The SEO consultation experts at Moz have developed a web browser toolbar that can make it easy to get an idea of how well your content optimization stacks up against your competitors. You can use the toolbar’s information to adjust practices and rework website programming in ways that help boost how well your content ranks in search engine results. When activated, the toolbar will provide an authority score for the page displayed in the browser window as well as the entire site that page resides on. The SEO Toolbar is compatible with the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. The toolbar is available as a free extension or a premium service; both options are loaded with features.
Using the toolbar is straight-forward: load the page or site you want to analyze in the browser window and click the “M” icon on the toolbar window. The SEO Toolbar will pop-up an informational bar containing a range of analytic tools. The first thing you’ll likely notice are two numerical values called “PA” and “DA.” which refer to the terms “Page Authority” and “Domain Authority.” Both scores work on a “higher is better” measurement system. The “Page Authority” metric is useful for comparing SEO strength between individual pages and predicts how well the content will rank on released search. This can be useful when contrasting how well blog writers for hire content like “X Ways to Save Money” on your site ranks against similar blogs on other sites.
The “Page Authority” score also provides a level of insight into the actual quality of the content. The “Domain Authority” metric measures the overall SEO performance of the site. Things like SEO-friendly programming, quality content, and social media sharing boost this score. The “Domain Authority” score is important when indexing new content in searches as the new content has not established its “Page Authority” ranking yet, which builds over time as more people share and visit the content. “Domain Authority” is also important for brand-specific searches. For example, if you have three competing Pittsburgh news sites, the one that has the highest “Domain Authority” will show up first in searches for “Pittsburgh news.”
The toolbar also includes information about how many times users on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have posted comments that link back to an individual page. This score is particularly important because social media performance is a key element in SEO rankings in modern searches. If your content gets shared more on Facebook than your competitions’ content, your content will also show up higher in search rankings. This information can help your staff determine what kind of content should be shared on social media and if you need to put in more work overall in social media.
The “Page Analysis” tool is useful for identifying SEO-damaging website code on your own site. Activating this tool provides information on SEO-important aspects like the heading tag layout, meta description, page load time, and canonical URL value. Errors with things like the canonical URL and slow page load times can negatively impact how well content performs in searches. Passing on this information to your website development team can help them correct errors which will improve content optimization.
Taking a few minutes to look at your content with the Moz SEO Toolbar can identify ways to bring in more traffic, often with little extra effort.
Writer Bio: Dan S is a former news journalist turned web developer and freelance writer. He has a penchant for all things tech and believes the person using the machine is the most important element.
