There are so many free tools and software programs for SEO enthusiasts that it almost becomes overwhelming and difficult to grasp the "right" tools to use in your SEO efforts. Everyone has their own personal preferences which makes this predicament even more perplexing. Yes, I purposely put as many P's as I could in that last sentence: my name is Paul after all. (Hey I can rhyme too!)
Well enough about me and my love of words; let's get down to business: What are some of the best free SEO tools on the web?
Cool Tools
Google Keyword Research Tool: When this free tool came out the other week we all had a little dance party in the office we were so excited! Well to be honest... there wasn't any dancing involved but it sure did give us a reason to celebrate 🙂
This tool is amazing! Simply type in your keyword and you can see a long list of related keywords with approximate search volumes for those keywords as well! You can even customize the results with this tool: everything from the location (country) of your keyword results to finding out which month had the highest search volumes.
This free keyword research tool immediately replaced my other keyword research tools by Wordze and SEO Book after just one test use: that's how powerful it is. In short, the tool rocks and it instantly makes keyword research way easier and much more efficient!
HTML Playground: This tool is great for those that have limited HTML knowledge or just aren't sure how to apply the right formatting in an easy and efficient manner. Well this free tool takes all the "hard work" out of HTML coding for you. It has a list of all the most popular tags; simply click on the tag, customize the parameters and colours you desire and the HTML code is ready to go! It even shows you a preview of what your text or image will look like once uploaded! This tool is simply vital for any HTML rookie or beginner.
Firefox Extensions
There are hundreds of free Firefox extensions readily available at Firefox Add-ons. They have tools and add-ons for just about everything! My favourite Firefox add-ons for SEO are:
SEOpen: This add-on lets you place a toolbar in Firefox to quickly analyze everything from the number of Yahoo! Backlinks to verifying whether the PR of a site is legitimate or not; and that's just the beginning. I think of it as in all-in-one SEO resource that is absolutely mandatory!
SearchStatus: This nifty little add-on simply lets you display the Google PageRank, Alexa rank and Compete ranking anywhere on your browser. It also allows you to highlight nofollow links and comes equipped with a fast keyword density analyzer. Pretty sweeeeeet!
SeoQuake: This tool is one of the most advanced Firefox add-ons for SEO. Yet it's perfect for both beginners and advanced users. Basically, SeoQuake displays the parameters for search results and even includes the findings into the search engine result pages – SERPs – for the most popular search engines. You can then set these parameters to display by ascending or descending order; so you can search for any keyword in Google or Yahoo! and then set the order to show the highest PR's, or the most Yahoo! backlinks, or by whatever parameter(s) you are most interested in.
And now, my favourite Firefox add-on is...(insert drum roll)... Speed Dial!
This add-on lets you visually display your most used websites so you can access them instantly! Forget about using bookmarks ever again! Simply open up the add-on and enter the number of columns and rows to determine the amount of sites displayed in your speed dial. To enter in the sites simply click on the boxes and type in the URL's.
When you want to access your favourite sites simply hold CTRL and press the number of the site (number set in speed dial options) to open it up in a new tab or window. Or you can press the speed dial button which displays all your sites in one window and then you can just click on the site you want to open. Once you get the hang of this add-on you can instantly access your favourite site(s) with just a couple of clicks: saving you both time and effort! It's a win-win situation like no other!
These cool tools and Firefox extensions are really useful and can dramatically improve your SEO efforts while simultaneously saving you time and improving your efficiency. Be sure to check them out and feel free to share your own favourite Firefox extensions!
Great extensions. I use ’em everyday.
I used to use most of these too. I have switched to chrome now though, so I’m looking for some new plugins. Any suggestions?
.-= Mark Johnson recently posted: search engine rankings tool =-.
There are lots of other free tool providers like http://tools.khrido.com/ or http://www.iwebtools.com/. To find the better one is to check as many sites and compare.
What a life saving article.
