Now these are not the newest tools on the internet but I have just been working with them and have found the information invaluable in building good search ideas.

The first one is of course from the one company who has blazed new trends in internet searches, you guessed it Google.  If you have not created an account in their webmaster center I highly recommend you do.  The nice part of this tool is that you will get feedback on what terms people are using to find your website.  It used to be a stab in the dark but with their tool set you get a better idea of how Google has been searching your website.

One tool that I have started to keep an eye on is the "top search queries".  In here they tell you many nice tidbits of information like where you place in that search term and you can also verify that by clicking on the term.  Also on that page is statistics of your click through rate which help you understand how people are finding your site.

The next great tool they have is keywords that Google has found on your website.  Make sure to watch this list because it can help you add more words to your meta information.

Now there is a lot of information in this tool so I will let you create your own account and explore the many different stats Google provides about your website.  The one tool though I want to point out is their diagnostic tools.  If you have ever wonder why Google may have skipped reading a page this tool will tell you.  Under diagnostics there is the HTML Suggestions tool that will give you feedback on what you need to change to help your search engine friendliness.

Google isn't the only search engine that has these tools.  Make sure to check out Bing and see their tools.  You can tell there is a difference in layout and information but they both give you tips on how to improve your friendliness to the web crawlers.

-LE

If you've been a web developer for a while you might now the term SEO which in English means Search Engine Optimized. This has been a buzz word for a few years now and every one wants their site to get better search results.

Read more: SEO and now HEO

Have you ever wanted to take your web server with you on a vacation?

Here is an idea I started with on one of my major projects that has really pulled me out of some tight deadlines and kept my project on time.  This is probably not the first some one has done this but the other day when I was walking through the technology store I found a USB Jump Drive that could store 8GB of data.  I grabbed one and with a little effort I setup a nice little Linux Server on it that had all the programming functions I needed.  Sorry no GUI but with time I bet you will be able to store even a GUI version of the OS on it.

If you haven't checked out Virtualization then I would suggest you look into it.  There are several companies on the internet that provide this basic program to allow running of different Operating Systems on your computer.  This article isn't about which software to use so I suggest you do a little research into Virtualization and go from there.

You can probably do this with other server software but I've only worked on Linux and have had a lot of success with it.  Once you have the basic install complete and patched up your ready to install the needed resources and here is the list I use:

• MySQL
• Apache HTTPD Server
• PHP
• SubVersion
• MyPHPAdmin
• Your Project Files

I use SubVersion to help me keep track of changes I make while I'm away from the Internet.  Once I get back to civilization I just do the check in process of my code and I'm ready to keep working on it at home.  The idea here is to also minimize the amount of space your little OS will take up and I'm sure you can trim down service that are not needed.  The nice thing about Virtualization technology is you can run just about any OS you want without having to partition your hard disk drive.  Its portable from hardware to hardware with very little compatiblility problems.

Now that we have a server that can travel with us no more bogging down your notebook with extra server software that isn't needed except for the days your developing.  Have fun and good luck with your travels. 

The other day I had a client who forgot to pay their bill and the hosting company deleted their server.  So what does this have to do with anything?  Well I though it would be good to think how we as a developer could of helped the client out of a really tight spot.  One way of course is to run backups on the server on a regular basis.  We asked the client if they wanted to do this and they declined.  The only issue now is we're almost at square one with their website and its up to us now to recreate their site.

Now then I do have a different solution if the client doesn't want to pay for backups one could setup versioning on the source code. This solution provides multiple benifits that backups couldn't do. One now you have a solid backup of their source code in a repository.  Second when your working on the site you can quickly check out the source code on a test server and do the work there.  When your done just use the built in update utilities most versioning software provide.  The other nice thing about this is if you work with other programmers on the project you'll have a way to track changes to the code.

Versioning is not an automated process but if you add this tool to your toolbox then its something that will make your life easier in the end.