UPDATE: Since this post, we have launched YourSiteScore.com, a collection of online SEO report tools our own higher level SEO assessments (not free).
In the SEO world there are the pros, the novices, and then 99% of the people sit in between. Every webmaster, blogger, small business owner in the world should be learning the basics of SEO. And it does not have to be expensive to teach yourself some useful SEO lessons. There is a vast knowledge base available online, free to browse and educate yourself from, including many many free SEO tools, that can make the trip that much easier along the way.
- Search Status Firefox Addon - If you are not using Firefox, you have some catching up to do, start now. A recent favorite of mine, Search Status is by far the best SEO browser plugin I have seen. It lists the Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, and Compete.com rank automatically for every site discreetly in the status bar, and also has a ton of other options to dissect the SEO of any page. A must have.
- Search Engine Spider Simulator - A search engine spider is a program search engines use to “crawl” the web, looking for and archiving content, that will then be put through an algorithm to determine when and if it will be displayed in search results. It is important to know what words the spider sees in what order. Many people look over this simple step.
- Keyword Suggestion Tool - You probably think you know of a couple keywords people might type in to search for your site. You may even be targeting some keywords on your site already to improve your ranking there. But it is always good to use a keyword suggestion tool to look for the keywords your missing and to check their search rates.
- Yahoo Site Explorer - This Site Explorer along with its Google counterpart Google Webmaster Tools, allows you to claim your websites and then explore all the inbound linking that the search engine is able to find. If you are new to SEO, inbound links are a huge help in lifting your SEO performance. These free tools will allow you to explore your success in creating these.
- Website Grader - Cool little quick and simple grade of your website. A good basic tool for seeing where you stand.
- Dead Link Checker - This tool takes a little time, but its worth it; Making sure your links are working is important to your overall link strategy and to the search engines.
- SEO Chat - Last and certainly not least, SEOChat.com is a vast knowledge base for your SEO educational needs. Go explore.
We plan to add to this list inthe future, but feel free to suggest your own SEO assessment techniques or free tools with a comment below.
Cuil was indeed formed, in large effect, by former Google employees, however Cuil is no Google and no Google Killer. Why? Well, I would suggest you test it out for yourself, but the success of searches is not there. The photo thumbnails themselves rarely seem to be relevant. And I much prefer the simlicity and keyword clustering over at 
