Our 4 Favorite Browser Plugins for SEOs
Browser plug-ins are essential to the success of digital marketers everywhere. They help you efficiently find the information you need without having to spend extra time switching between software. Here are some of my favorite browser extensions for SEO.
1) Grammarly
Grammarly is an online grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checker that should be in the tool belt of every SEO expert. Believe us when we say that there’s nothing worse than a sp3lling error in your copy.
Pros:
- Checks your writing on all Google platforms.
- Recommends definitions and synonyms to keep your writing fresh.
- Allows you to upload documents from Microsoft Word and save them in your account.
- Premium features provide advanced checks for punctuation, grammar, context, sentence structure, and genre-specific write style checks.
Cons:
- The free version doesn’t check for plagiarism.
- Not automatically integrated with Microsoft Office.
2) Spark from seoClarity
Derived from seoClarity, an SEO software that details content for site audits, competitor insights, and dives into on-page content, the Spark extension is an SEO necessity. Spark gives users a comprehensive guide of keyword rankings, an on-page summary, and a high-level overview of the page’s backlink authority, without the need to switch between screens.
Pros:
- User-friendly for those just starting out in digital marketing; plus, it’s free!
- Highlights issues impacting the page such as missing or poorly formatted meta data, non-absolute canonicals, and hyperlink errors.
- Evaluates the relevance of the page to a specific keyword and outlines how to improve keyword use throughout the page.
- The on-page summary includes title tags, H1, meta descriptions, keywords, canonicals – no need to open the page source!
Cons:
- While Spark provides great content insights, it’s not the end-all, be-all. You’ll still need the granular research capabilities and reporting from a bigger tool like seoClarity itself.
3) Link Redirect Trace
This all-in-one redirect path analyzer will report all 301, 302, 404, and 500 HTTPs status codes, along with canonicals tags, robots.txt, and linking backlinks. Basically, it’ll save you a *lot* of time.
Pros:
- Flags 301, 302, 404, and 500 HTTPs status codes along with client-side redirect codes.
- Provides alerts on robot.txt blockings and broken canonical tags.
- Link Redirect Trace Power and Link Redirect Trace Trust were created to replicate Google’s Toolbar PageRank, which they phased out in April 2016. This handy feature identifies the power and trustworthiness of any link on a 10-point scale, like to the Moz Domain and Page Authority metrics.
Cons:
- Doesn’t provide insights on ways to improve the error codes.
- Layout is not as clean and organized as other extensions.
4) Mangools SEO Extension
Mangools gives you all the benefits of a quick SEO analysis right at your fingertips. This extension helps streamline some of the most tedious and repetitive tasks that need to get done on a daily basis.
Pros:
- Provides information about keywords, page speed, headings, SERP presence, as well as ways to improve meta data and keyword targeting.
- The high-level overview combines all the major aspects of SEO tools like Screaming Frog and seoClarity without the price tag or the need to leave the page.
- The backlink analysis breaks down linking and domain issues while the on-page analysis examines SERP presence, meta data, keywords, outbound links, and page speed insights.
Cons:
- As with most extensions, they will never be as detailed as the top SEO tools and software.
- The extension only allows for 15,000 backlinks and 5 site lookups per day.
Stella Khaimova is a DePaul Senior who has a penchant for Russian black tea, Chinese food, and eating whole tubs of ice cream. She once rode halfway across Israel on the back of a motorcycle.