| Page Item | Value |
| Title | The Website Utility: Search Engine Optimization and ASP/JavaScript Search Engine Creation |
| Description | Describes how this useful tool can assist with optimizing websites for search engines and create JavaScript or ASP search engines for any site |
| Keywords | website, websites, tool, utility, optimisation, optimization, check, checking, broken links |
| Robots Meta Tag | |
| Page Content | ASP Kitchen Search: Go Home | ASP Articles | ASP.NET Articles | Tools | Table Of Contents | What's New The Website Utility Introduction Download The Website Utility Evaluation Version (3Mb ZIP file). Based on the web crawling technology used in the Index Server Companion , The Website Utility navigates a website and creates reports based on what it finds. The reports contain a number of features that can be used to help optimize a website for search engines and check the website for errors . A free trial version is available. Broken hyperlinks in the website. Hyperlinks pointing to content that has moved to another location. Missing or duplicated page titles. Missing description and keywords meta tags. Underutilised FrameSets. Pages with too little or too much content. Generates a basic table of contents (site map) for a website. Saves the HTML source code from each page on the website. Optionally compiles the reports into a single, searchable HTML Help file (requires Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop - a free download from Microsoft.com ). Because The Website Utility uses web crawling technology, it views websites in much the same way as human users and search engine robots view websites. Search Engine Optimization Features Web Robot View of Website The Website Utility creates a simulated web robot (crawler) view of a website. As such it shows what a page will look without images, JavaScript or interactive forms. This can prove very helpful in ensuring that each page in the website contains enough search engine indexable text - something that is not always easy to check when viewing the actual website in a web browser. Missing Page Titles The Website Utility can identify pages with missing page titles. Since many search engines place significant weighting on a page's title, it is essential to ensure all pages have a title. Duplicated Page Titles The Website Utility identifies pages with duplicate page titles. The report will show each duplicated title and which pages share the specific title. A surprising number of websites use the same page title for each page in the site, which is in most instances an obvious waste of potential site optimisation for search engines. Creation of Table of Contents/Site Maps A table of contents page (often referred to as a Site Map) contains a list of links to all of the other pages in a website. There are several good reasons for adding a site map to a website: It is another page of content for your website It allows search engine spiders and robots easy access to all of the pages in a website. By submitting the site map page to the search engines it allows their spiders and robots to visit most of your website by following the links from just that one page. It allows human visitors another method of finding what they're looking for on a website. The Website Utility creates a very basic table of contents, sorted alphabetically by page title. Missing/Blank Description and Keywords Meta Tags Although most search engines now give much less weighting to the content of meta tags than they once did, it is still a good idea to include them. In particular, the description meta tag is often used as a page's summary in search engine results pages. Extraction of Description and Keyword Meta Tags The Website Utility is able to extract the content from Description and Keyword meta tags in all of the pages in a website. This saves substantial time compared to having to extract the information manually. The Site Descriptions Report [ view sample ] created by The Website Utility displays the Description meta tags by page. The Site Keywords Report [ view sample ] displays keywords by page. It also displays a list of all of the keywords on a page, ordered by their frequency of occurence. Don't forget that The Website Utility can be used to crawl your competitors' websites to determine what keywords they are using! Page Size Report The Website Utility shows the site's pages ordered by page size. Search engines normally prefer pages to be of a certain size, so The Website Utility makes it straightforward to identify pages that may be too small or too large for efficient search engine indexing and placement. Needless to say, The Website Utility will also identify pages that may be too large for human visitors as well! Consider splitting up large pages - increasing the number of pages in your website will help with search engine placement as well. Usage of Meta-Refresh Tags The Website Utility identifies pages that use Meta Refresh Tags with a short refresh interval. Pages that make use of these may be indicative of websites designed to confuse and mislead human or web robot visitors, so their usage should be avoided where possible. Furthermore, Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser allows the user to disable the action of this tag in its security settings. Handy tip: The refresh tag can be replaced with the Response.Write() statement in websites that use Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. PHP has the location: statement equivalent. Splash Screen Detection The Website Utility can detect the use of splash screens on a website. Typically these are home pages that display the organisation's logo for a few seconds before redirecting to the main content page, or they contain a Macromedia Flash animation and a click to continue link below. Whilst splash screens look attractive (and keep web designers in business!) they result in human website visitors being an extra click away from the content they may be looking for. Splash screens can also adversely affect a site's search engines rankings as they mean the first (and most important) page in the website has very little indexable content on it. Error Checking Features Broken Hyperlinks The Website Utility has the option of checking hyperlinks found in a website to ensure they are still accessible on the Internet. Both internal (i.e links to other pages within the website being checked) and external 3rd party websites can be checked. The Site Errors Report will list problem hyperlinks by the page they are found in. Moved Hyperlinks As well as finding broken hyperlinks, The Website Utility will also identify links to pages that have moved. Identification of these can allow you to update the links, which may prevent them becoming broken in future. Spaces in Page Titles Websites frequently contain URLs with spaces in them. These are not supported by older web browsers (e.g. Netscape 4). They are also confusing for people to write down or remember, so the URLs should be renamed where possible. Identification of file:// Prefixed Links The Website Utility can identify links prefixed with file://. These links can often be accidentally inserted into HTML when using a HTML Editor such as Microsoft's FrontPage. Furthermore, these links will usually work when the website is viewed on the same machine where the HTML pages were created, so it can be a difficult error to spot and to resolve. In the worst case scenario, it is an error that will be spotted by the