How to Make a Website - Useful Tools

When developing a website there is a lot to consider even if you are experienced and already understand a lot of the requirements and concepts involved. It makes it easier if you know what tools are available to help you out. Based on this I have compiled a list of the tools I find most useful when developing a site and thought I would share it with you.

Browser Extensions

Firebug and the Firefox developer toolbar

These are two different extensions for Firefox which allow you to both inspect the data and scripts that make a website page up. Firebug is actually my favourite but you may wish to check out the Developer toolbar as well. Do a search on google for 'firebug' or 'firefox developer toolbar'.

Developer toolbar for Internet Explorer

There is also now a developer toolbar for Internet Explorer 7 and IE 8 actually comes with the toolbar pre-installed.

These tools allow you to do things such as: inspect CSS styles sheets and Javascripts used in the page, see the individual CSS or Javascript events attached to individual HTML elements in the page, view header data, post and response data. Believe me, whether you are a web designer or web developer, learning how these tools work will give you a big advantage when developing and bug-fixing your websites. I absolutely cannot do without them on a day-to-day basis.

SEO for Firefox

There is a great little tool if you want to understand SEO. Search Google for 'SEO for Firefox' and you will find seobook.com which offers 2 tools for SEO - a toolbar and also an inpage set of SEO results.

SEOMOZ keyword extractor

This tool scans a web page and reports back the keywords and terms which are most prominent on that page. Basically, you tell it where your website is, then it tells you which terms your site seems to be trying to rank highly in search engines for. If the results aren't the keywords you've been targeting, you'll probably want to make some changes.

Browsershots

Browsershots is a great service for web designers that lets you see how your website looks in different types and versions of web browser. It can take a while to produce the results, but it has a comprehensive list of browsers and you can't argue with the price - its free.

Wave

It's good practice to adhere to to accessibility guidelines, and means people with disabilities will find your website easier to use. Wave is a tool to evaluate how accessible your site is - it will show you what you're doing right, and where you can improve.

W3C link checker

It's easy to get links right when you first add them to your website. But as your site grows, pages change. The same happens to external sites too, so links which once worked often end up at a 'page not found' error. This link checker scans every link on your web pages, telling you which ones work, which ones don't - and exactly what's wrong with them.

Site Monitoring with

Site24×7 - this free online service pings your site hourly and graphs response times and warns you if the site goes off line. For a few dollars a month, you can get checks every 5m and SMS alerts.

Wordpress

Wordpress is probably 1 of the greatest tools to be introduced to the web in the last few years. It was originally intended as a blogging tool but now - with the great range of Theme templates, widgets and plugins you can create a fully fledged website without having to write any code yourself. You dont have to create blog posts but can just create a site which has pages. Plugins such as SEO for Wordpress even help optimize your content for SEO without you having to understand this too heavily.

Google Tools

Google Webmaster Tools

Your best insight into how Google's search engine sees your site, statistics of the googlebot's activity on your site. You can even adjust the crawl rate of the googlebot on your site ie. this is useful if the googlebot is taking up alot of bandwidth and throttling your site.

Google Analytics

Completely awesome, interactive, online site statistics.

Google AdSense

Sign up for AdSense and you can make money by putting Google provided ads on your site. Google generate the code for you so you don't even have to write any yourself.

Technorati

If you haven't done it yet, registering your site with Technorati will help you track your interactions with the blogosphere. Who links to you and how much authority your site has. Warning: addictive!

Alexa

Yes, I know it's the subject of much debate but if you get reasonable amounts of traffic, Alexa is one useful way of benchmarking your traffic against other popular sites. It's also a useful way of seeing who is linking to your site.

Feedburner

Feedburner provides site statistics, simplifies RSS feeds, does some social network bookmarking (Digg etc.) and some other stuff. There's a WordPress plug in that automatically switches existing RSS subscribers over to a Feedburner feed.

If you are completely new to the topic of how to make a website then you might find it useful to check out our article 'Starting Web Development' first.

Jon Jackson
http://www.springwebdevelopment.com/

Keywords Are It! Seven Powerful & Useful Keyword Marketing Tools

After years of running websites and earning a full-time online income, I am constantly reminded that it all comes down to keywords. Actually, it all comes down to obtaining top rankings for your profitable keywords in the search engines, mainly Google.

And that statement has to be refined even further, it's all about obtaining top keyword rankings and keeping them at the top. You must consistently keep your keywords in the top spots on that all important first page of SERPs since your keyword rankings can make or break your online marketing.

