Top 10 SEO Chrome Extensions That’ll Actually Save You Time (and Maybe Your Sanity)

SEO is a grind. It’s spreadsheets, audits, fixing stuff nobody notices, and watching Google pull the rug out from under you every few months. If you’re doing it without browser extensions, you’re basically running a marathon in flip-flops.

The best SEO Chrome extensions shave hours off your day. They cut the BS, give you answers right where you need them, and make you look like you actually know what you’re doing. After digging through a pile of “must-have” Chrome extensions, I cut the noise down to the ten that matter.

Quick Comparison Table

Free SEO Chrome Extensions

1. Detailed SEO Extension

This lightweight, but free SEO Chrome extension, created by Glen Allsopp (who lives and breathes SEO), is fast, clean, and focused. It pulls out the SEO skeleton of any page: titles, descriptions, headers, schema, hreflang. No bloat, no upsells, no login.

The beauty of Detailed is speed. One click and you’re staring at exactly how a competitor structured their content. Copy what works, fix what doesn’t, move on.

Pricing: Free.

2. Keyword Surfer

This is the best “why the hell is it free?” extension out there. Type a keyword into Google, and it instantly shows search volume, CPC, domain traffic, and related keywords. You don’t even have to leave the SERP.

It also lets you build keyword lists on the fly, so you’re not copy-pasting 20 terms into a spreadsheet like a caveman. For beginners and pros alike, it’s stupidly useful.

Pricing: Free.

3. Lighthouse

Lighthouse is Google’s own snitch – and one of the most brutally honest free SEO Chrome extensions out there. It doesn’t sugarcoat. Run it on any page and it’ll grade you on performance, accessibility, SEO basics, and best practices. If your site is slower than dial-up or your mobile UX is garbage, Lighthouse will call you out.

It’s not the deepest SEO tool, but it’s brutally honest and free. Think of it as the tough-love coach who tells you to stop skipping leg day.

Pricing: Free.

4. SEOquake

SEOquake is like getting a firehose of data blasted into your browser. Built by Semrush, it dumps keyword metrics, site audits, and backlink info onto your screen. Want a full SERP overlay with keyword difficulty, traffic estimates, and ranking pages? One click.

It’s messy and overwhelming at first, but if you can handle the chaos, it saves you from jumping between five tools.

Pricing: Free. Connect with Semrush for advanced stuff (paid).

5. MozBar

MozBar is like the old reliable pickup truck of SEO Chrome extensions. Not flashy, not overbuilt, but it always runs. The killer features are Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) scores that appear right inside SERPs. That means you can sniff out competitive keywords without diving into a full-blown tool.

You also get on-page analysis, schema checks, and link metrics. It’s simple but effective.

Pricing: Free with a Moz account.

6. Frase

Frase is your AI wingman for content, and one of the smarter SEO Chrome extensions for writers. Highlight a keyword, and it’ll pull insights on what’s ranking, outline key topics, and even generate briefs. Instead of doomscrolling through 10 SERPs and a competitor’s sitemap, Frase hands you the playbook in minutes.

The extension drops content recommendations right where you’re writing, so you’re not bouncing between tabs. It’s not perfect, but if you’re chasing efficiency, it’s like strapping a jetpack to your editorial calendar.

Pricing: Start for free, paid plans start around $15/mo.

💡 Pro Tip: Always remember to pin your most-used SEO tools in your toolbar. That way, you always have everything you need, only a click away.

Premium SEO Chrome Extensions

7. Ahrefs SEO Toolbar

Ahrefs didn’t just build a toolbar; they built a blunt weapon. This extension lets you peek under the hood of any page: titles, meta descriptions, headers, canonicals, redirects, image alt tags, and even whether a site is blocking crawlers.

If you’re already paying for Ahrefs, it goes nuclear: backlinks, keyword rankings, Domain Rating, URL Rating. You’ll find out exactly why your competitor is sitting in position #1 and what you need to rip from them.

Pricing: Basic features are free. The backlink and keyword crack requires an Ahrefs plan (starts $99/mo).

8. Keywords Everywhere

This SEO Chrome extension has been around forever and for good reason. Unlike Keyword Surfer, it isn’t free anymore, but it’s still cheap. It pulls keyword data into Google, YouTube, Amazon, and even Keyword Planner. You get trend graphs, CPC data, and historical volumes dating back to 2004.

That’s pure gold when you want to prove that “crypto” isn’t dead, it’s just seasonal.

Pricing: $10 minimum buy gets you 100,000 credits. Use them across platforms until they run out.

9. SimilarWeb

This one’s for your inner stalker. SimilarWeb tells you how much traffic a site gets, where it comes from, how long visitors stick around, and what countries are driving it. It’s like stealing your competitor’s analytics dashboard without the jail time.

The free version is a teaser. Paid plans unlock deeper data, but even the free peek is often enough to benchmark your site against the guy outranking you.

Pricing: Free for basic stats. Paid plans start around $125/mo.

10. Semrush Writing Assistant

Think Grammarly, but with an SEO brain. Semrush Writing Assistant lives in your browser and grades your content on readability, tone, originality, and SEO optimization. It pulls keyword recommendations straight from Semrush, so you’re not just writing pretty sentences; you’re writing content designed to rank.

It also checks for plagiarism, which is handy if you’ve got freelancers or AI tools feeding you drafts. The interface is simple: paste your content, get scores, fix the weak spots, and move on. This is the one extension that keeps your content honest – grammatically clean, SEO-focused, and original.

Pricing: Included in Semrush’s paid plans (starts $117.33/mo). There’s no freebie here, but if you’re already using Semrush, it’s a no-brainer add-on.

Final Word

Don’t clutter your browser with 40 extensions you’ll never use. These ten best SEO Chrome extensions give you the real leverage you need. You’ll cover research, on-page, technical, writing, and spying on the competition without melting your CPU.

Use them right, and you’ll spend less time opening tabs and more time actually moving rankings.