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!