Category Archives: SEO Tools

Search engine optimization (SEO) tools that scan and test your website, provide essential optimization guidance and assist with website optimization enhancement.

SEO Service

23 Essential Google Tools for Businesses

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giconThe below 23 free tools, apps and software downloads are provided by Google to help businesses, marketers and developers with SEO and Digital Advertising efforts.
 
 

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Ad Grants
 
Google Ad Grants
Nonprofit organizations can apply to receive $10,000 per month of AdWords advertising. That’s A LOT of free exposure despite minor campaign limitations.
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AdWords Best Practices
 
AdWords Best Practices
Google’s own best practices guide makes an excellent reference tool when navigating the ever changing AdWords landscape.
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AdWords Keyword Tool
 
Google Keyword Tool
Find out how many people search Google using keywords and phrases related to your business. Research and discover new ideas.

Install Android App
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AdSense
 
Google AdSense
Still one of the easiest ways to monetize your website and/or blog. AdSense displays ads on your website, blog or app.

Dig even deeper – get the Chrome extension.

Install Android App
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Alerts
 
Google Alerts
Create customized alerts and receive email or RSS notification of freshly indexed content that matches or relates to the type of alert set.
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Analytics
 
Google Analytics
A powerful and robust tool that provides valuable insight about your website’s visitors.

Dig even deeper – get the Chrome extension.

Install Android App
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Cloud Print
 
Google Cloud Print
Connects your printers to the cloud enabling control from any web-connected device like your smartphone.
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Correlate
 
Google Correlate
Compare and correlate search patterns with real-world trends. Companion to Google Trends.
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Custom Search Engine
 
Google Custom Search Engine
DIY Site Search. Use Google to power and/or monetize search on one or more of your websites.
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Display Benchmarks
 
AdWords Display Benchmarks
A useful tool designed to compare AdWords display campaigns with the rest of the industry. See how your campaigns stack-up performance wise.
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Domains
 
Google Domains
Register and manage domain names – includes FREE PRIVATE registration and one free domain.
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Mobile-Friendly Test
 
Mobile Friendly Test
Analyze your website to see if it passes Google’s mobile-friendly test. Fear not if your page doesn’t pass, corrective tips are provided.
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My Business
 
Google My Business
Verify and manage your business footprint across Google Search, Maps and Google+. The cornerstone for your business’s presence on Google.

Install Android App
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Primer
 
Google Primer for Android
Quick and easy interactive marketing lessons from Google on your smartphone. Learn about valuable marketing concepts whenever you’ve got a spare 5 minutes.
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Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools)
 
Google Search Console
Connect websites to learn about potential issues that deal with security, indexation, structured data, links and mobile friendliness.
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Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
 
Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
A 32 page PDF containing general information and guidelines for optimizing websites for search engines.
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Sites
 
Google Sites
Quickly build (one click), manage, share and deploy websites and web pages with ease. Remember Geocities? It’s like that, but a little fancier.
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Structured Data Testing Tool
 
Structured Data Testing Tool
Test your website’s structured data (knowledge graph, ratings, reviews and other markup) to make sure they are formatted correctly.
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Think With Google
 
Think with Google
High quality repository of marketing resources featuring consumer trends, marketing insights, case studies, industry research and creative inspiration.
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Trends
 

View real-time trends and explore past, present and estimated future trends for popular topics, searches and YouTube videos. Plus – embeddable charts!
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Trusted Store
 
Google Trusted Stores
Ecommerce much? Become a Google Trusted Store and get seller ratings displayed in Google Shopping and AdWords.
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Voice
 
Google Voice
Enhance the capabilities of your current phone regardless of carrier with a new number for yourself or business.

Install Android App
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Web Designer
 
Google Web Designer
Professional grade HTML5-based web design software available for free download.
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There are a lot more than 23 Google tools for businesses available. Please comment below with your own favorites!

SEO Character Limits

Quick Guide to SEO Character Limits

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It’s easy to forget the latest incarnation of how many characters for which SEO elements to follow when forging new content for a website or blog. The following SEO character limit guidelines are designed to help with optimizing static website content and blog post elements for search engines.

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SEO Character Limits

Page Titles: 50-60 characters

Meta Descriptions: 160 characters

Meta Keywords: Omit/do not use

H1+ Headings: 70 characters

Image ALT Text: 100 characters

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SEO Character Limits Explained

Page Title Character Limit: 60

Page titles are typically not visible on the site itself and can usually be found in the browser title bar or tab. Page titles are often used by search engines as the title of the result snippet and play a significant role in search engine rankings. Page titles over 60 characters risk truncation and even replacement by the search engine.

Pro Tip! Shorter page titles tend to get more clicks.

Meta Description Character Limit: 160

Meta descriptions are also not visible on the page and will most likely be used in search engine result snippets. Although meta descriptions are no longer used by Google as a ranking signal they can affect search result click-through ratios.

Pro Tip! Don’t worry about optimizing meta descriptions for keyphrases, focus on usability – getting them to click!

Meta Keywords: Just NO

Meta keywords are no longer a weighted search engine ranking signal. The use of them is strongly discouraged.

Pro Tip! Omit or remove all instances of meta keywords site-wide.

H1+ Heading Character Limit: 70

While heading tags don’t carry as much search engine ranking signal weight as they used to, they remain an important on-page SEO element. Headings above 70 characters can look sloppy under most circumstances. The 70 character limit is merely a recommended limit, as we presently are not aware of any imposed by search engines.

Pro Tip! Avoid duplicating headings with other headings or page titles and focus on using headings relevant to page content.

