10 critical errors solved by Web Developer Toolbar for SEO
- SEO |
The application for web-designers (Web Developer Toolbar) is a free additional tool for browsers, created by Chris Pederick. It represents a simple in use instrument for developers, designers, usability engineers, content creators and optimization specialists.
10 SEO specialist's tasks than can be solved by Web Developer Toolbar
Below there's a check-list of some SEO activities that can be solved by a free Web Developer Toolbar plug-in.
To check site load time
In order to check the load time of your site or its selected pages, disable cache in the first item of 'Disable' menu and reload the page.
If the loading time of your site is more than 5 seconds, it's worth trying some other ways of code optimization or server settings. Without any additional plug-ins one can estimate the load speed only visually. If you need accurate numbers it's better to use Web Developer together with Firebug additional app or with a standard browser inspector.
To determine page size
Click on 'Information' in a webmaster toolbar menu and choose 'Document Size'. It will open an additional tab with details about size (in kb) of various elements of the site.
By default, this report shows general statistics of the document, and by clicking an arrow on the left from the required section, you will see detailed info on each element of the chosen section. The analysis of such report will provide the understanding of what elements are the heaviest and what are the possible ways of their optimization. Column 'Uncomperessed Size' means that content is transferred from server to browser in the compressed view and by comparing the values in different columns one can see how strong compression is.
To look at page from the Search Engine's perspective
In order to see a page in the same view it's seen by a search engine one should do the following:
Now you can check if everything is ok, whether the disabled elements disrupt the necessary content and its structure, and if the view the site is seen by search engines is ok.
To outline content headings
Before the next test it's better to turn on again JavaScript and Cookies which have been turned off during previous exercise.
Now it's time to try to outline page headings. This can be done in two ways.
The first way: to highlight outlines of headings just on the required page. This can be done by means of Outline menu - "Outline-Outline Headings".
It's better also to tick "Show Element Tag Names When Outlining" in this menu in order to see which heading is highlighted with a coloured outline.
The second way: to look at the document contents by means of Information menu - "Information - View Document Outline".
If any headings on page are formed/supported by JavaScript, then it's better to turn off JavaScript completely before outline generation.
To search images without alt attribute
Finding images with blank or missing alt attribute by means of Web Developer plug-in is quite simple.
Choose «Images -- Outline Images -- Outline Images Without Alt Attribute»
On the current page the relevant graphics will be highlighted with coloured outline.
To look for text and links blocked for indexing
In order to find text blocks hidden in noindex and links with nofollow attributes, one could use "Outine Custom Elements" function in Outline menu.
In the opened window you can enter the required elements and their classes. You may highlihgt text in noindex in the following way: enter the name of this tag in the blank field and choose a color for the outline. For nofollow-links two constructions are used:
To check outgoing links
By using outgoing links on the page Web Developer Toolbar helps:
To see details of meta-tags
To generate report with information on page meta-tags, choose "Information - View Meta Tag Information".
Meta-tags will allow to learn the following informtaion: which coding is set up on the site, if the page is open for indexing, description for search systmes, and other information.
To check HTTP-headings of the page
From time to time you may need to check the following parameters of HTTP-headings: correctness of the transferred status, coding and other parameters.
In order to get such report, choose the following way "Information-Veiw Response Header". This instrument is handy in checking missing pages on the site and if they return the right 404 error code.
To check HTML-code for validity
For HTML-code validation, choose in plug-in menu "Tools-Validate HTML". In the newly opened tab you wil see a validator with the list of all mistakes or comments that have been found.
Having analyzed the arisen mistakes it's easier to understand whether they are critical or not, and if they should be eliminated.
By means of the described plug-in you can fulfill many other tasks and we should say that its utilization is quite an absorbing process!
Web Developer Toolbar installation on Firefox, Opera or Chrome browsers.
Web Developer application can be installed on such servers as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Flock, Seamonkey under any popular operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac).
Toolbar interfaces for different browsers vary a little bit, but it it will not take much time in usage to make this instrument intuitively understood for you. If you have already used Web Developer as SEO instrument to solve the tasks that have not been listed above, please share them with the other users in the comments below.
10 SEO specialist's tasks than can be solved by Web Developer Toolbar
Below there's a check-list of some SEO activities that can be solved by a free Web Developer Toolbar plug-in.
To check site load time
In order to check the load time of your site or its selected pages, disable cache in the first item of 'Disable' menu and reload the page.
