Kevin Mullett's presentation at the SMX West session What’s In My SEO Toolbox Session #32C.
Let’s Talk ABOUT SEO Tools…for Winning Business: And Now Here Are 109 Tools (109 + many tips) - Presented by Kevin Mullett for SMX San Jose, on March 13th, 2014.
For the in-house SEOs or CMOs: The goal is to provide you alternate tools to show your team or the C-Suites why you are making suggestions.
For the Consultant, practitioner, or agency: Win the customer because you are more thorough and quickly provide quick-audit items that others haven’t talked about.
SMX West: What’s In My SEO Toolbox Session #32C.Let’s Talk ABOUTSEO Tools…for Winning Business: And Now Here Are 109 Tools (109 + many tips) - Presented by Kevin Mullett for SMX San Jose, on March 13th, 2014.For the in-house SEO or CMO: Provide you alternate tools to show your team or the C-Suites why you are making suggestionsFor the Consultant, practitioner, or agency: Win the customer because you are more thorough and quickly provide quick-audit items that others haven’t talked about.http://twitter.com/kmullett, http://www.kevinmullett.com, http://www.marketsnare.com, http://www.cirruabs.com
How many of you have bosses that won't let you have nice things? Well we have a lot of clients in that same boat, so I like to find free or cheap tools that still solve problems. Let’s get focused on what tools are going to move the needle, simplify your life, or provide meaningful insight. Tools should support your efforts, not your curiosity.
SEO doesn’t replace good content, but without it your “just write great content” won’t reach all it could. SEO is the foundation for quality content.
(1) ToolBuiltWith – Technology profile, last updated info, advertising, socialplugins, historical data, CDN and more. Freemium. $144/year. Build confidence that you know what your doing and talking about. Convey and understanding of their tech and issues in 15 minutes than your competitor did during their entire meeting. Head off unproductive questions and speculation.
(16) ToolsWhile talking with a prospect or C-suite, lets have tools in hand and be ready to perform a quick audit. And let’s assume I have no access to anything that I would normally want access too. How am I going to differentiate us from our competitors? How can I impress them more. How do I quiet their ‘expert,’ or how might I impress the boss.Mx Toolbox – The Swiss Army Knife of email, dns, and hosting issues.Netcraft – Netblock owner, Hosting Company, IP, Hosting environment, Hosting history, Spam, Risk, Block lists, see also their “search web by domain” and more.GetListed – Your first check for IYP, Citation, and NAP issues, by MOZ.Siteliner – Find duplicate on site content, broken links, by URL.Xenu’s Link Sleuth – Find broken links pure and simple.BeamUsUp – Find and fix SEO problems. Data exports.SemRush – When you need SERP data intelligence.Screamingfrog – Freemium: 500 pages, dupe (title/desc) finder, linking, Google operator – “allintitle: brand name”WebConfs - A plethora of miscellaneous tools. Internet Archive Wayback Machine – See past versions, prior designs, what prior owners of a domain were doing with it.Whitespark – A deeper dive into Citations and NAP discovery.Securi Site Check – Checks blacklists (SiteAdvisor, Safe Web, Google Safe Browsing, Phish tank, Yandex, ESET, Opera browser), Malware scan, spam, defacements, basic info/tech. Norton Safe Web – check to see if a site has been cleared by them. McAfee SiteAdvisor – check to see if a site has been cleared by them.SocialMention – Real-time social media search and analysis
(16) ToolsHighlighting:GetListed – Your first check for IYP, Citation, and NAP issues, by MOZ.WebConfs - A plethora of miscellaneous tools.
(16) ToolsHighlighting:Mx Toolbox – The Swiss Army Knife of email, dns, and hosting issues.
(16) ToolsYou will need to go through this list of tools and vet them out to find the ones that fit into your workflow and provide answers to your questions.
