SEO Analysis For Your Blog
One subject I never write about here is Search Engine Optimization. But it is a fact that blogging and SEO go hand in hand, and without actually knowing I suspect that more than one blog has been started with the main (maybe only) purpose of improving a site's ranking.
To be honest I think that the SEO business is a pretty dirty business with many strange offers, and my basic advice to clients is always "produce really good content, avoid some usual mistakes in the code, link and get linked to". Nine times out of ten, that does it.
But even if I don't like the business very much, SEO as such can be, well, funny. Here are the tools I use to fine tune the sites I'm working with.
Top Ten Google Analysis
An indepth comparison, including both Google and Yahoo, between your site (if you want to) and the top 10 search results for a specific search phrase. Requires that you get your own Google API key.
GoogleRankings.com
A fast and easy way to check your site's ranking in Google.
YahooSearchRankings.com
As above, but with Yahoo.
Marketleap
Three different tools:
Link Popularity Check (..."the total number of links or "votes" that a search engine has found for your website.")
Search Engine Saturation
(..."the number of pages a given search engine has in its index for your website domain.")
Keyword Verification
(..."if your site is in the top three pages of a search engine result for a specific keyword.")