Category

SEO Tools

Among the many tools for search engine optimization are platforms and apps that monitor competitors, identify keywords, analyze Google’s search result pages, review changes in organic rankings, evaluate backlink quality, and much more. Our coverage also recommends tools based on the experiences of our contributors.

SEO Tools
15 SEO Plugins for WordPress

June 24, 2019 • Sig Ueland

Here is a list of search-engine-optimization plugins for WordPress. There are all-in-one plugins that provide a variety of tools and, also, plugins to improve specific search-related areas, such as site speed, tags, and image optimization. All of these tools are free, though several have premium versions as well.
SEO Tools
SEO: 9 Content Optimization Tools

April 5, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Contextual relevance in search engine optimization refers to how the content on a website aligns with searchers' words and phrases. These nine content optimization tools will take you from keyword research to written word to optimized copy.
SEO Tools
SEO: Using Lighthouse to Improve Site Speed

March 29, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown

Site speed is tricky for search engine optimization practitioners. It’s a ranking signal for Google and a key factor in a customer's experience. But few SEO pros have the development chops to improve speed. One option is to use Google's Lighthouse, a site auditing tool.
SEO Tools
3 Tools to Analyze Content for Marketing, SEO

November 14, 2018 • Armando Roggio

A successful content marketing program often begins with creating and maintaining an inventory of every page on your site. There are several ways to conduct a content inventory. In each case, you begin by getting a list of all of the pages. Here are three of the best tools to generate that list.
SEO Tools
Search Console Is the Gateway to Google’s SEO Data

July 27, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search Console is Google’s way of communicating with webmasters and search engine optimization professionals about the status of their site within its search results. If you want more information about your site’s natural search performance, Google gives it to you.
SEO Tools
Indispensable SEO Tools, from Free to Expensive

February 16, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engine optimization is rooted in data: technical data, analytical data, and contextual data. The tools you use to access that data fuel your ability to make smart SEO decisions, to keep your performance moving in the right direction. In this post, I'll recommend SEO tools in eight categories. Some of the tools are free or low cost. Others are more expensive, with many more features
SEO Tools
Optimizing Google Search Options for Android Apps

January 7, 2018 • Jill Kocher Brown

Apps for iOS and Android mobile devices represent a chance to sell to captive prospects — if they can find your app to download in the first place. The first place to start is the Google Play Store, where Android users install apps. Google web search is another opportunity for app search, but most of the optimization focus should be on the Play Store itself.
SEO Tools
Mobile-first SEO Makes Search Console More Important

October 6, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown

In 2018, Google will judge your desktop search ranking by the signals from your mobile site. Google’s mobile-first index, the algorithm update that will flip the importance of desktop sites compared ...
SEO Tools
13 Free Tools to Test Website Speed

January 30, 2017 • Sig Ueland

Regularly testing the speed of your website is a good way to catch bottlenecks and improve the experience of visitors. Here is a list of free tools to test websites. There ...
SEO Tools
How to Perform a Local, Competitive SEO Analysis

October 19, 2016 • Bill Hartzer

Businesses that rely on local consumers should periodically examine the search engine optimization efforts of their competitors. You’ll see what they’re doing — what you like and dislike — and ...
SEO Tools
SEO: 22 Tools, Tutorials for Bing

April 24, 2016 • Sig Ueland

If all of your search marketing efforts are on Google, you could be missing out on Bing. It accounts for roughly 20 percent of all U.S. desktop searches, according to ...
SEO Tools
26 Free SEO Tools for Merchants

March 6, 2016 • Sig Ueland

To optimize your website for search engines, you need a variety of tools to monitor performance and discover opportunities. Fortunately, many of those tools are free. Here is a list of ...
SEO Tools
For SEO Time Travel, Use Wayback Machine

February 21, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Which pages your site promotes as the most important is critical for search engine optimization. Remembering the details of past internal linking structures is impossible, unless you use the Wayback Machine ...
SEO Tools
6 Free Android Apps for SEO

January 8, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown

Put your Android phone to work for search engine optimization. These free Android apps will help you monitor your SEO performance and add critical insights in meetings, when you’re away ...
SEO Tools
10 Local SEO Tools for Small Businesses

July 20, 2015 • Sig Ueland

For online businesses with physical locations, optimizing for local search engine results is an important component of a marketing strategy. Ranking factors, such as contact details and customer reviews, help ...
SEO Tools
SEO: Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools Improve Search Rank

