As much as I am a fan of the social media sphere, I still recognize that search engine optimization (SEO) continues (and will continue) to play an important role in getting your site and/or brand out there.  After all, SEO offers one of the quickest return of investments for many companies and when implemented properly can word wonders at propelling a site from obscurity to the limelight. 

Of course, you never know how much of an impact you are having with your efforts if you don’t measure them.  There is an old saying that you can’t manage what you can’t measure.  Why I don’t believe in this 100% (especially when it comes to intellectual talent, but that is another story for another day) I do believe it holds true for SEO efforts.

The good news is that you can get all the analytical data you want without spending a penny.  There are so many free tools out there nowadays that there is no excuse for not having your sites hooked into at least one of them.  The data you will get out of them will not only help your SEO efforts, but can be mined to find out a world of information about your customers and their behavior on your site.  A marketer’s dream come true!

With that said, let me tell you about a few of my favorites:

  • Google Analytics.  Without a doubt, the “big daddy” of the analytical world.  The features you get with Google Analytics rival what many paid products offer.  It’s easy to integrate with your site and fresh data is provided daily.

    Bonus!  Google now offers free online training for Analytics!

  • Compete.  Though they focus heavily on their paid features, a few of their free features are worth checking out.  The biggest freebie they give away that can provide valuable brand and site tracking is comparison reports.  You can compare basic traffic stats against your competitors and other segments of your market.
  • Webmaster Toolkit.  This is another site with a mixture of pay and free tools.  However, with 35 free tools they have a wide variety of niche utilities to help you better understand your site.
  • SEO Chat.  They have a whole page full of useful tools from domain checkers to keyword density tools.  Good site to keep bookmarked to get some quick info from.