Every webmaster must make use of external services to keep their Blog/Website healthy, fast performing and maintain good SEO rankings. Most of the time, the webmaster can tweak the particular CMS or Template to make things work. However sometimes it takes a bit of extra effort to get things going in the right path.
This is where external services are required for websites. Here I have listed Top 10 services every Webmaster/ Blogger must use for their Blog/Website. So let’s jump into the details.
1. CloudFlare:
A web security and performance company that delivers your website blazing fast and also comes with a free plan. CloudFlare basically provides the webmaster an option to minify their assets and also server the files and images through a Global CDN. Their Anycast DNS servers give your site a faster resolving time. Apart from that they provide some cool apps that you can add for your website to make it good looking and improve its performance.
Link – www.cloudflare.com
2. Smush.it:
A service provided by the internet giant Yahoo! to compress your images without loss. When your site loads, more than 50% will be images in most cases. So, you serve compressed images, then you get faster load times. For WordPress users there is a plugin and for others you need to make some server side changes.
Link – www.smushit.com
3. MaxCDN:
Undoubtedly the best and cheap CDN I’ve used so far. Their basic pricing starts at $9 per month for two sites. They have lots of POP locations worldwide and their servers are NginX and PageSpeed optimised. So you’ll get uncompromised speed.
Link – www.maxcdn.com
4. Acunetix/Sucuri Plugins:
There comes a time when we need to scan our websites for any malicious code or malware stuff. Scanning file by file manually is a tough task, so the best alternative is to automate it. This must be done by the experts and this is where Acunetix and Sucuri come into play. They can scan your website for malicious content and also check for dirty code in your templates. A WordPress plugin readily exists for WP lovers.
5. GTMetrix:
An online website that will test other websites for speed. GTMetrix scans your sites with the Google’s PageSpeed and YSlow algorithms and tells you where you need to work in order to speed up your site. Their suggestion is the best and also you can test from different locations. It’s Free.
Link – GTMetrix
6. BufferApp:
This is an application created by the creators of Digg-Digg, a WordPress plugin that is used for Social Sharing. BufferApp also does exactly the same but with scheduling. You may post an article at 10 AM but you can have it posted to Social Networks at 11Am or even 2PM. It’s in your hands. An excellent tool in the Social Media dominated world. It offers both Free and Pro plans.
Link – Buffer
7. Pingdom:
Most of you may already know this but it is worth mentioning every time. Uptime is very crucial for websites and any minute downtime will cost you some dollars. This service basically checks your website’s uptime like every 15 minutes and sends you an email. It also offers SMS alerts etc. but with paid plans.
Link – Pingdom
8. Google Analytics:
You know it. Its Google’s world class platform to analyse your website visitors and see how your site is converting. It analyses you traffic, content, categories and basically everything.
Link – Analytics
9. IFTTT:
If This Then That (IFTTT), is a web based service that does lots of interlinked stuff. You can link you DropBox to twitter to share a file when you upload (or) you can add your blog to share a link on Facebook. Lots of recipes are there and you can add your own too. This is a must have. So try it. It’s free
Link – IFTTT
10. Attracta:
An SEO service that has a free plan. It creates a sitemap of your site and send it to Yahoo, Bing and Google. Also checks your site for Blacklist. A free service to create and submit sitemaps automatically. However you can add only one site in a free plan.
Link – AttractaSEO
These are the services that I use almost once in a week to maintain my websites healthy and well performing. Hope these have helped you.
Do you have any other service in mind or want to suggest your own service? Please use the comment box below.