When I speak with clients about keyword research and content optimization, they often ask me what tools I use to gather the data or make recommendations. Here I will give you a little insight to some of the tools I use regularly.

One of the best places to start with keyword research is Google.  Google offers a suite of free tools that you can use to insights about the keywords you are researching.  One that can be used by aspiring SEO’s and paid campaign managers alike is the keyword tool.  This tool will give you some approximate statistics and other recommendations for your keywords.  You can get additional data about your keywords with Google Insights and Google Trends.

Another component of page optimization is keyword density. We recommend that your pages each consist of at least 200 words of text and have approximately a 4% keyword density.  To check what keyword has the highest keyword density, you can use the MoreVisibility keyword density checker.  If you need to check the density of copy you are writing for new or revised pages, you can use the live keyword analysis tool.  It allows you to copy content and past it into the provided fields to get the statistics.

Another set of tools I use to checks PageRank, backlinks and cache date.  These items are good to monitor so you can see how the search engines are viewing your site. Downloading the Google Toolbar is what you need if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer as your browser. If you use Google Chrome, I have found that the Chrome SEO Extension works pretty well.

While there are many other tools out there, some paid and some free, the few that are mentioned above will give you a good start to researching and analyzing your SEO efforts.

In a recent interview with Matt Cutts, a very interesting topic came to light.  In discussion, the topic of 301 redirects came up and how it relates to PageRank.  More specifically, is there a loss of PageRank if you use 301 redirects to change URLs?  Matt Cutts stated that he thought there probably would be some loss in these instances.

“Matt Cutts: That’s a good question, and I am not 100 percent sure about the answer. I can certainly see how there could be some loss of PageRank. I am not 100 percent sure whether the crawling and indexing team has implemented that sort of natural PageRank decay, so I will have to go and check on that specific case. (Note: in a follow on email, Matt confirmed that this is in fact the case. There is some loss of PR through a 301).”

What exactly are we talking about here?  Well, let’s just say you have a website such as: www.mywebsite.com/mineisthebestproductever.php, and you want to know if changing that URL via a 301 redirect to www.mywebsite.com/mine-is-the-best-product-ever.php will perhaps give you an advantage for keyword targeting.  In short, no, the benefit of spacing out the keyword within the URL will not outweigh the loss of PR over time. 

In many cases, you do not need to change your URL’s.  If you create content effectively on the correct page, there should be no reason to use 301 redirects within your existing site. 

A scenario where you may not be able to avoid utilizing 301 redirects is when you are creating a brand new website with SEO in mind.  In this situation, using 301 redirects is unavoidable because you will be creating new pages, deleting old ones and moving content around to fit your new website structure.  This is an acceptable use of 301’s because they are needed to restructure the site.  Any loss seen in PageRank, will be made up in the future IF you build your site correctly with SEO in mind.

Some tips to remember:

• Don’t change your URL’s for keyword purposes.
• Have a plan when creating content so you will not have to implement 301 redirects.
• Avoid using parameters in URL’s where possible.
• When redesigning your site, try not to change domains.

Changing URL’s for the sake of getting more keyword relevance or to move content is not worth it from an SEO standpoint.  Plan your content wisely and consult professionals when redesigning your website for the best possible results.

It is important to understand that when you are creating a mobile version of your website, you only want to capture the essential data that mobile searchers are looking for.  When people are looking for your website on a mobile device, they are looking for quick information that they need in a hurry.  Include the following on your mobile website:

• Abbreviated home page content
• Simplified contact form
• Phone number
• Map and address
• Main product or service information

Including only the important information will give users of all mobile devices a good user experience, regardless of the type of device.  Even smart phones have their limitations as to what types of content they can display properly.  It is especially important to have a good mobile website if your main site is comprised of Flash technology.  Currently no mobile device has the capability to display flash based websites.  A flash website appears to be broken when viewed on a mobile device, leaving the user with little options to get in contact with you, or view your services or products.