SEO is often a game of data and information. The more information you have at your fingertips, the more likely you are to make a decision that’ll result in higher rankings. Having the right tools can give you that kind of information.
Here are a few of the tools every small business must have for SEO.
==> Google Keyword Tool
The Google Keyword Tool is one of the most fundamentally important tools of internet marketing.
It gives you data directly from Google about how many people are searching for each search term. Use this tool to identify the right keywords to target.
==> Majestic SEO, Open Site Explorer
These two tools make it easy for you to see who’s linking to your website and to your competitors. The data comes from internet indexes that they build themselves.
The data is more accurate than Google’s because Google deliberately hides information, and more accurate than Yahoo’s because Yahoo’s is out of date.
In addition to checking backlinks, it’ll also give you an overall sense of the authority of each page and/or domain.
==> Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a powerhouse when it comes to SEO. It can give you all kinds of information that can help you improve your rankings.
For example, it’ll give you up to the minute referrer data. You can figure out exactly where you’re getting traffic. Once you know, you’ll be able to improve what’s already working to turn a trickle into a torrent.
You can also figure out what pages on your site are getting attention, when people are staying and leaving, what countries people come from and more.
==> SEO Quake
SEO Quake is a plug-in for Firefox and Google Chrome. It layers on a multitude of useful information over the rest of your browsing experience.
It’ll tell you instantly what the PageRank and Alexa ranking of any site you’re browsing is. It can tell you what sites are linking with DoFollow and NoFollow links.
It can even tell you all kinds of information like the number of backlinks a site has or its PageRank, and overlay it onto a page of Google search results.
As a research tool, SEO Quake is unmatched.
==> Ping.fm
If you’re using social media as part of your SEO strategy, Ping.fm can save you a lot of time. Instead of having to log into each of your networks individually, Ping will just update all of them for you.
From Facebook to Google+ to LinkedIn to Twitter to the dozens of other networks out there, Ping.fm can log into the systems and post your update(s) with the click of a button. You can turn an hour of work into three minutes of work.
These are a few must-have SEO tools for small businesses. These tools can help give you information, help you make smart backlink decisions and improve your rankings.