SEO Tools

Many SEO tools are both limited and fairly gimmicky and much like WYSIWYGs are most useful to those already familiar with their functions.

As a long time Mac user most of the popular SEO software tools have been unavailable so I've had to find alternatives to investigate a websites' possible trouble spots, using these SEO tools will help identify/eliminate most indexing or listing problems.

Header checker - ensure pages are giving the correct header responce, handy for checking redirects have been properly implemented.

Geolocation checker - check the country identity of the IP as some hosting services have their servers overseas.

Robots.txt validator - an invalid or wrongly formatted file can cause serious problems, make sure yours won't.

Duplicate content checker - currently the most popular is Copyscape though I usually just pick some random phrases put them in quotes and search for them on Google.

Site History - the past can ve quite revealing.

For looking at links I use Yahoos' site search for an idea on numbers and then go over to Google for some subtler details from an info: search.

"Similar pages" gives you a core sample of the sites' linkage both in and out, useful as an overview and can show up some unexpected results, not a good sign for an established site if no results are returned.

"Contains the term" is also useful, the term "contained" is the page Url so most results are links though of very poor quality and is handy for spotting involvement in potential "link schemes".
Numbers usually far outweigh those for links, and when they don't it could point towards a paid links campaign.