Most company owners know that SEO is a long and slow process. You’re constantly waiting to see your name at the top of that search engine results page, but it’s tough to know when it’s going to happen. For this reason, many companies use SEO reporting tools to help ease a little bit of the suspense.
SEO reporting helps keep you in the loop when it comes to your SEO efforts. In general, SEO reporting software will give you the ranking of a keyword you are targeting and then show you the jump in rankings that keyword has over time. Other reporting tools offer information about your web pages for further optimization, the Google PageRank or Alexa ranking of your site, and/or the competition for a specific keyword. Unfortunately, many of these software cost money that many companies just don’t have. In such an up-and-down economy, things like SEO reporting tools usually get the boot when it comes to budget cuts.
However, there are several SEO reporting tools that are completely free. Although they may not have quite as many of those “fancy” features you would get with some software, they get the job done. The tools will give you an idea about the success (or failure) of your SEO efforts so you can improve. Below is a list of my top five favorite free reporting tools.
Top 5 SEO Reporting Tools That Work Break Your Pocketbook
- Google Analytics – This tool allows you to see not only the traffic to your website, but where that traffic is coming from. This will let you know if people are finding you through links or directly. You can also see how you are doing in terms of ranking by taking a quick look at a graph.
- SEO Quake – This works great for Mozilla Firefox and Chrome and works as a browser plugin. It will show you your PageRank and Alexa ranking and can be installed as a toolbar right at the top of your screen. This makes the tool convenient to use. It also has the ability to highlight the number of times a keyword shows up on a specific webpage.
- SEO for Firefox – This tool also generates rankings (obviously) and is easy to use. It also allows you to find the source of all the data that is pulled for you, which is a nice feature for someone who likes to have a full understanding of all analytics. Read the SEO Book article for a complete list of features.
- Rank Checker – This is another Firefox extension that allows you to check rankings while surfing the Internet. All you need to do is enter your website’s domain name and then paste in the keywords you’re hoping to track.
- Quarkbase – What makes this tool somewhat unique is the fact that it can tell you detailed information about a domain. It will tell you the owner, the sites date history, and the social media accounts of a specific site. This is a great tool for those who like to dig a little bit deeper into SEO reporting and competition.
While the popular saying “you get what you pay for” is oftentimes true, it does not apply to SEO reporting tools. The more expensive tools do offer more features, but these free downloads should get you the results you need to succeed. For more tips and advice about SEO reporting tools, visit Organic SEO Consulting.