Major Changes in Firefox 4

There are some major changes in the new version of Firefox. First off, tabs will be located on the top above the search bar. This is similar to Opera and Chrome. There is also the ability to create an App Tab. Basically, you can right click on any tab and turn it into an “App Tab.” This will result in these “App Tabs” remaining static while still allowing you to click through the other tabs.

Another really cool aspect of Firefox 4 is that you can switch from tab to tab via the search bar. So for example, say you have a tab open for www.seoinc.com and then you search for search engine optimization company. Firefox 4 will suggest you open the tab for SEO Inc. This will really help all you people who like to work with 20 tabs open at one time.

Heard of the new Panorama drag and drop option? Watch a video on it below. It lets you organize your tabs in a whole new way.

Overall, the general feedback fro Firefox 4 is that it is light, quick and an excellent improvement. It looks like those 10 beta test paid off!

Have a comment about the new Firefox 4? Add it below!

There are a ton of tools out there for search engine optimization. So how do you know which to use? Here is a list of some of my favorite SEO tools for beginners

Tools for Search Engine Optimization

Rank Checker
Almost everyone knows Rank Checker. And they should, it’s a great tool and an amazing way to check your rankings. Just don’t use it too much or Google may flag your IP as spam.

Google Keyword Tool
The good old Google external keyword tool has been a staple for search engine optimization for some time now. Use this tool to see what the search volume is for terms you want to optimize for.

WooRank
This SEO tool provides a pretty comprehensive top level analysis of your site. It even gives some insight into the social media marketing of the site. Overall, it’s a decent first step in site analysis.

SEO Toolbar
SEOBook offers a toolbar that is fairly comprehensive. It allows you to check back links through yahoo, easily access sites like Dmoz and SemRush and overall get a good rundown of your site.

Similar Page Checker
If you work in SEO, or are learning it now, you know that duplicate content is an issue. Use this page to see the level of duplicate content on two URLs.

Alexa
Alexa really isn’t an SEO tool, but it can give you some good insight into competitor’s sites. Run a couple sites through Alexa and check out the info provided. I really like the demographic information there. It can be powerful to know.

There are so many tools for SEO it is hard to know which ones to use at the right time. First, determine the area of SEO you are going to focus on. There is a great list of what helps search engines find your site here.

After you have figured out what area you want to focus on, pick the SEO tool that works best for you. If it is not on this list, perhaps you can find it on one of these lists. Good luck!

More on SEO Tools

Complete List of Best SEO-Tools

The Best SEO Tools

Top 20 SEO Tools

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This plug-in is robust, to say the least. It takes into account the major search engine optimization techniques needed to be successful with a WordPress blog, and let’s face it, there are a lot of things to consider.

One of the most important items to search engine optimization is title tags. For those of you who don’t know how this works, allow me to quickly explain. In search engine marketing, it is vital that you name your title tags with keywords that you are optimizing for. For instance, if you are selling “Big Baggy Pants” online, you are going to want to put the keywords “Big Baggy Pants” in your title tags, among other places as well.

One of the benefits of the SEO Nova plug-in is that it adds these keywords to your titles for you, perfectly optimizing your titles for search engines. This free tool can be utilized by anyone that has a WordPress blog.

Watch this video on the SEO Nova WordPress search engine optimization plug-in below to see how the widget refines your title tags for search. After you have watched this video, make sure to check out the rest of the SEO Nova features because title tag optimization is only the beginning of what this device has to offer. By the way, this is not me talking in this video… But the presenter does an excellent job of showing this search engine optimization feature of SEO Nova.

New Product called SEMMETRIX to Track your rankings on the Major Search Properties.

The most user friendly SEO tool in the industry, SEMMetrix is an easy to use, web based SEO rankings tracker from SEO Inc. that allows companies to view ranking reports and track key search engine ranking criteria at any time, day or night, with no software required.

SEMMetrix lets you track link popularity, keyword exposure, back links, search engine saturation and more, AND incorporate data on your competitors. Pick up to three of your main competitors and see how they are performing in comparison to your SEO campaign, and on the major search engines and directories.

All of your information is easily accessible with quick overviews of the progress of SEO campaigns including the overall percentage of search engine listings and percentages gained in Alexa ratings and Google ratings.

1) Web developer toolbar: We use this toolbar ALL THE TIME; to check server headers, take a look at the document outline, quickly see what a layout will look like at 800×600 (although no one seems to care anymore), measure something on the screen using the very convenient ruler feature. And once in a while I use the speed report feature to turn my complaints about a slow server into some actual numbers that I can base my recommendation to switch servers on. (FireFox only)

2) Google tool bar: Comes in second because we all have it and use it daily. This was the first tool bar that I felt was worth taking up space on my browser. I have always disliked the AOL, MSN and Yahoo! Toolbars because I could just never find a good reason for them to be there. I have always searched using Google, so it’s nifty to have the search bar always available, plus I like to see page rank. I trust a site more if it has higher page rank. I know page rank is not a very reliable measurement of a site’s standing anymore, and maybe this is irrational, but I just feel better reading something or buying something from a site with good page rank. (Many browsers)

3) Firebug: This one is very popular in the tech department. It is an excellent tool for trouble shooting layout issues and especially CSS problems. The inspect element function gives you the ability to hover over anything in the page and see its containing elements highlighted as well as show up in the code view. We also use it to debug and develop ajax applications, because it’s the only way we know of to see the ajax php response without outputting it as JavaScript. I really love this thing! (FF only)

4) SEO toolbar: Really an all-in-one toolbar I use for reviewing a site’s SEO friendliness, or to check rankings for a keyword in multiple browsers. I also love the keyword density feature and all the link info it provides. We don’t just love and use it because it’s ours, it’s really a great time saving tool to have handy. (Internet Explorer only)

5) FireFtp: This is a great extension that allows you to use FireFox as an FTP client. This is popular in our project management department because it’s straight forward and allows you to quickly and easily transfer files, or just ensure that FTP info is working without having to install and use a separate program. (FF only)

6) IE tab: This add-on is really just an enabler for our FireFox junkies that are so addicted to FireFox that they can’t even bring themselves to open IE to check cross browser compatibility.

7) Multiple IE: This one isn’t really an add-on or a toolbar but it is something browser related that we use A LOT in the tech department here at SEO Inc. This program allows us to have multiple versions of IE installed on our computer, so that we can have IE7 on our computer and still check to see that our work is not messing up the website we are working on in IE6.

A big giant thank you to whoever came up with and developed these, we use them every day and they truly do make our lives easer. I am also looking forward to seeing your favorites, so please post them in the comments area. Thanks!