I'm not sure this collage is eye-pleasing, but here are some logos for your enjoyment.
When it comes to SEO Tools, I’m pretty agnostic. Like most SEOs I’ve gotten used to a series of tools more because of the habit than anything else. I still keep those tools in my repertoire, though I’m open to suggestions, in case seyou have any recommendations.
Depending on the situation, I will use different tools, but here are some of the usual suspects.
Analysis / Reporting
Skype – Speaking with the client an initial step for understanding the business, industry lingo, is essential.
Google Analytics – for understanding what I’m dealing with before I start; record progress.
Google Advanced Search Operators – These are great for understanding how Google sees the site.
Authority Labs – It plots your rankings every day and makes a historical graph that’s great for understanding trends.
HubSpot Website Grader – Yes, I use it sometimes. In some straightforward scenarios it’s great to take that first step with the client. I really don’t care about grade, but the tools has a simple interface that shows obvious problems.
Keyword Research
Google Insights for Search – Good for digging deeper into a certain set of keywords.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool – Good for finding new keywords.
MS Excel – One of the uses is to organize keyword distribution and structure. Once I have a bunch of keywords to organize, I throw Titles, Metas and H1s in this document for either copywriters to or myself. (Download Keyword Distribution Excel Template (.xlsx))*
On-Page Stuff
Xenu’s Link Sleuth – Great for finding broken links, and creating nightmares from the alien face representing this tool.
SEO Book Tool Bar – I use this the most. Particularly the SEO X-ray and the Site info.
Firebug – I mostly use this to see the code on specific areas of the page. Page speed is also good, but I rarely use it.
Off-Page Suff
Google/Yahoo/Bing Webmasters Tools – I use it to understand search trends, crawl errors, and set basic SEO friendly preferences.
Webconfs Header Check – 301 / 302? I use this to find out.
Links
Link Diagnosis – I got used to this tool a couple of years ago and I still use it to uncover backlinks. It’s great that you can save searches on the cloud.
SEOMoz Open Site Explorer – Understanding link profile.
SEO Moz … They’ve updated their tools in the last few months and I haven’t had the chance to really check them out. (On that note, an SEOMoz Tools free trial started today! Go and get it!)
Twitter – Great for finding link opportunities and understanding industry lingo.
Wishlist
Raven Tools – I used the trial and it was good, but would like the chance to try them out a bit more – so far so good.
SEO Power Suite – I’ve haven’t used them but heard tons of good feedback from these tools.
As I mentioned, different scenarios will require different tools. But you can rest assure I’ll use most of the above in any given project.
*This keyword distribution document is a simplified spin-off from a document created by Ani Lopez . He’s post, along with his more elaborate template are on his blog titled Keywords distribution along web content structure
Nice post Jose! I just downloaded Xenu’s Link Sleuth, I’ll be giving it a spin.
Thanks Kyle – glad to hear you got one worthy of trying. Lynk Sleuth. It takes a bit of playing to get used to it, but it’s awesome and fast.
Cheers,
Xenu link sluth is great, I also use it on sites in similar niches and then I pass on the reports to the site owners – it’s a great way of making a good first impression.
Yep – that’s where a lot of gold is 🙂