In past articles I have waxed poetic about the Firefox internet browser. I can’t help it, I love it! For me it all comes down to the add-ons. Firefox add-ons had so many functions that it is hard to pass up. I remember they once even had an add-on that would skip the countdown on popular file sharing sites like megaupload.
I do serious work with my Firefox though. While add-ons like that might be great for personal browsing, I actually use add-ons that make my job and life easier. I looked at some great web design tools in a past article, now I want to focus on search engine optimization add-ons. I am going to look at three of my favorites.
1. SEOQuake - This one is the king of Firefox SEO add-ons. it is a great tool that can be used in a wide variety of ways. I use it for one major reason though.
First, I use it to check out my competition. If I am trying to rank for a keyword, I will do a search on that term and then check out the number 10 spot on Google. This allows me to figure out how easy/hard it will be to make it to the front page of Google. To do my research I visit the page, right click on it find my SEO Quake in the menu and click on “Page Info”. I am instantly brought to a page that has a ton of info about the website in question. it has page rank, last time cached, domain age, pages indexed, backlinks to the home page, backlinks to the domain and way way more. It is a great tool for doing some quick research.
One suggestion – don’t have SEOQuake on at all times and use it sparingly. Google will definitely get annoyed if you are querying it all the time from the same IP.
2. NoDoFollow – This is avery simple add-on. When installed it is added to your tools menu. When you turn it on it will highlight all the links on a page. The NoFollow links are highlighted red and the DoFollow are highlighted blue. This is very handy if you are looking for places to get backlinks (i.e. blog comments) and you want to ensure the link is DoFollow.
I wouldn’t completely ignore NoFollow when backlinking but this tool will let me avoid spending all day on No Follow links. Very small and doesn’t hinder browser speed at all.
3. YSlow – Google is on record saying that website loading time effects your Google ranking. This isn’t a rumor or myth, it was always widely believed but Google has indeed confirmed. Yslow is a plugin for Firefox that will analyze your website’s load time. It will grade your website against a set of rules for high performance websites. It will also offer ways you can improve your site’s load time.
These are only three of many add-ons for Firefox. These three alone, would ensure I stayed with Frefox though. Take a look at the add-ons available for Firefox and you will surely find some you can use. These tools can make your life easier – and hey who doesn’t want that?