What software and apps do you use for your website? Here are mine! Part 1

byjedmed

254 followers

9 years ago

Hello everyone!

This is my 3rd blog post and one of the things I have learned through the years is to use the best programs when it comes to developing my website. I think that investing money on proven software are essential to a site's success. Of course, the definition of success is not limited to the number of visitors you have but also your google search ranking (and maybe alexa?) and being mentioned by other sites as an "authority". There are plenty of criteria and I will post something on that later on.

So what programs and apps I'm using?

1. Adobe Fireworks: Since I have been aware of the size of images that I used and the effect it has on how fast the website will load to visitors, I make sure that I have my photos optimized. You have to consider 3 options - to export your photos as (1) GIF (2) JPG or (3) PNG files.

My suggestion is to use JPG because it is relatively small in size, with quality results (i.e. the photos look amazing!). GIF is best for animation or if you want to use "quotes" and add the image to your articles, and PNG is quite big so it will affect the load time of your site.

There is this issue that since internet speed is relatively fast in the US or places in Europe and Asia, you don't have to bother with the sizes of your photos. I don't agree with that. I always remember that my site is being used by anyone anywhere in the world so it might be wise to be considerate to visitors who may not have fast internet.

You can download a trial version of Fireworks from Adobe or go to this link.

http://macromedia-fireworks.en.softonic.com/

2. Grammarly: Since I'm not a native English speaker/writer, I am conscious of my English and the way I write. I also think that even native English speakers/writers need to be conscious of their style and many have recommended using Grammarly.

At first I was hesitant because I feel no need to subscribe to another app, but after careful consideration, I remember how important first impressions are - that people who visits my site include those who bother about grammar and spelling.

Grammarly took note of my grammar and spelling errors and even make suggestions on the use of passive and active sentences. It also took note of how often certain terms are used, so you don't have to be "redundant".

You can get more details here, including how to subscribe and what benefits they offer:

http://grammarly.com

3. Filezilla: If you have a gallery that requires files to be exported/imported from your harddrive into your website (or vice versa) or if you have to upload videos or want to have files backup on your computer or even in Amazon cloud or other forms of file management to protect your site assets, this is the best solution.

https://filezilla-project.org/

There are alternatives to the programs I mentioned, and I have more in the next parts. I'm also sure that many are using other types of software or maybe not. :)