9 Free Webmaster Tools You Can Fall In Love With

Webmasters and developers don't need a whole lot of money to spend on tools in order to work efficiently and be productive. Here is a list of free tools that help me run my everyday webmaster chores.

Notepad++

Dreamweaver and such designing tools might have become very advanced in the recent years but I am still far from satisfied with them. I prefer to do the coding with a simple text editor and be in total control of the code and not end up with unnecessarily long code. Recently I discovered Notepad++ which has the few bells and whistles that are desired by hard core programmers such as code highlighting, Regular Expression Search/Replace support, capability to extend functionality with plugins and nice depository of contributed ones. Worth your attention.

Filezilla

If you are like me and don't use WYSIWYG editors to do your HTML/CSS designs then you are probably need or are already using a standalone FTP client to upload/download files to and from your server. Filezilla is a free tool that I have been using for some time and has not failed me. New version 3 has lots of new features, if you are FTPing stuff often maybe you should check it out.

Xampp

XAMPP is an apache server distribution that integrates php, mysql, phpmyadmin and a bunch of other great open source projects into an easy installation. It can be used on production servers to host one's sites but I mostly use it locally to code and test my html/css/php projects. Its easier to develop locally because there is no need to upload files on servers everytime, and only upload when your project is complete. It can be installed on Windows/Linux and lots of other platforms and if you are serious about developing you should get it installed in your computer and start playing with it.

Google Analytics

Google analytics is a free website statistics package that anyone can easily integrate into their website in a few minutes. Analytics once installed on your website it gathers data and presents you with reports about which sites your visitors come from, what country they live in, how long they stayed on your site, which pages were more popular and a whole lot of reports that you will likely not need another statistics package for you site. Those statistics are vital to the progress of any site in order to understand a site's audience and find things that might need to be improved. You can create as many analytics accounts as you like (unlimited number of sites) as long as your total pageviews don't exceed the monthly allowance of 5 million.

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is not only a great browser to surf with. Firefox was build with extensibility in mind and has given developers a way to extent its functionality with add-ons. Add-ons can enhance the capabilities of Firefox and enhance the browsing experience. There is a whole lot of add-ons in the Mozilla repository that can help you with task such as bookmarking, searching, social interaction, developing, news reading, downloading to name just a few categories. Some of the following favorite tools of mine are actually Mozilla Add-ons. Its definitely worth your attention.

SeoQuake

Seoquake is a Mozilla add-on that was created with the SEO professionals in mind. It will help you gather important statistics about a website or web page with the touch of a button. Such statistics include PageRank, indexed pages, Google backlinks, Cached date etc. One can also extend it/configure it to gather other important statistics from online services not already included in it.

Firebug

Firebug is yet another Mozilla Add-on; a webmaster tool that can help you understand and debug your javascripts. It has so many bells and whistles that I am thinking of devoting a whole article on it. I will just mention the features that I use myself; Inspecting and editing HTML and CSS on the fly, debugging and running javascript on the fly, monitor network activity but there are many others. Here is a video tutorial I recently found that will help you get started with firebug debugging

Gimp

Gimp is an open source image manipulation package that can help you with photo retouching, image composition, format conversion and animations among other things. Its not likely to replace adobe photoshop any time soon but its a free alternative that has found many followers and through its plugin architecture promises to built the only image manipulation tool you will ever need. Some of its features are presented in a way of a presentation but nothing can convince you better than to actually install it and try it on your own.

The Google Suite of Webmaster Tools

When I first started promoting websites almost nine years ago (2001), there was a lot more guesswork that had to be done by webmasters to figure out what Google expected for a website to rank favorably in search results. Google has evolved over the years, continually increasing interaction with its webmaster audience and giving progressively clearer instructions on how to rank well for targeted search terms. Google has also become more open in seeking feedback from the webmaster community and its search audience in general. In addition increasing the dialog between Google and its users, Google has created a suite of products that are very useful for accomplishing tasks that cover the full spectrum of website promotion, including getting your site indexed by Google, tracking traffic to your site from all sources, promoting products, and optimizing your content to achieve higher traffic and higher conversions.