Image ALT Text Character Limit: 100

Even though most industry experts agree ALT text should be no longer than 120 characters, even more concur that image ALT text should be short but sweet. Ideally making use of 5 or 6 words that are relative to the image file name as well as page content. Keeping in mind that search engine signal weight is assigned to ALT text from left to right, significantly diminishing after the 5th or 6th word. Well optimized images can also help improve search engine rankings for image search results.

Pro Tip! Make sure to avoid duplication and focus efforts on images that are displayed in the ATF (above the fold) portion of the page.

Additional On-Page SEO Considerations

Filenames: The name of the page and/or directory and image file name should relate to the page title, headings and content.

Text: The amount of text/page varies based on content type and intent. Use short, easy to read and understand headings, sentences and paragraphs. Somewhere between 300 and 500 words is often a good place to start.

Internal Linking: Not menu navigation, sidebars or footers mind you, but including ATF links on pages or blog posts that lead to internal landing pages. Internal linking helps search engines identify important pages – landing pages. It can also dilute the authority of a given page if not used appropriately.

Google SEO Search Operator in Action

Four Google Search Operators Packed with SEO Utility

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Fine-Tune Your SERPS with Google Search Operators

Search operators are used to help narrow or expand a search. In their most basic form, search operators can be as simple as including ‘AND’ or ‘OR’ between search variables (keyphrases).

For Example, the search operator ‘AND’ can be used to return the results of two, combined keyphrases: ‘blue widgets AND red widgets’.

There are many Google search operators that exist. Including a handful that can be utilized for high-value SEO purposes.

Four Google Search Operators that Pack a Punch

1. Search for results within a specific site based on a targeted keyword

Useful for determining which page within a site has the most authority (in the eyes of Google) for a specific keyphrase.

Syntax: site:specificsite.com key phrase

Example – search calihotsprings.com for the page with the most authority for Wilbur Hot Springs:

site:calihotsprings.com wilbur hot springs

Google Search Operator in Action

Google Search Operator in Action

2. See who’s linking to a specific website (note Google doesn’t display all sites, just a percentage of them)

Useful to determine who is linking to a specific website.

Syntax: link:specificsite.com

Example – find out who’s linking to calihotsprings.com:

link:calihotsprings.com

3. Search for sites related to a specific site

Syntax: related:specificsite.com

Example – search google for websites that are similar to calihotsprings.com:

related:calihotsprings.com

4. Display a list of websites that contain a specific keyphrase within the page title

Useful as a competitive measure by determining potential competeting websites for a specific keyphrase.

Syntax: allintitle:specific keyphrase

Example – display a list of potential competitors for the search term ‘california hot springs’:

allintitle:california hot springs

The possible SEO related applications of the resulting SERP (search engine result page) by utilizing the above Google Search Operators are limitless! Please comment with any favs of your own.

Google Chrome

20 Awesome Chrome Extensions

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Google Chrome

Google Chrome

We think Google Chrome is pretty slick these days. It loads pages faster than Firefox, Safari and IE no doubt. And, as far as add-ons and extensions go, it has pulled ahead of our longtime favorite, Firefox. Remember the browser wars of old? Netscape Navigator versus Internet Explorer… my how web browsers have changed since then.

The following list consists of twenty of our favorite Google Chrome Extensions. If you are just here for Chrome SEO Extensions, they are the last five on the list.

20 of Our Favorite Google Chrome Extensions

Add-This

Quickly share your new post to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and more. Analytics included. Options for embedding social sharing buttons on websites and WordPress.

Bitly

Shorten, share and track links, complete with link analytics.

Feedly

An intuitive way to read and share blogs, feeds and even Google Reader.

Google Voice

Message notifications and quick access to Google Voice features.

Google+ Notifications

Receive and respond to Google+ notifications from your web browser.

Klout

Adds Klout stats to your Twitter web timeline.

Music Plus for Google Music

Adds controls, notifications, Last.fm support, downloading, global keyboard shortcuts and lyrics to Google Music.

Picnik

Quick and dirty image editing on the fly.

PostRank

Enhances Google Reader with PostRank (owned by Google) data.

Rapportive

Gmail on social steroids. Connect with people you already know on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more through the familier Gmail interface.

Screen Capture

Easy as pie screen capture and annotation tool.

Search by Image

Search Google by using images.

StumbleUpon

A great extension and toolbar from an oldie but goodie.

TinyEye Reverse Image Search

Did someone jack your latest profile pic? Content theft? Search for an image on the web.

TweetDeck

The most awesome version of TweetDeck… unified multi-account streams (oh my!). Just don’t download the ipad version… blech!

Chrome SEO Extensions

WooRank SEO and Website Analysis

Auto SEO website tool featuring SEO analysis, traffic estimation, Alexa rank, Compete rank, keyphrases analysis, indexed pages in Google and Yahoo!, title and URL analysis and much more.

SEO for Chrome

Displays SEO related information about the website you are currently visiting. Featuring backlinks, social media stats, pages indexed, traffic stats, PPC (+ orgainc) stats and keyphrase research tool.

SEO SERP Workbench

Find out where your website or blog ranks in Google. Track and monitor your website and your competitors search engine (un-personalized) keyphrase rankings. Includes ranking change notifications.

SEO Site Tools

Comprehensive SEO tool that pulls in metrics from a multitude of sources about the website you are viewing. It includes social media reactions, and enhances web based versions of Google Webmaster Tools and Site Explorer. Sources utilized include SEOmoz, Google PageRank, Quanticast, Dmoz, Majestic SEO, Alexa, SEM Rush and Compete.com.

SEO Status

Simple. Fast. Lightweight. Quickly displays the Google PageRank and Alexa Rank of the current website you are on.

20 Awesome Google Chrome Extensions listing provided by Boise SEO Internet Marketing Company.

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