What is a browser extension?
Browser extensions are mini-applications or plugins that allow you to enhance the functionality of your browser and add new features that make it much easier and save time for the SEO specialist.
Why is this article worth reading?
- We've gathered for you the most popular extensions
- The selection is categorized and systematized
- Each plugin has comments and recommendations
What are the benefits of browser extensions?
With this selection for Google Chrome you can:
- Analyze the SEO parameters of the promoted resource;
- Collect necessary search queries;
- Get information on competitors' sites;
- Correct spelling and punctuation;
- Manage the information sent by the browser when performing queries during the loading sites;
- Increase anonymity and make it harder to track;
- Change the site's logic depending on your system when requesting web pages, which may be necessary to do the work;
- Retrieve archived pages on the Internet to access historical information that has been deleted
Experienced users who use OSINT (open source) technology in their work will be able to further extend the functionality of browsers to analyze information on the web.
For example, EXIF extractors will allow you to extract information from any image. Data formatting tools will access the API and provide information with improved visualization.
This article contains all the best that can be found on the Internet. For convenience, the information is divided into blocks, so that if necessary, you can quickly find the section you need.
Google chrome extentions by the sections
Search Engine Optimization, Privacy
Comprehensive Website Analysis
Top Semantic Gathering Extensions
Top SEO extensions for working with links, including outreach
- Link Redirect Trace
- Free Backlink Checker by LRT
- Bitly | Power short links
- Hreflang Tag Checker
- Redirect Path
- Streak CRM for Gmail
Extensions for website analytics
- Tag Assistant (by Google)
- Google Analytics URL Builder
- Page Analytics
- Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations
- Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on
Browser Extensions for Technical Optimization
- Web Developer
- AMP Validator
- Lighthouse
- User-Agent Switcher for Chrome
- View Rendered Source
- Structured Data Testing Tool
Extensions for Competitive Intelligence
Increased comfort for your work
How do I choose and install an extension in Google Chrome?
Keep in mind that not all extensions may be safe and useful, so it is best to install plug-ins from official sources. (Chrome Web Store).
Important! You can install all extensions only if you have a Google account. If you use your computer at work or in an educational institution, some extensions may be blocked.
- Go to the chrome web store
- Find the extension you need.
- Click on the "Install" button.
- Some extensions need permission or access to certain data. Click on "Add Extension" to grant access
How do I allow an extension to work on sites?
Some extensions need permission to read and modify site data. Settings can be changed at any time. To do this:
- Open Chrome on your computer.
- Select "Extensions" in the upper-right corner of the screen .
- Click on the icon with the three dots , then select "The extension can access and modify site data".
- Give the extension one of the following permissions:
- When you click on an extension. The extension will access the open tab (or window) if you click on it. If you open the same site again, the extension will need to be re-enabled.
- [current site address]: on. The extension will automatically work with data from the current site and will be able to modify it.
- On all sites. The extension will automatically work with and modify data from all sites.
Guidelines from Google support: https://support.google.com/chr...
General guidelines for all SEO extensions
- Most browser extensions are customizable. You can adjust them to suit you, including and disabling unnecessary features for speed and convenience.
- When working with plugins, it is useful to use hotkeys. You can choose the combinations you need here.
Or use One Click Extensions Manager
3. To avoid turning your browser into a garbage dump, it makes sense to hide unnecessary applications. To do this, just select "Unhide from Quick Launch" from the context menu of the icon (right-click). To return everything to its original position, in the list of extensions it is enough to activate the necessary "pin button".
Working with search results, privacy
Clean Guru - cache & history cleaner
Often it is necessary to analyze search results manually. To ensure that SERPs are not influenced by any extraneous factors you need to delete cache data, search history, cookies, and so on. In just 2 clicks you can remove all traces of your search work.
Comments: simple interface, free. To analyze SERP we recommend using the free SERP Checker tool SERP Checker
Privacy Badger
Useful extension that helps you automatically hide your behavior and personal information when surfing the web
Comment: handy, you can see all the trackers found on the site.
GeoClever for Google Search
One of the most useful SEO tools that allow you to change the location for google search results.