Setting up a Google Account
To access the Google tools, you'll need to set up a Google Account. There are a few different ways to set up an account with Google, including signing up directly to access any of Google's webmaster tools described below. To set up a general Google account, all you need is an email address. Although you could manage your access to the various Google tools using different accounts, it makes sense to keep everything together under one account.

If you don't have any form of an existing account (such as Gmail, Picasa, iGoogle) with Google, you can go to their Accounts page and set one up. You simply enter your email address and a password to get started. After you've submitted your account information to Google, they will send you a verification email with a link that you need to follow to verify that you own the email address you used to set up the account.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows webmasters to monitor traffic patterns on their websites. Setting up your website with Analytics is normally very simple. You sign up for an Analytics account, insert a tracking code into your website header, and watch the stats start rolling in.

Google Webmasters
Google Webmasters serves a few purposes. It is a community for webmasters to learn what Google expects from their websites in order for them to receive high search rankings. It's also a way for webmasters and Google to communicate regarding their relationship. Webmasters can submit sitemaps to Google to help with indexing their sites. They can also configure settings to give Google recommendations on how to index their sites. Google provides through their Webmasters tool helpful information regarding links it recognizes pointing to a webmasters website. The Webmasters tool also provides information about keyword searches for which the webmaster's site ranks highly and clickthrough stats related to those high ranking keyword terms.

Google Sitemaps
Google Sitemaps provides a way for webmasters to help Google index their sites correctly. You may have noticed when doing searches on Google that there are some results that show up on the results page, but when you click on the link to visit the site, the page doesn't have the same information as was presented in the search results. Sometimes the page is gone altogether. Why does this happen? Because Google has the ominous task of trying to index billions of web pages, keeping their contents as fresh as possible. Obviously they're not perfect. They need help from website owners.
Sitemaps is Google's way of asking for help indexing your site, which in turn helps your site. In the control panel for Sitemaps, Google suggests that submitting a map of your website will "...tell Google about pages on your site we might not otherwise discover." Sitemaps has been integrated with the Webmasters setup, so you can submit your site's map by logging in to your Webmasters account.

Google Base
Google Base is a handy tool for websites that sell products. Webmasters can create product feeds representing what they have available in their online store, and submit those feeds to Google Base. Google displays the products to people who use its product search module, and oftentimes products listed in Google Base are included with regular web searches. Using Google Base is just one more way store owners can get their products in front of potential customers.

Google Website Optimizer
Google Website Optimizer is an analytical tool that webmasters can use to determine the best way of presenting content to their visitors. Using Website Optimizer, a webmaster can run experiments to see which version of a page is more successful at accomplishing a goal such as generating a lead , a sale, or some other action.

Conclusion
Google's tools have made it increasingly easier for website owners and webmasters to understand what is required of their websites in order to achieve success along the most dominant search engine. Understanding and using these tools will certainly benefit your SEO and overall website promotion goals.

10 Most Valuable Free Google Marketing Tools

Google has become the dominant search engine on the Internet.
It would be hard to imagine a web without Google. For that
matter, it would now be hard to imagine a world without Google.
As frightening as that may seem to many people, it is none the
less true.

For better or worst, Google has permeated into almost every aspect
of our everyday life. Being Googled is now a common expression and
an act carried out by millions of users around the world each day.
New Google products and services are coming on stream at a frightening
pace, further increasing Google's impact on our lives.

Despite this dominating presence, many people still don't realize
Google offers some excellent free marketing tools for marketers
and webmasters. Marketing tools which can prove extremely valuable
to any webmaster or marketer trying to promote their sites or
products online. Useful tools that will make your promotions
easier and much more profitable.

Don't be fooled by the 'free' label, these marketing tools
might be free but there are also valuable. One even wonders
why Google would be giving away these tools and services for
free? It probably makes good business sense in the long
run, by providing these free tools Google is fostering a
lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand
name in the process. Good PR is good business.

Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of
Google's good-will and snapping up these professionally run
services and marketing tools. Here's a quick run-down of
the 10 most valuable free Google Internet marketing tools:

1. Google Analytics

Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google.
It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the webmaster.
Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your web site. Google
Analytics analyzes your traffic, where it comes from and what it does
once it enters your site. You can monitor up to three sites
for free.

Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your
marketing funnel, it tracks all the steps leading up to your
sales or checkout page. Vital information for raising
your conversion rate and ROI.

You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in
demand service from Google.

LINK http://www.google.com/analytics/

2. Google Sitemaps

Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place
newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index.
This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages
are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable
service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their
information on the web quickly.

LINK https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

3. Google Alerts

Be notified when someone or another site lists your site
or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your
online activities. Great way to monitor all your online
business interests and products.

LINK http://www.google.com/alerts

4. Google Froogle

Froogle is Google's price directory! It simply lists all
the cheapest prices for different products on the web.
For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products,
it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your
site's content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.

Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to
list or display products on your site. Froogle will
spider your site and display your prices and products
to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say,
is priceless.

LINK http://froogle.google.com/

5. Google Checkout

Not exactly free but for those marketers who use AdWords
--- for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for free.
You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad
and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google
brand name has built up.

Over time marketers may find this tool to be very
effective and valuable.

LINK https://checkout.google.com/

6. Google eBlogger

Blogging has become vitally important to the health and
functioning of your web site. No site should be without
at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal)
on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffic
and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple free
blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog
files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog
has that all important Google Blog Search bar.

LINK http://www.blogger.com/

7. Google Toolbar - Enterprise Version

Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar
for your company or business. Integrates countless
features with all your employees or corporate
network. These could include a common customer
database, company calendar, financial news...

Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on
a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of
your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of
your competitor's pages. You can use the toolbar to get
the PR of each page you're visiting. Extremely helpful
information for webmasters and marketers to know when
forming online linking or business arrangements.

LINK http://toolbar.google.com/T4/enterprise/

8. Google Groups

Every marketer knows the important of having a large
contact list of people with a similar interest. Social
networking will play an ever increasing role in your
success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity
of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.

Google groups is another form of social and business
networking that every marketer should be aware of and
pursuing.

LINK http://groups.google.com/

9. Google Adsense

One simple way to monetize your web content is to
use Google Adsense. Just place the Adsense code
on your site and receive a check from Google each
month. For webmasters who are not really into
online marketing (does such creatures exist?) Adsense
can be a painless way to earn extra income from
your site.

For professional marketers using the Adsense system can
supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the
keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the
marketer informed on what keywords are being bid
on and how much advertisers are willing to pay.

Adsense also has an excellent real-time tracking
system you can use to keep track of all your
important web pages.

LINK https://www.google.com/adsense/

10. Google Writely

A recent addition to Google's stable of free products.
Writely is a full featured online writing editor with
spellcheck and great collaborating features. It also
lets you publish your content directly to your blogs.
One feature that may be of interest to marketers, it lets
your save files in the popular download format of PDF.

Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four
or five years time --- the written word is still king on the
net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells
your content or products. Writely will help you write better.

LINK http://www.writely.com

Honorable Mention - Google Trends

This Google program will let you search popular trends,
important for marketers searching for the latest hot
product to promote. You can also break down these trends
by different regions.

LINK http://www.google.com/trends

Final Note

Please take note that signing up for a Google account will
usually help you in obtaining most of these free services or
programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for
individually. But be assured, all these free Google marketing
tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your
marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer
run their online business more efficiently.

A Beginner's Guide To Google's Webmaster Tools

If you are in the process of creating a website or have just discovered the Google Webmaster Tools then it would be best if you know to set it up and to be able to use it effectively

Webmaster tools are not only offered by Google but are also available from other major search engines, such as the Yahoo! 'Site Explorer' and Microsoft's 'Bing Webmaster Tools'. As commented by Google:

"Google's Webmaster Tools help webmasters better control how Google interacts with their websites and get useful information from Google about their site."

Allowing any webmaster to identify any current issues or problems that may exist with site performance, including how the site itself performs within Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). Not forgetting to help improve the crawling and indexing of your site by using the webmaster tools.

To begin it is required that you sign up for the webmaster tools and then add your website, if you already have an existing Google account you can access all of these tools already. It will then be required to verify that you own the site and the easiest way to achieve this can be to upload a html file to your server or to link your Google Analytic s account with your webmaster tools.

