Popular SEO Tools
In a recent episode of our podcast, The Publisher Lab (shameless plug), we discussed SEO at length. We dove deep into the subject of Googles changing algorithm (and how to mitigate associated risks), how to increase page speed, and how to use popular SEO tools to attack low hanging fruit on your site. Below you will find a complimentary guide to all the tools we discussed and a little info about how you can use them.
The SEO tools from the podcast
John and I discussed a large number of tools on the site, so I will provide links and info in a brief summary below; with a little additional insight regarding how they can be used. However, if you really want to improve SEO and use these tools to their full potential, I encourage you to listen to the full episode. It is packed with info that is rarely available elsewhere.
https://blog.ezoic.com/wp-admin/options-general.php
Mozcast – Measuring Google Algo Changes In Realtime
Use Mozcast to see if there have been any recent shakeups in Google’s algorithm. Mozcast monitors tons of sites in real-time to see if a large number of them are experiencing major variances in their organic rankings. This is a great tool for checking to see if changes in your organic traffic in the short term could be part of a Google change.
Barracuda – Measuring the impact of Googles Algo Changes On Your Site
Barracuda is a little bit more long term than Mozcast. Barracuda will allow you to compare your Google Analytics data against confirmed Google updates to see how your site is affected by known changes.
Varvy – A great tool for discovering technical errors
Varvy is really great for uncovering technical components of your site that may be affecting your SEO. Anything in yellow or red can usually be improved quickly and have a genuine impact on SEO relatively fast.
OnPage.org – Similar to Varvy but more comprehensive and allows you to dig deeper
OnPage.org is a mix between a free and paid tool. It allows you to go a little deeper to discover little fixes that can have an impact on site rankings.
Yoast – a staple of WordPress SEO
One of the best things to do with Yoast is to use the bulk editing feature to improve page titles and meta descriptions. Even in this new era of SEO, content still matters more than anything. Your meta desc. can determine if someone clicks your result in search or not. If you’re pulling the first 160 characters off your pages to fill your meta, this is a great tool to use to enhance these; which can dramatically affect rankings.
MOZ– A staple of SEO software
We talk a little bit more about how to get the most out of this tool to improve keyword rankings on the podcast (linked above). HINT: Use Google Search Console to pull out all your existing keywords and put them in MOZ for tracking, then add all additional keywords you’d like to rank for in the future.
SEMRush – A way to monitor all of your organic keywords and rankings over time
John explained how to really examine this on the podcast, and talked at length about what you should pay attention to in conglomeration with Analytics and what you should absolutely never do! HINT: don’t delete content.
DomainTools – Check the age of a URL and other stats
When doing site or competitor research this is a great tool for comparing apples to apples.
AuthorityLabs – Another great keyword tracking tool
AuthrotityLabs is another really great keyword tracking tool. It offers some of the most comprehensive functionality. John talked a little bit more about what you can do with it on the show.
What else should you know?
We covered this topic at length on the show, so again, you should really listen to the show. If you want to improve SEO on your site, the good news is that there are more than likely a handful of low hanging fruits you can find using the tools above. However, you need to know where to start.
If you have any SEO questions tweet at the show @Ezoic. We will answer them on air in the next podcast. Please don’t forget to review the show if you enjoyed listening.
