{"id":282,"date":"2018-05-16T12:23:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T12:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/05\/16\/top-time-saving-tools-for-seos\/"},"modified":"2019-08-01T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T18:10:11","slug":"top-time-saving-tools-for-seos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2018\/05\/16\/top-time-saving-tools-for-seos\/","title":{"rendered":"Top time-saving tools for SEOs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently moved to a new position at a new company, with a new computer and a new, clean install of Google Chrome. It wasn\u2019t clean for very long, though, as I logged into my Chrome account and watched my address bar shrink as all of my extension icons flooded the right-hand side of the window. I was determined to use this as an opportunity to pare down the extensions that I had accumulated over the years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t do a great job cutting back. As an SEO<\/a>, I lean heavily on these time-saving tools<\/a>. So in the spirit of new beginnings and sharing knowledge, here\u2019s a selection of my favorite Chrome SEO extensions<\/a> (with a few apps sprinkled in).<\/span><\/p>\n

The basics<\/h2>\n

These are the simple extensions I can\u2019t live without, and often use outside of SEO<\/a> work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Word count tool<\/strong><\/h3>\n

SEO<\/a> is content (well, in part), and an important piece of content is length. One of those extensions that I didn\u2019t know I needed until I had it, this basic <\/span>word count tool<\/span><\/a> makes roughly assessing a page\u2019s content length a cinch. I generally use this in discussion about competitor pages or to quickly assert whether my client\u2019s copywriters are hitting the length benchmarks<\/a> they need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Site lookup<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If I can avoid opening a new tab to search, I will. That\u2019s why so many of these extensions allow me to do things in-page. The \u2018<\/span>Search the current site<\/span><\/a>\u2019 plugin is a tiny tool that essentially auto-completes the \u2018site:\u2019 operator in a Google search for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been using <\/span>Hunter<\/span><\/a> (formerly Email Hunter) for years now <\/span>\u2013<\/span> and not just for link building (though it\u2019s been essential for that). It\u2019s also great for following up with potential clients or employers when you haven\u2019t been given an email address.<\/span><\/p>\n

MailTester<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hunter gets it right a lot of the time, but <\/span>MailTester<\/span><\/a> can help you ensure the address is correct before you hit send. It\u2019s got its limitations – many servers will block the request – but on the whole it\u2019s a good insurance policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Link Klipper<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are a number of ways to pull the links from a page, whether it\u2019s a SERP, a directory, or a partner page. <\/span>Link Klipper<\/span><\/a>\u2019s handy click-and-drag function can help fill in the gaps by selecting a subset of links, or pulling them from tricky-to-isolate groups like dropdown menus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Redirect path<\/strong><\/h3>\n

How did I get here? Ayima\u2019s simple <\/span>Redirect Path<\/span><\/a> tool lets you see how your browser arrived at a given page. This tool is particularly useful for isolating complicated or broken redirect paths and ensuring link equity is passing properly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advanced<\/h2>\n

Depending on the type of SEO<\/a> you are, you may use one or all of these extensions, or have 15 others that offer similar functionality. Here\u2019s what\u2019s in my rotation right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

MozBar<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Every proprietary metric should be taken with a grain of salt, but Moz\u2019s <\/span>MozBar<\/span><\/a> is still great for quickly assessing a site\u2019s relative quality through its \u2018Domain Authority (DA) mode that displays DA in the tool icon without crowding the page with other details (though you can still display those metrics by clicking on the icon). <\/span><\/p>\n

Tip<\/span><\/i>: As a bonus, MozBar allows you to quickly extract results when you\u2019re on a SERP. It\u2019ll only pull the displayed results so change your settings if you need more than 10 sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

NoFollow<\/strong><\/h3>\n

NoFollow<\/span><\/a> is a simple plugin that highlights nofollow links on the page you\u2019re viewing. You can also set it to check the robots.txt file<\/a> against the links to indicate any disallowed pathways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Web Developer<\/strong><\/i><\/h3>\n

A powerful plugin with a robust suite of tools<\/a>, <\/span>Web Developer<\/span><\/a> allows you to quickly disable JavaScript<\/a>, cookies, CSS, as well as displaying web page info, styling tools<\/a>, and more. Chances are if you want to modify, block, or load it, Web Developer can help.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BuiltWith Technology Profiler<\/strong><\/h3>\n

See at a glance what\u2019s going on in the background with this <\/span>plugin from BuiltWith<\/span><\/a>. With just a click, you\u2019ll be able to identify tracking, frameworks, content delivery, and a lot more. Used in conjunction with Web Developer, you\u2019ll be able to troubleshoot issues across myriad systems, all in-browser.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ayima Page Insights<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On-page issues plaguing you? Not sure why a particular page is underperforming? Ayima\u2019s <\/span>Page Insights extension<\/span><\/a> can help you quickly identify issues like multiple H1 tags, alt attributes, and header problems. It can also display HTML elements like title and meta description without having to hunt through the source code.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bonus: Chrome DevTools<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One reason that Chrome is the first thing I install on a new computer is its powerful developer tools<\/a> that let me dig into the guts of a web page. <\/span>DevTools<\/span><\/a> may not be easy to learn or master, but learning the ins and outs <\/span>\u2013<\/span> like how to view a page as various mobile devices, or manipulate HTML to mock up recommendations <\/span>\u2013<\/span> can make life a lot easier for an SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n

Non-specific to SEO (but still helpful)<\/h2>\n

LastPass<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As someone who is simultaneously forgetful and terrified of identity theft, I\u2019ve become a <\/span>LastPass<\/span><\/a> evangelist over the past few years. Store all your passwords in one place, share them temporarily, and generate complex passwords that you don\u2019t have to write down anywhere else. I\u2019m slowly working my way towards only having to remember one password <\/span>\u2013<\/span> ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google Dictionary<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Double-click on a word to bring up its definition in pop-up bubble with a link to read more. <\/span>Google Dictionary<\/span><\/a> is very helpful when reading technical SEO documents (or Heidegger).<\/span><\/p>\n

Super Simple Highlighter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve recently been searching for better ways of keeping track of interesting points within articles. <\/span>Super Simple Highlighter<\/span><\/a> lets you highlight passages on page and store the URL for later perusing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nimbus Capture<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Windows\u2019 built-in snipping tool is extremely handy, but for more complex capture, you\u2019ll have to use something more robust. <\/span>Nimbus<\/span><\/a> lets you capture all or part of your screen, a whole web page, select and scroll, and plenty more. You can also record a video – super helpful for demonstrating all of your other thousands of extensions.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the writing of this article, I solicited recommendations from the SEO team at <\/span>Croud<\/span><\/a>, and as such am currently experimenting with even more extensions <\/span>\u2013<\/span> like <\/span>Keywords Everywhere<\/span><\/a>. Watch this space!<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Clemence is Senior SEO Manager at Croud<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an SEO, it’s likely that you heavily rely on a number of time-saving tools. In this article, Adam Clemence shares the Chrome extensions he can’t live without.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[261,262,263,264,22,265],"content_type":[27095],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-chrome","tag-chrome-browser","tag-chrome-extension","tag-list-of-seo-tools","tag-seo","tag-seo-tools","content_type-news"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_439956097-120x90.jpg","category":"Industry","timeago":"8y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}