Running a website is not as easy as some people make it seem. Apart from continuously churning out relevant content that are interesting enough to be shared by readers, you will have to manage it. This involves looking at data analytics, audience engagement, executing various optimisation efforts, and social media marketing – all of which should contribute to a significant increase in traffic and leads.

While these may seem like a doozy, especially if this is your first website to manage, there is good news. Fortunately, there are tools that can help you achieve most of the goals you have set for your website. Of course, the tools are there only to assist you. Much of the “muscle work” will still come from manual tasks like laying out marketing strategies and studying website statistics. But for this article, we will look at some of helpful and most commonly used tools for websites.

Purchase an SSL certificate

This is not exactly a tool, but a website requirement nonetheless. These days, if your website is not secured, visitors will immediately leave your website and never bother to check it out again. An SSL certificate means that sending and receiving information to and from your website will always be safe. What it does is it encrypts the information by adding in random symbols to make it unreadable to people who do not have the right encryption key. Website that have the SSL certificate usually have a bright green ‘Secured’ tag right next to the URL; otherwise, an ominously red ‘Not Secured’ will be seen.

BuzzSumo

When it comes to SEO campaigns and content marketing, one of the best tools to use is BuzzSumo. Users of this monitoring tool can do the following:

• Get updates on the content that is most shared in various social media channels
• Search a topic and find out who the industry influencers are
• Set alerts on specific keywords, brands, authors, and links
• Track and analyse competitor content

These features will not just help you with thinking up new ideas for content, but it will also help you see which areas in your industry have not been touched before. This will allow you to create pioneer articles or case studies that other bloggers and writers will reference. Today, we think that most topics have been written for. But through BuzzSumo, you will see, in fact, the opposite is true.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the most extensive data gathering tool available for use. This web application allows you to lift information such as the specific demographic of the visitors of your website and the number of new or returning website visitors. By analysing your website traffic, Google Analytics can also send you data on the location of most of your visitors (not specific addresses, just countries or cities) and how much time visitors spend on your website.

These will help you craft content that is specifically made to target your demographic. Google Analytics also makes it easier for you to conduct A/B testing, especially if you are planning website changes to improve user experience.

Buffer

When it comes to managing your social media accounts, Buffer is one of the best tools out there. You can schedule your posts across social media channels, you can even create some of the images using their Pablo Image Creator. There is a browser extension for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox you can install for easy access of the application.

What is great about the app is it tells you when a post’s content is getting traction on your social networks, whether it is post the content itself or the time of posting. It also gathers number of clicks, mentions, shares, and potential reach. These data will help you plan future social posts and schedule them when most of your audience are online to get significant engagement.