Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox both offer extensions that allow Web developers to utilize common SEO tools from within their Web browser. Using these extensions will save SEO experts and Webmasters tons of time in their analysis by automatically cross-referencing all of the different tracking and analysis services, from Google PageRank to Alexa.

Popular Chrome Apps

The following Apps offer solid tools for enhancing your SEO marketing efforts from within your browser.

#1: SEO for Chrome

SEO for Chrome provides access to Competitive Analysis, Backlink Checking, PageRank Checking, and Keyword Research. With SEO for Chrome, you can find out how much of a site’s traffic comes from organic Google search results and see how much they spend on PPC traffic. You can also analyze a site’s social media presence, including the number of Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, Delicious bookmarks, Digg digs, and StumbleUpon stumbles.

It offers a full feature set and was able to inform me of everything I wanted to know in one place. Since I prefer Chrome over other browsers, this is my go-to SEO tool.

Pros: SEO for Chrome is the only extension on this list that offers full social media statistics, making it vital for anyone who is focusing their efforts on social media marketing.

Cons: SEO for Chrome is not perfect and has a few bugs. It sometimes errors makes Chrome significantly slower to load.

#2: SEO SERP Workbench

The SEO SERP Workbench addon allows you to compare your search engine result placement with your competitors for different keywords you may be targeting.

For simply seeing how your SEO is influencing your search engine results, this App can’t be beat. Unfortunately, since this is the only functionality it offers, it takes second place to the more fully-featured SEO Tools for Chrome.

Pros: SEO SERP Workbench does one job, but it does it very well.

Cons: SEO SERP Workbench doesn’t offer as much customizability as SEO Tools for Chrome.

Popular Firefox Extensions

I am a huge fan of the following Firefox extensions for SEO analysis.

#1: SEO Quake

Simply the best SEO extension in Firefox. SEO Quake offers a range of functionality for analyzing search engine optimization and seeing how well your keywords are doing. Using the SEO Quake toolbar, you can check the PageRank of your current page, how many pages on the site are indexed (it should be all of them), the number of backlinks pointing to your current page, and other miscellaneous details.

SEO Quake is embedded in your search engine results. You can click on one of the embedded results to be redirected to the page, and you can sort your results by any of the parameters.

Pros: SEO Quake is powerful and extremely customizable.

Cons: SEO Quake offers a lot of information by default, and it places itself in your browser in three separate places. It takes some configuring to make this less obtrusive.

#2: SearchStatus

The reason I sometimes prefer SearchStatus over SEO Quake is the intrusiveness of SEO Quake. It does seem to put itself all over your browsing experience. SearchStatus offers the same information, but places it at the bottom of the page, on your status bar.

SearchStatus is particularly useful for quickly checking keyword densities and noticing when links are marked nofollow.

Pros: SearchStatus offers all of the relevant information, Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, and Compete.com ranks, but does so unobtrusively. It can also break down the analysis to focus only on title tags and header tags, important SEO metrics.

Cons: SearchStatus does not offer as much information as SEO Quake or SEO Tools for Chrome.

Posted by Greg Henderson, an Internet Marketer and SEO Associate an email search site and free public records site: RecordsProject & MyFreeEmailSearch.

Open a new file in Photoshop and add a nice background of your choice, in the example I have used #595959. Now create a white box like that shown using either the ‘Rectangular Tool’ or the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool’ and fill in solid white.

Duplicate this box and put below like shown in the image, then duplicate again and put below for the button layer. Double click on this third box, select gradient overlay and click on the gradient colour. Now select a nice colour for your button and blend into a lighter version of that colour, the example uses #e27822 into #e88f47 like shown in the box below:

Now we just need to create the background of the boxes to make the indent. Create a new layer below all the previous layers and CTRL + click on the first box layer to select its outline. Now go to Select > Modify > Expand, enter 2 pixels and hit OK. Fill the selection with any solid colour as we are now adding a gradient.

Press CTRL + D to deselect and then double click the new layer, select gradient overlay as before and click on the gradient. Now leaving the bars where they are, double click the left colour and colour pick the main background of your image then drag the colour accross to a slightly lighter version of the background, my example uses #7c7c7c. Press OK and do the same for the right side colour but make slightly darker, my example uses: #3e3e3e.

