Link Building is difficult, uncertain, unpredictable, confusing, capable of being repetitive, tedious, exhausting, frustrating, and inconsistent. Are you still reading?  If so, then I shall arm you with some tols to help you tame this link building beast!

Link building is arguably the most critical component to achieving results in the SERPs for any SEO campaign.  For those of you who may be rather new to this “link building” thing, don’t panic!  There are tons of amazing tools available to help you get started on the right track.  In this blog post, I’ll show you some of the toolbars I personally use to complete my daily link building research tasks.

Here’s a screenshot of my Firefox Browser below:

I don’t think too many people’s browsers out there look like that.  Believe it or not, I actually had to trim it down because I previously had 3 more toolbars.  I eventually realized that I couldn’t be browsing the web with 40% of my browser’s menus taking up the whole webpage.

Before you go searching for sites for links, you need to be able to filter the sites you’ll target. The toolbars I discuss will help you do just that.

SEOmoz Toolbar

The SEOmoz bar is an amazing toolbar. SEOmoz has a trusted name within the industry so you can be certain that you can feel good about relying on their tools and data. They provide their own version of PageRank with something they label as “mozRank.” Since Google’s PR is updated much less frequently, I’m more prone to lean towards using SEOmoz’s mozRank. The Purple/Pink/Red (you choose the color) bar is the mozRank for the page and the Blue bar is the mozRank for the entire domain. They even provide a breakdown of each mozRank, segregating the number of links and the number of actual unique domains listing to both the page and the domain. SEOmoz’s Toolbar is certainly a quick and simple method to examine the quality, trust, and link count of a site.

SEOBook Toolbar

The SEO Book Toolbar provides its own unique data. Such data includes Google’s PageRank, a backlink count from Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, Blekko, Yahoo and DMOZ directory listings, Site Age, Compete.com and SEMRush Traffic estimates, and SEO X-Ray (a totally cool way to quickly display Meta and Title Tag info – see below in image).  Feel free to download the SEOBook Tool bar here.  You have to create an account with SEOBook, but it’s free!

SEO Quake Toolbar

“Why in the world do you have 3 SEO Toolbars?” you ask? SEO Quake is capable of displaying much of the same data that SEO Book provides, but also contains different features which I find worthy of inclusion and usage. Personally, I use it to show the number of pages indexed in Google, the Alexa Ranking, a Whois button (very useful for finding contact information – refer to my older post), quickly gauging the internal linking for a page, and my 2 favorite features: Page Info and Diagnosis (see below in the images)

SEO Quake’s “Page Info” provides a quick rundown of the title/meta data for the page and its keyword density. Pushing the “Info” button at the far left of the toolbar will queue the following page in a separate tab:

Pushing the “Diagnosis” button (shown at the far right) will pop a separate tab which features a breakdown of meta data info, website compliance issues, and server issues.

Before you go researching and contacting sites to target for your link building campaign, you need tools to analyze the sites for quality. Using these toolbars will greatly assist in filtering the sites you should target. The toolbars I’ve discussed not only ensure that you avoid targeting sites that can potentially hurt your link portfolio, but help you aim for sites that will boost the quality of your link profile and ultimately increase your presence in the SERPs!

Bobby is one of our illustrious Search Team members and is a link building expert. He came to Intrapromote in 2008 with several years of experience already under his belt and ready to share the wealth of knowledge he had.

With a diversified background in client focus, Bobby has been able to assist with developing best practice link building protocols and teaching other team members the ropes. Plus, he has amazing hair. He’s the full package!

Bobby blogs about link building topics and is quick to lend a helping hand in anything search-related. He’s a basketball fan (to put it mildly) and he looks forward to March Madness on an annual basis.

Ready to Work With Us?

Are you ready to have results that you've only dreamed of? Need someone on your side who can explain the ins and outs of organic search and social media marketing? Ready to have your brand be extended, amplified and protected?

Contact our sales team about working with IP and find out what options exist for your business today.

Contact

Send to Kindle

• Bio
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Latest Posts

Bobby Pham

Specialist, Organic Search at Intrapromote

Bobby is one of our amazing Search Team members and is a link building expert. He came to Intrapromote in 2008 with several years of experience already under his belt and ready to share the wealth of knowledge he had. With a diversified background in client focus, Bobby has been able to assist with developing best practice link building protocols and teaching other team members the ropes. Plus, he has amazing hair. He's the full package! Bobby blogs about link building topics and is quick to lend a helping hand in anything search-related. He's a basketball fan (to put it mildly) and he looks forward to March Madness on an annual basis.

@bmpham325

The ramblings of a self-proclaimed awesome guy! I work for Intrapromote, an awesome SEO company, and I like mango and peaches.

@woelfel I'm there at 7 playa - 37 days ago

Follow @bmpham325

+Bobby Pham

Latest posts by Bobby Pham (see all)

• A Solid Link Building Plan from Start to finish in 2013 Part IV – Researching Your Competition - May 3, 2013
• A Solid Link Building Plan from Start to Finish in 2013 Part III – The Fundamentals - April 5, 2013
• A Solid Link Building Plan from Start to Finish in 2013 Part II – On-Page Optimization - March 1, 2013
• A Solid Link Building Plan from Start to Finish in 2013 – Part 1 - January 31, 2013
• Link Building in 2013 and Beyond - January 4, 2013