Well folks, this may be the biggest tool introduction since Ryan Seacrest started hosting American Idol. ;-) Today we are launching our SEO toolbar for Google's Chrome browser. This sexy beast is full to the brim with SEO insight and time-saving SEO goodness. This free add-on is ripe for picking and available for download right this second.
Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Whether it's from Twitter, Facebook, email or comments here on the blog, almost every day we get some sort of request for a Chrome Toolbar. We knew there was a high need for it, and wanted to make sure that we didn't rush and put together something unmozworthy. The new toolbar is pretty baller if I do say so myself (which I just did). It works very similarly to a toolbar in Firefox where it displays across the top of the screen, but with the ability to easily drop it down to the bottom of the page as well.
The new Chrome toolbar has most of the same features as the Firefox edition, but if you want to learn more... please keep reading. :)
So How Does This Help Me?
1. Search Results Overlay
This new Search Engine Results Page overlay was designed to offer the most relevant link data without getting in the way. You can now use our toolbar to see which search results are getting the most links, and click Explore to run a full analysis in Open Site Explorer. To turn on this overlay, click the settings button on the toolbar, and select SERP Overlay.
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"I get the best 'feel' for abstract metrics by seeing them in familiar places. I find it easiest to understand the new metrics by seeing them on search results I'm familiar with; as an added bonus, this is one of the most helpful analyses you can do when looking at a new SERP for the first time." --Will Critchlow
2. Quickly find important SEO information with the Analyze Page Overlay
Our analyze page overlay provides quick access to useful data points which include:
- On-page Optimization Elements – All of the essential SEO on-page elements (title tag, meta description, meta robots, rel canonical) are in one place.
- Location Data – As local search becomes more important, the value of information like server location increase.
- Google cache – Want to see exactly what Google saw when it's bot crawled a given site. The link to Google's cache will get you there.
"The overlay is still the most valuable thing for me. I must use it 5+ times every day to get quick info about how many links are on a page, whether it's using rel="canonical" or whether the keywords are properly included in the right page elements. I hate using 'view source' and searching through code; overlay FTW!" --Rand Fishkin
3. Quick Access to Tools from SEOmoz and Third Parties
The tools dropdown has been expanded to include fast access to the latest SEOmoz tools as well as a wealth of other helpful resources, including traffic data, Twitter tools, and domain information.
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What if I find a bug?
Reporting Bugs
The best way to report bugs is to e-mail us at customerservice(at symbol)seomoz.org. This is the quickest way to get into our development queue.
Known Issues
1. The toolbar overlays some of the page content. We attempted to inject the CSS into the page and push down the page content, but this ended up breaking some useful sites (like Twitter) so we overlay the page instead , but do now offer the ability to display the toolbar at the bottom of the page, which should hopefully help, when you've just got to see the Facebook nav. :)
2. Because of the way the toolbar is rendered as part of the page, it only shows up when the page loads, so if the toolbar is turned on while other windows already have loaded content, you will need to click refresh to see the toolbar. Unfortunately, this is also the case when you open a new chrome window, since chrome shows cached content on open to appear faster.
We hope you enjoy the new toolbar. Please give it a try, and be sure to post feedback in the comments below.
Not yet a Chrome fan? Still plugging away in good ol' Firefox? Well we haven't forgotten about you! You were our first love, and can still be downloaded here.
Thanks guys! Just what I have been waiting for.
Now I can ditch Firefox and free up some RAM!
Even has that new car smell ... installed and working, I will let you know of any bugs etc. but so far a great addition to the growing canon of superb SEOmoz tools.
I'm loving this but on the mac version of Chrome it looks like it's sitting on top of the webpage so page headers are being covered up partially. See: https://i.imgur.com/2LRrs.png
Is there anyway to have it push the page margin down?
Use the little arrow button to push the toolbar to the bottom of the page. :) Or in settings you can move it to the bottom of the page.
Oh snap! That worked. Thanks!
Hi. I see no toolbar at all. Just the red roseish image. I refreshed. Ideas?
