The 10 Best Free SEO Tools For Blogging Beginners

If you don't already know, I love free things.  And, on top of that I love to research.  And because of this, every one of my blogging for beginners readers are in for a treat today.  Out of the kindness of my heart, I am going to give away some of my trade secrets.  I have my 10 favorite free SEO tools, and I am going to give them to you in one big, fancy list.  I like to call them The 10 Best, but they are my 10 favorite.

There are hundreds of SEO tools available on the internet.  A lot of them are wonderful.  But generally speaking, those wonderful tools are not cheap.  They, in fact, could end up costing you a small fortune, especially for us beginners that are still trying to learn how to do this thing called blogging.

So, since we are not forking out dollar after dollar, in order to get a whole lot of data that, generally speaking, we won't understand anyway, these tools are going to be more than adequate for you.  For you and me both.

Google free SEO tools are something I would always forget about.  But we are talking about the search engine that decides where are blog should be ranked.  Something tells me that they know what they are talking about and they are more than willing to provide us with tools that will help us succeed.  I am going to include Google on this list a couple times, and figure I should let everyone know, it's not because I have some love or connection to Google, it just happens that they provide useful tools for free.  And there UI is getting better.  In the years past, their tools were hard to understand and even harder to use.

SEO tools:

#10 Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is a must for any blogger who wants to improve their search engine friendliness.  There is way too much for me to give a lesson on such a powerful SEO tool today, but, needless to say, this tool is nearly a must have.  You will be able to force Google to crawl your web pages and report to you any errors it finds.  Eliminating these errors can have a great impact on your blog’s location in the most powerful search engine in the world, not to mention improving your overall Search Engine Optimization.  It is also not solely for Google properties, any of your blogs or websites can be added to your account, and I would recommend that all of them are added as soon as possible.
#9 SEO Quake Toolbar
The SEO quake toolbar is pretty awesome, to say the least.  It is going to give you critical information to any website you visit.  This means you can go snooping around any websites that are competing in your own niche.  It is going to give you backlink quantities, pages indexed by google WhoIs data, robots.txt, Keyword density reports and a whole lot more information.  You can install it as an extension for Chrome or Firefox.  I am not sure about Microsoft’s browser, as I do not really ever use it.
It is an invaluable, free SEO tool.  It is a must as far as I am concerned.

#8 Keywordtool.io
This tool is not a must have, it is along the lines of Google Keyword Planner.  It is free, but offers a premium account which will offer up more information about keywords, things like search volume and cpc and competition will be blurred out with a free account, but even so, basically what Keywordtool.io is, is a keyword suggestion tool.  You will enter your primary keyword and it will give you a list of related keywords and search terms you could use as well.  I like it for its simplicity.  Google’s Keyword Planner is a bit overwhelming for someone who doesn’t know what they are looking at or doing.  This provides a simple way to do some basic keyword research, which, of course it critical in your SEO, and blogging endeavors.

#7 WooRank
WooRank is similar to Google Webmaster tools.  But again, it is a little easier to navigate.  You lose some of the functionality with the free version of WooRank, but there is enough information there for you to improve the inner workings of your blog.  It will also give suggestions to make improvements, and it gives you a score you can work to improve upon.  I use this as often as Google.  It may be a comfort level, but in general, I find it more useful for me.

#6 lsigraph.com
Latent Semantic Indexing, if you don't know this term, I completely understand.  You shouldn't ever have to know what that means!  Actually, I'm kidding.  It's actually a very important. LSI Keywords is actually what the term is that you will usually see.  It is basically alternate keywords that will reaffirm your primary keyword in any particular blog post you write.  There are often times, you may feel like you’re cramming the same keyword into places it just makes your articles cumbersome
#5 Google Keyword Planner
#4 Jaaxy
#3 Google Trends
#2 Screaming Frog
#1 Chrome Developer Tools

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Blogging for beginners: Blogging tips from a now seasoned veteran

I have now been an official pro-blogger for about a year and a half.  I have spend countless hours scouring the internet and any other source imaginable for any possible blogging tip or trick you could even begin to think of.  And for the most part, I have given many of them a test, to see what works and what does not.  To see if there are any blogging shortcuts.  Any way to convince the search engines that I deserve first place is SERP amongst the most competitive keywords.  And Amazingly enough, I have nothing to report, other than write, write, write, write, until your mind hurts and your fingers bleed.  then write a little more.  Then backlink, backlink, backlink, until everyone under the sun is completely annoyed by you.
This may or may not get the job done.  Real "Pro-Bloggers"  don't do that much work anymore.  A real "problogger"  does not need little blogging tips or tricks to take their blog to the next level, because they succeed at this point by sheer numbers.  They may or may not write anymore, many of them are now nothing more than a vessel for guest bloggers to post on their site.  And they use a team of well trained individuals to strategically place links all over the internet.  And they have this down to such a science, that the chance of us, lesser bloggers to achieve their success in their particular niche is virtually impossible.

I know, I spend an awful lot of time nay-saying on this blog.  Telling you how you can't do this or that, that you will never succeed with this or that.  And I do not mean to squash anybody's hopes or dreams here.  I am just dishing truth.  This blog, the one you are reading, blogging for beginners, is just over a year old, it has something like 50 blog posts on it, and it does fairly well, for an array of search terms.  But, none of the very most important search terms.  And it never will.  And as long as certain "pro blogger" individuals are up and running, I can confidently assume that I will never hit number one in the terms I started this blog for.  And I am ok with that.  With time comes a form of complacency maybe, but also the reality of what it would really take.

