SEO Tools of the Trade

Posted on | September 16, 2009 | No Comments

As an SEO Advisor I mostly use the Firefox browser when looking for issues on a site as there are a multitude of useful plugins and add-ons that make life a lot easier.

Below is a list that I use on an almost daily basis to analyse client and competitor sites. There are a lot more available on the Mozilla site. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

In addition I have added links to other useful tools for an SEO such as back link checkers and sitemap generators.

Firefox Add-ons/Plugins

SeoQuake

SeoQuake allows you to view a variety of parameters for websites including the PR, Alexa Rank, Yahoo links and cached pages. It’s a great tool to use when doing competitor analysis.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3036

SEO Open

Right click an area of a web page for quick access to a number of tools to check http headers, inbound links, page rank and more.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/570/addon-570-latest.xpi

SEO for Firefox

This plugin shows adds useful data to Google and Yahoo’s SERPs. This includes domain age, .edu links, DMOZ, bloglines and Whois info.

http://www.seobook.com/free-account/ (Free registration to SEO Bok required)

Fire Shot

Fireshot creates screenshots of web pages and has tools to allow you to annotate the image.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/5648/platform:5/addon-5648-latest.xpi

Web Developer

Possible one of the the plugins I use the most when analysing a web page. Includes tools for manipulating CSS, javascript, images and html validation.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/60/addon-60-latest.xpi

Live Http Headers

Displays useful data such as host, server and cookie information.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/3829/addon-3829-latest.xpi

GA?

A quick indication of whether Google Analytics is installed on a web page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/5631/addon-5631-latest.xpi

Fire FTP

A free FTP tool with facilities to quick connect or create multiple accounts.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684

Server Spy

This tool indicates what type of server a website is running.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/policy/0/2036/28735

Firebug

Excellent tool for debugging websites. You can make real time changes to HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/1843/addon-1843-latest.xpi

Http Fox

Provides information such as request and response headers, cookies and querystring parameters.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/6647/addon-6647-latest.xpi

SearchStatus

Allows easy checking of keyword density. Google PR, nofollow links, internal and backlinks and more.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/321/addon-321-latest.xpi

Site Information Tool

Gives information including whois, Google PR, Alexa rank, link details, IP address, response headers and more.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5607

Google Preview

Adds a preview thumbnail and PR rank to Yahoo and Google SERPs.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/189/addon-189-latest.xpi

IE Tab Options

Just click the button to easily see how a site looks in IE then click again to go back to Firefox view.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/1419/platform:5/addon-1419-latest.xpi

Yellow Pipe

Displays a Lynx view of a page from a website. This is possible how a search engine sees a website.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/1944/addon-1944-latest.xpi?src=addondetail

Other Useful SEO Tools

Internet officer Redirect Check

A really useful tool for indentifying if a url is a direct link or if it has a 301, 302 or meta refresh in place.

http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/

Marketleap Link Popularity Check

A handy tool for checking numbers of back links to a site. Results are displayed using other sites as a guide to popularity. The trend/history report can give a useful indication of how many links a site has had over a given time.

http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

Netcraft Toolbar

Meant as a phishing attack tool but useful for SEOs as it displays a sites hosting location and domain age.

http://toolbar.netcraft.com

Majestic SEO

Gives detailed link reporting including back links and anchor text data. Results are shown in order of importance and can be exported in .CSV files.

http://www.majesticseo.com/

This is a non exhaustive list so feel free to suggest your own free useful SEO tools.

Caroline Bell
SEO Advisor

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