Google Toolbar Tips and Tricks

The Google toolbar is a little toolbar that rests above the page portion of your web browser. You can type any query in the search box and Google will find what it views as the most relevant results. This is like many other toolbars, so what makes the Google toolbar better than other toolbars?

Download the Google Toolbar

If you get the google toolbar with advanced features you can view handy things about a page like page rank, backwards links, highlight the searched words, and if you get the distributed computing version you can also help try to find cures for diseases or other great causes using your spare processor power.

The page rank thing is very self explanatory. If high ranking pages link to you, you may become highly ranked. Each link is like a vote, but you must hand these out and accept them carefully. Please note that Google has introduced an overoptimization spam penalty, so it is a good idea to get some inbound links that are not optimized.

Using backwards links you can see who links to your competition and ask them to link to you. This tool will make finding the right links to your site easier. Learn about building a linking campaign.

Using the highlight feature you can get a rough estimate of keyword density and location to allow you to know the goals and where to start. Another good tip for common queries is to look at the top 20 results and find the ones with the lowest page rank. These are the results that most closely fit the google algorithm for that page. Try to pattern your keyword density off of these sites and aggressively pursue quality links. The catch is to have page content which reads well to the end user.

Download the Google Toolbar

If you use Netscape the Google Toolbar will not work.

To check who links to a site type in link:www.website.com

Some backlinks will not show and internal links are returned using the above technique. To see who is linking to your site without seeing internal results you can use www.mysite.com - site:mysite.com

You can also check your rankings using the Google Rank Checker