Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art of optimizing your site blog to rank higher in SERP or Search Engine Result Position.
Being on #1 or page one of Google is the ultimate goal of any blogmaster. It’s the key that separates the average site from the extraordinaire. Simply put, the higher you are on the search results, the more organic traffic you will get.
Study has shown that most searchers don’t go beyond page three so if your site is found no where in the first 3 pages on your keywords, you have probably not done enough SEO, so to speak.
Now the question is how do you know if you are doing the right thing?
That’s where online SEO tools are available at your disposal to check and diagnose the SEO status of your site so you can take all the necessary steps to improve your overall search engine ranking.
The Best 15 SEO Tools for Beginners
PageRank Checker is a free tool to check Google Page Ranking of any site and its pages easily and instantly. Google PageRank or PR is a measure of any sites popularity based on Google kept-secret algorithm. The PR is an indication of certain authority to your site and how important it is in the eyes of Google. For the uninformed, here’s how Google calculates your PR.
PageRank Search allows you to search Google using any keyword(s) you wish. It will then return, in order of Google relevance, the sites associated with those keywords. Each result displays a graphical bar with the PageRank of that particular site.
Internal Pages PR Checker will check the page rank of all of your site’s inner pages index by Google and it’s useful to use right after the PR update.
Link Popularity Checker is a tool that checks total number of pages in each search engines index that contains a link to your site, including your own website. It is used to measure your site’s online visibility. The popularity of your site is an important factor in your search engine ranking. The more popular your site is, the better it will be ranked on the search engines.
Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer help you determine the backlinks of your site and anchor text (link text) used to link to your site. Link building is all about getting the quality backlinks along with the quantity. The truth is getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places.
It’s all about using the right keywords you are trying to optimize as your anchor text (link text) from the right neighborhood.
Reciprocal Link Checker helps you ensure that your link partners are linking back to your site and determines what anchor text is used. Gone are the days when reciprocal links are considered important, the big G is now putting more weight on one-way (the best option) or three-way links (site A ↔ site C, site C ↔ site B and site B ↔ site A)
Keyword Density refers to the measurement in percentage, the number of times a keyword or phrase appears compared to the total number of words in a page which needs to balance correctly. Too low and you will not get the optimum benefit, Too high and your page might get flagged for “keyword spamming”.
This tool parses the most frequently keyword of a website and calculates its percentage share.
Keyword Suggestion Tool will help you with choosing of the right keywords for your website and analyze which keyword combinations are more popular. Choosing the right keywords is critical for a success of your site. Target the wrong keywords and you have lost.
There is pure gold hidden in less competitive keyword combinations and variations.
Link Analysis of External and Internal Links – The link analysis display all internal and external links of a website with the corresponding anchor texts in a summary table. It’s one of the best I have ever used.
SERP Position Checker is the keyword position analysis used to check on which position your domain is ranked for a given keyword and compare the first 100 results by Google, MSN and Yahoo.
Robots.txt Syntax Checker is the simplest tool to check the contents of your site’s robots.txt against the search engines standard, along with providing warnings on the wrong use of syntax.
In case you aren’t in the know, robots.txt file is the key to stopping search engines robots from indexing certain pages of your site which are deemed unnecessary to be included in the search results, yet many people still fail to get the syntax correct.
Copyscape scours the net and finds sites that have copied your content without permission, as well as those that have quoted you. It is designed to protect you against online plagiarism and article theft.
Search Engine Placement Check is a verification tool that checks if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword. It’s important to be in the top 3 pages of a search result because most people using search engines don’t go past the 3rd page.
Bad Neighborhood Checker checks link pages and reports if there are links to bad neighborhoods. This tool will scan the links on your site, and on the pages that your site is linking to, and flag possible problem areas. This can greatly ease your SEO efforts.
Website Grader is a free SEO report that measures the marketing effectiveness of your site. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how your site can be improved from a marketing perspective. Check out the SEO report for thoushallblog.com.
Last But Not Least
SEO is never intended to be seen as touch-and-go effort in much the same way no success can be achieved overnight. It really takes a lot of patience, commitment and the know-hows to succeed. All the above tools will not bring you to #1 in search results but it helps you to be aware of ‘where you are now’ and ‘where you should aim to be in future’.
Knowledge is the key to SEO success
Indeed there are no hard and fast rules to SEO, it all boils down to the right mixture of quality content and quality inbound and outbound links with proper keywords optimization and all these tools will tell you if you are getting the right combination to move you closer to #1.
