Search Engine Optimization Tools - Do You Really Need Them?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

There are a lot of sites that make search engine optimization tools available to web owners. I often wonder how many of these tools are really needed and how many of them distract you away from what needs to be done.

I have seen web owners caught in a time loop, spending hours going through each and every tool that these sites offer, and one site I know of has 120+ search engine optimization tools. The problem is, you can be so caught up in checking on your web site, you don’t spend enough time working on it or promoting it.

Some tools do come in handy. However there needs to some commonsense in place when using these tools. Search engine optimization tools are really only useful if they provide information that you can directly work on.

Tools such as PageRank check, whilst the information may be handy, is not something that you can change (besides you can use a browser toolbar anyway). However, there are areas of your web site that affect PageRank. Any search engine optimization tools that help you improve those areas may be helpful.

Keyword position checks can be an important tool. If your keywords are not ranking well then you can work a little harder in that area. Another tool that is handy to use occasionally is a spider simulator. This tool will show you what the search spiders see. You can see whether or not your page breaks down at any point. If you have a piece of code that stops the spider seeing all of your page, then all your search engine optimization work will be for nothing.

There are so many search engine optimization tools available it would be hard to go through them all. There are keyword density checkers, link analyzers, page comparison checkers, and these are just a couple of them.

If you use search engine optimization tools then use them wisely, use them sparingly, most of all, use them as a guide to improving your web site. If they have no value for site improvement, don’t waste your valuable time chasing them.

Category: SEO

Read similar posts in SEO

3 Comments

Comment by proassets

Made Tuesday, 15 of April , 2008 at 8:30 am

I totally agree with this post. There are so many options available and you must consciously not get lost in this never ending stat checking. Hello, I’ve done that until I was sure I had totally flipped into an official stat analyst. No offense to anyone, I still consider myself a stat checker to a degree.

Great post though and something that all of us in the industry need to be reminded of probably regularly. Use what you need and get rid of the rest.

Comment by morgan

Made Wednesday, 16 of April , 2008 at 4:07 pm

There is nothing to argue with here! Everyone has gone off the deep end, I’m sure, where they are constantly checking their stats, analyzing their sites and forgetting to work on the site! We’ve all been there, and we all should heed the advice of “there is not try, this is only do, or not do.” Either you’re making a successful website, and you don’t need to check your stats every single hour, or you’re not. Check them once a week, and you’ll get an idea about how it’s going — or once a month. Just don’t get stuck in the details, you need to put in the effort to see some changes in those details!

Comment by Shell Harris

Made Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 10:07 am

Tool overload is a major concern. I can get caught up looking for the best SEO tool, but I have narrowed it down to a few which I posted about in my blog, SEO Toolkit. Thanks for the reality check. Please feel free to share your favorites.