Once logged in you can add a website URL to the webmaster tools by clicking on the 'Add a Site' button from the Home page. Enter your website address and then click 'Continue'. Once selected you will be asked to choose a verification method. Using the previously mentioned methods you can upload a HTML file to the server by downloading the 'HTML Verification File' as instructed and place it into the root file of your server. Or to simply select the option to 'Link your Google Analytic s Account'.

If you already have a Google Analytic s account and already have imported the data through to the Google webmaster tools this can help create a much richer data pool. If not simply select the 'Manage' option that is along from the website previously uploaded and then choose 'Google Analytic Profile' this will then allow you to choose the correct Google Analytic account that you want to import the data from.

If you have managed all of the above and all the data fields have began to populate this will be an essential tool that will help any webmaster in the beginning to help master the search engine optimisation techniques that will now be important to focus on now that you are properly being indexed by Google.

The information at your disposal will be very valuable to any webmaster in trying to calculate how their website is currently performing within the SERP's. This can be further enhanced by submitting a site map. This will help Google determine what pages exist within your website so each page can be indexed, if this is not included then not all pages may be displayed therefore affecting your search traffic. This can be carried out by submitting a site-map that is in a XML format not exceeding 10megs.

The initial information at your disposal will be the top search queries that turned your site as one of it's results, while showing your Google search rank for each of those searches. Not forgetting that it also displays all links to your website, keywords, internal links, crawl errors, site performance and much more. It should be very straightforward once set up, with much of the information be familiar to Google Analytics.

How to Use Google Sitemaps to Market Your Business

A sitemap is like an index of your website. It is written in XML, a form of markup language for the internet that allows you to exchange documents on the internet.

It isn't necessary that you know this in order to use sitemaps. What is important is that you create one, add it to your site, and then use it to get your site indexed by the search engines, especially Google.

Once you have built your website and added all of the content to it, your next step is to build your sitemap. Google offers plenty of tools you may use in its Webmaster tools section. If you are using a content management system, like Wordpress, you may want to check first and see if there is a script that will generate the sitemap for you. This will save you a lot of time.

If you don't have any type of scripts available, then you will need to find a sitemap building tool. There are three types of tools: scripts you may add to your site, software, or online tools you may use. What you choose to use will depend on your level of expertise, as well as your budget. Some tools are free, and others you will have to pay to use them.

If you want to use online tools, then do a search in your favorite search engine for "free sitemap generator". You may also visit the Webmaster Tools section at Google for a list of scripts and software they recommend.

Download your tools and create your sitemap. Once you have created your sitemap then you need to upload it to your website. Make sure you put it in the main directory of the website you have created the sitemap for. (You will need to know the path to this file when you submit to Google. It will look something like this: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml, and make sure you name it sitemap.xml.)

If you don't have a Google account, you will need to sign up for one. It's free. Sign up and then log into the Google Webmaster Tools section. When you first log in, you will see the dashboard. It will ask you to add a site. Type in the URL to your website, like this: yourdomain.com.

The next step is to verify your site. There are two ways to do this: a verification file or a meta tag in the header of your index file. Either upload your verification document or add the tag to your index and then reload the index.

Once you have completed this part, click on the link in the sidebar that says "Sitemap". This is where you will add the link to your sitemap. This is very important. Although Google will begin to index your site, they won't index your site through your sitemap, which is faster. The reason is that they won't know your sitemap exists.

Finally, check for errors. Google offers an extensive collection of tools to help you analyze your site and check for problems. If you get any errors, read the documentation Google will offer you to help you solve the problem.

Making Your Website Work - Using Google Webmaster Tools

Any website designer or webmaster has certainly logged on to Google and used their great webmaster tools including Google Analytics and much more. We are big fans of these free tools and encourage you to log on, visit and succeed with them.

In order to use any of these tools, you will need to create your own user account. This is a painless process and you can link many accounts together.

Part of the process includes learning about site verification codes, tracking analytics javascript code and much more. It is relatively simple for an experienced website designer to embed these codes into any website and they offer heaps of free advice. You should consider the steps to follow when building your website so you include the proper tracking codes on each page correctly because if you make any errors or omissions, your website analytics may not reflect accurate metrics. You can also add tracking codes for Yahoo and Bing but this is covered on another link for you. Don't forget to review the "IP filtering function" so you are not getting credit for your own visits to your website while working on it.