If you're targeting extremely competitive and profitable keywords you will have your work cut out for you; unless you have tons of money to buy your way (links) into the top spots, expect to spend months if not years, getting to those top listings. Google has frowned upon link buying and has taken steps to fight it, but this practice is still widespread throughout the web.

Most beginning and honest webmasters want to take the proper route and earn those top rankings by providing good quality content that web users will actually find helpful and useful. They build those links the natural way by offering viral link bait in the form of videos, ebooks, articles, reports... all branded with backlinks to their sites.

Gradually over time, these links will build up and your keyword rankings will go up in the search engines. People will find your content and bookmark it in all the social bookmark sites like Digg, Facebook, MySpace... and your rankings will climb even faster.

However, since keyword marketing has become extremely competitive, you do need a little help with achieving those top rankings. Over the years I have tested and used many keyword tools and I have listed some of the best ones below. (Just Google to find links to these tools and programs.)

Internet Success Spider

One of the first keyword tools I ever used was The Internet Success Spider by Neil Shearing which is now free. The Spider is a very simple, yet powerful keyword tool because it shows you the major players in your keyword niche. It slowly works in the background to give you valuable information on your keywords. I realized very quickly, with online marketing (like most things in life) information is what separates the losers from the winners.

Keyword Elite

Later, I tried and am still using Keyword Elite by Brad Callen, it remains one of the best keyword research tools on the market. I can directly link many of my keyword successes to my early use of this tool.

Brad Callen simply creates some of the best marketing tools for online webmasters and marketers. KE is no exception. It will do some very comprehensive keyword research for you and let you easily arrange that information. Keyword Elite has earned a well deserved reputation as a very useful marketing tool.

Brainstorm It - Site Build It

Another, perhaps even more powerful keyword tool is Brainstorm It! which is offered through the Site Build It marketing/hosting system run by Ken Evoy. This is a powerful keyword analyzer and finder, which is now in its third version.

SBI run by Ken Evoy creates many tools for webmasters and Brainstorm It, Version 3 is simply one of the best. This keyword tool will do both Vertical and Lateral keyword research to give the most comprehensive array of information for your online marketing. Only negative, you only get so many Wordtracker credits and you have to pay extra when those run out. Actually, Wordtracker should be at the top of any keyword tool list, but I have mainly used it in conjunction with other programs like Brainstorm It.

Google Keyword Tool

Then again there is the Google own keyword system run through it's AdWords program. Like everything Google does, this keyword tool can be very helpful especially for the novice online marketer.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

MSN Commercial Intention Of Keywords

Not to be outdone, another helpful tool is Microsoft's Online Commercial Intention tool, which tells the probability your chosen keyword has a commercial value to it:

http://adlab.msn.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx

SeoBook Online Keyword Tool

For very quick keyword references, I like using Aaron Wall's keyword tool on his Seobook site. It's quick and gives very good stats for your chosen keywords.

SeoQuake

Still yet another SEO (sort of related to keywords) is the SeoQuake Toolbar which you can run on Firefox. It will slow down your browser but it will cough up valuable information about your own site and more importantly, it will give you valuable information on your competitors' sites. One feature that I find very helpful is the SEM Rank and SEM Price, which tells you how much your Search Engine keyword traffic is worth.

Plus, you must not ignore your website stats and traffic logs for they can supply you with your most valuable keyword information regarding your site. Closely examine which keyword phrases are bringing in the traffic and/or sales. Develop these keywords with your online marketing, especially any "long tail" keyword phrases visitors are using to find your site or products. These longer keyword phrases have proven to be the most profitable because many times consumers using these phrases already have their minds made up on what they're going to buy.

Why am I using all these keyword tools?

Simply because obtaining and keeping top rankings for my chosen keywords is my livelihood. Unless I can keep that targeted traffic coming from these keywords via the search engines; it's game over. Therefore, I use all the tools and information I can gather in order to keep those keywords at the top.

Google is always changing, you really have to stay on your game if you want to keep your keywords at the top. It all boils down to producing quality content web surfers need and want. The SEO pretty much takes care of itself as long as you keep promoting your keywords with good viral branded content like videos, articles, ebooks, PDF reports... and you must mix up your online link building to include links from such places as Facebook, Digg, Google Bookmarks, MySpace... I have always used the free "Addthis" button to all my important content and this has resulted in 100's of free links that your visitors will build for you!

I also believe you have to be careful when using viral articles to vary your anchor text (clickable part of a link) so that you don't have the same keyword phrase repeated 100's of times across the web. Just use different versions of your keyword phrase and if you can, get those keyword links in the body of the article, as near to the top of the page as you can. This will make your link building look much more natural in the eyes of the search engines, especially Google.

