Part art and part science, search engine optimization is not for the faint of heart, what with its ever-changing rules and potential for spectacular disasters. The stories of JCPenney and DecorMyEyes, in particular, have recently provided a vivid illustration of how not to do it.

That’s why we are going to talk about MozBar extension, available free for Chrome and Firefox. MozBar looks at website’s SEO aspects while you navigate on them. This way you can figure out how your competitors and top-ranked websites work optimization techniques.

Yet SEO has become a necessary part of doing business on the Web–companies that don’t do at least some basic keyword optimization of their Web pages put themselves at a significant disadvantage relative to their competitors.

Firefox was created by Mozilla as a faster, more private alternative to browsers like Internet Explorer, and now Chrome. Today, our mission-driven company and volunteer community continue to put your privacy above all else. Your privacy comes first. MozBar The industry's leading SEO toolbar – over 500,000 installs and climbing – MozBar gives you instant metrics while viewing any page or SERP.

I’ve already looked at some clear “don’ts” in the area of SEO, including keyword stuffing and cloaking your content. I’ve also outlined some of the basic things any business should do. Now I’d like to highlight a free browser toolbar that was just updated and stands ready and waiting to lend a hand.

Mozbar Firefox

Webmaster Tools

SEO, of course, is the process of making small tweaks to your Web pages such that they are more likely to be ranked highly on Google and other search engines. Essentially, what that means is that when someone searches on keywords that are highly relevant to your business — “composting services,” say, if that’s what your company offers — your business will be among the top 10 listed by the search engine.

Related story: Don’t abandon your Web site for social media efforts

Or so you hope. It’s certainly possible to achieve that kind of success without any SEO, but a little optimization can go a long way in helping you get there–particularly given that your competitors are probably doing it too.

I’ve already noted webmaster tools that can help, such as SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer — which is free for up to 1000 links with metrics — and Yahoo’s Site Explorer. It’s definitely a good idea to use some such tool to monitor your search traffic, rankings and backlinks. Another one, however, is the MozBar, a free SEO toolbar also from SEOmoz for both Firefox and Chrome.

Mozbar Extension For Firefox

Custom Search Profiles

The MozBar offers easy access to key SEO tools and data while you surf the Web. Users of the toolbar can see SEO metrics at a glance while they’re browsing, and an Analyze Page overlay exposes metrics and page elements.

A search engine results page (SERP) overlay, meanwhile, offers detailed link metrics for Google, Bing and Yahoo.

With the Firefox version of the software–which was just updated this week–users can also create and run custom search profiles by search engine, country and region or city. This can be particularly helpful if you have a chain of stores in three different cities, for example, or if you are keeping tabs on the search results for a particular term in several different countries.

You can even save up to 10 search engine profiles that you commonly use and quickly open and compare the results for each.

IP Location at a Glance

Other new features in the freshly updated Firefox version include enhanced keyword and link highlighting, making it easier for users to quickly see all of their company’s followed links, for example, or just the links that link to external sites.

Users of the new Firefox version can also now export their SERP results along with all of the high-level link data shown in the SERP overlay.

A new button, meanwhile, shows the country where the Web site currently being viewed is hosted; a click on that flag reveals more details about the location and IP address. Clicking on the IP address provides immediate access to WhoIs information.

A Chrome Update on the Way

A video demonstrating MozBar in action is available in Thursday’s announcement of the new Firefox release. A similar update will be released for the Chrome version of MozBar sometime in the coming months, SEOmoz says. Compatible with Linux, Windows and Mac, the MozBar could be a useful tool to help your business stay on top of its SEO.

I am not a big fan of toolbars. In order for me to install one it really needs to be worthy of regular use.

The Seo Mozbar is one of the few I use on a regular basis, and comes packed with useful features and tools.

Use it to analyze your website and pages or the competition.

You can jump right to Yahoo’s Site Explorer inlinks for any website. Go directly to Google, Yahoo, and Bing indexed pages, and much more with a few simple clicks of your mouse.

You can analyze page elements, attributes, and link data.

And, one of my favorite features Highligh Link and Text for followed, nofollowed, internal, and external links. As well as a keyword highlighter. And, color coded for easy to see and understand visualization.

The Seo Mozbar Toolbar also has a very convenient Serp Overlay feature. Enabling this will display Page Authority along with the number of incoming links and Domain Authority in search results in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

There are many additional features included in the toolbar. In fact, so many that I would be here all day writing about them. Check it out for yourself. It is a totally free and a great resource.

The Seo Mozbar Toolbar is available for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. My understanding is that the features vary slightly from the Firefox version to the Chrome version. I use the Firefox version and have been very pleased with the overall experience with it.

For more details and to download the Mozbar Toolbar you can visit:
http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar

If you are interested in additional online tools and analyzers Seomoz.org provides numerous tools on their website. Many of which are totally free to use. You can find them here:
http://www.seomoz.org/tools

Installing the toolbar will not help you soar to page 1 in Google search results, but it can help you with your SEO campaign.

I am the site owner and administrator of DialMe.com. I provide help and tips for Boonex Dolphin on the main part of this website where you will also find an assortment of other resources. Here, on the blog I write about a variety of topics surrounding WordPress, technology, social media/networking, SEO, and webmaster resources.

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