A hand-picked curated collection of useful tools, links, resources, and references in order to help small business owners, freelancers and fellow designers or developers with their websites and admin.
From performance testing and SEO tools to design inspiration, accessibility checks, and developer references, these are resources worth knowing about and bookmarking.
💼 For Business Owners
If you run a business website, understanding how it performs online is essential. These tools help you check website speed, visibility in search engines, and basic security, giving you a clearer picture of how your site is working for you. Even simple checks can highlight issues that affect rankings, user experience, and conversions.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google PageSpeed Insights | Checks how fast your website loads and highlights performance issues | Speed & UX |
| Google Search Console | Shows how your site appears in Google and flags indexing issues | SEO visibility (Google) |
| Bing Webmaster | Shows how your site performs in Bing and provides tools for indexing, SEO insights, and site diagnostics. | SEO visibility (Bing & Yahoo) |
| GTmetrix | Detailed performance reports with waterfall breakdown | Performance diagnostics |
| Google Keyword Planner | Helps identify the right keywords for your ads and website | Keyword planning |
| Google Trends | Shows what people are searching for and trending topics | Keyword research |
| Have I Been Pwned | Check if your email or data has been exposed in breaches | Security awareness |
📊 Website Analytics
Understanding how visitors interact with your website is just as important as making sure it loads quickly. These analytics tools help you track website traffic, user behaviour, popular pages, and conversions, giving you useful insight into how people actually use your site and where improvements can be made.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Tracks website traffic, visitor behaviour, acquisition sources, and conversions across your website | Visitor insights |
| Google Tag Manager | Manage and deploy marketing tags (snippets of code or tracking pixels) on your website or app | Tracking events |
| Plausible | A lightweight, privacy-friendly analytics platform with a simpler interface than many traditional analytics tools | Simple analytics |
| Microsoft Clarity | Provides session recordings, click tracking, and heatmaps to help you understand how users interact with your pages | UX insights |
🚀 SEO & Performance Tools
Website performance and search engine optimisation go hand in hand. These tools allow you to analyse how your website loads, how search engines interpret it, and where improvements can be made. From technical audits to detailed performance testing, they provide the data needed to make informed decisions.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google Lighthouse | Full audit of performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices | Technical audits |
| WebPageTest | Deep performance testing with advanced metrics | Advanced speed analysis |
| Pingdom Website Speed Test | Enter a URL to test the page load time, analyse it, and find bottlenecks | Page speed and monitoring |
| Semrush | The leading platform to grow and measure brand visibility across AI search, SEO, PPC, social, and more | Search Engine Optimisation |
| Ahrefs Webmaster Tools | Free SEO audits and backlink insights | SEO monitoring |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Crawls your site like a search engine | Technical SEO audits |
| Positionly | Gain more traffic, improve your rankings and leave the competition behind | Inbound Marketing |
🔍 Keyword Research & Content Planning
Technical SEO is only part of the picture. These tools help with keyword research, search intent, and content planning, making it easier to discover what people are actually searching for and identify opportunities to create more useful, relevant website content.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Ubersuggest | Helps you find keyword ideas, content opportunities, and basic SEO insights for improving organic visibility | Keyword research |
| AnswerThePublic | Visualises common search queries and questions to help with blog ideas, landing pages, and content planning | Content ideas |
| AlsoAsked | Understand your users with live “People Also Asked” data and intent clustering by Google | Audience intent and research |
📝 Forms & Lead Capture
For many business websites, forms play a key role in generating leads and collecting enquiries. These tools help you create contact forms, surveys, and lead capture forms that make it easier for potential customers to get in touch and for businesses to manage incoming enquiries.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Typeform | Creates interactive forms and surveys with a more conversational user experience than standard form builders | Lead capture |
| WPForms | An easy-to-use WordPress form builder for contact forms, quote requests, surveys, and more | WordPress forms |
💳 Payments & Online Transactions
Whether you sell products, take deposits, or simply want an easier way for customers to pay, having the right payment tools in place can make a big difference. These platforms help businesses accept payments online, improve convenience, and streamline payment collection.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Online payment processing for websites, apps, invoices, and subscription-based services | Card payments |
| PayPal | Popular online payment platform for sending invoices, creating payment links, and accepting customer payments quickly | Simple payments |
🛒 eCommerce & Selling Online
Whether you’re selling physical products, digital goods, or services, having the right eCommerce tools in place is essential. These platforms help you manage products, handle orders, process payments, and streamline fulfilment, making it easier to run and grow an online business efficiently.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | All-in-one eCommerce platform for building, managing, and scaling online stores, including hosting, payments, and inventory | Dedicated online stores & scaling businesses |
