Search Engine Optimization

Firefox is an excellent browser for SEO. Many bloggers and SEO experts use Firefox as their primary browser because of the variety of SEO extensions that are available. The following Firefox extensions will help you monitor the status of your site, analyze the competition, and make changes that will improve your site’s ranking.

1. SEO Quake

SEO Quake allows you to view several important search engine parameters, helping you rank and promote your websites more efficiently. Ultimately, SEO Quake makes it easier for you to estimate the competitive ability and effectiveness of your SEO campaigns.

2. Niche Watch Tool

The Niche Watch Tool helps you analyze niche keyword competition and provides you with the technical information necessary to beat your competitors in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Information that it provides include the indexed pages, backlinks number, and page rank of both the domain and the specific webpage.

3. KeywordSpy SEO/PPC Plug-In

The KeywordSpy extension will revolutionize the way you research keywords and track your competitition in Google and Yahoo. This free extension allows you to view and investigate core SEO parameters both in the SERPs and site pages that you visit.

4. SEO Doctor

SEO Doctor is an SEO problem-solving tool that is made with both beginner and advanced SEOs in mind. Based on accepted SEO methodology, this tool points out potential issues and warns you about pages that may not be indexable by the search engines.

5. Foxy SEO Tool

The Foxy SEO Tool is a free, open-source toolbar that provides you with access to a variety of search engine functions, including Google Site, Live Fromlinks, Yahoo! Site Explorer. It also allows you to check a site’s listing in important directories like Dmoz and Yahoo! Directory.

6. SEO Blogger

If you have a blog, you’ll love SEO Blogger, an extension that enables you to find the most sought-after keywords in your niche without leaving your blog editing screen. This tool is compatible with all types of blog publishing software, so you can conduct keyword research and optimize your blog posts as you write them.

7. Google Semantics

This tool helps you optimize your content more effectively by providing you with synonyms of target keywords using a method known as Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).

8. SEOpen

SEOpen provides users with quick access to basic web-based tools that help with SEO. You can use the included toolbar or right click on an open area of a webpage in order to quickly check inbound links, http headers, page rank, and more.

9. SearchStatus

SearchStatus is a versatile Firefox extension that displays a number of important measurements, including Google PageRank, Alexa rank, complete ranking, and SEOmoz Linkscape mozRank. The extension can also analyze keyword density, highlight keywords and nofollow links, and much more.

10.   Google Global

Google Global is an unobtrusive Firefox extension that allows you to see what the Google search results are in different geographical locations. This is a very useful tool if you want to compare the organic and paid search results in different countries.

Many webmasters complain about how difficult link-building is, but it’s actually quite simple if you use a little common sense and add a human touch. There’s a right way – and a wrong way – to ask other webmasters for a link or to exchange links. Follow the tips below when you ask people for links to ensure that your efforts aren’t futile.

Make Sure That Your Site Is Up to Par

Prior to requesting links, make sure that your site is worth linking to. It should be packed with original content, have a professional, attractive design, and add value to your niche. If your site is generic, ugly, and full of badly written, unhelpful content, how could you expect anyone to want to link to and thereby associate with your website?

Introduce Yourself First

Prior to asking for a link, introduce yourself first. Tell the receiver of the email who you are and what your site is all about. This will help you build a bridge to having a relationship with them. People link to those they know, like, and trust, so it’s advisable to build rapport with someone first before approaching them with a link request.

Personalize Your Email

Don’t make the mistake of sending out generic link request emails. Most link request emails go unnoticed because they are generic and impersonal, making it obvious that the sender did not even spend a second looking at the person’s website to familiarize himself with its content and philosophy.

When you send link request emails, try to address the webmaster by name if you can find his name on his website because it adds a personal touch. If you can’t find his name, use a name that’s relevant to the site. For example, if you are writing a link request to SEO Expert and don’t know the name of the webmaster, you could write, “Dear SEO Expert” rather than just, “Dear Webmaster.”

Also, take at least ten minutes to look around the website and become familiar with it. When you make it obvious in your link request emails that you have taken the time to see what someone’s website is all about, your emails are more likely to get their attention.

Keep It Brief

Webmasters are busy people and don’t have time to read a long, winding message from you that explains every aspect of your website and how you would like them to link to it. Keep your link request emails short and to the point. If they’re too long, people will feel overwhelmed and delete them.

Don’t Be Picky

Beggars can’t be choosers. If you are asking someone for a link, don’t be too demanding or picky. After all, this person is doing a favor for you by giving you a link, so you shouldn’t order him around. Let them decide how they will link to your site, what anchor text they will use, etc.

Proofread Your Email Before You Send It

Avoid sending link request emails without proofreading them first. Link request emails full of grammatical and spelling errors look sloppy and unprofessional. Proofread your emails to ensure that they make a good first impression!

Conclude Your Email with a Specific Call to Action

Conclude your link request emails with a specific call action, letting the receiver of the link request know exactly what you want him to do next. Adding a clear call to action to the end of your emails will help you achieve better results in your link-building campaign.

