A while back SEOBook released a Firefox extension called the “SEO for Firefox“ extension. At the time it had some pretty cool features. It has since evolved into a full featured SEO toolkit.
In this article we look at SEO for Firefox to see what it can and can not be used for.
When you first install SEO for Firefox it turns most features off. That is, while it does add extra information to a Google search results page, it doesn’t immediately make that information visible.
But to view the data you want you can click on the “?” found beside the entry you’d like and the extension will fetch the data.
The other way to get this data is to turn it on automatically. You can do this by editting the extensions preferences. You can make them display automatically (with a preferred delay), manually, as they are preset, or hidden if you
don’t want to see that particular data.
But in addition to typical search engine data, the extension now ties into more research data including SEOBook’s own keyword research tool, the Google AdWords sandbox, Google AdWords traffic estimator, Google Trends and the ability to export to CSV.
How useful is SEO for Firefox
This extension has a variety of uses, depending on your need. And, when combined with
other tools, such as Spyfu and Compete (just to name a couple) it can become a much more effective tool.
For example, performing a keyphrase search on Google will return top ranking sites. But how do those sites rank so highly? Well, to start with you can look at the SEO for Firefox data for clues. Does the site have a high PageRank? How many inbound links does it have? What is it’s age? Does it have a Dmoz listings? Yahoo Directory listing? All these are indicators of a site’s value in terms of Google, allowing you to perhaps figure out what you need to do to rank highly.
Next, you could use the Google AdWords sandbox and Google AdWords traffic estimator to determine if that keyphrase is one you want to rank for and/or purchase as part of an AdWords campaign.
Other Useful Features
Once you’ve looked at the above data (IE PageRank, directory listings, keyword traffic)
you can further analyze the keyword potential by looking at Google Trends.
Using Google Trends, which is handily linked below the search box, gives you an idea of the traffic potential over time for a chosen keyphrase. This can help you further determine the keyword pontential and if you should attempt to rank for it.
For example, if the keyword is trending down it could indicate that this is a term that is falling out of favor with searchers. If it’s on the upswing it might indicate a new market to enter, and if it is stagnant over time it could indicate that this is a consistenly performing term that may be worthwhile.
Keep in mind when looking at any keyword trends that some terms have seasonality. That means, they only generate significant traffic at certain times of the year.
For example, we are now going into spring, and people are thinking of summer activities, from camping to hiking to whitewater rafting. These are things that most people don’t do year round, therefore it makes sense that search volumes for these terms will start to rise in the spring and hit their peak in early summer before beginning to drop again.
Simiilarly, wintertime terms and holidays also will have similar trends – IE Christmas related terms will start showing traffic in October or November and start dropping in early to mid December.
How Useful is SEO for Firefox?
Like any SEO tool it is only as useful as you want it to be. For competitive intelligence gathering is does OK. When combined with other services it is obviously more powerful. However on its own it does do well.
In addition to showing you useful information about the domains in question you can
look at how these different sites and keywords perform overall by using other Google services such as Adwords and Trends.
Using these different data points you should be able to determine what is needed to rank competitively, or if its just easier to buy your way to the top via AdWords.
