12 Free SEO Tools of 2011 to be Grateful For

12 Free SEO Tools of 2011 to be Grateful For is a post by SEO expert Claye Stokes. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

A few of these tools also qualify as resources or guides, but every one of these tools has made my life just a little bit easier this year. To all of you in this list, and to those I've missed or forgotten but who have offered free tools in 2011, THANK YOU!

If you're thankful for any other new free SEO tools, please give a shout out and begin a discussion about them in the comments section below.

1. GA Data Fetch Tool for Google Docs

This is a handy tool I’ve been using quite a bit recently to pull Google Analytics metrics into Google Spreadsheets.

Thanks to Jamie Steven of SEOmoz and Mikael Thuneberg of AutomateAnalytics.com.

2. Schema Creator

Raven Tools published built this with impressive speed after the announcement of Schema.org.

3. Excel for SEO

This is part tutorial, part tool, generously made available by Distilled and @MikeCP.

4. SEOmoz Toolbar for Chrome

The on- and off-page metrics provided in this toolbar are incredibly handy on the fly in an agency setting, and let’s not forget their Firefox toolbar. Here is more information about SEOmoz's Chrome Extension - thanks to SEOmoz for this tool.

5. Chrome Scraper Extension

Thanks to Justin Briggs putting this tool on my radar. Here is his summary on the tool and how it can be used for data extraction and SEO.

I’ve already found this tool useful for extracting data from a website for a redesign, and for gathering current on-page elements for analysis such as title tags, heading tags, etc. from a group of pages.

6. Competitive SERPs Analysis in Google Docs

Thanks to Tom Anthony for posting, and SEOmoz for hosting.

Very useful for competitive analysis, keyword research, and beyond (e.g. identifying competitors for on-page analysis and link opportunities, etc.).

7. Search Volume in Excel

Thanks to Richard Baxter for posting, and SEOmoz for hosting.

8. Bing Webmaster Tools Improvements

If you haven’t used Bing’s improved WMT suite, it’s time to start! Aside from tool improvements and multiple-user access, these updates are proof of Bing’s willingness to take feedback and listen to users and webmasters.

A large set of improvements were announced and launched in June, and even more updates were announced earlier this month.

9. Open Site Explorer Improvements

Open Site Explorer is better looking, more user-friendly, and sports some reporting upgrades that are more than worth a mention (and a thank you to SEOmoz for making this tool available for free).

10. Google+

I had no choice not to list Google+, because of its influence on search and communication in our industry this year. I’m a big Google+ fan btw – my Facebook use has remained the same but I’m never on Twitter anymore.

11. Google Analytics v5

Watching the new version of Google Analytics (v5) evolve over the past year has been a fun ride.

A few improvements worth noting:

12. Future Rank

In-house and agency SEO professionals alike have been able to use this tool since April 1st to shock supervisors, get promotions, and land giant deals by predicting ranking improvements more accurately than ever before.

* If you haven’t heard of Future Rank, pay close attention to that launch date.