May 14, 2015 • Nick Mouledous

I often reference both Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools when writing about SEO for small business owners. These are the two most important resources available for digital marketing analysis and are free for anyone to use.
SEO Tools
SEO: Bing Webmaster Tools for the Other 20 Percent

February 28, 2014 • Jill Kocher Brown

Since Google is the largest search engine, its webmaster tools gets the lion’s share of attention. But depending on your industry and audience, Bing and Yahoo may drive around 20
SEO Tools
Local SEO: 15 Marketing Activities that Improve Citations

February 25, 2014 • Kunle Campbell

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2012. In 2016, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as ...
SEO Tools
Local SEO for Multiple-location Businesses

February 10, 2014 • Dustin Christensen

Search engine optimization for local businesses can be difficult. That is especially true for companies with multiple locations. But local SEO for small businesses with multiple locations isn’t impossible. It simply requires a highly organized plan based on your business’s goals and geographic priorities.
SEO Tools
My Favorite SEO Tools

December 20, 2013 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search marketers’ toolboxes differ based on the type of optimization in which they specialize and how comfortable they are with raw data versus ready-to-use graphs. Many helpful tools aren’t specifically made ...
SEO Tools
SEO: Google Adds Manual Spam Actions to Webmaster Tools

August 9, 2013 • Jill Kocher Brown

Google Webmaster Tools launched its new manual spam actions feature yesterday, enabling verified site owners to check whether their site has been manually penalized by Google. Over the last couple of years, Google has slowly increased its communication to webmasters, with the goal of ...
SEO Tools
12 Free Google SEO Tools

June 13, 2012 • Sig Ueland

Before you spend any money on a search-engine-optimization campaign for your website, take advantage of Google’s free tools to optimize your site and increase its PageRank. And if you are just starting out with SEO, check out Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide PDF. Here ...
SEO Tools
Top 5 Reasons to Use Google Webmaster Tools

March 16, 2012 • Jill Kocher Brown

There’s a common misconception that registering with Google Webmaster Tools somehow enables Google more access to information about a site. In fact, just the opposite is true. Google Webmaster Tools provides site owners access to data available from no other source, data every ecommerce...
SEO Tools
5 Conversion Tools for SEO and Beyond

November 29, 2011 • Jill Kocher Brown

The quickest path to earning more from an ecommerce site's organic search traffic is to convert more consumers who already go there. I addressed that topic previously, at "SEO: Convert More Before Driving More." Many SEO strategies focus on driving more visitors. But what use is driv...
SEO Tools
Google Product Search: Creating a Data Feed

March 17, 2010 • Bill Hartzer

Editor's Note: This is our monthly installment of "Everything Google," a feature on products and services from Google that can help ecommerce merchants. The author is Bill Hartzer, the owner of BillHartzer.com, a SEO, pay-per-click and ecommerce consulting firm in Dallas. Google Produ...
SEO Tools
Ecommerce Know-How: Optimizing Your Site for Microsoft Bing

September 22, 2009 • Armando Roggio

The Microsoft, Yahoo! search deal announced in July still faces legal hurdles, but as more details have become available, it is clear that the companies' combined search share has—for the first time in perhaps a decade—created some real competition for Google. Depending on which poll o...
SEO Tools
SEO: Where Is Blended Search for Ecommerce Queries?

June 17, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown

When the concept of blended search was introduced, the search engine optimization (SEO) industry and ecommerce retailers got very excited. By optimizing the images and video content that many sites already produce, search engines were adding visually appealing content to the standard 10...
SEO Tools
SEO: “Speak” to the Search Engine Spiders

May 19, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown

Search engines are like translators. With no more than a couple of words entered into the search box, they attempt to translate a word or phrase into the searcher’s meaning or intent and compare it to the millions of potential matches in their indices. But the less understood and even...
SEO Tools
SEO: Try Surfing Like a Search Engine Spider

April 15, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown

I’m a visual learner. I need to see and interact with things to understand them. It therefore helps me to mimic the behavior of search engine spiders when I’m digging into a site for the first time to review its search engine optimization issues. I like to think of it as “being the bot....
SEO Tools
Measuring SEO Performance

March 17, 2009 • Jill Kocher Brown

Measuring success in search engine optimization can typically be done in four ways. “Indexation” measurements will determine if a search engine has properly identified all of your site’s pages. “Backlink” measurements will show the number of internal and external links that point to you...

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