SEO Tools – The best of the bunch
Different Search Engine Optimisation tools hold different meanings for different web masters and bloggers, and it is really difficult to compile a list of “the best SEO tools”. Still, most of the SEO requirements are generic in nature, for instance, your typical Search Engine Optimisation campaign entails:
- Optimised source code
- Keyword analysis
- SEO-optimised content
- Meta tags analysis
- Search engine submissions and monitoring
- Getting quality back links
I’ll be listing here the best SEO tools you can use to handle the Search Engine Optimisation tasks mentioned above.
Source code validation
From the SEO perspective it is very important to have clean, validated markup. The two online tools that help you write validated markup are:
Keyword analysis
It is very critical to know what are the right keywords for you. Getting tons of traffic for wrong keywords can prove to be a costly affair both in terms of lost business and bandwidth costs. Here are some tools you can use to find out what are the right tools for you:
- KeywordDiscovery.com Keyword Research Tool
- Keyword Suggestion Tool
- Overture Keyword Tool
- WordTracker Keyword Service
- Google AdWords Keyword Tool
- SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
Search Engine Optimised content
Although it is very hard to find a tool that writes optimised content for you, you can use some tools to gauge the keyword density of your content. Here are a few online tools that can help you check your keyword density.
Meta tags analysis
Some say meta tags are important and some say they are no longer important. Well, why take chances. Properly using meta tags, using the right meta tags with right information in them, and using them in right manner doesn’t harm. The following tells help you analyse your meta tags.
- SEOChat Advanced Meta Tag Generator
- Web Master Toolkit Meta Tag Generator
- RankRequest Meta Tag Analyzer
Search engine submissions and monitoring
For search engine submissions and monitoring I think the best tool is hard work. Automated tools are not recommended to submit your website to various search engines and online directories. So for search engine submissions I think the best tool is you.
Link popularity
Link popularity has become a potent SEO tool. It’s always been around in the form of those thousands of link exchange programs but now the search engines have developed more sophisticated algorithms to measure genuine link popularity. Hence the web masters and bloggers take their link popularity campaigns very seriously. Here are some online tools you can use to track your link popularity.
- Submit Express Link Popularity Check
- Web Master Tool Link Popularity Check
- AddPro Link Popularity Check
- SEO Chat Link Popularity Check
This is going to be a constantly evolving list as I’ll be adding more links here as I come across them, so either bookmark this post or add it your favorite bookmarking website.
Also, if you have any SEO tools that you think I should check out and include in this list, please let me know.
Today is July 25, 2008
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Hi Gary,
I recently purchased an SEO software product called SEO Elite - no doubt you’ve heard of it.
Anyway, I’ve come to realise that keyword analysis is probably one of the first tasks at hand.
One of the problems that I have (and I expect many others out there) is which keyword software tool to use.
I have copies your article and will be trying out the keyword suggestion tools that you have very kindly listed for us.
Do you think that it is necessary to purchase a product such as Keyword Elite or do you reckon we can get along without it and the like?
I need to get myself some good quality reciprocal links - do you have any suggestions please.
If anyone is interested in a very good FREE SEO ebook they are welcome to download “Search Engine Optimization MADE EASY” written by Brad Callen (SEO Expert) from my web site: http://members.lycos.co.uk/websites4free
I recently made this web site and used “Good Keywords” to find keywords for my site. Unfortunately, putting in weeks of hard work, my site is nowhere to be seen.
I just wonder if it’s because I use a free web host instead of my own domain name (which I need to get) or if it’s due to zero page ranking?
Perhaps someone may be able to point out where I’m going wrong.
Thanks for you helpful article Gary.
Will be back soon.
Warm regards.
Anthony
Anthony,
If you are selling a credible product then yes I would move your site to your own doamin reather than using lycos. That in itself will give your more credibility.
Once moved start building links, then you will rise up the SERPs.
Also, is that original content on your site, it does look familiar.
Regards,
Gary.
Another couple of good free online tools are:
www.domain-pop.com - Link pop tool and can sort backlinks by Pagerank, IP etc and can also save report as .CSV or Print.
www.elixirsystems.com/tools/linkpopularity.php - Shows link pop in all engines, gov & edu backlinks, deep link number and %, DMOZ & Yahoo, Supplementals, indexed pages etc
www.backlinkwatch.com - Can be very slow but shows all backlinks along with their PR, Anchor and if it’s a Nofollow
www.checkpagerank.com - Shows alot of good stats, as well as a backlink checker like the above.
www.webuildpages.com/tools/default.htm - 17 various tools
Anyone got any other cool but lesser know online tools? The ones i listed do basically everything, but it’s always good to find better ones with more functionality.
Hi Carly, backlinkwatch is interesting, id slow as you say.
CheckPageRank is now an expired domain - PR7!!!
I use this one on a regular basis:
http://www.seomoz.org/page-strength
I find it gives a good snapshot of the strength of a competitor.
Cheers, Gary.
Ehh sorry to double post, but just remembered 2 more useful ones…
www.checkpagerank.net - Shows fake PR, Link pop in major SE’s, DMOZ listed, Domain age etc.
www.seologs.com/seo-tools.html - A stack of VERY useful tools.
Yes Seomoz is a good one, and alot of people lately use their Seomoz page strength rather then PR when advertising their site for link sales.
I just read a bit about the Checkpagerank situation, and aparently the owner has renewed it so the site should be back up soon.
It’s a good one, it can do the backlink analyasis just like Backlinkwatch but only way faster. It’s a pity Backlink watch is soo slow because it’s a really good tool, so you really need to set it running, go do other stuff and come back 10 minutes later.
But the display of PR, Nofollow, Anchor Text and number of Outbounds on your backlink page gives a read good visual representation of the status of your incoming links.
Hi Gary
For keywords I use the SEO Moz tools, and Keyword Elite with paid keyword discovery, wordtracker, adsense, google tools etc activated and I would say it works.
What I am looking for which you might be able to help me with is a tool to maintain my PPC accounts other then the Adwords Editor. Here in South Africa our International bandwidth is very slow, like top speeds of 100k download (thats with 15 staff).
I am looking for something that will bring all our data from many adwords accounts into 1 desktop interface which we can easily view, update etc.
It would be great if we could also pull reports from this software for our clients. Looking for a paid product.
Thank you
Hi Goran, we do not have any large PPC accounts preferring where possible to concentrate on the organic side. Depending on the we use either AdWord Or the Editor.
Cheers,
Gary.
Hi Gary
Thank you for your speedy feedback. Enjoy.
Also discovered SEOmoz’s tools, they have a nice array of free ones that are very helpful. Also try SEO for Firefox plugin.
There’s a site that I use called SEOGroup.com to track my Google SERP positions. You can submit up to 3 keywords per report. When you’re done, it’ll be displayed you ranks in a graph. The site link is http://seogroup.com/evaluation/ … Its definitly free to use and once it generate the report for you, there’s some helpful hints as well too. Hope this help anyone out there who’s looking for a free seo tool to use.