SEO Optimizer

Yes, the RoughTools SEO Optimizer is completely free with no account, subscription, or payment required. You can analyse unlimited pages — checking title length, meta description, keyword density, content length, and readability — at no cost. RoughTools is funded through non-intrusive advertising, which keeps every business tool permanently free. There are no usage limits, no advanced checks locked behind a premium tier, and no registration of any kind required.

No account, email address, or registration is required. Paste your page title, meta description, content, and target keyword into the tool, and your SEO score appears instantly with a full breakdown and action list. There is no login wall, no paywall on any check, and no data stored about your pages or keywords. The tool is entirely anonymous — your content and keyword strategy remain completely private throughout the analysis.

No. All SEO analysis runs entirely within your browser using JavaScript. The page title, meta description, content, and target keyword you enter are never transmitted to RoughTools servers, never logged, and never shared with search engines or SEO data providers. Your content remains completely private. This is important for drafts, unreleased pages, and proprietary content — you can analyse anything without it being indexed or shared before you are ready to publish.

Yes, the tool is fully responsive and works on all modern smartphones and tablets. All input fields and the results panel — including the score, grade, and individual check results — are optimised for touch screens. This is useful when reviewing content on mobile devices or auditing pages from your phone. The actionable fix list is readable on small screens without horizontal scrolling.

The SEO Optimizer works in all modern browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Opera, and Brave on both desktop and mobile. No plugins or extensions are required — the analysis uses standard JavaScript text processing that runs natively in every current browser. For the best experience with the score display and colour-coded results, any current version of Chrome, Firefox, or Safari on desktop is recommended.

The score reflects the five on-page SEO factors analysed: title length, meta description length and keyword presence, keyword density, content length, and readability. These are well-established, widely-agreed-upon on-page SEO best practices that align with Google's published guidelines. The score does not account for off-page factors (backlinks, domain authority), technical SEO (Core Web Vitals, page speed, mobile-friendliness), or ranking competition for the target keyword. Use it as a reliable on-page content quality indicator, not a complete ranking predictor.

Once the page has fully loaded in your browser, all SEO analysis runs in JavaScript without requiring an active internet connection. You can paste content and run analyses offline after the initial page load. This is useful when reviewing draft content in environments with limited internet access. The initial page load requires internet access to download the tool, but after that the analyser functions entirely client-side for as long as the browser tab remains open.

To analyse a page: (1) Enter your target keyword — the primary search term you want this page to rank for. (2) Paste your page title (the HTML title tag or H1). (3) Paste your meta description — the text that appears in Google search results under your page title. (4) Paste your full page content — the body text of the article or page. (5) Click Analyse. The tool produces a score from 0–100, a letter grade (A–F), individual pass/fail results for each check, and a prioritised list of specific improvements to make before publishing.

Paid SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz provide extensive keyword research, backlink analysis, and competitive intelligence that this tool does not. However, for on-page content SEO checks — which most writers and content managers need for every single piece of content they publish — those tools require expensive monthly subscriptions. RoughTools SEO Optimizer provides instant on-page analysis for free, with no account, making it ideal for quick pre-publish checks, content auditing, and teaching on-page SEO fundamentals without tool cost barriers.

To report a bug or suggest a new check — such as H1/H2 heading analysis, image alt text detection, internal link count, schema markup presence, LSI keyword coverage, or reading grade level scoring — use the feedback link in the site footer or visit the RoughTools contact page. When reporting a bug, include the content you analysed (or a description), the score you received, the browser and OS, and what you expected. Feature requests for bulk URL analysis, CSV export, or WordPress plugin integration are reviewed and prioritised regularly.

Keyword density is the percentage of your total word count that consists of your target keyword. For example, if your page has 1,000 words and your keyword appears 10 times, the density is 1%. The recommended range is 1–2% for most content — enough to clearly signal relevance to search engines without appearing to stuff the keyword unnaturally. Below 0.5% may mean the page is not focused on the target keyword. Above 3% risks keyword stuffing, which Google penalises. Modern SEO also values semantic relevance — using related terms and synonyms — not just exact keyword repetition.

Minimum content length for SEO consideration is 300 words — pages below this are typically considered thin content and rank poorly or are deindexed. For competitive keywords, 800–1,500 words is the typical range for ranking in page one results. In-depth pillar content targeting broad keywords often benefits from 2,000–3,000 words when it genuinely covers the topic comprehensively. Longer is not always better — content should match the search intent and cover the topic thoroughly. A 400-word page answering a specific question can outrank a 2,000-word general overview if it better satisfies user intent.