swansonager – what is matt up to?

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about some of the top guys and gals in the SEO and Web Engineering space and what makes them successful. I wanted to put together a post that detailed which tools some of the top SEOs and Web Engineers out there use on a daily basis and what tools they absolutely CAN’T live without. Below is list of what some of the top guys and gals are using and what, when asked, they can’t live without.

Special thanks to Aaron, Matt, Shane, Jill and Drew for their input that helped make today’s post possible!

Aaron Wall from SEOBook

• Google’s sktool
• the SEO toolbar
• our competitive research tool and any analytics tool the site is running

Jill Whalen from High Rankings

• Google’s Keyword Research Tool
• Google Analytics
• Firefox (plus all its tons of extensions)

Shane Pike from Ask Shane

• A great code editor: I still use Visual InterDev to this day even though I don’t code in ASP anymore just because I like how the editor works. There is probably a better answer out there, but InterDev still works great for me
• An FTP client: In many cases the command line works just fine, but there are times when I just need an actual application. I use FileZilla because it’s simple and free
• A web stats program: If you’re not measuring, you have no idea whether you’re succeeding. I use Google Analytics because it’s widely accepted and it’s free

Shane’s OS of Choice?

And I’m a PC guy all the way. In 16 years I’ve never had a problem, so I’ve never even thought about switching.

Matt Cutts from Google

• the full Google set – Search, Gmail, Calendar are always open. Chrome is my browser of search. These “Big Four” are with me ~100% of the time.
• non-Google-wise, I like Twitter, especially the standing search functionality.
• non-Google-wise, I keep an eye on Techmeme to see what the news of the day is.

Drew Meyers from Geek Estate Blog

I’m pretty old school with tools, I don’t use too many. Some I use:

• MyBlogLog to see where my traffic is coming from in real time
• Twitter
• SEO status plugin for firefox
• Yahoo site explorer
• Google reader

I’m a windows guy, but planning to switch to a mac when I buy my next computer.

Matthew Swanson from swansonager

• Since I do a lot of text editing, I’ve found Textpad to be an indispensable text editor – it does a lot of functions really, really well. Including “Find in files” that imo, Windows has always lacked in BIG TIME.
• Firefox, plus my favorite plugins: Search Status, Firebug, and Rank Checker from SEOBook
• Domain Tools – one of the best (imo) places to research everything you want to know about any domain
• StatCounter – As much as I LOVE Google Analytics, I still like the simplistic nature of StatCounter – it’s not 100% like GA, but it’s always good to have a second sanity check on your domains for stats, etc..

What are you tools of choice? We’d love to hear.

I’d love to hear what your favorite tools are – leave a comment below and share your absolute “can’t live without tools” with everyone