Webmaster Resources
Getting a website designed and choosing a good web host are only the first steps of creating a presence on the Web. Once your website is live, there are numerous tasks for the webmaster to perform if you want your site to truly stand out. In this section of Adams Site, we list various webmaster resources and free webmaster tools that can be used in managing your new website. Many of these are the tools we use ourselves.
HTML Editors
There are currently two popular HTML editors that most webmasters use to managed their site's content - Dreamweaver and Frontpage (now Expression Web). Adobe Dreamweaver is the more costly of the two, at around $400, but it is also widely recognized as the best HTML / CSS editor you can buy. Microsoft's Expression Web (which replaced Frontpage) also will get the job done, and at a lower cost of around $150. There are several other capable HTML editors out there which cost less, but won't have all of the helpful features that Dreamweaver and Expression Web do.
Graphics Software
Although you HTML editor will allow you to modify all of the text and code on your website, most webmasters will need to modify graphics at some point. Whether it's just a simple company logo or detailed pictures of your products, you'll need a good graphics software program to modify your graphics. Adobe Photoshop is the most widely-used software program for this task, and all of the website templates we sell at Adams Site come with Photoshop source files. Fireworks, also from Adobe, is another very popular choice that costs a lot less than Photoshop and was designed specifically for creating & editing web graphics.
FTP Programs
Uploading and downloading files to your web hosting server is another required task of being a webmaster. If you use a quality HTML editing program, like Dreamweaver, then you will have FTP (file transfer protocol) capabilities built into the software. If not, then you will need a separate FTP program. There are tons of free ones available, and some that you can buy. The one we recommend is FileZilla. It's free, easy-to-use, and fast.
SSH Programs
If you are running a large website and you choose a VPS or dedicated server for your hosting needs, then you might need an SSH program for connecting directly to your web server's root directory. Our choice for this task is Putty, which is a free SSH program that will allow you quick, easy and secure access to your web server. This tool is essential for installing many types of web server applications, as well as for backing up important information, such as your web databases.
Search Engine Rankings
Although there are other means of getting traffic to a website, organic traffic from search engines is the best. You might need to use software that tracks your search engine rankings in multiple search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, etc.). We recommend using Advanced Web Ranking from Caphyon. You can also choose to simply hire an SEO firm to perform this task for you, or use some of the free web-based programs that check search engine rankings.
If you are just getting started putting a site together, it might be best to avoid getting too involved in all of the webmaster resources for now. Start with looking through our professional web templates for the right design. Then move on to picking a web hosting provider. After you have those two main tasks completed, then you can start picking which webmaster tools you'll need to upload, manage and promote your website.