SEO is easy. Spend just 5 minutes before you hit publish to target your readers with laser guided precision.
That’s all it takes – 5 minutes. Don’t make it complicated, just make sure you use the right language to connect with your visitors. You’ll be grateful for the effort when you start receiving quality organic traffic through the search engines.
Using the right keywords does 2 things –
1. Helps google index your site for the terms that people search for
2. Helps your reader connect with your writing once they find your page
Search the firefox directory and you’ll find dozens of SEO extensions. Because most of them duplicate many functions do you only really need a handful so this is not an exhaustive list – I’ve filtered through them so you don’t have to and here are 3 that I use everyday.
PPC Web Spy by Brad Callen that gives you x-ray vision into the keywords your competitors are bidding on in google adwords. Super simple to use, just search in google for any term you choose and if there are PPC ads in the SERPs on the right, you’re in business. To activate the plugin, just click on the logo in the firefox status bar and all the adwords results will now display the PPC Web Spy icon. Click the icon to see what keywords the advertiser is bidding on.
Even if you don’t use adwords to get traffic, the results are especially useful for indicating that the keyword can be monetized and that there is a market searching for that term. PPC Web Spy only gives data for longer term PPC campaigns, so we can assume that the campaign is at least paying for itself on the backend and that the term is viable.
PPC Web Spy is free but you can upgrade to unlock some advanced features. If you refer 5 new users, you get upgraded for free.
WordTracker SEO Blogger
Wordtracker is an alternative to google’s adwords keyword tool and is widely used to uncover the terms people use to search for information. Developed by expert blogger Chris Garrett, the plugin sits quietly in the firefox status bar until you click the icon to open the sidebar. Enter your keyword and the tool will spit out a list of search phrases – use these phrases in the key positions in your content and let google take care of the rest.
Quirk Search Status
Quirk is a class little tool that has a bunch of functions so you can delve into a site for metadata on the fly without leaving the page or opening up the source code. The plugin can be added anywhere in the browser interface you choose – I have it set up in my navigation bar, right next to the search function. One of the features I use most is the ‘Highlight No Follow’ tab. It does exactly what you’d imagine it to do and it’s the fastest way I know of checking your site for leaky links and for finding opportune sites to build backlinks.
Wonder Wheel
OK, this one isn’t a firefox plugin but it works right there in your browser so it’s worth including. Search for a term in google and the results page displays an “Search options” link above the results. Click on it to drill down into the results – you can filter the results by time or the type of content; you can even use it to display more site content in the results page so you don’t need to visit each site to see what it’s about.
But the best feature is the wonder wheel – it provides a map of related key-phrases people use to search. Each term is clickable and generates a new generation of suggested terms that are all presented in a contextual map. It’s a brilliant way to drill down into the long tail search terms so that are most commonly used.
There you have it – 3 Firefox plugins and 1 bonus tool that you can use to improve every post you make. Do it.
