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Easing The Burdens Of SEO
If you're on an online marketer with a limited budget, then you're in luck. I've compiled a list of online or downloadable SEO tools that I recommend and use on a regular basis. Each of these tools has to do with the organic or "natural" search engine rankings of websites.
 | | Using The Right Tools Is Very Important... Even SEO |  |
Editor's Note: In today's article, WebProWorld member bharzter highlights some very helpful tools that should ease the workload for most SEO undertakings. Are there any you've used that Bill may not have talked about? Discuss at WebProWorld,
Savvy online marketers use a combination of these tools to analyze and generally "figure out" why one particular web page is ranking better than another web page.
Aaron Wall's Link Popularity/Backlink Analyzer
Aaron Walls' tool is fairly new to the game, and he apparently has spent a lot of money developing this tool. This SEO tool allows you to analyze all of the links that are pointing to one particular website. Once you download and run it, you are given several reports-one of the reports allows you to see the anchor text of the links that are pointing to that site. Anchor text is the actual clickable link text that describes a link. Search engines rely anchor text information in order to "figure out" what a web page is about-they use that as an important part of their algorithm. This tool requires that you install it on your PC. Aaron also has a list of more free SEO tools on his site.
We Build Pages' Free SEO Tools
I'm amazed by the number of tools that the We Build Pages folks have available in their arsenal. There several good free online SEO tools and analyzers. The Neat-o Backlink Tool, like Aaron Wall's tool mentioned above, "checks your backlinks (only showing one backlink per URL that links to you) and shows the link text used to link to you." This tool is an online tool and doesn't require that you download it.
The C Class Backlink Analyzer Tool, also by We Build Pages, is a tool that checks the IP addresses of links to a site. This is important because not all links are created equal-it's better to have fewer links from a lot of websites than a whole bunch of links from only one or two websites.
A third tool by We Build Pages, the Top 10 Analysis Tool, will give you the "big picture" of the rankings for a search term. "Type in a search phrase and this tool will check the top 10 sites in Google and will then show you things such as how many pages are indexed for each site, backlinks, allinanchor rankings, keyword density, and much more." Run this tool to see how competitive a search term is and what might be required to rank well for that search term.
URL Trends
This online tool gives you a "big picture" and an overall analysis of a website. URLTrends allows you to view trend reports of a website's current and previous Google PageRank, Alexa Rank and incoming links for the URL. It also tells you the site's DMOZ status (if it's listed in DMOZ.org).
Server Header Check
There are many tools that allow you to perform a server header check. This is important especially if you're dealing with redirects or setting up a redirect from one page to another. By running a server header check on a URL, you can easily see what error code or redirect code the server is returning when the URL is loaded. For example, if you're setting up a 301 Permanent Redirect from one domain to another, checking the domain using a server header check tool is a must. Several good server header check tools exist:
http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/server-header.php
http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/servercheck.cgi
http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp
http://www.serverheader.com/
IDServe is a free tool that I keep in my desktop. This lets you perform a quick server header check without having to open a web browser.
Find more online SEO Tools
There are several websites that list even more online SEO tools worth exploring. SEO Company maintains a great list of Seo Tools worth checking out at http://www.seocompany.ca/tool/seo-tools.html, and even has a few of his own online tools, including a Page Rank Checker, a tool to check Internal Page Rank, a tool to check Link Popularity, a tool to check Indexed Pages, a DMOZ Listing Checker, and a SERP Checker. More free online SEO tool lists are available at the following sites, as well:
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/
http://seo.zunch.com/free_seo_tools.htm
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/
http://www.globalpromoter.com/seo-tools/
Privacy Issues
Many search marketers have expressed concerns about privacy issues when it comes to using online tools. When you use an online form and enter a URL or any other data, you're potentially giving that data to the website providing that online tool. So, be sure to check the site's privacy policy before you use the tool-or only use the online tools to check your competitors' search engine rankings.
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About the Author:
Bill Hartzer is the SEO Manager at MarketNet, Inc., a Dallas, Texas website design and search engine marketing firm. Mr. Hartzer is also a successful writer, webmaster, and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years. Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.
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