(2) ToolsDragon Metrics is run by Simon Lesser, who used to work under me at Cirrus ABS. I’m proud to say he has grown exponentially and is now the CEO OF Dragon Metrics.They specialize in Baidu—China’s largest search engine—but have tools that are top notch here in the states for Google and Binghoo. The only tool I am aware of that gets Chinese KWdirectly from Baidu.Mozscape – is an API that allows you to pull data directly from Moz.
(13) Tools Raven – Free trial only, SEO, Social Media, Content Tools, PPC. $99/mo. Majestic SEO – SEO Focused, specifically on backlinks and site authorityahrefs – Backlinks etcMoz Open Site Explorer – Freemium: SEO focused, backlinks, authority, content, (MOZ has other tools too.) http://bit.ly/O9YXMCSimilarWeb – Rank (global, country, category), weekly visits, time on site, page views, bounce, traffic, geo, Referring sites, % traffic from SEO, % from social, Display, Audience, Similar sites, Freemium. SEO Workers – SEO Focused, Very clear and simple listing of various info. Keyword phrase clusters, and clear links on page.The Reaction Engine – Gives a great SEO summary, but is really focused on rank based on keyword. Hemingway – Grades individual pieces of content by reading level, and checks for various errors. Nibbler – Tests many things, social, printability, code, popularity, servers, mobile, images, etc.Sitebeam – trial (10 sites), Checks compliance (cookie law, W3C), spelling, seo, speed, social media, code, accessibility, and has a compare function. Starting at $60/mo.WooRank – Visitors, Local, Social, Mobile, SEO (frames, blog, keywords consistency, etc) , Usability, Technologies, Speed tips, W3C Validity,Alexa – Compete – Not Listed:ComScore – Omniture (Now part of Adobe) – SEO PowerSuite/Link-Assistant – Rank Tracker. (This data can be pulled into Tiny Rocket Lab with paid version.)
(13) ToolsHighlighting:SimilarWeb – Rank (global, country, category), weekly visits, time on site, page views, bounce, traffic, geo, Referring sites, % traffic from SEO, % from social, Display, Audience, Similar sites, Freemium.
(8 + 1 dupe) ToolsLet’s take a peek into what they are doing over in the “socialsphere.” Anything stand out as good or bad? Remember to check their user names and the actual business name.Again, assuming we DO NOT have access to their analytics. Social Crawlytics – Shows you, or your competitor’s popular content on Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Delicious, and StumbleUpon. FROM T, FB, G+, Pinterest, LinkedIN, Delicious, Stumbleupon. Credits/day based. NOT fast!SharedCount – Similar, but seems to be less accurate, but it is good for a quick view.AuthorRank – Mark Traphagen’s beta G+ author rank tool.Topsy – Get a pretty good idea of the content shared, links mentions. CircleCount – G+ only: Follow/Followers, analytics, duplicate names.Tweetreach – Twitter only: Primarily to track particular content, but it can give interesting results for a singular keyword (company name) as well. Reach, activity timeline, exposure/impressions, contributors, most retweeted content, export capability. RetweetLab.com – Twitter only: Activities break down, week, day, length, reading level, sentiment, % hashtags, words, etcSocialMention – twitter, facebook (public), wordpress, freindfeed, last mention (wonky), top keywords, sentiment (loose), top users, hashtags, sources, FROM blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, video, audio, q&a, Not listed: HowSociable – Not consistantly working: Attempts to rate brand magnitude per social network. General info only. Freemium.
