This is the beginning of a series that I plan to do weekly on “Favorite FREE SEO Tools.”

I encourage comments on the tools that are featured each week. Please comment as follows:

1) Comment on the Tool that is featured.
2) Mention a similar Tool that you use that you like just as good or better.
3) Please do not simply link to Aaron Wall’s SEO Tools Page (just an example) and say, “Check out all these “FREE SEO Tools” by Aaron Wall.”

I hope you don’t mind me setting up the simple 3 step guideline above to keep the comments focused on just the tool being mentioned or other very similar tools.

Let’s start with one of my absolute favorites: SEO Quake for Firefox and Explorer.

If you don’t have it installed and like SEO, you should give it a whirl. It provides a snapshot very quickly of important data needed for foundational SEO. Here’s a screen shot:

After you install SEO Quake, you will have a request parameters button just below the search box before the rankings. Anytime you are surfing using a search engine, you can click REQUEST PARAMETERS to see all kinds of information on the page about all the sites on that page.

Here’s how I use it to make me look good in just seconds…

1) On the phone with a Potential Client
2) May I have your domain name
3) I’ll then usually either do a site:www. or I’ll use the SEO Quake Tool Bar that is installed. Either way, I gather some quick data.
4) I respond with… I see that you site is ____ months/years old, you have ____ links pointing to your site and you have ____ pages in Google.
5) Remember, this is just quick 15 second snapshot

Now, this is how I use SEO Quake to give additional feedback.

1) Armed with the information above.
2) What is a phrase that you would like to rank for.
3) I type that phrase in Google and hit request parameters.
4) I then look at the Age, Pages Indexed in Google and Links Pointing to the sites.
5) Remember, all of this is literally done in just 2 or 3 minutes. Quick Snapshot.
6) Based on info from the potential clients site and info from the Top 10 ranked sites, I may give combinations of feedback like…

“Your site is a June 2007 site and all of the Top 10 for that term are 2005 or older” (Hint: Site is too new to potentially compete.)

“Your site has 57 links and all of the Top 10 sites have at least 950+ links; however, this does not mean you cannot compete. Linking is more about quality, but I’ll have to dig further on this one.”

“Your site has 5 pages indexed. Most of the Top 10 sites have 100+ pages indexed.”(Hint: They are probably targeting more terms, have a good sitemap, have solid links, etc. Why does the site have only 5 pages? Is it really that small or just not being indexed well?)

Please don’t take me out of context. This is the short version of just some of the things you can do with SEO Quake.

Do you use SEO Quake? It will make you look pretty sharp in a matter of seconds when talking on the phone with someone. Please share your comments.

I’m writing from the Austin, Texas airport about to head back to Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fred and I have had a client since November of 2006 that we have never met face-to-face until today. It’s easy to get caught up in doing business via phone and email. Social media has become a more personalized way of communicating online; however, nothing beats a handshake and a face-to-face meeting.

Our client now feels much better about working with us and even talked about a long term 5 to 10+ year relationship. It’s kind of funny that he feels so much better about us just based on a face-to-face meeting. He had a GREAT 2007 online without ever meeting us.

Now, I’ll pose a question…how do you feel about spending hundreds of dollars to fly round trip to seal a deal or solidify a relationship?

We close out each week with our Who Said That?, where we give some link love to bloggers who have really captured our attention with their inspiring and thought provoking posts.

Let’s get started!

How I Almost Let Fear Stop Me From Accepting a $4,000 Engagement

Stephen tells an incredible story of overcoming his fear of a major challenge in his post “How I Almost Let Fear Stop Me From Accepting A $4,000 Engagement.” This goes to show that even motivational speakers that talk on the topic of overcoming adversity still have challenges with fear! If anyone hasn’t felt this – well then they haven’t challenged themselves enough!

I think that we constantly limit our growth out of fear of stepping outside of our comfort zone. Stephen takes us behind the scenes of how this opportunity outside of his comfort zone surfaced, the turmoil he faced, and what gave him the courage to push past the fear and give an outstanding presentation (and also make a $4,000!) This post makes me wonder what opportunities I’m pushing out of my life by not being open to new challenges outside of my own comfort zone.

How I Gave Away 15 Minutes and Made $5700

Mason gives us a behind the scenes play by play of a decision he made (though he was hesitant at first) that landed him lots of business quickly in the early days of Smart Fuel. Best of all, this move cost him nothing but a little bit of his time. Before this discovery, Smart Fuel was just barely getting off the ground and Mason was struggling with how to get new business.

Mason also shares a $700 marketing investment that he thought would bring a lot of business but turned out to generate zero business or traffic.

Getting Creative With Adwords

Wow! This idea blew me away.  This is perhaps the best idea for creating a catchy Adwords campaign that I’ve every seen.  I think the pictures speak for themselves…

I hope these great blogs give you lots of creative ideas to fuel your weekend!

**who**