As an SEO specialist, whether at an agency or in-house, you know that browser extensions can save a lot of time when it comes to the growing umbrella that is search engine optimization. As everyone from small startups to well-established conglomerates vie for the top spot on search engine results, you must move quickly to research, recommend, and implement suggestions for your SEO campaigns.
That’s where SEO extensions come in: the best extensions streamline SEO tasks and can do anything from displaying metadata at a glance to highlighting technical issues to notating when algorithm updates occur in Google Search Console, allowing you to move efficiently through your SEO checklist. Below are some of GR0’s award-winning SEO team’s favorite SEO addons and Chrome extensions.
1. Ahrefs
A recognized giant in the SEO world, Ahrefs is best known for its detailed keyword research platform, which also includes backlink analysis and SEO site audits. But beyond its primary platform, Ahrefs has a helpful browser toolbar that serves up an extensive amount of SEO data, instantly.
Notable features include:
• An On-Page Overview: Ahrefs’ On-Page Overview features meta description, page title, date published, date last updated, and page word count to see if you need to tweak metadata for your focus keyword or refresh an article so that it’s up to date with the most helpful content.
• Website Metric Insights: Easily view a site’s Domain Rating (DR), URL Rating (UR), backlinks, referring domains, number of ranking keywords, and estimated search traffic, for when you need to quickly see how you stack up against competitors. Note that Website Metrics are only for paid Ahrefs users.
• Indexability: The Ahrefs extension features a tab highlighting canonicals, robots details (both robots.txt and metatags), sitemaps, and hfrelang tags, to ensure that these are set up correctly and Google has access to crawl the important pages on your site.
• Additional Tools: The Ahrefs Chrome extension also includes structured data, Open Graph information, image and alt text data, and outgoing link information, including filters for nofollow links, broken links, and redirects.
The Ahrefs toolbar includes a wide number of SEO tools in just a few clicks, providing essential insights quickly and with minimal effort. It's a compact yet powerful addition to any SEO professional's toolkit.
2. Detailed SEO Extension
The web is saturated with tools claiming to optimize your SEO tasks. Among these, the Detailed SEO extension stands out because of its unique combination of simplicity and depth.
Detailed SEO has a clean, minimal interface making it less overwhelming than other SEO extensions. However, it still provides the most useful SEO data at a glance, including:
• On-Page SEO Data such as page title, meta description, and word count. Plus, a helpful headings hierarchy that lists the H1s through H6s on a page to ensure your headings are optimized and organized correctly.
• Technical Insights: The Detailed SEO extension includes canonicals and robots tags at a glance to double-check the signals you’re sending Google.
• Link Data: This extension lists the number of internal and external page links and anchor text, with an option to export, which is helpful when reviewing your linking strategies.
• Additional Tools: The Detailed SEO Extension also includes schema, image, and social data.
• Easy SEO Site Searches: A unique feature of the Detailed SEO Extension is that once it’s installed, you can right-click on any page and use the custom menu to do a quick “site:domain.com search,” highlight nofollow links, or view the current site in Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush. This unique and useful tool saves a lot of time when doing keyword research for SEO strategies, as well as anyone checking out nofollow or dofollow backlinks.
For those seeking a straightforward but thorough on-page SEO toolbar, the Detailed SEO extension is high on our list of recommended tools.
3. Conductor for Chrome
Conductor for Chrome has similar general and technical features as the Detailed SEO Extension above. However, it shines for SEOs that are more focused on content.
Top features of Conductor include:
• Word Count and Readability Tools: Conductor for Chrome has a Word Count section with a “Word Frequency” breakdown, which can be helpful when comparing similar blog articles across multiple sites. It also includes a Flesch-Kincaid Readability score to ensure that your on-page content is written at an accessible reading level.
• Keyword Research: Conductor’s Keyword Research tab allows you to perform keyword research on up to 5 pages a day. You can view ranking keywords, keyword position, volume, and number of times a word is mentioned on the page.
• Media Thumbnails: A unique and useful feature in Conductor is the Media tab, which displays thumbnails of all the images on a page, notates whether or not the image has alt text, and allows you to copy the URL of the images. This is helpful for extracting images from a site without needing to open Chrome’s DevTools and find the page Source.
With the ability to deliver insightful keyword and readability information, as well as metadata issues at a glance, Conductor for Chrome is useful for SEOs who are looking for details about on-page content.