If you are in the mood for more SEO tips, here’s 15 SEO Tips for Beginners.
Good luck with your SEO. Any opinions or feedback are welcomed. I’m all ears.
On Another Side Note
Congrats to those of you who have just gained your PR status on the recent update. It’s another milestone for you and I’m sure you are pretty excited about it. Well, getting the PR is the easy part, maintaining it is a different ball game altogether.
I have just updated my PR list and if your blog (with Top Commentator) is not included in the list, drop me a line and I’ll put you in the list.
Did I say that’s one-way backlink?
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This post comes just as I was looking to book mark some great SEO tools….thanks
You are welcome and hope you find them useful. I wouldn’t mind if you stumble it for me…:-)
Thanks for this post Yan.. I have been looking for a quality internal page rank checker for a while. Was able to determine a few of my pages also received PR rankings and not just the home page.
Domain Structure´s lastest post..Good Domain Names
Wow, you just won yourself the most loyal subscriber of the month. You are practically everywhere on my blog and for that, I’d like to say, “Thank You”.
Congrats on new PR status and that tool helps to instantly check the PR for all the inner pages within your domain. It’s like waiting for the jackpot number to appear. Isn’t it fun?
Well Yan.. You are constantly providing informative information and thus gives me reasons to leave comments.
Your blog has both helped and inspired me.
Domain Structure´s lastest post..How To Get PR 3 In Less Then 3 Months
Some very interesting tools to play with. :) Thanks, Yan.
Rarst´s lastest post..Free Download Manager
@Rarst:
You are welcome. Review it on Stumble if you do have the time and thank you.
I kinda did that already yesterday. :)
Rarst´s lastest post..Free Download Manager
Thanks so much for the list! I won a bid link directory and provide these types of tools in forms of pre made inks with the domain name already included. I always like to add more and now I can see if any of these fit what I need!
Thanks again for the awesome list Yan! Was posting about this over at Digital Point and got not one reply!
Can you imagine that!
bbrian017´s lastest post..Targeting and Marketing to Specific and Unique Keywords will Increase your Organic Google Traffic
Hey Brian
Firstly, I’m impressed with what you have done with BlogEngage. You have a superb makeover. I’m loving it.
By the way, I never realize that you are managing SEO Marketing. Oh gosh, I have another one on hand.
Thanks for the visit, Brian. It’s been a while I see you around here and I hope I’ll be seeing more of you.
Yan
I really do not worry too much about search engine optimization. There are a lot of other things I need to worry about when it comes to being a blogger. I think everyone else should probably put the effort towards writing some good content of most of all just marketing their blog. You will rank well in search engines over time but you always have to make sure that you market your blog perfect for the first six months what you don’t have that search engine traffic coming in.
Franklin Bishop´s lastest post..Listen Up You Panzees: Content is not King
@Franklin: You certainly have your own set of theory for traffic generation and you have a valid point too. It’s all about ‘Your Marketing’ and SEO is part of the whole marketing strategy.
The truth is I have more direct referral traffic from blog commenting than from Google and I need to balance the two.
Me too Yan, I get a lot of traffic and lots of networking payoffs from commenting on relevant blogs, it is very powerful!
JR
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s lastest post..4 Months, 602 Comments, Page 2 of SERPS…Happy Anniversary!
I get pretty much no traffic from Google at the moment, but to be honest I have no way near enough content or backlinks.
Danny Cooper´s lastest post..PageRank 3 Within One Month!
SEO is indeed a cost effective marketing effort when compared to traditional selling. Great post.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Great list, I have used several of those and they are very accurate and effective. The bad neighborhood is a really great one!
Thanks Yan,
JR
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s lastest post..4 Months, 602 Comments, Page 2 of SERPS…Happy Anniversary!
Hey JR
Glad you like them all. I’ve been using them since the beginning of this blog and they all proves to be useful.
Looking forward to seeing you again and thank you.
Yan
I will be back for sure!
Thanks,
JR
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s lastest post..4 Months, 602 Comments, Page 2 of SERPS…Happy Anniversary!
website grader and many more other websites with diff tools are gr8 ..
very helpful and all tools are found under one roof here in this post :D
i can’t thank you enough for this post. i’ve been blogging for a few years, paying absolutely NO attention to SEO at all: i’m a writer and was blogging for my own literary pleasure. but i’m starting a new blog this week, and would really like to get some new eyes on the existing blog — without much of a clue as to where to start.
now i have some clues. THANK YOU!
i am a very happy email subscriber to this blog.
jackie sheeler´s lastest post..muslim children gassed in ohio. i am so ashamed of my country.
