13 Best Blogging Tools for Beginners (prepare to be wooed)
I love blogging. It’s content that lasts for years and something that builds my personal brand through SEO. It’s a rewarding and money-making creative project. So it’s fun.
But it takes some skills, patience and the right strategy. And using the right tools make your life easier (and your blog grow quicker).
So this is my list of the best blogging tools for beginners — the crème de la crème, the absolute bangers!
These tools are seriously wooing me.
Now let’s do this!
Hey, just a quick heads up that some links in this post may be affiliate links. This is at no extra cost to you, but helps me keep the lights on. Thanks for your support!
What Are Blogging Tools?
Blogging tools are resources, software or platforms that help bloggers blog better.
The tools in this list are things that help me get more done more quickly and with higher quality.
But are they really necessary?
Do I Need Blogging Tools?
You don’t need super fancy tools to succeed in blogging.
But using a few of the right ones will make your life easier (and your blogging better). Here’s why:
Improve your blog productivity
Improve your content organization
Get data to make better decisions
Automate boring parts of your blog
Improve your SEO and blog performance
Be more strategic with your blog
Scale your blog more easily
Optimize your blog’s performance and content
13 Best Blogging Tools for Beginners
1. A Good Website
To have a blog, you need to have a website and hosting. This is your CMS and it’s where your articles will live.
Personally, I use both Squarespace and WordPress. But choosing the right platform depends on your budget, preferences and goals.
Here are some of the best blogging platforms (that I use):
Perfect for beginners who want to dabble in writing online, but don’t want to start a whole website quite yet.
Great for bloggers who prefer advanced customization options and are okay with the more technical website management.
Ghost is a lesser-known site builder, but still popular within the creator community. It’s known for its affordability, SEO power, simplicity and more.
Perfect for creators, creatives/artists, personal brands and non-techy bloggers who like simplicity, lots of creator support and SEO power.
Read my full Squarespace for blogging review.
2. Google (so much Google)
Google might be the one blogging tool I use the most.
It’s a powerhouse with invaluable resources — many of which you really can’t go without. And if you have a blog, you’ll be using Google…like, a lot.
So here’s how I use them as a blogger:
Google Search
Keyword and competition analysis
Brainstorming and ideation
Google Trends
Explore current and historical trends
Discover new topics and opportunities
Google Docs
How I write and draft articles
Also how I organize my content and keywords
Google Analytics (GA4)
Get insights on engagement, sessions and more
Know which topics perform best
Google Search Console
Connects to your website
Request automatic indexing for new articles
Track your ranking keywords, submit sitemaps and more
Google Workspace
Professional email account
Collaboration tools, storage and more
3. A Keyword Research Tool
“Keywords are the backbone of your website. It’s the first step to driving traffic, building authority and growing your brand with a blog.”
There are billions of searches in Google everyday with millions of new ones always popping up. So rest assured, there’s plenty to go around — no scarcity mindset here!
Keyword research tools help you identify, analyze and organize keyword opportunities in your niche.
It can be hard to know which keywords are actually good (and have real search volume to them). That’s where having a tool helps.
Here are my go-to keyword research tools:
Explore more:
➤ How I Find Good Keywords
4. AI + Automation Tools
If you’re keen to speed up your workflow and leverage AI, there’s no shortage of options. Actually, there are too many — it’s overwhelming.
So to make things a little simpler, here is a shortlist of a few that are currently on my radar:
byword.ai. It’s got lots of reviews and has been featured by big brands like HubSpot and Ahrefs. Jake Ward shares a lot ways he’s successfully using byword on his X account.
Napkin AI. This tool (currently free) can take any text and turn it into custom visuals — it’s pretty cool and perfect to make your blog more engaging and image-focused.
Content Goblin. This tool generates listicle-style blogs with quality AI-generated images all at once. You can even push your draft over to WordPress with one click and generate quality Pins for Pinterest. I’ll talk a bit more about this tool below (under Pinterest tools).
Hypertxt. They pull real data from Reddit, which adds important human elements to AI research and writing — especially since Google currently loves Reddit and UGC (user generated content).
Scalenut. This is an all-in-one content writer and SEO planner. You can create topic clusters, plan ideas, research keywords and more. They even have 4.7/5 stars on G2 and 4.8/5 stars on Capterra.
