Free Website Design and Search Engine Optimization Resources

Free is good, right? Well, sometime it is not. Some of the free website design tools, webmaster resources and search engine optimization software can come with definite drawbacks. Limited use, chock full of advertising, spyware, just plain don't work  -- sometimes it is not a pretty picture. Add to it that there are thousands and thousands of these products available and how the heck are you supposed to have time to investigate all of them?

I ran into this problem when I first set out to design my sales lead generation website. It was a long process to wade through the trash to find the genuine value. Several of the free demos I used were later purchased so the marketing works for these companies. For the past few weeks I have been keeping track of the products I use on a routine basis in my work and also looking at my bookmarked favorites in Internet Explorer to come up with a quality list of above average resources. I wanted to get at least 12 website design and search engine optimization resources together in a list but found I couldn't pare the list down to just 12 -- there are way too many resources available! So here you go --enjoy the fruits of my research. These URL's were current and working as of 9/12/03. Each comes with a short description and they are listed in no particular order of importance.

1. http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/?home - Free website statistics for one page only. You have to put one of their little logos on your page but it is fairly unobtrusive. Reports contain a moderate amount of detail.
    
2. http://www.opentracker.net/ - This is a 30 day, full featured website statistics demo that will track everything, every page and everybody that visits your website. This is only one of two links that are of limited usage (expiration date) but I think it is so important for everyone to see how powerful detailed usage info regarding your website can be that everyone should check it out.
    
3. http://www.searchenginecommando.com/ - Search Engine Commando will track your keyword rankings in over 100 search engines and multiple urls for $179. Their Demo version tracks 4 search engines and one url for free - and here is the kicker, the demo doesn't expire! One of my main focuses when I began http://www.724leads.com was using MSN Pay For Inclusion -- you can read the whole story here: http://www.724leads.com/top-msn-listing.htm .Well, it just so happens that Search Engine Commando tracks MSN keywords as one of the four free search engines. Perfect setup for me.
    
4. http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html - Ever wonder how the search engine spiders read all that html code on your webpages? This is a great little free tool that measures keyword density and prominence on a webpage. I caution against being obsessed with keyword density and prominence, but I do check some of my pages against top competitors to try and analyze the differences. An indispensable search engine optimization tool
    
5. http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/ -- There are plenty of search engine position reporting tools available. They query the search engines with a set of your keywords for your URL's and report your search engine rankings for each keyword. This is a real tedious task to perform manually--let me tell ya! Only one problem with this -- some of them query Google and Google will penalize you! They see this as spamming their search engine and it takes up a huge amount of their bandwidth and I don't blame them. Google did offer us an alternative called an API. Basically, you apply for and get a free API key which allows you to access their search engines 1000 times per day with no penalty as long as it is non-commercial. Shawn at Digital Point came up with a nifty web based search engine position reporting tool that uses your API. One of the best I have seen and it is FREE!
    
6. http://reg.alldomains.com/d-wizard.ald  - Ever had trouble coming up with a new domain name that wasn't already in use? D-wizard makes domain name selection a bit easier.
    
7. http://www.marketleap.com/ Market Leap offers three search engine optimization tools which are invaluable - and free. Link Popularity and Keyword Verification are good but my favorite is the Search Engine Saturation option. This neat little application will tell you how many pages you have listed in All The Web, Alta Vista, Inktomi/Hotbot, AOL and Google. You can click on the results and see the actual pages each search engine has indexed -- a super application!
    
8. http://www.technorati.com/  - This is a super information site if you want to know anything about BLOGS or RSS syndication. Tons o' Info here!
    
9. http://www.seoconsultants.com/ - The SEO Consultants site is so huge I haven't gotten through all the information there yet. If you want information and links for search engine optimization - pay these folks a visit.
    
10. http://www.wordtracker.com - If you are doing keyword phrase research, Word Tracker is the definitive source. It costs about $6 to use their services for 24 hours but I will let you in on a little trick; if you sign up on Friday afternoon, you can use it all weekend until you are bleary eyed and fuzzy headed Monday morning for the same $6 subscription. I don't know how many times I have done that because I am a cheap b*stard by nature and necessity.
     
11. https://createpdf.adobe.com/index.pl - Adobe Acrobat PDF files are the norm for sharing documents in the business world but their software is a bit expensive for a cheapo like me. Most people don't know their online services let you convert 5 documents for free and then you can subscribe month to month for only $9.95. It fit my budget when I had more ideas than I had hard dollars.
     
12. http://www.goodkeywords.com - This is a quick and convenient desktop tool that will give you search engine frequency for keyword phrases.  It is a little limited -- it doesn't do plurals but it is so convenient and quick, I actually have it loaded on my task bar.
     
13. http://googledance.seochat.com/ - I was amazed to learn that all the Google databases were not housed in some mondo air conditioned enclave somewhere in California. The fact is, the database is actually a homogenous product from a multitude of different servers around the world. The "Google Dance" refers to the process whereby all these database are synchronized with new information. This website will show you what information is on each different server.

Search Engine Optimization and Website Design Information Super Sites

1. http://www.ihelpyouservices.com - I Help You is a forum run by Doug Heil and there is NO limit to the amount of quality advice and information you can find there. Doug has somehow managed to attract a multitude of search engine optimization and website design experts from around the world and they give advice and help freely. It is the premier source of information on the internet and serves the novice web designer with no condescension or derision while still being a source of information on the most advanced topics -- an extremely rare combination. My advice to any wannabe web designer is to read every thread they possibly can on this forum.
    
2. http://www.highrankings.com - Jill Whalen is one of the recognized authorities on search engine optimization in the world and she STILL manages to be a sweet lady. Visit her website and her new forum. While you are there, read some of the newsletters in her archives AND sign up for her weekly newsletter. I know, I know, no one needs more email but you will thank me for this tip. Her newsletter is an unequivocal must read.