Great Tools and Resources for the Search Engine Savvy Web Designer

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Welcome, you just stumbled on a great free resource! As a Web Design Team we come across so many great tools and resources not only Search Engine Optimization but for web development and e-commerce. We believe in sharing so here is a listing we update as we find new stuff. The following reviewed and updated links combined with our experience in Design/Development/SEO since 1995 makes this a valuable resource. As the sections grow we will create new pages for them.

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Web Design and Development Resources

General Web Design (CSS, XHTML, HTML, etc)
Awesome List of Resources
Resource 2 - Another set of great resources that are more graphically based.
CSS Easy - Learn CSS the modern way.
OSWD - A site full of free web design templates.
Open Source Templates - Another great site for open source templates.
Open Design Community - XHTML and CSS based free web design templates.
Open Web Design - Helping to make the internet a prettier place!
Six Shooter Free CSS Templates - More free templates to choose from.
Simple Bits - Dan Cederholm - Author or Bulletproof Web Design offers examples of all his great code!
Web Standards Solutions - More great code from Dan Cederholm.
Firebug - Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page...
Visibone Web Design Sheet - Great way to find stuff easily.
ListAMatic - Learn all about making beautiful lists.
Zen Garden - Truly amazing site depicting the power of CSS.

(Basically an example of a form link)

http://www.authenticjobs.com
http://www.elance.com/p/landing/buyer.html
http://download.openoffice.org/index.html
http://www.bosrup.com/web/overlib/?Download
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/csslibrary/item/css-popup-image-viewer/
http://moneytreesystems.com/css/picpopup.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/css/internet-explorer-7.shtml
http://css-code.assistprogramming.com/new-css-elements-for-internet-explorer-7.html

The dragable CSS Layer - Took me a while to find so I thought I would share!

Color Detector - Cool program that lets you find out what any given pixels color is on a web page.
Google Sitemap - Do not build a webpage without it. Yahoo and MSN have adopted this as well.
Sitemap Resources
  Word Press Add on for Sitemap

A List apart - Some great articles on general design principles.

Newsletter Software
Vertical Response - E mail newsletter software.
Constant Contact - Another source for e-mail newsletter software.

Website Analytics and Rankings:
Click Tracks Analytics - Dig deep into your websites statistics.
Google Analytics - Free software from Google.
Hittail - Keywork search analytics.
Trellian Keyword Discovery -

Javascript
On Click Test Disapears See also here

Graphic Design
Design Outpost - Excellent group of designers that can create great looking templates for you.
background patterns - need a background pattern well here you go.

Doman Name Tools:
Expired Domains - Find some great expired domain names.
GoDaddy - After market domains on GoDaddy.


Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Information and General Resources

Seomoz Ranking Factors
An excellent resource on all the many factors that go into a web pages rankings. Many of the industries top experts weigh in here to give you some great pespectives. A must read for anyone looking to do search engine optimization on their website.

Search Engine Info
Aaron Wall has become a real authority on search engine marketing. Check out his search engine optimization book as well as all the free tools he has to offer on his website!

Search Engine Forums
Great place to learn, ask questions, and get insight into all sorts of stuff! Some even rumor Google operatives hang out there.

Google Says Link - "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages." For me this is one the most relevent sentences Google has out there. Quite simple; Get links!

Advanced Web Rankings - Software to check your rankings.

Text Links
Text Link Ads to either buy or sell.

Google Sitemap - A great way to keep Google updated on your pages.
Yahoo Sitemap - Annoucement made on this topic!
Google Sitemap Generators - A list from Google of 3rd party sitemap creation tools
Sitemap Tool - A free sitemap creation tool. Robots.txt Validator

Keyword Tools:
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
A nice free tool from Google to do some keyword research.

Digital Point Keyword Tool
This tool includes the daily search volumes for Overture and Wordtracker.

Overture Keyword Selector Tool
The ever famous Overture keyword selector tool. Be careful because they switch it up so keywords are sometimes reversed. Common sense dictates here, still a great tool because it gives monthly volume.

Backlink Tools:
Neat-O-Backlink Tool
A cool free tool that lets you check the number of backlinks to your website as well as the anchor text used.

Search Engine Directories To Submit To
* Ranked by order

Search Engine    Cost   Page Rank
Open Directory (DMOZ)    Free   8
Yahoo Directory   $299/year   6/7
Business.com   $199/year   7
Best of the Web   $199/life   7
Joe Ant   $40/life   6
Uncover The Net   $159/life   6
Sevenseek   $50/life   6
Go Guides   $40/life   5
Wow Directory   $40/life   5
Skaffe   $45/life   5
Gimpsy   $40/life   5
Web Beacon   $40/life   4

Strong Links - A great list of search engine directories for you to consider submitting your website to.

Google Tools & Resources
Search Engine Guidelines

Local Search
 · Yahoo Local - Yahoo Local Search
 · Google Local - Google Local Search


E-Commerce Solutions
 · PayPal - Everyone knows Paypal but you might be surprised at all the added features they include now.
 · Google Checkout - A great alternative to Paypal although not as widely used.
 · 2 Checkout - They take 5.5% but users do not need to create an account like Paypal/Google.