Goodbye SEO Software and hello SEO Cloud apps

Details: Wednesday, 20 April 2011 15:29; Hits: 1397

SEO is not rocket science but it is not the kind of thing you want a four-year-old to do either. This is why I have always advised against using SEO software tools designed to run analysis on your website and suggest ‘improvements’.

SEO software works on the principle that ‘one size of SEO fits all’ – this is so far from the truth that it cannot even be commented on. When you get SEO done you are relying on someone who will analyse your website in detail, run tests against competitor sites and then come up with suggestions which will fall, broadly, in things you can do (non-technical), things you should get done (technical) and things you should be thinking of doing (a mix of technical and non-technical).

SEO tools move from the desktop to the Cloud.

Usually, SEO companies work to a specific target with clearly defined goals and a percentage increase in visits, visitor numbers and pageviews (to mention but just a few of the metrics used). Software cannot do that. It uses instead a broad calibration of average SEO to create a standard against which it measures your website and suggests what you can do to help improve it.

Does it work? Well, if it comes to that or doing nothing I would say you should always do something. If it comes to making a choice between buying SEO software or hiring a reputable SEO company to work on your site I always advise the latter unless cash-constraints are in play in which case the choice is taken away.

Are there alternatives? Funnily enough, yes there are and the smart website owner who wants to save time and money is already employing them. SEO has moved, over the last three years, from SEO software (the kind SEO experts bought to run analysis and produce reports) to web-based SEO applications, many of which are totally free.

This move of SEO to the cloud (many of these, incidentally are detailed in SEO Help) signals a change in direction which increases accuracy, reduces costs and becomes much more accessible from an operation point of view. Even better all you need, in most cases is a browser and some handy plugins and destination points (the beauty of the Cloud).

Ok, let’s get started.

SEO Plugins for your Browser

If you are using Google’s Chrome then Chrome SEO is a simple, one-stop plugin which allows you to check any website’s PageRank (PR), indexed pages in Google, Yahoo! and BING and a host of SEO related metrics (such as incoming links, Alexa rankings and incoming traffic figures). The beauty of this is that though the interface seems simple, clicking on any of the metrics opens up an in-depth report which would delight most SEO junkies, let alone an SEO newbie.

Firefox users have the option of downloading and installing SEO Quake a plugin which allows the webmaster to check a number of SEO parameters with a few clicks and at quite some depth.

These are just but two handy tools. For a very quick (and easy) assessment of your website’s SEO where you can let someone else do most of the hard work and even make some suggestions point your browser at Hubspot’s website grader tool - recently invested in by Google and a number of other companies, Hubspot provide a subscription service helping webmasters keep a close eye on SEO metrics on their websites.

A lot of SEO relies on good data. SEO companies know how to get that. With Hubspot webmasters have it served to them. Their website grader takes a few minutes to run a pretty comprehensive report. The interface gives you the option of inputting a competing website and, if you are worried they will pester you with marketing, you do not even have to input your email in order to run it.

Definitely worth a shot and it is a time-saver.

If you start using these online SEO tools you will be surprised by the quantity and quality of data they give you and, in all likelihood, be shocked that you got by without them, for so long.

Learn how to best optimize for the Cloud.