5 Free Must-Have Services for Internet Marketers

Thanks to the availability of wireless service, you can update your blog at almost any time. Also, with the ongoing trend of declining wireless internet costs, more and more individuals from all around the globe can visit your web site.

This phenomenon is a great source for potential traffic, but it also requires that you continuously stay updated regarding the latest trends and SEO tools within the industry in order to maintain and improve your web site ventures. Luckily, some of the best SEO tools and services for Internet marketers are free.

1. WordPress

Well known as a robust and easy-to-use content management system, WordPress is a solid blogging platform that has many features. When you change entries or templates on your site, the effects are immediate – there is no need to regenerate static pages. With WordPress Links, there is no need to call external blogroll managers because you manage blogrolls in the admin interface.

Full-featured comment moderation, strong spam protection and streamlined workflow are just a few of the benefits WordPress offers. In fact, most hosting providers have a backend option allowing for automatic WordPress installation.

WordPress Features

• Fully compliant with W3C standards. Every scrap of WordPress code works with the web browsers of today and will do so in the future.
• Any post can be password-protected. Additionally, each post has the option of being visible only to the author.
• You can easily import from other platforms. This includes b2, Greymatter, Blogger, Textpattern and Movable Type. WordPress is also working on importation from pMachine and Nucleus.
• Quick conversion of plain ASCII to XHTML with Texturize. This is an intelligent conversion that handles en and em dashes, apostrophes, quotes, ellipses, ampersands, and multiplication symbols.
• A built-in user registration system. This system can provide commenters with their own profiles. One plugin even allows you to hide posts from lower-level users.

2. Redirection Plugin for WordPress

This handy plugin makes page redirection painless. Move pages to new addresses as often as you like and the plugin automatically redirects visitors to the new address. It monitors 404 errors so you can map them to 301 redirects. Other redirection methods include those based on login status or referrer, and it allows redirection to random pages. The plugin even converts messy affiliate links. For example, www.myaffiliate.net/affiliateid188382/8product83.html can become www.yourwebsite.com/visit/.

Additional Features

• Supports 19 languages and counting.
• The ability to add 301, 302 and 307 redirects for any file, any post, manually.
• Stats regarding when redirections happen, how many times they occurred, who tried it, and where they got your URL.

3. Google AdWords Keyword Tool

This is an indispensable tool with many uses. You can see how many people are searching for particular keywords and discover how competitive those keywords are. The Keyword Tool can also be used to assist with ideas for new content. In the left pane are three Match Types: Broad, [Exact] and “Phrase.” Use the [Exact] option to retrieve the most accurate results.

4. Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is an invaluable tool for monitoring all aspects of website traffic. Simply go to the Analytics homepage, setup an account, and download the GA JavaScript code to place within your webpages. (For WordPress users, this code goes in your footer.php file.) Once installed, GA is ready for use. Login to your account, where you’ll have access to charts and graphs displaying everything from what keywords people used to find your site, to where those visitors are coming from. Mastering Google Analytics takes time, but getting started with the basics couldn’t be easier.

Other Useful Google Analytics Features

Calculating ROI for Advertising

Define your own thresholds for conversion rates and tracking sales with Goals and Funnels. For Ecommerce sites there are metrics for latency and loyalty, as well as transaction tracing to help pin down your best sources of revenue. You can track offline ads, email campaigns, banner ads, and much more. Lastly, GA integrates AdSense and AdWords data. AdSense reports display which content brings in the most revenue, and AdWords reports allow for optimizing AdWords based on post-click data, match type, search queries, and other elements.

Multimedia and Cross Channel Tracking

Web 2.0 apps, Flash and Ajax usage can be tracked, as well as mobile devices – even non-javascript phones, mobile apps and websites. The Internal Site Search feature helps you understand visitor intent so you can tweak conversion funnels and speed up conversion time.

5. Firefox SEO Plugin

This free tool allows you to see your own PageRank, incoming links, page age (via Archive.org), and other valuable metrics. Of course, the toolbar is great for researching the competition as well.