Overall, you must have hundreds, if not thousands of keywords that you're targeting with your online marketing. You must constantly keep building links for those keywords from related sites on the web. Sometimes it is helpful to truly view your keywords as organic, something that keeps growing naturally on its own. But you must first build a solid foundation with good quality content and then keep nurturing those keywords with good quality link bait so that others will bookmark, recommend and link to your keyword content.

Over the years, if there is anything I have learned about keywords which always holds true, it is this: you must be persistent. You must keep at it: building links, building content... it will usually take months, if not years, to get those top rankings for very competitive keywords and it will take some further work to consistently keep those keywords in the top positions. But you will quickly learn keywords are well worth it since they can easily make or break your online marketing.

6 Free and Useful Backlink Checking Tools

Backlinks are one of the most important and influential factor that determines your websites online success. Hence it is always better to have a healthy number of backlinks to your site. The backlinks also should be from good, relevant and quality sites, other wise your site may lose its reputation and may not get help from these backlinks.

It is always a tedious task to track your backlinks and you cannot ignore it as you need to have an eye on your backlinks on a regular basis. You need to check your backlinks to find out whether your link building campaign is working up to the expectations, whether any bad sites are linking to you, how many authority sites are linking to you etc. There are many paid and free tools for checking your backlinks and they have different advantages based upon your requirement. Here I would like to mention around 6 Free backlink checking tools that are useful and easy to use.

1) WebRank Toolbar - This is a Firefox Addon to check your website's backlinks and shows backlinks as per Google, Bing and Yahoo. Once you install this Addon in your browser you just need to open any website and you can see the backlink details on the browser itself. This toolbar also gives you Google Pagerank, Alexa, Compete and Quantcast Rank and pages indexed.

2) SEO Quake - SEO Quake is another powerful Firefox Addon which helps you to get the number of backlinks for your site. Similar to WebRank Addons, this is also easy to install and use.

3) Backlinkwatch - Backlinkwatch is an online backlink checker and provides you the total number of backlinks your site has got. It give additional informations such as the anchor text used for linking, the PR of the site providing the link, the number of links on the page giving the backlink and the type of the backlink (follow or nofollow)

4) Yahoo Site Explorer - Yahoo Site Explorer is another online tool which lets you see the number of backlinks to your site. You just need to enter your site details and Yahoo will show you the number of backlinks your site has got.

5) Google Webmaster Tools - Google Webmaster Tools is yet another powerful tool by Google which helps you to find out the number of backlinks your site has got and it gets updated on a regular basis. You just need to to have a Google Webmaster account and your site must be verified with the Webmaster account, in order to see the backlink results.

6) SEOCentro - SEOCentro is an online tool for checking your backlink popularity and this tool gives you results from Google, Yahoo, Bing etc and usually send you the report via email.

Useful Google AdWords Tips

This article on Google AdWords tips will provide you with some of the Do's and Don'ts when you are intending to place your ads over the internet. Mere planning to place adverts on Google is not sufficient as there is always a darker side to placing adverts. If you don't do it just right, then you can end up losing all your investments and you will terribly fail in marketing your product.

1. Usage of keywords in the ads that you place using Google AdWords: It is obvious that if keywords match, then there is a greater probability that the user will find your website quite easily. It is found that an average internet user does not have too much of patience to even look at the entire search results that the engine provides. Hence, if yours is in the first place, then the user will definitely end up clicking on your ad.

2. Fully utilizing the bidding strategy proves very useful in increasing your product sales. The main idea on how Google has been rating ads is entirely based on the bid prices. There is another thing to it called as the CTR that indicates the number of times your website was clicked by the users. Initially, you can bid higher and place your ad to be the first among the rest. Once your CTR improves, you can further lower your bidding.

3. Never use negative keywords. Negative keywords are the keywords that appear to the wrong set of customers. In the sense, if you are selling dog soap and just include "soap" as the keyword, then users who search for normal bathing soaps will end up finding your ad. This is definitely something that you would never want to happen. Hence you must take enough care to make your keywords to the mark. There is another way to avoid this blunder too. You can simply include cat in the negative AdWords option. This is one of the most important Google AdWords tips.

4. If you had to personally test your ads, it would get cumbersome. There is a special tool in Google AdWords that readily does this testing ads job for you. This preliminary involves displaying two kinds of ads in different AdGroups. Based on the number of CTR that each ad receives, you can pick the one that has the highest CTR.

Well, if you take care of the above mentioned points then these Google AdWords tips will definitely boost your sales henceforth.