If You’ve Been Thinking About Blogging, Try These Blogging Tools

I think it’s safe to say that blogging has once again become extremely important for our volatile SEO landscape. Personally, I don’t think it ever stopped being important. In my opinion, the written word—whether it’s a blog, a newspaper article, or a book—isn’t going anywhere.

But thanks to the rise of AI and its backers constantly talking about how all of us SEOs and writers should just close shop, it’s getting harder and harder to find voices online that’ll actually tell you what’s up.

Which is why I’m going to show you exactly what blogging tools I use to run ATITW. There are way too many “AI blogging tools” out there and not enough honest advice that’ll help you make the right choice.

So, if you’re a blogger, or someone who’s always been interested in blogging—whether that’s for your business or simply because you enjoy writing—this blog post’s going to help you find actual tools that will help you succeed. Let’s begin.

What Makes a Good Blogging Tool?

Okay, so before we talk about the blogging tools I use in my own workflow, I think it’s important to understand what kind of tool you should be using. I think this is pretty important because knowing your goal can really help you know what you’re looking for.

Anyway, let’s breeze through this real quick before we get into the meat of this blog post. 

A good writing tool should:

• Save time: If you’re super busy like me, or get overwhelmed easily (also like me), it’s critical to have blogging tools that’ll save time for you. No point in having a tool that requires you to open twenty six tabs, look through multiple folders and what not to get started. That stuff kills momentum and tires you before you even get started.
• Builds consistency: This one’s a big one. Blogs require consistency. In my experience, it takes six months to a year of consistent writing (and this includes scheduling as well as your own writing style) to see results. This is essential if  you’re trying to build an audience.
• Helps organization: This one kind of ties into consistency and time saving. A good blogging tool should help make your life easier, organise stuff better so you know exactly what you’re looking for—just stuff that’ll help you get work done quicker.
• Supports creativity: This one’s really important because, as I mentioned, we’re in this weird era of AI can do everything…including creating creativity. I personally hate tools that make everything boilerplate because it kills individuality and honestly destroys creativity. Don’t go for tools that don’t allow you to do your own thing.

Remember: A good blogging tool should make both your life and workflow easier, not turn your blog into LinkedIn-flavored oatmeal. And yes, that’s something I see with a lot of blogs these days and it’s why some blogs don’t rank.

My Blogging Workflow

For my own blogging workflow, I’m very particular about the tools I use. They have to meet the requirements I mentioned above. If they can’t meet all of them, they’re basically useless for me. Here’s what I use:

Task	Tools
Writing	Notion + Hemingway Editor
SEO	Semrush + Yoast
Analytics	Site Kit (GSC & GA-4)
Design	Canva
Publishing	WordPress
Performance	WP Rocket

I know people have like crazy power tools they use for their blogs but I don’t like using a lot of tools. It just complicates things. I’m a less means more kind of person; I like to use as few tabs as possible when I’m writing. Having a bunch of tabs open while I’m writing ruins the process for me.

Plus, I’m super busy. I have a full-time job, I freelance on the side (hit me up if you’re looking for an SEO), I’m working on my manuscript, I write short stories, I have a two hour commute…the list goes on. Because of this, I need tools that work, that don’t frustrate me, and that’ll make my life easier. And that’s exactly why I’ve chosen these. 

Best Blogging Tools for Writing & Planning

Here’s the thing: It’s easier to think and talk about starting a blog, but it’s super hard to get to writing. So, I use tools that’ll make my writing process faster and get me to do stuff without procrastinating. 

Notion

If you’ve read my blog post on how to create Notion templates, you’ll know that Notion essentially runs my life. It’s basically got my entire life in. So, honestly, using it to write blog posts and record my entire blogging section made sense. And that’s the point. I wanted to use a tool that was easy—and that’s what Notion is.

Sure, you can use Google Docs (and I use that for my writing) but again, it’s easier to forget about it. The good thing about Notion is that I can set deadlines and I can easily get the notification on my phone, tablet and PC. 

When it comes to blogging, I use it for everything: content calendars, drafts, research databases, and keeping track of what’s published and what’s still sitting in my ideas folder collecting dust.

The reason I prefer it over most CMS tools is that it doesn’t try to do too much. WordPress is great for publishing but it’s a terrible place to actually think. Notion gives me space to think, plan, and write without the clutter.

Here’s what my actual Notion setup looks like:

• Ideas database: every half-baked thought, topic, or keyword I want to write about goes here. Nothing gets lost.
• Draft tracker: I can see exactly what’s in progress, what needs editing, and what’s ready to go live.
• Publishing checklist: SEO, images, internal links, meta description. I run through this before every post goes up.

Hemingway Editor

I have a tendency to write like either a university student writing a paper, a tech bro, or Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries. And no, the AI tools do NOT help me here. If anything, they make me sound like someone named Reighleigh or some weird spelling, who thinks Starbucks is a personality and activism is performative when done online.

Sorry if that offends anyone, but to be honest, that’s my sister not me. Like, she embraces it and even talks to the AIs about the reality shows she watches. But I digress. 

Hemingway Editor highlights where your writing gets hard to read and tells you why. For blogs specifically, where you need people to actually stay on the page, that’s genuinely useful. I run my drafts through it before publishing, not to dumb things down, but to make sure I’m not accidentally losing people halfway through a sentence.

Best Blogging Tools for SEO

As you probably know, SEO was the part of blogging I had to learn the hard way. And a big chunk of that learning came from using the wrong tools, or using the right tools wrong. Here’s what actually works for me.