(15) ToolsIt isn’t any secret that Google encourages fast loading sites. Well, why aren’t you doing something about that? AJAX Edition by Compuware – Free (requires account) performance and debugging tool. *downloadPingdom Website Speed Test – Detailed waterfall, grade, analysis, plugin/widget responses. Test DNS. Ping & Traceroute. (Free monitoring for one user http://bit.ly/1maySZk) Gtmetrix – Simple and advanced Waterfall, Yslow, Grade, Platform designation (wordpress etc.), PDF Export.Yslow – Google PageSpeed Tools – WebPageTest – Waterfall with suggestions, grades, connection view, Traceroute, Performance review, MIME type, Connections, Domains. Microsoft Search Engine Optimization Toolkit – IIS speed testsShowSlow – Unique result display and over time, Y Slow grade, Page speed, WebPageTest, dynaTrace rank, (open source) W3 Total Cache – Wordpressplugin. URI Valet – Validation (W3C various), Server headers, Objects, Time to download, In/Ext links.Mobitest – Test your mobile site load performance, page size, includes a waterfall chart.zOompf – Score, page size, server requests, performance suggestions, freemium.WhichLoadsFaster – Ok, mostly for fun, but you can show a competitor.CloudFlare – Freemium, optimized delivery of sites.WebSiteOptimization – Free speed report, prescriptive comments and recommendations. Which loads faster – Compare two sites head to head for page load supremacy.Not pictured:LoadImpact – check server load from all around the globe – freemium.
(15) ToolsHighlighting:Pingdom Website Speed Test – Detailed waterfall, grade, analysis, plugin/widget responses. Test DNS. Ping & Traceroute. (Free monitoring for one user http://bit.ly/1maySZk) zOompf – Score, page size, server requests, performance suggestions, freemium.
(6) ToolsImportant for ecommerce and local SEO, let’s check for duplicate content. And these tools can be used for online reputation management (ORM).Copyscape – Check via URL to see other sites with similar content and the percentage. Checks ALL copy on page, including links.Plag Spotter – Online duplicate content checking, from url, but appears to only consider body copy.plagium – Check via text, URL, for news, or social (beta). If you create an account you can review old searches and set up alerts.CopyGator – Check to see if your RSS feeds are getting ripped off, by other feeds.Plagiarisma.Net – Check by URL, Past text, or upload file. Also has browser extensions, an Android app, and Windows software. Google Operator allintext – put in a long string to return matchesNot Shown: http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker http://training.seobook.com/duplicate-content-checker http://www.seomastering.com/similar-text-checker.php http://unique.cloxy.net/
(11) ToolsOur line of work lends itself to having to do a lot of research, investigation, reporting, and yes data extraction. Here are some tools to help make that easier. And, let’s not forget that sometimes you also need be able to efficiently fill forms out as well, so here are a few tools for that.Scrapebox – A discovery engine, BUT you must promise to only use it for good, not evil!ScraperWiki – Scrape public data. Yahoo Pipes – An old, but still powerful, tool for scraping things off the web. Requires above average skill to put together. Scraper – A Google Chrome extension for getting data out of web pages and into spreadsheets. import.io – Scrape data and transform it into something usable. Link grabber – Google Chrome extension that grabs all links from a page. Table Capture – Google Chrome extension for data mining from tables. Export to clipboard or Google Docs.Linksy.me – email guesser, please use responsibly.iMacros – Browser automation and data extraction.LastPass – My password and auto form filling tool of choice. Freemium. Paid for mobile.RoboForm – Another password tool and form filler.Not Pictured:HTTrack – Copy whole websites.PageNest (formerly Website Stripper) – Copy whole websites.helium – Data extraction software (Starting at $99)
Creating a content opportunity report (COR), because it is time to get serious.Stop talking about Editorial Calendars before accessing the monthly, quarterly, and yearly known opportunity.Let’s do an EPIC Content Audit - do they have any viral or useful content that will draw sticky visits, social shares, and backlinks that isn't over the top promotional? If the boss is there, he is hearing that this is important. If the in-house is there, he is glad to hear someone reinforcing the need.
