GroupThink: What’s Your Favorite SEO Tool?
By Matt McGee on Jul 2, 2008 in SEO & Web Tools
“GroupThink” is where I turn the blog post over to you. I have my own favorite SEO tools, but it seems like 2-3 times a month someone introduces me to a tool that I’d never heard of before. So …
In the comments, tell me about your favorite SEO tool(s), why you like it, what it does, etc.
Hopefully we all get a little smarter this way.
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24 Comment(s)
By Dana Lookadoo on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
This GroupThink is a great idea! It could get long, since many of us are long-winded. I’ll stick to my fav 5.
1) NicheBot http://www.nichebot.com/
Keyword Research from WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, Google Keywords Cruncher for long-tail & seasonal
2) SEOMoz PRO Tools http://www.seomoz.org/toolbox/
* Page Strength (Potential Strength and Ability of a Page to Rank in the Search Engines)
* Juicy Link Finder (find links that have authority)
* Term Targeting (how well a page is targeting a keyword)
3) Google Webmaster Central http://www.google.com/webmasters/
(no explanation needed)
4) Yahoo! Site Explorer http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
(especially link & URL information)
5) Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/
(also great for long-tail KW and gap analysis)
Use many FireFox plugins and wanted to give a “thumbs up” for Yoast’s recent SEOLinkAnalysis: http://yoast.com/seo-tools/link-analysis/
By Will Hanke on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
Caphyon’s AWR (http://www.advancedwebranking.com/) is nice to help keep an eye on overall rankings.
By DazzlinDonna on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
seodigger.com and spyfu.com for competition research, linkdiagnosis.com for link analysis, and search status firefox add-on for all sorts of quick views.
By Ryan Rose on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
Matt,
I’m a fan of http://www.ranks.nl. Ranks will break down each component (title, meta, body content, number of inbound and outbound links, keyword density and prominence) of a site.
They’ve already been covered but will give a second nod to the SEOmoz Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer
By Linda Bustos on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
I like running AdWords campaigns, then checking on impression counts to get real, geo-targeted and Google-specific hard numbers on keyword research. Of course, you need to exact match the keywords for this, or use a hack that shows you exact keywords - anyone know of this hack, please share!
By Michael Dorausch on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
When I saw this on Sphinn I thought it read “who” is your favorite SEO tool. Got a chuckle out of that.
It’s funny, but I’m going to go with my Whiteboard. It’s old-school and maybe doesn’t exactly fit as an SEO tool but it helps me plan and accomplish daily in weekly goals. Just bought a 8 foot by 5 foot board for my home office.
Besides that, things that use nearly every day include Wordtracker, Google hot trends, domain tools (paid version), crazy egg (free version), and awstats (free on my linux server).
By Todd Mintz on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
Winner and still champion:
Aaron Wall’s Keyword Research Tool:
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
Also, SEODigger’s Rankings Tool:
http://www.seodigger.com
By Marcel Feenstra on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
In addition to some of the tools that have already been mentioned, I use CSE HTML Validator, almost on a daily basis, to check if there are “problems” with the source code that could affect spiderability and rankings…
By Justin on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
Wow, you sure were right about finding new tools!
I’m a big fan of SEO Book Keyword Tool, and SEOmoz Tools as well.
And 2 tools that have not been mentioned yet that I couldn’t do without.
SEO for Firefox
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html
I love using that to do some quick niche research.
Xenu Link Sleuth
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
Which checks websites for broken links, images, and redirected URLs.
By Frank Reed on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
My company built this one so I am biased. http://www.semcheck.com It’s a paid service so we can continue to improve it and create other tools. It is designed to give you a very foundational read on over 20 SEO fundamentals. Can be white labeled for client delivery. Reports take just a few minutes and are really designed to save a lot of valuable time for consultants and agencies and give in house marketers another tool for reporting. Let me know if you would like a demo. Thanks.
By Yossarian on Jul 3, 2008 | Reply
I am another fan of spyfu.com, especially now the service also focuses on the UK market.
Rank Tracker for rankings. It is fast and accurate.
Link harvester for link research - It breaks the links up into unique domains
http://www.linkhounds.com/link-harvester/
Hub Finder - More link research to identify sites with links from the same domains
http://www.linkhounds.com/hub-finder/
Firefox plugins - SEOpen, Search Status, Flag Fox
By Brian Carter on Jul 3, 2008 | Reply
@Linda Great technique but keep in mind that the impressions will be based on how long your ad was showing- and a budget that doesn’t keep you up all day long won’t show the total amt of impressions- it will show relative to the other keywords in that adgroup though.
