The SEO’s Toolkit
Part One of Three: Firefox
By Dave Davies (c) 2009
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Every SEO uses different tools and resources. Some tools are
paid, some are free and some are internally developed tools that
we use for ourselves and our clients – but we all use them. Very
often I get asked what tools people should use if they’re looking
to optimize their own sites and what resources they should use
to keep up with the latest going’s on. While telling people how
to optimize their own sites and what the tools we use isn’t
generally the best of business practices – I just can’t help
myself. If your budget doesn’t allow for the hiring of a
professional SEO company – trying it yourself may be the only
option. I also try to remember that once-upon-a-time I was
optimizing my own sites and was new to SEO and without the open
advice of others already involved in the community – I wouldn’t
be running a successful SEO company today. To this end, it only
seems right to provide a list of some of the main tools we use
on virtually every site.
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When I initially started writing this article I was going to
cram a slew of various tools and resources into one article,
but the article was going to end up running WAY too long to hold
your attention (or mine) so I’ve cut it into three EZ parts (as
opposed to three EZ payments which you’ll be familiar with if
you too watch late night TV with a laptop in front of you
writing things like SEO articles). But let’s get to the meat of
this article shall we? The series will be divided into three
parts:
• Firefox
• Free & Affordable Tools
• Resources
So let’s begin with Firefox. Let me first say, I don’t know if
Firefox is officially the browser of SEO’s, but if not – it
should be. You can download it at
Mozilla.com.
And now the extensions that make this browser invaluable to SEO’s …
SEO Quake
If I had to lose all but one of my SEO tools – this would be the
one I’d keep which is why it gets listed first. This little tool
allows me to quickly look at the top 10 results in the SERPs and
within seconds see all the PageRank, indexed page numbers,
backlinks to that page, domain backlinks, the age of the site
and much, much more.
This tool doesn’t provide any revolutionary information in that
it’s all data that can be accessed directly. However, it reduces
the time taken for tasks that would take minutes to seconds. It
then provides easy links to more detailed information. A
fantastic tool.
Oh, and it also adds a line through all nofollowed links. Very
handy when link building.
SEO for Firefox
Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has added a great tool to the mix
that duplicates a lot of functions of SEO Quake but which has
enough additional features to be very useful. Basically – neither
is a replacement for the other.
Like most tools – it provides information that can be accessed
in other ways, BUT with this Tool Aaron allows users to find
tons of relevant site and keyword information quickly and
painlessly. From keyword traffic to keyword trends, from
backlink counts to social media mentions – this tools gives
quick access to tons of information.
Admittedly, I prefer the layout of SEO Quake and some of the
easier functionality.
SEO Link Analysis
A HUGE thumbs way up (two of them in fact) to Joost de Valk who
made all our lives simpler when this tool launched. What this
tool does is display the PageRank and anchor text of every link
when you perform a backlink check on one of the major engines.
I suppose you could visit every single site and get this
information yourself and there’s value in that to be sure, but
when you need a quick analysis of a site’s backlinks – this tool
is invaluable.
As a sidenote it works VERY well with SEO Quake.
Web Developer
With this tool we’re getting a bit more advanced. For those of
you who understand coding or are learning (and you should be),
this tool is incredible. It allows for quick testing and viewing
of a site’s structure including, image info, table and cell
information, W3C compliance, CSS details and MUCH, MUCH more.
I can’t possibly list off all the functions this tool offers and
admittedly I don’t use them all but I use enough of them
regularly for this tool to make my top 10 list.
IE Tab
This is an odd tool to add and it’s purely a convenience tool
but like adding a second monitor to your system – once you have
it and realize that it saves you just a few seconds dozens of
times per day you quickly realize that your productivity relies
on it.
With a simple click of a button, this tool loads Internet
Explorer into your Firefox tab so you don’t have to go
back-and-forth between browsers when testing. I could survive
without it, but since you have Firefox anyways…
Search Status
This is another tool with many uses. On the surface it simply
displays PageRank, Alexa and Compete rank and mozRank data but
with a right-click of the icon you get access to a whole slew of
additional information, including fast links to whois, the
robots and sitemap files, keyword density information,
Archive.org info, and it will even highlight nofollow links.
A lot of these features overlap other tools noted above, but I
will say – I have it installed and so should you.
These are the main extensions I have installed for Firefox
(read: the ones I use virtually every day). This isn’t to say
that’s all there are, and I can’t stress enough the benefits of
visiting addons.mozilla.org
and looking for more useful extensions specific to your needs (RSS, Twitter, coding, etc.)
I have about a dozen more installed than are listed here, but
those above are the main Firefox SEO tools I use daily.
In the next article, we’ll be taking a look at free and
affordable tools that you can use to help improve your website
rankings. Be sure to keep your eyes open as there will be many
invaluable tools listed there too.
About The Author
Dave Davies is the CEO for Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization, Inc. Beanstalk offers
organic SEO services, consulting,
link building and SEO copywriting services. While they provide their
SEO from Victoria, BC
they are proud to serve the world.
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