If the loading time of your site is more than 5 seconds, it's worth trying some other ways of code optimization or server settings. Without any additional plug-ins one can estimate the load speed only visually. If you need accurate numbers it's better to use Web Developer together with Firebug additional app or with a standard browser inspector.
To determine page size
Click on 'Information' in a webmaster toolbar menu and choose 'Document Size'. It will open an additional tab with details about size (in kb) of various elements of the site.
By default, this report shows general statistics of the document, and by clicking an arrow on the left from the required section, you will see detailed info on each element of the chosen section. The analysis of such report will provide the understanding of what elements are the heaviest and what are the possible ways of their optimization. Column 'Uncomperessed Size' means that content is transferred from server to browser in the compressed view and by comparing the values in different columns one can see how strong compression is.
To look at page from the Search Engine's perspective
In order to see a page in the same view it's seen by a search engine one should do the following:
- Turn off cookies in Cookies menu - «Cookies -- Disable Cookies -- Disable All Cookies».
- Turn off JavaScript in Disable menu - «Disable -- Disable JavaScript -- Disable All JavaScript».
- Reload a page (F5).
- Turn off CSS in CSS menu - «CSS -- Disable Styles -- Disable All Styles».
- Display attribute ALT instead of images (optionally). To do this, use the following element in Images menu - «Images -- Replace Images With Alt Attributes».
Now you can check if everything is ok, whether the disabled elements disrupt the necessary content and its structure, and if the view the site is seen by search engines is ok.
To outline content headings
Before the next test it's better to turn on again JavaScript and Cookies which have been turned off during previous exercise.
Now it's time to try to outline page headings. This can be done in two ways.
The first way: to highlight outlines of headings just on the required page. This can be done by means of Outline menu - "Outline-Outline Headings".
It's better also to tick "Show Element Tag Names When Outlining" in this menu in order to see which heading is highlighted with a coloured outline.
The second way: to look at the document contents by means of Information menu - "Information - View Document Outline".
If any headings on page are formed/supported by JavaScript, then it's better to turn off JavaScript completely before outline generation.
To search images without alt attribute
Finding images with blank or missing alt attribute by means of Web Developer plug-in is quite simple.
Choose «Images -- Outline Images -- Outline Images Without Alt Attribute»
On the current page the relevant graphics will be highlighted with coloured outline.
To look for text and links blocked for indexing
In order to find text blocks hidden in noindex and links with nofollow attributes, one could use "Outine Custom Elements" function in Outline menu.
In the opened window you can enter the required elements and their classes. You may highlihgt text in noindex in the following way: enter the name of this tag in the blank field and choose a color for the outline. For nofollow-links two constructions are used:
- a[rel="external nofollow"]
- a[rel="nofollow"]
To check outgoing links
By using outgoing links on the page Web Developer Toolbar helps:
- To find the number of outgoing links and their addresses ( "Information - View Link Information" m).
- To check if the links are workable ( "Tools-Validate Links").
- To find external links ( "Outline-Outine External Links").
- When checking workability of links, validator checks the page-acceptor, what http-status this page gives (200-accessible, 301-redirect, 404-inaccessible) and whether this page is blocked from indexing in robots.txt file.
To see details of meta-tags
To generate report with information on page meta-tags, choose "Information - View Meta Tag Information".
Meta-tags will allow to learn the following informtaion: which coding is set up on the site, if the page is open for indexing, description for search systmes, and other information.
To check HTTP-headings of the page
From time to time you may need to check the following parameters of HTTP-headings: correctness of the transferred status, coding and other parameters.
In order to get such report, choose the following way "Information-Veiw Response Header". This instrument is handy in checking missing pages on the site and if they return the right 404 error code.
To check HTML-code for validity
For HTML-code validation, choose in plug-in menu "Tools-Validate HTML". In the newly opened tab you wil see a validator with the list of all mistakes or comments that have been found.
Having analyzed the arisen mistakes it's easier to understand whether they are critical or not, and if they should be eliminated.
By means of the described plug-in you can fulfill many other tasks and we should say that its utilization is quite an absorbing process!
Web Developer Toolbar installation on Firefox, Opera or Chrome browsers.
Web Developer application can be installed on such servers as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Flock, Seamonkey under any popular operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac).
Toolbar interfaces for different browsers vary a little bit, but it it will not take much time in usage to make this instrument intuitively understood for you. If you have already used Web Developer as SEO instrument to solve the tasks that have not been listed above, please share them with the other users in the comments below.
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