There are a few free tools that every SEO should use on a regular basis, and one of these is called SEO Quake. SEO Quake is a tool that shows a number of important SEO parameters on the fly including PageRank, the number of pages in Google’s index, (according to SEMrush) the number of linking domains, AlexaRank, domain age, and the WhoIs for the domain. In isolation this data might not mean very much, but because SEO Quake collates it and presents it together, it becomes a useful way of analysing the strength of a SERP.
Why Use SEO Quakes?
There are many reasons you might use SEO Quake, and the first I’ll cover is SERP analysis for a keyword. At the beginning of any search engine optimisation campaign, there is always a period of keyword research. It’s logical to target the keywords that get the highest volume of search queries relative to your niche, but depending on the resources you are able to invest in SEO for your website, it’s also worth considering if you could really break into a SERP within a set timescale.
For example, if you were an independent marketer looking to start a new online venture, there wouldn’t be any point trying to break into the ‘car insurance’ SERPs:
If the domains are PR 5-6 and all of them have been active for at least 10 years. They have vast quantities of domains linking to them and they already have a lot of pages in Google’s index. This would not be a good SERP to target for a new business venture.
However, the reverse is also true. With a bit of detective work, you can determine whether or not entering into the first page of SERPs for a keyword is realistic with the resources you have available to you. Analyzing things such as PageRank, domain age, the number of links, etc. of other sites in your target SERP should also be part of a keyword strategy.
The other reason to use SEO Quake is that it is useful for finding anomalies in the search engine results pages. These are useful for identifying the techniques that black hat SEOs are using to rank websites. Searching with SEO Quake active for things like “make money online”, “payday loans”, “buy Viagra”, “buy Oxycontin” etc. can reveal which websites are using dubious techniques to rank in Google.
Obviously, we would never condone using the techniques that the spammers are using to get rankings in these SERPs, but being aware of their strategies and techniques makes for useful research nonetheless.
Anyway, by my standards, this has only been a short blog, but hopefully, it’s still been valuable. If you have any questions about SEO Quake or any other free useful SEO tools then just leave a comment and I’ll try to get back to you.
