Alright! I’m back and ready to blog twice as much before and I have added a whole new category section just for Search Engine Optimization aka SEO.

This post is all about the best SEO (free ones at least) tools on the internet. Enough of all this talking, let’s get the show on the road. I know there are perhaps hundreds of SEO tools out there, but these are the tools I find myself using on a daily basis, and so I regard them as the best.

Website Grader

Website Grader Free SEO Tool

Perhaps one of the most useful “All In One” SEO tool out there. Website grader calculates a grade based on a number of different factors like:

• Title
• Meta Description
• Meta Keywords
• Headings
• Images
• Page Rank
• Indexed Page
• Inbound Links
• Directory Inclusions
• Delicious Bookmarks

For a basic SEO evaluation, this is one of the best tools available. This can really help you get your site in SEO order. I always start with this site when performing SEO evaluations either for me, or for clients.

QuarkBase

Quark Base Free SEO Tool

Similar to Website Grader above, this is another all in one SEO tool. There are some differences to the website grader which is why I decided to include this tool on the list.

For example on the social media popularity, while website grader only covers Digg & Delicious, QuarkBase covers:

• Delicious
• Digg
• Reddit
• Yahoo Answers
• Technorati
• Wikipedia
• StumbleUpon
• Google Groups

Social media links are a rising force in the off page SEO world, and in many cases can make or break a websites popularity.

Keyword Density

Keyword Density Free SEO Tool

Keyword density can definitely be a factor in OnPage SEO work. Densities should be carefully calculated when possible for optimal levels.

When it comes to the “Seed Keyword” your website should have a density of between 8% to 12%. The seed keyword is the most important keyword for your site, in almost all cases this keyword will appear on every single page on your site.

As for the rest of the keywords on your site, there should be a sloping scale starting at about 4%. That is to say, your second most important keyword should have about a 4% density, your third most important keyword should have about a 3% density and so on and so forth.

Text to Code Ratio

Text to Code Ratio Free SEO Tool

The text to code ratio of your site is an important one. Google is a content whore and the more the better for it. A lower text to code ratio makes Google think that your website does not have a large amount of valuable content.

Some easy things you can do to fix this are:

1.      Remove any inline CSS and place it into an externally linked stylesheet.

2.      Remove any inline JavaScript and place it into an externally linked page.

3.      Remove any tables, and convert them to CSS div’s.

Following these following methods can drastically increase your text to code ratio without even adding any more content to your website.

Lynx Viewer

Lynx Viewer Free SEO Tool

Lynx is a text browser similar to the one that the search engine bots use when crawling your website. By looking at your website through Lynx, you can find any trouble areas where the search engines might not be able to crawl your site easily.

SEO Moz

SEO Moz Free SEO Tool

SEOMoz is more than just a website full of tools. They also have one of the best SEO blogs on the internet. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have gone to SEOMoz to use a tool and end up spending 3 hours reading the blogs.

Some of the tools they have to use for free are:

• Rank Checker
• Crawl Test
• Keyword Difficulty
• Term Extractor

And many more.

Firefox Web Developer Extension

Firefox Web Developer Extension Free SEO Tool

The web developer extension by Chris Pederick has been installed on my Firefox for over 2 years now, and I will continue to keep it installed as long as I can. While this tool is really built mostly for web designers and developers, it also includes a few different tools useful for SEO.

This extension gives you tools to view a ton of different elements related to SEO. Some of those include:

• Meta Tag Viewer
• Link Information
• Document Size
• Outline Headings

And much more

Firefox Search Status

Firefox Search Status Extension Free SEO Tool

This FireFox extension is aimed specifically at SEO. It includes some great features like:

• Google Page Rank
• Alexa Rank
• Compete Rank
• Highlight No Follow Tags

Again, this is another extension that will remain installed in my FireFox for a long time.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools Free SEO Tool

This is an obvious one, which is why I put it at the bottom of the list. It’s one of the most important tools for any webmaster in optimizing their website.

The webmaster tools offer the following features:

• Sitemap Evaluation
• 301 Redirect Logging
• 404 Error Pages
• Index Pages
• Inbound Links

Google Analytics

Google Analytics Free SEO Tool

Yet another obvious free tool to track what type of traffic you are getting. In addition, it also gives you information on the types of keywords that your site is being found for. This isn’t a tool I use every day, but definitely an important one.

Google Insight

Google Insight Free SEO Tool

Google Insight is a new tool that is still in Beta that really has some great features. The way it is used is to basically analyze what type of traffic based on keyword is being searched for. This is a great tool for researching different keywords you should be using on your website.

