When working with my workshop or online SEO students, I'm often told of a really neat tool that I've never
heard of before.
So, I thought it would be a great idea to share these tools with you, just like they were shared with me.
A special thanks goes to all of you who told me about these unique tools. And, if anyone else has a "cool tool"
to share, be sure to let me know. I'll publish a part 2 of this article!
Customer Focus Calculator ("We We Monitor"!)
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
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 fr'ee 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
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
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
Gibson Research Corporation offers a really neat (and fr'ee) 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
This service converts an IP address to the host name by searching domain name service tables.
Doctor HTML
Click on Single Page, and the fr'ee service will analyze your Web page based on document structure, image syntax,
table analysis, browser support, verify hyperlinks, and much more.
GifBot by NetMechanic
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
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
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
"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 fr'eely using your server's resources." This site
offers a patched version that prevents the script from being used by spammers.
Comprehensive Guide to .htaccess
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
Though also not a tool, this handy list is something that we should all be aware of. For example, don't use
horizontal scrolling!
Again, thanks to all of you who shared these wonderfully helpful tools with me. If I missed any (which I'm sure
I did), please let me know (robin@searchengineworkshops.com). I'll send out a part 2 of this article.
About The Author
Robin Nobles with Search Engine Workshops teaches SEO strategies
the "stress fr'ee" way through hands-on, search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe and online
search engine marketing courses. Visit the
World Resource Center, a new networking community for search engine marketers.
Copyright 2003 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
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