Now like before simply copy theses background graidents twice so that sit under each of the boxes and button like in the example. Simply add your text for the fileds and the button and you are done.

The big question is which keywords should you focus on when performing search engine optimisation?

Below we have provided a step by step guide on how to choose the correct keywords for your business.

Step 1 –

Visit: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none

This is Google’s keyword tool and is ideal for keyword research for your website as it will provide historical data on the number of people searching

Step 2 –

Type your keywords in the top left box, for example:

Electronic Cigarette

Electric Cigarette

Step 3 –

Type in the security words and click on the search button.

Step 4 –

On the left side of the page you will see an area for ‘Match Types’.

Make sure that the only box ticked in this section is [Exact].

The page will now automatically refresh and you will see a large list suggested relevant keywords on the right hand side.

The important information to take from this list is firstly the suggested keyword itself, then the global and local monthly searches.

Global Monthly Searches is an approximate 12 month average for searches run on the keywords.

Local Monthly Searches is an approximate 12 month average for searches run on the keywords within a country specified by you. This should automatically be set to United Kingdom.

Step 5 –

Above the list of keywords you will see a small box with ‘Download’ written in it.

Click on this and then click on the word ‘All’ which will open up a download box in the centre of the screen.

Click ‘Download’ and open the file in Microsoft Excel.

From here you will be able to sort the columns by the various headings.

Step 6 –

Sort the spread sheet data by local monthly searches and begin deleting any keywords that are not relevant to your business and what you are trying to achieve.

Step 7 –

From the remaining keywords you should type each keyword into the search engines to check the amount of competition.

By downloading something like the SEO Book toolbar you will also be able to see how many backlinks your competitors have and where they are from.

Once you have all of the information you will be in a much better position choose the keywords that will be not only achievable but also those that will make a positive difference to your business.

The reason for this is the way in which the search engines look upon the subject of SEO. If you listen to employees from Google and the other leading search engines, then you’ll hear them talking about how it’s wrong to manipulate the search engine rankings. The problem is that SEO companies are paid to do exactly this.

Clients aren’t paying monthly fees because they like to be kind. They want to see results and that means improvements in positioning.

Black hat versus white hat

Naturally, this almost always leads to a discussion about the merits of black hat SEO. There’s general agreement within the community that black hat techniques are those that are seriously frowned upon by the search engines. But this doesn’t mean that these techniques are necessarily avoided as a result.

Indeed, it’s fair to say that some competitive industries see widespread use of black hat techniques, including cloaking and the use of paid links.

But there’s also a clear argument that says that such an approach is simply not sustainable. It’s only a matter of time, so the argument goes, until the search engines take a closer look at your approach and start to apply penalties. As a result, it’s generally agreed that white hat techniques should be used by companies wishing to gain positioning and then maintain that positioning for the long-term.

Accepted techniques

So what techniques can be used in order to build links in an ethical manner? How can you produce a sustainable way of doing small business SEO? One approach that can certainly work is building content that others will want to link to. This is, of course, easier said than done!

You might look to create a resource that’s simply too good to miss. Short guides are often attractive as pages too. But there’s nothing quite like building a reputation as an expert within your field. People love to hear what experts have to say. They love to reference their work too.

As a result, building your profile so that you are seen as one of the experts within your chosen area is a great way of gaining plenty of good quality inbound links.

Spreading the word

How can you go about building this profile of expertise? You’ll need to think carefully about your strategy.

Guest blogging is one tactic that can work particularly well. In effect, you are offering content in exchange for a link back to your website. For starters, this allows you to gain valuable inbound links to your site. But it has far more value than this.

The process of guest blogging gives you a platform. How you use that stage is up to you, although it seems clear that you’ll derive the greatest benefit if you provide highly informative, interesting pieces.

Doing so will probably encourage website owners to approach you to provide more content in the future. Creating a positive picture of your work and knowledge will also mean that you’ll be building your online profile and presence. In short, this method will help to establish you as a recognised expert.

Final thoughts

There isn’t one, single successful way of carrying out SEO. There are numerous approaches that can work. As suggested above, it is possible to carry out link building in an ethical, sustainable manner. It just needs a little more work!

Keith Barrett provides search engine optimisation services to companies of all sizes in the UK. He has been working in this industry for more than a decade.

“What? Well, then why do they provide links for website submissions?” you ask. They do that for their own convenience, to bring you to their websites and to make you feel like you’re accomplishing something, I suppose.