This post was a sort of short and to the point list, but it should provide you everything you need to know about the different tools.

Need some Web 2.0 style buttons? So did I, so I made a few different versions for the redesign of my website ITS Net Services. I only ended up using 1 of them, so I figured I might as well give the rest away.

They all come in 1 Photoshop file and include all the buttons separated in their own folders.

DOWNLOAD NOW!

I made most of these using the Ultimate Web 2.0 Gradients and Styles available to download for free from Deziner Folio.

Firefox has been, and will always be my favorite web browser. The developers of this amazing program never cease to amaze me. And although the bare bones fresh install of Firefox is great as it is, there is nothing wrong with making great even greater.

So in this post I will be listing some of the best plug-ins, tips, tricks, and hacks to make your browsing as powerful as it can be.

As always, this will be an ever expanding list. Check back frequently!

HACKS

I have come across 2 different websites that show you how to speed up your internet browsing. A few of these hacks are shared on both websites, but one of them has a lot more than the other. I only tried one of the websites hacks, and I definitely feel the difference in speed.

8 Easy Firefox Tweaks
This is the site that I used and got wonderful results. I highly recommend using this one.

Speed Up Firefox
This is the site with many more tweaks, I did not try this one myself so I can’t vouch for how well they do, or don’t work.

PLUG-INS

Without a doubt one of the most powerful features of Firefox is the ability to install plug-ins that offer any number of functionality. I have installed many, and removed many, and I have come to know some of the most useful plug-ins out there.

FasterFox
Essentially this plug-in does the same as the tweaks above do. I put it to the test and got mixed results. I also still have the previously mentioned hacks already installed, so I don’t know if this adds anything more that the hacks above didn’t. But this is a much easier way to do it. Perfect for someone who doesn’t want to edit things line by line. Some pages were loaded double time, while others a little bit slower. Overall, I am willing to bet this is a decent plug-in.

IE Tab
You can actually run an IE tab inside of Firefox. This has many uses, for instance, you can update your Windows installation via Firefox, when before you could only use IE. This is also great for Web Designers/Developers who have to test their sites in both Firefox and IE to make sure everything works right.

Adblock Plus
Tired of seeing advertisements everywhere, Google ads, Yahoo ads? Yea I was too, until I installed this plug-in. Now I can’t even remember the last time I saw an add.

Adblock Filterset.G Updater
This is an extension for the main Adblock plug-in. This basically keeps track of all the different kinds of ads out there so that Adblock know what to block, and what to not block. This is a necessity.

Clear Cache Button
This is a must have for web developers/designers. This makes clearing your cache easy as pie. It puts a button right next to your home button to help you clear your cache without opening and additional windows or drop downs.

Download Statusbar
This is a cool little plug-ins that shows the status of your download in the bottom corner of firefox, its much neater than the typical huge download manager that always seems to be in the way.

FireShot
Need a screenshot of your browsing window? So did I, and after a little looking around this is what I found. But this plug-in is more than just a screenshot application. It also allows you to add text comments, crop and edit in many different ways. It is much faster than using the print screen feature on windows.

PDF Download
Don’t you hate when you accidentally click on a link and it turns out to be a PDF file. Then you have wait while Acrobat opens up, and takes its dam time about it too. This plug-in will give you the option to open it as a PDF, or open it as HTML in a new tab which takes practically no time at all.

Stealther
Turn this plug-in on and browse the interweb without leaving a trail behind you. Any searches, or website your visit will not be kept in memory. The only drawback of this plug-in is that you MUST restart Firefox in order for this plug-in to do its job.

UnHide Passwords
This plug-in will make previously hidden password fields, a normal one. So you can see passwords as you type. It’s not the safest idea if you have other people using the same computer, but it works great.

Web Developer
My absolute favorite plug-in by far. If you are a web designer, or developer, this is a must have. The amount of tools this plug-in gives you is astounding. There are so many in fact, that I started a whole blog post just about this one plug-in alone.

You can read more about this plug-in in my blog here Web Developer Plug-In Post

This is the 3rd part in my series of how to start a web hosting company. If you haven’t read the first two articles you can read those here:

Starting A Web Hosting Company - Part 1

Starting A Web Hosting Company - Part 2

Scripts

This post is for the people who decide to go with a dedicated server instead of going the reseller route.

To run your new hosting company you are going to need a couple different scripts to cover all your bases.

Hosting Managment / Control Panel

These are the scripts that are going to allow you to create and setup hosting accounts, both manually, and automatically. They will also give your customers an interface to make changes to their hosting accounts, setup emails and etc.

