What The Heck Is An “SEO Browser”?

I assumed, from this description, I was about to find myself downloading and installing an actual browser – one especially made to browse the web like an SEO. Nope! Rather, think of Browseo more like a virtual browser. Or a “browser within a browser”. Its a web app really.

An SEO-Virtual-Browser-Within-A-Browser-Web-App. Ok, get it? I’ll show it to you!

Let’s look at the website of this coffee company… I’d recently come across this local coffee roaster, New Harvest Coffee Roasters – and I really like their stuff, so I thought we’d use their site as a trial run. (And nope this isn’t a plug for them, in fact I gave them some Twitter-love not too long ago and I don’t think they were listening. We’ll talk about that later.) Moving on…

A Quick Walkthrough of Browseo Is Very Promising

The Browseo Homepage

As I mentioned, you don’t have to do ANYTHING. You just enter the page you want to view from an SEO perspective and hit enter. Nothing to install or download.

The Basic Features

So I hit enter on our coffee website and we’re off!

First, you’re greeted with a nice clean layout – the pure HTML on the left and some useful header info on the right.

You can highlight three link-types; internal, external and no-followed. You can also click on any link and it will take you to that page within Browseo. Pretty cool!

There’s forward and back buttons too.

Next, we’ll have to switch to another website, so I can show you more stuff (The coffee site is a little light on content etc.)

My wife likes this company called Sumbody, and I remember their website being a good subject, so let’s check it out!

Displays Header Information

The easy to read UI gives you a quick look at useful header stuff. Sumbody.com’s header info for their homepage;

I like the simple easy to read UI – and especially like the info like “Generator” (instantly saw this was a Drupal site) and the mobile compatibility info.

I like how the images are displayed within the HTML view as well. They are shown actual size (not being resized by CSS etc) and there’s a simple overlay of the alt attribute on the image. Easy!

Great, But What’s So Special / Unique About Browseo?

My very first thought was “isn’t this stuff we can do already?” – just the same as what Mike King tweeted about earlier – and I have to admit, that was my first reaction as well. But moving beyond that I think there’s a bunch of things that make Browseo a promising tool.

Your Non-Geeky Clients/Prospects Can Use It

Your clients don’t need Chrome with a certain plugin to get a quick look at their site in this “SEO View”. Just give em a link to browseo.net and tell them to enter their site. You don’t need to take screenshots and email them.

But one thing I also think this does, is it lowers the barrier to entry especially for non-techy  or less geeky folks to have an alternative view at their website. The everyday blogger, or small local business owner, or heck even corporate people who simply don’t have the time or desire really to download all sorts of plugins. You just tell them; go to browseo, plug in your site name and even as a layman you can understand certain things that just won’t look right.

Review A Site On A Mobile Device

I was “auditing” the sumbody.com website on my iPhone while waiting in line at Friendly’s.

Now that’s a pretty geeky thing to do …I just pretended I was doing something way “cooler” – like Angry Birds or texting my pals – didn’t want the high school kids nearby to think I was some kind of a loser, lol.

I’m sure there’s ways to view source on mobile devices (I haven’t really checked that out much) – but you can’t deny how easy this is.

SEOs – Use At Meetings, Conferences, Dinners (Weddings, Boring Parties…)

Uber-convenient right? At a conference, or a meeting, or even a dinner with colleagues, or an unfamiliar computer? Doesn’t matter anymore. The beauty of this basically being a web based app is you can use it anywhere. So don’t get caught not being able to shut of CSS or view source or otherwise analyze crucial technical aspects of a site when you’ve left your machine behind.

A Few Feature Suggestions

Jonathan from Browseo emailed me after I tweeted about it, and said they were really open to suggestion from the community and would consider feature requests etc. I thought of a few for ya!

URL To Share “SEO View” Of A Site

I would LOVE to just send a link off to a client like – http://www.browseo.net/seo-view/sumbody.com – and have it bring them right to that page within Browseo.

And think about it. You’d potentially get these as LINKS pointing back to your domain from people sharing a link like “hey check out this browseo view of xyz site”.

Tweet To Share SEO View

I think a natural expansion of having a sharable URL would be the ability to do this with share buttons – “tweet a browseo of this page” sort of thing. Could be Facebook shares – anything.

Provide A List Of All Header Information

This isn’t so much for right in the app, more for your documentation or resources pages – but if you could list all the header items you would potentially show that would be really useful. You only display what’s present in the site you’re viewing, so I’m not sure what may be missing.

Instant Screenshot Export

I’m not sure how difficult something like this is, but most of the pages are going to VERY long. In the situation you do need to send off something to a client quickly, or keep a screenshot for records this would be a very useful feature I think, especially if you don’t have a screenshot plugin handy.

One Marketing Suggestion – Technically NOT A “Browser”

I love the name “Browseo” but I would consider describing it as something other than a “browser” (I’m not suggesting changing the product name, just how you’re describing it).

Like I said at the top, I assumed I was going to be downloading an actual piece of software. I was actually EXCITED to find this was more like a web app. That’s so much easier!

Think of things along the lines of “browser within a browser” or a “virtual browser” and definitely calling it a “web app” (which is what it is) and you’d be far more likely (I think) to get people trying it.

This could be a HUGE advantage for you in terms of promoting the product so I would recommend using that kind of language, rather than just “browser”.

I’m Sure Browseo Would Love To Hear What You Think!!

Jonahthan mentioned to me they would have a place one their site soon for feedback. But why not give browseo a try and leave some feedback here as well? I’d be interested to see what others think of it.