Today we’re going to knock down a dozen—that’s 12, if you’re counting—SEO myths. We’ve already dealt with number one, so let’s hit the remaining 11 SEO myths.

Myth #11: H1 tags are critical for good SEO.
In HTML, H1 tags define the most important heading on your page. According to myth, these are critical for SEO. In reality they may provide a little SEO value, but they are far more important to your website visitors. They help you quickly communicate your primary message to people. Studies have shown that they have little if any influence on website search engine rankings.

Myth #10: Links in a tiny font size hidden on your pages is a good SEO tactic.
Gone are the days when sly tricks like these could influence search engine rankings. According to this myth, virtually hidden links to pages deep within your site would increase their rankings within search results. Fact is, the risk of penalty from such a tactic far outweighs any possible benefit.

Myth #9: Google always uses your meta description in your site’s snippet.
No. Sometimes Google uses the copy in your meta description tag and publishes it when your site is included on a page of search results. There are a variety of reasons Google may not use your meta description tag for the search snippet – including if you jam it full of keywords,

Myth #8: Don’t bother linking to all your pages.
According to this myth web crawlers will find your pages “no matter what” so they don’t all need to be linked to. Search engines most commonly discover new pages on sites through links discovered on pages that have already been indexed. Also, need we add that providing links to all your pages is simply good website usability practice?

Myth #7: Using a service to register your site with search engines is a smart idea.
We’ve all received the emails promising search engine submissions or high search engine rankings…(and if you believe that, the son of the President of Nigeria needs your help to get money out of his country). We’ve already established that you don’t need to submit your site to search engines, and if you did—perhaps to speed up the process a bit—you can do it yourself.

Myth #6: Mess up on your keyword density and you’re a dead duck.
The algorithms search engines use to analyze keywords within a site is very complex. There’s no magic number that is optimum for any single website. Don’t string together keywords one to the other so they become utter nonsense. Write to communicate to your audience. If what you write truly communicates what you want your visitors to know and includes your keywords a few times, your keywords and phrases have probably beeen used properly.

Myth #5: Use Google PageRank to measure your SEO success.
Don’t pay much attention to the PageRank score that pops up on Google’s toolbar server. If you do a little research you’ll find that very often pages with a low PageRank scores out perform pages with higher PageRank scores in actual search listings.

Myth #4: Search engine optimize your site once, and you’re done.
Don’t let someone sell you on the idea that a one time major SEO facelift project will solve all your problems. SEO is more of a process than a project. You need to stay on top of your site and your competition. Like rust, your competition never sleeps. You need to always have an eye on your site’s SEO, adding, tweaking and editing as needed.

Myth #3: The ideal length of articles is 250 words.
The problem with any “rule of thumb” is that it’s never completely true. Is 250 better than 275? It certainly isn’t if you need 275 words to properly communicate your ideas. And, if you don’t need 250 words, you’ll be boring your visitors. Write as long, or as short, as necessary. You won’t be messing up any web crawlers.

Myth #2: Site maps = better rankings.
Google uses XML site maps to discover new pages. They have no influence on how your site ranks within search results.

Myth #1: Meta tags are necessary for good rankings.
Search engines haven’t been using keyword or description meta tags as a component of rankings since the Internet Pleistocene Age. These tags were badly abused by spammers so now they’re virtually ignored by search engines.

Chris Turberville-Tully is the founder and owner of Inspiration Inc., a SEO Birmingham agency. He leverages his Masters Degree in Information Architecture, 10 years public relations experience, and extensive search experience to build strategies to deliver real value.

Obviously, the actual coding of your site can make a huge difference to its load time. There are a couple of things you can do to smooth out your coding issues:

• Use CSS as often as possible as a replacement for images. HTML images aren’t actually inserted into a web page – they are linked to the web page and allocated a space with the use of HTML. Using CSS can speed up your load time by eliminating the need for the browser to re-find the links. The CSS file will simply be downloaded the one time and be re-used for different pages on a site.
• Get rid of any redundant white space in your HTML. You may be surprised to learn that white space actually takes up a huge amount of your disk space, even though it’s used to de-clutter and stylise many sites.

