This is a list of the best Chrome extensions and add ons for SEO purposes.
Table of Contents
- What is a Chrome Extension ?
- Ahrefs
- Mozbar
- Keywords Everywhere
- Similar Web
- VidIQ
- SEM SEO Writing Assistant
- Google Docs
- SEO Text Optimizer
- Print Friendly
- Shopify Out of the Sandbox Content Creator
- SEO Minion
- Find Email Addresses with FTL
- Find Email Addresses with Hunter.io
- Link Klipper
- Full Page Screen Capture
- Blue Button Web Page X Ray
- Check My Links
- SERPS Redux
- Shopify Bulk 301 redirect
- Facebook Pixel Helper
- Loom Video Recorder
- Google Tag Assistant
- Evernote Web Clipper
- Ablebits Remove Duplicates
- Viewport Resizer
- Google Sheets
- What now ?
What is a Chrome Extension ?
An extension is a shortcut or additional feature of a solution that can be accessed or activated by clicking a link on your Chrome web browser.
Since the Chrome store extensions are Google approved this adds piece of mind to the security and validity of these tools.
And as Google state the extensions won’t crash your browser.
A Chrome add on doesn’t have the luxury of being inside the Chrome store.
You have to manually add it to your browser and there could be a risk of crashing your browser.
Not that the ones recommended on this list ever have crashed.
Now the list of Chrome extensions and the first one is, surprise, surprise …
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is the best keyword research, competitor and backlink analysis tool and I use it daily; because, hey, I sell keyword research services.
They have a chrome extension that displays the domain rating of a website you are one.
Do a Google search and you’ll see the local search volume, estimated clicks, keyword difficulty and global search volume.
But what’s really cool is that you can see the metrics for all the topic ranking pages underneath each search results.
The extension is a good addition to their main service.
Mozbar
The SEO world is divided into 3 fanboy camps; Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz.
The Moz Chrome extension works differently from Ahrefs; here you only see some on page metrics.
You get website metrics, when logged in, about a web page you are currently on.
And you get key website metrics laid on top of a search query you’ve made.
However, the Ahrefs extension and service versus Moz is now men against boys !
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseKeywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a Chrome extension I use daily.
It shows the estimated search volume, cost per click and Adwords competition next to a search query.
It also displays related keywords and people also search for keywords overlaid on the right hand side of your browser.
Whilst I use it daily and the data is nice to have, I know their data is sourced from Google’s Keyword Planner.
And the trouble with Google’s data is that it’s used for advertising not SEO purposes.
One drawback of Keywords Everywhere is that it does not help me to decide what keywords or topics to target for client’s or my own website.
I really want to like this tool but paid research tools are 100 times more beneficial to my business.
Where Keywords Everywhere becomes more useful
When you visit a web page and click their Chrome icon then their extension becomes a little more useful.
You get a keyword density and on page SEO tool that shows :
- Page Title
- Page Description
- Word Count
Then you get to see the words and phrases contained on the page.
You can filter by 1,2,3,4 and 5 word phrases then filter those phrases by monthly search volume.
So you could use this functionality like an LSI Keyword tool if you chose to analyse a top ranking page.
Similar Web
SimilarWeb is a website research tool and their free Chrome extension will provide basic information about a website you are currently visiting.
If the icon turns to show blue and orange colours then there is information about the website.
Click the icon and you’ll get a drop down window showing:
- Estimated Monthly Visits
- Time on Site
- Pages Per Visit
- Bounce Rate
- Trend of last 6 months website visits
Generally speaking that’s enough information for basic website research.
Although be aware the free extension won’t find data on many low traffic websites.
You can also drill down and see other website information including :
- Traffic sources
- What countries traffic comes from
- Where the website traffic comes from and where it goes to
That’s very generous information for free from SimilarWeb.
I’ve not used their premium service but given the fact they don’t reveal their pricing assumes they are targeting the corporate market.
VidIQ
VidiQ is a Chrome extension Youtube analysis.
To be honest I don’t use the extension but it’s a useful reminder when I create videos.
VidIQ data is laid over your video whilst inside YouTube providing an SEO score, video optimisation checklist and video tags you’ve added or could add to.
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseSEM SEO Writing Assistant
If there is one feature of Semrush that would make me consider switching from Ahrefs it’s their SEO Writing Assistant.
It’s a few month since I used it on a writing project but it’s a useful add on.
SEO Writing Assistant isn’t a Chrome extension, it’s a Google Docs add on tool.
That means you access the tool from the Add on menu bar inside Google Docs.
Once you’ve connected the tool with Semrush you will see a right hand side bar containing the following SEO and writing metrics.
- Overall page score between 0 and 10
- Readability score between 0 and 100 where the target is over 65
- Words per page
- Target keywords to add to your page as you write and
- Your on page title and meta description
The add on is brilliant for writer to ensure their page is relevant to the keywords they are targeting or to show the client the page is optimised correctly.
Google Docs
I use the Word Count and Spelling add ons to Google Docs every time I write a document, SEO proposal or article for a blog post.
SEO Text Optimizer
SEO Text Optimizer is a tool and extension to help you improve the relevance and thus ranking of your page in the search engines.
I used their free trial version and it was pretty good; ideal for the website owner or content writer who creates a lot of content.
Print Friendly
A Chrome extension and a toolbar add on that turns a web pages into a PDF document.
Many of my web pages have a call to action where I offer users a PDF of the website after the complete the opt in form.
Great for turning website visitors into prospects for future email marketing.
Shopify Out of the Sandbox Content Creator
I used this extension when I was creating a page for a Shopify blog.
The idea is to help you create better content layouts for Shopify pages and blog posts.
Such as adding in different columns and tables.
