As an SEO you need to keep track of all sorts of changes that are constantly happening (thanks Google!). And I can’t really imagine how that would be possible without all sorts of software out there. Judging from what I learned from my buddies and just acquaintances in the realm of search engine optimization we all start using Google Chrome. Once you go Chrome, you never come back. If you’re one of us, congrats! You can walk out only when the Google Chrome Moon is up in the sky. I’ll start from the plugins that I personally use day in, day out. And the really cool thing about my post is that I’m gonna explain how and when exactly I use each of them …
I’ll start from the Chrome SEO plugins that I personally find very useful because they allow you to quickly figure out whether it’s worth it to deal with a specific site. In other words, any Google Chrome SEO extension is considered to be a good one if it gives you the tools to take a look or two and immediately get an idea about the general SEO reputation of a site.
Mozbar
It’s one of the best Chrome SEO extensions. It’s actually a toolbar, which is available both for Chrome and Firefox. I use this SEO tool primarily to see how reputable the site I’m investigating is in terms of its domain authority. Other than that, I also check mozRank of the site (similar to PR but provides more recent data) because it helps to get a better idea of what exactly sort of site you are being offered. Let me explain.
Imagine that you get an email from some dude who offers you links on high PR blogs. Chances are those blogs are some sort of useless sites (especially if the person that emailed you offers a whole lot of blogs in a slew of niches), but it is not that obvious right off the bat. And you may land in hot water buying or obtaining links from that guy in any other way. So, what’s the solution?
First watch how Rand Fishkin explains that.
And here’s what I personally do in order to quickly check if we’re talking about a decent site or just some sort of cra.. lousy site (for lack of a better word). I just go to the site and enable my SEOquake and Mozbar plugins so that I can see what they show at the same time. That done, I use SEOquake to see the PR value of the site (its homepage). Say it is 7. Now I refer to Mozbar and check the value of mozRank. If the mozRank value is something around 7 (like 6.05 or 6.99, or even 7.65), it’s all good and you can just go ahead and work on getting a backlink from that page.
In case the difference between the PR and mozRank values is really huge (like PR7 and mozRank 3), it is time to call the police. 🙂 It just means that the blog owner (admin) used some sort of tricky technique (like sticking domains) to deceive the PR algorithm. And if you get a link pointing to your site from such a site it won’t do any good and as a matter of fact it can even harm your site’s SEO. You need to do your best to get as many links as possible from quality sites.
Other than that, I also recommend checking Domain Authority of the site you investigate. That’s because that parameter shows how respectful (or whatever they call it) that site is in general. If its Domain Authority value is really low, it’s time to run for your life. The perfect case scenario would be if the domain authority is close to mozRank, though it’s also Ok if it’s a bit lower.
Though this Chrome SEO plugin has way more assets to use, I’m not actually using them because they really seem to be redundant. At least in terms of everyday use. Have you used the plugin? What do you think about it?
All in all, I personally think that if it is not the best Chrome SEO extension it is at least one of them. You can use the features I talked about before even if you don’t have an account with SEOmoz.org. And if that’s all you wanna do with the Chrome SEO tool called Mozbar, I’m not really sure if you need a premium account at all. Though having it is a powerful tool, especially if you’re doing SEO for a few sites.
You can download the Chrome SEO plugin from its respectful site. It’s available both for Mac and PC users. Make sure to watch the video that is on the download page. It’ll help you get started.
SEOquake
Using Firefox or Chrome, SEO guys should always have the plugin at their disposal because it gives all sorts of really useful data such as PR, amount of pages indexed by Google (the more the better), Alexa rank, the age of the domain, just to name a few.
In my personal opinion, these are the best features of the Google Chrome SEO extension called SEOquake. And that’s exactly why I’ll dwell a bit more on them and explain how you can use the data. So, I’ll go through each of the features I’ve mentioned above.
PR
It’s not that important as it used to be but you still need it to get a better understanding of a site’s profile. Like I said in the section about Mozbar, it’s really useful when used in conjunction with other tools, because it really helps to make sure that the info that you got from another source is actually right. Doing so, you can even imagine that you’re a BBC journalist that needs to confirm some info from at least 2 sources before he can report about it.
Amount of Pages Indexed by Google
This asset helps to see how big the site is. And as we know size does matter. When it was Ok to place sitewide links, this parameter was also used to see on how many pages your links will appear if you obtain a site wide backlink from that site. Sadly or not, now it’s a non-issue because placing sitewide links is not exactly a good idea nowadays, to say the least. 🙂
Alexa Rank
The smaller the value of the parameter the better. It means that it is closer to the top. It makes sense to take it into account while assessing a site in terms of SEO. For example, when you’re trying to understand how badly you need a link from that site. Also, you can use it to see if your site is gaining popularity. Just put down your Alexa values or just make monthly screenshots of the values so that you can compare them down the road and see if you’re making any progress with your SEO campaign.
Domain Age
Though it’s not that a big factor, it’s still Ok to use it when you’re not sure if you should put up a link on a particular site. This time around, the older the better. And just one more thing. An old domain is a good thing only in the case if the content of that site is decent. Otherwise it does not really matter that much. Your site can be easily penalized or filtered by Google. Quality is key.
The Google Chrome version of the plugin can be downloaded on this page. In case you’re using Mozilla Firefox, you can grab it right here.
SEO for Chrome
I don’t really use the plugin that often but sometimes it does come in really handy. For instance, both Mozbar and SEOquake may just stop working for a while. If that’s the case, I just fire up my copy of SEO for Chrome.
Just like the previous two Chrome SEO tools, it has a whole lot of features. Since we all lack time all the time (sorry for the tautology) , I’ll just mention the most crucial features I personally tend to use all the time.
- PR
- Alexa Rank
- Compete Rank
- Semrush Rank
- Social values (Delicious bookmarks, Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, etc.
You can download the plugin with the help of the link. Make sure that you’re using Chrome because you won’t be able to install it otherwise.
Daily Stats for Google Analytics
It’s a really neat and little plugin that allows you to quickly access the info about today’s visits, pageviews, bounce rate, average time on site, etc. This Google Chrome SEO tool is for those of you guys who have the bad habit of checking your site’s analytics every half an hour. 🙂 I call it SEO addiction.
You can use the following link to install the add-on on your Chrome browser. As a matter of fact, I would not recommend using this link too often. Once or twice a week would do the trick.
Shortcuts for Google
As the name suggests, it’s just a Chrome plugin that allows to access Google services faster. The cool thing about the plugin is that you can customize it to totally make it work as you see fit. You can both add and delete links to all sorts of Google services, rearrange them, etc. Using the plugin is a surefire way to speed up your whole workflow with Google tools. I use it for quick access to Google Analytics, Google Drive, Google Keyword Tool, and Google Webmaster Tools.
Click the link to download and install the Shortcuts for Google extension.
In Conclusion
It goes without saying that there are way more other plugins out there that you can use to improve your SEO daily workflow but if you just use the Chrome SEO plugins I just covered on, you’ll be able to properly build links for your site and keep track of them over time.
I did my best to put together this post but I’m sure – I almost can sense that 🙂 – that I missed some really cool plugins for Google Chrome. So, in case you happen to know about an SEO plugin that would make this post better – by all means – let me know about that. Sure thing, I’ll mention you in the post if you do so. I give credit where credit is due. 😉
