Best Online Webmaster Tools

As mentioned in Exploring Online Webmaster Tools, one of the coolest trends in the World-Wide-Web is the emergence of online tools. Instead of downloading an app to your device, online tools are provided on a subscription basis. The cost can vary quite a bit, but tend to be lower than the traditional purchase or download models. In fact, many such tools offer a free package for low usage or are completely free of charge. In today’s article, we’ll review a few more tools that are of particular interest to webmasters.

Site24x7 provides Performance Monitoring Solutions for DevOps and IT Operations for Website Performance, Servers, Synthetic Transactions, Application Performance, and more. In addition, they offer several free tools, including Website Availability with DNS Analysis. One of the features that sets Site24x7 apart is the Website Availability Metrics stacked bar chart where each color represents:

• Time taken for the server to resolve DNS name to IP Address
• Time taken to setup the between connection Site24x7 and website
• The time spent waiting for the web server to send data.
• The time at which the entire content of the file is downloaded

At the bottom of the page, there are a number of additional Related System Administrator and Network Tools categorized by System Administrator Tools, Validation Tools, Content Tools, and Developer Tools.

The Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a completely free and indispensable service offered by Google to all webmasters. Completely separate from Google indexing and page ranking, the Search Console is there to help optimize your site and its content for searching. It’s a place where you can monitor your site’s performance, identify issues, submit content for crawling, identify content you don’t want indexed, view the search queries that brought visitors to your site, monitor backlinks, and plenty more. Search Console will also display Google message as well as errors, including crawling errors, manual penalties, 404 pages, malware detected, etc.

To get started, you’ll need a Google sign-in, which you may already have if you regularly use Google or Gmail. Then, you will have to add your website to Search Console. Before Search Console can access your site, you have to prove to Google that you’re an authorized webmaster. There are no less than five methods of verification for Search Console!

Once you do this, you’ll have access to many tools and resources. Site configuration includes details about your sitemaps, crawler access, sitelinks, and URL parameters. Other areas of interest include your site on the Web, +1 metrics, diagnostics and labs. Your site on the Web is especially useful in that it provides in-depth statistics regarding your traffic, keywords, and search queries.

Bravenet is a great place for free website building, hosting, and Web tools. Whether you’re just learning how to build website or just looking for something quick and simple, this is a great place to start. At Bravenet you can create blogs, journals, guestbooks, photo albums and forums. You can use their easy website builder with drag-and-drop functionality and free web hosting with tons of storage, to get a website up and running in minutes.

You have to sign up to use the webmaster tools, but registration is completely FREE. In return, you get a bunch of building blocks to help author your site, including website templates, stock photography, and widgets. Plus, there are email marketing tools help you create stylish emails and newsletter sign-up forms.

Free Web Tools found at WebToolHub were built to assist webmasters in designing and adjusting their website(s) for search engine optimization for a variety of search engines. There are 80+ free tools to check or optimize your website, such as:

• Domain Tools
• HTML Tools
• SEO Tools
• Text Tools
• Miscellaneous Tools of all kinds

Canva might just be the easiest graphics tool ever. While graphics and illustration aren’t usually within the webmaster’s purview, this site might just make you a do-it-yourselfer for good. It employs a drag-and-drop interface that lets you combine image components over different design templates such as presentations, social media graphics, and more, with thousands of beautiful layouts. It’s a one-stop shop for creating amazing designs online.

In addition to design templates, canva boasts:

• Millions of Images: You can add millions of stock photographs, vectors and illustrations to your designs. You can even upload your own.
• Photo Filters: Canva has both preset filters and advanced photo editing tools.
• Free Icons and Shapes: There are thousands of graphical elements to choose from, including icons, shapes and elements. You can upload your own as well.
• Hundreds of Fonts: Canva features a a great selection of fonts of every type.

Note that many design elements cost money, but there are enough free ones to create stunning artwork. You can also import your own graphics and use the Canva editor to arrange them if you like. Besides the Web, graphics can also be tailored for devices such as iPad and iPhone.

Conclusion

The above sites are just the tip of the iceberg, with lots more being introduced every single week. Do you have any favorites of your own? Let us know in the comments!

Rob Gravelle resides in Ottawa, Canada. His design company has built web applications for numerous businesses and government agencies. Email him.

Rob’s alter-ego, “Blackjacques”, is an accomplished guitar player, who has released several CDs and cover songs. His band, Ivory Knight, was rated as one of Canada’s top hard rock and metal groups by Brave Words magazine (issue #92).