With SEO being such a big part of web development, it would be good to know some tools to help evaluate progress and how well your optimizations are going. Thankfully there are numerous sources to reference as well as free easy to use tools that will come in handy.
If your project is to SEO an existing site I’d recommend running some of these reports before beginning the project. This will allow you to show the client or whomever at the end of the project how well you were able to improve their site. It will also give you an idea of what to look for if you are unfamiliar with SEO or what needs the most work on a particular site. SEOmoz is a fantastic site for both reference and testing your projects process. Their web developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet is very handy to have within arms reach during your project. One of the best aspects of it is that it is updated frequently. The term target tool and crawl test are two tools in particular that I found useful while working on projects. SEOmoz requires that you are logged in to use some of their tools and I recommend signing up as their tools provide very good reporting and are fairly easy to use.
Code validation is another important part of SEO. Invalid markup or code to a search engine spider is similar in ways to a poorly formed document. If the code is laid out properly, the chances of the spider misinterpreting the information on your page is less likely. Valid HTML may also help with display issues, so it is also good practice in that regard. The W3C has an excellent tool for validating markup, W3C Validator. Debugging tools such as firebug for Mozilla Firefox, or the IE developer Toolbar are very handy for fixing display issues as well as validating a site.
The whois lookup at domain tools gives some good numbers that can be used to show off to clients as well help track progress. Site Report Card is also another good website to use in this regard. The data this site pulls can help with debugging an optimizing your site.
These are just a few of the many tools available for your SEO projects. As you get more involved in SEO projects and planning you may find more tools or sites that you prefer. SEO will only become a more important part of this industry moving forward and it would be a good skill set to learn, part of which is knowing where to look for advice and what tools to use.
