The SEO Tools You Want to Use in 2013

SEO was never the same, and it will never be now that Google has its Panda and Penguin effectively shaking the cloud of ranking-hungry sites. 2012 is done, so how do you keep up with Search Engine Optimization in 2013?

There are tools that could help get your SEO job done better and in shape to survive a test from Google’s pets. As Dr. Pete suggested in his post at SEOmoz, diversity is a key in another year of confusing battles for the ranks. So what are the tools available to help you diversify?



Backlink Watch

This tool is good if you have just started your link acquisition campaign lately and that you have fewer inbound links that you want to track. This tool would take a URL as an input and returns a list of URLs that reference back to it. It’s limited up to displaying 1000 inbound links.

Overly using the same anchor text throughout a backlink campaign could make your goal to rank a page unachievable, so you want to ensure that you are diversifying your use of anchor text. This tool not only identifies if a link acquired is a nofollow, but also displays what anchor text was used. Thus, allowing you to see if you are already crossing beyond what is a good practice in the use of anchor text. You can access it at http://backlinkwatch.com

Open Site Explorer

Diversifying your link sources is also a key in hitting ranking success in 2013. This means you will have to get quality links from different relevant websites, much better if they are in a form of citation, or something that falls back to the old-school “click here”. You could use Open Site Explorer to track the diversity of your anchor texts. But beyond this, you can also use the tool to track the diversity of the links you created pointing back to your website. The Linking Domains tab in this tool allows you to see the list of domains that point back to your website along with each of their own domain authority and linking root domains stats. If SEO is just about hitting the right numbers, this tool will absolutely win my heart. Nevertheless, its authority measures are relevant and I use the tool as often as I can. It is accessible at http://www.opensiteexplorer.org

Ahrefs

This is another great tool similar to Open Site Explorer you can use to track the diversity of your website’s link profile. But like OSE, it’s pretty much limited for the free members. In addition to its external backlinks report this tool can provide, it also has the New / Lost tab which tracks down link gains and link deletions. Another tab this tool has is the Site Issues tab where you get to see some problematic areas on your website. Give it a test at http://www.ahrefs.com

SEOlytics

This tool is the one thing I could not afford to miss. It allows you to track backlinks and anchor text as well. But what I liked the most about this tool is that it comes with Link Targets data where you get to see which of your website’s pages get the most links. With this data, it allows you to set landing page priorities and build links to, or optimize, poorly performing pages. Another great function this tool offers is the set of SEO Monitoring options, like Daily Rankings, SERP Distribution, DVR, Potential Analysis, Domain Metrics and Social Media. It even helps you in building links with its set of Linkbuilding options, like Domainfinder, Linkhunter and Linkmonitor. Try the tool at http://www.seolytics.com

Social Media Tools

Relying solely on Google for traffic can be a dangerous tactic for your business, especially when Google’s pets slap your website on its face and refuse to rank it better. Therefore, it is advisable to source your website’s traffic not only from Google, but from any sources possible. If social media marketing works for your brand/product/service, then do it along with your campaign for search rankings. There are many social media tools you can find online that help you manage social accounts the easier way. I have been doing social media manually, so I can’t really recommend a nifty tool for you. But tools such as SproutSocial, Engagio, AgoraPulse and Pingraphy are earning good reviews from their users online.

Strategic uses of these tools not only simplify your work as a Search Engine Optimizer, but will also help you to ensure that you are within what is acceptable. Remember, Google is only effective on its devaluing campaign if your website falls under the list of maliciously behaving entities in its search cycle.