Hey Jackie
I think we both are in it for writing pleasure. However, one subject that always catches my attention is SEO. I guess at the end of the day, it’s always having that sense of achievement when you have done your SEO right.
Well, I’m not an expert in SEO. I’m just sharing what I know in the hope that others will benefit from it. I’m glad this article is of help to you.
Anyway, thanks for such a great commentary and I hope I’ll still see around here.
Yan
I actually use SeoQuake, a Firefox add on that shows me amongst other things PR, Alexa Rank, backlinks etc. It’s good because it’s always there providing the information I need.
Sire´s lastest post..WassupBlogs New PageRank Is Now PR2
@Sire: SeoQuake is indeed a nice Firefox addon. I’m using SearchStatus that serves the same functions and I’m happy with it.
I installed SEO quake and it just completely messed up my internet so I had to uninstall it.
Danny Cooper´s lastest post..PageRank 3 Within One Month!
great links these. i’m already trying to use some of them. will check out your recommended serp position checkers especially. :)
kouji´s lastest post..haiku poem: others (about me)
@kouji: How are you , buddy? Good to see you around here.. I have been seeing your name lately on most of the blogs I went to. Good work and keep it on.
been alright. bar exam just finished so i’m taking a bit of a breather. :)
yup. been trying to take some of your advice, which is probably why i’m visiting the blogs you also frequent. :)
kouji´s lastest post..haiku poem: war (doctrine)
Nice list
I also found another website grader tool that grades your site against competition today (it isn’t my site) : reviewmyweb.com
Stumbled across it from NamePros earlier
Hey Simon
What a nice surprise to see you here. I’ve never heard of reviewmyweb.com but I’ll be checking on it soon. Thanks for the heads up.
Yan
There’s a free website tool that helps you track how you are doing across the social web (blogs, etc.) vs. your competitors.
It’s a competitive website grader at http://www.reviewmyweb.com
Hope it’s usefull!
Great list. I was looking for nice Seo tools. This came in handy. Thank you
Salwa´s lastest post..Ways to have Free Traffic
@Salwa: You are welcome. Glad you like it.
STUMBLED!
Great post, will definitely come in handy, have bookmarked.
Geoserv´s lastest post..Foxiewire removes Pligg
@Geoserv: Thanks for the bookmark and appreciate the visit.
another SEO goodie is http://www.seoautomatic.com/app/
@Jonathan:
That is an awesome tool. I think it’s the easiest and pretty comprehensive tool I have ever used.
Had I not tried it, I wouldn’t have otherwise realized that I have quite a number of design/styling errors and this is exactly my area of weakness.
Highly recommended indeed..
Thanks for that awesome list! I always use google for finding SEO tools, but not I can just come back to this list and find a bunch of them.
Justin Wright´s lastest post..13 Reasons To Follow Me on Twitter
@Justin: Thank you and welcome to thoushallblog.com. Hope to see more of you around here. I’d be sure to follow you on Twitter with or without the 13 reasons.
Yan
You always have some great post and good tools to use with blogging. Its a real pleasure to read the post you put up. Thanks
Bruno Auger´s lastest post..The Milestones of the Computer
@Bruno:
What a compliment! It’s always been nice seeing you here and do come back again.
Does page rank really matter that much? Google seems to shift the SEO goal-posts on a regular basis. Otherwise, a great post. Thanks.
@Ryan: It really depends on what you are blogging for. If you aren’t into selling your ad space or doing any paid review then PR is absolutely useless.
Otherwise, your PR can be a gold mine waiting to be discovered if you are doing it right
I’ll definitely check out some of these tools, especially the Backlink Anchor Text Analysis & Search Engine Placement Check.
And on a side note, my blog got it’s PR upgraded from 0 to 3. I’m a DoFollow blog too, so I’d be honored to be in your list. :)
~ Kristi
Kristi´s lastest post..Social Media Marketing Best Practice
@Kristi: Thanks for the visit and it’s my pleasure to add yours into the list. Oh ya, congrats on your new PR3.
Awesome list man, wow. I’ve used almost every single one of these resources, but keeping track of them etc.. is a challenge. Now I have them all in one spot.
Bookmarked!
Elijah´s lastest post..9 Things You Need To Be Successful At Bum Marketing
@E: As usual, you have always been one of the best supporters for this blog. Thanks, buddy.
A spectacular and truly valuable post. Kudos Yan!
