If you're new to website development and have just started your first website, blog or article writing career, you may not be aware of all the free and very useful website and search engine optimization (seo) tools that are out there.

In this article I'm going to tell you about the ones that I have found most helpful and that I use frequently for tweeking both my website and my articles here on HubPages.

1. Submit your Site to Google

There's no need to do this with your hubpages, but if you have a blog or website you'll want to submit your URL to google.

2. Word Tracker

Word tracker comes in two flavours - free and paid. I have only used the 7 day free trial, which I used when I was first developing my website. It was brilliant for helping me find niche keywords relating to my site and that is what wordtracker is all about - finding the most profitable keywords for your site, blog or article. If you're serious about making an income online through publishing or sales then paying for the full program certainly looks like a worthy investment.

3. Googles Keyword Tool

I don't know what I would do without this tool! I use it nearly every day to research keywords for my articles. If you want a detailed but simple explanation of how to use it, read my hub on How to Optimize your Website and Articles.

4. Keyword Density Checker

(Checks Titles & Description Relevancy too)

Personally, I'm not that wrapped in keyword density. I like to write naturally and do not feel that I have to write in the keyword every hundred words. But some people do and so this tool is for you! This website also has tools to check your title and descriptions to make them as google friendly as possible and that part of the site I use frequently.

5. Back Link Checker

Who's linking to your articles, blogs or websites? If you want to check out any incoming links use this tool. It will also tell you if your backlinks are DoFollow or NoFollow.

6. Broken Link Checker

As you get further into building and improving your website you will undoubtedly miss the odd broken text links. Use this tool to check any broken links so that you can remedy them.

7. Page Rank Checker

How authoritative does Google think your site, blog or article is? Google rates each page on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the best and 0 being the worst. To gain a fuller understanding of PageRank read Techniques to Promote Your Articles where I have explained it in more detail.

8. Website Building Software & Hosting

If you're just starting to think about creating your own website I would definitely recommend Intuit's Homestead program. I have used it for over a year to create and host my website and I've been delighted with it. I wrote a whole hub on it's features and benefits so have a look if you are looking for a beginners website. The reason I say it's good for beginners is not because it's basic, but because it's easy to use, easy to learn and easy to customise without having to know any programming or code.

9. SERPS (Search Engine Results Position) Checker

Want to know your position in the google search results for your keywords? Use this free tool to find out. If you want to also find out about how to increase your serps for google search follow my step by step guide.

10. Robo Form

If you're thinking about submitting your site to web directories this auto fill tool is such a time saver. Each directory wants you to submit your page title, web address, site description, plus other information. Doing this manually one by one is time consuming and as boring as can be! Once you've downloaded Roboform and filled in the relevant info into each field, when you get to a form submission in a directory you can add all the info with just one click. Great!

11. Axandra's Internet Business Promoter (IBP)

This fantastic piece of software also comes in both the free and paid flavours. It has won numerous prestigious awards for the comprehensive SEO tools and applications that it contains. It's also very easy to use. Submit your sites to search engines in one click. Find out who's linking to your competitors. Identify and monitor your keyword suitability and effectiveness. This is another must have for the serious internet publisher.

12. Xml Sitemap Generator

If you've created a website, then this tool is absolutely essential. Google likes to have a sitemap of your website to enable it to crawl it easily and this tool creates one very simply. Once you've created your sitemap and published it to your website, it's just a case of submitting it to google in the webmaster tools. When you add new content and pages to your site, create a new sitemap to replace the old one to keep google up to date. Read more about Sitemaps here.

13. Browser Shots

Another totally essential tool! You've created your website, but how does it look to someone using a Firefox browser, or Safari or Opera? If you don't know, then try this one out. Your site needs to be viewable in all web browsers to maximise visitors and traffic. If someone finds your site and the text and pictures are a jumble they'll click away as rapidly as they came. Use this tool to enable you to tweak your site's appearance and make certain that everyone can see it in all it's glory.

14. YieldBuild

YieldBuild software is already optimizing all of the adverts on your Hubpages, so there's nothing for you to do there. But if you have your own websites you can also use YieldBuild on them for free. It's a very clever system! It basically makes sure that the ads that are served on your page are more likely to be clicked by analyzing your visitor behaviour.

I'm just starting to work with this program and haven't got it completely sussed out yet. Also, the program is in the Beta stage so they are still working out a few details. Anyhow, it's a system I'm definitely making sure I understand and use on my web pages. I'm still in the training period but hope to have it fully functioning on my site within the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by and having a read :) If you enjoyed this article remember to bookmark it and rate it up.

If you've got links to any other must have website tools then just let me know in the comment box.