Comments: Regions are saved, so it's easy to switch between them. The extension has useful settings that allow you to analyze even mobile search results. To do this, in the settings under "Mobile SERPs" select one of the items of your choice. The output is a mobile SERP.
Besides, the plugin allows you to quickly change the number of pages to display in the SERP. The interface is simple enough and free
Google SERP counter
Displays the numbering in the search results in the Google search engine. Note that the numbering starts with the organic results, which is quite convenient for SEO specialists
Comments: comfortable to use, you can see immediately the numbered position changes.
Comprehensive website analysis
SEO META in 1 CLICK
Multifunctional SEO-combine.
Displays all the meta tags and page parameters, anchors of pictures, simple statistics on links, the appearance of the page when sharpening in social networks, and more. Bribes by its simplicity and convenience.
Comments: Similar extensions: MozBar, Open SEO Stats, SEO Analysis & Website Review, RDS Bar.
SEOInfo
The browser extension contains an "Audit" module that uses the Pagespeed Insights API in its work about
The browser extension contains an "Audit" module that uses Google's Pagespeed Insights API in its work. It shows SEO problems when navigating through pages, alerts you to errors, shows performance data and full AMP status, and has an error report for HTML pages.
Comments: Collected information can be opened in another tab to print or save to a file - amazing!
SEOquake
A multifunctional tool for the SEO specialist. Similar in functionality to the previous ones: shows the key parameters of pages, whole sites or search results - attendance, number of external and internal links, Alexa rating, number of likes on Facebook, and much more.
Comment: A distinctive feature of the extension is text analysis for key density. The data is presented in the form of a table and a keyword cloud. It is possible to filter the keys by the number of words: 2 - 4.
Quick Click Website Audit
The most popular services are collected in the extension. The plugin allows you to immediately send a page to one of them. For example, to check the speed of the page or structured data. Thus it's not necessary to search for service in bookmarks and copy page URL there.
Comment: Everything in one place - use it to save your time.
SERP Preview Tool
Visualization of the site's display in searches. There is a snippet preview in google search, but it doesn't work correctly because Google cuts off part of the meta tags.
Comment: The main unique feature is the ability to copy Description, Title, URL in one click. Handy enough if you need to quickly fix the current meta before making changes
Top semantics gathering extensions
SEOStack Keyword Tool
The extension helps you generate thousands of variants from your original keyword phrase by typing them in from autocomplete cues in Google, Youtube, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay searches. All data can be exported to a CSV file.
Related Tools: Keyword Sheeter
Keyword Surfer
A free tool with a fantastic amount of data: from domain-level search traffic estimates to keyword phrase query volumes (both nationally and globally), keyword phrase variants, and the number of backlinks at the domain level.
Comment: You get all the information in the widget right in your browser, as well as in the search bar - which is very convenient. You can copy the data to the clipboard and save it in .csv
Keywords Everywhere
Useful SEO-tool to analyze occurrences of phrases on the whole page.
What does it do?
All the textual information from the page code is processed, even if it is commented out. Key phrases are collected from the entire page and sorted by word count, occurrences, and percentages. Thanks to this, you can quickly identify the main words your competitors are focusing on. You can import the results into a .csv or .pdf.
Comment: You can see the popularity of the query at a glance, handy for quick keyword research.
Best SEO extensions for linking, including outreach
Link Redirect Trace
The tool analyzes page titles, page blocking in robots.txt, redirect chains, canonicals, etc.
Comment: The extension icon shows current page status: Canonical, 200, 404, 301, and others. It's quite handy and visual. In the interface you can analyze each link in the chain, export obtained data into .txt or as a screenshot.
Free Backlink Checker by LRT
This extension analyzes links coming from the page. Free Backlink Checker by LRT highlights invalid links in red and working links in green.
The main advantage of the Free Backlink Checker by LRT is that it gives you a longer response time, which is very useful when analyzing slow-loading pages. For you, it means that you will avoid a lot of false results caused by server protections.
It is convenient to export the obtained data to a CSV or XLSX file along with its anchor text, HTTP status code, and rel attribute for further analysis.
Comment: Despite its name, the extension can't handle inbound links.
