What Are SEO Tools? What Are SEO Packages? What Are Backlinks Checkers? These are the questions I get asked quite often from neophytes to advanced SEO practitioners. SEO stands for search engine optimization and refers to the processes used to optimize websites for high search engine placement.

You don’t have to spend money on fancy SEO tools to succeed in SEO. In fact, there are lots of free tools available that will help you with the process. That was the advice that Nathan Finch laid out in a recently released Databox tutorial to SEO for newbies, but that applies to much more than newbies. If you’re already SEO-ready, you can do an awful lot of SEO work without spending money on expensive SEO tools.

What are SEO tools? One of the most valuable SEO tools around today is Google Keyword Tool. Google Keyword Tool displays search results in different color coded groups based on the amount of times each keyword appears in a website’s content. For example, if you enter “web design” into the Google Keyword Tool, you’ll see green in the columns labeled “content”. If you specify “web site creation” as your search, you’ll see a red band that indicates how many times “web site creation” appears on a site. The yellow band indicates the number of times the keyword appears as part of a link.

Another invaluable SEO tool available to SEO pros and amateurs alike is Backlink Analyzer. Backlink Analyzer works by clicking on the anchor text of any page you want to analyze. You’ll then see a section where you can enter in the exact anchor text of the page you want to find backlinks from. Next, the program will generate a backlink analysis for that page. If you’re a serious SEO expert or an amateur with a small budget, this is an absolutely must-have tool.

Google Analytics is another important tool that many people overlook when thinking about SEO. Google’s website analyzer is actually an indispensable tool to anyone who wants to optimize their website. The website analyzer displays information such as search volume, Google Page Rank, the number of unique visitors to a site, and other useful metrics that will help you improve your SEO strategy. Google analytics also comes free with every Google web site. Even if you don’t have an account with Google, it’s worth getting the analytics service anyway because they are incredibly useful in determining the success of your current SEO efforts and estimating how successful you might be in the future.

Keyword Research Tools. No SEO tool is complete without the ability to manipulate search volume and search rankings. A popular way to manipulate search volumes is by adjusting the keywords used in an article. You can choose specific keywords that appear in the content of an article (these are called anchor texts) and change the density, direction of the links, and other factors that will effectively alter the search engine results. Using this tool can be a great way to boost your search engine rankings and drive quality traffic to your website.

Backlink Checker Tool. This is an important SEO tool that enables you to analyze any backlinks that you might get while optimizing your site. Backlinks are essentially incoming links to your site from other sites that are related to yours. An efficient backlink checker will give you the information you need to determine whether the sites are related and whether they’re generating traffic from the same keywords that you’re using to promote your site.

All these tools can greatly increase your SEO campaign. Of course, they’re not all free. Some require you to use a service such as Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing, where you may pay a certain amount for each click. These services are also very useful because they keep track of keyword research statistics and backlinks analysis. While it’s true that some free tools are just as effective according to Super Affiliate System Review, as their paid counterparts, remember that these are just free tools to help boost your SEO.