Lee Hall´s lastest post..6 Biggest Stock Market Losses To Date
@Lee: What a pleasant surprise! Oh, you got yourself an avatar. How are you, my friend?
My goodness, what a wonderful post. I already was using a couple of these, but I had to look at all the rest also. Great stuff; thanks.
Mitch´s lastest post..Stripe Ads
@Mitch: My goodness, what a great comment. Firstly, welcome to the most friendliest blog on the planet.
I have been seeing your name pretty much everywhere lately (I hope it’s the same ‘Mitch’…:-) Glad to have you here and thanks for the visit. I’m heading over to yours now.
Yup, it’s the same guy; seems I’m everywhere these days. lol
Mitch´s lastest post..Stripe Ads
Hi Yan,
Excellent SEO tools for everyone to use. I do use some of these tools already but it’s good to know you’ve got it in one place and that I can come to your blog whenever I need to check something. Smart thinking buddy.
Peter Lee
Work At Home Ideas´s lastest post..OMG, I Got The Google Ban?
@Peter: Thanks for the compliment and I wasn’t really thinking actually….but glad you find them useful.
whew! another batch of great links to pay visits. now i know that got lots of internal pages/posts with nice pagerank, lol. Thanks Yan!
dimaks´s lastest post..Skullcandy Hesh Headphones (Orange/White)
@Dimaks: Yeah, I’m loving that tool where you can easily check all the page rank for the inner pages all at one go.
By the way, I can see that you are getting back your PR3, huh?
i got my pr2 and in just a week or so, G added 1 more so that made it 3 now :)
First time reader and I was very compelled to subscribe to your feed!! It didnt take 10 minutes of reviewing some of your posts to see how wisely written and very useful they are!
Greeat list!
Mark
Mark Hansen´s lastest post..Sarah Palin Riding a Bike?
Hey Mark
Here’s a warm welcome to thoushallblog.com and a real thank for your kind compliment.
If you have another 10 minutes of your time everyday, do come in again and share your opinions and thoughts with the rest of us. We have a great community around here.
Till we meet again and thanks for the visit.
Yan
nice lists of seo tools, actually i really like most the keyword suggestions tools
Dilson Decano´s lastest post..Captivating Capiz Google Dance
@Dilson: Thanks and welcome back! Glad you like them all.
Yan thank you for this informative post for newbies wanting to formulate and launch an SEO plan for their blog. Very vital to start putting together a plan early on to reach whatever goals desired (readership, affiliate marketing, branding, etc).
There is one thing I would like to point out that I think will help people new to this whole thing and it’s in regards to PageRank (PR) assigned by Google. There is a large and easily noticeable divide within the SEO community at large about whether or not PR is truly indicative to value to the page you are viewing, or in this case, considering to be part of a linking campaign.
Perhaps you should write up something on the topic so people can hear both sides of the argument and make their own call. I personally don’t use PR as a factor for my linking campaign, rather, I use other elements like domain age, target keyword representation on the target page, and traffic popularity from Alexa and Compete.com. Some food for thought…
Keep up the great work and thanks for letting me write a mini-novel :)
SEO Honolulu´s lastest post..10 Questions With Shana Albert
In my pursuit of link building, PR has never been my primary motivation. Perhaps, I wouldn’t call it a link building campaign but rather traffic building campaign. All I want is to create a larger community of loyal readers.
As of late, I have done a good amount of blog commenting as my primary source of direct traffic irregardless whether the blog is dofollow or nofollow. Simply put, I don’t chase after the PR.
However, having a decent PR has somehow presented many opportunities for me in the form of advertising and sponsored review requests.
What is pretty noticeable lately is that the big G is sort of being very generous in its PR distribution. I have seen lots of blogs in its first month getting the PR which something quiet unseen of in the past.
I’m taking note of your suggestion and will surely take it into consideration.
Thanks and welcome to thoushallblog.com.
Good list, rather a very good list. Thanks for sharing. Makes my work a lot easier thanks to your hard work. Much appreciated Yan and keep up the great work you are doing.
moserw´s lastest post..Pudina Pachadi (Mint Chutney) Recipe!
Thanks, pal and good to see you again. How have you been lately?
The only tool I use is the pagerank checker, that doesn’t make me a loser does it? :(
Danny Cooper´s lastest post..PageRank 3 Within One Month!
@Danny: No it doesn’t but good work on making your way into my top commentator list at one go…:-) I’m loving your style…
Yan, good stuff! I just subscribed to your blog using my Google Reader account. I am finally getting a hold of all of this stuff.
