v0.1 · resources

Tools Resources Fun

// Beyond the Toolshed

Stuff we link to, not rebuild.

Some tools need real data, real servers, or real money to work. The toolshed only ships things that run in your browser. Everything below lives somewhere else, and we point you at it with the agency-context "use this when X breaks."

[01] SEO Data & Research

Google Search Console

search.google.com/search-console

The single source of truth for how your owned site shows up in Google. Crawl errors, index status, query data, Core Web Vitals. Verify every domain you touch.

Bing Webmaster Tools

bing.com/webmasters

Free Bing query data plus IndexNow API for instant indexing. Underused. The query data alone is worth the import.

trends.google.com

Seasonality check before pitching content calendars. Compare two terms over five years to spot rising vs declining demand.

Backlink data, content gap analysis, keyword volumes from clickstream. The most accurate keyword volumes of any paid SEO tool, in our experience.

Broader feature set than Ahrefs (PPC, social, PR), shallower depth on backlinks. Pick this if you want one tool to cover SEO + paid + social audits.

Domain Authority, the original SEO scoring metric. Best for client-facing reporting since the score is widely understood. Smaller link index than Ahrefs.

Visibility Index trends across years. The go-to for European SEO and tracking algorithm updates' impact on competitor sets.

[02] Site Crawling & Auditing

screamingfrog.co.uk

Desktop crawler that punches above its weight. Free up to 500 URLs. Custom extraction with XPath/regex makes it more than just a crawler: a swiss army knife for technical SEO.

Better visualizations than Screaming Frog (crawl maps, hint distributions). Auto-prioritized issue lists. Worth running both on a big audit and comparing.

contentkingapp.com

Real-time site monitoring (it crawls 24/7 and alerts on changes). Best for catching when a dev pushes a noindex by accident.

PageSpeed Insights

pagespeed.web.dev

Google's official Core Web Vitals score for any URL. Both lab data (Lighthouse) and field data (CrUX). The one your dev should be watching.

webpagetest.org

Deeper than PSI: filmstrips, network waterfalls, multiple geographies and connection speeds. The diagnostic tool when "the site is slow but PSI says it's fine."

Cleaner UI than WebPageTest with similar depth. Free tier is enough for spot-checks. Paid tier unlocks more locations and history.

[03] Schema & Rich Results

Google Rich Results Test

search.google.com/test/rich-results

The validator that decides whether your schema actually shows up in Google. Test both URLs and pasted code. Required before any schema goes live.

Schema.org Validator

validator.schema.org

Stricter than Google's test (catches general schema.org spec violations, not just rich-results requirements). Use both.

Schema.org Reference

The actual specification. Look up any type to see required and optional properties, examples, and the inheritance hierarchy. Every type page has multiple JSON-LD examples.

[04] Email Testing & Deliverability

Render screenshots across 90+ email clients. Spam filter testing. The default for any team sending high-volume email and needing the Outlook 2007 + dark mode + Apple Mail screenshots before send.

emailonacid.com

Litmus alternative, often cheaper for a small team. Same idea: render previews + spam testing across the major clients.

Catch transactional emails from staging environments before they go out. Free tier handles enough volume for most dev work.

SPF, DKIM, DMARC checks, blacklist lookups, MX record verification. The first place to look when emails are bouncing or going to spam.

[05] Tracking & Analytics Debug

GA Debugger (Chrome ext)

chrome.google.com/webstore

Logs every GA hit to the browser console with full payloads. The fastest way to verify events firing on a site you can't open dev tools on.

tagassistant.google.com

Google's official GTM debugger. Hit Preview from any GTM container, see every tag/trigger/variable resolve in real time. Mandatory for tag QA.

Meta Pixel Helper

chrome.google.com/webstore

Live Meta Pixel debug. Catches duplicate events, missing parameters, blocked pixels. Use before any new Meta campaign goes live.

Microsoft Clarity

clarity.microsoft.com

Free heatmaps + session recordings, no row limits. Yes, free. Yes, with session replay. Drop in for any client doing CRO without a Hotjar budget.

Heatmaps, recordings, on-site polls. Cleaner UI than Clarity, more granular triggers. Worth it for a CRO-heavy account; for everyone else, Clarity is fine.

[06] Tech Detection & Backlinks

"What CMS is this site using? What analytics? What ad platforms?" Useful for a 30-second competitive-tech audit before a pitch call.

Browser extension version of BuiltWith. Faster to use during browsing, less depth than BuiltWith for big batches.

Source-code search engine. "Find every site running this specific GTM container" or "every site using this jQuery plugin." Niche but invaluable for prospecting.

The original backlink index. Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics are still respected by old-school SEOs. Different link discovery patterns than Ahrefs, worth a second pass.

[07] DNS, Domain & Security

Verify DNS records have propagated globally. Run after any DNS change, before assuming "it should be live by now."

SecurityHeaders.com

securityheaders.com

Audit HTTP security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options). Quick A-F grade. Useful before launching a site to flag missing headers.

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Find what a page looked like before a redesign, recover content from a 404'd URL, prove "they used to rank for this." Citable archive.

Snapshots specific URLs on demand and gives a permanent link. Use when you need to cite a page that might disappear, or document a competitor's claim before they walk it back.

Domain registration lookup. Mostly redacted these days due to GDPR, but still useful for registration date and registrar.