And that brings me to my number one blogging tip for all who stumble upon this blog.  Every topic, niche, keyword, or keyword phrase has a scalable amount of success attached to it.  And there are enough tools out there in the world web, to figure out how much effort it will take to achieve certain levels of success.  To work as hard as you can, and to be a realist about what you are doing. To not get disappointing, because you sometimes need to let a blog age and marinate before it will actually start to build steam.  And to cut your losses if no success comes.

I have started built and walked away from dozens of blogs.  And at this point in time, I have learned to accept the fact that some ideas will work while others will wallow and fail.

I have learned that passion about a particular topic helps.  But logical keywords choices well outweigh passion.  And for every niche or keyword that has a PROBLOGGER, will also have about a million other bloggers following in his or her tracks to pick up the scraps. 

So, to all you budding bloggers out there.  If you have not been able to figure out my cryptic blogging tip from this mess of a post.  I can sum it up to a single statement.

Do your Keyword Homework

And write to entertain.  Not just to teach.  Writing can be a colorful and magical painting if you choose your words write and if you write them with style and grace.  I am not telling anyone to do or to write like I do, because I really do not know how much my style is enjoyed.  you all may find me annoying, I really do not know.

As some final author notes.  I am still looking for guest bloggers.  I am surprised that I have not really had any interest.  Maybe I am overvaluing myself, but I feel that guest blogging is a really good way to build awareness. 

And also, I am working on a very large and involved project, I hope you will all check it out soon.  I is going to be something a little different than anything I have ever done before.  It is called the Books of Lineage.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners, and I hope you have found something about blogging tips in my random ramblings. 

Using Social Networking to improve Blog Traffic

It is no secret.  Facebook is a Phenomenon like no other has been seen on the internet.  It has so twisted and weaved its way through ever bit and piece of the internet, there is no getting away from it.  I, personally am not into the whole social networking as far as the social interaction is concerned.  I am not that much of a people person and tend to find myself bothered by sites like Facebook.  So, as of this time, I do not have a facebook account.  And I have no intentions of starting a Facebook account.  No real time or interest. 

But from a blogging traffic standpoint, it can not be overlooked, nor can the other forms of social networking be overlooked.  So, lest discuss this process a little bit.

Using facebook as an example first off.  You have a chance with your facebook pace to let a large number of people know that you have a blog, and in turn you can direct a whole lot of traffic in one quick swoop, just by letting all your facebook friends know that you have a blog and would love people to check it out, through a simple status update.  This is nice, this can be, if nothing more a huge ego stroke.  And ego plays a big part in the continuation of your blog.  Even if you don't look at it that way.  You will become much more excited to do something if you are receiving some sort of positive affirmation of your efforts.  It is human nature to do so.  And there is nothing wrong with that. 

I would like to make sure I am not confusing the reality though.  You are not going to rank better in search engines if you occasionally mention your blog on your Facebook page.  Google could care less.  But it is short sighted to think it is not worth the effort then if you are not going to place well in Google from a link. 

All along I have been preaching one thing over and over again.  And that is awareness.  Awareness is the key here.  The coveted "Golden Ticket" you may say is in that awareness.  Because what you HOPE will happen, is sooner or later, from that awareness you create, you will start to receive real, non-solicited backlinks to your blog.  And these are worth more than any link you can build on your own.  Not only to Google and the like, but to your overall traffic.  Every time you get a random link from a new source you have opened up the opportunity to new viewers, new audience pools, and this alone my friend, is how you continually repeat the cycle.  This is how you slowly but surly take your little blog to something that can be much more.

So.  Now I think you get the idea I am going for.  Creating awareness using social networking is a very powerful tool.  Since I am not a Facebooker.  I found other sites I use.

Twitter, is a wonderful option.  It is very easy to build a large follower list.  I am not sure how many followers I have at the moment, but I can tell you it is in the hundreds easily and I do not do anything to build my followers list.  So, whenever I post a new blog post.  I tweet that I have done so.  It usually results in instant traffic to my blog.  Or Awareness article, or Backlink Article.  I will tweet any new property.

On top of that, I use Linkdin.  It is a more business orientated Social Networking site.  It really does not drive much traffic to my properties, mostly because I have very little interest in the site, and do not spend the time to build up a friend list.

And the last site I use is, PeopleString.  Ok, it is pretty much Facebook with a twist.  They pay you to use the site.  They don't pay a lot.  But like I have said before, I am driven by money.  And every little bit will slowly add up.  It all makes a little difference.  People string is a social networking site, with a forum, and games, and message boards, with the twist being, they pay you a portion of their ad revenues, on a scale, depending on how much you use the site.

I am not here to get everyone to Join Peoplestring.  Although, if you do use my referral link, it will improve my earnings (Hint hint).  But What I am saying is, there are other sites besides Facebook, that can work equally well, if you give it time. 
Twitter has been a wonderful tool for me.  I use it all the time.  I would recommend this one highly.  Facebook also is probably the strongest tool out there for self promotion within your circle.  And Peoplestring is a nice alternative for those of you who would like to try and earn a couple dollars along the way.

Again, it has not made me rich.  Some claim that they make hundreds and thousands per month with the site.  I have to casually question these statements.  But who really knows.

Thank you for reading blogging for beginners, please come back soon!