By Adam Audette on Jul 3, 2008 | Reply
Definitely seodigger, I’m with Todd Mintz on that one. Also these:
Firebug: http://www.joehewitt.com/software/firebug/ - Nice diagnostics tools, does all kinds of stuff and I use it daily.
Charles debugging proxy: http://www.charlesproxy.com/ - Also essential for viewing HTTP exchanges and diagnosing problems.
-Adam
By Adam Lefever on Jul 3, 2008 | Reply
I use a number of tools including:
Keyword Research
1) Wordtracker
2) Google Sets - This helps you speak in the langauge that Google understands in relation to your keyword selection. Combine this with checking the language and word usage in the Top 10 search results (obviously).
3) searchradar.webaroo.com - Another good tool for word associations
Site/Ranking Analysis
1) Bruce Clay server code check (Free SEO Toolset Tool) - I use this very often to check server headers on pages/sites.
2) Google Webmaster Tools (Duh)
3) RankPulse - Measures daily activity and movements in Google for a large number of phrases.
4) McDar.net Datacenter Q-check - Check Google’s Datacenters. This has come in handy when our rankings are jumping around in Google. My past experience shows not to get too excited to see a ranking jump for something very competitive until I can see it present in most if not all of the datacenters.
Analytics
1) Google Analytics - No explanation needed.
2) ClickTale - Recently discovered this one - You put two snippets of code on each page of your site and it will record entire user experiences as well as heatmaps and clicks to certain links.
More cool tools of note:
BlogPulse - Measures Blog activity for keywords. Good for measuring buzz.
SEO Elite - The cheesiest sales pitch of any SEO Software I’ve ever seen, but I like the Link Analysis feature. It finds the anchor text of all links to a site and gives you a percentage readout of the words used in a site’s total link popularity. It’ll also measure PR, type of domains, and IP addresses of all inbound links, and give averages. Good to get a scope of what you’re up against link-wise. I use this often.
CopyScape - I don’t use this all the time, but it has definitely come in handy.
SEOMOZ Page Strength - Fun tool to use.
By Gary Beal on Jul 4, 2008 | Reply
Keyword Excavator.
GaryTheScubaGuy
By Nick Stamoulis on Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
This list compiled through the comments is a great one. For keyword research, we enjoy KeyCompete.com
By Missy on Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
I use the following SEO Tools:
1.) SEO For Firefox
2.) Google Analytics
3.) Google Webmaster Tools
4.) Google Adwords (Keyword Research Section)
5.) Google Search(itself)
6.) SEO Tools by Aaron Wall
I try to stick with the more well known and established SEO tools and providers. As the field is constantly changing, i feel (experts), are the ones who keep abreast of all the changes.
By Missy on Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
I will tell you the SEO tool i would like to find. A tool that allows me to find which is the more seached term…out of two.
for example:
tshirt vs. t shirt
If you know of an SEO tool that facilitates this, please do let me know.
By Marcel Feenstra on Jul 6, 2008 | Reply
@Missy: I think Google Trends does what you describe, try:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=tshirts%2C+t-shirts
By Abhinav Singh on Jul 6, 2008 | Reply
I guess Google Website Optimizer where you have A/B Test and the a test for high traffic websites provide a good analysis of how you web page shd be to attract and woe more n more people, to make people stay on your webpage for more. I have surely been benefited by it.
Apart from that Google Analytics is another one as described by many others.
By Missy on Jul 6, 2008 | Reply
Marcel:
Thanxs for the link, it is helpful. When i typed in tshirts, t shirts, t-shirts….the tool tells me that out of the 3 terms, t-shirts is the most searched.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=tshirts%2C+t+shirts%2Ct-shirts&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Will bookmark this tool, thanxs again!
Missy.
By Marcel Feenstra on Jul 7, 2008 | Reply
@Missy: you’re very welcome!
By Jaan Kanellis on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply
SEO Spyglass
Link Asisstant
SEO Digger
Compete
SpyFu
seoquake
xenu
By John S. Britsios on Sep 9, 2008 | Reply
What about my tool? http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html