiple apps, custom fonts, and third-party embeds compete for loading priority.

• Waterfall chart: Visual timeline showing every resource loaded by your page, including size, timing, and download sequence
• Performance scores: GTmetrix Grade (A-F) based on combined Lighthouse and Web Vitals metrics
• History tracking: Test the same URL over time and see performance trends on a graph
• Video playback: Frame-by-frame recording of your page loading, showing exactly what visitors see during load
• Test from multiple locations: Choose test servers in different countries to see how distance affects performance
• Specific recommendations: Actionable suggestions ranked by impact, with technical detail about what to fix

Schema.org Reference

Schema.org is the official structured data vocabulary used by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. It defines every schema type, property, and expected value format. When adding schema markup to your Wix site through apps or custom code, Schema.org is the reference that tells you exactly which properties are required, recommended, and optional for each schema type. Bookmarking the Schema.org reference saves time when configuring schema apps and ensures your markup uses the correct property names and value formats.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools mirrors much of Google Search Console functionality for the Bing search engine. It provides keyword data, indexing status, crawl reports, and unique features like the Bing URL Inspection tool and integrated keyword research. Since Bing also powers DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Microsoft Copilot AI search, your Bing visibility reaches further than Bing.com alone.

• Import your Google Search Console data directly for quick setup
• Keyword research tool built into the dashboard with Bing-specific search volume data
• Site scan tool that audits your pages for SEO issues similar to Screaming Frog
• Backlink data from Bing perspective, which sometimes reveals links GSC misses
• Adaptive URL submission for faster indexing of new content
• SEO Reports with actionable recommendations specific to Bing ranking factors

Facebook Sharing Debugger

When your Wix pages are shared on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, the Open Graph tags on your page control what preview appears. The Facebook Sharing Debugger lets you test any URL to see exactly what Facebook will display, and force Facebook to re-scrape a page when you have updated the OG tags. This tool is essential after any page update to ensure social sharing previews are correct and compelling.

Tool Selection Guide by Business Size

• Solo business owner with under 20 pages: Google Search Console + Google Business Profile + PageSpeed Insights. These three free tools cover 80% of your SEO needs.
• Small business with 20-50 pages: Add Screaming Frog (free version), GTmetrix, and Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker. The extra tools catch issues the Google tools miss.
• Growing business with 50-200 pages: Add full Screaming Frog licence and consider a paid Ahrefs or Semrush plan for competitor analysis and keyword tracking at scale.
• Agency managing multiple Wix sites: Invest in Lumar or Sitebulb for automated crawl scheduling, plus Ahrefs or Semrush for cross-client reporting.
• Ecommerce Wix sites: Prioritise Screaming Frog for product page auditing at scale and GTmetrix for load time monitoring on product and category pages.

Building Your SEO Tool Stack

The most effective SEO tool stack combines free tools for daily monitoring with specialised tools for periodic deep analysis. Start with the free tier of everything, learn which data points matter most for your site, then invest in paid tools only when you have outgrown the free versions.

Setting up your complete SEO tool stack

• Step 1: Connect Google Search Console to your Wix site and verify ownership. Submit your sitemap. This is your non-negotiable baseline.
• Step 2: Set up Google Business Profile if you have a physical location or service area. Complete every field and add photos.
• Step 3: Bookmark Google PageSpeed Insights and run baseline tests on your homepage, top service page, and top blog post. Record the scores.
• Step 4: Bookmark the Google Rich Results Test. Test your homepage and any pages with schema markup.
• Step 5: Download Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version). Run a full crawl of your Wix site. Export the results and review for broken links, missing titles, and duplicate content.
• Step 6: Run your site through Ahrefs Free Backlink Checker. Note your Domain Rating, referring domains count, and top backlinks.
• Step 7: Test your homepage and 2 key pages in GTmetrix. Review the waterfall charts for specific bottlenecks.
• Step 8: Set up Bing Webmaster Tools by importing your GSC data. Submit your sitemap to Bing.
• Step 9: Test 3 of your most-shared pages in the Facebook Sharing Debugger. Verify OG tags are correct.
• Step 10: Create a bookmark folder called "SEO Tools" with links to every tool above. Set a calendar reminder for monthly checks.

Essential Resources and Links