A co-worker recently showed me the Ghostery extension for Chrome while working on a client project. I was so fascinated that after I added it to my growing list of Chrome extensions - I went to create a post in our internal knowledge center about it. This led me to thinking - what other handy browser extensions do we as an agency, use on a daily basis and can't live without? After surveying the whole team we came up with 22 amazing browser extensions that are a must have for any digital marketing agency.
1. Ghostery
Ghostery can be used to detect trackers or social tools embedded on any site. It'll show you at a glance (with a handy pop up) what's going on behind the scenes on any web page you visit.
2. Page Ruler
This extension is a must have when creating banners or other images. It allows you to measure any part of a web page in pixels. You can also increase or decrease the size of the ruler area so that you can visualize what a new image may look like on that page.
3. ColorZilla
It lets you sample specific colours with an eyedropper tool or just pull up a handy menu which has all the colours on the page. You can then grab the RGB values or hex code.
4. WhatFont
It allows you to identify what font is being used on any page with just a click.
5. PushBullet
You can use PushBullet to send files or links between devices instantaneously. I use it to send links or images I find while browsing my phone or tablet to my work computer or vice versa.
6. Pocket
This is where I store pretty much every link that I've seen and thought "Oh that's really cool". You can save links to Pocket and tag them quickly for easy searching.
7. Word Count
This extension is very useful when I'm writing a Meta description or an email subject line in Hubspot - I can simply highlight the text and click on the extension to get a quick look at how many characters it is.
8. PageRank Status
This one provides a quick snapshot of all the vital numbers of a website such as: PR, Alexa Rank, Link Stats, Page Speed, Page Info, etc.
9. Google Tag Assistant
Tag assistant points out any errors you may have made in installing any of the Google tags i.e. Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, etc.
10. LastPass
LastPass stores all your different logins and allows you to generate secure passwords without having to remember them. It's extremely handy for keeping passwords for all the different client social networks, WordPress, web apps or tool logins in order.
11. Wappalyzer
Another one that's similar to Ghostery. You can get a glimpse of what technologies a website uses on the backend.
12. Firebug (Firefox)
Firebug enables you to drill down into specific elements (such as buttons or images etc.) on a page to check if code like event tracking is installed in the correct place.
13. Dragonfly (Opera)
This is a built in tool in Opera but worth mentioning. It is very similar to Firebug - it adds many useful dev tools to your toolbar such as the ability to disable all declarations and remote debugging.
14. Evernote Web Clipper
One of our marketing managers uses Evernote as a Swipe file. Whenever he comes across interesting copy, an image, headline or CTA on the web he clips it to Evernote. He is always saving examples of ads or design for future inspiration or recording any new ideas that come to mind. Or if he's researching a topic he sends everything to an Evernote notebook to keep all his findings and sources organized in the same location.
15. SEO Book Toolbar for Firefox
A suite of SEO tools provides an overview of SEO elements and metrics of any webpage. The SEO X Ray tool in particular allows you to visualize all of the on-page SEO elements with one click of a button.
16. Google Analytics Debugger
This helps you see what data is being sent to Google Analytics. It's helpful in making sure your analytics tracking code is set up correctly.
17. Check My Links
This extension crawls your web page and looks for any broken links. It's a good way to quickly check if any links on a page go to a 404.
18. BuiltWith Technology Profiler
BuiltWith allows you to see what technology a site is using, from analytics to ad platforms, server etc.
19. Microdata.reveal
Microdata.reveal allows you to check what microdata markup the page has, if any.
20. Circloscope
This is a great app for managing your Google+ circles. It provides some important data, for example: a list of inactive Google+ users in your circles (i.e. inactive in the last X days), a list of people in your circles who you follow / don't follow back, etc.
21. Web Developer Tool Bar
Our dev manager uses this to quickly disable CSS and Javascript to view a web page like the search engines crawlers view it.
22. Ritetag
This extension is great for figuring out which hashtags are good for increasing the reach for your social media updates.
In case you were wondering what it looks like when you install almost all the extensions we love here at SEP (and some of my personal favourites), this a glimpse at what my Chrome now looks like:
What would you add to this list? Share in the comments below.