Another great tool for webmasters is one of our all time favorites... Google Docs! You can set up your website sitemap plan including detailed content planning, post it online and then share it with all stakeholders on the project including your client. This collaberative method of communication makes everything much easier and can help you avoid some of the common road blocks normally experienced with any project management challenge. Another great tool to use is Google Images. There are literally millions of great graphics and images you can use freely on your website or blog (most all are in lower website resolution) but make sure you double check for any copyright limitations before posting to your website or blog.

Here are some of the most common subjects you should consider when planning the design of your website product.

CREATE AN ACCOUNT
Do you already have a Google user account or do you know how to go about creating one? Do you know how to LINK accounts?

ADD YOUR SITE TO GOOGLE
Do you know how to add your site to the Google indexing services? Do you know how site verification works and how to go about making it work?

WEBMASTER GUIDELINES
Have you reviewed the Google Webmaster Guidelines to ensure that your website does not get penalized by them?

SITEMAPS
Do you know how to create a sitemap, why you should do so and how to ensure you have done everything correctly?

GOOGLE DIAGNOSTICS
Do you know how to use the website diagnostics and exactly how this can help you to improve your page ranking?

GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Do you know how to use the website analytics and how to use these metrics to improve your website and your visitors' experience?

 

5 Tips on How to Use Google Sidewiki Efficiently

Google launched Sidewiki on 23rd Sep 2009 as a part of its toolbar. Google Sidewiki appears as a sidebar in the browser and allows visitors to comment on any webpage. Its main aim was to collect useful information on any webpage from people around the world and therefore lead to better user experience.

For example, a person searching for a local restaurant can see its review in the sidebar by the previous diners.

Google Sidewiki comprises of an algorithm which pulls out the most useful and valuable comments from its database. This ensures that a visitor will see the most relevant comments on a webpage. Listed below are 5 steps for using Google Sidewiki efficiently.

1. Get Started With Google Sidewiki. Sidewiki is available in the options tab of the Google toolbar. Simply download the Google toolbar and select the option to integrate Sidewiki using the checkbox. It appears as a blue sidebar in the browser which slides open when you click on it. Google Sidewiki works perfectly well in Firefox. Although, Google's own browser, Chrome seems to be having some issues in integrating Sidewiki.

2. Add Comments on Useful Webpages. Adding comments in Google Sidewiki is extremely easy. You need to log in to your Google account and click on the "Make an Entry" link which appears at the bottom of the sidebar. Enter your comments and publish. It is advised to add something which ads more value to the content. If your comment is relevant to the topic, then it can be placed on the first page of Sidewiki for that web page, unless you are the website owner.

3. Claim Your Position At The Top Of All Comments. If you want to place your own comment at the top, you need to verify ownership of the website by using Google Webmasters Tool. If verified, as the page owner your entry is placed at the top entry for that page. The top slot can be used to leave a note for anyone who is yet to comment.

4. Share Your Comments With Everyone. Each comment in Google Sidewiki has the option of being shared on Twitter, Facebook or emailed to any user. This enables everyone to read the Sidewiki entries without using the Google Toolbar. This option is very useful if your web page has received some great comments from visitors. Sharing these comments will pull readers from others streams like Twitter and Facebook onto your website.

5. Flush Out Negative Comments By Blocking Sidewiki. Google Sidewiki does not provide an option for blocking or deleting negative comments on a webpage. Many users have expressed their displeasure with Google for not providing an option for this purpose. If your web page is inundated with negative or irrelevant comments which are harming your website, you can block Google Sidewiki. This can be done by switching from normal http:// to secure https:// pages.

Google Sidewiki is not the first of its kind. One of the first commenting add-on, Third Voice was launched way back in 1999. AddATweet and Kutano are plug-ins which can be installed on your browser and let you tweet comments on a webpage.

Despite many competitors, Google Sidewiki has risen to become the most popular commenting tool of its time. Start your week by experimenting with this comment tool.