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There are two ways these free online SEO tools can be used: (1) For those who are new to the area of search engine optimisation, these tools provide excellent insight on how a website is performing and ranking. They can quickly highlight issues and trends with their current website and provide a good insight as to where optimisation work is necessary. (2) For the more experienced search engine optimisers amongst us, these tools will act as a complement to the more specialised SEO tools, like WebPosition Gold or SpyderOpts. They can even be used to supplement an SEO’s internal knowledge base and experience.

Here is a selection of some choice tools for both the novice and the experienced search engine optimisers:

Keyword Research Tool http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-research-tool.shtml This helps to research appropriate words and phrases to include in your webpage’s body text to aid promotion. It’s simple and to use and requires the user to enter the sort of word of phrase you wish to be found under, the tool will then suggest some additional words and phrases you can think about using. One of the great things about this tool is that it gives you the option to select from a range of top search engines, e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma, etc.

Keyword Analyser Tool http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml This tool reads the body of the page you specify and gives a report on what words are used, and how many times they are used. This is a valuable tool as most engines will rank your site depending on your keyword density (which typically ranges between 3% and 9%).

Search Engine Position Checker Tool http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-position-checker.s html This tool checks whether your website appears in the first fifty results in major search engines for your chosen keyword or phrase. If the URL is present, it will output what position it occupies. As an additional feature, the tool also informs you if any other URLs from your domain appear in the search results.

Link Popularity Tool http://www.instantposition.com/link_popularity_check.cfm This tool measures the total number of links or “votes” that a search engine has found for your website. This is a pretty cool tool because as well as tabulated data it also produces a nice graph of the resulting data. One final key element of this tool is its ability to compare your website to your competitors to help you with your overall marketing strategy.

Meta Tag Generator http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/meta-tag-generator.shtml This automatically generates a Meta Keyword tag by reading the page you specify, removing common words from it, and picking the most used words on the page. Extra weight is given to words in a heading tag

Search Term Suggestion Tool http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ Displays how many times a certain keyword was searched for at Overture.com. Shows all related searches for the entered keyword. A good measure to use in determining frequency of search among related keyword phrases

Search Engine Optimisation Tool http://www.instantposition.com/seo_doctor.cfm. A very impressive tool that tests the performance of a web site, by analysing a page on the important elements of web page creation, such as its title and content. It then scores the page against given criteria for the top search engines, followed by some valuable SEO advice to improve overall ranking. The report produced is well laid out and easy to follow for anyone doing their own optimisation. A freebie tool that works better than many costly SEO tools I know!

The area of online SEO tools is an exciting area of growth as SEO developers come up with more and more tools to represent website positions on the internet. No doubt we will be revisiting this area again….

By: Arif Hanid

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Search engine optimization has become an increasingly popular form of advertising, especially if you are just beginning to start your online business or want to launch your career in Internet marketing.  However, if you’re not experienced with the basics of SEO, then you could face a few challenges to your success, such as identifying the correct keywords for high rankings or acquiring solid inbound links to your site.

However, you don’t have to be overly concerned about these challenges.  They can be overcome simply by using some easily obtained SEO tools.

What are SEO Tools?

SEO tools can take many forms.  Most are software programs that you can download from the Internet for a low price.  The tools are designed to help you with varying aspects of your SEO efforts.  For example, some SEO tools can help you identify sites that are eager to do link exchanges with similar sites.  That way you can increase the number of your inbound and outbound links thus boosting your search engine rankings.

You’ll also find SEO tools that will help you do keyword research, identify keywords that are being used by your competition, and that will help you improve the keyword placement in your content.

Should I Use SEO Tools?

One of the most common questions asked by people who are new to search engine optimization efforts is whether or not they should even use SEO tools.  That’s a good question but it’s difficult to answer and depends mostly on your level of experience with optimization and search engines, in general.

However, most people who do use SEO tools do find great success with them.  They can provide you with easy access to information that might be available elsewhere but which would take more time and effort to compile.  The information can also be more comprehensive and thorough which also enhances your rankings.

Another advantage is that most SEO tools do have trial periods in which you can use them for free and decide whether or not you benefit from them.  If you don’t, then you haven’t lost anything.  If you do, then you can complete the transaction and move on to continued success.

Are SEO Tools Better Than SEO Professionals

Some people do hire SEO professionals to handle all of their search engine optimization efforts.  This professional is paid to identify your keywords, to direct their placement in the content, and to make sure that your site scores relatively high in the rankings.

While that may all sound phenomenal, it doesn’t come cheap.  The majority of us who have started out on the Internet don’t begin with the money necessary to hire one of these professionals, regardless of how helpful they might be. As you’re beginning your efforts, you should probably focus on doing the SEO work yourself or investing in much less expensive SEO tools.  You may not generate the same level of results as you would from a professional but you will definitely improve your rankings.

By: Alan Lim

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The first step is research. One of the best things about SEO is that you never stop learning what works and what doesn’t and how to tweak things to work on different websites. The internet is your best friend and worst enemy on this matter - there so much information out there.

If you can’t spend much time doing all of the research you need to, there are many, many tools to help you get started and to keep track of what is going on in your niche or with your website. Again, the internet can be your best friend or worst enemy on this matter. Looking for tools can be time consuming in that you have to find the right ones for you, the ones that are legitimate and the ones with the good reputations. For starting out you will be able to find keyword research tools, meta tag generators (although it would probably be better if you generated these yourself especially if you have a small site), tools that work out the size of your pages (too big and Google won’t like them, neither will your visitors) and of course there are blogs and tutorials to help you.

Some examples of “getting started” SEO tools are:

WordTracker - general keyword research tool, one of the best known in the SEO industry. You have to pay for the service but there is a free trial.

Google Adwords keyword tool - Free keyword research tool, specify keywords or enter your URL for keyword performance data.

Meta tag generator tool - Free tool to help you make sure your keyword and description meta tags are formed correctly

Page size tool - Free tool to help you determine the size of your web page

Web developers cheat sheet - PDF file containing SEO friendly tips and hints for the coding of your site.

XML sitemap creation tool - Free creation of a site map in XML format to help the search engines index your site after it has been created and launched.

Robots.txt creation tool - Free creation of a file that tells the search engines if there are any folders or pages you want to be excluded from indexing

Code validators - Free tools that will inform you of any CSS, HTML or linking errors on your site.

There is a wide range of SEO tools out there, not only to help you when you are building new sites but to “spy” on competitors and track your site performance as well. Analytics tools or competitive research tools are a dime a dozen, you can search for them now if you like but we will be giving a list of such tools in the next few days.

Another very important part of SEO is, of course, monitoring and analysing your websites’ performance on an ongoing basis. Lucky for the readers of this post, Interleado itself offers such an SEO analysis tool, complete with a free trial. If there are any questions regarding the software, don’t hesitate to contact us.

By: Leila Davies

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