(18) Tools in Bonus Slide 1:You know that one messy drawer that has all kinds of stuff that you occasionally need? Yeah, that.RankScanner – Track your ranking. WordPressplugin.SEMCompass – Pulls in core data from several tools (SEMRush, ahrefs, Whitespark, Plag Spotter) Tiny Rocket Lab – Freemium, scheduled ranking reports.Speechpad – Video transcription service (paid only)Koemei – Video Transcription service (paid only)SpeakerText – Video transcription service (paid only)Ubersuggest – Get keyword ideasPowerMapper – Create visual site maps and xml sitemaps. (paid only)WeTransfer – send up to 2GB with no signup/sign-in or fuss. Get a confirmation of download. Notepad++ - just go download it, it’s awesome. SEO Tools for Excel by NielsBasma – Awesome tool that helps you tame data inside of Excel. Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) – Keyword ranking. Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool by SEOMoFo – See how your SERP is going to look, including with bolding.Ontolo – Many free productivity tools, but you have to dig for them. Very focused on link building.Workado – In Private Beta only: Timeline building for campaigns, recurring task management, scheduled reporting. Generate .htaccess by BeamUsUp – Helps you create an .htaccess file, step by step. XML-Sitemaps – A sitemap generator. CuteRank – Keyword rank checker (downloadable software) Generate .htaccess – An .htaccess tool.Not Listed:.HtAccess 301 Redirect Generation Tool - http://seo-website-designer.com/HtAccess-301-Redirect-Generator
(16) Tools in Bonus Slide 2:Be careful to avoid packratiousegotitious. The goal is to grab what you need, and that includes what you can give away to build audience, attention, and authority.ShareBloc – Voting, pulls from Twitter, follow topics (Blocs), people can follow you, (SUBMIT).Swayy – Freemium: Pulls trending content from your social accounts, by source and keywords. Sends emails. Provides some analytics. Starts at $9/mo for Pro. Potluck – Content conversation sharing platform. Inbound.org – Content karma/voting and discovery platform. Beatrix – Tool to assist in the discovery of content to build a weekly social media plan. Starting at $29/moScoop.it – Follow peoples links/posts.Flipboard – Follow magazines that are generally subject focused. Cloze – Keep up with important contacts and the content they share.Circulate.it – Team sharing and discovery.Buzzsumo – Newer beta: Identify shared links (by topic or domain) and influencers from G+ shares, FB Likes, IN shares, T shares. See total shares, who’s sharing, and reshare!Klout – No, not for the score, for the new curation and scheduling capabilities. Buffer – They now show what your network is talking about.Newsle – Show hot content by Facebook friends, friends of friends, everyone, LinkedIn or email contacts. Sort by recent or interesting.NewsMix – You specify sources (people, lists, etc) from platforms like Twitter (usernames/lists), Facebook (pages), Pinterest (username/board).ContentGems – Find content by interests, via curated sources.Postris – Visual! Customize your dashboard according to your interests and favorite topics and get your daily updates from leading publications and social networks.
(3) Tools in Bonus Slide 3:The Google Analytics URL Builder Chrome extension is invaluable for building trackable URLs quickly, and it ties in with your bit.ly account. It pre-populates the URL and you can even set up quick sets.Did you know that you can add “+” behind any Goo.gl or bit.ly url to see that links stats?GA Social Media Dashboard – Was provided by a Google Analytics dev on G+ and is a starter SM dashboard.Raven Google Analytics Configuration Tool – Helps you configure your GA account for different task.Don’t forget to association your domain with bit.ly.
Still wanting more tools? Here are 155 + 200 = 355 more tools. http://www.marketsnare.com/news/155-Tools-from-the-SMX-Social-Tools-Super-Session http://www.marketsnare.com/news/over-200-audio-video-image-tools-for-social-media-marketing-from-ismconf
In all your social travels, rememberThe H.E.L.P. Philosophy Humanize your messageEncourage conversationListen firstPromote Less.
LET’S CONNECTSearch for Kevin Mullett, but please note the two “T’s” at the end of my name. It is what distinguishes me from the fish or the haircut. Please find me on any network you are already participating on and say hello. ASK ME ABOUTCAPTURING LOCAL VISIBILITY FOR YOUR NETWORK OF PARTNER WEBSITES. TENS TO THOUSANDS OF MULTI-SITE THROUGH ONE CENTRAL CMS INTERFACE.Check outbit.ly/aboutKM, http://www.marketsnare.com/, andhttp://www.cirrusabs.com/.