website's customers, or even the client who commissioned it. Creation of JavaScript Search Facilities The Website Utility is able to create a client-side JavaScript search facility for a website it crawls using the internal web robot. Adding a search facility to a website brings major benefits to a website, making it easier to find information as well as adding an additional method of navigating a website. Search facilities are generally well used, and will frequently appear within the top ten most requested pages on a website. Although there are a number of server-side search solutions available such as Index Server or ht://Dig , they can be complicated to install and configure. To create a search page with these solutions, programming knowledge of server-side scripting languages such as Active Server Pages (ASP) or PHP is also usually required, or you will need to pay somebody to create the code for you. You can also link to search results for your website from Google or other major search engines, but it can be difficult to integrate these with the design of your website. They also carry the obvious risk of a website visitor leaving your website and not returning! The JavaScript search facility created by The Website Utility is straightforward for anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript to add to their website. The search box can be added to any page on the website (so you could, for example, have a search facility in the corner of all pages - like this website!). The search results page can be easily integrated within the look and feel of an existing website. Try a sample search facility created by The Website Utility: Search Brettb.com Further information on creating a JavaScript Search Engine for your Website with The Website Utility. Creation of ASP Search Facilities For websites using Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) server-side scripting technology, The Website Utility also creates an ASP search facility. This search facility is similar to the JavaScript search facility, but the search files are retained on the server, meaning there is less content for the client's web browser to download. The ASP version of the search engine also allows page descriptions (from page Description meta tags) to be displayed in the search results. Download the Evaluation Version The evaluation version is fully function except for the following limitations: Only the first 5 errors/issues found in a website are shown in the RTF format reports. Annoying JavaScript popups on some pages in the report. HTML source code pages only show the first 50 lines of the page's HTML. Various restrictions on other reports. JavaScript/ASP search facilities created contain a small subset of the website's indexable content. Download The Website Utility Evaluation Version (3Mb ZIP file). Purchase The Website Utility The Website Utility is available for online purchase - visit The Website Utility's website for more information . Useful Development Tools ASP Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP 2.0 and 3.0 web applications written in VBScript and JScript. Documentation for Microsoft Access, SQL Server 7/2000 databases and Visual Basic 6.0 components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (5.2Mb ZIP file). Index Server Companion The Index Server Companion is a Windows application that extends the functionality of Microsoft Index Server so that it is able to index content from remote websites and also from ODBC databases. As such it can be used as a low cost alternative to Site Server 3.0 Search. View Product Documentation (119K ZIP file). Try Sample Search Facility . Download Trial Version (1.7Mb ZIP file). ASP.NET Documentation Tool Automatically creates developer documentation for ASP.NET web applications written in C# or VB.NET. Documentation for SQL Server 7/2000 databases and C#/VB.NET components associated with the web application can also be incorporated into the reports. Documentation is created in HTML, HTML Help and plain text formats. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (727K ZIP file). SQL Documentation Tool The SQL Documentation Tool creates technical documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000 databases. Technical documentation is created in HTML and HTML Help formats. The HTML Help format documentation is fully searchable and cross referenced. The SQL Documentation Tool documents SQL Server Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Triggers and Table Relationships. View Sample Output (HTML Help format). View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (10.3Mb ZIP file). The Website Utility The Website Utility examines websites for errors and areas that need to be optimised for search engines by using a built in web crawling engine. Errors checked for include broken or moved hyperlinks, missing page titles and missing meta tags. It also generates HTML for use in creating website site maps (table of contents pages - like this one ), and is able to create both client-side JavaScript Search Engines and server-side ASP Search Engines for a website. View Sample Output (HTML Format). Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file). Text Workbench Text Workbench is a file search and replacement utility for text files and Microsoft Office documents. Make rapid file replacements on multiple files and folders full of files. Advanced replacement options include regular expressions support. It even works on remote file systems via FTP. A Regular Expression Laboratory allows advanced pattern matching and replacement expressions to be built and tested. This great utility will make your everyday development tasks much easier! Download Trial Version (3Mb ZIP file; you have the option to either install directly from this link or save the file for later installation). Author details Brett Burridge spent two years working in the University of Essex Computing Service, before moving to The Internet Applications Group in the Autumn of 1999, where he developed e-Business applications for a range of corporate clients and dot-com start ups. Brett is presently employed as an Internet developer and technical writer through his own company, Winnersh Triangle Web Solutions Limited . The company produces a number of innovative products, including the popular ASP Documentation Tool , the Index Server Companion , the ASP.NET Documentation Tool , the SQL Server Documentation Tool and The Website Utility . The company is also available for web application design and development at reasonable rates, primarily using Microsoft technologies (ASP, ASP.NET, Visual Basic, SQL Server) but also using open source technologies such as PHP, MySQL and Perl. Specialist services include development of search solutions using Microsoft's Index Server and Site Server 3.0 Search. As well as the ASPAlliance, Brett has written articles for Ariadne.ac.uk and ASPToday , and has contributed recipes to the ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook . links Outside web development, Brett is interested in digital photography (here's my photo gallery ), tropical fishkeeping and collecting contemporary works of art by artists such as Doug Hyde . Article history "The Website Utility" published on ASPAlliance.com on 10 July 2004. ASP Kitchen : Classic ASP Articles : The Website Utility
page content copyright Brett Burridge 1998 - 2004. |
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Report generated by The Website Utility 2.8