I also noticed that - can be irritating some time
Nice extension. I like that I can use it "on demand". Added it to my powerful list of tools :)
Other useful Chrome stuff for SEO:
SEO bookmarklets by Distilled
https://www.distilled.co.uk/blog/reputation-monitor/google-chrome-plugins-for-seo
Analytics helper
Icon that displays in url-box with UA-code when GA is found.
https://www.metronet.no/blogg/2009/12/chrome-analytics-helper-extension/
SEO site tools
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/diahigjngdnkdgajdbpjdeomopbpkjjc
View page as text
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gcaebagnkmkgakplgkojolncgppamlfo
Quixapp
Quick commands for anything. Speed = speedtest, whois = whois, h url.com = header check. Very cool by yoast. Bookmarklet for any browser.
https://quixapp.com/
Nice!!
No more switching from Chrome to FireFox to peek at my MozBar. Now I can use Chrome 96% of the time.
What's the 4%?
Getting closer to justifying my use of Chrome at work.
*Gasp* and *Pshaw*
Now ... I'm about to go Droid. Any applicable moz-tools for those "I only need a snapshot" type of moments?
Something I have been waiting for a long time, thank you Danny and thank you SEOmoz team!
I feel like I'm in those Microsoft commercials where people brag about recommending changes and then taking credit when the changes become a reality. :-)
Everyone: you are welcome!!! now I'm going to go call my mom and tell her the great news!
hahaha I just LOL'd in the office. :) Thanks for the great suggestions! :)
Until now, I haven't the need to use Chrome. I give Chrome a shot only to see how the SEOMoz toolbar compares to the SEOMoz Firefox version.
Man, I used to love Firefox but after having used Chrome a lot recently I really find it to be much snappier.
Thank you SEOmoz for answering the calls for a Chrome Toolbar, we appreciate it!
Are there plans to expand functionality of MozBars or is this it for now?
Nice! I really don't know what I did before the Mozbar for Firefox...I use it constantly while working on projects but its also great while I'm just browsing to see the metrics of some of the more popular sites and their internal pages...
Next up...how about SEOmoz Android App! Whos with me?
I just got a new Android this weekend, so I'd be up for that for sure. :) Although... we have bigger & better awesomeness coming next month! :D
Hey... I know Droid is cool... but I cannot change smart phone every 6 months... so, whenever you will have released the Alpha version of new SuperMegaOmniComprehensiveSEOmozTool, if you just think to all the hundreds of SEOmoz fans using an iPhone... that would be lovely.
Oh I've been waiting for the B&B Awesomeness...
Jennita I'll create you and I a nice Droid app that iphone users can be envious of...hook it up with some MozTool API's ;)
I currently have the first phone I ever bought. I usually keep to the cheapo freebies until I drop them once too often.
But baby! I'm going full bore screaming new gadget in two weeks. I'm getting a Droid, HTC Incredible (that is the "DINC" for those of us in the know). Maybe I'm getting it because the acronym DINC makes me giggle? Maybe I'm getting it so I can make my hardcore "ROAR".
Anyhoo ... I loaded the new Chrome mozbar and I'm fully Chrome now (that is until I need to format a SEOmoz comment ... the comments' wysiwyg is oddly missing in Chrome).
Great work on the mozbar and thank you.
I usually use Chrome and had to aso use firefox just for seomoz! Now I can do everything in one! Well done guys !
woohoo for simplicification!
Fantastic!
Been waiting for this a long time and I love it...
Thanks you SEOmoz...
I already downloaded and I just tried. Very useful! Specially when you have to measure the value of an external link?
And it is great because I can position either at the top or at the bottom. (I confess this confused me a little bit at the beginning, but I think is very handy)
Thanks!
Awesome. I've been using Chrome at work for a while now and I'm glad to see a mozBar for it. I had been using the SEO Site Tools and Google SEO extensions for it up until now, SEO Site Tools displays some seoMoz metrics, but I'm glad I can now have the mozBar and those other tools all in one browesr. A couple suggestions though, would it possible to have the "Show nofollow" option stay on even when the bar is hidden. Both those other extensions have that feature but for some reason they decided to use a very bold red that is very abrasive and makes want to hurt my computer. Also I have to agree with justsearch about the margins. I like being able to have it on the bottom but that little bubble displayed by Chrome blocks just about all the data when you hover over a link. A minor inconvenience for some site but all those site that have the entire background as a link or a large flash object that is a link could be really frustrating.
