If you read anything on another post regarding Internet Explorer, you might understand that I do not use IE much anymore. Obviously there are some things that I just can’t get around without IE, but for the most part, I’ve converted to Firefox. Firefox flexibility is one that just cannot be overlooked and the ease of adding extensions puts it far above all others in my book.
I like to try new extensions from time to time, especially if they are in the world of seo and/or development, so I would like to share two must have Firefox extensions if you are into search engine marketing or search engine optimization. These two extensions can help in link building research to spot sneaky coding and also quick site stats.
SearchStatus
The first one is called SearchStatus. It is offered by a company called Quirk which appears to have three offices around the world. Once this extension is installed, you will, by default, see three items in your lower right browser window; Alexa ranking scale, PageRank ranking scale & Quirk’s logo, which is a blue “Q” with a circle around it. The features on this extension are probably the best I’ve seen for this type of industry and I give high regards to the makers for a job well done. Feel free to visit their website to get the latest info on this extension, but I will go through and highlight many features here.
The Q icon offers several options when right-clicking on it.
The “options” selection will provide the ability to place the icon/images in various places of your browser. Don’t worry…if there is a particular place you want to put it, they’ll give you the option!
‘Enable PageRank‘ is the next option. Check this and the PageRank status will appear. Uncheck it and it will not show. (Simple enough). If the PageRank status image is active, you can right-click on it to get additional Google features:
‘Show as Text‘ – This is the google command to show a website as only text. It will remove all images, css, scripts and so on. It will show you the basics of the page revealing hidden text and hidden links.
‘Show Cache‘ – This will give you Google’s cache of the page you are sitting on. Pay attention to the cache date to see if it was indexed recently. If it’s been over 45 days, the site could be penalized.
‘Show Related Links‘ – This is Google’s list of sites they feel is related to your site in one way or another. Some have said it’s best to have links on these sites back to you, but most of the time it’s a time wasting view.
‘Show Backlinks‘ – This will give you a list of sites Google knows about that link to the website you are viewing. Most of you know this is ‘link popularity’, one of the most important factors in doing well within your respective search results.
‘Enable Alexa‘ – Just like PageRank, check to see, uncheck to remove. This is the first scale for Alexa I’ve come across. It is just like PageRank, except blue (like our LinkRank). You can mouseover the scale to get the exact Alexa ranking. Right-click on the Alexa ranking and get these addition features:
‘Show as Text‘ – The same feature as on the PageRank. Shows the page and text only.
‘Show Traffic Details‘ – This will give you in-depth traffic info for the requested domain. The Alexa traffic numbers have always been a topic of controversy, but people still like to see their own and others. Especially if it is good. Don’t read too much into anything that is not in the top 20k. It’s just impossible for any one source to know exact traffic details of every site.
‘Show Incoming Links‘ – This is like Google backlinks, except it is all links that Alexa is aware of. These numbers are usually pretty low.
‘Contact Info‘ – This can be a useful tool if you want to see who owns the domain quickly.
‘Categories‘ – Just a show of what category the requested domain falls into. Might help determine if a publisher site is within your own realm.
‘Related Links‘ – similar to Google’s, just gives you sites it feels are somehow related.
‘Highlight NOFOLLOW Links‘ – This is a great option that will show you which links on a page are set by the webmaster to not be indexed. Saves the trouble of having to sift through code to see if the tag is added on a given link.
‘Meta Tags‘ – Opens a new window and details all of the META information on that page.
‘Show in Archive.org‘ – it shows what archive.org has on the site. You can see the progression of the site..if any.
‘Show Whois‘ – similar to the contact info, it will show you the listing in whois database.
‘Show robots.txt‘ – want to see if a site is blocking pages from being indexed? Use this option. It will tell you how a site allows information to be read by the search engines. Not everyone will have this file, so don’t be surprised to get a 404.
‘Show Keyword Density‘ – this is a simple breakdown, like our own density tool, of keywords on a page and the rate at which they’re shown.
‘Highlight Keyword‘ – just like a CTRL-F. (Page Find)
‘Show Indexed Pages‘ – Nice option that will show you the indexed pages by each engine or all at once. Rather than having to go to each engine and type the command or run a tool for each engine, the “All” selection does is a great time saver!
‘Show Backward Links‘ – Again, see backward links by engine or all once.
So this is the breakdown of SearchStatus. I guess I went ahead and detailed everything currently on it. Just be sure to check the owner’s site for the latest build and features. Thanks Quirk for such a great tool!
Web Developer
The second extension is called Web Developer. It was developed by Chris Pederick and he has done a great job. This is a toolbar extension that has ‘many’ options available. The idea of the toolbar and its features is to give the web surfer power to enable and disable different parts of a website/webpage. Cookies, CSS, Forms, Images, View Source, Tag Information, Outline Abilities, Browser Resizing, Validation Options and flexibility. One of the best features is in the “Options” tab where you can add your own or other tools to the ‘TOOLS’ tab. There are too many options to go through on this toolbar, so the best thing to do is visit Chris Pederick’s Web Developer page and read his published info. Another great extension to add to your Firefox browser.
Have a Firefox extension that would rival these? Let us know.