Search engine optimization Tools
We decided to test a few search optimization tools to see which ones would work best on determining keyword density for a particular site that we are optimizing. The site in question is one of our own. We wanted it to rank for “Bulk Domain Names” where it had absolutely no ranking at all. There are several factors to understand on this
1. The site does not have a keyword in the url
2. google did recognize it as a “domain name” and hosting site (as determined by adwords)
3. the site is 9 years old, neglected and has 2 backlinks from one of our other sites.
4. the site has a PR rank of 4
5. We rank #17 (within only two days) under “Bulk Domain Names”
We tried several tools and here is our analysis:
1. http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html / This is an impressive tool. Well laid out, great for understanding aspects of search optimization, but unfortunely it only noted our keywords as a single digit, and no density to speak of.
2. http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/index.php / This is a nice tool, and it does show that the word “domain” has a density of 9.07% (104 times). (and who told you that using a keyword that many times would hurt you?). It also shows the word “bulk” used 8 times at density of .70% . Overall the information here is easier to read than our first choice, but still not completely adequate to see how 3 word keyword combinations will fare. It recognizes “bulk domain registration” over “bulk domain names” (we rank 37 on that combination) and “cheap domain names” as primary where we have no rank at all. Overall, this is a good tool.
3.http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php / This tool is fair. It shows the word domain as the most popular here, but doesn’t identify keyword combinations at all. However it does have an intuitive results page showing blatently in sizing what is most prevelant on the page.
4. http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html / unfortunately this tool won’t analyze the page as our page appears to be too long.
5. http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/keyword-density.html / This one does very well. It does recognize our 3 word term as #13 on it’s list of 3 word keywords, at 0.42% density. It recognizes a few others where we don’t rank at all. It also ranks our two word term as #5 with a density of 1.84%. Overall this is the most impressive so far of the tools.
6. http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/ This one ranks us well and is well organized. It recognizes our two word term at 0.59% density, at #5 on the list along with (unfortunately) some words where we don’t rank at all. It recognizes our two word at .90%. On this tool you can only run 1,2, or 3 words separately so it would be time consuming, but like the linkvendor tool it does report somewhat accuratley.
7.http://www.keyworddensity.com/search_engine_optimization/keyword_density.cgi / This one is a bit difficult to understand. However what it does show is that this term is in 3 places. 1 time in visible text, one time in title, and one time in reference tags with a keyword density in the alt tag of 4.2 % . “cheap domain registration” that shows up with the highest keyword density in other tools shows in keywords, description and alt tags and image tags (ie, id=” “) at 12-13.88% but as we know doesn’t rank. Lending us to suspect that although this is an interesting tool, it doesn’t easily get us to where we are going.
this brought up an interesting item… “alt tags” “paypal domain registration” has an alt tag density of 8.33% - 6 times. “Bulk domain names” has no alt tags and yet has a better rank. Certainly there are other things lending to this, but this again is an interesting tool.
8. http://googlerankings.com/ultimate_seo_tool.php / BINGO. this tool so far most accurately shows what we are looking for. It pulls in our keyword as the 2nd best 3 word term at 2.41% and pulls in the first place winner at 4.82% although we actually rank 37th on google for this term. By far the most accurate of knowing which terms have the greatest density, this tool is still not entirely accurate. but our overall winner so far.
9. http://www.submitexpress.com/cgi-bin/analyzer/meta.pl / Sorry but after our last tool, using this was definately a flatline. Not a mention of our keywords here. Looks extensive but in reality, not good.
10.http://www.trafficzap.com/keydensity.php / Okay, if we already had a number one site this tool would be fine. Basic but fine. The problem is the keyword that we actually rank on shows up as if insignificant at 2.59%. There is no 2 or 3 word keywords so unless we were able to rank on the word “domain” which I doubt, this tool doesn’t cut it.
11. http://tool.motoricerca.info/keyword-density.phtml / This tool if configured in a certain way, that certain way that google is looking would be good also. But the hitch is, okay, do we really know the google algo to make this tool tell us what we need. Probably not. Therefore it’s somewhat not helpful. If we choose include page title, alt tags, and description it’s almost accurate.
12. http://developers.evrsoft.com/seotool/ / ever feel like you are really spamming a page to get ranked? Well this tool will convince you that you’re not. It’s a pretty good tool. It doesn’t actually decode what we want, but it does tell us quite a bit about what we have done. We’ll rate it useful but not for what we are attempting to do. For beginners.
13. http://www.gorank.com/analyze.php / Okay, we used this a couple of years ago and it’s quite good. It shows the keyword prominence of our term at 51.43%. Which as you know is by far the best understanding of the way that google works. The Ontology finder on this site is also excellent. I shouldn’t be so smug about this, but in fact this is the tool I have been searching for again. This site hasn’t been updated since 2004, but obviously they were onto something.
14. and just for fun for those of you who are visual try http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-cloud/
Well, that concludes this evenings post. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. Overall I’ll make a note here for two things that we will be working on during the next few days.
a. we plan to work with gorank and find more useful ways to boost our current two day rank
b. we plan to take another look at googlerankings
c. plan to take a look at our competitors and see how we can improve our ranking against them.