Web Site Building & SEO Tools of the Trade
Like any small business owner or online entrepreneur I am always on the lookout for tools to increase productivity. Over the years I’ve tried many resources but this is my list of essential “tools of trade” which allow me to get the job done as efficiently as possible.
WordPress
In the early days of my site building endeavors Dreamweaver was my preferred website design software. It had its advantages and offered an alternative to trying to trying to code a website by hand…something I was never that good at. However these days WordPress is the only platform I use to design and create a website. It is easy to use, search engine friendly and there is a ton of resources and support available…all of which save me time and increase productivity.
Leadpages
For landing page software I use Leadpages. A “landing page” is a web page with the specific objective of creating a lead. Leadpages is easy to use and can be fully integrated with your WordPress site.
AWeber
For email marketing software I use AWeber. AWeber can be integrated with Leadpages so you can automatically add subscribers to your list when they fill out your lead capture form.
QuickBooks Online
For cloud accounting QuickBooks Online is my top choice for accounting software. It offers a great way to manage your finances as well as the many other day to day issues related to running your business such as quoting, invoicing, marketing etc.
SEOPressor Connect
SEOPressor is a WordPress plugin which automates and simplifies the whole process of optimizing your website for the best search engine visibility.
LSIGraph
LSIGraph is a great tool for generating LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts. Simply enter your main keyword and it will return a list of related terms to use in your content. Very useful…and free.
KWFinder
Along with LSIGraph KWFinder is an essential keyword research tool. Find those long-tail, low-competition keywords.
Screaming Frog
Undoubtedly the best name for a web tool ever. Screaming Frog allows you to crawl a website and extract a ton of useful info. An essential tool in your SEO arsenal, you can identify issues such as duplicate titles and descriptions, broken links etc.
IBOToolbox
A marketing, advertising and business promotion community, IBOToolbox offers an extensive suite of tools and resources. Create banners, post press releases, watch training videos and generally interact with friendly, like-minded people. Free to join and no up-sells.
Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools)
With Google Search Console you can identify and remedy any issues Google has discovered on your site such as crawl errors, indexing, sitemaps, robots.txt, security, meta tags etc. You can also see which keywords are being used to find your site and your average rankings on those keywords.
SEMRush
For a comprehensive digital marketing toolkit you can’t go past SEMRush. I use it for keyword and domain research, analyzing backlinks and seeing what the competition is up to.
iTunes
OK it may have nothing to do with website building and SEO but working from home I find the right music can make me more productive. iTunes is my media player of choice.
So that’s my review of the website design and SEO tools of the trade I use to increase productivity. Give them a try…they may just help you as well!