Hobo Best SEO Tools of 2011

Well, this post is more my favourite seo tools – or more the ones that help me do seo – the tools or services I actually use day-to-day that save me time. Note – I am a bit stuck in my old ways – I dont rely on too many tools but the ones I do I use constantly.

In sort-of-order:

Screaming Frog SEO Spider - I saw some awards thingy recently where Majestic SEO won best SEO tool. Screaming Frog was robbed. I don’t even think the two should have been in the same category. SEO Screaming Frog Spider saves you time and with the info it provides you can make a website rank higher – without doing any dirtly linkbuilding work. No brainer – best seo tool out there (godsend for Mac users!). SEO Powersuite has a similar tool bundled with it. If you’re not running tools like these (or even Xenu) then you’re probably not optimising a site properly. Hat tip to the crawling SEOMoz does…..Integrity For Mac and Website Auditor which comes in SEO Powersuite.

.

Excel – I spend most of my time in Excel spreadsheets these days. Google Spreadsheets are cool too…. but with too many limitations for me to make it a daily tool. Excel lets you automate just about everything – and I do these days. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking 30 days work and automating it. You can manage entire sites with an excel spreadsheet – and if you’re not on some level, you’re missing out big time (Hat Tip to CSVpig).

Excel Tools For SEO

If you’re not running your own functions with Excel - Excel Tools For SEO is a great place to start. This is a fantastic toolset – once you start with this stuff you can’t live without it. Great for combining Adwords data with page specific data and looking for opportunities like under-optimised page titles etc. Tip – Get a Google Adwords API.

SEMRUsh (and Google Keyword Tool)

THe Google Keyword tool is still invaluable – even if it is inaccurate, steers you down transactional roads, and is not as useful as it once was. With API in hand – it’s the first place to look when doing SEO. But if I want a LOT of data quickly - I usually get it from SEMRush. Also – try out Ubersuggest for some quick Google autocomplete research.

Dropbox

No wonder Steve Jobs try to buy it. Dropbox is genius – having a folder you can EASILY share with everybody in work or between computers is essential for us these days. Drobbox is FREE and you can get more space by sharing links like these – Try Dropbox.

SEO Powersuite (LinkAssistant.com)

SEO Powersuite is definitely one of the best all in one desktop seo packages availabe for Mac and PC. Check your rankings, your competitors, backlinks and crawl your website. It’s a great tool for beginners.  This is a also decent offer for SEO Powersuite*- 75% discount. I use this toolset to have a poke around but my favourite out of the tools is Rank Tracker which (comes on it’s own or with SEO Powersuite) to keep an eye on rankings. If you’ve been meaning to try out this toolset – nows your chance. Offer ends 23rd Dec 2011.

MAJESTIC SEO & LINK RESEARCH TOOLS

If you’re thinking I don’t like Majestic SEO, that’s the wrong impression I gave. I love Majestic SEO – it’s the first place I look when looking at the backlinks of a competing website. It’s been the BEST linkbuilding tool available  for as long as I can remember – way before Yahoo Site Explorer was mothballed. Majestic SEO seems to be built into everything these days – but standalone it is still a brilliant link prospecting tool. I do LOVE Link Research Tools from Cemper though – much better for reporting back to clients for instance. Hat tip to Open Site Explorer especially for beginners to seo.

Hidemyass- If you are using Rank Tracker or any other rank tracker software (I would also recommend Advanced Web Ranking) you’ll need a VPN/Proxy. This thing is so easy even I got it working. You can set up one computer running queries and rotating proxies via hidemyass every few minutes and save the results to a dropbox folder and look at it when necessary from another machine. Also good for visiting sites you don’t want tracking you, or incognito scraping (hat tip to Scrapebox BTW).

I don’t use it for soul destroying nefarious purposes like spamming or anything like that but lots probably do.

Clicky - Google Analytics is my usual analytics tool and the only tool for checking lots of data – but I find I log into my Clicky account more than I do GA these days – if all I want is a quick and dirty analysis of a page or keyword. Brilliant tool. See my review of Clicky.

Chrome Extensions - I don’t really like third-party tool bars – but I do have the odd plugin installed. Chrome Notepad is a free tool for Chrome browser – ideal for taking quick notes – and FREE. I also have SEO For Chrome installed – good for a quick glance at things and it highlights nofollow links on the fly which I find useful.

SEObook, SEOmoz & Raven have good online offerings these days – some more aimed at reporting to clients. While I do have accounts for all, neither is something I visit daily. I have found tools from these sites tools to be VERY useful on the ODD occasion though – and I know some people swear by them. I suppose it depends on what you’re employed to do, which should influence which tools you invest in.

Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster tools can provide useful insight to your site, but I only really look into these when I am digging deep, or looking for links I am not getting the benefit from.

NOTE – I’ve used affiliate links for some of the tools. If I really like something I usually get an affiliate account.

What’s your favourite SEO tools you would recommend for 2012?

SEO Software Survey 2011 infographic By Skyrocket SEO - I didn’t take part but it’s a good info graphic.

That’s most of my favourite seo tools. I might do communication tools and marketing insight tools next…..

Written by Shaun Anderson