If a carpenter is equated with hammer, nails, drills and more, an SEO guru should be equated with reliable SEO tools. But they need not be costly. There are some which are affordable while others are offered free of change.

WebPro News writes:

Google Analytics
Google shook up the search analytics scene with the release of Urchin-powered Google Analytics. Google bought measurement powerhouse in 2005 and eventually integrated its tons of information into its Analytics product, the second incarnation of which was released early in 2007. The good news, all that information is free.

Compete Search Analytics
Metrics firm Compete grabbed some buzz this fall with the release of Compete Search Analytics, of which there are both free and pay versions.

Mint
Mint is a relative inexpensive tracking tool ($30 per site) that tracks browser type, country of origin, internal searches, outbound clicks, specific page tracking, and page trending.

SEODigger
Another free tool available, SEODigger shows:

* Which keywords your site ranks high enough for to be in Google top 20
* Analysis of user sites and competition sites,
* How well sites are optimized for search
* Information on entire domain as well as pages

SEO for Firefox
This tool tells you:
* PageRank
* Estimate of inbound links via Yahoo and MSN
* Number of .edu and .gov links to the site and pages within
* Number of del.icio.us bookmarks for a page
* Estimated Technorati links
* Alexa ranking
* How many pages are in Google's cache
* How many page are indexed in DMOZ
* How many Bloglines links
* Top keyword bid prices on Overture
* Bid estimates and click volume estimates on Google