When we are working with students we are often told
of a really neat tools that we’ve never heard of before.
A special thanks goes to all of you who told us
about these unique tools.
Customer Focus Calculator (“We We
Monitor”!)
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm
This has got to be one of my favorite cool tools.
It analyzes a Web page and lets you know if the Web page is focused on YOU or on
your customers. After all, shouldn’t our Web pages be written for our customers
. . . not ourselves?
Search Engine Optimization Tools
http://www.webconfs.com
This site has three different tools that are really
cool. One is a Search Engine Spider Simulator, which displays exactly
what a spider would see when it visits your page. Another free tool is the
Google Backlink Checker, which lets you know who’s linking to your site
and what link text they’re using. The last tool is the Similar Page
Checker. We all know that “duplicate content” is a no no. This neat tool
will determine the similarity between two pages.
Marketleap Search Engine Marketing Tools
http://www.marketleap.com/services/freetools/default.htm
My favorite tool on this page is the Link
Popularity Check. Enter your URL and up to three comparison URLs, and the
site will let you know what your link popularity is in AllTheWeb, AltaVista,
Google, Inktomi, and MSN. It also compares your site’s link popularity to other
URLs you listed as well as other sites on the Net. The Search Engine
Saturation tool determines how many pages a given search engine has in its
index for your Web site. You can compare your site to five other sites with this
tool. Finally, the Keyword Verification Tool checks to see if your page
is in the top three pages of a search engine’s results for a certain keyword or
keyword phrase.
Website Security Report
http://security.computer-concierge.net/security/website_security_report.asp
This very cool tool lets you find out how secure
your Web site is. When I first used it, it found more holes in the security of
my Web site than the laws allows, and I promptly changed to a different hosting
company!
Your Computer’s Security
http://grc.com/default.htm
Gibson Research Corporation offers a really neat
(and free) tool for checking the security of your computer: ShieldsUp.
Scroll down on the page to the Hot Spots area, where you’ll find the link to
ShieldsUp. Be sure to go through each of the checks in the ShieldsUp section
(File Sharing, Common Ports, etc.).
Reverse DNS Lookup
http://remote.12dt.com/rns/
This service converts an IP address to the host
name by searching domain name service tables.
Doctor HTML
http://www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
Click on Single Page, and the free service will
analyze your Web page based on document structure, image syntax, table analysis,
browser support, verify hyperlinks, and much more.
GifBot by NetMechanic
http://www.netmechanic.com/accelerate.htm
GifBot will compress your GIF, JPEG, and animated
GIF images by decreasing the file size without sacrificing the quality of the
image. So, your pages load faster!
Bobby Online
http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
This online service allows you to test Web pages to
help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with
existing accessibility guidelines. It’s very important to make sure your Web
pages are accessible for those who surf the Internet with disabilities.
AnyBrowser.com Screen Size Tester
http://anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html
Have you ever been to a Web site and not been able
to scroll to the bottom of the page? The scroll bar is there, but you can’t get
down that far to scroll. It’s not a pleasant experience. At the Screen Size
Tester, you can test your Web pages in different screen resolutions so that
you can be assured that all of your visitors can view your site in its entirety.
Anti-Spam and Security Fix for FormMail.pl
Script
http://mailvalley.com/formmail/
“Formmail.pl, one of the most-used perl scripts on
the Web, is designed to send data entered into a Web form to an e-mail address.
This script could be exploited by a malicious user who could use Formmail as a
spam server. If you use this script, spammers may be able to use it to send spam
freely using your server's resources.” This site offers a patched version that
prevents the script from being used by spammers.
Comprehensive Guide to .htaccess
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml
Though not a “tool” per se, this comprehensive
tutorial about how to use the .htaccess file is excellent.
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes for 2002
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021223.html
Though also not a tool, this handy list is
something that we should all be aware of. For example, don’t use horizontal
scrolling!
Link Reputation Tool
http://198.68.180.60/cgi-bin/link-reputation-tool.cgi
We know the importance of link popularity
(the number and quality of inbound links pointing to our Web site). Equally
important is link reputation - what those inbound links say about our Web site.
In other words, link reputation is what is written in the link text, or the
clickable text, pointing to our Web site. With this free link reputation tool,
you can learn what other sites are saying about your Web site.
Trojan Scanner
http://info-x.co.uk/netools/netools.asp
Wow. This tool really brings back
“fond” memories when I had my very own Trojan horse clomping around inside my
computer system. (A word of advice: please get a firewall!)
The Trojan Scanner at Information Exchange
scans your system for 85 known Trojans. You'll hold your breath as it runs its
scan, or at least I did. You'll also find a WhoIs Lookup, a Server Check, and
other cool tools.
Quality Assurance ToolBox at the W3C
Consortium
http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/
The W3C offers a suite of validators that you
can use, such as a W3C markup validator, a CSS validator, an XML validator, a
log validator, and some that I've never heard of!
As you know, it's important to be in
compliance with W3C standards, and these tools and validators will help you to
accomplish just that.
FreeWebSubmission Site Ranking
Tool
http://www.freewebsubmission.com/site-ranking.html
Plug in your URL and your keyword phrase, and
you'll quickly learn your rankings across 12 major search engines in a minute or
two. Pretty slick!
SnapFiles
http://www.webattack.com/
Free software (freeware) galore! This is a computer
addict's paradise. Enjoy!