Bitly
Create short, customizable links from any page to publish to the web.
To implement, click Bitly on the toolbar or right-click the page to quickly create a short link to the current URL. The link is automatically copied to the clipboard and can be pasted into a message or document.
Comment: The created link can be branded, which increases its clickability.
Hreflang Tag Checker
The Hreflang tag checker is designed to automate the process of checking hreflang attribute deployment on a site. The tool reads URL hreflang attributes and then scans them to determine if they reference your current URL.
This saves time when it comes to evaluating site language targeting and hreflang architecture, allowing you to get a quick and reliable view of your site optimization status
Comment: Good for working with full-fledged CMS
Redirect Path
A plugin for a narrow task - checks redirects on a page and the response codes for them. Allows you to identify problems in redirects so you can quickly fix errors
Comment: Handy for working with links
Streak CRM for Gmail
A Gmail-based customer relationship management system. Create newsletters, track emails, maintain interaction protocols with prospects and donors, and do much more. The perfect extension for setting up outreach campaigns
Comment: An indispensable link builder assistant.
Website analytics extensions
Tag Assistant (by Google)
The plugin shows if the Google Analytics tracking code is installed correctly on the site, detects errors in the tags, and offers correction options. Detects installed Google tags on the page, analyzes their performance, and shows errors. Incorrectly installed tags are marked in red. When you click on a specific code you can see the details and find out what the problem is.
Comment: similar extensions: Event Tracking Tracker, ObservePoint TagDebugger.
Google Analytics URL Builder
Adds UTM tags to links for tracking in Google Analytics. Clicking on the icon opens a window where you can enter values for all standard UTM parameters. It is possible to save presets for later use.
You can use without any restrictions for any analytics system (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, Amplitude, etc.) without leaving your Chrome browser.
Benefits:
- Bulk link building and time-saving,
- custom link shortener for the domain under the brand
- saving templates for UTM campaigns
- templates UTM synchronization in the team
- URL is automatically filled in the form field
- autocomplete fields increase your speed
- integration with cloud storage for logging
- publishing directly to Facebook and Twitter
- reduce UTM with Bit.ly integration
- save all links and user actions in your account
Comment: an unambiguously useful and recommended extension.
Page Analytics
Once you connect the extension and your Google Analytics account, you will see a sidebar at the top of the page with basic indicators: views, unique visitors, bounce rate, time on page, etc.
Comment: A handy extension for an SEO specialist, analyst, or director, but sometimes it stops working.
Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations
The search engine Google periodically updates the ranking algorithms that can seriously affect the position of your site. To be aware of such things, this tool will help.
The extension adds notes to the charts with the next changes from the search engine. You will be able to quickly analyze the situation and understand the reasons for the sagging traffic. Also, national holidays are displayed on the chart.
Comment: Recommended by many experts.
Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on (by Google)
To provide website visitors the ability to prevent their data from being collected and used by Google Analytics, use the Google Analytics opt-out Browser extension for the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js).
Comment: this extension will help to collect more accurate data when working with the site team.
Browser extensions for the technical optimization
Web Developer
Suitable for internal comprehensive site analysis and testing.
Wonderful features::
- disabling scripts and popups,
- ability to clean up cookies
- styles management
- automation of form filling and activation
- you can build title tree h1-h6.
Comment: Fast page structure analysis
AMP Validator
The extension automatically analyzes each page with the extension icon to check the AMP version and tells you whether the page passed or failed the check.
Useful for anyone who uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).
Comment: Mainly useful for online stores
Lighthouse
Lighthouse is a free Chrome extension from Google that checks website URLs and provides recommendations to improve the performance, accessibility, and SEO of your web pages, both on desktop and mobile devices.
Checks your pages and offers options for improving them regarding performance, accessibility, implementing advanced developer solutions, and, of course, search engine optimization.
Comment: Especially useful for developers and programmers, similar to google speed insight.
User-Agent Switcher for Chrome
This extension helps to understand how correctly the site is displayed on different devices. You can change it by changing the user-agent values
Comment: One disadvantage - you can't keep your privacy when surfing the Internet.