When it comes to your actual server and database setup, take these points into consideration:

• Connecting to secure http pages takes a lot longer. Avoid using secure pages (https) unless you absolutely have to.
• Upgrade your web server, server memory and database server hard drive as often as possible to ensure that your site’s running at maximum performance. This is a factor that is often overlooked.

It’s a well-known fact that images slow down the load time of a web page considerably. Thankfully, images can be optimised quite easily by trying out the following tips:

• There is much debate surrounding which image formats produce the best results with regards to your load time. If your image is a highly detailed photo, you’re likely to want to use jpegs, but it’s well known that png images tend to load a lot faster. Whatever your preferred format, there are plenty of compression tools on the web that will improve your load speed too.
• ‘Slice’ your images. A common technique used by designers to cut a large image into bitesize pieces, slicing your pictures has been proven to speed up load times (although this point of view is often contended by experts).
• Make sure that the browser knows exactly where to place your images. Make use of the HTML height and width attributions and never leave them blank. After all, it’s important to eliminate confusion to make the load process as simple as possible for the browser.

Of course, there are several more generalised changes you can make to aid the improvement of your load time. You may find that splitting up long pages into several different pages will develop both your load time and the usability of your site, as users will be directed towards information-specific pages. By implementing a loading progress indicator, you can let the user know that their request is processing and reassure them that the load time is due to the size of the site’s resources, not their browser. Progress indicators can be customized as needs be and developed easily. Cookies also play a major part in your site’s load time, so you should keep the size of your cookies to an absolute minimum and get rid of any that are completely unnecessary.

Get in touch with your web design company if you believe that your load time is seriously affecting your site’s performance.

Inspect your technical set up.

Of course, webmasters are particular with regards to the aesthetic value of their website. However, search engines are not like humans. Search engines view and analyze websites through different lenses. And for that reason, you need to think about your folder structure, site map and HTML readability. Websites that are heavy on Flash should have a text based description that relies on HTML to help search bots.

Create a list of keywords.

Before approaching the subject of keywords, individuals need to understand that they should not over think things. Quickly, jot down three or four keywords that you want your website to rank for. Now, ask other people you know this and then tabulate the results. Those keywords that overlap are those who will most likely be searched first. Now, make searches for these keywords and then try to find your website. If by the tenth page you still cannot find your website, stop! Chances are that other people won’t find your website as well.
While looking at the results for these searches, note down websites that are similar to yours. In this case, note down local business websites and try to take note of how they are designed and how information is being presented. Keywords can actually be broken down into three categories—those which you rank low in but have low competition, those where you rank low in but have high competition and those which you rank high in. You should try working on keywords that fall on the first category.

Incorporate these keywords.

Again, it is necessary for individuals to write for humans and not for search engines. However, incorporating these keywords in the most natural manner should be helpful. You can come up with a blog post every now and then which is dedicated to your top keywords. The important thing to consider though is that everything should be as natural as possible.

Chris Marentis is an experienced marketer who likes to write aboute Surefire Social and local marketing experts

Individuals are increasingly turning to the major search engines as their resource of choice. If you’re looking to enhance your career or ‘sell’ yourself as an expert within a particular arena, where better to go than the web? You’re up against the major players and your shrewdest competitors, but the exposure is second to none. Users will ‘Google’ your name before they’ll pick up the phone to give you a call, so you need to be sure that the information they find is as relevant and flattering as possible.

Creating a solid online reputation is a must for anybody who relies on the internet to showcase their skills and attributes. You could be trying to carve out a niche in a certain market with the use of a blog; you might be a budding entrepreneur looking to get your name out there with the help of carefully-managed social media campaigns and clever networking. Perhaps you want to leave your mark within a particular industry and wish to be known as a knowledgeable and influential individual within your chosen field – whatever the reason for your personal branding endeavours, there are several factors that you have to bear in mind when setting yourself up for net success.

The largest components of effective personal branding are a fully-functional website and a blog that is fresh and regularly updated. Both of these platforms benefit from good SEO work and the same principles apply as if you were approaching SEM strategy for a business or an online shop. There are many arguments for and against both personal websites and blogs, but we recommend that you set up both for maximum reach on the web, just as you would if you were trying to raise awareness of your products or services. The website acts as a functional source of information for potential employers, customers and the like, whereas the blog is a true reflection of your latest thoughts and activities (and is also much easier to maintain on a regular basis, especially if you’re not particularly tech-minded).