| WooCommerce | Open-source WordPress plugin that turns a website into a fully customisable online store with full control over products, payments, and functionality | WordPress users & custom eCommerce builds |
| Wix | Website builder with built-in eCommerce features, allowing users to create and manage online stores without coding | Beginners & small business websites |
| Printful | Provides print-on-demand fulfilment, handling product printing, packing, and shipping for online stores. | Selling physical products |
| Freemius | Handles payments, licensing, and subscriptions for software, plugins, and digital products. | SaaS & plugin monetisation |
🏦 Business Banking
Choosing the right business bank account can make day-to-day admin much easier. From invoicing and expense tracking to app-based banking and faster payments, the tools below can help small business owners, sole traders, and freelancers manage their finances more efficiently.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monzo Business | A modern business banking app with simple money management tools, instant payment notifications, and a clean mobile-first experience | Freelancers, sole traders, and small businesses |
🤳🏻 Print, Marketing & Social Media
Marketing tools help you promote your business, manage social media, and stay visible online. Whether you’re scheduling posts, creating materials, or reaching new audiences, they make it easier to maintain a consistent presence across different channels.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Gravatar | Globally recognised avatar system that links a profile image to an email address | Consistent branding, blog comments, forums, and WordPress user profiles |
| Buffer | Create, organize, and repurpose your content for any social media channel | Scheduling social media posts |
| Sonetel | Business phone numbers for entrepreneurs, create your own virtual number in any city or country | Virtual phone numbers |
| Awin | Connect with 30K+ trusted brands and 1M+ approved partners who support your marketing goals and deliver results | Growth and advertising |
| Tradeprint | Producing high-quality, professional-grade prints for over 25 years | Print and merchandise |
🎨 Web Design Inspiration / UX
Good design is rarely created in isolation. These platforms showcase high-quality websites, user interfaces, and creative work from across the industry. Whether you’re planning a new site or refining an existing one, they’re a useful way to explore layout ideas, visual styles, and modern design trends.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Figma | Lets you turn big ideas into real products. Brainstorm, design, and build with your team | Web designers and builders |
| Dribbble | UI and branding inspiration from designers worldwide | UI ideas |
| Awwwards | High-end, award-winning websites | Premium inspiration |
| CSS Design Awards | Websites hand-picked by an expert panel of judges | Inspiration and ideas |
| Land-book | Clean, conversion-focused landing pages | Layout ideas |
| Godly | Curated modern web design examples | Trend discovery |
| Behance | Full design projects and case studies | Creative direction |
🧑🎨 Fonts & Assets
The right fonts and visual assets play a big role in how your website looks and feels. From typography and icons to high-quality imagery, these resources help you create a more polished, professional design without starting from scratch.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Iconify | An open source icon project | Free open source icons |
| Iconic | Free, “do wtf you want with” pixel-perfect icons. New icons added every week | Free and premium icons |
| Unsplash | The internet’s source for visuals. Powered by creators everywhere | Beautiful free images |
| Google Fonts | Making the web more beautiful, fast, and open through great typography | Free fonts |
| Vecteezy | Download free vectors, stock photos, videos, and more | Free images and vectors |
| SVG Repo | 500,000+ Open-licensed SVG vectors and icons | SVGs and vectors |
🖼️ Image / Content Optimisation
Optimising your images and content plays a key role in how fast and smoothly your website performs. From compression tools to modern formats, these resources help reduce file sizes, improve load times, and maintain visual quality without unnecessary overhead.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Minifier | JavaScript and CSS minifier | Minifying |
| TinyPNG | Smart AVIF, WebP, PNG and JPEG compression for faster websites | Image optimisation |
| Squoosh | Compress and compare images with different codecs in your browser | Fine control |
| Sprite Generator | Reduces the number of HTTP requests by creating image sprites for use in CSS | Image sprite generation |
♿ Web Accessibility & Best Practice
A well-built website should be usable by everyone, regardless of device, ability, or browsing environment. These tools help identify accessibility issues, check browser compatibility, and ensure your site follows modern web standards. Addressing these areas improves usability, compliance, and overall quality.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| ICO UK – Cookies Guidance | Official UK guidance on cookies, consent, and GDPR compliance | Legal compliance (UK GDPR / PECR) |
| ICO UK – Storage and Access | Guidance on the use of storage and access technologies | Legal compliance (UK GDPR / PECR) |
| CookieYes | Scans and identifies all cookies set on page load | GDPR & cookie audits |
| WAVE | Visual accessibility testing for websites | Accessibility audits |
| axe DevTools | Browser extension for accessibility testing | Dev accessibility checks |
| WebAIM Contrast Checker | Tests text contrast for readability | Colour accessibility |
| Can I Use | Check browser support for CSS/JS features | Compatibility checks |
