Website Resources, Tools, and Links

(All of my articles are first posted on my blog at Clarity Website Design.)

Here’s my current list of resources to help you make your website do as much for you as possible. I’ve included recommendations where I thought they were needed, and some affiliate links are sprinkled throughout. Please enjoy!

STOCK IMAGE PHOTOS:

Here are some of my favorite sites to get stock photos that don’t look like stock photos.?

FREE STOCK PHOTOS:?

Unsplash?- This site is my favorite, and most of their photos are still free.

Pixabay - A little more stock-ey, but a good resource for basic free photos, video, and illustrations.

Pexels?- (same as above)

Gender Spectrum - Gender spectrum stock photos are still hard to come by, but this is the best collection I’ve seen.

PAID STOCK PHOTOS:

These sites take payments for individual images or via subscriptions. (There may be some sites here that will give you a few free images, but if most of the photos are behind a paywall, I kept it in this list.)

Adobe Stock - Reasonable prices and perhaps the best, most varied collection of shots.

Shutter Stock - Beautiful, stellar photos

Creative Market - I mean … photos, graphics, illustrations, brushes, textures, and mockups! It’s amazing what’s on this site.

POC Stock - High-quality, diverse POC images

Big Stock - 7-Day Free Trial

Moyo Studio - Lovely photos

PHOTO COMPRESSION:?

Optimizilla - This is a website you can use to compress your images so they’ll be more website-friendly.?

Most of the sites above will give you huge, high-resolution photos, which is great for printed stuff, e.g. flyers or workbooks, but is awful for websites because they slow your site down and annoy Google, which is never a good idea.?

My rule of thumb: Keep most pics around 100-200 KB. If want to use a pic as a background image and you want to make sure it looks nice even on a larger screen, keep it under 500 KB or smaller, if possible.?

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION AND GENERAL WEBSITE TOOLS:?

Speaking of keeping Google happy, here are a few tools you can use to make sure your site is at peak performance for SEO.?

Am I Responsive? - Is your site mobile-friendly? This site will show you how your site looks on multiple screens.

Page Speed Insights - How is your site’s speed? Google hates making people wait, so if your site is slow to load (because you have huge images or a bloated WordPress theme), Google will punish you in search results.

Broken Link Checker - Does your site have any broken links? Google also hates wasting people’s time (most people hate that, too), so broken links on your site are a big no-no. Use this tool to make sure no one is getting the dreaded 404 error by following something on your site.

Accessibility Check at Experte - By making sure that all of your site visitors, especially those with disabilities, have a good user experience, you ensure that everyone can access all the information on your site. It’s just good business practice, and it keeps Google happy, too.

Google Analytics - You need to have this (or something comparable) on your site to track your traffic, so you know where people are going on your site, where they’re spending time, and what links they’re clicking on. This is absolutely foundational to having a website that works.?

Google Search Console - This is a free service to help you monitor your site in search results.

GSC is essential if you’re syndicating your content to more than one place, e.g. if you’re publishing blog posts on your blog and then publishing the same content to a social network a few days later (like I do here). I submit my original content to GSC first to let Google know which content it should prioritize (my blog, I want that traffic, baby). But, you might be more interested in growing your LinkedIn following than your email list, so you could always submit the LinkedIn article to GSC. It just depends on what your goal is and what content you want to prioritize.

SCREEN RECORDING:

My hands-down favorite for this is Loom. It’s easier to record in and pause than Zoom, and it’s the easiest way to record screen videos for courses.

EMAIL MARKETING:

My absolute favorite email marketing software is ConvertKit.

It’s robust and sophisticated enough to support a 6 or 7-figure business, but it’s incredibly easy to use, and even has a free option for small businesses that are just getting started.

WRITING:?

Grammarly - Use this to spell and grammar-check all of your content! This is my favorite tool on this list. The pro version has a lot of nice features, but the free version is stellar and will check both your spelling and grammar. It’s a lifesaver!

Rytr - This is an AI writing tool. (Like ChatBPT) And while it’s not a replacement for my own writing (I haven’t yet found a single AI tool that can adequately replace what I do in my blog posts), if you absolutely positively cannot stare at the blank page anymore, this is a great option to get things going. If nothing else, it’s fun to play with.

Talk to books - This site is amazing for brainstorming and research. Put in any question you’d like, and get an answer … from books! This is one of Google’s coolest tools.?

Sharethrough Headline Checker - A great tool that analyzes your headlines for possible engagement and shareability. It looks at everything from the emotions invoked from your headline to whether or not you included a known brand.

Hemingway Editor - Another great writing tool that makes your writing as clear and bold as Ernest’s. It’s also ruthless about the word “utilize”, which is the bane of my existence.

GRAPHIC DESIGN:

Canva - If you haven’t explored it yet, spend some time with Canva. It’s an easy tool to use to create social content, ads, and graphics for your website, and it’s getting more robust and sophisticated by the day.?

COLOR PALETTES:?

Canva Color Palette Generator - Don’t just pick colors out of thin air. Let a color picker help you choose colors that coordinate and have balance. This one is incredibly easy to use and will help you pick colors from a favorite photo.

Coolors - This is my personal favorite color picker. I love that you can save different palettes and come back to them later.

ColorSpace - Such a cool color tool! Just click in the purple button to select a color and hit generate! You’ll get tons of well-matched color themes to pick from for you website.

FONTS:

Google Fonts - Unless you’re choosing a font for a graphic (like a logo or a fancy script on a banner), stick with Google Fonts. It's more likely that it will show up on other people’s machines, and it’s likely to be universal across platforms. It will make your life easier.

If I've missed something in this list, please let me know in the comments!

Want to play around with these tools and then get expert eyes on your site? Get a 30-minute video of my personal review of your site with easy, actionable steps you can take today to get more leads and conversions! Get it now before the price goes up March 1st.