Check your search engine positions with the Rank Checker Firefox add-on

Posted in Search engines Google on 19 December 2008 | Comments

One of the things I do on a regular basis is on-site search engine optimisation campaigns for several clients. The process goes something like this: (i) we discuss the objectives for the campaign; (ii) we identify keywords or search terms; (iii) I make website changes based on the keywords; and (iv) I spend ages checking and tracking search engine positions for each of our identified terms on Google, Yahoo etc etc over several months.

Luckily, I’ve managed to get some decent results but monitoring search engine positions in step (iv) can be time-consuming [and less than exciting] without automating the process. That’s where the Rank Checker add-on for Firefox comes in. In short, it enables you to search several search engines for your desired keywords/search terms and track the position of your website/domain in the search results. This means that you can measure the effectiveness of your website optimisation work. Best of all, you can export the history of your results into a .csv file to see how your search engine rankings improve for each of your keywords/terms over time.

There’s more. Rank Checker also has a range of configurable options. For example, it enables you to choose which search engines to use, which is great for me since I like to search Google UK. You can even graph your results with the Site Rank Reporter add-on.

Rank Checker must be the most useful Firefox add-on I have discovered this year!

Note: Monitoring search engine positions like this is only one way of assessing the effectiveness of your work. You’ll probably want to measure website visitor numbers and other website metrics as well.

First look at Google Chrome

Posted in Google on 11 September 2008 | Comments [1]

I was a bit lukewarm about Google Chrome, the new browser from the Googleplex, when it was first announced. Another browser for testing websites. I have a few of those already on my system. However, with a heavy heart [just kidding], I downloaded it and my first impressions are pretty good. Firstly, it does seem fast…

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Charging clients for Google Webmaster Tools

Posted in Google Search engines on 14 August 2008 | Comments [1]

These days, as someone who manages a variety of websites for myself and clients, I find that one of the most valuable online resources is Google Webmaster Tools. This Google service allows you to see statistics and error analysis and enables the management of Google’s indexing of your website. It also includes Sitemap submission and reporting. In my opinion, it’s pretty much essential if you want to know more about your website and how Google sees it.

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Google provides more link data

Posted in Google Search engines on 7 February 2007 | Comments

Google is providing much more link data if you are signed up with Google Webmaster Tools. The amount of information is much greater than using the link:operator in normal Google searches (in my experience this was often a gross underestimate). The new system provides more information to anyone who has verified their site with Google. The date can also be filtered and downloaded (which will make it useful for sending to clients, ahem).

The information looks much more comprehensive in terms of numbers but it's important to say that how Google uses the information to rank your site is not revealed. That would be asking too much!

Technorati : google

The future of Google?

Posted in Google Search engines on 5 January 2007 | Comments [2]

Searchmash is a low-profile site by Google. It's a search engine with some different features and I'd speculate that some of these may make it into Google itself in the future You might call it Google's test area, perhaps?

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