WHM / cPanel
By far one of the most popular script of its kind, it does its job extremely well. Although maybe not one of the most intuitive systems of the competition, it is incredibly stable and robust. Also because of its popularity, there are no shortages of themes, and plug-ins for it. And many people are already familiar with it, so you just might get less questions for your clients. Price wise, this is just about the most expensive scripts.

Plesk
Probably the second most popular script used, Plesk also has a big following with many themes and plug-ins available. In the price department, this is a much cheaper alternative than the former.

Billing

After setting up your server with the management scripts, your going to need a script that is going to automate the signing up and billing end of things. There are quite a few of these scripts out there and I will list a few of them here.

WHM Auto Pilot

WhoisCart

iHost

So this concludes this post, be sure to check back for the 4th part of this series soon.

This is part 2 in my series of how to start a web hosting company. This will probably be the longest and most extensive post out of the entire series.

If you haven’t read the first one, start by reading it: Starting A Web Hosting Company - Part 1

Where To Host

This is it. You have your new domain name picked out and registered, and you are ready to go.

Now what?

I’ll tell you what. You need to decide where and how you want to host your customers. There are a few different ways to do it, but really there are only 2 important ways to worry about.

Dedicated Server or Reseller?

This decision is a major one. It will define how much control you have over your clients accounts, how much profit you make, and essentially what your whole system looks like.

I’m sure I will get emails suggesting that Virtual Dedicated Servers work too. And yes, they do. But its almost like a half breed of the two and I suggest going either full dedicated, or reselling.

Below I will list the pro’s and con’s of each of the 2 methods. Be sure you understand as much as possible before you make your decision. When I speak about reseller hosting, I will be using GoDaddy for the main example since they are one of the most popular services available.

Dedicated Server

This is how I currently host my clients, and I find it to be the most profitable and fulfilling of the two choices. I did start out as a reseller though, and I will explain more about that in the next section.

Pro’s
You have full control of your system. You don’t need to send in an email support request to make simple modifications to your server and/or control panel.

After paying your monthly server fee, every penny earned after that is profit. As opposed to reselling when the parent company continually takes a part of each sale you make.

You can install any type of server management script, billing script, and additional scripts you want to help run your business.

Real brand labeled design. Many of the reseller companies out there talk about how you can customize their branding to be your own. However, in my experience, the theme-ability is very limited and still looks like all the other resellers pages.

You and your company looks much more professional when all the phone numbers and email addresses are your own, and not some far off area code that is going to cost your clients money to call.

You can create new accounts on the fly without having to pay a dime. Personally I have a few different websites that I host on my dedicated server, and when I used to start a new website, I had to pull money out of my own pocket for a new hosting account via my parent reseller. So if you need to split off a small piece of server space for a friend or relative, you can do so without spending a thing.

Con’s
You are responsible when something goes wrong with your hosting. Your clients will be calling you and complaining, and much of the time they are not going to be very happy about it.

You are responsible for every script that is installed on your server, and if one of them gets hacked, breaks, or whatnot, your ass is on the line.

At 3am when a client decided they wanted to upload something via FTP and couldn’t figure it out, guess who’s phone is going to ring? That’s right, yours, so you better get rid of that sleepy voice when you pick up the phone.

You are responsible for everything, any small problem your client has, its up to you to fix.

Reselling

This is how I started out my hosting career. It worked well for me for about a year, and then I got tired of paying 30% of my earnings to the parent company. It’s a nice way to get into the game, but its really not what I really consider having a hosting company.

Pro’s
Almost no worries about server upkeep. Your parent company will take care of everything for you.

Your client’s will usually have a direct number they can dial to call your parent company directly when they need help at 3am.

Your billing, control panel, and scripts are pre-installed and working for you. If you don’t know how to install php scripts, and mysql databases, this method might be for you.

Con’s
20% - 50% of all your sales will go straight to the parent hosting company. At first it might not bother you, but trust me, it will start to.

Full branding is nearly impossible. Even though many reselling companies list their plans as fully brand-able, they are not. I’m sure there might be 1 or 2 out there that might possibly be, but for the most part they are not. You are usually given a very few options to customize, add your own logo, catch phrase, but that’s about it.

Every hosting account must be payed for up front. You have no control over payment methods, or giving accounts to friends or family if you need to. Or if you want to start a new website for yourself, it will have to be paid for.

Some reselling companies make you pay a yearly fee, on top of taking a percentage of your earnings.

Many of the reseller control panels suck ass. I mean they are really really bad. By far the worst one of them all is the GoDaddy panel. It is just about the biggest piece of crap I have ever seen.

