Good SEO Tools

Here’s the best online, introductory guide to SEO that I’ve found (to date). Beginner’s Guide to SEO is at SEOmoz. It’s thorough and looks worthy of attention.

Yesterday I wrote about SpiderTest.com that “One thing I would like to see in addition to a word list of the 20 most frequently occuring words, is a phrase list of the most frequently occuring 2, 3 and 4 word phrases.”

Keyword Density Analyzer scans a web page and reports the keyword density of 1, 2 and 3 word phrases. It’s quick, easy (just enter the URL of your web page) and does a good job of reporting the 1, 2 and three word phrases in columns.

There are several differences in the reports of SpiderTest and Keyword Density Analyzer. Keyword Density Analyzer reports the most common 1 word phrases are loans (10x), borrow(9x), lenders(8x), financial(7x). SpiderTest reports the top 4 as financial(11x), loans(11x), about(8x), borrower’s(8x).

The results of both seem to be off. When I open my favorite text editor, Notepad++, and word count the index page of www.lendersandloans.com, I get these results: loans(18x), borrow(15x), financial(14x), lenders(11x), etc. Then, if I set the word count to match whole words only, I get: loans(9x), borrow(2x), financial(11x), and lenders(5x).

Conclusions: Online SEO tools may not be as accurate as you wish them to be. It’s obvious something is amiss when comparing the results of these two online SEO tools. And while there may be a good explanation, it escapes me at this point. One thing I do like is that the keyword lists provided by SpiderTest and Keyword Density Analyzer offer a great starting point for starting keyword analysis using a good text editor.

First tool for the GoodSEOTools blog is SpiderTest. Spider Test is a free tool provided by Web Positioning Centre, which focuses on ‘Ethical Search Engine Optimization’

I’ve just checked the home page of LendersAndLoans.com, the site of Wheatworks’ free ‘Wise Borrower’s Guide‘.

SpiderTest is quick and the results of the test include some helpful pointers which I’ll correct in the next few days.

First, there are more than nine words in the page title, ‘lendersandloans.com, wise borrower’s guide and directory of financial resources on the web’. SpiderTest suggests nine or fewer.

Second, SpiderTest suggests the one bit of javascript be moved to an external file.

Third, there are three (or more) nested tables. SpiderTest suggests using CSS instead of tables for positioning.

SpiderTest also provides a list of the 20 most frequently occuring words on the page. Here’s where I think your page content becomes crucial. Fortunately, the words I want to appear in the search engines for this site are already in the > 2% area. I’ve read (have no proof that it’s true) that if you wish a word to be helpful to your search engine results, it should have a percentage of at least 2%.

One thing I would like to see in addition to a word list of the 20 most frequently occuring words, is a phrase list of the most frequently occuring 2, 3 and 4 word phrases.

Finally, a nice thing about SpiderTest is that the results provide a good explanation for the warnings and suggestions. Run one of your sites through SpiderTest and see what you find.

I’ve started this blog about Good Search Engine Optimization Tools for a couple of reasons.

First, I need a place where I can share information I find about good seo and then get comments from those who know more about SEO than I do. (Chances are good, if you’re reading this, you’re already in the “know more about SEO than I do” group.)

Second, I want it to grow into a resource I can use to help improve the traffic to the web sites I own and manage.

Third, I’d like GoodSEOTools.com to become a broad, practical collection of good SEO tools that I can share with others.

I invite you to participate as much as you wish. Obviously, it’s a new site and is quite bare. But because there are so many good SEO tools and resources on the ‘net, I expect GoodSEOTools.com may grow quickly into an excellent resource.

GoodSEOTools.com is running on WordPress. I think it’s configured correctly, but if not … bear with me while I get the kinks worked out. And please don’t be afraid to tell me what’s not working!

Thanks for visiting, jump right in and I hope you find something useful that will help you do good SEO for your own sites!

Rick Wheat
Wheatworks Software, LLC