Browser extensions are essential tools for search engine optimization. I use them every day to save time and increase productivity.

I’ve addressed my favorite Chrome extensions for keywords, authority, and analytics. What follows are my favorites for on-page auditing — to find errors, identify areas of improvement, and analyze competitors. All are free.

Link Checkers

Free Backlink Checker is available for Chrome and Firefox. This free extension scans a page for links and generates a report containing:

• Internal and external links,
• Anchor text for each link,
• Target root domain of each link,
• Link status (broken, unverified),
• Nofollow attributes.

I use Free Backlink Checker to extract all links and export into Excel for additional analysis, such as sorting by domain and header status. The extension also shows the HTML code of any link when hovering over it.

Free Backlink Checker scans a page for links and generates a report with the details. Click image to enlarge.

Broken Link Checker is another option. It, too, is available for Chrome and Firefox.

I typically use a web crawler to find broken links. But a crawler doesn’t identify a specific link — only the page — making it challenging to find and fix, especially when the link sits in a huge navigation menu.

Browser-based link checkers make it much easier by color-coding on-page links based on their status.

Browser-based link checkers, such as this example from Broken Link Checker, color-code on-page links based on their status. Click image to enlarge.

Broken Link Checker runs its report by default when a page loads, which to me is excessive. Check My Links, another Chrome extension, runs only when its icon is clicked in the address bar. It also color-codes redirects, which, like broken links, should be fixed.

Check My Links also color-codes redirects. Click image to enlarge.

Keyword Highlighters

To identify keywords on a page, I prefer Highlight Magic for Chrome and Multi-Keywords…