7 Tools This SEOer Can’t Live Without
[Making Search & Your Time Optimal for Clients]
Things can get quite hectic in the world of SEO. If you’ve been in this field even one month, then you know what I’m talking about.
At 10+ years in, I’ve managed to learn how to outperform client expectations while keeping my sanity intact. This is no small feat.
Early on, I also learned that a consistent process yielding such positive results is only made possible with the right set of tools. Here are 7 of the many key tools I use daily to get great results for our clients in the ongoing process of search optimization.
This is a must-have for any SEO or marketing professional. You can set alerts for branding terms, website domain, client names, keywords and anything that can be searched in Google; then set the frequency and Google will email you each time it “finds” the information in your alert.
Since Google took away the ability to set your browser to a certain location, it’s been hard to get “real” visibility data on a client that does not live in your area.
If you want a free solution you can use the Adwords ad preview tool to see page 1 results for Google organic search in both desktop and mobile for any location.
The tool is designed to see where your ads are placed for certain keywords along with how the ads visually appear. However, if you want to know who is locally and organically ranking for “dui lawyer” in Fort Pierce, Florida, simply use the preview tool to get an indication. The results are not always spot-on but for the most part they are accurate.
Process: Set the location to Fort Pierce, Florida (ex.) then choose either desktop, mobile or tablet view and type in the keyword in the search box.
You’ll see the local pack and the first page of Google organic results for the term DUI Lawyer as if you were searching in Fort Pierce, Florida.
*Hot Tip* if you set the device to desktop to do your search, you can see the “related searches” at the bottom of the page. That’s a great place to find new content ideas!
This is an essential and low cost tool that tells you what visitors are actually doing when they reach your webpage. You can record activity for desktop and mobile separately. Find basic information on how far visitors are scrolling and where they are clicking on a page. You can also find out if they are clicking on a video, skipping a form field or clicking on a certain image or link.
This comprehensive tool allows you to get your Page Load Time, Total Page Size and Total # of Requests on both desktop and mobile devices. It analyzes your page with both Google PageSpeed and Yahoo! YSlow rulesets.
You’ll get a great visual of where you need to improve your website code, content and/or hosting. The SaaS website yields excellent insights on how to help improve your page load times.
*Bonus Tip* If you sign up for a free account, you can monitor pages, create a video of the site loading that includes a filmstrip, and see a history of your tests to help you track progress!
The free version of this tool has so many uses, it’s unbelievable that it’s free. The software crawls your website to systematically record and organize all the links, meta tags, alt tags, headings, http codes and more!
The best part of screaming frog for me is the broken link feature because it not only finds the broken link, but you can also see all the pages that link to that broken link, making it easy to go in and fix all errors at the same time.
That’s a true time-saver when you’re doing even just one or two site audits a day; and a real lifesaver when you’re auditing a large website.
Search The Current Site – Chrome plugin
This handy plugin available for the Chrome browser saves me tons of time every day as it easily lends itself to one-click advanced searching on any website.
After downloading, you’ll get a toolbar button that upon clicking populates the advanced search fields for not just the page you were on, but the entire domain. You’ll also have the option to search for your keyword or term across sub domains.
N.A.P. Hunter – Chrome extension
This is an essential tool for local SEO-ers to find citations (business listings). It can be used for your client’s current citations, finding old N.A.P. citations, as well as finding duplicate or erroneous citations.
*Bonus Tip* You can also use this to find out what citation sites your client’s competitors are using and see how accurate they are to really gauge whether they’re worth pursuing.
*Super Bonus Tip* Whether you’re link building, creating content, writing descriptions for citations or posting on social media always keep it worthy and honest. Never post or write something you would not be proud to show your client or anyone else in the world.
And there you have this SEO’s toolkit —for the most part. Clients are blissfully unaware of all that goes into perpetuating constant top-notch results, but that’s part and parcel to why they hire us. 🙂
