5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
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If you read Internet marketing and SEO blogs on a regular basis, you undoubtedly come across posts about free SEO tools quite often. While there are a lot of great free tools on the Internet for SEOs, I have recently noticed that almost all of these posts profile the same core set of free tools (such as SEO for Firefox). Since you most likely already use the most popular free SEO tools, I want to look at five SEO tools today that are very useful, but simply don’t get as much attention as they deserve:
Google Insights Bookmarklet: While Google Insights can provide very valuable keyword information, you can waste a lot of time switching from one window to another window in order to use Google Insights. To eliminate the need toswitch browser windows , add the Google Insights Bookmarklet to your browser, and anytime you are browsing one of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo or Live), you can instantly access the Insights data for the keyword you were searching with a single click of the bookmarklet.
Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin for Google Analytics: I know I’m not alone when I say that Google Analytics is one of my favorite analytics packages. Although it’s not perfect, this package can provide you with a significant amount of very useful information. In addition to the information that is already provided, you can increase the data you have at your fingertips by installing the Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin. As you can see from the screenshot above, this plugin not only adds data for content from all of the major social media websites, but it also adds Yahoo’s backlink data directly for you to see.
Robots.txt Generator: A robots.txt file can be a very useful tool for blogs and large websites. Because the Content Management Systems (CMS) for blogs and websites normally create a lot of pages that you don’t want indexed, you can use a robots.txt file to keep search engine crawlers away from these excess pages. However, many people neglect to add a robots.txt file to their website because they are unsure of how to use it. Fortunately, if you want an easy way to create an effective robots.txt file, you can use the Robots.txt Generator to create the exact robots.txt that you need.
SearchBoth Plugin: Although their stock price continues to plunge, Yahoo is still around. While they obviously aren’t anywhere close to Google in terms of search popularity, as an SEO, there are times when reviewing data from Yahoo can be useful. Since there is a good chance that you will also be reviewing data from Google, you can save yourself time by using the SearchBoth Firefox plugin. As the screenshot above demonstrates, the SearchBoth plugin allows you to simultaneously search Google and Yahoo without the need to switch between browser windows.
Disable Personalized Search Plugin: When you are analyzing the SERPs for your website, a client’s website or a competitor’s website, it’s important to ensure that the data you are seeing is as accurate as possible. In order to remove anypersonalization that your browsing habits may be adding to the SERPs you are looking at, you can use the Disable Personalized Search plugin. In addition to working for Firefox, this plugin also works in Internet Explorer.
Leave a comment and let us know if you have any other unique SEO tools that you would like to share.
[tags]Google insights, Greasemonkey, Robots.txt Generator, SearchBoth, SEO tools[/tags]
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Tags: Google Insights, Greasemonkey, Robots.txt Generator, SearchBoth, SEO tools
wniizzati
Perri aka @betheb...
seomator
Ann Smarty
Kerry Rego
You are absolutely right about. I never heard any of these tools before, let alone using them.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m downloading the ‘Social Media Metric’ plug-in as I’m writing this comment.
I’m going to check on the other 4 and see if they fit into my SEO.
Yan
Wasn’t aware of Google Tutor’s one – thanks a lot for mentioning it!
@Blog for Beginners: Great to hear! Out of all five, I think that is my personal favorite.
@Ann: No problem, it’s definitely handy to use.
Search Both is totally amazing, i never thought of such a thing and you laid it out for us, thanks a lot man!
-Abdulrehman
@How to Make Money: No problem, glad to help!
Excellent stuff here; I just subscribed via email.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
You have some great plugins
listed that I haven’t heard of before, I gave you
5 stars.
bob entrepreneur’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
@Dennis: Thanks, glad to know that you’ll be a regular reader!
@bob: Thanks for the rating!
Tyler Banfield’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
Thanks! I’ve already installed the greasemonkey plug-in. I’m still learning about SEO so I have no idea how the other ones work – I guess I’ll have to do more reading.
Excellent tips!
Google Insights! Wow!
Craig Klein’s last blog post..5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet
Its annoying that you need a plugin to disable personalized search and can’t simply opt out of it.
Michael Henry’s last blog post..Where I’m at: Free Flu Shot Clinic
@Michael: I couldn’t agree more. I feel the same way about their latest feature, SearchWiki (which I still haven’t even felt the need to use yet).
A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.
Great list
Some are 100% new to me .. will get right on installing them.
Disable personal search is very cool, and even the Google insight will be usefull for me. Thanks.
Need a bigger screen on my laptop.
Steen Öhman’s last blog post..SEO David Naylor on reputation management
Good list. Some really good advice. I now have to work out how to use them!
Madcom’s last blog post..PR points for Prime Minister sees red meat
Thanks for the extra goodies for my toolbox!
I recently found the Disable Personalized Search Plugin and I love it. How I didn’t come across this sooner, I have no idea. But it’s great to not have to input the &pws=0 manually thanks to this plugin.
Alysson’s last blog post..Search Engine Optimization Jacksonville – Hometown Scams
These are all new to me. 5 Stars. Thanks!
Great find! Never heard or use 4 out of the 5 tools you mentioned. I tried to download the SearchBoth plugin but it doesn’t seem to install on the latest Firefox browser (version 3.0.10). I should probably wait until they come up with an update.
-Tom
Tom Duong’s last blog post..Facebook Tips: How to Increase Traffic to Your Site in 10 Easy Steps
Loving the Insight Bookmarklet – Will save me some time switichnig from pages
Another great free SEO tool which is worthy of a mention – Compare domain backlink history by Majestic SEO. Great little competitor backlink analysis tool.
Sean McColgan’s last blog post..Wolfram Alpha – Exploring the Computational Universe
These were really great tools I was not aware of. Thanks for sharing!
Do you prefer the Social Media Metrics Greasemonkey Plugin for Google Analytics over the SEOBook SEO Toolbar? If yes, why?
Internet Strategist’s last blog post..Freelancer Challenges – Logo Graphic Designers
Actually I have not tried the SEO book tool so wouldn’t be able to intelligently make a comparision between the two.
WOW, Great tools I have not heard of Greasemonkey or the disable personalized search which I have issues with lately trying to work on some of my current client projects.
Thanks
Hi, Nice blog and nice post. Im newbie and have learn too many things from ur blog. Thanks