4. GSC Guardian
Google Search Console (GSC) is an imperative tool used by SEO specialists to analyze website clicks, impressions and keyword traffic. GSC Guardian is a helpful extension for GSC that will complement and simplify your analysis. Its best feature:
• An Algorithm Update Overlay: GSC Guardian adds red lines to Search Console’s performance view that correspond with the dates of Google algorithm updates. This allows for quick association between updates and drop in clicks or impressions, and saves time cross-referencing other sources for timelines. Each red line also has a link to learn more about the update.
GSC Guardian is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to quickly view whether Google updates correspond with a change in site clicks or impressions.
5. Redirect Path
Navigating website redirects and ensuring they function correctly is paramount in SEO. Redirect Path makes the identification of redirect chains and HTTP status code errors straightforward.
Some key benefits of Redirect Path include:
• Instant Redirect Display: At a glance, Redirect Path displays all redirects from the URL you entered to the final destination. This makes identifying and troubleshooting redirect chains a breeze.
• Detecting HTTP Header Errors: Beyond just redirects, this extension identifies HTTP header status codes like 404s, 500s, or even 302s.
Redirect Path simplifies some aspects of technical SEO and improves redirect visibility to quickly catch redirect errors and improve overall site health.
6. Open Link Structured Data Sniffer
Structured data or Schema markup is implemented on the back end of a site and helps search engines understand the intent of your pages. A fairly recent addition to our SEO tool kit is the Open Link Structured Data Sniffer.
According to our resident technical SEO expert Seth Trammell, it allows:
• One-Click Insight: “One of the easiest structured data tools I’ve ever used in terms of getting right to the information I want. I click the extension, and I can instantly see the JSON-LD, RFA, and or microdata on that page.”
• Next-Level Semantic Ordering: “The way the data is organized is unlike any other tool. It can be broken down into the structured entities based on whichever markup language is in use so you can get a clearer picture of how a bot is understanding and reading your structured data.”
• Enhanced Analysis: “Through a suite of attached functions, you can download the raw JSON-LD, look up entities, annotate, and even have Chat-GPT help you generate snippets based on what’s on a page you’re looking at, which is truly an amazing feature!”
For those getting into technical SEO and especially those concerned with E-E-A-T, entity management tools like this are an absolute must. The Structured Data Sniffer is a one-of-a-kind tool that is useful for beginners all the way to advanced technical SEO practitioners.
7. CSS Peeper
CSS Peeper is useful for SEOs involved with stylistic aspects of a website, like images or branding. This plugin makes it easy to inspect and extract design elements, ensuring consistency when matching brand colors or recreating images in tools like Canva. Some of the useful features of CSS Peeper are:
• Quick Design Element Inspection: Access the specifics of any design element on a page, including colors, fonts, or images.
• Seamless Asset Export: With CSS Peeper, you can effortlessly export images, ensuring a consistent design across platforms.
• Design Consistency Check: Ensure uniformity in your design elements. Whether you're checking for consistent padding, margin, or color schemes, CSS Peeper can help.
CSS Peeper is a helpful tool for SEOs and other digital marketers concerned with keeping site design and brand assets consistent across platforms. It not only saves time by simplifying the design inspection process but also aids in maintaining a cohesive brand identity online.
8. Web Developer
When it comes to the intersection of web development and SEO, a versatile toolkit can significantly enhance productivity. The Web Developer extension equips SEOs and web developers with a myriad of web development tools right within their browser, saving time by reducing the need for opening Inspect tools or searching around sites.
Some of the key benefits of the Web Developer plugin include:
• Disabling Site Features: Web Developer allows you to disable JavaScript, popups, and notifications on a site at the click of a button, which is helpful for previewing rendering.
• Easy CSS Manipulation: Experiment with page styles easily. Toggle stylesheets, view CSS, or even disable styles, allowing for swift visual checks and edits.
• Comprehensive Toolset: From forms, images, and information on cookies to various page insights, Web Developer offers an array of utilities to assist in web development tasks.
• Instant Page Structure Insights: Dive deep into a page's structure, examining elements, paths, and hierarchies, which can be essential for debugging and optimization.
For those in web development, either front-end or SEO-focused, the Web Developer extension provides a one-stop solution. Its breadth of tools ensures that every aspect of web development, from design to functionality, can be reviewed efficiently.
9. Screenshot Tools For Mac and PC
Screenshots are instrumental to SEOs when communicating site issues and explaining recommendations to clients and developers. GR0’s SEO team has two favorite screenshot tools depending on whether you use a Mac or PC.
For Macs: CleanShot X
Cleanshot X is a paid app for Macs that is so helpful, we had to include it on the list. The top features of the CleanShot X app are:
• Screenshots With A Keyboard Shortcut - Utilize keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots, without having to locate the app or click around on your screen.
