Best SEO browser extensions 2017

Whatever browser you use, whether it's Chrome, Firefox or even Internet Explorer, there are now a growing number of extensions and plugins to help your SEO efforts.

There are extensions to allow you to quickly check SEO metrics such as Domain Authority, number of pages indexed, number of links etc... as well as specific link building extensions, web development plugins and more.

We've rounded up the very best SEO browser extensions to use in 2017 below...

Mozbar

One of the most popular SEO plugins around, Mozbar is renowned throughout the SEO industry as the go-to extension for quick and advanced SEO metrics.

Maintained by the Moz team, Mozbar is your all-in-one SEO toolbar to carry out advanced research on the go. The Chrome tool bar features:

• Custom searches - create custom searches based on search engine, country, region or city
• Link metrics - access and compare link metrics on all results on a search results page
• On-page highlighter - Identify and highlight keywords on a page, and find follow, nofollow, external and internal links
• Page overlay - expose page elements, general attributes, markup, link metrics, and HTTP status etc...
• Authority metrics - easily uncover and assess ranking probability with Page Authority and Domain Authority scores
• Data export - export your analysis of SERPs into a CSV file

Mozbar is a free Chrome plugin, but also has various premium features which you can access by taking up a free 30-day trial of the Moz Pro tool: Start your free trial

Get the Mozbar Chrome plugin here

Ahrefs SEO Toolbar

Another all-in-one Chrome plugin, this time from the Ahrefs team, which allows you to quickly uncover and assess a wealth of SEO metrics directly in your browser.

Ahrefs is well regarded as having one of the most comprehensive databases, so you get a lot more data at your fingertips.

The Ahrefs SEO Toolbar features an in-depth site and content explorer, a rank tracker and all the detailed link metrics we now associate with the Ahrefs tool - providing you with insights into competitor websites to help you make more informed SEO decisions.

Ahrefs SEO Toolbar lets you immediately assess:

• URL Rating and Domain Rating
• Number of Backlinks
• Number of Referring Domains
• Social metrics for Google+, Facebook and Twitter
• Detailed information with charts for pages and domains

Like the Moz toolbar, a lot of the features are free - but with a paid subscription to the Ahrefs service you get access to much more: Start your free trial

Get the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar for Chrome and Firefox here

SEOQuake

This popular and completely free browser extension from SEMRush is a powerful and highly functional SEO toolbox available for both Chrome and Firefox users.

With SEOQuake you can check any web page for a variety of SEO parameters, including:

• Google PageRank
• Google Index status
• Yahoo links
• Yahoo linkdomain
• Bing index
• Alexa Rank
• Webarchive age
• Delicious index
• Whois link
• Page source
• SEMRush rank
• Nofollow links

Carry out real-time SEO audits quickly and easily, with an intuitive user interface and get an in-depth look at important SEO metrics.

Get SEOQuake for Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari here

SEMRush Rank

Speaking of SEMRush, they have another SEO extension that simply displays the current SEMRush Rank score for a given web page.

SEMRush Rank is a fantastic tool to quickly see stats for both organic and paid keywords. It's also quite a unique tools as it provides data and insights about searches, keywords and paid search ads.

Get SEMRush Rank for Chrome | Firefox

Majestic Backlink Analyzer

Being arguably the most popular and extensive link analysis tool, you would expect an SEO plugin from Majestic to be a winner. And their Backlink Analyzer tool is exactly that.

This extension enables you to quickly uncover important link data about any web page, using Majestic's famed data and its own 'trust flow' and 'citation flow' metrics.

The plugin displays a huge array of link data, including:

• The number of links to the web page
• The number of links to the domain (and subdomain)
• The number of domains that link to the web page
• The number of domains that link to the domain (and subdomain) which hosts the web page
• How strong the links are at all these levels (Citation Flow) as a score from 0-100
• How trustworthy the links are at all these levels (Trust Flow) as a score from 0-100
• A link profile chart, which is a graphical representation of the citation flow and trust flow of all these links
• Timeline charts of how this page acquired links over time

Majestic Backlink Analyzer is free to use, but more features are available if you have a Majestic tool subscription: Sign up to Majestic for free here

Get Majestic Backlink Analyzer for Chrome and Firefox here

Check My Links

Check My Links is a free Chrome plugin that enables you to check all the links on a given page.

