SEO Tools
Here are some useful search optimization tools I’ve either used or currently use. Some are free, some you must pay for. I will do my best to describe when to use each one, what’s it’s purpose is, why it’s important and what the cost is, where appropriate. Item Keyword Discovery Use * Keyword research Description * Brings back the top 1,000 results related to the entered keyword or phrase * Exports to Excel * Data set based on previous 365 days of search activity across all major engine Importance * Very high Cost * Roughly $400 a year * FREE trial allows checking one phrase at a time Wordtracker Use * Keyword research Description * Brings back the top 100 results related to the entered keyword or phrase * Exports to Excel * Data set based on previous 30 days of search activity from Yahoo/Overture only Importance * High - not quite as comprehensive as KD, but still useful Cost * Roughly $250 a year * Free trial Yahoo/Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool Use * Keyword research Description * Useful, though limitd to only Yahoo’s data and only to the previous 30 days * Includes related terms and # of searches performed * No export option Importance * High - though data set limitations mean you cannot see seasonal trends Cost * FREE To my knowledge, there are no truly comprehensive, free keyword research tools available. Xenu Link Sleuth Use * Internal link checking Description * Link verification is done on “normal” links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets * It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria * A report can be produced at any time Importance * Very high - it’s vital that every internal link on your site be working properly before the spiders visit Cost * FREE Link Survey Use * External link checking Description * Check inbound links * Comprehensive URL reports * Allows viewing of live anchor text placements on external site Importance * Very high - helps determine which sites are linking to you Cost * $50 * FREE Trial OptiLink Use * External link checking Description * Checks inbound links * Full reports * Shows competitors link data * Shows anchor text used * Shows relative numbers Importance * Very high Cost * FREE Trial WebBug Use * Code checking Description * WebBug lets you enter a URL, then displays exactly what it sends to the Web Server and, when the response is received, exactly what the Web Server sends back * Can check one URL at a time Importance * High - important to see how spiders are viewing the code for your pages Cost * FREE W3C Validators Use * Code checking Description * Comprehensive list including a CSS validator, html code validator, a log validator, a feed validator and more * Full reports Importance * Very high - coding errors can hold you back in organic results Cost * FREE Poodle Predictor Use * Spider simulator Description * Checks site for code errors, broken links, etc * Shows a diagnotics view, source-code view & header/meta view Importance * Very high Cost * FREE Rex Swain’s HTTP Viewer Use * Code Checking Description * Spiders page and brings data on server responses ot header and header/content calls Importance * Very high Cost * FREE Google Sitemap Generator Use * Sitemap builder Description * Crawls a site and builds a sitemap for submission to Google’s sitemap program * Very detailed data on Google’s rules and includes full instructions on use, editing and publishing Importance * High Cost * FREE Spidermap Tool Use * Sitemap builder Description * Crawls all links on domain * Makes a map with or without descriptions * Shows code for copying into an html file Importance * Very High - allows for the creation of a sitemap both spiders and users can use Cost * FREE Search Engine Saturation Tool Use * Index checking tool Description * Checks engines for indexed pages * Allows comparison between you & 3 competitors Importance * High Cost * FREE Very easy to find out who owns a domain, how old it is, when it expires, how Alexa ranks it, who the technical contacts are and much more. Simply type the following URL into your address bar and replace “domainname” with the domain name of the site you’re curious about. Does not matter whether you use the www version of a domain or the non-www version: http://whois.sc/domainame.com W3C Use * Server response codes Description * List of what the server response codes are Definitions of what each code means Importance * High Cost * FREE’
