Just as it’s important for you to find an SEO firm that is the best fit for your company, it’s necessary for an SEO firm to select and use the right SEO tools in order to make accurate decisions. The data that the SEO tools provide is beneficial when creating an SEO strategy and throughout the implementation of that strategy. At Brick Marketing we understand that using SEO tools properly is essential for SEO success. Every SEO client has different needs and Brick Marketing will review additional tools based on those needs as necessary, but to follow you will find a list of the essential SEO tools that are used for all full service SEO clients in order to properly execute an SEO program.

Google Keyword Tool: SEO Tool Used for Keyword Research

Keyword research is an extremely important part of the SEO process because the selected keywords lay the foundation for an entire SEO campaign. We’ve tested other keyword tools but have found that the Google keyword tool provides the most accurate data since it is coming straight from the source. The Google Keyword Tool provides us with related keyword information along with the search volume for each term. We use that information to make informed decisions about which keywords should be targeted on each page of the site for all full service SEO clients.

SEOmoz: SEO Tool Used for Technical SEO Audit, Keyword Rankings & Link Analysis

SEOMoz is a paid SEO tool that we use for all of our full service SEO clients. SEOMoz is a respected tool within the SEO industry because it emulates the way that Google views a website. At Brick Marketing we use SEOMoz reports for a variety of purposes. We use SEOMoz data to conduct a technical SEO audit of each client’s website. This includes finding 404 errors, making sure that 301 re-directs are properly in place, and looking for duplicate content, title, and meta description issues. SEOMoz provides users with the inbound links of competitors. These links are analyzed and the data is used to help develop and improve upon a link building strategy. We can also pull SEO ranking reports from SEOMoz as needed for our full service SEO clients.

Google Webmaster Tools: SEO Tool Used for XML Sitemap Submission, Crawl Information, Potential Google Penalties

Brick Marketing uses Google Webmaster Tools along with SEOMoz to understand how the websites of full service SEO clients are being viewed by the search engine. We use Google Webmaster Tools to make sure that a site is verified by Google, check that an XML sitemap has been submitted, view the crawl rate of the site, and check for any potential penalties.

Link Tiger: SEO Tool Used for Broken Link and 404 Analysis

Link Tiger is another useful paid SEO tool that will scan an entire website looking for broken links and provide a broken link report. It’s important to fix or remove broken links from a website because broken links can harm the search engine trust factor of a website. A large number of broken links tells the search engines that a visitor may not have a good experience. It’s very possible that a large website or a website that includes a blog may have many broken links that have accrued over time.

Pingdom: SEO Tool Used for Page Load Time Analysis

Pingdom is an SEO tool that tests the load time of a website and provides load time information for each page of the website. It provides a load time analysis for the website as a whole. Like broken links, a high page load time is an indicator that a website will not provide a good user experience. Brick Marketing will make suggestions to decrease website load time if necessary.

Google Analytics: SEO Tool Used for SEO Visitor, Conversion and ROI Reporting

Brick Marketing will make sure that Google Analytics is properly installed on the website of a full service SEO client. Google Analytics provides a wealth of information about a website including top performing pages, entrance keywords, conversion data, and more. The goal of an SEO program is to increase visitors that lead to sales and conversions. Google Analytics data will help full service SEO clients determine the ROI of their SEO program.