| MDN Web Docs | Authoritative documentation for web standards | Best practice reference |
💻 Web Developer Resources
Reliable documentation and practical resources are essential for efficient development. These sites provide reference material, troubleshooting support, and tools for testing and experimenting with code. Whether you’re solving a specific issue or building something new, they help streamline the development process.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| W3 Validator | Check the markup (HTML, XHTML, …) of Web documents | Validating markup |
| CSS-Tricks | Practical CSS and frontend guides | Learning & reference |
| Stack Overflow | Community-driven coding solutions | Debugging help |
| GitHub | Host and collaborate on code repositories | Version control |
| CodePen | Test and share frontend code snippets | Experimentation |
| DevDocs | Fast, searchable offline-friendly docs | Quick reference |
| Lorem Ipsum | Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit… | Dummy text |
| Postman | Develop, test, manage, and distribute APIs and services | API testing & development |
| BrowserStack | Test websites and applications across real devices and browsers without needing local setups | Cross-browser & device testing |
| Google Fonts Helper | Converts Google Fonts into self-hosted, web-optimised WOFF/WOFF2 files with ready-to-use CSS | Web-ready WOFF Google Fonts |
🔧 WordPress Resources
WordPress powers a large portion of the web, and having access to the right tools and documentation makes a significant difference. These resources cover everything from official development guidance to plugins that assist with debugging, customisation, and site management. Skip ahead to ‘Recommended WordPress Plugins‘ for my personal recommendations.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress.org | Official WordPress plugins, themes, and docs | Core platform |
| WordPress Developer Resources | Official developer documentation | WP development |
| Advanced Custom Fields | Custom fields for structured content | Content modelling |
| Query Monitor | Debug queries, hooks, and performance | Debugging |
| WP Crontrol | Manage and debug WP cron events | Cron management |
| JiffyTrade | Create job-winning estimates, quotes, and invoices, manage customers, track expenses and receipts, store third-party certificates and guarantees, and generate professional PDFs | Business management |
| Wordfence | A popular WordPress security plugin with firewall, malware scanning, login protection, and security monitoring | Site protection |
| Patchstack | Fastest and smartest vulnerability mitigation for WordPress websites | Vulnerabilities & security |
🔌 Recommended WordPress Plugins
Choosing a small set of reliable, well-supported WordPress plugins ensures your site remains fast, secure, and easy to manage long term. Here’s some plugins I recommend to clients and WordPress users…
| Provider | What it offers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| SiteSEO | Lightweight SEO tools including meta tags, sitemaps, schema, and analytics | SEO Optimisation |
| SpeedyCache | Page caching, file minification, and performance optimisation tools | Caching and optimisation |
| Loginizer | Brute-force protection, login security, and IP blocking | Security and vulnerabilities |
| Backuply | Automated backups, one-click restores, and site migration tools | Backups and migration |
| GoSMTP | Send emails from your WordPress over SMTP or many other popular services | SMTP / Email delivery |
🌐 Internet Service Providers
A fast and reliable internet connection is essential for running a modern business, especially if you rely on cloud tools, video calls, or large file transfers. The providers below offer high-speed connections suitable for freelancers, remote workers, and small businesses.
| Provider | What it offers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Hyperoptic | Full fibre broadband with consistently high speeds, low latency, and no reliance on traditional phone lines. Ideal for demanding online work and streaming | Remote work, video calls, and high-speed connectivity |
🖥️ Web Hosting Providers
Choosing the right web host can affect speed, uptime, security, and overall ease of website management. These hosting providers offer solutions suited to different needs, from beginner-friendly WordPress hosting to more premium managed environments for businesses.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Heart Internet | UK-based hosting provider offering shared hosting, reseller hosting, and domain services with straightforward management tools | Resellers and small businesses |
| eUKhost | UK hosting provider with a range of services including shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting, along with strong customer support | Growing businesses |
| IONOS | Well-established hosting provider offering domains, email hosting, and scalable website hosting solutions for businesses of all sizes | All-round hosting |
🔒 Web Security & Domains
Behind every website is a layer of infrastructure that affects performance, reliability, and security. These tools help monitor uptime, manage DNS, verify SSL configurations, and protect against common threats. Keeping these areas in check ensures your website remains stable, secure, and accessible.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | CDN, DNS, and security layer for websites | Performance & security |
| SSL Labs | Analyse SSL certificate health and config | SSL validation |
| DNS Checker | Check DNS propagation worldwide | DNS debugging |
| UptimeRobot | Monitor uptime and get alerts if site goes down | Monitoring |
| WHOIS Lookup | Check domain ownership and registration details | Domain info |
This useful resource list is regularly updated and checked for accuracy; however, availability of third-party tools and content cannot be guaranteed.
To provide suggestions or feedback and/or report an issue please contact me.