View Rendered Source
This tool is especially useful for those working with JavaScript sites. It compares the source code of a page with its rendered version in the browser. As an SEO specialist, you can check if JavaScript rewrites the meta tags, for example.
Comment: Convenient and easy
Structured Data Testing Tool
This SEO tool analyzes the site for micro-markup. The result is presented as a table with statistics on errors and warnings.
Comment: It's a great helper for your work
Competitive analysis extensions
Similarsites
The extension saves time for analyzing your competitors. Helps you find data without leaving your site. The data is displayed when you click on the Similarsites icon in your browser. A pop-up window displays your site's ranking and average monthly traffic and data on your 20 closest competitors.
Comment: Simple and handy extension for quick estimation of traffic and product niche.
SimilarWeb
Allows viewing key information about any site - ranking, traffic dynamics for the last six months, behavioral characteristics, the geography of visitors, and traffic sources. It's impossible to get information for small sites with the traffic of 2000-3000 visits per month.
Comment: This free extension is part of a feature-rich service where you can get additional information for a fee.
BuiltWith Technology Profiler
The extension allows you to see all the technologies that were used in the development of the site - engine, programming languages, and frameworks, widgets, Google Tag Manager, etc. After registering with BuiltWith, you can get more information - connected analytics services, installed pixels, contact information, social media links, and more, there is a limit on getting free data
Comment: Similar extensions are WhatRuns, PageXray, or Wappalyzer.
Ahrefs SEO Toolbar
Another one of the most powerful tools for evaluating a wide range of data. Its capabilities include generating internal search engine optimization reports, tracking redirects, finding bad links, and highlighting nofollow links.
After registering with the service and linking an account, Ahrefs users can examine key page metrics, domains, and keywords for URLs visited, and search results in an expanded version immediately from their browser.
Comments: The free version has reduced functionality, better to use the paid version.
Go Back in Time
Go back in time and see how a particular page used to look, using different caching methods. Actually, you always have a web archive at your fingertips.
Comment: Similar in functionality to Wayback Machine.
Making it more comfortable to work
GIPHY for Chrome
Quite a handy app for work design. Helps you insert gifs into your emails and comments on websites
Comment: A handy extension for simple tasks.
Note Anywhere
With this plugin, you can leave notes on almost any web page
Comments: Handy for teamwork.
LastPass
An indispensable online password manager for SEO specialists. Allows you to store an unlimited number of usernames/passwords to sites online, keep confidential notes and other important information.
LastPass has a built-in customizable password generator, auto-swap, time lockout, and other features.
Comment: The main advantage of this tool is that it allows you to whisper logins to sites without passing your password.
Grammarly
The best tool for copywriters, especially to foreign people who write for the English market. The extension only checks English text.
- Emphasizes spelling and punctuation errors;
- Works in Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, and more;
- Automatically checks text in all input fields on the page
Comment: Indispensable when working with typing and correspondence.
Word Counter Plus
Counts the number of words, characters with spaces, average word length, and the longest word. To get the result, all you have to do is:
- Select the text
- Right-click on the screen
- Select Word Counter Plus
- This will show the result
Comment: Good for working with copywriting.
Screenshot Extension
The plugin allows you to take a screenshot:
- with scrolling;
- the visible area of the browser;
- rectangular fragment;
With the help of Screenshot Extension, it is convenient to fix pages of output results, make full-size screenshots of websites. A huge plus is that there is a built-in editor. Save the data to a picture hosting or PC
Comment: It is convenient when working with a customer to demonstrate the results of the work.
Conclusion
Today there are a huge number of extensions for Chrome and other popular browsers, which greatly simplify the work of SEO specialists. In this article, we have listed those that are widely used in our work.
Do not forget that a large number of plug-ins slow down your computer, so approach the selection of tools wisely and rationally.
Our solution:
- Distribute plugins between browsers
- Create multiple profiles on Google for specific tasks
- Use the One-Click Extensions Manager to make sure all of your extensions work properly
- Adjust browser settings by turning tools you need on and off promptly
Thank you for reading to the end. We hope that the information was useful for you. We will be glad to receive your comments.
And what extensions do you use in your work?