So when you’re inside a Shopify blog post and you need to add a row with 3 columns, you click the extension, select 3 columns and the layout is inserted into your post.
After that you populate the columns with your content.
I used to use Foundation Zurb as a web contentt framework, so this extension is kind of similar.
SEO Minion
SEO Minion is a new tool from the people at Keywords Everywhere.
And it’s very useful for 5 SEO tasks.
Analyse On Page SEO
Select this option to view the word count, page title, description, heading and open graph information about a page.
I’ve started to use this feature as I complete and launch a new web page.
Highlight All Links
For SEO purposes you really should have links to 3 other pages on your website and an external link to a relevant, authority site.
This feature helps you quickly check both internal and external page links.
Check Broken Links
Use this feature for broken link building and website maintenance.
Serps Preview
As it says, enter a keyword and you see a preview of your web page in Google search results.
Google Search Location Simulator
This is a great addition to the business of SEO :
- Click this option
- Enter a target keyword
- Enter a url
Then you can preview how your page links in search engines in two different countries.
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseFind Email Addresses with FTL
Find that lead is a subscription service that helps you find email addresses associated with a website.
I don’t claim to know how they source the email addresses and as you can see from this screenshot the service isn’t perfect.
They can’t discover my email address and that’s easily found online.
Nevertheless, I find their service the best out of all the email finder tools.
I do prefer to use their website more than this extension because I need to find email addresses in bulk for link building campaigns.
So this Chrome extension is ideal when you need to find one off emails or build up a list of leads.
Find Email Addresses with Hunter.io
The Hunter.io Chrome extension also helps you find an email address from a website you are visiting just by clicking their Chrome icon.
I used Hunter.io in the past for finding email addresses and if it weren’t for a Find That Lead deal I’d still use them.
Hunter also has a Google Sheets extension that will add found email address directly into a Google Sheets document.
Kinda cool eh !
Link Klipper
The last time I used Link Klipper was to extract a bunch of website addresses from a website so I could find their contact details.
Say you are on a directory website with a list of potential companies you can to find out more information about.
- Simply right click your mouse
- Hover over the Link Klipper
- Click extract all links
And a CSV containing all those links is downloaded.
Super fast and useful.
Full Page Screen Capture
I capture screenshots of web pages for a lot of SEO and website presentations.
My favourite screen capture tool is Snagit; a paid tool.
But sometimes Snagit has problems capturing a full web page.
So I use Full Page Screen Capture.
- Simply click the icon
- The tool capture the page in new browser tab
- Choose to download a PDF or JPG
- Download
- Edit image in your editing software of choice
And Bob’s yer uncle !
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseBlue Button Web Page X Ray
Another on page SEO tool.
Notice that the extension highlights on page issues in red.
In this instance I don’t have alt tags for my images; something to rectify.
Check My Links
You can use Check My Links for two reasons.
You can use it to manually check websites or web pages you work don’t have have any link issues.
Or you can use it for broken link building purposes.
Click the icon when you are visiting a page and the extension will crawl the page and highlight in red links that are broken.
And you can use the tool during email outreach dialogues to find, screenshot and secure your broken link building opportunity.
SERPS Redux
Serps redux is a SEO bookmarklet that will extract the urls from a Google search result.
Say you need a list of website addresses from a search result, just click the link on your Chrome browser and a new window opens with all the html links.
If you change your browser settings to display the top 100 results, you can collect more URL’s faster.
Just copy and paste into a document or spreadsheet the URLS that have been extracted.
Shopify Bulk 301 redirect
Those business owners new to Shopify go mad creating hundreds of catalogs and tags in their e-commerce website.
They end up creating too many, low quality and duplicate collections.
So us SEO guys have to clean up their website structure and ensure only their best pages are indexed in Google.
Using 301 redirects is a good way to manage some of this house keeping and spring cleaning.
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseFacebook Pixel Helper
This little extension isn’t really an SEO extension but it’s good to know you’ve installed the Facebook pixels correctly for re-marketing to those who have visited your web page from organic search results.
My website has 2 distinct audiences and knowing I can re-market on a per page visit basis is super useful for targeted advertising.
Loom Video Recorder
I’ve been a huge fan and user of Techsmith’s Camtasia for about 10 years now.
It appears that a competitor has decided to attack some of their market.
This extension can be used for a few SEO purposes.
You can quickly record videos and screencasts to show client web page issues or opportunities.
Or you can use it sales prospecting for new SEO clients.
I do love the little circular window they create when you choose to record yourself in these videos.
Google Tag Assistant
Nice little extension to check you have Google Analytics and Google Re-marketing tags installed on your website.
Strictly not core SEO plugins but helpful to know there are no issues when you come to analyse search traffic in Google Analytics.
Evernote Web Clipper
I don’t use this Chrome extension I’ve only added it as it’s a popular tool to find and save useful information to your Evernote account.
Evernote is an alternative to saving pages to your browser bookmarks and has the added benefits of saving more than just web pages.
Ablebits Remove Duplicates
Why on earth Google Sheets does not have a built in remove duplicates feature is beyond me.
The alternative is to use Ablebits, a series of Chrome Add ons to remove duplicates from a spreadsheet.
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips CourseViewport Resizer
This Chrome add on lets me view web pages in different browsers sizes such as desktop computers, tablets and iPhones.
Simply click Resizer on your Chrome browser and select the device of your choice and you get an instant preview.
Google Sheets
I sometimes create a Donkeys and Unicorns SEO report to help me decide the best web pages to improve on a website.
Whilst not a Chrome extension, the create a chart icon and function is essential in producing this useful SEO report.
What now ?
If you’d like to learn how to use these extensions join my free SEO Hacks training module.
Join the Free SEO Hacks and Tips Course
