If there is one thing I've come to realise about search engine optimisation it is that for a large percentage of site owners it seems like an initiative shrouded in mystery. Being an SEO myself I'm well aware of the contradicting statements, changing algorithms, bad or outdated practices that have created a barrier for many websites to push through and acquire more organic traffic.

For many who have attempted to take a shot at doing their own SEO it can be tough to get their heads around concepts and if it wasn't the case I think I'd be out of a job. It may sound like a bleak outlook but that doesn't mean you have to leave it up to the experts. There are certain things you can learn very quickly and tools to help you make positive adjustments to your site. So in the interest of faking it till you make it, I decided to share with you 10 tools an SEO shouldn't live without.

Tool number 0 - The Tool for all Tools

There is an SEO joke in that headline for those of you who didn't get it First things first, if you're using IE, Safari, Edge or Firefox, please open Google and search for Google Chrome. If you don't already use Google Chrome, start by downloading it now. Once you're running Chrome you can then visit the Chrome extensions store and get a hold of these 10 plugins that will make browsing your site and competitor sites a more insightful experience.

1. MozBar

Price: Moz subscriptions start at $99/month

The MozBar is a Chrome extension that allows SEO marketers to easily get insights about different websites without leaving their web browser. With one click, you can find search ranking and link coding information about all of the search results on a Google results page.

2. Check My Links

Price: Free

Check My Links does what it says it will: It quickly scans web pages and shows you which links are working properly and which are broken. With this extension, marketers can ensure that their own websites are functioning properly for their visitors. Additionally, marketers can check for broken backlinks to their content on other websites to build backlinks to their content and increase their domain authority.

3. NoFollow

Price: Free

NoFollow quickly indexes web pages and identifies links that are coded with the nofollow metatag . Nofollow links aren’t crawled by search engines and don’t contribute to search engine authority, so SEOers can use this extension to determine if external sites are backlinking to them with followed, or indexed, links. Additionally, you might use nofollow links on web pages you don’t want crawled, such as a landing page or thank you page, and this extension can easily double-check if you’ve coded links correctly. In the example screenshot below, nofollow links are highlighted in red.

4. Impactana

Price: Impactana subscriptions start at $99/month

Impactana’s Chrome toolbar offers a wealth of SEO, social media, and content marketing information about any web page. Its two biggest metrics are “Buzz,” which measures a website’s reach on social media, and “Impact,” which measures SEO metrics such as clickthrough rate, backlinks, and time on page. It also shares details like author and publisher contact information that are useful for PR professionals.

5. Canonical

Price: Free

Canonical shows you, if you're pages, have canonical tags and where the tags link to in an instant. Perfect for issues regarding duplication and pagination issues that may be plaguing your site.

6. Hreflang Tag Checker

Price: Free

Hreflang tag does exactly as the name implies. It gives you an instant review of your hreflang tags if you're running a multi-regional site. Google stated that 75% of hreflang tags are implemented incorrectly, making this plugin a must for international sites.

7. Keywords Everywhere - Keyword Tool

Price: Free

Keywords Everywhere is a free keyword research tool that shows you Google keyword search volume and cost per click data on multiple websites. This tool saves you the hassle of copying data from various websites and using the Google Adwords keyword planner to see relevant search volume and CPC data, which makes Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics a richer experience.

8. Pendule

Price: Free

Pendule takes is a visual extension of Google Chrome developer tools gives you a better user experience and visual interface to quickly strip out the source code and get to the bare bones of your pages. It makes it very easy to bug check and find issues that affect on page SEO. In an instant, you can disable inline styling, CSS, javascript. I've found this tool very useful when trying to clean up bloated code on pages and speed up page load.

9. Redirect Path

Price: Free

Redirect Path flags up 301, 302, 404 and 500 HTTP Status Codes as well as client-side redirects like Meta and Javascript redirects, bringing potential issues that may not otherwise be seen to your attention immediately. As well as flagging up redirects and errors, the plugin also displays other HTTP Headers (such as server types and caching headers) and the server IP Address at the click of a button. Redirect path is particularly useful when testing ht.access file redirects, javascript redirects and make sure they're sending users to the correct pages and flagging the correct HTTP status codes to crawlers.

10. Similar Sites

Price: Free

Similar Site, as the name implies finds similar sites. While on any website, Click on the SimilarSites Icon directly next to your search bar, and get 10 Similar Sites results to the websites you checking. Perfect for competitor analysis or building outreach lists.

Surf the web like an SEO

Now that I've given you the tools to be your sites very own SEO, use the tools, play around with their functionality and if you have any questions on how to use these tools, feel free to ask us in the comments section below.

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Tags: SEO, Tools, google