Dynamic Drive
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/
Dynamic Drive offers original dynamic scripts
(DHTML) and a JavaScript code library, including calendars, mouseover images,
DHTML games, scrollers, etc.
Logo Generator
http://www.coolarchive.com/logogen.cfm
Not a Web or graphics designer (like me)? This site
has some cool tools just for you. Another one is a button maker.
DNS Report
http://www.dnsreport.com/
Many domains have DNS problems. This handy
site will help you find those problems and fix them by providing a DNS report
for your domain.
Everything You Want to Know about a
URL (and I DO mean EVERYTHING)
http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/
URLinfo is a “tool for handling Web pages,”
and it includes 107 tools that you can use to dig for information on a URL.
You'll be there for hours, so grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee and get ready!
There are more nooks and crannies to this site than you can possibly
imagine.
What is my IP Address?
http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/
Doesn't take much explanation on this one, does it?
If you ever need to know your IP address, this neat little online tool
will answer the question for you.
Search Engine Relationship
Chart
http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm
By far, the best chart to show the
relationships between the search engines and directories is Bruce Clay's. He
does a tremendous job of keeping it up to date, and you can even download a copy
as a PDF.
FILExt The File Extension
Source
http://filext.com/
Do you
ever come across a file extension that you simply have no idea what program to
connect it to? FILExt is a detailed database of file extensions and programs
that use them.
Googlesearches Tool
http://www.algotech.dk/googlesearches.asp
Use this advanced search tool to search The Mighty Google in
virtually every way you can imagine, even in language- or country-specific
searches. This handy tool is definitely one you'll want to bookmark and come
back to again and again.
Hotscripts.com
http://hotscripts.com/
Do you
think that 28,959 resources in over 1,000 categories will keep you busy for a
while? Someone asked about counters and log analyzers. This site has quite a
list to choose from. Enjoy!
Bookmarklets
Add Extra
Functionality to Your Browser with these Simple Scripts
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/bookmarklets.html
What are they? Bookmarklets are easy-to-use little programs
that you can integrate into your browser to make your coding, debugging, and
researching lives much easier. Give them a try!
Search Engine
Decoder Relationship Chart
http://www.search-this.com/search_engine_decoder.asp
This cool chart shows the relationships between the various
search engines and directories. Click on any search engine, and you'll see which
search engines/directories supply results back and forth to that engine. It
loads extremely fast, even with a 56K modem, and it's up to date. Very
impressive.
Martindale's "The Reference Desk"
http://www.martindalecenter.com/
Though not a "tool" per se, Martindale's is a reference site that you'll
want to bookmark and refer back to time and time again. What can you find at
Martindale's?
How about 19,575 online calculators? Can you imagine?
You'll find calculators for every type of project imaginable. You'll also find
translators, patent and trademark information, and world maps. The list is
virtually endless.
125 Legitimate Link Building
Strategies
http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/leglinkpop.html
We all know the importance of off-page factors when it comes
to search engine rankings. Link popularity is one of the crucial off-page
factors that can make such a difference to the success of a Web site. In this
article, which can also be downloaded in e-book format, over 30 SEO authorities
offer their best suggestions for increasing the link popularity of your Web
site.
HTML Tags A Free Online Cheatsheet
http://html-tags.info/
This
HTML quick reference guide is excellent. All HTML tags with attributes and
values are for XHTML 1.1, also known as HTML 4.01. Print out the guide and keep
it beside your computer.
Color Marketing Group Forecasting the
Color of Profit
The Color Marketing Group is an international
association of color designers involved in the use of color as it applies to the
profitable marketing of goods and services. Its major function is to identify
the direction of color and design trends.
You might ask, so what? Who
cares?
Do you realize that color can impact a buying decision? The Web is
a visual medium, and we need to be very aware of the colors we choose on our Web
sites. Even swapping out background colors can impact a buying
decision.
What are the "in" colors for 2005? 2006? Visit these URLs to
learn more.
http://www.colormarketing.org/media/news/2005_consumer_col_dir
.htm
http://www.colormarketing.org/media/news/2006_consumer_col_dir
.htm
CSS Tutorial at
W3Schools.com
http://www.w3schools.com/css/
Learn how Cascading Style Sheets can make your life as a
search engine marketer much easier, and how it can help you clean up your source
code. W3Schools provides an excellent CSS tutorial free of charge, complete with
a lot of examples and quizzes.
Mouse Click
Application: (SM) Webmaster
Toolchest
Search Engines
Position Reporter, Link Popularity, Keyword Density Analyser and Search Engine
Optimizer.
These applications are very easy to use, all
you need is a mouse.
It take very little of your system resources and
independent of your internet connection speed.
Operation:
To operation,
visit the site what you want to investigate, highlight the keyword using the
left mouse button, if you are using Search Engine Position Reporter and Keyword
Density Analyser and click on right mouse button to choose the application as
shown. A new result window will pop out. If you want to key in the keyword for
Search Engine Position Reporter, Search Engine Optimizer and Keyword Density
Analyser, just click on the right button to start the application, you will be
prompted to enter the keywords.
Free
Webmasters Tool Download
Again, thanks to all of you who shared these
wonderfully helpful tools with us.
Copyright 2002-2005 Robin Nobles. All rights
reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons License So, we thought it would be a great idea to share
these tools with you, just like they were shared with me.
