MOZ

This is one I still use on a daily basis and operate as a plugin on my Google Chrome browser. To utilise to full potential, you need to have an account with MOZ, but you can still use the tool even without a paid account, but with reduced data.

Consider buying yourself a subscription to Moz for access to a bunch of outstanding tools for SEO. It’s a little pricey in my view, but if you are doing SEO work on multiple sites or operate in a competitive genre, it’s worth the investment.

MOZ G-SERPs SEO Metrics

The most immediate benefit I get from this tool is to get a kind of snap-shot look at the current approximate SEO status of any search result in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). MOZ will overlay data into the search page with reporting on the following metrics:

1. PA – Page Authority. This is an indicator of ranking strength for the individual page in search results
2. Inbound links to this page, shown in total links and individual Root Domains linking to this page (e.g. there might be 5 websites linking 20 links to this page, so your metrics would be 20 links / 5 RDs.)
3. DA – Domain Authority. This is an indicator of ranking strength for the site as a whole.
4. Inbound links to this domain, shown in total links and individual Root Domains linking to this domain (e.g. there might be 10 websites linking 300 links to this domain in total across all pages, so your metrics would be 300 links / 10 RDs.)

Once you’re in a website, you get more data in the MOZ toolbar that is specific to the page and site.

On-Page and Off Page SEO Metrics

The metrics available here are helpful to give you a quick overview on technical SEO features for the web page you are viewing.

Firstly, the SERPs data from above is repeated. Additional data is:

On-Page Elements:

1. URL status – indicates several features – such as whether the URL has been redirected, and how many characters the URL contains. Redirection results in some rank loss for example, which may be regained. A 301 redirect is permanent. All SERPs references to the old URL should expire at some point, and (most of the) page-rank passed to the new URL temporarily, until such a time as the new URL establishes its own page-rank. The 301 redirect should stay in place indefinitely in case any bookmarked links are utilised by the site user. Clear and concise human-readable URLs are also desirable for SEO, with undiluted keyword content. Also indicated in this section is the hosting location by way of a small country flag graphic.
2. Page Title – reports on the current Page Title element, with total character count. Ideal length just short of the maximum pixel width able to be rendered in SERPs.
3. Meta Description – reports on the coded Meta Description for the page and indicates if duplicates exist. Also shows character count, which should be less than the maximum pixel width for SERPs – consider all search engines you want these to render in when determining character count maximums.
4. Meta Keywords – reports on the content of the Keyword Meta container for the page. Should be empty unless your site’s internal search engine references it – which is unlikely.
5. H1 – reports on the text content within any <h1> tags on the page, with character count. There should really only be one occurrence of H1 on the page, and probably not more than 30-40 characters – the approximate equivalent of a long newspaper headline.
6. H2 – reports on the text content within any <h2> tags on the page, with character count. There may be more than one occurrence of H2 on the page, but probably not more than 2 or 3 occurrences unless the page has long copy over say 1000 words.
7. Bold / Strong – reports on words highlighted in style ‘bold’ – which is a way to emphasise words for users, and therefore also for search engines.
8. Italic / em(phasis) – reports on words highlighted in style ‘italic’ – which is a way to emphasise words for users, and therefore also for search engines.
9. ALT Text – reports on any texts set as ALT tags on images and other media resources appearing in the page.

Read more about how I use this great browser plugin here.