If you hope to maximize your SEO efforts, then you really should know about Blekko, a new search engine startup. So what’s so special about them, considering that search is dominated by Google and there are already hundreds of search engines available all over the web from other companies? The answer is simple: they’re SEO friendly.

Now when I say that Blekko is SEO friendly, I don’t mean that they operate in a similar manner to that of Google (although they do – almost all modern search engines work in a similar way). What I mean is that unlike Google, Blekko doesn’t hide their data from bloggers and SEO specialists. In fact, they actively share it.
Not Just Friendly to SEO Specialists Though
Don’t think that Blekko is going to quickly find itself overrun by people dumping garbage content with the sole purpose of making money on the web either. They expect that such a thing won’t happen because they also offer features to make for a better search experience for users as well.
What Blekko does is to offer slashtags. These allow people to choose to search specific parts of the web, rather than just whatever someone dreams up. In effect, it means that while Blekko is sharing data with SEO specialists, it is also trying to make sure that the search experience for ordinary users is a better one.
Unlike Google, which offers a more limited option, to either create a custom search or to limit searches using the “site:” modifier, Blekko has these features built in, offering slashtags that users can use out of the box right now
Finally, Blekko is designed to have a human component involved in their search results. The idea is to provide the most relevant content without all the content mills clogging up the system.
How Blekko Can Help with SEO
Okay, enough about why ordinary people might choose to use Blekko. Let’s get back to why an SEO specialist might find Blekko to be their best friend. They offer you the chance to download their custom toolbar, which gives you access to a number of features that any SEO specialist will find incredibly useful, including these:
SEO – SEO data for any web page you happen to be visiting.
Links – Find out which sites point to your website (no more guessing – Blekko tells you automatically).
Cache – You can see the cached version of the site to know if it’s recent or not.
IP – Find the IP address of a page you are visiting.
Rank – This is probably the most useful of all. It doesn’t just tell you the rank that Blekko has assigned to the site. It provides complete SEO data for the website. I told you it was a powerful tool.
There are a number of other features offered as well, but these seem to be the ones most likely to prove useful to site builders and SEO specialists. You can download the toolbar and read more about it on Blekko’s website.