SEO & SEM Resources
Search engine optimization and paid-search marketing involve a lot of research. Fortunately, there are many useful tools and information resources that aid in getting things done. Here are some links to the most valuable resources and tools that we use (in no particular order):
Darrin Ward's Search Engine Resources
- Search Engine Rankings Reporter
- Create reports for your Website's ranking positions in Google and Yahoo with this free PHP script.
- SpyderTrax Search Engine Robot/Crawler Tracker
- Track HTTP hits to your Websites from a variety of search engines' robots/spiders/crawlers.
News, Forums & Information Resources
- WebmasterWorld
- WebmasterWorld.com is an extremely popular and interesting discussion forum for internet professionals, administered by Brett Tabke, and moderated by some of the industry's most authoritative personalities. Make it your browser's homepage!
- Search Engine Roundtable
- The "Search Engine Roundtable" is a great way to keep up with the latest developments in the search industry. Barry Schwartz is the reporting personality.
- Search Engine Land
- One of the more popular search engine news sites. Danny Sullivan and Barry Schwartz are among the lead reporters, with many others contributing.
- SEO Chat
- Founded by Darrin J. Ward, this website offers some very good information for beginner SEO's, with forums for discussion.
- SEO Consultants
- Directory of peer-reviewed high quality SEO consultants. This link points to Darrin Ward's listing in the directory.
Tools
- Google Trends
- Google Trends is an interesting tool that allows for comparison of keywords, trended over time. Very useful for detecting and exploiting seasonal fluctuations.
- W3C HTML Validator
- This tool is the defacto standard for validating HTML source code, which is very important.
- SpyFu
- SpyFu shows some information specific to keywords and domain names. Interesting way to determine a competitors place in the market.
- IntoDNS
- IntoDNS is a good DNS (Domain Name Server) checking tool that reports on DNS configuration. Good free replacement for DNSReport!
- URI Valet
- URI Valet reports on various pieces of information critical to SEO, including server headers, object information, internal and external links, etc..
- MSN AdLab
- Some interesting tools from Microsoft.
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