The toolbar work on Chrome really good (faster then FireFox), but it didn't work on ChromPlus!
Tom
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Great stuff, thanks for this
This is so awesome I may forego sleep to play in chrome with the mozbar :)
It seems to be working perfectly. I've been waiting for this. Thanks!
I moved away from toolbars for a while after overloading firefox with about half a dozen of them - they really slowed things down and required updates quite often. But it looks like this one does what I needed multiple plugins to do previously, and I use OSE on an almost daily basis, so I'm giving it a shot!
Downloaded it. Tested it briefly. Works. Brilliant. Thanks :-)
This looks awesome. I will download it and see how potent it is.
Just loved it! You did some good work with it. Looking forward to seeing you Rand on Webit Expo & Conferences 2010 in October ;)
I've been using the mozBar for Chrome for a week or so now and it's good. However, I think there would be a few little features that would be cool.
As the extension is always displaying as an icon that one can click and add the SERP overlay, it would also be good if it could add the "Highlight Nofollow" feature. I don't really like the toolbar display all the time when browsing through sites and I think the Nofollow shouldn't need the toolbar to be present.
This could also be cool for Analyse/Tools/Settings.
This leaves the mozBar available purely for the visual display of mR, PA etc. Which is great.
Just saying thank you for the chrome bar. We shouted you out on twitter too.
Perfect timing for me. I just switched to Chrome for personal browsing because Firefox has become too bloated and slow. I swear Firefox has a memory leak, but I still needed it for SEO. Now I might be able to go Chrome 100% of the time.
I don't like it overlapping the content at the top of the page. It looks fine positioned at the bottom, but I'm so used to it being up top. I like the way it displays at the top of Firefox -- completely above the page content. In Chrome it gets in the way unless you display it at bottom.
Still, progress in moving all the way to Chrome. Great stuff. I love the SEOmoz bar in whatever browser I'm using.
This new chrome toolbar is great - I have been wanting this for quite a while - well done
why my browser can't login ??
Love the features, but it's slowing down Google searching in Firefox
I think that if you turn off the SERP overlay (in the toobar settings) things should go back to normal speed. It just takes time to load all of the data about the pages in the search engine results. If you find that this isn't helping, please let our help team know and they can investigate further (help_at_seomoz_dot_org).
Cheers guys, I Love having the tool-bar on Chrome. Would be great though if someone had a look into the "bug" which causes Chrome "back" button stop working (or starts requiring multiple clicks to go back to the previous page) when you have the tool-bar one.
Much appreciated.
Thanks for calling this out! Amazingly, you are the first to report this. I'll make sure we look into fixing this for our next update.
Good information...
yeah, finally I can really try out Chrome. Thx!
Ke Nako! "it is here" as they said during the soccer World Cup. Excellent way to start my day. Thanks a lot guys!
Thanks for the chrome release it has been a good several months since I moved to Chrome as a f/t browser. Have had ample time to check all extensions avail for SEO and tools similar to the SEOmoz bar. What a nice surprise to see a familiar tool coupled with my new ones. Chrome is finally home, and a geeky family reunion can now commence, complete with the Orange drink. :)
Wow, this is brilliant.
I only just downloaded Chrome when I found Rands email on the SEOmoz Toolbar, which is a fantastic coincidence.
I prefer using Chrome to Firefox at the moment and this addon means I don't have to skip from one Browser to the other, GREAT!
At the moment the SEOmoz Toolbar only appears on the tab in which I open igoogle and any future searches in that tab. Is this the same for anyone else?
Thanks alot!
Thanks, Chrome is faster than Firefox.
What a perfect marriage. Goodbye Firefox, indeed.
It is already past my bedtime. This will change the way I work.
Super cool!
