As I’ve become more a Chrome junkie and found it necessary to better manage my time, I’ve come across a number of apps, extensions, tools and hacks that have become a necessary part of my routine. Here I will focus on 5 Chrome Apps/Extensions. This is not a complete list, and there are several non-Chrome tools I use as well. But for now, here are the 5 Chrome Apps/Extensions I find useful for everyday SEO/Marketing tasks and ongoing projects.
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Writer
The apply named Writer is a distraction-free text editor that lets you use your Chrome browser in place of a word processor. No, it won’t completely replace something like Microsoft Word in terms of features but it does contain its own spell check and you won’t experience the same formatting issues you sometimes get when you copy from Word into certain blog formats (like Blogger).
I find myself using this in place of notepad and Google Drive for everyday note taking. Since it allows for multiple files, I use one as my “main” file and the others for blog entries I have in queue. The ability to quickly choose your text color and font as well as the background color also makes this fun to use. There are no menu options along the top and with a quick F11, you’ll have no distractions. in your window, just your writing.
Lightshot (Screenshot Tool)
How often do you have to send screenshots along with notes on problems or suggested upgrades/fixes? Lightshot lets you not only take a screenshot, but also add in notes to point out what exactly what you’d like to note on the screenshot. This will save tons of time when it comes to explaining issues and cut down on the back and forth it often entails. So if you’re a Chrome user and still hitting CTRL+Print Screen, then copy-pasting or saving into an Image Editor to make notes, shame on you!
Note Anywhere
This is perfect for anyone who handles multiple websites and ends up jumping back and forth from site to site, handling requests, answering questions, putting out fires, etc. Note Anywhere acts as a virtual Post It note on the webpage where you place it.
Meta SEO Inspector
Meta SEO Inspector provides a quick glance of a page’s SEO attributes. It will quickly display your meta/title tags, schema markup, Google site verification, canonical link rels, etc. It will also give you error messages in regards to these (Title tag too long, images missing ALT Tags, etc). You’ll also get quick access to other online tools to check your site against. These include Google Safe Browsing, McAfee Site Advisor, Google’s Rich Snippets Testing tool and more. Personally I find this very useful when taking a quick look at a prospective client’s website.
Google Task Canvas
This technically isn’t a Chrome App but a tool Google offers (though there are Chrome apps that plug into this, and Google does offer an Android app). It allows you to keep tasks lists and you can display them in a separate window or within Gmail. The ability to do the latter is what makes this tool a real gem, at least for Gmail users who like me, tend to have their Gmail window open all day. Not only can you keep a task list open in your Gmail window, you can easily convert an email to a task. Google’s app allows you to access and edit your tasks from your Android phone as well. Last and certainly not least, this also plugs in to your Google Calendar.
Google Task Canvas is perfect for quicckly adding or accessing tasks. It may not have the robustness of an actual project management tool like Trello or KanBan, but this serves as a perfect compliment to such tools. What’s more is that you can have separate lists for whatever you need (work projects, shopping list, home projects, etc).
What do you think?
So what apps, extensions, or tools do you find useful?
