SEO TIPS: The Top 10 SEO Tools and Why You Should Use Them – PART ONE

Listen up, SEOs! It’s time to refresh your brain as to what are the most useful SEO tools out there, and why, if you aren’t using them, you are an SEO idiot! OK, we don’t mean to call anyone an idiot…  but seriously, with all the great tools out there, do you really want to let your competitors get an edge while you dawdle around playing with tools instead of selecting the most powerful ones and using them?

There are literally hundreds of SEO tool out there, possibly thousands. At the end of the day, however, there are only so many hours you can spend on SEO and it is better to be fully able to work with ten good tools with terrific results and a complete knowledge of what you are doing rather than to dabble with a hundred tools and have no way to keep track of what it working and where and when and on which site.

So, without further ado, here are the top ten SEO tools you should be using and tracking with to achieve the best results possible.

1. Of course, it’s Google Insights!

Google lets you easily compare search and keyword volume. It also lets you analyze their patterns across specific categories, geographical regions, properties, and time periods. If you don’t have Google Insights, you are running blind.

2. Of course, again, it’s the Google Adwords Keyword Tool!

This is another handy keyword research app

lication that lets you generate keyword ideas and reveal keywords and phrases specific to your niche. If you don’t have the  Google Adwords Keyword Tool, you could be missing out on the very best keywords of all!

3. Google Webmaster Tools

Google’s site evaluation tool may not be necessary for every site you work on, but without it you can have trouble diagnosing problems, and your website’s health can suffer. If you don’t have Google Webmaster Tools, you can’t verify your sites and get permissions properly set up.

4. Google Website Optimizer

If you really want to do things right, you make sure you have ways to track and optimize the performance of your website. A poorly performing website with no type of diagnostic tool is dead in the water,. If you don’t have Google Website Optimizer, and something goes wrong, you won’t be able to determine what to do and will be working blind,

5. Bing Webmaster Tools (Merged with Yahoo Site Explorer)

Some think that Yahoo and Bing are lost causes, but nothing could be further from the truth. With Google continually eroding their own users’ faith by pushing Google products into organic search, many are finding they trust Yahoo and Bing more for high quality organic traffic. If you don’t have Bing Webmaster tools, you are missing out on info that could boost you up in their search results!

That’s the top five. Tomorrow we’ll look at the next five so we will have covered all of the top ten tools you should be using and what the consequences are for failing to take advantage of them!