Let’s face it: life in the digital age has made us lazy in more ways than most of us care to admit. Sure, life has gotten better in many ways, but you should still examine whether downloading another social media app will improve your quality of life.
Even with the boom of highly innovative apps and software, the work involved in achieving positive SEO can still be quite massive and difficult. So if you’re already using Google Chrome, there are so many extensions that actually can make life a little easier.
Why Use Google Chrome?
From cars to soft drinks, to operating systems, it’s all a matter of preference. You don’t have to love using Google Chrome as your desktop browser of choice, but most of us rely on it regularly for ease of use, speed, and integration with other Google services. And if you wear multiple hats working in SEO and PPC, some services only work with Google Chrome.
Another reason we like to use Chrome is the ever-expanding list of extensions available on the browser. Like little apps that integrate with Chrome, extensions can save time and make life working on SEO that much better. Search engine optimization has multiple facets to consider with regards to content optimization, design issues, and content distribution. Another great bonus to using Google Chrome is its availability across all platforms — even mobile! Most extensions that work on your PC will work on your Mac, too.
For those of you sticking to your guns with other browsers, fear not! Many of these tools are not specific to Google Chrome. Given the choice, some of these extensions are absolute must-haves. We asked some of our very own SEO experts to weigh in with their favorites, too.
1. Grammarly
This one comes to us from SEO expert and DOM star Jonathan Bentz, and we couldn’t agree more. Wait, no, we can agree more! Grammarly is great because it won’t try to change your voice (like Microsoft Word’s grammar suggestions often do), it just makes sure you’re using the correct forms of verbs, and your, commas, are, in the right, place (Grammarly hates misplaced commas).
2. MozBar
Moz is without a doubt one of the industry leaders in search marketing, so it’s no surprise that they have one of the most popular extensions for Google Chrome. This tool packs in a whole ton of features, but the best part about this helpful tool is the ability to look at specific pages and scan on-page elements to easily locate meta titles and descriptions, as well as instances of H1 tags.
3. BuiltWith Technology Profiler
Part of SEO is evaluating technical issues and challenges that may directly impact ranking in search engines, but also to hopefully improve user experience as well. BuiltWith will analyze what technology a site is built on to help designers and developers decide what technology they themselves will want to implement. Often times, this will come in handy during initial site evaluations and strategies for site redesigns.
4. Link Checker
SEO expert and DOM hero Steph Mahnken loves Link Checker, and with good reason — it does exactly what it says on the label: it checks links. There aren’t many more frustrating things for a visitor to your website than links that don’t go anywhere. This extension saves you the time and effort of clicking through every single link on a page to make sure they go where they’re supposed to.
5. The Great Suspender
Here’s another recommendation from Jonathan Bentz, an extension that helps you manage all those open tabs! If you’re like us, you always have a bunch more tabs open than you need at the current moment. You’ll need them eventually, just not now, so you want to keep them open. But Chrome doesn’t know which ones you’ll need when, so it keeps them all chugging along even when you have no plans to go back to that SEMRush tab until this afternoon. The Great Suspender will suspend tabs you haven’t used in a while so that memory can be put to better use refreshing Facebook every five minutes.
6. Ubersuggest
DOM Digital Marketing Coordinator Michael DelloRusso gives his vote to this extension, which lives right next to your Google results and gives you all the relevant SEO data you need in order to make the best decisions. You can get an immediate glimpse of everything from search volume to keyword suggestions. This comes from SEO legend Neil Patel, so you know you’re getting something valuable.
7. Spark Content Optimizer
This suggestion comes from DOM Digital Marketing Account Manager Dana Schumacher, who counts it as one of her favorites. Spark Content Optimizer is a free extension that gives you on-the-fly site tech audits and backlinks information, two incredibly important aspects of any SEO strategy.
8. ColorZilla
Although more of an extension for a designer, ColorZilla can still be useful. When creating new content or new pages, it’s always important to ensure that colors are consistent with respect to branding. If it doesn’t look right, it’s better to be safe than sorry and make sure the colors are correct.
9. Buffer
Social media management tools come in all shapes and sizes. Buffer is definitely one of the top tools to consider, but it should be noted that other similar services have their own extensions available for Chrome with nearly identical functionality. When it comes to promotion and distribution of content, scheduling posts through tools like Buffer can certainly help. Not only can you share your own content, but any page that might be relevant or useful to followers can also be shared directly to your platforms by using this extension.
PRO TIP: If you’re always questioning the best hashtags to be using with your different platforms, the RiteTag extension can be integrated with Buffer to help you pick the right ones.
10. Note Anywhere
If you’re actively engaged in improving SEO and design, you’re more than likely visiting different pages multiple times in just a single day. While there are tons of extensions like Note Anywhere, we suggest trying out a couple to find one that works for you. This extension is easy to use to leave yourself notes when you’re visiting pages over and over. With timestamping, this extension can help you understand progress or simply jog your memory.
Don’t Shy Away from Experimenting
Are these extensions going to make you an SEO superstar and make you rank number 1 in Google for every keyword that you want?
Probably not.
But if you’re committed and willing to put in the work, these extensions can really help.
As always, DOM is here to help you through every step of your SEO journey — just get in touch!