Wordable. This tool automatically pushes your Google Docs to WordPress, Medium or HubSpot, boosting your blog productivity and saving you valuable time.
Frase. Frase is great for creating fully optimized outlines and SEO-ready articles. I’ve mainly used it for clients to discover semantic keywords and create optimized content briefs.
*Always remember to add your own spin and voice to AI content. This is key for authenticity and brand growth — the human element matters now more than ever.
5. Infography
When I first stumbled upon Infography, I was stoked. True to its name, it’s a tool that automatically converts your blog posts into visual infographics.
And they look good too.
Infographics are visual and many readers prefer them over text. It’s one of the best ways to improve your site UX, boost engagement and promote more sharing of a blog.
All of these things boost your SEO and blog performance.
It’s also perfect if you have a Pinterest traffic strategy since you can essentially automate the whole Pin creation process (🎉).
(more on Pinterest tools just below)
Infography is definitely an epic tool and something I’ve been pretty stoked on lately.
6. Pinterest Tools
Pinterest is an amazing alternative traffic source for bloggers. You can drive tends of thousands of visitors to your site — much quicker than Google SEO alone.
So these are a few tools worth checking out if you’re ready to amplify your blog traffic:
Tailwind is an automated Pinterest scheduler, which is perfect if you’re looking to diversify your traffic (a smart move moving forward).
They’re an official Pinterest Partner (and part of Meta Business Partners) and a go-to tool for creators who want to automate their Pin scheduling, join group boards and grow their blogs through Pinterest. They even have a free version to test things out.
Content Goblin may be the best option for automating your blog post writing and Pin creation process (as it stands).
It’s pretty affordable and the platform works on credits.
You can fully automate blog posts, AI-generated image creation and Pin design — all in one place. You can even transfer new blog post draft to WordPress with one click (but I use Squarespace, so I can’t use this feature — still cool though).
It’s definitely an awesome tool and something I’ll be testing more as I develop my own Pinterest and blogging automation strategies.
BlogToPin is an automation tool that lets you completely automate the process of creating, pinning and managing your Pinterest strategy.
It’s a really cool concept, but after testing it for a couple days, I found it wasn’t perfect. The AI Pins pull every image from my site (most of which are not ideal for Pinterest) and it’s the interface isn’t super intuitive to get things set up.
Still, this is a tool to keep an eye out for, because if you have the patience to get things set up and they patch these issues in future updates, this could be a serious game changer for Pinterest automation.
Anastasia Blogger has a video on this platform worth checking out.
Pinterest Tutorials / Resources
Using Pinterest in your blogging strategy is a skill — something that can be easily learned for free. So here are a few of my favorite people and resources to learn:
Niche Website Management’s blog. Lots of valuable content on how to use Pinterest for blog growth here.
Anastasia Blogger. Her YouTube has tons of tutorials on how to use Pinterest to become a full-time blogger.
7. Canva
I use Canva a lot. It’s my go-to tool for all of my image edits and custom web design stuff.
It’s simple, free and the perfect design tool for beginner bloggers.
There is a premium version, but you can do plenty with a free account.
Unless your domain is in art and digital illustration (aka, you need Adobe), Canva is an awesome way to get high-quality creatives for your site with no design background.
They have tons of elements, photos, fonts and assets you can use however you like for all of your blog projects.
It’s also super fun and creative making custom graphics.
8. Email Automation Software
Sooner or later (ideally sooner), you’ll want to start collecting emails.
I use both Beehiiv and Kit (previously ConvertKit). But there are tons of other options, like Constant Contact, Moosend and MailChimp. Luckily, most starter accounts are free.
An email list is your greatest asset. They’re people who are warmed up to your brand and they trust you. Email gives you some of the highest ROI and it’s a direct line of communication with your biggest supporters.
So here are some quick tips to start building your email list (asap):
Put a signup form in your header. Add an email signup form or a subscribe button to your header or your footer.
Create a lead magnet. Make a quick win for your audience.
Create a popup. Use popups offering your lead magnet to visitors.
Use clear CTAs. Create a strong and clear CTA (call to action) for why users should sign up.