Wikipedia is an extremely popular website that features content about practically every topic under the sun. Wikipedia receives a huge volume of visitors and ranks highly on major search engines, so it seems like the ideal place to post backlinks to your site. After all, Wikipedia’s content is created and constantly updated by a community of volunteer editors and anyone can join, so it’s easy to go in there and stick in a link, right?

Well, it isn’t that simple anymore. In 2007, Wikipedia made all outbound links on their site no-follow, which means that you can no longer get link juice directly from the site. Furthermore, Wikipedia is strict about limiting the number of links in each entry and reviewing the content that’s linked to in order to ensure that it’s useful and directly relevant. Despite all of these regulations and the fact that the links on Wikipedia don’t get link juice, there are still several reasons why you should consider editing Wikipedia pages, including the following:

1. Traffic

As mentioned before, Wikipedia is an extremely popular website that receives tons of visitors because it ranks well in the search engines. You can drive lots of traffic to your site if you are able to place a link to your site in a Wikipedia entry. Just make sure that the page you link to is highly relevant to the Wikipedia entry because it’s less likely to get removed if it’s useful and contributes to the conversation.

2. Linkbait

Although the links on Wikipedia don’t get any link juice themselves, they may eventually make it onto forums, blog posts, and journalistic articles, simply because Wikipedia is such a popular reference resource. If you link to something that’s worth being spread and shared on the web, your links on Wikipedia will be picked up by sources that do provide link authority. Furthermore, since Wikipedia has a Creative Commons License, the content frequently gets scraped by sites that grant link juice.

3. Blow the Competition out of the Water

If a major competitor in your industry ranks better than you in the search engines, you could make a Wikipedia page about their company that highlights all of the mistakes they’ve made and the terrible things they’ve done. The company will rush to remove the page, but the damage will already be done because they will end up looking like spammers for trying to have the content erased. This tactic is dirty, but some purport that it’s highly effective.

4. Promotion

Use covert tactics to promote your company on Wikipedia pages. For example, if you own a cable television company, you could create a bogus study for your site or another site that lists the highest rated cable companies according to consumer preferences. You can refer to the list on the Cable television companies in the United States Wikipedia page. This is just a general example, so brainstorm to think of less obvious ways in which you could promote your site directly on Wikipedia.

5. Build Credibility in the Wikipedia Community

If you frequently contribute to the Wikipedia community by editing entries and genuinely adding value, you’ll build credibility and a respectable reputation. You may even receive administrator status if you keep it up. Earning recognition in the Wikipedia community will make it easier for you to add links and edit pages in your favor later on. The Wikipedia community is more suspicious of newcomers who are obviously only using the site to promote their businesses.

You’ve worked really hard building your website. You’ve hired a superstar designer and made sure that every little detail, from the menu margins to the titles, was perfect. You’ve written copy that celebrates your company’s accomplishments and positions you as the ultimate authority in your industry. But unfortunately, your website is no good because your prospects aren’t listening. If you want to avoid wasting thousands of dollars on a website that won’t ever help you increase your bottom line, then explore these 5 reasons why your website may be no good and make sure that you’re not committing any of these no-no’s.

1. It can’t be found

Unless you are Coca Cola or some other humongous corporation, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for the search engines. Otherwise, nobody will be able to find your site and it will sit in oblivion, collecting dust. To ensure that your target audience is able to find your website, make sure that it is being indexed by major search engines and that the page titles and URLs are optimized, letting the search engines know exactly what your website is all about.

2. It isn’t optimized for target keywords in your market

If you want your website to succeed, it’s essential that you research your target market and determine what words your prospects are using to find information about your industry. All too often, companies use keywords on their websites that they assume are popular, but haven’t even verified through research! To find the keywords that people in your target market are searching for, use a keyword tool. Avoid broad, competitive keywords and focus on optimizing for keywords that still get a lot of traffic but have less competition.

3. It is rarely updated

When launching a website, many people are very excited about it and implement a variety of SEO and online marketing strategies. But once they realize that the results of their efforts won’t be immediate, they stop updating their site. If you want your website to attract a steady flow of traffic and continue growing, it’s essential to be consistent in your efforts by updating your website on a regular basis. Generally, if you stop updating, people will stop visiting because they’ll consider your website unreliable. Plus, it’s crucial to update your content at least once per week if you want to maintain a top position in the search engine results.

4. It only displays information about your company’s accomplishments

If your website only displays information about who you are and what you do, it’s no good. Your website needs to explain to your prospects how your products/services will solve their problems. The focus should be them, not you. If your website doesn’t resonate with prospects and convince them to do business with you, why have a website at all?

5. It is so slickly designed that people don’t know where to click

No matter how cutting-edge and attractive your website is, it won’t serve its purpose if it is so cool and slick that your prospects have no idea how to navigate the site. Make sure that your website’s navigation is obvious and meets your prospects’ needs. It’s a well-known fact that people who surf the web have short attention spans, so from the get-go, make it clear to your prospects exactly where they should click, depending on where they are in the research or buying process.