With one click, the plugin will crawl the entire page and highlight all the links on it - identifying broken links and providing the server error code for the broken link e.g. 404, 500 etc...

Check My Links is a great tool to help find broken link building opportunities, as well as to check through your own web pages to make sure the links are all working.

Get Check My Links for Chrome here

BuiltWith

Another browser add-on very much in the 'does what it says on the tin' category, BuiltWith shows you exactly what technology a website has been built with.

From identifying Content Management Systems to seeing what ad networks and tracking code a website uses, BuiltWith can be a very useful tool for lead generation as well as site audits.

BuiltWith is completely free to use on Chrome and Firefox, but there are subscription plans available for power users.

Get BuiltWith for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari here

Similar Web

The Similar Web plugin for Chrome and Firefox is ideal for those who want to run an analysis on a competitor website and see where they get their traffic from. Unlike similar plugins, the Similar Web tool doesn't just show organic traffic, it also features data on social media traffic, referral traffic and direct traffic - giving you a fuller picture of the visits a competitor website gets and where they come from.

Data available from the free plugin includes:

• Engagement (visits, time on site, page views, bounce rate)
• Monthly visits and traffic sources (direct, referrals, search keywords, social networks, mail, ads)
• Site rankings
• Top countries
• Top 10 referring and destination sites
• Top 10 paid and organic search keywords
• Top social networks
• Similar sites

Get the SimilarWeb plugin for Chrome | Firefox

Page Analytics by Google

This is an add-on to Google Analytics, and provides detailed information about how visitors are interacting with each page of your website while you browse it.

The Page Analytics Chrome Extension will show you what links users click - and don't click - on your pages as well as heatmaps to show where they are scrolling and what they are reading.

This data can all be used to help inform decisions on page layout to improve the user experience and ultimately increase conversions.

Get Page Analytics (by Google) Chrome Extension here

User-Agent Switcher

User-Agent Switcher is a very useful tool for developers to see how their websites look in different browsers.

Rather than opening up each individual browser to test your site, simply choose each browser from the simple interface and see how your pages are rendered. With more and more visits from mobile devices, this tool is becoming essential to test for bugs before launching a new design.

Get User Agent Switcher for Chrome, Firefox and Opera here

Open Multiple URLs

An extension with a very simple function, Open Multiple URLs allows you to... open a lot of URLs at the same time. It really is that simple and can help to massively speed up your workflow.

Get Open Multiple URLs for Chrome here

Evernote Web Clipper

It may not specifically be an SEO extension, but this Chrome add-on from Evernote boasts some very useful functionality for SEOs or anyone else who spends a lot of time working online.

As well as saving notes for later, the plugin also allows you to grab screenshots, clip articles, create images, add notations, highlight articles and more.

As Evernote automatically syncs across all of your devices and saves everything you've clipped in the cloud, you can access it wherever you are working.

Get Evernote Web Clipper for Chrome here

LastPass

It's common for anyone working in SEO to accumulate a lot of passwords to all the different online tools and services you use.

If you are smart and use safe internet security practices i.e. not using the same easy password for all of your online accounts, then having a password manager can quickly become essential.

LastPass is great for storing and remembering your passwords, and you can also share your passwords with others without actually revealing what they are e.g. virtual assistants, employees, clients etc...

Get LastPass for Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer here

Eye Dropper

A quick time-saving Chrome extension that lets you identify the CSS code of any colour on a web page. Basically, when you see a colour you like anywhere online just fire up the plugin and it will instantly provide the correct CSS code.

Eye Dropper will also store your colour history and make it available for you to export as a csv.

Get Eye Dropper for Chrome here