Semrush

I use Semrush to run pretty much the entire SEO side of my blog. Keyword research is the obvious one—I validate every topic before I write it, not after—but that’s honestly the least interesting thing it does for me.

The stuff I actually rely on: site audits, backlink monitoring, citation tracking, and keeping an eye on overall site health. If something’s broken or tanking, Semrush is usually where I find out first.

For smaller blogs especially, this matters. You can’t just publish and hope. You need to actually know what’s happening with your site, and Semrush gives you that visibility without needing to be in fifteen different tools at once.

One thing I will say: if you’re just starting out, don’t go after high-difficulty keywords. Find the realistic ones first, build authority, then work your way up. That’s the only approach that actually works when you’re not an established domain yet.

Yoast SEO

I use Yoast as part of my pre-publishing checklist to check against before I hit “publish.” I’ve downloaded the plugin on my WordPress and it sits on the right of my post editor. Once I’ve added my blog post, I simply look at it to make sure things like readability and on-page SEO is fine before hitting publish. It’s easy to use, effective and helps to make sure that I haven’t forgotten anything critical.

Site Kit

I’ve already talked about Site Kit on here before. Basically, Site Kit pulls your Google Search Console and GA-4 data directly into your WordPress dashboard, which means one less tab open and one less login to remember.

For someone who hates tab overload, this was a no-brainer. I can see what’s performing, what’s tanking, and what needs attention without leaving WordPress. If you’re interested in using Site Kit, check out my blog post on how to set up Site Kit.

Best Blogging Tools for Publishing Your Blog

So, now I’ve shared the writing tools I use for blogging. Next up on our list are my publishing tools. I’ve seen one too many blog posts with complicated workflows and what not which I think are completely unnecessary. Unless you have like half a million visitors on your blog every month. I don’t so I’m sticking to the basics for this one.

WordPress

A lot of people swear by other platforms like Wix and all, and while I get it, I have to say that WordPress honestly makes total sense to me. I do have a favourite CMS and that’s the old but gold (in my opinion), Drupal system but I’m biased. I work on Drupal—have been for nearly four years and we have like, this hybrid proprietary CMS thing going on at work.

But for my own blog, I think WordPress works really well. I keep my dashboard clean. I’ve got only a few plugins I use. My library’s clean and hosted on a CDN. Life’s chill. Plus, I use a theme for my blog so it makes changing things easy.

WordPress is crazy flexible. You can customise the design without touching code, or go deep into it if you want to. It scales with you, whether you’re writing one post a month or running a full content operation. What more could you ask for?

Namecheap

I swear by Namecheap. One of my friends recommended it to me when I was first building out this site back in 2021. I haven’t ever moved away from Namecheap since. Its customer service is honestly the best and they help you if you’re not a technical person.

I’ve honestly learned about hosting and stuff thanks to Namecheap. If you’re a first-time blogger, I recommend this. Domains are affordable, the interface is straightforward, and setup doesn’t require a technical background. It’s not the most powerful hosting option out there but let’s be honest, do you really need an overpowered hosting service?

WP Rocket

Again, I’ve talked about WP Rocket a lot here in the past and it’s because it’s great. When I first started blogging, I had like fifteen different plugins for “site optimization” which just ended up slowing my site down and if there was an update, something would break.

With WP Rocket, I can easily deal with things like caching, file compression, and lazy loading without touching a single line of code. And I hate touching code on this site. I’m too deep in it at work as it is and my blog’s supposed to be my creative zone. Luckily, WP Rocket handles all of this stuff for me. If you want to learn more, check out my blog post on how to improve your website speed and performance with WP Rocket.

Best Blogging Tools for Design & Content

Now, I have a new Instagram account. In case you didn’t know. And I have pictures on this blog too. So, obviously I have two design tools that I use for all things visual. Here’s what I use (and yes, you’ve heard of them before).

Canva

I think it’s easy to consider using Canva lazy and trust me, I know. I’ve used templates on Canva in the past for my pins and all, and I’m very picky. So, naturally, I ended up creating my own themes on Canva. 

I personally prefer Canva over Adobe and Illustrator because when I’m doing stuff for my blog, I want it to be high quality but quick. Canva lets me do that without thinking too much.

All my media kits, IG posts, pins, and even my freebies are made on Canva and it takes me less than thirty minutes which is a bonus for me!

Pexels

Next up on the list is Pexels. I use it to grab free, royalty-free stock photos. If you’re a newer blogger without your own brand photography yet, Pexels fills that gap without costing you anything. I have a few photographers there I follow and tip every now and then and—you should do that too, if you can.

Blogging Tools I Don’t Recommend

Now that we’re done with the tools I use, I think it’s important to note that this is my workflow. And I do think it works well. You can always choose other blogging tools based on your needs and what’s efficient for you. 

But when you do that, be careful. There’s an entire industry built around the idea that you can automate your way to a successful blog. Stuff like one-click AI content generators, autoblogging tools, “publish 300 articles overnight” platforms, generic SEO automation that spits out keyword-stuffed nonsense. 

When searching for blogging tools, I’d avoid all of it.

Here’s why: Google has gotten very good at identifying content that’s only written to rank with no insights whatsoever. And readers are even better at it. The moment someone lands on a post that’s your boilerplate AI slop, they leave and that’s signalling to Google that your content isn’t it.

And that’s the last thing you want to happen to your content. So, be wary of tools promising overnight success, and make sure you develop your own unique voice—that stuff matters for Google. And remember: consistency is key. These blogging tools will help you be consistent, persistent and eventually find success in our volatile searchscape.