I’ve been doing Internet marketing for roughly 5 years, but it never occurred to me until an incident the other day that this actually a long time by the SEO world’s standards.
There is now a new generation of enthusiastic and assertive SEOs who may not have heard of Yahoo Site Explorer, Florida Update or Google Buzz.
Indeed, in Google’s Product Graveyard alone, one finds over a dozen products that sank into oblivion at the will of their creator.
Hence this post: to help SEO newbies easier find their bearings in the SEO software market (where you can still get recommended an obsolete SEO tool), and to hear established SEOs’ opinion on how they’re coping without the once-great SEO apps that are no more.
1. Yahoo! Site Explorer
Yahoo! Site Explorer was Yahoo’s free tool that let you see backlinks pointing to any provided URL. It used to top the charts for free SEO tools, best SEO tools, and many other categories for years.
Unfortunately, the service was discontinued on November 21, 2011. However, nostalgic mood over Yahoo! Site Explorer wouldn’t die off. Even in 2013, when asked what SEO software they prefer, some people still recommend Yahoo! Site Explorer:
What SEOs use Instead
After it was terminated, Yahoo! Site Explorer became part of Bing Webmaster Tools where Bing began offering a free Link Explorer that lets you see a limited number of competitor backlinks. So, somewhat similar functionality is now available to those logged in to Bing Webmaster Tools:
Besides, there are tons of third-party backlink checkers (most of which offer a free trial) you can use to do pretty much the same thing.
2. Blekko the Search Engine
Blekko was another service that offered valuable backlink data (such as a list of one’s backlink pages, the geography of one’s backlinks, etc.) for free. However, Blekko is essentially a search engine. It has provided more information than you’d normally expect from a search engine for a long time, and this data has been lavishly used by SEOs.
So, having realized that, Blekko now offers a set of SEO tools on a paid basis.
What SEOs use Instead
In a way, you’d need not just a backlink checker, but an entire set of SEO apps to replace the functionality of Blekko’s service. Even though there are lots of paid options, there are also certain free tools that are comparable.
For example, W3C‘s on-page SEO tools are a great option, since they let you validate your site’s markup and CSS for free.
As far as backlink analysis is concerned, WebMeUp now offers a free backlink checker you can use to quickly get a list of links to a site.
WebMeUp lets one see up to 1000 backlinks right on the page and download a full list of links in CSV.
3. Organic Search Keywords in Google Analytics
In fall 2011, Google decided to make search “more secure”, that is, to stop telling website owners which keywords encrypted search users typed in to Google to find a particular site.
Many considered this move hypocritical because there is no way a webmaster can track a particular search query to the end searcher. Second, the information is still available to Google AdWords advertisers.
Anyhow, the share of so-called (not provided) search terms in Google Analytics has been consistently growing. For instance, if in 2011 close to 10% to 20% of Link-Assistant.Com’s organic search terms were (not provided), then now (in 2013) it’s close to 50% most of the time:
What SEOs use Instead
You will find many posts on the Web talking about how to “unlock” the not provided keywords in Google Analytics. What these articles basically recommend one to do is to:
Check search queries in one’s Google Webmaster Tools
See the keyword data from your Google AdWords account
4. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Honestly speaking, I don’t quite understand all this hype around the “death” of Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, since the tool did not really go away: it merged with Google’s Traffic Estimator is now available to logged-in AdWords users as Keyword Planner.
Yes, some of the old functions did become unavailable, but some new features have been added, too.
One of the biggest downsides is probably the fact that you can’t get flexible research search volumes for particular keywords, meaning you have no breakdown by device type (mobile, desktop or tablet), and no breakdown by match type (broad, exact or phrase).
The rest of the functionality has mostly remained unchanged.
What SEOs use Instead
Like I said, it seems that once the dust settled down, most SEOs simply switched to the new Keyword Planner. At the same time, if anyone finds the new Google’s tool incomplete, there are many alternatives. Popular options normally include:
However, do be advised that no matter which keyword tool you use, it won’t provide the data missing in the new Keyword Planner, because if Google doesn’t provide it to third-parties it can’t be available anywhere else.
5. Google Reader
OK, before you cry foul, let me say that many people used Google Reader for SEO back when it existed – for content curation and link tracking, to be exact.
What was Google Reader? Google Reader was a tool that would let you read content from different webpages all in one place, similar to how a RSS feed works.
So, although most Google Reader users would use it for news tracking and online reading, many SEOs would utilize it to:
Keep track of content they place on third-party sites
Content curation and syndication
Link tracking
What SEOs use Instead
A quick search for “Google Reader alternatives” brings over 2 million results – that’s an exorbitant number of alternatives if you ask me.
However, the suggestions normally boil down to:
I’m sure there are more alternatives to the now-gone Google Reader, but I thought I’d mention the most popular ones/the once I have first-hand experiences with.
So, what about you? Do you feel nostalgic for the great free tools I just mentioned? What do you use instead?
Image credit: ollo at iStockPhoto
Alesia is an SEO and a digital marketer at Link-Assistant.Com, a major SEO software provider and the maker of SEO PowerSuite tools. Link-Assistant.Com is a group of SEO professionals with almost a decade of SEO experience. Based on their expertise, the company’s four-app SEO toolset was created, setting the industry’s benchmark for technology-driven Web promotion.