The Golden Hat

Since starting my work in the Web world, namely search engine marketing, I quickly realized just how important it is to leverage the various tools that exist to help webmasters and website optimizers. Some of the most powerful tools are the free one’s! Others, when used creatively, can deliver powerful information as well and should be utilized whenever possible to ensure that you are maximizing your efforts. Below is a categorized list of tools that I use regularly and a brief description of what they do. I’ll continue to update the list as I go but please leave a comment or email me if I miss a tool that you really like using.

Firefox Plugins

SeoQuake - a multi-tool plugin that gives you all sorts of parameters such as backlink analysis, Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and the list goes on and on. The downside is it slows your browsing down a lot since each page viewed requires data downloads to populate all of these variables. I suggest using it sparingly… you might find your IP getting blocked if you go crazy with it.

Meta Tags - offers a simple sidebar meta data analysis when viewing sites, including keyword density, links, etc. It’s a subtle plugin that won’t slow your browsing.

SEO for Firefox Extension - Aaron Wall is the man! This plugin offers the usual parameters (links, Page Rank, etc.) but with some cool qualifications such as .edu and .gov inbound links. Some very powerful stuff Aaron!

Social Media for Firefox - a great tool released by the folks at 97th Floor. Gain a competitive edge with this add-on by seeing which articles are hot or not in Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. so that you can be first to the plate to submit these emerging stories to other social media sites that haven’t caught on to the article yet.

Google Tools

Google Insights for Search - Google Insights is an awesome tool. Every in-house PR agent, content writer, and search marketer should become familiar with this tool. Not only does it give you a comparison of search query volume over time of certain phrases, it also generates lists of related keyword phrases to help you create additional targeted keyword variations.

Google Trends - check relative search query volume of individual keywords, or query multiple keywords to compare search query volume against each other. This is a great tool for keyword research to identify if search volume is substantial enough to include in a keyword list, or to check if the singular or plural version of a keyword renders more search query volume.

Google Suggest Labs - As you type into this Google browser box, Google will provide real-time search query volume in a drop down list of related keyword phrases. As you continue to type the list will refine itself and offer up various related keywords and their search volume. Another free tool that helps you brainstorm highly trafficked keyword phrases.

Reputation Management

Snydey Sense - This web-based tool allows anyone to enter in up to 4 unique keyword phrases and then search for keyword mentions of those phrases across the Web. The results include RSS feeds from Google News, Technorati, Digg, Friend Feed, Summize, and Bloglines. This is particularly helpful when searching for branded phrases to find mentions of your company/personal brand name throughout the Web.

Omgili - Omgili is a specialized search engine for finding information. As opposed to traditional search engines, which search for sites and pages, Omgili finds consumer opinions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, answers and solutions. The information it digs up is authoritative and usually user-generated so it’s great for finding content and brand mentions through other avenues than traditional websites.

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