For those of you who aren’t familar with SEO Quake, its an awesome tool, both in terms of the information that it provides as well as the time that it can save you.
It essentially works by dragging useful SEO information from various places across the internet, be it Google, Yahoo or DMOZ, and displaying it on a single page for you to view.
Some of the main features that I frequently use on SEO Quake are;
Meta Data – SEO Quake makes it much easier to view Meta Data than using View > Page Source in your browser as it provides the Page Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords in an easy to read format, unsurrounded by HTML code.
Indexing – You can see how many of your websites pages are in Google’s, Yahoo’s and Bing’s indexes. A pretty nice feature which saves you using the site:url command (i.e. site:www.examplewebsite.co.uk) on each search engine individually. I”ve noticed that the Yahoo! results are often inaccurate, whether this is down to SEO Quake or Yahoo! i’m not entirely sure!.
Links – Checks the number of backlinks that Google and Yahoo! Site Explorer have picked up for your website. Expect to see major inconsistencies between the two search engines as Google is very particular about which links it will show you, whereas Yahoo! gives a much more comprehensive list.
DMOZ – Lets you know whether you’ve been lucky enough to be entered into the exclusive DMOZ club ‘If your names not on the list, then you’re not coming in. And even it is you’ll have to wait a few months, maybe even years before you get to the front of the queue. And even then we might not let you in’. We’ll keep queueing though won’t we?
PageRank Checker – PageRank is a score given to your website based on the quality and quantity of links pointing to your website from other sites. The higher the score the better, as sites with a high PR have a good chance of appearing high in search results. There are some exceptions, and PR is not as important as some will tell you, yet it remains the currency by which SEO’s and Webmasters do business. The most recent PageRank Update was on the 31st December 2009 and it seems that Google was feeling generous as many Webmasters reported recently launched sites being upgraded to a PR 1,2 or even 3.
Last Cached Date – This lets you know the last time Google’s spiders crawled your page. You want it to be crawled regularly to reflect any on and off pages changes that have been made, for example the addition of new pages, or discovery of additional back links to your profile. A website which is well optimised with good amounts of content and back links will usually entice Googlebot to visit regularly.
Age of Domain – Compare this to the friendly, chatty bloke you just met down at your local beer and wine establishment. The age of domain is important in SEO as Google trusts older sites more than new ones, and thus has a tendency to rank them higher. If this sounds strange, then think of an old domain as a friend who you have known since being a child You know them very well and trust them. Compare this to the friendly, bouncy bloke you just met down at your local beer and wine establishment. Sure he seems like a right laugh, but he might be an axe murderer or a crack head. I think Google looks at old and new sites in a similar way ish?
There are a number of other powerful tools at your fingertips with SEO Quake, but these are the main ones that I use on a daily, probably even hourly, basis. Enjoy!
Anthony Taylor is an SEO in Leeds who writes on his blog, Everything SEO, in his spare minutes.