Thanks for the great addition, I must honestly say that I wanted to try Chrome for a while, but couldn't made the switch since some of the key toolbars was missing (apart from the mozbar).
Now, the switch got a whole lot easier :)
Thanks again!
Sometimes is needed just 1 one word:
THANKS
p.s.: feedback will come
It's awesome :-) just what I've needed.
The implementation is good too. Chrome is such a light browser that toolbars would suck in it. The push to the bottom of the browser window isn't working for me however.
This is awesome. I love Chrome to the point of stupidity (i.e., running Chrome and Firefox at the same time, just because I like Chrome more). This will be very helpful!
Oh, Joy!
A reason to use Chrome more often. After a first run have to say I am even more impressed than the MozBar for FireFox. I was wondering if a tool bar on chrome would look "heavy" for lack of a bette rword but not here.
Nice addition.
I was hoping it would only be a matter of time before you guys pulled this out of the bag!
Thanks very much!
Been waiting for this one - Chrome is way faster than Firefox and more usable.
I don't like giving Google more data, but when they make a great product...
YES! What an good surprise to see this today. I have been waiting for this one! THANK YOU
Awesome! A very nice surprise for today...See you all soon...
Awesome! Been waiting for this, thanks all :)
Thanks guys, I've already installed it!
I wonder if I will be able to switch full time to Chrome or if I will continue working with Firefox, I guess its the best time to try it out!
This is awesome!!!! Thanks allot!
Ill try my best to send some feedback.
Looks awesome, already installed it. One minor feedback - it doesn't look like the hover-over for PA = Page Authority works on my install. It might also be nice to have a sentence roughly explaining how each metric is calculated.
Opera... anyone? anyone?
Wicked, well done guys.
Hi, thanks for the toolbar. Just one thing that I would recommend. When the toolbar is moved to the footer, could it have the equivalent of about 20pixels in padding at the bottom to avoid being covered by the annoying 'status bubble' that chrome has? Great work guys, keep it up. Dan Taylor
Fine idea - I'll look into this when we plan changes for our next rev.
Yay! Thanks you guys! It took a few minutes for it to kick in, but looks like everything is working well. :)
Christmas in July! Thanks for the Chrome toolbar, I've recently switched from Firefox and this was the last piece of the puzzle. Excellent!
Finally...
Now I can work better with Chrome.
Thanks guys!
Really nice, but kinda useless for me without the root domains data. And paying $80 for a pro account just because that doesnt cut it for me.
Maybe adding a $5-10 account allowing to use just that, would bring you some nice revenue.
For example i dont need ranking tracking and to ask 2 questions per month but just to be able to use that great tool :)
Awesome, thanks guys! downloaded and installed!
Finally!
Great.
I love Chrome, it is great to have MozBar there.
Ok, how the heck do we subscribe to the SEOMoz blog while being a ProMember? I want to get updates via email like I do via my Pro account. :)
I like it. I was a bit surprised when I downloaded it and Google only reflects seven users. I am guessing from the chatter that more than seven of us have used this, right? o_O
Something's definitely weird with those numbers - more than seven of us just in the SEOmoz office have downloaded it! Maybe Google is only recording users logged in to that particular service?
I kind of thought that was a bit fishy ... randfishy, even. Don't you love reliable stats? Maybe it is just logged in users. It shows more reviews than users. OK, wait a minute ... did you go black hat on us?
On second thought ... I guess you may use a bit bigger numbers if you were to go rogue. :-D
Same thing happened here. Assuming that the 25 people that commented in between us actually installed it, I would say that the data is late/inaccurate :P
Great!
I love it - sure a good reason to change to Chrome for working with!
I appreciate all your work! Thank you so much!
Petra
I just installed it into Chrome, works quite well... Sucks that their is not much out their for chrome at the moment it seems to work far better for me as a internet user..I too was surprised by the installed number, possibly it has a few days delay =) Should be a featured add on soon ;)
Wow. Thanks for the toolbar :)
This will be of great help for all the search engine optimizers. If you would like then please check my website for SEO tools > https://SEO-Downloads.net
Thanks