So in the end, its really up to you. How much work do you want to put in. How much potential profit do you think you will have? If you expect to have a high profit business, reselling might cut too much into those profits for your liking. If you are just a web designer and want to make a couple extra bucks, reselling might fit in to your plans.

Check back soon for my 3rd part of this series

This will be a multi part series on how to start your own web hosting company. I was going to list how many parts it will be in the end, but at this point I really have no idea. I do know that it will be a minimum of 4 parts.

Check back soon to read part 2 of the set - Where To Host

Choosing A Domain Name

A domain name can possibly be one of the most important decisions you will have to make. It will dictate so many different parts of your new web hosting company. Everything from color scheme, logo design, slogans and so much more will rely on the domain name you choose.

For example, lets say you choose a domain name that is something like Green Host (its already taken, but just for example), then you have pretty much defined at least one of the main colors of the website, and more than likely colors of the logo.

Now lets go across the color wheel and say you chose Red Host for the domain name. Not only have you defined the color red as having to be a major design factor, you may have screwed yourself at the same time. There are many studies out there that have proved that the color red makes people feel uneasy, and less trusting.

So you can see now how the smallest things can have a major effect on your whole business.

When you think you have found a name that you like, try to imagine colors that will work well with it, possibly logo designs, and before you go and buy the name ask some of your friends what they think of it. Do some of your own market research, because after you pick a name your gonna be stuck with it for a long time.

Resources

There are many domain name resources out there to help you come up with a proper name. I will list a few of them here that might be able to help you find the name that fits you.

Bust A Name
Enter a combination of words that you want your domain to contain and it will search for you. You can edit the search parameters to include or exclude different tpes of TLD’s (Top Leve Domains aka .com, .net, .org)

123 Finder
Similar to the link above, just enter some keywords and it will find domain names (both registered & unregisters) so that you can research them. This is actually a pretty good website to use.

WhoIs.Net
A tool to find out the registered owners, date of registration, date of expiration and much more of a domain name. An invaluable research tool.

I’m back again with more FREE CSS Containers to download. Unlike my previous set of FREE Content Boxes, these boxes were designed to be able to stretch as wide as need be. Simply adjust the size of the container css value to the width you need, or remove it completely to have it auto adjust its width. I have also remade the original boxes in this auto stretch way.

You may use these boxes for any purpose, and you do not have to credit me. However, you may not redistribute these on another website, or hotlink directly to these files.

Black Round DOWNLOAD		Black Square DOWNLOAD
Blue Round DOWNLOAD		Blue Square DOWNLOAD
Green Round DOWNLOAD		Green Square DOWNLOAD
Grey Round DOWNLOAD		Grey Square DOWNLOAD
Olive Round DOWNLOAD		Olive Square DOWNLOAD
Orange Round DOWNLOAD		Orange Square DOWNLOAD
Pink Round DOWNLOAD		Pink Square DOWNLOAD
Purple Round DOWNLOAD		Purple Square DOWNLOAD
Red Round DOWNLOAD		Red Square DOWNLOAD
White Round DOWNLOAD		White Square DOWNLOAD

The shit has hit the fan, or at least it will once Carl gets done with you and your website. He has a contest running over on his blog IHATEYOURWEBSITE to review your site, and the winner will receive 500 Entre Card credits. Even if you aren’t interested in entering your blog, his site is definitely worth a read or two. He takes websites and blogs apart piece by piece and talks about what he does, and doesnt like about them.

I read a recent set of articles of his about the mistakes beginning bloggers make when starting their new blog. There was some really insightful ideas and hints on how to make your blog the best it can be.

Short story long, if you have an extra few minutes check it out.

I HATE YOUR WEBSITE

Sometimes preparing for a web design is the most time consuming AND the most important. There are so many ideas floating around, that you better be quick to catch them while they are fresh. I have compiled a list of some of the most important processes when preparing for a web design.

Identify You Clients Needs

Every client you work with will usually have very different needs. It is extremely important to identify these needs from the start. I have listed a few of the questions you should ask your clients to get a good scope of what they will require.

#1 What’s the clients budget?
I list this question first because it really will dictate what you can do for the client. I have encountered so many clients that expect everything including the kitchen sink and think one price pays for it all. After the client has stated their intended budget, it doesn’t mean thats the final budget, that just means that what they would like to pay. If they are asking for more work then their budget allows, tell them that, and it’s up to them to figure out if they can afford to put more towards the budget, or if they can just do without some things.