Building your reputation is a time-consuming process that should never be undertaken lightly. The commonly discussed downside to the internet is that any unwanted data is readily available indefinitely – it’s hard to mask any unwelcome feedback or damning reviews and all information you provide must be as accurate and truthful as possible if you’re going to earn your fans’ trust. This is why SEO is especially useful when it comes to personal branding. With intelligent reputation management and sharp page promotion, you can place yourself in a position to be seen – for all the right reasons.

Luckily, the majority of the approaches undertaken by business-minded SEO consultants are applicable when it comes to personal branding. Researching and deciding upon your most relevant keywords is, of course, the first step. Then comes the backlinking process, which you are able to experiment with yourself if your budget is extremely limited. Reaching out to sites of similar interests and topics is essential, not only to improve the relevancy and rank of your pages, but to raise your profile in the professional circles that matter to you. There’s a lot written about link building on the web and much of the information conflicts with general opinion, but the general rule of thumb is to link to sites that have a great reputation and will generate the best buzz around your work or personality. Then, consider making use of the huge range of social network sites out there and make it easy for users to get in touch.

Of course, it’s best to get in touch with a reputable SEO company for that extra advice and guidance, as you’ll see faster results and an improved ROI. There are plenty of affordable SEO options for individuals wishing to gain that extra edge on the web!

Money is of course one of the most important considerations for any organisation. SEO has a reputation for being a costly affair due to the amount of time your SEO company must spend analysing and tweaking your strategy. You’ll be surprised to find, however, that a little extra expenditure in the early stages can instigate great rewards further down the line. Various reports, including that of the respected SEO authority eConsultancy, have found that SEO generates a higher return on investment compared to the more traditional email marketing technique. Business owners can often be put off by the amount of patience required once they’ve undertaken the search engine optimisation – it can be difficult to measure real results during the first phase of the campaign and it can be several months before a true increase in enquiries or sales is noticeable. But remember, once you’re up there achieving first page positions, you’ve not only gained more recognition but generated awareness of your brand and your services as a whole, which can only aid your reputation!

Smaller businesses may perhaps believe that SEO is a waste of time because they’re only interested in targeting the local area. Posting leaflets through letterboxes and attending local trade fairs will only get you so far – the truth is, more and more people are turning to the internet and, more importantly, the search engines to find the services or products they need. Keep up with your competitors by talking on the search engines for maximum exposure. Geo-targeting, or targeting search terms that refer to a particular region, is an incredibly effective way of drawing in relevant traffic and can actually work out to be cheaper than aiming to cover the entire country.

If you don’t sell your products or services directly from your website, you may wonder why it’s important for consumers to come across it in the first place. You may not have anticipated receiving very much interest from web users, but why not try and generate business from as many different portals as possible? Search engine optimisation drives footfall to your web pages, but in order to retain the attention of the user you need to convince them that they need your business. Even the simplest brochure website can contain crucial contact details, and, when clearly designed calls to action are combined with well-written content and informative text, those who stumble across your site may be convinced to give you a call.

Key phrases are one of the biggest considerations when it comes to formulating an SEO strategy, and many website owners find it difficult to think in the shoes of their target market. This is where employing an SEO company comes in really handy, as you’ll benefit from the outside perspective and a fresh approach to your online promotions. Your firm will be able to suggest alternatives to simply targeting the generic key terms and will work your keyword selection around realistic expectations, eliminating the frustration and worry from day one.

Lastly, we recognise that SEO might seem like an overwhelming prospect for many business owners. The myth remains that the art of search engine optimisation is shrouded in secrecy and cannot be achieved without the help of specialist staff. Actually, you can do a lot of research into SEO techniques and tricks yourself before you even consider employing an SEO consultant. You may think that you’ll never be able to take on your largest rivals, especially if you’re very new to the web, but by clue-ing yourself up on the latest SEO trends and utilising the expertise of an experienced SEO consultant, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t become a serious contender for those much-coveted first page positions.

Remember, if you still think SEO isn’t for you, there are plenty of other options available. Pay Per Click marketing is best suited to businesses who want to achieve more sales, fast, whereas strategies such as display advertising tap into the psyche of your potential consumers and target a much more specific demographic. Regardless of your current SERPs or your marketing budget, get in touch with SEO Positive today to discuss the ways in which these kind of marketing methods can boost your business – both online and offline.