9. AlsoAsked
You know those Related searches and People also ask sections on Google? This tool makes researching them easier.
Those extra queries are great for outlining blog posts. They tend to be followup questions and relevant searches users have for your target keywords. It’s nice to sprinkle them into your outline so you can cover your topic more fully.
AlsoAsked works by entering your keyword or search topic and then spits out web of related questions people ask.
You get 3 free searches per day and it’s a great tool for researching and outlining your blog posts.
10. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer
CoSchedule is a content scheduler, organizer and publisher. And they have a number of free tools useful for blogging.
Namely, their headline analyzer is a great way to optimize your titles for better CTRs (click through rate) and SEO.
So if you want a second opinion on your headlines, definitely check out this tool. You’ll just need to sign up for (free) account.
11. HubSpot (Persona Builder / Topic Generator)
HubSpot has a ton of tools. It’s a CRM, email automation software, website builder and so much more.
But as a beginner blogger, let’s keep things simple. There are two simple tools I want to highlight here:
A reader persona is a snapshot of who your ideal target audience is. To write more effective and compelling blogs, it’s important to write for your exact audience and their unique pain points, values, passions, etc.
This HubSpot tool makes creating a persona easy.
If you’re struggling with topic ideation or you’re in a creative rut, this tool is worth checking out. All you need to do is type in an initial blog post idea and the topic generator will give you lots more relevant ideas.
12. Grammarly
Grammarly checks your writing for accuracy and clarity — i.e., it helps you write better.
One main way I like to use Grammary is for improving my active voice while writing. Passive writing is a bad habit of mine. It makes you sound less confident. Active writing is clearer and more direct.
But Grammarly isn’t the only option. Even Google Docs does a decent job of catching glaring issues.
But Hemmingway is another popular editing tool. Although, I haven’t tested this one myself yet. Still, it seems to be another powerful option.
Whatever tool you use, here’s the takeaway: always edit your blogs.
Always reread things before publishing. Step away and come back before editing for fresh eyes.
13. Website Plugins
The amount (and type) of plugins you use depends on the platform you’re blogging with.
For example, with Squarespace you don’t technically need anything. But with WordPress, you’ll need some to fully optimize your site.
So let’s look at the top ones to know about as a beginner blogger.
Squarespace Resources / Plugins
Spark Plugin — customize your site’s design (without code)
Adlytic Marketing — custom plugins and code snippets
SQSP Themes — more custom code snippets (I love their sidebar plugin)
Explore more:
➤ Best Squarespace Tools + Resources
WordPress Plugins (I’ve used)
Bluehost — for your website hosting
Yoast SEO — optimize your site for SEO
Elementor — drag-and-drop website builder
Kadence WP — a solid WordPress website builder
Later ✌️
I hope this list sufficiently wooed you like it has me.
But just remember, your blogging success depends more on your mindset, consistency and love for the journey. But tools make your life easier.
Some of my go-to platforms are Google, Canva, Ahrefs…
If you’re new to using blog tools, it’s best to focus on finding your voice and improving your writing on your own first. Getting your keyword research strategy and content planning right is most important.
Tools will amplify a solid foundation.
So with that, happy blogging!
FAQs
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This depends on your goals, preferences and budget. Many platforms can work. WordPress is most popular, but I also use Squarespace and I've had great success with this tool as well.
WordPress takes more technical knowledge and general maintenance.
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You don't need much more than a website and some basic free tools like Google.
Using software like keyword research tools and AI can speed up your blogging and growth and improve your strategies and rankings.
Currently, some of my favorite blogging tools are Ahrefs, Semrush, Hypertxt, Infography and Google.
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You'll need a computer to write content on. Technically, you could create content on your phone (especially with AI), but having a bigger screen and workspace will make life easier.
You'll also need a website and hosting.
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Yes! Many powerful tools offer free plans. Ahrefs Keyword Generator will give you basic keyword data and Semrush gives you 10 free keyword searches per day. These are high-quality tools with a proven track record.
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No. But they do help.
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If you've never written online before and you're not sure if it's for you, try starting with a simple Medium account. It's free and you don't need a website.
If you're not technical and prefer simplicity, I like to use Squarespace.
