Essential Tools for Every Website Owner

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More and more people and businesses are getting into blogging by the day, now this can be a time consuming task, so it’s important that you have the right tools to make the job more efficient and more effective. With that in mind, here’s our list of the top tools that as a blogger you should be using:

Google Keyword Tool and Insights for Search

Let’s face it, the whole idea behind having a website is to generate traffic that ultimately leads to enquiries. That’s where the Google keyword tool Google Keyword Tool and Google insights for search come in. These two free are must have tools for any site owner – they allow you to spot ideas – and make sure you write content that’s going to attract traffic. Have a hunch that searches for are on the rise – check it in google insights, then have a look in the keyword tool and see what other related searches are around. Then get writing!

Evernote

Evernote is basically an cloud based notepad – it allows you to, as you may have guessed make notes. Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s all it is though – the beauty of Evernote means that you can use it anywhere as everything is synchronised online. Meaning you can make notes on your iPhone, and when you log onto your laptop – they’re right there for you to read or add to. It’s a great tool for idea generation. The fact its ultra compatible with practically any device you can think of means it’s a must have in the toolbox.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud based file sharing system – start work on a new proposal on your iPad at the coffee shop, save it, – and you can access from another computer or smart phone when you get back home. Dropbox is extremely easy to use – simply install it, and it creates a folder on your computer called ‘my dropbox’, this folder is replicated in the cloud – meaning you can access it from anywhere providing you have an internet connection. What’s even better is that a basic account which provides 2gb worth of storage is free.

Search Twitter

The search function on twitter has just had a major facelift, you can now find it at: http://twitter.com/search

This is a great tool for finding influential people within your industry – perhaps you need to make contacts with graphic designers – twitter is the ideal place to start looking.

Onlywire

Onlywire allows you to post your content to a number of social bookmarking and networking sites at the touch of a button. The basic plan is free so it really does free up a hell of a lot of time, otherwise you’d have to individually submit to each site. So rather than loading up tab after tab of stumbleupon, folkd, reddit etc etc separately – just head over to onlywire and roll it into one.

Follower Wonk

Followerwonk is a great tool for searching the bio’s of twitter users – use select phrases and keywords and you’ll be able to track down useful influencers in your niche. So let’s say for example you’re writing a great beginners guide to cloud computing, you want to indentify users who will appreciate the article and hopefully get them to share it. It could be small business owners, or even the most experienced IT bod who understands the cloud fully – yet he can still see value in the article so shares it with his followers.

Google Analytics

Tracking visits to your site is key to running a successful webste. Google analytics lets you drill down to some serious metrics to get some great insights as to how visitors are navigating your site – are they bouncing off? Do they visit the pages you want them to visit? All this can be tracked from your dashboard.

Bit.ly

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service – It makes URL’s much neater for social networks. Simply paste your URL in, and it automatically creates a shortened version of it. Not only that – you can track the number of clicks your URL recieves – so put it out on twitter – and see what happens.

Feedburner

Feedburner, is a tool for handling your blogs RSS feed and improving its delivery – you can have it delievered to email subscribers, automatically post new blog potsts to social networking accounts like twitter and facebook – and its inbuilt analytics allow you to closely monitor how to optimise your feed. Feedburner also is able to populate the number of RSS subscribers you have – and it lets you display that in a handy little widget. So if your blog becomes popular, then you might want to display how many subscribers you have for a nice chunk of social proof.

Feel like we’ve missed any key tools out? Let us know your favourite tools that make the day to day running of your website that bit easier.