To continue our review of the best free SEO tools out there, today we’re covering a mixed grab bag. We look at free online tools to deal with such diverse items as the uniqueness of your text, the size and validity of your images, and the key issue of having a proper XML sitemap.
Copyscape
Duplicate content is a thorny issue but one thing you can be sure of, the more unique your content is, the better. For this reason, you need a way to check your text against what’s already out there on the net.
The reigning king of plagiarism checkers is Copyscape at http://www.copyscape.com/. You enter an URL and the software retrieves information about any duplicates out there. The free version limits you to ten results.
With the premium service you get more results. Plus you can enter blocks of text to search for, not just URLs. At 5c a search, it’s good value.
They offer another premium service known as Copysentry that continuously monitors the net for duplicates of text you specify. It alerts you by email if it finds any. It costs a modest $4.95 per month to monitor up to 10 pages on your site.
Duplicate content on your site is a problem and unfortunately with WordPress, is quite common. So be sure to run your site through Copyscape. Moreover, if you’re worried that others are stealing your content or your writers are being lazy with their research, you need this tool.
Image SEO Tool
Graphics are a must for our websites but are you optimising the various aspects of the images you upload? Use Image SEO Tool to find out. Just enter the URL of your site and this tool will check for various types of image optimisation such as name, alt tag, file size and dimensions. It will then highlight any problems it finds.
With Google placing weight on site load times, ensuring your images are optimised is very important. In addition, Google recommends you specify height and width metrics for every image. This tool will help your with both.
XML Sitemap Inspector
Every SEO needs to pay particular attention to XML Sitemaps. They’re the way you let Google’s bots know about all the pages on your site. It can also alert the spiders to links they may have overlooked on their regular crawl. Plus, they provide a fast way to alert the engines about any changes you make.
One of the best ways to kick off an SEO audit is with a sitemap inspection. Sorting out those 404s is a key first task. If you want a free and easy way to check your sitemaps, head over to http://sitemapinspector.com/. There’s no charge but donations are accepted.
