After the fun parts of designing a website, comes the often painstaking process of optimizing it for Search Engines. The good news is aside from the proliferation of information on how to do that, there are actually a number of tools that can make it infinitely easier. Here are 4 SEO tools that can help anyone with the finer points of on-site SEO.
SEO Workers – Analysis Tool
Even though this tool only works on a page by page basis, it gives you a ton of information on any single page. This tool looks at important on page factors like:
- HTTP Headers
- Meta tags
- Keyword Relevancy
- URLs on the page
- Keywords in anchor tags
- Keywords in image ‘alt’ attributes
- Heading & Phrase Elements
These are all important elements to analyze of course because everything from Title tag relevance to the anchor text on internal links can contribute to successful on-page SEO. One of the best parts of this tool is also the many instructional videos it provides discussing best practices and search engine policies on all of these many aspects of a web site. Use this tool to make sure that your keyword phrases exist in all of the important places. This is a useful tool particularly after a website is designed to take a snap shot of the finished product to insure that each page is set up properly.
Xenu Link Sleuth
This is an awesome tool, which needs to be downloaded but is well worth it. The Link Sleuth essentially crawls a website and returns a report showing all broken links on a site. Broken links are detrimental from an SEO perspective because they are dead ends. So cleaning up errors on your site or retracting outbound links to 404 pages should always be a regular part of maintenance.
This tool also gives a great overview of internal links for link architecture analysis. Prominent and important pages should be kept closer to the home page, and Link sleuth can help you find any pages which may be buried deeper than they should be.
Web Page Speed Report
One of the newer subjects being discussed in the SEO world is the impact of loading speed on SEO. Patents filed by multiple Search Engines suggest load times will have a role to play if they are not being factored in already. That’s why this tool is such a helpful little gem. Since speed can affect your over all quality score, it’s important to make sure that all pages are loading at their maximum possible speed. This tool allows you to see object size totals and approximate loading times for various page elements. The report also provides detailed recommendations on how load speeds can be improved making it a very educational tool.
Title Tag Generators – SEO Book
Title Tags are generally renowned as the one of, if not the most important on-page factor when it comes to what you will rank for. That’s why it’s so important to set up your title tags well. While these tools may not help you too much in the way of keyword research, they will help you create all of your necessary Meta data. The informative and educational tips and tutorials provided by SEO Book are also great help for people who are new to SEO or good reminders for anyone.
Conclusion
Tools cannot replace human intelligence when it comes to implementing quality SEO strategies, but for designers and SEOs, these tools can be invaluable in making sure that the most vital aspects of on-page are on target.