• Custom Screenshot Areas - Utilize the selector tool to customize the area you want to screenshot. The selector tool also shows you the pixel size of your potential screenshot.
• Stack Screenshots For Later Use: As you take screenshots, they appear in the lower-left corner of the screen until you’re ready to use them. This allows you to take multiple screenshots all at once, which you can open, annotate, save, or copy later.
• Easily Annotate Screenshots - One of CleanShot X’s best features is its easy-to-use annotation tools which allows you to quickly add arrows, shapes, and text to your clip. You can easily change the color of your additions using pre-selected colors, or use the eyedropper tool to select from a color that’s on the screen.
• Additional Features: With CleanShot X, you can also create gifs from screenshots and pull text from images.
For PCs and Macs: Awesome Screenshot Tool
If you’re looking for a Chrome extension, we recommend the Awesome Screenshot Tool. It has a lot of basic useful features and continuously adds new features, with almost everything free to use.
Some key features include:
• Multiple Screenshot Options - Quickly select the type of screenshot you want to take, whether it’s full screen, a selection, or even just the visible portion of the screen. It’s easy to get delayed screenshots using the timer and is overall much nicer than the snipping tool native to Windows PCs.
• Basic Annotation Tools - The free version has all the must-have screenshot annotation features, arrows, shapes, text, and cropping, as well as a handy blur for when you need to omit sensitive information.
• Advanced Annotation Tools - Quickly add stylish watermarks, browser borders, time stamps, and padding to any image you grab. No other tool makes it this easy!
10. View Rendered Source
For technical-focused SEOs, understanding the difference between raw and rendered HTML can be crucial for SEO and development.
View Rendered Source provides insights into how browsers render JavaScript pages, highlighting discrepancies and aiding optimization. Key features of this Chrome extension:
• Compare Raw vs. Rendered HTML: Instantly see how scripts modify the source code by comparing them side by side. This makes it easy to identify elements that may be impacting SEO or user experience.
• Spot Rendering Issues: Quickly detect discrepancies that could be affecting page load times, layout, or content indexing.
• Optimize Dynamic Content: Ensure that content modified by JavaScript or other scripts is not only visible but also optimized for search engines and users.
For SEOs and web developers, View Rendered Source is a valuable tool for pinpointing issues with JavaScript rendering on the site.
11. Open Multiple URLs
SEOs spend a lot of time pulling and analyzing URLs, and opening multiple links from a spreadsheet is not very efficient. Open Multiple URLs streamlines this process, allowing users to open a batch of links within their browser all at once.
Open Multiple URLs allows for:
• Bulk URL Launching: Whether you're auditing or researching multiple pages, save time by opening multiple links simultaneously, eliminating the tediousness of one-by-one inputs.
• Clipboard Integration: Easily paste a list of URLs from any text source, including spreadsheets, directly into the extension without worrying about extra lines or spacing, and launch them with a single click.
Open Multiple URLs is a must-have for SEO professionals, researchers, and digital marketers. By handling bulk URLs, it improves efficiency and saves time.
12. GMB Everywhere
Local SEO is a game-changer for businesses who want to dominate their specific regions. GMB Everywhere supports this goal by offering insights into Google My Business (now called Google Business Profile) listings directly from your browser, which you can use to make your listings more competitive.
GMB Everywhere brings you:
• In-Depth Google Business Profile Insights: Instantly view details of any Google Business Profile listing, including reviews, ratings, and categories, providing a competitive edge in local SEO strategies.
• Efficient Local Analysis: Instead of navigating through multiple platforms or listings, get a quick snapshot of local businesses, aiding in market research and strategy formulation.
• Listing Optimization: By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of competitors' business profile listings, you can refine your own to stand out and capture more local traffic.
GMB Everywhere is an essential tool for businesses, SEO professionals, and marketers focusing on local visibility. By centralizing Google Business Profile data access and providing actionable insights, GMB Everywhere makes owning the local market area more achievable.
Seizing the Digital Advantage
In the ever-evolving sphere of digital marketing and SEO, staying ahead requires not just knowledge but also the right SEO tools.
These 12 SEO addons and Chrome extensions provide a strategic edge, streamlining processes and delivering invaluable insights. Whether you're a seasoned expert or revamping your strategy with GR0, these tools will expedite you on your pathway to SERP success.
Sources:
Detailed SEO Extension for Google Chrome (Free)
OpenLink Structured Data Sniffer
10 Must-Know SEO Basics For Web Developers | Search Engine Journal
Google My Business: A Guide to Google Business Profile | Semrush
