SEO Tools For Firefox

There are a growing set of extensions for the Firefox web browser that are rapidly making it an indispensable part of the SEO's web development toolkit.



Setting aside the debate over the value of PageRank for a moment, "seeing green" is still a component of the process.

Download the Google PageRank Extension directly from Firefox (it knows how to install these extensions automatically). After it installs, you'll be able see the page rank for pages, just like as if you had the Google Toolbar installed, except look for it in the bottom righthand side of the screen.

Next, you need the User Agent Switcher extension. First off, this extension is very handy in some sites (like my bank) that block access to my online banking pages unless I have an Internet Explorer user agent string... strangely enough, the online banking pages work fine in Firefox as soon as I spoof the IE UA ;).

Now - aside from that the user agent can be used to spoof search engine bot User agents - Googlebot, slurp (Yahoo), and MSNbot. What you can do (usually in conjunction with disabling JavaScript) is see sites that are cloaking. For some reason, these are pretty common in Yahoo's serps. Just look for "ransom notes" that look like randomly generated text or keyword lists, and visiting the site doesn't have the content on the page, chances are high that the site is cloaking. Some of the smarter cloakers are using the IPs to cloak, but try taking a peek at the search engine's cache of the page.

Finally (saved the best for last) you should install the Web Developer Extension (made by the same person who created the User Agent Switcher).

Basically the web developer extension is a powerful toolbar that has a number of developer shortcuts that are invaluable in the website creation, testing and debugging process.

The web developer toolbar is broken into 14 major categories:

• Disable: allows you to disable a number of different things - javascript, images - very handy for testing purposes



• CSS: allows you to view the stylesheet of a page instantly, allows you to impose your own stylesheet on any page, and edit the CSS directly from the dropdown menu.



• Forms: Another set of powerful tools, allowing you to populate the form fields, get the form information, and much more



• Images" just about anything you want - you can display the image paths, dimensions, put a special outline on images that are missing attributes like the alt tag, find broken image tags and much more.



• Information: Use this drop down button to show link paths, anchors, ID and class details, show response headers and a whole lot more.



• Miscellaneous: Has a mixed bag of stuff - allows you to clear cache, set all links as visited or unvisited, delete domain cookies - and even more.



• Outline: Allows you to highlight table cells, frames, and in addition to a number of other features, you can even customize to highligh your own elements.



• Resize: Use this to reset your browser window to 800x600, display current window size, and more.



• Tools: My favorite tab - validate CSS, validate HTML, validate links, view download speed, and more.



• View Source: view source, just like you'd expect, but available with a single click.



• Options: Adjust your settings, change from new tabs to windows, and a whole lot of adjustments for each major tab category.



• Standards Compliance Mode (checkmark icon): bright blue when the viewed page is compliant, greyed out otherwise - a variety of options avaiable with a click.



• Javascript Validator: white when no errors found, Javascript Console opens on a click.



• Disable (arrow head icon): Disables the web developer toolbar buttons.

Have fun, play around - good luck.