Google Chrome is, at time of writing, still the most popular browser in the world. It has a pretty staggering market share, with around 77% of people who use desktop browsers using Chrome on a regular basis. Even if you’re using Microsoft Edge, the new version is built on Chromium, so it supports Google Chrome extensions.
With that in mind, the importance of installing the right Chrome extensions as a digital marketer should be obvious. The best Chrome extensions for digital marketing include grammar checkers, SEO optimisation tools, and other things you might not even know you need, so without further ado, let’s take a look at the 12 best extensions to install if you’re a digital marketer.
1. Grammarly
Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: Grammarly isn’t perfect. Sometimes, it’s going to make suggestions to you that don’t feel right, so it’s important to maintain a sense of ownership over your writing as well. However, it can help you to avoid common mistakes and focus on the parts of your writing that matter, so it’s definitely worth installing this extension if you’re writing copy.
2. SEOquake
As the name suggests, SEOquake is all about helping you optimise your content for SEO. Using this extension, you can view important info like Alexa rank and Google index number, as well as running SEO audits of webpages to determine keyword density, mobile compatibility, and other vital statistics. In short, if you’re hoping to optimise a page for SEO, then SEOquake is an essential extension.
3. Google Dictionary
One of the most costly mistakes you can make as a marketer is to use the wrong word. Since writing great copy revolves almost entirely around word choices, the last thing you want is to get something wrong and lose the chance to focus on a keyword. The Google Dictionary Chrome extension can help you with that; it lets you view the definition of any word on a webpage, so you can double-click to make sure you’ve got the right one.
4. Ahrefs SEO Toolbar
Ahrefs is one of the most useful websites out there for SEO, so it should come as no surprise that its Chrome extension toolbar is a great one to download. It’ll show you lots of stats including your in-page SEO, your metrics, and any broken links you might need to fix, and there’s lots of other functionality if you are a subscriber to Ahrefs. Even if you’re not, though, this is a great little extension.
5. Page Analytics
Digital marketers are essentially beholden to Google Analytics, and the Page Analytics extension helps you to see a page’s analytics at a glance. It’ll show you stats like how many pageviews the page has, what the bounce rate is, and how long users spend on the page on average, which are all vital statistics for making sure your content is optimised for SEO.
6. Ubersuggest
Like Ahrefs, Neil Patel is a trusted name in the world of SEO, so the fact that this extension was developed by him should come as a ringing endorsement in and of itself. Ubersuggest will show you how popular a keyword is, as well as CPC and competition data. It also works with YouTube and Amazon as well as Google, so it’s worth installing if you’re a store owner or a YouTuber too.
7. PageSpeed Insights
One of the most important statistics you can track as a marketer is how fast your page loads. Google’s PageSpeed Insights extension will help you to know this. It’s a lightweight extension that simply tracks how long a page takes to load in total, but using this statistic, you can make a lot of very important decisions regarding your website, so its power far outstrips its resource consumption.
8. MozBar
MozBar will show you a page’s metrics for whatever website you happen to be browsing, including your own. It’ll display page authority, spam score, and domain authority, as well as a range of other statistics, and it’s completely free to install on Chrome, so there’s really no reason not to have it installed. If you do happen to be looking for extras like keyword difficulty and more detailed metrics, there’s also a Pro subscription available.
9. Awesome Screenshot and Screen Recorder
As a digital marketer, there could be lots of reasons for wanting to capture your screen. Maybe you want to show off how to do something on your website, for example, or you need to take a screen grab of a video. That’s where Awesome Screenshot and Screen Recorder comes in. As the name suggests, it’s a powerful tool for helping you take a screenshot of your Chrome browser window.
10. BuzzSumo
The BuzzSumo Chrome extension is another invaluable tool for digital marketers on Chrome. It’ll show you metrics for your competitors and allow you to put content you want to read later into a “pocket”, so you can show it to your company and tell them how you want it to inform your SEO strategy. You can also quickly and easily view how many social shares an article has, which is a critical statistic for you.
11. Bitly
While the jury’s out on whether long links harm your SEO or not, Bitly is still a very valuable Chrome extension to have as a digital marketer. It’ll help you to create short links and will also generate QR codes for your viral marketing campaigns, which can be an invaluable tool. Using Bitly, you can easily and quickly shorten a link without needing to visit the site every time to do so.
12. RiteTag
This one’s mainly for any platform that uses hashtags, so think Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. When you’re creating a post, RiteTag will suggest hashtags it thinks you should use. It’ll also rank hashtags using a colour system, showing you which ones are strong and which ones it thinks you should avoid. There are a ton of extra features in this extension, too, so you need it if you’re going to use any of the above platforms.
