3 useful tools

Here are 3 simple useful tools to help you keep your web site working well.

Browsershots
Browsershots lets you see how your website looks in different types and versions of web browser. It takes a few minutes to do its stuff, but it has a comprehensive list of browsers and you can’t argue with the price. It’ll never be as good as setting up a proper testing environment and installing the browsers yourself, but it’s not bad - and a great way of avoiding the trap of only ever testing on the web browser you use yourself.

Wave
When building your website, it’s important to think about how accessible it is. (An accessible website is one which usable by as many people as possible.) It’s good practice to adhere to to accessibility guidelines, and means people with disabilities will find your website easier to use. Wave is a tool to evaluate how accessible your site is - it will show you what you’re doing right, and where you can improve.

W3C link checker
It’s easy to get links right when you first add them to your website. But as your site grows, pages change. The same happens to external sites too, so links which once worked often end up at a ‘page not found’ error. This link checker scans every link on your web pages, telling you which ones work, which ones don’t - and exactly what’s wrong with them.