1. SEO tools
Link building tools:
The following is a selection of ools you will be use for your daily tasks in particular link building
activities:
OpenSite Explorer
Website: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
Tasks: backlink analysis, competitor backlink opportunities research, find the latest links acquired by
your client.
This tool allows you to download the backlinks of websites. Use Opens Site Explorer to check your
client’s site latest incoming links in the “Just Discovered” tab or to find out who’s linking to the
competitors. To find out more about using Open Site Explorer for link building, see this post:
http://skyrocketseo.com/4-ways-to-use-open-site-explorer-like-a-pro/
Chrome
Website: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
Fast browser that supports common SEO plug-ins.
2. Moz Bar for Chrome
Website: http://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbar
It’s a Chrome plug-in that analyse SEO metrics of a website listed in the SERPs or the one you are
currently visiting. The following SEO metrics are reported: DA (Domain authority: metric related to
the number, quality and relevancy of inbound links to the site), PA (Page authority: metrics related
to the SEO equity of a page and the number of on-site and off-site incoming links to the page),
Linking root domains (number of links from different sites), Page metrics in particular Meta title,
description, H1 etc. To find more about the Moz Toolbar read this post:
http://www.poweredbysearch.com/mozbar-seo-extension-chrome-firefox/
Twitter
Website: https://twitter.com/
3. Social media platform commonly used by bloggers, webmaster and tech experts. Create your profile
on Twitter so you can get in touch with bloggers or journalists to pitch articles and ask for
information. It’s also useful to promote the content you produce or to find more about good
content. To find more about using Twitter to build links read these posts: http://moz.com/blog/yesyou-really-can-build-links-with-twitter and http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/video-how-to-usetwitter-for-linkbuilding
Raven Tools Bar
Website: http://raventools.com/tools/chrome-toolbar/
The Chrome toolbar is used to archive the link building activities performed by the team. It’s a tool
provided by Raven, a SEO platform to manage campaigns from the analysis of websites’ on-page
issues to managing link building tasks (from archiving links achieve to creating libraries of sites).
Link Clump
Website: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linkclump-open-multiple-links/
4. It’s useful to copy hyperlinks and anchor texts from a web page and paste these in an Excel
document. After this process, you will check these sites to see if they can accept your content or be
a good partner. One the web, you can find out curated list of similar sites (green blogs, new York
blogs et.c) that you want to reach out. To find these lists of link prospects and file them with
LinkClump, read this post: http://moz.com/blog/the-power-of-using-lists-for-link-building
Check My Links
Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/check-mylinks/ojkcdipcgfaekbeaelaapakgnjflfglf
5. This plugin check the broken links on a web page. This can be used to report a broken link to a
webmaster your want to get in touch with for link building purposes. Otherwise on a curated list of
site, you can see competitors that have gone bankrupt so you can see who’s linking to those. Being
helpful to others with broken links, ensures you a favour in exchange, and this may be building a link,
read more here: http://pointblankseo.com/helping-others
Google Analytics
Website: www.google.co.uk/analytics/
It shows data about inbound traffic and user behaviour of the website selected. Link builders can
look at the Acquisition>All referrals section to see the external sites that are currently linking to your
client and are driving external traffic. Sometime you can spot a link that you have requested or find
themes of sites that will surely link to your client. To find more about Google Analytics, read this
post: http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/google-analytics-guide/
6. SEO Tools for Excel
http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/
Excel Add-ins to extrapolate SEO data from a URL, for example PageRank, Meta title, description
etc.. This is useful in link building when you have a list of sites and you want to find out PageRank
data to prioritize them or to extrapolate their title tag that often contains the name of the site.