I use firefox but I’m always lazy to go through the list of add-ons to help make my work easier. Sometimes some us get to act once we get spoon fed with such useful information.
Thank you Paul for the wonderful tips on this post.
Google has indeed come up with a winner. I am happy that you too feel that way.
@Utah & Joseph… your very welcome glad you found the tips useful!
@Bob… great point & thanks for sharing some tools that you use.
@Shopping… yeah Google loves to win and they will do anything (or buy out anyone) who stands in their way!
Web design is becoming more complex. Any tools that help reduce time are a god send. Thanks for letting me know about some of them!
One of my favorite tools is Snaplinks… here’s a post & link to download it.
http://www.scottfish.com/snap-links-plugin-for-firefox-3/
Nice writeup Paul! I’m as overjoyed as you are regarding the Google KW Tool. When I was at SEP I brought on Wordze, but Google sure does make it difficult to use that tool anymore. That said, its still mighty useful to figure out competitor link velocity. Good roundup on Firefox too – I wrote an article about the same thing and folks loved it -https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/11-seo-firefox-extensions.html
Keep up the good work 🙂
@CMS… you’re right about web design. That’s why I was really happy when a colleague showed me HTML Playground.
@Scott… thanks for the great tool!
@Dev… Thanks a lot! Great post as well about the firefox extensions.
Among all add ons mentioned..I only triesd using Search Status..I think I have to check out the other tools you’ve mentioned..^^ anyways thank you for posting this one!
great list, problem is that when you keep on upgrading firefox you lose the addons
Great tools !
I was only aware of seo quake but you are fantastic mike. I have download all this tools and its really help me to work fast and with ease.
I like it and stumbling it here http://choicefreedom.stumbleupon.com/ so that i can share it with my all SEO friends.
Great post – it got me to thinking about the tools we all use as search engine optimizers and online marketers in general.
While many of us are using the same tools/plug-ins, it’s great to run across lists like these where I am introduced to a great new plug-in or tool that makes my job a little bit easier.
For instance I hadn’t used SearchStatus or Speed Dial before – I’ll definitely give them a whirl now.
Not to be spammy, but I was inspired to write my own SEO related Firefox plug-ins post – http://www.azakers.com/10-essential-firefox-plug-ins-no-seo-superhero-should-be-with-out.php
Thanks again for the post!
Thank you for mentioning SeoQuake in this list! if you have any ideas about what we can improve in it – please let me know!
Cheers
G.Suvorov
SeoQuake Team
Great Tools!Thank you!
Hi Paul,
I wanted to thank you for reviewing the Google “Keyword Tool.” I utilized part of your review (July 22) in my article for July 25, 2008 and FoxBusiness.com published the article with a direct link to your site. I am a member of Blogburst syndication services. Here is the link to my article and part of your review:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/blog.html?bbPostId=Cz3n1x0G10FSiB3b1kZdDsSWFBA4LvUoa4KQCCzF9S8A1LR6Rj
Best wishes for continued success and I hope you receive some click throughs.
Dean of http://deansguide.wordpress.com
@internet/search/wii/Chris… Enjoy using the extensions hope you find them useful!
@AzAkers… Glad you found my post inspiring! Really enjoyed your post too; superhero mania is right Batman rocked!
@G.Suvorov… and thanks to you for SEOQuake! I’ll have some recommendations for you in the very near future.
@Dean… Thanks a lot for the kind words of encouragement really appreciate it!
Nice post..I was aware of some of these tools (which I use everyday) but I have to check out some of these other ones (e.g. SEOpen)
Google keyword research tool is relatively good since it is free. It analyzes the search volume of a specific keyword based on Adwords and offers related keywords’ search volumes too. You may choose to break down the results by countries, however this tool is relatively biased.
I’ve been using SEOQuake and Search Status and I absolutely love them for the time they save me. I haven’t used SEOpen yet, but apparently I need to. I’m checking that one out right now… anything that can help save time and make me more productive when analyzing the competition helps.