Over the years it would be fair to say I have come across tons and tons of different tools and resources of interest, some good, and some (politely) not so good.

Every now and again some of these tools and resources end up in my “go back and use it again” box, so I’ve decided just to share a handful which may prove useful.

Copyscape
Content, content, content – you know when you sit at your desk, write some great unique content for your site then realise that someone has come along, nicked it and put it on their website and then you wonder “how many other people have stolen my content?”, well, Copyscape makes it easy to find other sites that may have copied your content. Its useful if you are wanting to contact the offenders to request them to remove it.

PDF Converter
Ok, so we don’t all have PDF computers on our hard drives and some don’t really want to spend money on buying software that your only going to use now and again. PDF online allows you to submit DOC files to their website and they will convert the file into PDF and send the copy to your email! I’ve used this free service a number of times and it saves me messing about buying or downloading software to figure out when I need a quick DOC file converting to PDF.

Google Trends
Google trends is a great free resource that you can use to see changes over time on certain topics. For example, you would spot trends in times of the year when people search for christmas trees (yes, obvious, but you get the idea), it proves useful if you are thinking of creating a new website for a certain topic or product, you can take a quick look at Google trends to see if there is much interest in that product you are thinking of selling.

Favicon Generator
You know when you visit a website and before the URL in the address bar you see a little image? Well, this is called a Favicon. A simple and easy way to get one of these on your website is by visiting websites such as the one linked to here. All you need to do is upload the image you want as your icon and this site will convert it into the correct size and format as well as give you the code to put into your site so that the favicon will display in your’s and everyone elses address bar.

Google Keyword Tool
Need ideas on variations of keywords that you are thinking of promoting on your website? Google keyword tool offers you ideas of keyword variations and their popularity. I figure they offer the service to help you get the most out of their PPC ad service, but it also works for SEO in gathering together data for new ideas of keyphrases to target in your SEO strategy.

As I said, their are tons of tools and resources available for a whole number of things on the web, but these are just a few that made it into my box of resources I use now and again.