I must be moving up in the world because I was familiar with most of those tools, although I am not using all of them.
Anyway, I have a Top Commentator on my blog. Can I get down on your list? I don’t have any PR yet though. It is coming. This month I am finally doing the things needed to change that.
Anyway, you will be seeing my mug around more often.
Peace!
Freddie´s lastest post..Monday’s Motivational Moment: Urgency
Welcome on board, buddy. It’s my pleasure to have you around here. Perhaps sharing some of your great quote would be a good idea…
Just in case you ain’t aware of, we have a great community around here with all the friendliest people you could have ever met – my loyal readers
So stay tuned and look forward to seeing you again..
Cheers
Yan
Yeah, I can see that you have a lot of support and action on your post. That is excellent and I look forward to be being a contributing member!
Freddie´s lastest post..Monday’s Motivational Moment: Urgency
Thanks to those awesome people who creates a great community around here and I’m counting on you too, buddy.
My pleasure and I look forward to interacting with you. Oh yeah, think I am going to take your and Jay’s advice for the quotes and add the videos.
Thanks!
Freddie´s lastest post..Monday’s Motivational Moment: Urgency
hey yan, have you checked urlmetrix.com? you can get some pretty decent info there
Hugo Santos´s lastest post..Woopra Rules!
Hey Hugo
Thanks for sharing it with us. I’ll checking on it in a while….
I have just recently discovered a better tool (http://www.seoautomatic.com/app/) that sort of giving me a decent diagnostic of my site… pretty impressive if you ask me.
I suggest another great SEO tool – IBP. However, it’s not free.
Thanks for this I am actually in the process of doing all these.
http://www.bucketbeats.com
Bucket Beats´s lastest post..Bucketbeats.com Presents 100 Images of Bucket Drummers
this list will be a really good help to my SEO, thanks for sharing yan! :)
multiply themes´s lastest post..Kanto Lights Theme
Thanks for the links. This is a great post.
Thank you so much Yan! You are incomparable… These tips are great!
Handbag for life´s lastest post..Roberto Cavalli winter floral Silk Bracelet Clutch
In fact, the most useful SEO strategy is blog farm, althought it’s a black hat.
There’s a very handy backlink (incoming links to a web page), checker at seo-forensics.com
It gives url, PR, anchor text and IP address. It’s a little slow but does a great job.
Thanks for the suggestion. Will have a look at it…
Great SEO resources yan. Added some of the tools you recommend into my SEO resources page as well.
Wei Liang´s lastest post..Lesson 8 : Backlinks
Thanks and welcome back, Wei Liang. I almost lost you on my blogging radar…
Dang! Nice writeup. Some of these I knew about, and the ones you see on a lot of ‘standard’ SEO tips lists, but I have to say, you’ve hit a few here that I didn’t know about. Off to check copyscape right now.
Great blog design as well…do share what template you’re using – or is it custom?
Game Economy´s lastest post..Nokia does iTunes one better; could it be the future of gaming?
Well, this is a premium theme from Liam McKay’s and thanks for the compliment.
So does it pass the copyscape?
That was a really helpful post. You have done a perfect link bait, Yan.
Ganesh´s lastest post..Google Pagerank Update
Thanks, Ganesh. Good to see you here and hope you stick around.
Nice post. I’m a new blogger and this came in very handy. Just grabbed your RSS feed so expect a few questions coming your way!
@Matt: Thanks and welcome. Feel free to ask me anything, if it’s within my capacity to help you, I’ll do my best.
Oh ya, in case you aren’t in the know, this is a blog that helps beginners to blog better.
Quite comprehensive list of SEO tools. I use some of them.
Rajeev Edmonds´s lastest post..How To Get Instant Traffic For Your Blog
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Nice post. Thanks for all the links! Might come in handy.
Roger Hamilton´s lastest post..Who fancies gambling some money? [Nigel 'Car Crash' Grainger]
Great list of SEO tools :) most of them i didnt know yet. I´ll check them all out and hopefully there a some usefull tools for me :)
Best blog i came across with so neatly written for the new bloggers
you have done a very welll good job
SEO´s lastest post..Domain naming tips
Thanks for such a great compliment and welcome! Hoping you’ll stick around.
interesting site it really learns me a lot.
This is a handy list for us to bookmark. Thanks!
Tim´s lastest post..Homebuilt Wind Power Generators – How Big is Your Battery Bank?
Tim
Thanks and welcome. Stick around as the best is yet to come..
Yan
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