Essential Beginner Website Tools
In an older post, I mentioned some lifesaving tools to handle images in WordPress. As a professional illustrator/concept artist, I had many image files that needed proper handling and these image tools worked great for me (in their free versions, I must add). In this post, I want to share with you some (also free) beginner website tools that focus on the overall functionality of your website.
Creating a Website from Scratch
I have to admit, since I know zero about coding or web development, creating my own website from scratch was a bold decision. Often, I found myself overwhelmed by the tons of new information I had to process. However, I was determined to see it through, and it was quite a ride! In the end, I enjoyed learning all these new skills. Now, I want to share the resources I discovered along the way while bringing my website to life. These resources made my life a bit easier!
SEO Tools for Beginners : YOAST plugin
First of all, I want to talk about SEO. Everybody knows that if you want your website to be discovered organically in search and not by paid ads, SEO optimization is a must. It would be a real waste of time to create a wonderful website that ranks so low that no one could see it. The tool I used for SEO optimization of my WordPress website was the free version of the Yoast plugin. It’s in my top list of beginner website tools because Yoast is a really user-friendly plugin. You will learn a lot about SEO while using Yoast. Also, the free version has a lot to offer, so I definitely recommend it! Just follow what Yoast suggests and make it happy. Aim for green!
Wincher app and MonsterInsights plugin
Another very cool tool I connected with Yoast for the optimization of my website is Wincher, the app that tracks your keyword ranking. The free version supports five keywords, but if you use it, you’ll learn a lot about ranking and keywords. MonsterInsights plugin was also a useful tool, helping me optimize the titles of my posts and connect my website to Google Analytics. I definitely recommend these three beginner website tools. Yoast, MonsterInsights, and Wincher are invaluable.
Monitoring and Analytics Tools for your website : GOOGLE
After my website went public, I used Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor my website’s performance and track if my hard work paid off. These are tools that I think everyone should check out. They are free, and they provide a lot of information with many parameters. Although sometimes all these can be a bit overwhelming, if you learn at least how to basically navigate them, you will understand a lot about how your website is performing and make the necessary corrections.
Ahrefs Site Audit web-tool and Redirection Plugin
Another VERY COOL tool I found most useful is Ahrefs Site Audit. It performed the most thorough crawling, and I highly recommend it! Ahref is a web-based tool that automatically schedules a weekly site audit that points out the errors while giving you the time to correct them before the next audit. It was then that I noticed many of my old Flash website pages were still available in search results, and the tool that saved me was the Redirection plugin. Free, easy, and straightforward to use, this plugin helped me correct tons of mistakes that a newbie can easily make. Thank you, Redirection! YOU ROCK!
Of course, as you understand, I had gazillions of questions about all these technical issues. Once again, I used the help of Microsoft’s Copilot. Thanks, Co, you rock too!
I have to admit that while working on the website, I learned many new words, like ‘crawling’ and ‘sitemap.’😂🤣😆 Learning new things keeps you alive and young, right? Most of all, I enjoyed the problem-solving attitude that building a well-functioning website requires! Hope you find these tools as useful as I did!
Cheers,
Ersi
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