Webtools to help Web developers


The nonadvertising version of this page to be used for handouts is here: Webtools to help web developers

Welcome to the web tools page.

On this page I have tried to include a variety of different web tools to assist you when you are designing and writing your own web pages. I've not tried to include every possible webtool which is out there, since the list would be extremely long, but instead I'm just including those web tools which are good examples, are unique, or which cover specific areas of page design. If you think I've missed any webtool in particular, please let me know, and I'll try and include it next time I update the page.

Web page creation

Suprisingly enough, you don't actually have to write a web page for yourself, since there are resources on the Net which will do it for you. I can't vouch for any of these, since I've not used them. However, if you're at a very basic level of knowledge and/or understanding, it might be something worth trying out, just to see what sort of results you get.

If you've got to the stage of writing a home page, you probably know all about HTML markup tags anyway, but there are a couple of useful sites to visit:

Graphics

I'm not going to say much about graphics, since thats a huge area in its own right. If you want a clear idea how to use graphics, and also what *not* to do, visit the article that I wrote about web page design. Other than that, there are two elements you need to take into account; where to find graphics and software packages to use with them.

Domain Registration

You may have to register a domain name (like philb.com only don't try for that one, since I already have it!), and theres a lot you need to know about this. The best source that I've discovered is:

Page checkers

Its always useful to check your pages - even the best writers and designers get it wrong sometimes! If you're anything like me, you won't see your own mistakes, so you need someone to point them out to you.

Meta tags.

These are the little beasts that you can use in your HTML to give search engines something more to go on when they come to index your pages. If you want to know more about them, you'd do worse than to read the article I wrote on them.

Keyword density

Too few repetitions of your keywords? Too many? This can affect the ranking that your site gets. It's always worth checking your page(s) to check that you're on the right track.

Interactivity

You really do need to have some sort of interactivity with your site, or people will get bored, fed up and leave, never to return! The following sites may prove useful:

Registering with Search Engines

A web page is no use at all if people can't find it, so you should register with the different search engines to maximise the chances of your page(s) being found.

Search Engine FAQs

This is a partial list of the search engines, with links to the pages that tell you how to register with them, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. Please note that search engines are always faffing around with their pages and links, so if any of the following don't work try their help pages.

Usability issues and resources

Positioning with Search Engines

I suppose you could go to the major search engines in turn and run searches to see if your pages come up near the top, but quite frankly, life isn't long enough. There are some useful utilities that will do it all for you, so why not use them?

Check your link popularity

Net nannies etc...

Not strictly part of a Web designers toolkit, but nonetheless useful to know about. These little utilities can be used to block access to sites which are regarded as not desirable for your users to look at. The three that I'm aware of are:

Other utilities

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is rather useful. In fact, you can't do without one. Its the utility you need to copy or move files from your local hard disk onto that of your web service provider. Theres a whole bunch of them, and the easiest way of seeing what's out there is to go to:

Utilities which grab an entire site and allow you to look at it offline are useful things as well. For a full list of the ones which are available, its easiest to go to Yahoo:

Once your site is up and running, you might want to view your statistics, or if you're creating an entire site, you will probably want to keep an eye on who is visiting.

General pages

Lots of pages out there, with lots of useful stuff.

New additions!

I keep finding new tools in my travels around the web, and sad to say, it sometimes takes me a while to add them onto the appropriate place on the page. Rather than not add them at all, I'm putting them here, so at least you can see them, and I'll get around to adding them in properly later.

© Phil Bradley, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Last updated 13th October 2004