Any website owner knows how important a high ranking in Google searches is, not just for the success of their web page, but the future profit of their business. In fact, Google is pretty much God to most people working in web design, web development and search engine optimisation. And it's not only its capacity to propel websites into popularity through search engine rankings either. Google also offers a variety of free and very useful tools for use in web design and development as well as page maintenance and the assessment of online marketing campaigns. Here are four of the best Google tools for use in web design, development and analysis:
- Google Chrome: Google's newest web browser release, Google Chrome, itself an advantage for web design with its speedy load times, also offers a very helpful set of tools for use in web design and development activities. These include tools for the inspection and analysis of the DOM, tabs for stack tracing, debugging, script testing, performance tuning and a JavaScript console which are all essential processes before, during and after the preparation of a new website.
- Webmaster Tools: Google’s Webmaster Tools is a web-based application that offers information and tools to maintain and develop websites. The tools contained in the Google Webmaster Tools package include Diagnostic applications and an HTML Suggestions feature that provides feedback on your web design and highlights how the site's mark-up could be improved. Webmaster Tools can also be used to identify broken links in your website and determine which links within your website are the most popular with your site visitors.
- Google Analytics: The Google Analytics application is configured to provide relevant and useful information and statistics regarding how your website is performing and the number of visitors it is attracting. Google analytics offers the creation of customised reports, the analysis of how visitors arrived at your site, which pages they spent the longest time on and which links they followed, as well as what kind of browser and internet connection they are using. Armed with this kind of information, you can tweak your web design in order to be more user-friendly, fun and interactive – and watch your traffic increase.
- Page Speed: Load time is an essential consideration in web design so Google's Page Speed tool is a welcome analytic application to enable the testing and improvement of page load times across websites. The Page Speed add-on assesses the performance of web pages based upon the principles of Google's own Web Performance Best Practices guidelines so is sure to do your websites variety of favours in terms of pleasing your customers and boosting your ranking.
