Chapter 20
Ten-Plus Useful Tools
In This Chapter
Finding tools to help you check your site rank and traffic
Analyzing the competition
Seeing a site through a search engine’s eyes
Checking out some useful toolbars
I
n this chapter, I describe a number of useful tools that you can employ in a
variety of ways during a search engine optimization campaign, from find-
ing out how well your site ranks in the search engines, to analyzing potential
link partners, from seeing what a search engine sees, to seeing how people
are arriving at your Web site.
Checking Your Site Rank
How do you know how well your site ranks in the search engines. You can go
to a search engine, type a keyword phrase, and see just what happens. If
you’re not on the first page, check the second; if you’re not there, check the
third. Then go back and do it for 50 search terms on several search engines.
It’s going to take a while.
Luckily there’s help. Many programs will check your search engine position
for you. You tell the program which keywords you’re interested in, which
search engines you want to check, and the Web site you’re looking for in the
search results, and leave it to do its work.