Microsoft Outlook Social Connector
Website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/outlook-help/introduction-to-the-outlook-socialconnector-HA010361857.aspx
This Outlook plug-in pull data from the social media profiles of the e-mail addresses your are going
to contact helping you finding more about the people you are talking to, from their last status
updates to their names. It’s useful when you can’t find out a prospect name or to establish a
connection looking at their interests. To find out more about blogger relationships, read this post:
http://www.zemanta.com/blog/how-to-develop-relationships-with-bloggers/
Majestic SEO
Website: http://www.majesticseo.com/
Backlink Checker and Site Explorer with several options to find out inbound broken links to the client
site, latest links gained and other useful data. To learn more about Majestic SEO, read this post:
http://www.majesticseo.com/support/tools
7. Google Alert and Social mentions
Websites: http://www.google.com/alerts and http://socialmention.com/
Online services that monitor mentions of a brand or of a particular news story (example: your client
Xmas initiative). These can be used to find out new link opportunities such as directories, guest
blogging techniques and in particular link reclamation (asking for a link when an editor mentioned
your brand or published an infographic without linking to your client site). To find out more about
how to building link with link reclamation using these two tools, watch this video:
http://moz.com/blog/link-reclamation-whiteboard-friday
Quora
Website: www.quora.com
Question & answer social network that is categorised in topics. Create an account and monitor the
topic related to your client niche. It’s used in link building to find out interesting content ideas for
content lead link building campaigns. You will find many ideas for guest posts, infographics,
interviews and much more. in particular guest blog posts. To find out how you can create a content
ideas list for your client, watch this infographic: http://community.copypress.com/how-to-createcontent-ideas-for-a-new-client-infographic/
Chrome Bookmarklet
Websites: http://moz.com/blog/some-nifty-seo-bookmarklets-to-make-you-more-efficient &
8. http://moz.com/blog/30-seo-bookmarklets-to-save-you-time
Bookmarklets appear in the Chrome Bookmark bar and can speed up strongly your link building
activities. The most important ones are Google Site Indexation Queries and the Domaintools lookup
on current domain. The first one performs a Google search on the domain you are visiting so you can
look at contact details, any coverage of your client or latest links acquired. The second one looks at
the information on the domain registration you are visiting. It can report the server location but also
contact details of the administration.
Link building specific Google search operators
Website: http://www.seotakeaways.com/10000-search-engine-queries-for-your-link-buildingcampaign
If Google is the link building tool to find partnership opportunities, search operators help you find
the right partner with a simple search. The article contains 10K different variations divided per link
building tactics from reviews to infographic submission.
On-page SEO tools:
Google Webmaster Tool
Website: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Features several options to control your website access, send information to Google and analyse
current traffic to the site. After the creation of a website, you can grant a verified access to Google
Webmaster in several ways and this will be useful to analyse a website performance. To learn more
9. about Google Webmaster tool, read this guide:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2576876?hl=en&ref_topic=2370395
Google Analytics
Website: www.google.co.uk/analytics/
It shows data about inbound traffic and user behaviour of the website selected on a specific range of
time selected at the top. For on-page SEO tasks, the most important sections are:
Acquisition>Keywords>Organic, Behaviour>Site Content, Behaviour>Site Content> Landing pages
and metrics such as traffic and bounce rate. To find more about Google Analytics, read this post:
http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/google-analytics-guide/
Raven Tools Site Auditor
Website: http://raventools.com
Its on-page audit function is called Site Auditor and it’s used to find out the current website issues. It
reports data such as broken links, sitemaps available, duplicate content from pages to meta titles,
malwares, redirects, page speed levels etc.. To learn more about Raven Tools Site Auditor, read this
post: http://raventools.com/blog/how-to-do-an-seo-site-audit-like-a-boss/
YSlow
Website:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/yslow/ninejjcohidippngpapiilnmkgllmakh?hl=en
10. It analyses web page performance by examining all the components on the page such as tags, image
compression and including components dynamically created by using JavaScript. It measures the
page's performance and offers suggestions for improvement.
Redirect Path
Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/redirectpath/aomidfkchockcldhbkggjokdkkebmdll?hl=en
This Chrome plugin analyses redirects that are currently set after clicking on a link. Redirects slow
down websites and also are involved in the distribution of the SEO value from the backlinks. To learn
more about redirects and best implementation practices, read this post
http://moz.com/learn/seo/redirection