My Search Engine Optimization Tools Of Choice

Any good website is built with the user first in mind. Unfortunately, simply having a great and easily accessible site is not necessarily enough to rank #1 on search engines. The search algorithms are not perfect. Often the webmaster needs to do a bit of hand holding with the search engine and show it the way to your content. This is the core of search engine optimization (or SEO, for short) thinking, and an important aspect of personal branding.

In my quest for ranking #1, I have started collecting a few resources for SEO. Take a look after the break.

Thinking Like A Search Engine

While there are a ton of resources online offering best practices advice and plenty of handy techniques, Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science. To help offer a bit of insight into how the search engine sees my site, I have been using a rather handy site called Google Webmaster Tools. This tool set is extremely valuable to examine how your site is seen by Google’s search spiders, and it will help troubleshoot common issues that may be impeding the crawlers or preventing you from being indexed altogether.

Ranking

I also recommend the SEO Toolbar, namely for the rank checker tool. With this, you can easily check your sites ranking on Google based on a keyword phrase you specify. For example, in my case, I would punch in www.jeffrshearer.com, and keywords such as “Jeff Shearer”, “Jeff Shearer Seattle Marketing”, “Jeff R Shearer”, etc. You might ask, why wouldn’t I just google myself and find out my ranking that way? Google takes your browsing history into account when you submit a search query, therefore you cannot rely on simply googling yourself to find an accurate representation of your site’s ranking for a given keyword.

Analytics and Insights

I love analytics. My weapon of choice? Google Analytics. This is an amazing resource that scales for nearly any needs. There is an incredible wealth of information available on your analytics, but understanding the data and its implications are key to its usefulness.

To learn the ins and outs of Google Analytics, I strongly recommend exploring their educational curriculum. There are some extremely handy tidbits in the curriculum, even for the seasoned veteran, and the curriculum does not take long to complete. I recently took the certification exam as part of my job, and I am now a Google Analytics Qualified Individual.

–Jeff Shearer