#2 Timeframe?
Some clients will have an absolute timeframe, and othes will not. It is important to know their timeframe so you can make sure you have the time to accomplish their design in the required time. Also a good trick I learned from a designer friend of mine, is to always over quote your projected time frame. If your client doesn’t have a hard pressed deadline quote them about twice as long as you think it will take you, that way when you are done before you said you would be, you look like a hero.

#3 Brainstorm & Write the ideas down
One of the best things you can do with your client is have a brain storming session with them. One of the worst things you can do is not write the ideas down. Some of the greatest ideas of the project will come during the first meetings with your client. When the project is new, and fresh, and you are excited about it.

#4 Logo & Branding
Does the client already have a logo design? Are they happy with their current branding, and/or colors?

#5 Scripts and Interactivity
What type of website will the client be needing? More importantly, what type of functionality is required of the website? Will it need certain types of scripts, like blogs, photo gallery, comments etc?

#6 Audio & Video
Will the site have any audio and video needs? If so, what type of players will be needed? Should you go flash or not?

#7 Statistics Tracking
Usually setting up some type of statistics tracker is a good idea. Probably one of the best ways for the average webmaster is to obtain a Google Analytics account. Once you have done that, you can setup as many websites with trackers as you need. You can also give separate accounts access to just the trackers you want.

#8 Similar Websites for examples
Try to have the client give you examples of other websites they like, and explain to you what they like, and dislike about each of the examples. You can use this to greatly increase the chance of them being completely happy with the website you build for them.

#9 Number of Pages
Some sites are simple one pagers, and others are hundreds of pages. Find out early how many pages your client will need. If its going to be more than 20 or so, you should probably start talking to them about a content management system (CMS). Not only will it be a little easier to keep in order, it will also give them the ability to edit content themselves.

Content

Perhaps ones of the hardest part of a web design is actually compiling & organizing all the content the client wants. In fact, just getting all the content from the client is a task in itself. Many times it’s almost like they expect you to come to their house or office and go through their content yourself. However, this is not the case, it is their responsibility to provide content for their website.

#1 Text Content
This is ultimately the most important part of any website. It doesn’t matter how pretty the site is, if it doesn’t have good informative content for the users to read, there might as well not even be a website at all. This again can be quite difficult to procure from the client. Unfortunately you are pretty much at the mercy of the client to provide you this.

#2 Images, Videos, & Music
You can’t have a website with some type of images. Ask you clients to provide you with the largest possible size if images so that you can use them in more than just content. Some images are great for using in the design process as background images and collages. If they require Video or Audio to be on their website, you will need to think about what the best way to provide the website users that content. Normally Flash players are the best way to go since it prevents users from stealing the music/video and don’t have to worry about cross platform compatibility issues.

Price

We web designers don’t design for free. So when it comes time to put together a price for a client make sure you do it right. Take the time to figure out exactly how much time you will need to design the site. I find that charging by the hour in a web design situation just wont work. Charging per page is also hard to do as well since some pages have alot of content and some do not.

I find that charging a base fee for the actual design works for me. It is usually between $500 - $1000 just for the design, not including the conversion from graphics to HTML & CSS. Then I try to put together a price on how long it will take me to convert the graphics into code.

Finally put a price together based on the number of pages the client requires. Price may vary depending on the amount of content. But in the end sometimes charging a set price per page is the better way to go since it means the client knows where you stand. And if in the future they need to have you develop another page, they will have a good idea of what to expect to pay.

So there you have it. A somewhat comprehensive list of how to go about starting a website design for your clients. I will add to this list as time goes one.

Legal Stuff

The question was raised in a comment on this blog about the legalities of who owns what upon completion of the web design. In the contracts I personally use it states that all the HTML files, images, and content contained in those files are owned by the client. It also states that all other design & materials remain property of the web designer.

Here are some links to some legal contracts for web designers.

Web Designer Contract

Another Web Designer Contract

Yet Another Web Designer Contract

Sample Web Design Contract

Sample Web Design Contract 2

Permission To Link Contract

Privacy Policy Contract

Total Assignment Of Copyright

Non Exclusive Copyright License

Infringement Of Copyright

Website Planning Worksheet

I have created a selection of FREE to download CSS Content Boxes. These were designed to be used for side bar areas, but if you know your photoshop decently enough you can easily modify the headers to stretch as wide as you need. These CSS Content Boxes are all 100% XHTML & CSS Validated.

Black Content Box DOWNLOAD		Blue Content Box DOWNLOAD
Green Content Box DOWNLOAD		Pink Content Box DOWNLOAD
Purple Content Box DOWNLOAD		Orange Content Box DOWNLOAD